Busy, Productive Weekend...

Beginning with last night, I've been spending quality time with Bernie. Between us we've managed to generate quite a bit of product. Here's one order ready to ship:

(And another is heading out, too, but I can't show you that, as it's a gift for someone who reads my blog!)

Then I got right down to business, making Oressa doublepoint needle cases for the upcoming Olde Liberty Fibre Faire. I have a few weeks to stock up but with the work week being as busy as they've been lately, weekends seem to be all I've got for sewing...
These are the business side of the Oressas
And here they are rolled and ready to slip into someone's knitting bag!

Beginning this weekend, I've drastically cut back on my cable bill. I've been thinking for some time that I wanted to do without TV, and just wasn't quite able to justify that. Then I spoke to a friend who told me there was a lower option than what I had, one that's just local channels, for the most part (but I still get QVC! wink). So I dropped down my internet speed to the middle of the road level, and with those two changes I dropped my bill by about $50. That's serious money when you consider that I almost don't watch TV. I want news and weather. And I get most of my news on NPR. So now, I'm happier and maybe in a few months, I'll feel that I can cut the cable completely except for internet service. We'll see how it goes.

This evening, I was listening to recorded interviews about the Japanese nuclear power catastrophe-in-the-making on cnn.com and worked on the final stages of Representative Lowey's hat, and finished it:
It took a bit less than one skein of the Bernat Alpaca, and I had to make an adjustment. I didn't realize when I started that this is bulky yarn. I knit the Coronet pattern on size 8s as the pattern calls for, and suddenly realized while making the band that I only needed 14 repeats of the cable pattern instead of the called-for 16. I still picked up the 84 stitches and knit the pattern to the small, but it fits ME nicely, so I think I know what I'm going to do with the other skein of this. It's soft and warm and almost sinful to the touch. And the deep dark eggplant color is enough to make me drool. It reminds me of the dark purple grapes in the stores right now.
From the side, you can see the cable a bit better. Rep. Lowey's hat makes seven that I've created for the Warm Hats Not Hot Heads campaign. Several of us have been discussing that there are some Governor's that are in need of these hats...A certain one in Wisconsin, another in Michigan, and you have to know that I'm thinking our own, in Virginia, probably needs one. I'm not sure I'm quite up to it right now, but perhaps after the Fibre Faire.

I've also been working on my client's books this weekend and need to wrap them up tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll also be able to meet with a knitting friend who wants to learn to make toe-up socks, and still manage to get to bed reasonably to help adjust to the time change.

It was absolutely gorgeous today, in the mid-60s but windy. I couldn't help myself, I had to get to the Greenway and walk...it was the first of the season and I was quite proud that 30 minutes wasn't hard at all! Tomorrow, I'll try to get out again.

Hope your weekend is all you want it to be!