Craft Night

I've almost given up on trying to infect my friends with the knitting bug. It's cool. Hobbies can be intensive so it really has to be a personal decision whether to invest the time and money into a new one. Still, I don't really have anyone to knit with. I could head up to my LYS, but I thought it would be nice to have some close buddies to enjoy some designated knitting time with.

So I've settled for the next best thing....Craft Night.

Two of my good friends, Ericka and Perrin agreed to get together once a month to work on any craft of our choosing, rotating between our cribs. We had our second Craft Night this Saturday at Eri's house and it was a blast!

Ericka cooked a delicious dinner of Chicken Florentine Ring (a Pampered Chef recipe), tossed salad and a white wine sangria. I know, friends don't let friend knit (or craft) while drinking, but who can resist sangria? Really? For dessert we had a divine cinnamon streusel cake with ice cream and apricot preserves. To...die...for. Then before I went home Eri made me hot chocolate with Irish creme! I ate/drank like there was no tomorrow, seconds, thirds, I lost count.

Oh yeah, we crafted as well.

I worked on the second mitten for my brother, who's been waiting on his hat/mitten set since before it was actually cold (hopefully he'll get it before it gets warm again). Then I cast on for the Odessa hat, which you can see listed in my works in progress on the side of my blog. Yup, I'd frogged it before and started over on Saturday, only to get home and try to knit at 2 a.m. in the morning. Obviously if one shouldn't knit under the influence, they really shouldn't do so under the influence and sleep deprived. I'm sitting here at work determined to cast on that darn hat once and for all!!!

Ericka did a little brainstorming for a scrapbook project. I'm determined that scrapbooking should be her hobby of choice. She has mad journaling skills, is crafty in general and is great with photography. As a matter of fact, I haven't taken a picture on vacation, which we usually take together (see Cancun ticker), in years. My best friend can't be pushed into anything, so with gentle prodding and purchasing of some scrapbooking materials as a gift, I think she might come around to my purpose for her. Mwah, ha, ha! Seriously, once she gets started she's going to make the most awesome scrapbooks ever!

Perrin, who is the crafting goddess, worked on repurposing a purse made out of wood. She was sanding and priming it so that she can design and paint it for a customer, bringing win over whatever me and Ericka were piddling with. I keep encouraging her to open an Etsy account because her stuff is fabulous, especially her jewelry which is simply stunning.

It was a night full of fun, food, drink and lots of talk of men, celebs, movies, etc. Next month is my turn to host so I have to get a menu together. :)