and the winner is...

And the 100th post contest has a winner! I ended up going with the old fashioned of pulling a name out of a hat. But the winner of the Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Amethyst is ...

the owner of the lovely Tesla, the blog-less Jessica!

Now I have to figure out to get it to you, though since we're in the same metro area that shouldn't be too hard. :)

Congrats!

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This weekend Danielle, Catherine, Cassandra, and I did a road trip out to Northampton and Webs for their annual tent sale. It was certainly an experience! Lots of knitters, lots of yarn, lots of fleece, lots of walking around and petting yarn, and lots of debating what to buy. At one point we just piled up all of the stuff we were considering buying (not all of this went home with us):



And here's what I ended up bringing home:



Four skeins of Shibui Sock (two in Peacock and two in Anime), five skeins of Cascade 220 in veridian heather (the picture doesn't do it justice, it's a lovely deep blue green heather), a bag of Lily Chin Chelsea in what I'm calling Nantucket red, and a bag of Lily Chin Gramercy in a dark purple. That's enough for three sweaters and two pairs of socks.

After the sale we headed into downtown Northampton. It was a lovely, sunny day, and we just wandered around various stores and the Marketplace and had lunch and went to the fabric store and just had a lot of fun. I didn't get home until almost 9 that night, but it was well worth it.

It's called the TARDIS, this thing. T-A-R-D-I-S. That's Time And Relative Dimension In Space.

I finished this a few weeks ago, but it finally arrived at its intended destination (it may have had a little diversion in time and space) so it can be shown! A friend of mine who lives rather far away had a birthday recently and, as we're both Doctor Who fans, I felt the need to make him a TARDIS, the time machine in which the Doctor travels that is disguised as a 1950s British police call box.



Pattern: the TARDIS stuffed plush by Penwiper (pattern is currently offline due to a copyright dispute with the BBC)
Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun in Blue (1 skein), Paton's Classic Merino in That's Blue (2 skeins), and some Valley Yarns Northampton in Navy and Red Heart Classic in white, on size 6 needles
Comments: It came out much larger than expected--about 15 inches tall. But then the TARDIS is supposed to be bigger on the inside, isn't it? :) And it ate a lot of polyfill for the stuffing. Two-color knitting and I also had a bit of a dispute, so I ended up cutting out felt squares for the dark panels and sewing them to the sides. But I am very happy with how it came out.

From the other side:



From the top:



And the pieces of the TARDIS blocking before being sewn together:



Now, if only it were a real TARDIS and would take us anywhere in time and space that we wanted to go--would make visiting far away friends a whole lot easier!

Post #100, or, Mike Lowell is awesome

It's my 100th post! I'm a little sad that only six people have so far entered my little contest. You still have until 11:59 pm this Friday evening to get your entry in--all it takes is a comment on the contest post!

I spent the overwhelming majority of today sitting on the floor in front of the Barnes and Noble in the Pru. But it was worth it since, after five hours, I got Mike Lowell to sign my copy of his autobiography, Deep Drive. The day was a lot of fun; I made some friends in line (the girl behind me and I decided that the next Red Sox player to write an autobiography should be Manny Ramirez and that we would pay good money for an audio version of him reading it) and got quite a bit of knitting done. But the best moment were the ten or so seconds I got at the table. Some pictures:





The rules for the event were clear: they would only sign the book, you couldn't get pictures with them, and they wouldn't personalize the copies. So, each copy was just being signed with "Mike Lowell". But when I got up there, I told him that I just wanted my copy personalized since I have the same name as his daughter. He grinned, said "Okay!", and I ended up with this:



Mike Lowell totally rocks.

make way for goslings--and a contest!

It's post #99! Which means my next post will be #100. In honor of reaching that momentous point, I'm having a little contest. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post. You get an extra entry if you tell me something interesting or funny in that comment.

And what will you win? A beautiful skein of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Amethyst.



Leave your comment by this Friday night--May 16th--at 11:59 pm EDT for your chance to enter!

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On my way to work yesterday I passed two geese out with their goslings. How could I not stop to take some pictures?

the birthday bunny

One of my favorite little girls in the world turned two years old on Friday, and I made her a little something to celebrate the day.



Pattern: Bunny Big Foot, from Zoe Mellor's Knitted Toys
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease in Orangeade (discontinued) and Plymouth Jeannee in aqua, on size 5 needles
Notes: I love this book and want to make just about everything in it. I had some problems with stitch counts matching on the head but a little fudging made everything okay enough. The bunny came out great, and I love his big feet!

And the bunny tail:



And the birthday girl and her new toy (she's cuter):

Never go swimmin' in a mohair sweater

Once again, I'm playing catch up!

On Thursday, one of my favorite bands, the Barenaked Ladies, had a CD release and signing party out in Framingham. Though it wasn't widely publicized, there were still around 200 people there. Their new CD, Snacktime, is an album for kids, so there were lots of tiny people running around. They played about six songs and were their usual hilarious selves, and Tyler destroyed a map of Minnesota (I forgot to ask him during the signing whether he paid for it :). All in all, it was a lot of fun, and I met some fun people.

The CD is really cute, and the song "I Can Sing" even includes a knitting reference:
"I can knit a scarf
But you can't knit a sweater
When I'm underwater
I couldn't be wetter
Never go swimmin' in a mohair sweater"

A picture from the performance:



And from the signing:



I also took a couple of videos. I really wish I had gotten Jim's Polliwog song because it was awesome in person.

7 8 9




Eraser (this one is really shaky at the beginning--too many people walking in front of me!--but gets better)




It was a really fun, intimate event, even with 200 other fans, and I'm glad I got the chance to go.

I put a monkey on a pedestal

I went to see The Drowsy Chaperone again on Tuesday night, having gotten a half price ticket that morning. I enjoyed it just as much the second time. The only major change was Jennifer Swiderski, instead of Georgia Engel, playing Mrs. Tottendale. She was quite good, and I was especially surprised to find out later that it was her first time performing the role on the tour! The only part of it that threw me a bit, after having seen Georgia the week before, was the age difference between the two actresses. And no one can get quite the same tone and inflection on "You poop" as Georgia (who was off in Chicago doing the Oprah Winfrey show). But Jen was really good, too, and I enjoyed her performance.

I did go to the stage door, again, to talk to Jonathan Crombie. You know, the guy doesn't know me from Eve, and he probably thinks I'm a little crazy--I wouldn't blame him. But he was so genuine, and sweet, and he went out of his way to be incredibly nice to me--probably far nicer than this silly girl deserved--and I hope he knows how much I appreciated it.

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Spring is again showing its face in Boston, and I've been wandering around with my camera quite a bit. I've ended up with quite a number of tulip pictures. I love tulips--their appearance is part of what tells me spring is really coming. Someday I'd love to get to the Keukenhof while it's in bloom. But here's a taste of spring as it looks around here.













Spring makes me feel at times like almost anything is possible. It's a really nice feeling.