Woof, Ribbit and Wow

We'll start with wow, verse 1. Y'all hear about knitterly goodness rather regularly, and you will hear some in verse 2, but first, I want to share some plain, old friendship WOW. Remember my Total Tote? Well, imagine my surprise when UPS brought one to the office this morning. Imagine my continued surprise when I read the comments section on the packing slip, and realized it was from a non-knitting friend. I am truly blessed with the best friends a gal could have. Thank you, R!

We'll get back to the bag, but friends are much more important. I remember reading somewhere once that the average person has a single digit number of TRUE friends in a lifetime. (It was long ago, and the details and source are long gone from this mind.) This person made a distinction between acquaintances and real, see you through it all friends, and that's a point well-taken. Maybe I'm deluded, but I'm sure I have more than single digit real friends at this very moment. I'd do a roll call, but this is a knitting blog. I just needed to take a moment to note how lucky I am to have some phenomenal women (and a couple of men) to call my dearest and best friends.

And now, back to the bag. I hope my first photo shows that it's more than ultra suede. It's very suedey (dollar says Blogger's spell check hates that word!) on the outside. VERY. I don't mind, but I mention it because I tend to think ultra suede is smoother. It's bigger than my usual bag by a lot, but for what I want this bag to do, it's perfect. A sock and all of its yarn could travel in one compartment, ALL of my handbag necessities in the littlest one, and I'd still have room for another project. Heck, I think my Pound of Love yarn would fit in the biggest compartment! This shot to the right hopefully shows that the two compartments in the main section are divided by that piece under my thumb, so the Pound of Love could travel, one way or another. The front, outside compartment is separate, and bigger than my current handbag, the Sidekick.

So, there's your wow, and we'll move right into the woof, or wow verse 2. My super-dooper Dog Days spoiler sent me an incredible package. Each item was wrapped with a little comment, and what a hoot! I love the rooster (I didn't have that one!), and the rooster note pad's note said "I'll help you remember what yarns you want to buy!" Clearly, she read a lot of my blog, and she knows I'm counting on Ravlery to help me shop a little more efficiently. There were emergency knitting needles, which looked for all the world like two pencils to me, a flip-flop sugar cookie, bath treats, a cow cross stitch kit (wicked, that spoiler!), tissues, some Cotton Tots (which I can't wait to try, as the other pattern I'm crazy about in my new book used that for the sample photos), a Ball band cloth pattern, a ball band cloth that Mark has already announced is his, and a cute little jar that I can shake and see sand and shells and remember the beach! I love it all, and I thoroughly appreciate the time and effort Linda put into getting to know me! Thank you so much, Linda! Had you not put the Dog Days button on the box, I would have assumed you were my KVVS pal!

Last, and definitely least, is the lack of knitting content. I couldn't understand for the life of me why, on a pattern marked intermediate, I would cast on 135 and then knit in moss stitch for seven rows, add a stitch, and the get around to the main pattern a couple of rows later. I followed the book's instructions for the increase, and made a hole. I didn't catch it until several rows later, and figured I'd pull it shut when I wove in the ends and such. Well, on row 15, I still don't know what happened, but suddenly, there was a huge, unravelling hole and stitches slipping away by the second. When I looked at it to try to figure out how to fix it, I undid another five or six stitches, on different rows. With that, I moan, groaned, and frogged. The dear Knight finally took hold of what had been the start of the ding-dang baby blanket he insists must be ready before said tot is born, and I continued to unravel and rewind.

You'll have to wait another day for the details on which book and which pattern, because I just got a phone call saying I'm late for dinner and there's a meeting to follow...