Awesome night

Andrew and I went to Kelly Clarkson's Concert last night. It was a very good concert. And as singing live, Kelly is the best, her voice was amazing. Although there were some kids dancing around us, we still have enjoyed the concert very very much.


The concert was at Mohegan Sun. How could we not gamble if we were there? So we did. We played blackjack for about 45 minutes and won $40, not bad, could pay for the gas to the concert. haha

As I promised more pictures on my last post.

I used Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud in color Smoke, and Knitpicks Options size 3 needles. Finished in 3 months. I am so proud of myself on this lace project honestly. Knitting lace weight yarn with size 3 needles was quite a challenge to me at the beginning. But when I got used to the weight of the yarn, and I fell in love. I also like the mystery idea, kept me excited every week. Now I have joined Secret of Stole, Mystic Water and couple other mystery projects. Hopefully I will have enough time to knit all that.

New addition...

One of my friends at school found a kitten in his apartment's front yard. He couldn't keep it because his apartment doesn't allow him to keep pet, so he offered me to take her home.


Since we have had two cats at home, I named them Choppy and Sticky, which is Chopsticks, perfect. Now we have the third one... I name her Cookie, from "fortune cookie". Andrew said, if we have another white cat, we will name it Milk. Yeah, like 3 cats is not enough. We took her to the vet today, the doctor said she is about 4 weeks old. More picture here


Another exciting thing, I got my craft room set up a little better. Here is a picture...


And finally, I have finished this...


Yes, my Swan Lake. Now it's being blocked. Apparently my blocking board is not big enough for the stole. More pictures later. Next week, I have one more mid-term exam, then I will have more time to knit. Yay! I want to finish some gift knitting...

I got an award

Octopus Knits has given me an award hehehe....


First, I need to thank my mom who has been always support my blogging career... just kidding. Thanks Octupus Knits for making me a Rockin' Girl Blogger, makes me feeling I am so special. Now I am giving this award to my blogger fellows. ( in no particular order)

Jennsquared
Costumechick
Acambras
Becky
Erin
Kelly
Suikee

I am catching up with the MS3. I wanted to knit faster, I brought it with me to SnB last Thursday night. I should have listen to Jenn that MS3 is not a good project for SnB. I either made mistakes or knitted very slow since I have to chat and listen to the SnBers. So last weekend, I spent lots of time finishing up clue 4(thank goodness), now I am on clue 5, the wing. I am so worried that after I saw some clue 5 pictures in the yahoo group, mine doesn't look like the others' at all... But if you know me well, you would know that I worry too much all the time, yes, that's me :D


I don't think I have shown my "chart reading setup". I am using a cookie sheet with couple long magnets to hold the chart paper. Andrew has made me a cookie sheet stand with a computer case frame... see it as the following picture. It doesn't look so good, but it works!!

Couple days ago I went to Target, and I found these Hello Kitty stuff in the $1 section. (except the band-aid, my mother in law bought it for me). Yay for me...

Speaking of Band-Aid, I have good stuff to recommend to all the lovely ladies.

I have seen this Blister Block, made by Band-Aid, in Jasmine's Wedding. I was wearing a pair of 4in heels thin strap sandals and they were killing my feet. So one of the bridesmaid introduced it to me and asked me to apply some on my feet. It worked!!!! Ladies, if you always get blisters when you wear new shoes or sandals, I highly recommend you buy this!!

MS3 clue 3 done!

Yes, I am catching up. Only clue 4 left, but clue 5 is coming out this Friday.


And I finally got the "bride with the shawlettle" pictures up, Jasmines seemed happy about/like it.
Andrew and I and his friends went to watch The Simpsons movie on Friday night. It's so funny. I usually don't get most of the jokes from the tv episodes, but I laughed very often in the movie. I wasn't sure if I should go, but I am glad I did. After the movie, we saw the tv shows' DVDs were sold in Sam's Club. They came with t-shirts and Simpsons movie vouchers. We bought 2 of them so that we can go watch the movie again.

Catching up MS3

Finally I have squeezed some time to start knitting my MS3. I have just started clue 2. I love the pattern, but not my knitting skill. The wholes are not very even in my stole, I am pretty upset about it. oh well, I just have to keep going, maybe it will be better later.


I have received a package today from WEBs. 12 balls of Reyonlds Soft Linen in Fudgsicle color and 12 balls of Berroco Pure Merino in Brick color. I ordered them in April, and they were back ordered until now. I ordered them with the Blue Sky Alpacas for Jasmine's wedding shawlette. I told them I need that yarn before June, so WEBs sent them seperately for me and I still got the 25% discount. Very nice of them.


Today, I went to Macy's to return these...


I was so looking forward to see Kelly in perso. And I was, still am, so upset that Kelly has cancelled her concert. It was supposed to be a little special thing for Anniversary this year. Oh well.... Next time.

