Ravelry, FOs, and "the more you know..."

Last summer I went to a knitting get-together that the faboo Kate had, met some super awesome knitters, and stupidly neglected to notice that I was turning into a human lobster due to sunburn. It was so bad that I couldn't even stay the night and I missed out on all of the spinning!

Fast forward to last weekend. I thought I had learned my lesson after Kate's, so when the girls had their first softball game Saturday afternoon, I made sure that I wore a long sleeved shirt, my big sunglasses and sat so that I wasn't facing the sun. An hour later the game was over and we went home... I took a nap... my brother and his friend Julie stopped over.

As I was grabbing a beer from the fridge, Julie commented how red my neck was.

While I had sat watching the game, I had sunburned the back of my neck so badly that I have been called "redneck" for the past two days at work. I neglected to think about the fact that since the wind was blowing on Saturday, I had put my hair up in a clip to keep it out of my face... exposing it right to the sun for a solid hour.

"The More You Know..." indeed.

Mother's Day was Sunday... and you know what I finally finished in time? Branching Out. Yes, the same Branching Out that has been languishing on my needles for more than a year.





The specs:
Knitpicks Gossamer in the Caribbean colorway; Size 7 needles. The pattern is incredibly easy as long as you are paying attention... but once I pinned it out I realized that although I love this colorway, I didn't like it as much as I'd hoped for Branching Out. My Mom loved it... so I guess that is all that matters, but I think I would like to try the pattern again with a solid color yarn.

And because I couldn't finish a project and not start another, I have started Kiri.




I'm using Lorna's Laces Heaven Multi, and let me just say that although this yarn is beautiful, it is a bitch to tink back. And I've done a LOT of tinking. Public Service Announcement time: Kiri is not meant to be knit at the same time husband is playing Legend of Zelda on the Wii. Seriously. I knit a stitch, get absorbed into what he is doing on the game and lose my place, the row I'm on, etc. It hasn't been pretty, and it is because of this that I expect this shawl to take a while.

And finally... your Ravelry update. *Gets on Soapbox*

Ok dear readers, there is evidently some dissention amongst the ranks regarding Ravelry invites and having to be on the waiting list and blah blah blah. What a lot of people don't seem to take into account is that
A) Jess and Casey were running this BY THEMSELVES. They now have a few moderators, but still, Casey is doing the coding and Jess is doing most of the record keeping. This was going above and beyond normal life things like jobs.
B) At one point in time there were more than 3000 people on the invitation list. To be honest, I am sure that there are more at this point. Three Thousand. That is a lot of invites to send out.
C) They are adding people slowly because they want to work out bugs in the system. And trust me, Jess and Casey have been given enough suggestions for future upgrades that will last them for the next 60 years.
D) See letter A. By themselves. Creating, coding, adding people.

Now yes, Ravelry is absolutely AMAZING and I am thinking of starting the first Ravelry Addiction Support group, but please, please be patient if you are waiting for an invite. It will come... I promise. But Jess and Casey need to sleep once in a while, too!! *gets off soapbox*