Needlework Tuesday - Pink!

I've only been doing a little needlework lately. A few days ago, I started on some other crafts that are related to three books I received for review. I'll be posting about those later this month.
 
In the meantime, here's what I've been doing needle-wise: Sometime ago, Wal-Mart had this big bin of yarn in 1000 metre skeins. The colours were brown, pink and cream. Because I was hungry at the time, all I could think was chocolate, strawberry and vanilla, like Neapolitan ice cream! Yum! The colours looked great together and I knew I had to buy them and make something. Since I already had lots of cream-coloured yarn at home, I only bought the chocolate...I mean brown and pink. I got home put them away with my other yarns and waited for inspiration to hit. It never did. I decided that the pink was too bright and the brown was just...well, brown. That Neapolitan ice cream was a distant memory.

So the yarn sat and sat and sat. That is, until two weeks ago.  I was going through my stash hoping for some inspiration to start a new project. I can't just buy yarn and do nothing with it, right? When I came across this pink, I remembered a pretty lace afghan in a booklet that Heather over at Books and Quilts had sent me last year. The pattern is really simple with only four rows and only one of those has something other than all knit or all purl. It's done on a circular needle, so it takes awhile to do one row. Despite that, it's knitting up fairly quickly; I have about 24 inches done in two weeks of knitting. That's pretty good for me. I still have a ways to go, but here's a current photo:



Also, I've been looking for a knitting needle case for sometime although I really wasn't making too much of an effort. No special trips; I only looked in stores I was already in. I figured my old Pringles can was good enough until I came across something better. A couple of weeks ago I got an email from Mary Maxim advertizing their sale on needle cases and bags. How lucky is that!! I ordered two: 1 for regular straight needles and 1 for circular needles. Together with shipping and tax it was under $30. I guess I didn't look closely enough at the regular one when I ordered it because when it came it was a combination case for both crochet hooks and knitting needles. I only have a few crochet hooks and barely know how to crochet, but at least I'll know where they are if I decide to take it up one day. The photos are a little dark; the cases are more pink than red. I wanted something bright and colourful so that it would stick out in the disaster zone...er, I mean my crafting area.



As you can see, I haven't put my needles in them yet.  I should have done it before I took the photos, but shovelling yesterday's 8"+ of snow this morning was not kind to my back and there were two sets of stairs between me and the needles.

I've also been trying to organize my craft area.  I recently moved the whole thing to the basement and haven't made much progress in getting it set up and usable.  We did purchase some wardrobes so that everything can be put behind closed doors.   I hope to have some photos next week. 

Needlework Tuesday is hosted by Heather over at Books and Quilts. Tami over at Just One More Thing... is also participating this week. Be sure to visit both of them to see what they've been up to.