By the way, here is the link to the pictures of the Fargo trip.
Click here --> Fargo Trip's Pictures

Ready to go? Nooooo!

Andrew and I are planning to leave tomorrow for our Fargo trip. However, it's now 1:30am, I am still packing, well not at this moment. Andrew worked full day today, went to get a hair cut after work. After he got home, we went to do a travelling-shopping to get some traveling size shampoo, toothpaste, and stuff. Then we went to Barns and Noble, and we were there for qutie a while. Then we had dinner at Cheng's Buffet, I just wanted chinese food for some reason, and of course I was too lazy to cook tonight. Oh well, it was 10pm when we got home. And that is why Andrew is tired now. May be we will leave her around 1 or 2 pm.

While I was looking for some jewerly to wear in Jasmine's wedding, I found this...

I just missed my tiara. Too bad I only got to wear it once in my wedding. So when I saw it today, I couldn't resist to put it on my head right away. When Andrew came home tonight and saw me, he was like, "Are you ok?" haha...

Today, I got the cd that I ordered last week right in time, so that I can listen to it during the trip.

The first clue of the MS3 was released today. I have printed out the charts, and knitted a couple of rows. But it just didn't look quite right to me, so I frogged it. And then I didn't have a chance to knit again tonight :( I have decided to bring couple projects with me to Fargo, I doubt I will have much time to knit, but I won't want to miss a chance. On the way back from Fargo, we are trying to stopped by my in-laws' house and we will get to see Becky, my sister-in-law, since she is visit her parents at that time. When I first knew that we are going to see Becky, the first thing I thought of was what knitting projects I should bring with me, so that I can show Becky when we are on the way back home. I am so silly. Well, I can also show those projects to my mom too since she has only seen couple of my earliest scarves and hats I knitted before. I want to "wow" her when she sees what I have been knitting lately. :D

Alright, it's almost 2am, what should I do? Go back to pack some more? Or should I go to bed?

I will try to keep posting during the trip and tell when I am later.

Swatching

I usually don't swatch, really, I don't. But because I am not familiar with lace, I did 3 swatches for the stole. I have shown 2 of their pictures on the last post. Here is the last one. I used KP Options size 2 with beads.

from left, size 4 needles, size 3, and size 2 with beads

Ok, couple days after I blocked the swatches, they looked like they are in the right size order. But still, I don't know which one is better... I am bring them with me to SnB tomorrow and see if the ladies can help me out with that. HELPPPPP!!!

If Becky still hasn't received her yarn for her stole yet, I am making her jealous again haha:D

I just realized something. The first clue is going to be released tomorrow, but I will start driving to Fargo on Saturday morning, and I won't be back in 2 weeks... that means after the trip, I have to catch up 3 clues of MS3... I am a bit worried now.

MS3 swatches

I did couple swatches for MS3. I have used Knitpicks Options size 3 and 4 on each swatch. I think it's the matter of how I blocked them, the size 3's swatch is bigger than the size 4's. I guess I need to learn how to block in a proper way. So knitters, how do I block the objects? Which one or what size of needles should I use for the stole? Suggestions please?!

I recevied the beads from Earthfaire.com today. It's called Amethyst Lined Crystal AB 8/0. I also got some free bead samples from the vendor...

Copy Jenn's idea

These are the beads I am going to use for MS3. I have already done a swatch with these beads, but it's on my blocking board now, I will show the pictures of it later.

Since I was so excited that I got the beads tonight, I asked Andrew to drive me to A.C. Moore to get a hook for the beads before dinner. It's so tiny...

comparing to a piece of rice

Then we went to Chick's by the water and ordered some seafood to go... yummmm. There were so much food, I don't think I can finish the whole plate for 2 more meals.


Ok, enough pictures for tonight.

Winding...

I got my yarn for my MS3 yesterday. I ordered it from Knitpicks. It's Alpaca Cloud in Smoke Heather color. I am actually surprised or should I say a bit disappointed when I first saw the yarn. I expected the color would be lighter. Oh well, I can't change anything now, except... ordering another yarn... But then what am I going to do with these yarn if I ordered another kind?


In order to do my swatch, I need to wind the yarn. So I had the swift and the winder set up, sat down, and started winding. Oh my gosh, it took forever, it seems like more than 10 mins to wind a ball of Alpaca Cloud. My arm was a bit sore after 440 yarns of yarn winding. However, while everything was set up, I might wind another ball of yarn as well hehe... So, here is it, a ball of Cherry Tree Hill, Supersock in Sugar Maple. Why did I wind sock yarn? Becuase of the Monkey. I know I know, I should start another project, I just winded the yarn, I may not have to cast it on, right? *evil smile...

By the way, I saw Val and her hubby at Texas Roadhouse last night. Andrew and I went there with Carolina, Ken and their one year old son Kevin. I love that place, we always go there, that is why we are broke. Anyway, we all had fun, since we are all dorky people, all in ME, we get along well. Looking forward to the next time.