I’m so excited to have won Susan’s contest! I’ve been eyeing her Spring Things shawl pattern since she posted it, but Paypal and I don’t get along. Winning the pattern is just great.

I’ll be going stash diving this afternoon, as I think I have some yarn that will work for the shawl, and I’m going to give in to startitis, and just go for it with this pattern. Assuming the yarn works, that is… And that I can find it, for that matter. I packed a lot of my stash away into big plastic tubs and stored them in the garage, and now actually finding things again can be a bit of a crap shoot. Sometimes I can locate them, sometimes they seem to have ended up in Douglas Adams’ alternate universe with the ballpoint pens and spare socks.

The timing of this contest is wonderful, actually. Firstly, I was in the LA area for my own quick trip (a college friend was getting married) a week and a half ago. I didn’t get to an Angels game like Susan did, but I did go to the Getty Center. I think I must have stood against the same railing she did when she took her picture, just a week before she was there.

The other good part of the timing is that DH and I are going on a long weekend trip this weekend. We’re going to stay at a B&B just outside of Leavenworth, WA, and plan on doing as close to absolutely nothing as possible. Which, of course, is the perfect time to start a new knitting project! Especially something like lace, which needs a measure of concentration. I can sit in our lovely suite, stretch out in front of the fireplace (Leavenworth is in the mountains—when we were there at this time last year, there was snow on the ground), and knit. Ahhhh…