Seemingly random

I'm adding a border of half-square triangle squares to a nearly finished quilt top (pictures soon!) and I wanted the colors to look balanced but not too balanced if that makes sense. I discovered it's hard to make something look random that really isn't. I thought about throwing all the squares into a bag and laying them out as I pulled them out but a) I was worried all one color would end up in a corner and b) I'm way too much of a perfectionist so I laid them out randomly but not too randomly. . .

Weekend's best: Dec 24th - 26th 2010

White Christmas in Virginia:

Weekend's best: Dec 18-20

At my sister's house - view from her front porch

Knitting - photo taken by my niece :)

Watching my niece watch the train go by

Reading books with my niece

Weekend's best: Dec 10th - 12th 2010

My weekend started out with a bang because I found out Friday evening that I'd won contest on a blog I'd entered! The blog is written by Olympic swimmer Mark Gangloff's wife Ashley about what it's like to be married to an Olympic swimmer.

Last week Mark was resting up (ie spending a lot of time on the couch watching movies) for Short Course World Championships in Dubai this week so the contest asked for a movie that was inspiring. I chose Miss Potter even though it's not your typical inspirational movie. I loved how Beatrix went against Victorian society and chose her own path.

I won an autographed copy of Mark's new book:

And on Saturday I finished my niece's February Lady sweater! Well except for sewing on the buttons which I couldn't do because I haven't bought them yet. . . I'd talked to her earlier in the day and told her I was nearly done with the 2nd sleeve and she said " Yipeee" so cute!

Also on Saturday yarn for my next couple of projects arrived from WEBS.

When we were in Scotland we stayed at a super B&B so I'm planning to make semi-matching snowflake hats for the couple out of Cascade 220. His will be blue with a white snowflake and hers the reverse.

Dark and Stormy requires a fair amount of concentration so I wanted another sweater project to have going that was easy peasy but didn't want to make another Peasy, so after much searching on Ravelry I finally found Transitions Yoke Cardigan pattern (rav link):

I had been searching for a color with a "winter" feel to it and finally I found one: Rowan Felted Tweed - grey mist.

I'm not ready to start it yet so left it sealed in the bag. It's a beautiful pale grey with bits of black, darker blues and purple. The pattern is a little vague and the gauge is a quite a bit different so some knitting math will be involved. I'm planning to use Peasy as a guide since it was also made with Rowan Felted Tweed.

Weekend's best: December 4th, 5th & 6th 2010

I finally decided to join in LoriNY's idea to post a photos summing up my weekend mostly because this past weekend was very busy but also fun!

Saturday I went to the UNC- UK basketball game. Here is a pic from a couple of years ago showing where I sit and yes it's quite high up! As an employee of UNC I can get basketball season tickets and my seat is determined by how many consecutive years I've gotten them. It's a very mysterious process though. Some years my seat stays the same but others like this year I moved down 2 rows!

This is the final score so I was very happy along with 20,000 other screaming fans:

Unbeknownst to us it had started snowing hard while we were at the game. This is what it looked like as we were leaving:

On Sunday my handbell choir gave a concert at my church:

And last night (which wasn't part of the weekend but it felt like it) the handbell choir played in the lobby, oncology and pediatric units of Duke Hospital. I stupidly forgot my camera but the director took pictures so I will post some later. We put the bells on gurneys and rolled them around the hospital. People took videos of us with their phones so we might be on you tube!

The neatest part of the evening occurred in the pediatric ward. We had just finished playing and were about to go back downstairs and pack up when one woman realized a teenage girl had just made it out of her room to hear us play so we halted the roll out and played Jingle Bells for her and she rang the jingle bells for us (we always ask someone listening to ring them). Her parents were there and said she played the piano and loves music. It was a great way to end the weekend.