Sarah to the rescue!!!!

Last night my friend Sarah came over to watch Lost (I think I am becoming obsessed with this show, it is messing with my head) and to do some knitting. This is becoming a much enjoyed Saturday night ritual. Anyway, I decided to start on the "Yo Drop It!" scarf from the Stitch N Bitch Nation book, because I really didn't feel like starting over on my brown cardigan sweater (from the first SnB book). I need to start this sweater over on size 5's because I am a tight knitter who can't change and my gauge was just coming out way too tight on the size 4's the pattern calls for. So, I started on the scarf feeling confident about doing the yarn over's because I had the SnB handbook nearby to refer to. Except I just was not understanding the whole concept of a yarn over (its been a while since I've done one) and I spent probably close to 2 1/2 hours making the same mistake over and over before Sarah set me straight. I was making it way harder than it needed to be by thinking that the yarn over was a whole stitch in itself rather than the simple act of bringing the yarn to the front. So, now that I know what I'm doing with this, its pretty darn easy and pretty fun too. Here is my progress so far:

It's hard to see in the picture, but I think its coming out pretty good. This is also my first project knitting on straights (not counting dpn's). Its a little weird to get used to after knitting so much on circulars, but I think I could get used to it.

I have to say, this has been a great birthday week. Sarah gave me some gorgeous Noro and Cascade 220 yarn to make the Booga Bag pattern, which I have been wanting to make for a while. She also gave me the Mason Dixon Knitting book. What an incredibly thoughtful, just wonderful gift. I feel very lucky to have the incredible friends that I have. Here is the yarn and the gorgeous basket that she put the yarn in:

It's not the best picture, sorry about that. Here is the basket:

Isn't that beautiful? Now I have a stash basket for my growing yarn stash!!! Sarah says now I need a stash weasel!! Ha ha ha... Speaking of my growing yarn stash, here is the yarn that Debbie and Kim from work gave me:

I'm thinking of doing a scarf and some socks with these yarns, I really love the colors. The bear kit will be a challenge for me, I've never knit with the eyelash type of yarn. I will probably start the bear next quarter when I am not taking a full load at school. :-)

Okay, enough blogging and admiring my yarn stash, I need to get off the couch and get going so I can get psyched about algebra and going to the library today for some serious studying. Woo-Hoo!! I will leave you with a picture of one of my cats, Della, she is taking advantage of a chilly Sunday morning in Seattle to do some serious relaxing...