Mimi left a voicemail for me while I was in class last night: she got her package with the wedding afghan and her birthday sarong! I also included some other birthday goodies and some knitting supplies (I am trying to get her into it!) She sent me these pics this morning of the Kahlo afghan!

She reports that the afghan matches their furniture very well. I guess Daniel likes it… he wrapped himself up like a mummy! (She included pics of the sarong but she would kill me if I put the one of her in the swimsuit up–it looks great on her though! it matches one of her swimsuits perfectly!)

Updated to add: You can purchase and download the pattern in one fell swoop over at the Lion Brand website!

Last night after my class, I met my best friend, Becca, fresh off her flight from Tel Aviv, Israel. She did an advanced immersion program at Hebew U in Jerusalem, and just arrived back in DC. We rode the Metro home and while she was fighting off the jetlag, she told me some amazing stories! I am so glad to have her back! She will be living here now, going to school to get her PhD in Linguistics. This excites me to no end: it will be like the good ol’ days when we were in college! (well… maybe)

She brought this back for me:

It is not the Torah, the Talmud, or the Mishnah… but it is:

This is the coolest! I only wish I was able to read it… I probably would have been able to 3 years ago after my summer Ulpan (intensive language course), but that was awhile ago, and the mind forgets faster these days… maybe I can get to that point again someday. Nonetheless, it was a great present. Thanks, Bec! So glad to have you back!

I also got another wonderful present in the mail today, from a great girl up north! Dani Knitting Sunshine sent me the sweetest package. This girl is seriously talented, and I have been enjoying her blog and her projects since she got her little bloggy home on the web a few months ago. Go over and see her lovely new socks (and don’t miss the awesome skirt she made a few weeks ago!)

Pink yarn, candy, tea, and a yummy smelling candle! Thanks so much, Dani girl!

Sttill yoking up on Balmoral–it will be soon, but probably not by the end of the month–it will be my first August FO!

This blog entry marks my 150th post…

…and Jenn of KnitWit Momma is my magical 3000th commenter! Expect a Lolly surprise to be winging its way to you very soon!

A big thank you for all of the lovely blogiversary wishes~it truly has been a wonderful year, and I look forward to many more!

This week has been flying by, and unfortunately, I have not gotten the amount of knitting time that I need to function properly… until this morning. I have not made up for the deficit, but I did make some notable progress on my cardigan.

The Balmoral cardigan is now yoked together forever, for no one to tear asunder… The yoking was pretty simple, and I do like this method, as it only leaves a small little underarm bit to sew in the end. I have to pay attention to the raglan shaping as well as the decreasing for the front of the cardigan, which is not exactly the easiest task; however, so far so good. (See the puppy paws? Jenny loves to be in the shot!)

… and because it is hard to make out in the picture, here is the cardigan with a shirt underneath:

As you can see, I have a few more inches to go before finishing this baby up. Very little seaming to do in the end–the joy of a circular knit! Of course she will need a good blocking and then I can sew in the velvet rope around the cuffs, hem, and the waist tie.

So the knitting and blogging have been slow this week because a) school is taking a lot of my time up. I love it and don’t regret a thing–but it is hard to go to class after a full day at work. b) It is hot, and this kind of weather seriously takes it out of me. I am a delicate flower. c) Work is really busy as I am putting up an exhibit right now and d) I got my booklist for my Fall semester classes, and my jaw dropped. I have to buy 24 books for 2 classes. My internet time has been sucked up doing price comparisons for these books so that I am not completely destitute after this one semester. I am taking two history classes (not library science next semester–the whole double degree thing) and they are going to be hard. One is a survey prereq sort of class in general historiography; the other is Medieval Hagiography. So, maybe I will be St. Lolly after reading all of the books for this class?

However busy I may have been, I did manage to carve away a little time to spend with some great people.

My sister, Sarah, came over last night. It was great to catch up with her. She has been very busy traveling and working this summer, and in a mere three weeks, she will be moving to North Carolina to start college. I am really going to miss her. She is planning to study Communications. This is a great choice for her — she loves to talk! (as an older sister, I have to say things like that, didn’t you know?)

