What's on the Needles Wednesday and Catch Up

It's been awhile since I've posted.  We've had a really busy schedule over the last month.  I've finished a few projects, started others and have completely stalled on my Tee shirt knitting.

Have you heard about the My Mountain Hat design contest for Schachenmayr yarn?  They provided the yarn and the contestants created a unique hat design and submitted a photo of their finished hat design.  I signed up late in the game, received my yarn, started my design and knit furiously until I ran out of yarn.  Here's what I've got so far:

You can sort of see where I am going.  It's still on the needles and waiting for the new yarn to come in so I can finish.  I'll show off the finished hat when I get it done.  It was fun to participate and they're letting me enter my partially completed hat (deadline was Sept. 2nd).  

I've working as fast as I can on a pair of socks-two at a time because let's face it.  I have second sock syndrome.  I confess.  I hate working on the second sock.  I feel like I just made that and I don't want to do it again so soon.  And really why should I?

So I learned how to do two at a time and I LOVE it!.  Yup, total love.

Here's the socks in progress.  I've just reached the heel turn:

In catching up news, a group of my buddies from my knitting and crochet group went to the Blues, Brews & BBQ event at the Fullerton arboretum.  It was a ton of fun.  Neither Mike or I are drinkers, so we grabbed a couple of designated driver tickets and went for the Blues and BBQ.  It was really good BBQ.  Not quite up to Texas BBQ standards, but it definitely blew California BBQ and some rather pitiful Colorado BBQ out of the water.  Yum.  Of course there was knitting involved:

Here is a rather dark and pathetic picture of the Blues band:

And a picture of a beer bottle cap (check out the sheep).  The yarn enthusiasts of the group voted this beer as the best of the event-based on the cap logo rather than the beer.

Even though this is a short week and we're almost to the end, the weekend cannot come soon enough for me.  Our week started out roughly with a rather nasty surprise.  Some (excuse my language) Rat Bastards broke into our garage and stole some of my favorite things, including our beloved beach cruisers.