Happy Birthday to me

So, how was everyone's weekend? Mine was good and bad. I had a great day on Saturday, yarn shopping, knitting and eating. Disentangled, Cora, Jessica and I hit the Common Threads sale bright and early on Saturday morning. Until the last minute, I had one ball of Cotton Glace in my hand, but I couldn't just get that, could I? The only thing I was actually in the market for was Cotton Fleece to make Green Gable, but they didn't have any colors that I liked, so I got myself in some trouble and bought 15 balls of this:

I don't have a project in mind for it, but I'm picturing, cardigan, wide collar, maybe some cables...my favorite cardigan to throw on when there's a chill in the air (yeah, right, like that happens much around here).

My weekend was sort of bad, too, though, because I had a birthday yesterday. I'm really hating getting older, and I felt sort of down yesterday. It didn't help that I didn't do anything to celebrate. I did that on Saturday night. So I pretty much just sat around the house. Next year I should definitely do something fun.

I also met my goal of finishing both fronts of Reid by Sunday night. I'm getting closer, but I've still got the sleeves to do. Knitting sleeves tends to kill me, but I'm hoping since these are baby sleeves, it will go quickly.

Speaking of that ball of Cotton Glace, my shopping companions were very helpful with picking out a color for the crochet edging that will go on Reid. I don't think I could have come up with such a terrific color combo without them. What do you think?

I also finished Ribby Shell over the weekend. Actually, I finished it yesterday and wore it out immediately, so this photo was taken after it was worn for several hours. It stretched out a little, but not too bad. It seemed to hold its shape well. That yarn is so soft that it felt incredible next to my skin. I think I'll wear it to work today!
Pattern Stats:

Pattern: Ribby Shell by Chicknits
Yarn: Kona Bay Cotton in Espresso, 6 balls
Size: 39" bust
Needles: Addi Turbo Size 8, 24" cord
Date started: 7/30/06
Date completed: 8/6/06
Overall thoughts: This is a great pattern - no seaming or finishing required. I only had to seam up the shoulders. For that, I modified by doing short row shoulder shaping and a three-needle bindoff, so I actually didn't do any seaming. The yarn I used, although soft, wasn't perfectly suited to the pattern. The fabric was a little loose. I prefer this yarn knit to a DK gauge, but I have more in a magenta color, so I can try that out. I'll probably make this pattern again someday. It was a really quick knit!

Finishing that up allowed me to cast on for Green Gable. I'm using Cotton Fleece in Plum Patina, which is a little outside my normal color comfort zone, but I'm absolutely loving it. The pattern is interesting to work at the moment, but I'm getting into the portion where I'm doing raglan increases forever, and I'm acquiring more and more stitches. This should definitely be the most tedious part. I'm also a ball short of yarn, so lets keep our fingers crossed. I usually end up with quite a bit of yarn leftover. I bought the last skein the LYS had, so I might definitely be screwed! At least with a top down raglan, you can make it shorter if you have to.