It's Michael Chabon's fault that I am not getting more knitting accomplished.

Because of this book:



I am enjoying it so much that all I want to do in my free time is to read it. And I don't have a whole lot of free time, so there's been a definite lack of knitting around these parts. However, as you can see in the photo above, I did manage to start Green Gable. I know that's not the yarn that I said I was going to make it in, but, well, I was just not feeling that red yarn, you know? I'm such a compulsive yarn buyer, that when Mark suggested that we run some errands in Monroeville over the weekend, I just had to go to Bonnie's and get some new yarn for Green, er, Blue Gable. I know my whole rationale for knitting GG was that I already had the yarn, but I'm not sure that red yarn is meant to be anything at this point! I think it's cursed! (I think I just like to buy new yarn.)

Moving on. Jenn, I figured out how to do the twisted German cast-on. It was like a light went on in my head, and all of a sudden, it made sense! Anyway, I am here to tell you that this is a fantastic cast-on. It looks much more finished than a regular long-tail cast-on, and I know that I will be using it in the future on many more knits.

Holly, I haven't forgotten about you - your package is on the way!

And the winner is...

Hopefully some of you have been waiting with baited breath to find out who the winner of my first-ever blog contest is.

Here are the names in the bowl, ready to be drawn from:


My lovely assistant draws a slip of paper from the bowl:


And the winner is...


Holly (hollyboc), please email me at jennylrae(at)juno(dot)com with a mailing address to receive your prize! Seriously, thank you to all of you who commented, and to any of you who read the blog. It's nice to know that I am not just talking to myself (well, here, anyway).

Last weekend, Mark and I went to Middleburg and Leesburg, Virginia. While we were there, I persuaded him to check out a knitting shop in Middleburg called Hunt Country Yarns:


This was a small, yet jam-packed store that I enjoyed visiting. While I was there, I picked up some more Diakeito Diamusse Fine to add to the sock yarn stash:


and some absolutely luscious Manos del Uruguay for a hat sometime in the future:


Diakeito sock #1 is now finished, save for stitching up the toe. And Green Gable? That progress shot can be seen in the previous post. That's right, I haven't started it yet. Yet.

You say it's your birthday?

As of today, One Small Stitch for Mankind is two years old!



Thank you to anyone out there who has been with me through my knitting misadventures! I'm certainly not all that interesting, but I spent a little time yesterday going through the old blog posts, and it's nice to see the progress I've made over time (my first socks, my first sweater!), and that's the reason that I started to blog in the first place - to have an outlet to chronicle my knitting. It's not much, but it's a lot to me! In honor of the blogiversary, I am having my first-ever contest. One comment of any that are posted to this entry between now and June 14 will be chosen at random to recieve a special knitting-related package from yours truly. It's my way of saying "thank you" to those of you who have managed to stay awake while reading my remedial and innane posts!

The yarn cakes featured above? That's three skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Candy Apple that I have had for quite some time now:



It's tried to be several things, but I've decided that its latest incarnation will be Green Gable. If the yarn requirements fit, knit it, right? Right. Wish me luck. I will need it to have the fortitude to finish another sweater.

In other news, Diakeito sock #1 is in the home stretch:



Hope all of the Pittsburgh bloggers have a grand time at World Wide Knit in Public Day this Saturday. I am pretty bummed that I won't be able to join you guys, as I will be in Virginia for the weekend. However, wherever we are that day, I will knit in public.

Blah.

Blah is how I have been feeling for the past several days. I'm not getting a whole lot of knitting done as you can see:



I should say that the photo is a little old though - since it was taken, I have knitted the heel flap and turned the heel. I did have a little pick-me-up on Tuesday, though. Lori and SJ and I made a visit to Knit One:



I have to say that even after checking out the yarn stores in the big city, none of them compare to Knit One. That's an owner and a store where they just get it. They are so helpful, and so welcoming all the time, without any exception (by the way, hope your chicken was okay, Sandy). And now, they even have a frequent yarn buyer's card! After knitting, we tried to go for Indian, but discovered that the Indian place was now a Thai place, so we had that instead. Thanks again, girls, for a great evening.

At Knit One, I got a skein of Claudia's Handpainted fingering weight yarn in Ingrid's Blues:



Unfortunately, they only had one skein of this colorway, but I could not resist it. It'll just be a pair of baby socks or something. I also bought something that I have wanted for a very long time:



When I was a kid, I used to love to play with my mom's retractable measuring tape. I always thought it was so neat, but this one is even better because it's a sheep (obviously). Now, I don't have to worry about my tape unraveling onto the dirty floor of the bus as I am trying to measure my progress.

This last photo is for Jenn:



This is some Trekking XXL that I ordered from theknitter.com a month or so ago. That's color 108 on top and 110 on the bottom. Luckily, one of the things that I registered for when we got married was a baker's scale that measures in grams, which will make dividing the skeins pretty easy, I hope!

Due to a bunch of stuff going on at work and in general, I will probably be pretty scarce around these parts in the next several weeks, but I will update as I can. Hope that everyone is in better spirits than me and that all of your projects are going great!