Of course, she will be coming back to Maryland often to see my parents and me, but it is hard to see both of my sisters leaving and settling far away. All three of us have always been very close.

Kris and I started the week off with some other great visitors: Jenna and her boyfriend, Cobra (this is his hardcore blog ID, we don’t want to reveal to much about him!) came over on Monday night for some dinner and fun. Jenna filled me in on her awesome workshop with Teva Durham, and we got a little knitting done… but I think we might have spend more time doing this:

Dancing and laughing! We got Kris and Cobra to join the fun too and had a dancing duel. It was a crazy night!

Back in knitting territory, I have started planning for some Christmas knits, hoping to avoid the rush I pulled off last Christmas (I bound off for my mom’s wrap a few minutes before we left to exchange gifts!) I know the fab family reads the blog, so no spoilers here, but I do have some cute things in mind, rest assured

Updated to add: CONTEST! I have seen other bloggers do this, so I thought it was my turn! I am close to having a landmark number in my comment tallies over the next few days… so, the person who reaches that magical number will get a special LOLLY surprise!

My blogging life started on LiveJournal site with a list of book reviews. I joined some of the knitting communities on LJ because I was becoming more interested in knitting. Through LJ, I discovered that people set up complete websites to share their knitting/crafting activities with the world. This idea was absolutely novel to me. I uncovered this complete sub-culture of knitting blogs, the first of them being Stefanie’s site, Glampyre.com.

I decided to jump in head first, and LollyKnitting Around was born on the Blogger site. I set up my account and decided to feature my first sweater and some of the various scarves and hats I had made in the previous months. Stefanie was even one of my first commenters on my blog, encouraging me to design my own patterns! (unfortunately many of my oldest comments were lost in my first migration to Haloscan… )

I decided to make some bloggy friends; so I visited other blogs and left copious amounts of comments. Eventually, people started to visit my site too. I met up with some local knit bloggers who instantly became my "real life" friends. I have gained several friends that do not live close to me, but that I am able to know through the internet.

Needing more space for my pictures, and a desire to expand my options, I registered this domain, Lollygirl.com, in January of this year. I still have plans to develop the site in many ways, but now it is just a host to this blog, and the knitalong blog.

…and all of this started one year ago today!

Through blogging, I record my life events. I do it for me and my family, and for any one else that happens to take notice or care. I am an archivist, so I am archiving my daily life through my blog. It is the Lolly memory bank.

When I get old, I want to look back and say "Remember that first sweater I made and how hideous it was?", or "Remember when Mimi got engaged?" With this technology, I am able to recall the exact date and time of these events. I can recall exactly how I felt at the moment and how I was able to sum it up in words; as well as the way that my online friends reacted to it with their comments. Blogging, and the Knit Blog community in specific, has given me a real sense of purpose, and a wonderful sense of community. I have met some fascinating people through this medium, and I know I will meet many more! I receive daily inspiration from all of your blogs, projects, and your comments on my entries.

Many thanks to all of you for giving me this opportunity to share my life with you; and for caring enough to come back to read more!

You all have made my life more meaningful, and I am so grateful!

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Balmoral’s first sleeve was a cinch. Finished it up while watching Lance win this morning (Yea Lance! 7 Times!) and started Sleeve 2 straightaway. After Kris’s hockey game (they lost… again) and this week’s episode of Six Feet Under, I am now 12 inches in, with another 6.5 to go.

I could not let the first sleeve get all the glory and not let the second sleeve get any photo action… so here is sleeve 2 underwater!

Well, not under water, but in front of Kris’s aquarium… so scenic!

This cardigan is moving along so quickly–I daresay I will have another FO this month (that is a record: FOUR!) After this sleeve is done, I will join them with the body and yoke them together and knit around. From there, it is raglan shaping until the bind off. Easy as pie, right?

(Sleeve 2 not pictured here–a good blocking will make her more photogenic as well)

Stay tuned for more Balmoral news as she develops…

…In the meantime, check out my friend Debbie’s new blog, and stop by and see Shayna’s Ultra Femme modeled by her sis!

