Thanks!

.....for all the birthday greetings. I had a very nice day. The Elann package contained three more colours of Sonata, to knit another ChicKami among other things, as well as Addi Turbo circs to use for socks. I tried out the addis last night, and they are fabulous for magic loop socks, much better than the Aeros I had been previously using.

I wore ChicKami yesterday:



This is without a doubt my current favourite knitted item. I received tons of complements on it too, and a request from one sister-in-law to make one for her sometime (I'm thinking for her birthday next summer). I'll probably cast on for a second for myself this weekend. I think though I'll make it in the next smallest size as the cotton does seem to stretch out a bit with wear.

Still looking around for a new template. Thanks Jan for sending me the link to Blogskins.
I spent quite a bit of time browsing around there, but nothing has yet jumped out to me to say it wants to be my new template. Lots of stuff there though. Problem is, looking for a new template takes a lot of time away from knitting, and I think I'd rather knit! So I'll probably be using the same one for a while, but will continue to look when I am in the mood.

I'm off to have a piece of birthday cake (breakfast of champions!), knit for a few minutes, then off to Curves.

posted by Brenda 7:49 AM

. . .

Here's the start of my latest project:



The yarn is Phildar Copababana, colour melba. It is going to be a cap sleeve raglan sweater. I think it will go quite quickly as it is at a larger gauge than any of my recent sweaters.

Received a box in the mail from Elann today, but I can't open it til tomorrow! It is part of hubby's birthday present to me. Well actually, I placed the order. Joe and I usually shop for our own presents, but the rule is that once the purchase is made, we can't peek til our birthday! I also visited a LYS Walmart, and Future Shop the other day, so there are also those presents to look forward to. Joe always comes through with a surprise item as well, often jewellery.

Speaking of my birthday............I truly think that the absolutely best birthday present would be to sit around and knit and chat with all of my fellow knit bloggers. I'm going out for lunch with my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law (my own mother doesn't live in the same town), so how about everyone come over for cake and ice tea Thursday around 1:00? See you all then (don't I wish)!

On topic completely unrelated to the above.................I'm really sick of my template. I don't have the HTML skills to come up with my own. The current free templates at Blogger are really awful, and I haven't been able to find anything suitable online. If anyone can point me in the direction of some online templates I could download, I'd be forever grateful!

posted by Brenda 7:59 PM

. . .

No pics of chickami yet as it isn't yet dry from being blocked. Knitting-wise, I started the second Fortissima toe-up sock, and swatched for the coppacabana ribbon raglan. I may cast on for it tonight.

Overall though, it is just too darn hot here to do much. When I last checked on the Environment Canada website, it was 33 C/92 F. The house is rather uncomfortable tonight.

I thought that today I'd show off a bit of where I live. I found this neat website that highlights my city. There is even a really neat virtual tour of the fishing pier, where hubby and I went today to cool off (it is always breezy and lovely there) and have lunch (fish and chips and the best waffle cones). There are also links to virtual tours of other areas in this city. By checking it out, you'll kind of be paying me a virtual visit. Drop me a line and let me know what you think!

posted by Brenda 5:35 PM

. . .

ChicKami is Finished! It's blocking right now, pictures to come soon. Bonne Marie did an absolutely fabulous job of this pattern. I love that it is knit in the round, as I absolutely hate seaming, and I don't think I'm very good at it either. I ended up making the skinny straps, and it was my first time knitting an I-Cord. It is really neat how the stitches of the I-cord look. I will definitely be making another ChicKami, probably this summer.

Very hot here today, apparently Vancouver Island is setting records for the high temps. It is supposed to be even hotter tomorrow. Our house is normally quite comfortable in the hot weather as we are against a green belt so it is fairly protected. Not too comfy today though, made knitting quite difficult. I thought I'd have ChicKami completed much earlier in the day than I actually did.

posted by Brenda 9:59 PM

. . .

I finished my first toe-up sock today:



Now I just have to knit the second one!

It was too hot here to be outside today, and our house was nice and cool, even without A/C, so I used that as an excuse to stay in and knit. Made excellent progress on ChicKami. I just have the top of one side to do, and it is done. It should be completed and ready to block tomorrow. Tonight I have to crochet a bookmark for an exchange I'm in. I used to be such an avid crocheter, and since the knitting bug hit about seven months ago, now I very rarely pick up a hook (well except to pick up gusset stitches and dropped knitting stitches). I bet I could count on one hand the number of crochet projects I've done in that time, and probably nothing much bigger than a bookmark either!

posted by Brenda 8:15 PM

. . .