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.

Two down two to go. . .

sleeves that is. Somehow I reached the point of knitting the sleeves on both of my top-down projects at the same time which although a little boring is fun because it means the end is in sight!

First, here is my niece's February Little Lady sweater:

I realized if I get my act together I can give it to her for Christmas along with something fun because even though she always squeals with delight whenever she sees it, a sweater really isn't all that much fun to play with when you are 4. . .

Second, here is Peasy:

And to break-up the Sleeve Monotony, I also swatched and CO Dark and Stormy:

The color in the top picture is closer to what it actually looks like. It was dark (but not stormy) last night when I took the 2nd picture so I had to use the flash.

Birthday Cakes

For my birthday last week one of my coworkers made me a FABULOUS Nutella cake!

I had been searching Ravelry for what to knit next but nothing seemed quite right until I saw LoriNY's Dark and Stormy - it was EXACTLY what I had been looking for but couldn't seem to find. She had received the pattern for her birthday :)

I decided to make it with Cascade 220 in a purple heather and the yarn arrived on my birthday:

Sweet Sixteen

Last week I finished Umbilical Cord Hat #16! A few years ago I started making these for friends, coworkers and of course my niece and it has become "my thing" to give to expectant mothers. This latest one was for a coworker and at the baby shower someone commented that people could recognize a baby from our group by their hat.

And here is my niece sporting her auntie hand-knit goodness on the first cold day of the season. It looks like she might need a new set of mittens soon :)

Katherine's Quilt

This is my first year to join in the fun and enter the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy.

I chose the quilt I made for my niece Katherine. It's called "Many Trips around the World" from the book Tradition with a Twist by Blanche Young. I love everything about this quilt. . . the soft colors which remind me of an English garden. . . the simplicity of the pattern. . . and the joy I had in making it for my niece-to-be. At the same time as I was making it my mom was also making a quilt for her so we had a great time comparing notes on where we were in the process.

If you look closely in the picture below you can see that the quilt had not been bound yet because my niece was a month early!

On my next visit 2 months later it was finished.

As Peasy as Pie

Since I've been back from Scotland I've gotten quite a bit done on Peasy:

It's slowly coming along. . . The body is such a slog I made up a chart based on how much I have left so I can tick off rows as I go so I can see that I am making progress. I'm getting 8 rows/inch and decided I wanted about ~14" post sleeve-divide:

I've done more inch since I took this picture on Saturday!

My coworker told me about this blog so late last week I found a recipe for Buttercup Squash on it. It sounded so good that I made one this weekend sort of. I mistakenly read it as Butternut squash so that's what I bought and I cheated and bought pre-made pie crust. It was so yummy I'm planning to make it again soon with the right squash and make the crust from scratch (maybe).

Knitting in Scotland

I didn't get as much knitting done on my trip as I had hoped (isn't that the way it always is) but I did get some work done on Peasy in some beautiful and interesting places:

On the Isle of Skye outside our B&B

In Oban waiting for the ferry to the Isle of Mull

On the train from Ft. William to Mallaig

In the lounge in our B&B in Crianlarich

And wearing my Central Park no-Hoodie on St. Andrew's Golf Course!