Some of you may remember my long-suffering Balmoral cardigan. I often pick it up when I have nothing else to work on. It is a pretty sad existence, honestly. I can’t really explain why I do this: I love this design, I love the yarn, and I have made some good headway… I have finally resolved to work on this one till it is finished.

This is the THIRD time I have cast on for the sleeves. The previous attempts have all ended up in the "frogpond" due to my lack of skillz with the DPNs. I think I am finally getting those suckers down, so it was time for another try.

(I think something about those DPNs sticking out reminded me of spikes and this made me feel hardcore, hence the growling animal face)

So far so good… I am knitting them more bell-shaped than the pattern calls for, I think this will be perfect for layering in the fall and winter. A good blocking in the end will even them up as well. As a reminder, this is a Dale of Norway (Adult 115) pattern, and the yarn is Sisik. I *heart* Dale patterns and yarns.

My favorite part about this cardigan is the velvet ribbon that details the edgings and ties at the waist… it is hard to make out in the pattern book picture above, but here is the whip stitch detail that I already sewed into the cardigan body:

I have been a little behind on my blog reading this week, so someone else may have already mentioned this… but, in the Washington Post Magazine from last weekend (July 17th) there was a whole article about blogs and blogging. (Read the article here)

The article focused on political blogging, but we got out chance to shine too:

See? We got top-billing! KNITTING BLOGS!

School work is keeping me quite busy lately.. but I can’t complain too much because the work is SO fun! One of my classes, History of the Book, has a project working with the Library of Congress. Our mission is to collect and observe the events, phenomena and fan mania around the Harry Potter books/movies for the Library to preserve for future researchers/scholars wanting to learn about the books, the publishing industry, marketing ploys, and the web presence. Several websites have been permanently archived using the Internet Archives’ WayBack technologies. My group is assigned to work specifically on Collectibles and Tie-Ins for the books and movies. We are collecting some "artifacts" and taking pictures of store displays, toys, clothing, etc.

One of my co-workers picked up these great plastic glasses at the book release party at Barnes & Noble. She also picked up a poster and a bracelet and let me have them for this project. I also contacted Alison and asked to use an image of her Harry Potter-themed yarn store display. I am very excited about presenting these items and pictures for the LC’s archive!

Next up: Scout out the grocery stores and department stores for more Harry Potter themed clothing and accessories! As you can see, I am just eating this project up! Have you seen any HP related collectibles or tie-ins that you wanna share? I would love to hear about them!

Updated to add: I got a great email from Dana this morning pointing to these LiveJournal sites for some other Harry Potter lovin’ knitters out there:
http://www.livejournal.com/community/weasleysweaters/
http://www.livejournal.com/community/hp_knitting/

Have a good weekend!

I regret to say that unlike many of my previous entries within the last seven days, this entry does not include pictures of glorious finished objects… but I do have some progress shots of my first pair of socks!

IKEA man has his hands full!

Front view of sock, along with the side view. As you can see, I successfully turned my first heel (hey, it was a big deal to me!) and I am now working on the instep gusset. So far so good–the only thing I notice is that this sock is going to be big around the cuff. I think that using the 12" circs in the beginning may have stretched it out…

I went ahead and read the book… I knew once I started I would not be able to put it down (and that held true!) Monday was totally devoted to Harry Potter–and I really loved it. This book was great, and I am so ready for the 7th one!

Feel free to email me with your stellar theories about Book 7!

While discussing Book 6 with dear Heather on the phone last night, I organized my stash, and balled up some skeins that I have had waiting for awhile. I think I found the prettiest skeins in my stash… but what to do with them? Scarves are always my default answer–but anyone else have some ideas to throw in?

Zitron Unikat and Noro Transitions–I just love the way they look all balled up. Plus, they are so much easier to stack and organize in the stash!

A BIG THANKS to Kathy at Knitigator for sending me 4 balls of Cotton Ease in Sugar Plum! This color is so pretty. It will be perfect for a tank or a tee–perhaps a Tivoli?

Stay cool (or warm if you are in the southern hemisphere!) Take care!