My labor weekend was lazy and busy at the same time. How? you asked. Well, I guess I felt like I was lazy and didn’t do anything, but when in fact, we did a lot.

David and I went to the mall Friday after work. We haven’t gone for so long and a lot had changed. I actually picked up this book while I was there. Yup! I want to at least learn what’s in my garden and how I can plant some of my favorite flowers.

Saturday morning I went to Primerica training and when I got home, David and I drove to Mom’s to have a BBQ, and met up with our friend Tanya. I of course, forgot my camera and didn’t take any pictures while we were there! We got home around 10pm and I stayed up and finished reading “The Sisterhood of Dropped Stitches” (I got the book via PaperBackSwap, see sidebar). It was a very easy read and it was only slightly knitting related, and there were no patterns of any kind in the book, but it reminds me the Stitch n Bitch group I go to. I remember the first Wednesday meeting – I was a newbe at knitting and I didn’t understand anything people were talking about! Slowly, people clued me in on the yarn, the pattern, the names, the techniques… I think without my “sisters”, I wouldn’t have grown so fond of knitting, and be able plunged into any pattern I want, and of course, have my large yarn stash. I can feel free to express what was in my thoughts when I go there and I can always count on a good laugh. Recently, one of the ladies that attend had some personal trouble, so we moved the meeting to her house. Even though I wasn’t as close to her as the others were (we have a big group), I can feel that she appreciated us being there, and that it was good that we were there. Although I can’t ease her pain, but I know I will be there when she needs me.

Sunday was a late start at 10am. David and I went to the Mark Twain Library book sale first. I went last year on a Saturday, and this year, I went to the half price day. On the way there, we stopped at a nursery that had mums for “5 for $12.95″. I picked up these:

Aren’t they beautiful? They are not full bloom yet and from my handy dandy new book, it says that I shouldn’t plant them now until the Spring, so now they are just sitting in the front lawn waiting for the good weather to be gone and be moved inside.

We headed to the sale after the brief stop and we must spent over 3 hours there. Here is the haul:

All that for grand total of… you ready?… $22.25!!!!!!! You can’t beat the price! Among the books, I came home with these:

Needless to say, we left happy. A lot of the books are replacing my paperbacks and the paperback will be listed on the swap for other books that I want and didn’t find at the book sale.

After the book sale, we stopped at Costco and Trader Joe’s to get some much needed shopping done, and got home with a car full of flowers, books, and food.

And while we were doing all these driving, I had finished Petrol -

Pattern – Petrol by Carol Sulcoski on Knitty.com
Yarn Called For – 5 Skeins Manos del Uruguay in #27 and 1 Skein Manos del Uruguay in #64
Yarn Used – 6 Balls Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK in #26011
Needles – Denise size 7 and 8
Gauge – 4.5 sts per inch
Knit – August 18, 2007 to September 02, 2007
Modifications – added 2×2 ribs for two inches at the waist, use only single color

This was a very quick knit – instead of the purling rib, it has garter rib. It was different enough to keep me awake but not too complicated so I can knit it during a movie. This is one of the vests I am making for my dad. So now, one down, one more to go. The next one will probably be in a regular plain vest since the yarn is heather and dark and wouldn’t show too much of stitch definition.

After we got home, we sat around and be bums for a few hours, until the heat has gone down a little, and we went to our old house and cleaned out the garage, so we can put one of rare car that David is collecting into the garage. So now, we actually have ONE car in one of our garages!!! Well, the race car is also in the garage too. I think I’m just too happy to actually cleaned out the garage from our move – we ONLY moved about 6 months ago… yeah…

When we got home, we grabbed some quick dinner, and I was going through my blog subscription via Google reader (I love that thing! I don’t have to sign up separate account at bloglines or anything! And it integrates into my google homepage, which I can read the posts via google homepage) and saw Brooklyntweed‘s post about his Hemlock Ring Blanket and that there is a KAL started for it. Okay, yes, I joined it. Go ahead, say I am crazy, nuts, or whatever have you. But to my defense, I already had the yarn in mind and printed out the pattern when he first post about it! I would have started the KAL if I didn’t already host the Autumn Rose!

Monday morning I got up early (well, 8am IS early when I don’t have to go to work!) and went to meet up with the Team Lead of CLCC (Collegiate Leadership Coaching Committee) for SWE business. I am part of the team and we had to get the budget set up and figure out what we are doing for the fiscal year. It was a lot of fun meeting up with her, especially we haven’t seen each other for 6 months.

When I got home, I decided that I should continue to be a bum for the rest of the weekend – lots of people relaxed and did nothing during 3 day weekends! So that’s what I did – I watched CSI marathon on SPIKE and knitted MS3 – yes, I am finally going back to it. But with the whole afternoon and evening, besides the one and a half hours of making pizza, I only knitted 36 rows!!!! Well, I think I spent about half an hour just trying to figure what went wrong – missing stitches! Luckily I figured it out after only tinking back one full row (missed a YO and also dropped a stitch – good thing I use merino so it didn’t ladder down). So I am almost finished with chart E – maybe by Wednesday I will have chart E completed.

So now, it is time for this bum to go to bed – even though work has tomorrow off (floating holiday), I decided to work tomorrow so I can take another day off when we go up to 1000 Islands in a few weeks.

What did YOU do for your holiday weekend?