Another great find thanks to Ravelry

This great site makes it easy to find LYS' all over the world. Utilizing registered members and Google Maps technology, you can search for an LYS near where you live, or far away. This idea would have certainly come in handy a few weeks ago when my husband and I made a trip out to California. I found out too late (as we were walking by in all our ski clothes) that there was indeed a shop right there on the mountain! I digress. The point is, you can use this site to search for shops geographically, and can even narrow the search based on a few amenities like seating, or Wi-Fi access. A terrific idea, I encourage you all to check it out and join up. Together we can add/edit shops as necessary so before long we'll have an extensive guide to LYS' around the world!

What a cool idea!

This is a sock yarn gift bouquet from Yarn Gift Bouquets, a new company out of Ontario, Canada. This is a great site I've just discovered where you can order custom or pre-made yarn bouquets which arrive at their destination complete with: yarn of your choice (not sure of the brand/manuf.; you can only request color), a set of double-pointed, straight or circular needles and a gift card. The also sell a few sock patterns on their site, so you could send a complete package and have socks before you know it! If socks don't strike your fancy, Yarn Gift Bouquets also sell bouquets for lace knitting, Magic Loop knitting, and "Not Sock Yarn" which comes with fingering weight yarn and straight needles. It's a great idea that I only wish I'd come across before Valentine's Day!

In other news, I fly tomorrow to meet my brothers and father in Daytona Beach, Florida for the 50th running of the Daytona 500. No, I'm not a NASCAR fan, but my brother is, and for Christmas my dad arranged this dream-come-true trip for him. And then he invited me and our baby brother to come along as well. The boys have been at the racetrack, in the in-field, since Wednesday and we will all be departing Monday morning after a long weekend of shennanigans. I have to say, while I don't care much for the game of car racing, I'm terribly excited to spend some time with the other most important men in my life. Watch for me!

A bit blog-obsessed? Maybe...

As a new knitter and a new knit-blogger, I'm still coming across the coolest new things to add to my blog. And this week my mission was a Progress Meter Bar Thingy. First, I had to find one. Turns out it's not as easy as it sounds. I've seen many of them, but never took note of where so tracking one down became dificult. In fact, a Google search for "knitting progress meter" turned up nothing. Then finally I found something on KnitFlix' site. Phew! I emailed and asked for a quick how to, and her response led me to a few different sites, my favorite of which was this one: Track Your Progress (or Lack Thereof). David includes a pre-made progress meter and everything you need to add one to your blog, the only thing I couldn't find was HOW to add it. So I just tried a few things. I finally came up with a solution, and am quite happy with the results. As a blogger un-familiar with CSS, I didn't know where to place the CSS code but tested it in a few places and decided it could go almost anywhere in your blog's template. So I inserted mine right before the /*Footer information. I noticed that my particular template was divided up nicely by section: /*Header...*/ /*Headings....*/ /*Outer-Wrappings....*/ etc. so I just slid the CSS code in at the end of one section. Before /*Footer I pasted:

.prog-border { height: 15px; width:
205px; background: #fff; border: 1px solid
silver; margin: 0; padding: 0;}

Followed immediately by:

.prog-bar { height: 11px; margin: 2px; padding:
0; background: #C9DDEC;}

[Note: This is where you would change the meter's color if you wanted to, but I think it goes nicely with my template so I left it alone.] I saved the template and opened the Page Element screen, Add a New Page Element, added an HTML/Java Script window and copied the HTML from David's tutorial. I fiddled with it a little bit to add the Name of each project and Ravelry links so my final HTML looks like this:That's it! And now I have a nifty status bar that I have to constantly update (in addition to my Ravelry WIP status) but hey, anyone out there in the great blog expanse can see what I'm up to - including my mom and other friends and family that are not (yet) Ravellers. Nifty!

Call me crazy...

But I personally don't believe it's ever too early to plan for Christmas. And since I was down to the wire in 2007 (working on one gift right now!) I plan to be ahead of the game in 2008. Additionally, I have a family wedding in September and plan to give the Bride, Groom, and their adorable baby (will be 1 year) something painstakingly (wink wink) handmade.

I have done a little brainstorming and this is what I'm thinking. We'll start with the wedding because it's sooner.

First a little background: The bride is my cousin. Our grandmother passed away in 2007 and we rarely see each other. I thought somethings handmade would be a sort of familial blessing type of thing. She and her soon to be dh and their adorable son live in NYC - where it's cold - so I'm confident they will appreciate somethings warm and wooly. However, she's a lovely woman who I think would appreciate something lacey (but definitely practical). I have already made contact with family close to the recipients for some much-needed reconnaisance - I need color, fiber (washable, organic, wool, cotton?) and sizes for ALL items.

For the Bride:

OR

Seeing as I've never made anything lacey and lack the confidence to bravely go where I've never gone before, I am determined get started early - this way if it doesn't work out, I can do something else.

For the Child of the Bride:I have already purchased the pattern and have a color card on order for the yarn. I think this is the most darling sweater pattern ever and plan to make it over and over for the various children I know. [I think I've just added this sweater to the list for a young lady turning one this month...perhaps a late birthday gift?]

For the Groom: I still don't know for sure, but this is an ideaPerhaps if the other gifts don't work out, a matching scarf/mittens/gloves/hat set for the whole bunch? We'll see. I also plan to bring a So-Called Scarf and matching My Herringbone Hat for the mother-of-the-bride - my Aunt.

As for Christmas. I will again attempt to knit something for each member of my immediate family and a few friends. I will start with something I wanted to give in 2007 but did not have time - not to mention skills - to complete.

For my very dear friend Casey: I've already spoken with the folks at Bea Ellis Knits and they will send 3 colors at a small additional charge so I can make the hat in our school colors. I think (and hope) it will look nice and not tacky. Yet another reason to start early. Not to mention my lack of experience in Fair Isle knitting!

My brother's girlfriend expressed an interest in having some hand-knit stockings for Christmas and her inability to find any that suited her taste. I would like to knit a set for the three of them and will send the appropriate pictures and information to her for approval. My personal favorite is this one:These are available as kits and I think would be lovely, heirloom quality gifts that I would eventually like to make for each member of my family that would like one.

Fortunately (I think?) I haven't come up with any more. I will of course be thinking and long-term gift-knitting planning and will keep track of what I'm up to. Perhaps I'll be like so many others in the knit-blogosphere with a bunch of silly meters so I can see how far I've got to go to get all these (awesome, right?) gifts done on time! Now, if I could just finish the scarf I'm currently working on before Spring that would be AWESOME! ~Peace~