WIPW v.15, And... We Have a Winnah!

It's Wednesday again, and that means two things.  First (like I'd make y'all wait any longer...), we have a winner for the yarn giveaway!  To keep things ultra-fair and super-scientific-like, I went to random.org's Random Number Generator, and entered numbers between 1 and 18.  It thought for a nanosecond, then coughed up this:  6.  Comment #6 was left by the lucky Noreen.  Congratulations, Noreen!

Unfortunately, Noreen didn't leave any contact information, and her blogger profile is set to "private", so I don't have any way to get in touch.  Noreen, please zip me a quick email with your mailing address to KnitandSeek at gmail dot com.  I'll give Noreen until Saturday morning to claim her yummy yarn prize, and then we'll choose another random number, if necessary.  Thanks to everyone who entered, this was really fun to do.  So much fun, in fact, that we'll do it again for sure.

And now on to Work In Progress Wednesday #15.  I'm still knitting away on the Cabled Lace Vest that I started last week, and while I've made a fair amount of progress, I'm still at that point where it doesn't look very interesting.   The lace pattern is super simple, but with 236 stitches in a row, I'm about ready for something new.  You'd think after having knit 3 months of straight stockinette, I'd have a little more patience with 58 rows of lace, wouldn't you?  Here's what I've got so far...

8 rows to go, and then we start the short rows.  That should be interesting, as I've never done the whole "wrap and turn" thing before.  I sense some knitting videos in my future.

In other news, Avast blocked beautifully.  I was pretty worried, as it stunk to high heaven when I pulled it from the sink.  Blech.  Fortunately, the smell faded as it dried and now it doesn't smell much at all.  Also, the zipperstop zipper arrived and looks fantastic.  I'm really happy with it, apart from the fact that I must've measured wrong and it's about 4" too short.  Oops.  We've worked it out that it'll start about 1/2" from the bottom, and will end just before the collar, and it should be okay.

Now we're in a bit of a bind since I don't sew and have no idea how to install this thing.  I'm thinking a visit to my next door neighbor is in order tonight.  Hopefully, she'll give me some direction and lend me her sewing skills.  No pictures for you, though.  I don't want to spoil my FO Friday post.  Also, I'm having a really hard time getting Mr. Right to take the thing off.  LOVE that guy.

I was really hoping to start working on an Elijah this week, but when I found my size 3 dpns, I discovered that I have 2 of them.  Where are the rest?  No idea.  And really, I'm not that kind of girl.  Usually it's a place for everything and everything in its place and all that.  So this is extra frustrating.  For now, here's what I have of Elijah...

I can't tell you how much I wish there was a set of dpns in that picture. Sigh.   Hopefully we'll have a bit more accomplished next week.

Oh, also, some housekeeping stuff:  First, look at this awesome WIPW button that Stacey made! 

We're so official-looking now!  Just as soon as I figure out how to make it work (any minute now, I'm sure), I'll be stashing it in the sidebar over there ----------->

Also, you might've noticed the little thumbnails along the bottom of each post.  On the sage advice of The Crafty Cripple, I installed Link Within.  I'm not sure exactly what algorithm they use (beyond labels) to determine related posts, but some of the connections they make are kinda funny.  Anyway, I think it's pretty cool.  More sprucing up to come as I get smarter about all this. 

What sorts of widgets and gadgets do you use that you'd recommend?  Leave 'em in the comments.  I'd love to hear!