Believe it or not, I have been knitting lately on a bunch of projects, trying to get some stuff done around here. (what me? Finish something?) I need to finish up a couple things that will become class samples and then there are a few pressing baby knits that need to get done so that they still fit the baby's they are going to. Progress shots on that stuff just wasn't that exciting...so I skipped the pictures of my works in progress. Here's a list of the active knits that I have been carrying around with me:

1. Sunshine Dress from the new Queensland Collection book by Jane Ellison.
2. Alice's Afghan (following the Olive's afghan pattern from the book Knitalong)
3. Liam's Aarrgh sweater
4. Molly Ringwald...remember this one? From last May? (Sheesh) This one just needs to get done. It's almost there.
5. Parcheesi Afghan: I can't wait to get further into this afghan...its just so fun to knit log cabin squares.
6. Barn Raising Afghan: A while back, the girls that I knit with decided to start the Barn-Raising afghan from the book Knitalong. We are going to exchange squares, which should be a lot of fun, seeing as we all have wildly different taste. Here is my first square:

It was knit with Socks that Rock medium-weight, in the color Rhodonite. I picked it up at Rhinebeck a few years ago. This is probably going to be my square that I trade with everyone. First of all....it's very pink, and you all know how much I love pink. Second of all, I have 2 skeins of it which works perfectly since I need to knit 9 of them. Lastly, it was already in the stash! Bonus!

Some people, that will remain nameless, don't really care for pink. I've had to make them promise that they'll put my square in their blanket if I make them one. I haven't decided 100% to use this color, but I'm leaning towards it. Pictured above are my second and third squares. The one on the far right is knit with Socks that Rock light-weight in the color Jewel of the Nile. I love how that one is turning out! Take a peek at some of the other girls who have knit up squares: Terrie, Kim, Michelle, and Mary-Kay.

Friday night, I went to dinner with some friends and it was so funny to me that we all showed up with our Piddleloop bags. I had to take a picture. I was sporting my new Gnome bag, Genia had pink knitting skulls, and Terrie had her Skulls, Flames, and Flowers bag. Aren't we just so cool?! :)

I've received loads of fun stuff in the mail recently. (read that as too much time spent shopping on Etsy.) Hopefully I'll get my act together and take pictures of some of it!

Last night we had a huge rain/lightening/thunder storm. It woke me up off and on from about 4:30 on. At around 5:30 or so, as I'm trying to will myself back to sleep, I hear this weird plinking sound. I felt that dread when you just know that something is wrong. Sure enough, it was raining in the living room! I had a leak...and it was no little drip...it was sizable. I immediately ran down and grabbed some bowls to catch most of it. Then it started in another spot, so Genia and I scooted the love seat out of the line of fire. (by then the lightening and thunder had woken up my roommate) The cats were freaking out both because of the noise and the fact that we were moving things around. Sheesh. What a pain. It's time to finally replace the roof I'm thinking. I think I'm ready for this week to be over...is it Friday yet?

So, I allowed myself to have a break from blogging this week...and what did I fill my time with? Maybe a little shopping and a little bit of casting on. Some people might try to get some projects finished...me? No way. I needed the thrill of the cast-on this week, and believe me, it helped!

On the family front, my Dad got his test results back...and nothing showed up on the scans that he had done. This is a good thing. It means that the cancer has not spread to the soft tissue/organs. But, this doesn't explain his elevated PSA levels. So, we wait some more. We are now dealing with what my Dad calls, "best guess medicine". The doctors really don't have an explaination, and therefore a treatment plan, for what he is going through. He really has an amazing team of doctors working with him and for him...so I totally trust what they are doing. I just hate all the waiting!

Back to knitting...I received my first installment in The Plucky Classics club from The Plucky Knitter. Oh boy was I excited on Wednesday when I pulled it out of the mailbox. I already knew that the first theme was going to be Jane Austen, what I didn't know is that it would be named for one of my favorite characters. It's Captain Wentworth from Persuasion. Love the name, love the yarn, and so far LOVE the club! Thanks Sarah for brightening my day with yarny-goodness. Oh, and the best thing? This yarn is so soft. It's 80% merino, 10% Cashmere, and 10% Nylon.

Isn't this yarn gorgeous?!

More pretty yarn...this time from Red Rocks Fiber Works. I couldn't resist when I saw it. It's also a 80 merino/10 cashmere/10 nylon mix. I have 650 yards of the stuff. Any suggestions on what I should do with it? I know that Mary-Kay is going to make a shrug out of hers. I'm dying to cast on something with it because it's just so pretty! That Mary-Kay is a talented one with the colors.

What's inside that bag?

It's yarn for the Parcheesi Afghan. I ran across this one on Ravelry, and I couldn't resist. It's just gorgeous. PLUS, it's a bonus that I had a lot of that cotton already set aside for a mitered square afghan. Since we made blankets for the kids in mitered patterns...I'm a bit sick of them. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll have my first big log cabin square done. I can't wait to see how the colors all come together in this project. The color palette that I chose is not one that I usually knit with, especially the blues, but since I was drawn to it, I just let it happen.

These last 2 projects are kind of funny. Last Sunday I had a wild hair to cast on for the cover sweater from the latest issue of Vogue Knitting. It's called the Sideways Cardigan. (see mine here on Ravelry) It has a really interesting construction and I figured out that I could use stash yarn for it. Even better! (I settled on cotton-ease in the discontinued color Strawberries and Cream) The bright pink project below is from the latest issue of Rowan Magazine. It's called Geno and I'm using Rowan 4-Ply cotton in the color Cheeky. The casting on will stop one of these days...but for now, I'm having a blast.