WIP Wednesday 2/18/09

This weeks WIPs are a beaded bead I'm learning how to do in herringbone stitch. I'm doing it in violet and green because I'm in another beadswap and that is the theme-violet and green necklace. I thought I'd do something in beaded beads of some sort.


Let me tell you, I am lovin' this project. I think I've found my niche in beading. Beaded beads are a LOT of fun. By the way, the tutorial for this bead is here: Scaphs. It's in french (which I know just a tiny bit), but the diagrams are wonderful.

This is a new knitting project I started over the weekend. One of my daughters best friends just had a baby girl so I thought I'd make a little cardigan with a ruffled hem for her. I've chosen a yarn that's been in my stash for awhile called Candy DK from King Cole yarns in the Cinder Toffee colorway.

Unfortunately, I'm finding the pattern to be incredibly booooorrring. It started with casting on 274 stitches. Thankfully, that was the ruffle, so I've since decreased down to a much more reasonable number of stitches. Still, I'm having a hard time not nodding off. A lot of stockinette stitch does that to me. I need to get this sweater done so today I purchased a bottle of Yazi ginger vodka and I will reward myself with a shot on the rocks for each day I work on it. This has worked for me before, so it should work again.

While I was at the liquor store I found a bottle of this:



With a name like Sheep Dip, it has to be good, right? Actually, I first heard about it on someones blog a few weeks ago. That got me curious, so I did a bit of research and found it is getting good reviews. It's a scotch blend of several (18, if I remember correctly) high end single malt scotch whiskeys. Since I was at the liquor store for Yazi, I figured I'd see if they had this in stock. They did. I took a little sip as soon as I got home. I had to know! It is very very very good. Nice and smooooooooooth, and not expensive either-as good scotch goes. I'm so glad I've discovered it.

There's a reason for that silly name. Back in the days, when the British farmers made their own whiskey out back behind the barn, they hid it in barrels marked sheep dip to avoid paying taxes on it. There's an interesting history lesson for ya.

Have a great day!