Entrelac? How nice to meet you.

I took an entrelac class today! At one of my many L.Y.S.s, and it was great. Hopefully I'll be able to repeat the entrelac process on my own. Anne Carroll Gilmore taught the class, and she included several cool techniques that I know I'll use a lot in the future, including "knitting backwards" instead of turning and purling. It made the process whiz by. The bag on the right is the one I made with Naturespun (which has gotten so effing splitty!), and the bag on the left is the prize I got for finishing my bag first. I really wanted to win the bag because I had planned to give one bag to the older of my children and the other to the second (child). On reflection, however, I think I'll keep the pretty Noro bag for my own self and make another one for the children. Plus, there was a soap ball in the prize bag, and I liked the way it smelled. And I NEVER have soap around here. The impetus for taking the class in the first place was because I wanted to make a Noro Silk Garden neck warmer, like unto this one [scroll down, past the Orange Sky].

I finished the Sunflower Tam yesterday, but I don't really like the way the Silk Garden colors turned out on the top section, so I may frog back to the beginning of the top part and begin knitting with a different part of the skein, maybe repeat the colors on the bottom half which I like.

Answers to questions from previous comments:

Lauren: I did not find a mattress pad at TJMaxxx (or however many freakin' exxes it has), although they did have some mattress covers. I found a nice foam pad at Target though, for not much money. You want to know what I did find at TJMaxxxxx, among lots of other things? Black and white houndstooth Chuck Taylor sneakers. I love them more than an adult should love sneakers.

Suzette: I think one has to apply with some county agency to get on a crew to fight wilderness fires. My sister applied to Utah County's agency, but they travel all over the west. You just have to pass a urine test and a pretty easy written test, and that's it. They provide the training and they continue to hire people late into the season. Incidentally, my sister's been out on a fire for a week and we don't know where she was sent, so I'm a little worried. I know she'll be fine, it's just... you know. Anyway, her birthday is tomorrow, and I hope she can get back for it. It's also Harry Potter's birthday. Random fact lodged into my brain.