I can't believe it

This week is ski week, aka President Day Week, but here it is called ski week. Why? Because kids get a week (A WHOLE WEEK) off school.
Why?
So that people can go skiing.
You see, here you wear a t-shirt in January, so if you want to go skiing, you need a week or so to make it worthwhile to drive up to Lake Tahoe.
I do not ski. I do not like snow, it is cold and wet. And my minimum requirement for a vacation is that I can knit without risking to lose my fingers because of the cold.
Still, one week off school.

And, and the "and" really makes me mad, Stitches West is the same week as ski week. It is not that the folks at Knitting Universe do not know that it is ski week (everybody I know who knits and has school age children had emailed them about their lousy timing, maybe even several times.)
Still, ski week.
And it is raining.

So, if it were not ski week, I would be shopping until dropping dead at Stitches right now (well, not really because I do not do well in crowded places and I am making a serious effort to reduce my stash, and I am not saying this only because HWME reads this blog, hop over to Ravelry if you do not believe me.) Then I will have lunch with my husband who works five minutes away from the Santa Clara Convention Center. And then I will drive back toward home to pick up the kids.

Instead I am trapped with my kids at my store because my business partner is sick (that has nothing to do with Stitches, I'll admit that) and it is raining so they can't play outside in the gardens.

And I ran out of yarn for my Ariann. Yes, AGAIN I run out of yarn on a project. The pattern indicated I needed 1,240 yards of yarn, I had 1,240 yards of yarn, still .... running out.
And I need to rip about 5 cm back because I forgot the "AT THE SAME TIME" for the neck shaping.

The pouch? Made it last night. It's a pouch, you ran out of yarn? You make it smaller. Naturally Yarns Merino & Fur, sadly discontinued because it is a dream.

REMINDER: The contest closes Thursday at mid night.

Could this be the year?

Could this be the year I finally knit things for myself? Not only I finished my SBK [Ravelry Link]:



but I am almost done with my Ariann [Ravelry Link]:


Yarn: Queensland Collection Uruguay DK

The plan is to wear it at Stitches, I am going to be all Saturday at the FTA booth.

And, I casted on the Back-to-School U-Neck Vest[Ravelry Link] from Fitted Knits by Stefanie Japel:


Yarn: Karabella Aurora 8

Well, I like purple, I like Stephanie Japel's work.

UPDATE on the CONTEST: Principessa has raised almost $100 - thank you so much to everybody who donated on her page or sending me the money via paypal. She she does reach $100, there are going to be two winners! Or three if she reaches $200 and so forth.

Hoops for Heart Contest

Principessa is participating to Hoops for Heart at her school, so what is better than a little contest to help her out?



Here is the link to her page (under my name): donate any amount* and you will enter in a contest to win a skein of my yarn (your choice of yarn and colorway.)

*The American Heart Association's online fundraising website has a minimum donation amount of $25.00. If you want to donate less, that's ok. You can just paypal it to me with the button below and I'll make sure the American Heart Association gets it.

Swim Team Hat

Paperino and Principessa belong to a swim team, and since they swim year-round in open air swimming pool, the coaches get really cold, so I decided to knit them something in their team colors. I made a scarf for Paperino's coach:



in Cascade Venezia and a hat for Principessa's coach:



Paperino immediately requested a hat for him, so I made another one and I gave to him.

Paperino: I am not wearing that, it is purple

Me: You wanted a swim team color hat, green and purple.

Paperino: I know, but I wanted a gren and purple hat with no purple in it!

Me: ??????

My yarn never looked so nice

I am the Artist of the Month at Yarn4Socks, and Donna and Valerie sure know hot to take a photo, go over there and look, my yarn never looked so nice!

In addition to my regular colorways, I also created an exclusive one for them, Fire in the Forest: