Thanks Secret Pal!!!

My first Secret Pal package came this week while I was gone. It's fantastic!!! Here's the moment of anticipation:
And all the beautiful goodies:
The goodies are:
~nail polish
~lip gloss
~post it notes (which I think are awesome for keeping your place in a chart!)
~a container for organizing knitting notions
~A SKEIN OF OPAL SOCK YARN - it's purple and black and I can't wait to see what it will look like knit up, it feels so nice!
~a sparkley knitting journal
~a card that appears to be handmade
~two tennis balls (my secret pal has definitely been keeping up with my blog)

I wasn't able to just cast on right away since I've got lots of things to do after being out of the house for a few days but some other little ones were able to enjoy their goodies right away:
Trapper is the real ball boy and can often be found cuddling with his favorite ball of the moment on the couch, his new tennis ball quickly made it to the top of his list!So, once again. . . THANK YOU SECRET PAL!!!

Home too

This has been a very long week for me. I got a call late Saturday night that my Grandpa passed away. Unfortunately I haven't been up to NH to see my Grandpa in 6 years. I've been meaning to go up there this whole past year since he's been getting very sick, but it just never seemed to happen. Oh the regrets.

Well, I usually don't write much personal stuff so I'm going to change subjects here, but you can read more about my family stuff on my sister's blog.

I went and met my family in NH and was able to spend a few days with my whole family. It was nice to see everyone, even if it was under horrible circumstances. We did take a trip to one yarn store where I got 2 skeins of yarn to make convertible mittens for me and my mom. I also spent a lot of time sitting around the cabin knitting with my sisters. This is what I made, obviously not finished yet:
I cast on before going to the airport and got 2 rows done and the rest was knit in the last 3 or 4 days. It's sock yarn from the Hill Country Yarns sock club knit in the pattern they sent with it, Sweet Pea socks. It's coming out very nice and I think it's my favorite pair so far.

New Hampshire was quite a bit colder than good ole Virginia, so I was able to do this:
Wear some handknit socks for the first time EVER! They were pretty damn comfy and warm.

I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do with this yet, but there's got to be some sort of inspiration in this:
It's a skein of Paton's SWS that I've been using for a felted bag and that's what it looked like when it was half used. It's so pretty. I know it's just a log cabin block (what kind of quilter would I be if I didn't know that!) and that there are already knit log cabin patterns out there, but maybe it's just the colors that are so inspiring for me.

Letterboxing. . . Part Deux

I gave letterboxing another try a few days ago and it was a success. It was lots of fun and of course the boys enjoyed it. We saw some nice wildlife too. Including a turtle on the bridge we were walking over, which the boys tried to scratch through its shell. And a deer and its fawn, which the boys both pointed at and then barked their heads off at. Unfortunately it was an injured deer with a broken leg and it didn't quite run away so quickly so the barking went on for a long time (we checked with the park ranger and that deer has been there for years and the injury happened a long time ago). Here's the first stamp in my letterboxing book:
OK, now onto some knitting content since this is a crafting blog. I'm slowly working on the sleeve for my sweetie's sweater. It's growing:
The color is completely off on this picture but I had to go flashless to show the pretty cable. I'm very happy with the new cable design.

The jaywalker sock is also SLOWLY growing:
It's a very easy, quick knit. But I'm not happy at all with the color/pattern combination. This seems to be a reoccuring problem with my socks lately. I think that this is going to be frogged soon. I don't know what it will be. But I'm thinking that the knit picks essential that I got a while ago may make a much better jaywalker.

I've been distracted the last few days with a new thing. I've been wondering what I can do to make some money off of this craft stuff I do and I've been thinking of setting up an etsy shop. But then my friend asked if I wanted to share a table with her at a craft fair (well, she asked everyone in our knitting group and I think I'm the only one who responded). I'm going to make a few felted bags that were a big hit at last year's charity auction. Here is one pre-felting. I got yarn to make 4 and I'm going to felt them all together. I made up the pattern a while ago but never wrote down the pattern so I hope I'm remembering it right. Maybe I should felt this one first to see if it looks ok before I make 3 more.
I'm also going to make some home made dog biscuits from the left over grain from my sweetie's beer making, some felted dog toys, some cat toys (maybe), and I'm going to try to make up a wristlet pattern. The wristlet patter will be tough since it requires a zipper and I'm not so great at putting zippers in. The craft fair is October 16th so I'll be busy crafting until then.

HSKS 3 Quiz

Please excuse the randomness of this post. This is to win points for the Ravenclaws in the Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap 3.

1. Who is the Hogwarts teacher that Voldermort performed the Avada Kedavra curse on in Deathly Hallows?

b. Charity Burbage

2. Who replaces the Muggles studies teacher in Deathly Hallows?

c. Alecto Carrow

3. When Harry meets Mr. Olivander for the first time, which wand law is introduced?

c. The wand chooses the wizard.

4. According to Mr. Ollivander, what is not necessary to take true possession of another wizard's wand?

a. to kill the owner

5. If you know anything about Harry Potter, you will know that Harry's Patronus is a stag. But what is his best friend Ron Weasley's Patronus?

d. Jack Russell Terrier

6. Now for the third member of the trio. What form does Hermione Granger's Patronus take?

a. Otter

7. What did Mrs. Wealey make to eat the first night that Harry arrived at Grimmauld Place?

a. Stew

8. In book 5, at the start of term feast, what is Ron eating when trying to talk to Nearly Headless Nick?

c. Roast potato

9. A half-giant called Rubeus Hagrid takes you to Diagon Alley for the first time. To get there, you go into the courtyard of a pub called the Leaky Cauldron. There, Hagrid taps a certain brick on the courtyard wall three times with his pink umbrella, revealing the entrance to Diagon Alley. As he decides which brick to tap, he mutters instructions to himself. What instructions does he mutter?

b. ‘Three up... two across

10. The first place you go in Diagon Alley is Gringotts bank, where you can withdraw money from your vault and Hagrid can withdraw a top-secret package from Vault No. 713 on Dumbledore’s orders. On the second set of doors leading into the bank you notice a poem written. These are the first two lines:
Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
What is the next line?

d. ‘For those who take, but do not earn

And the pictures:
Rolanda Hooch

Firenze

Argus Filtch

Moaning Myrtle

Colin Creevy

Karma

A few minutes after my post where I pretty much said I was happy to have my sweetie out of the house for the day I got a call from my sweetie saying he was delayed for a few hours at the airport and would be getting in around 1130 instead of 930. I figured that was bad karma getting me back for saying I was happy to be alone for a while. So, I punished myself and did laundry and dishes instead of knitting. Now I'm just too tired to knit. I hope that puts the karmic world back in order for me. I'm going to try to nap before I need to leave for the airport (I've been up since 4am cause I drove my sweetie to the airport this morning). A day without knitting is just a sad sad sad day!

A letterboxing I will go. . . or not.

I had grand plans for today. My sweetie is up in Massachusetts for a job interview and I have the house back for the day. Which means I can play on the computer, watch whatever I want, and do whatever I want all day longer. Yeah, I always miss him when he's gone, but whenever I'm home lately, he's home and he loves the history channel and book TV (yes, book TV. . . SNORE). I decided with my day alone I would watch silly TV shows, maybe even a chick flick, and do some letterboxing stuff. Letterboxing is a pretty cool (if not somewhat dorky) thing that I think I will really enjoy. There are clues on a website as to where boxes are hidden. Most of them are in parks which is why I'm interested cause I think it will give me new places to walk the dogs and maybe make me walk a little longer on the trails to find a box. Anyway, you find this box and inside is a journal and a stamp. You carry with you a journal and a personal stamp. You take your stamp and stamp the box's journal then you stamp your journal with the box's stamp.

The first step was to design my own stamp and carve it and come up with a trail name. I thought about using something like a ball of yarn and needles, but it just didn't seem to go well with the whole outdooriness of letterboxing. I figured maybe I'll do something about the dogs since I'll be doing this with them. I spent the morning designing and carving my stamp:
Then I looked up a nearby clue. There was one in the park I always walk the dogs in. I decided to leave the dogs at home for this first hike since I wanted some photo documentation of this first letterboxing attempt and I didn't have a good hiking bag (I have a specific one in mind that I want) so there would have been way to much to try to shove into my pockets and juggle with the 2 dog leashes. I headed out to the park all by myself. It's one of my favorite parks in the area because there is a big pond and they have these floats just for the turtles to sunbath themselves on:
Aren't they adorable! I go on the little hike, it was only a 1 mile trail so it didn't take too long. And I found the tree the box was hidden in pretty easily. But. . .
NO BOX!!!! I was pretty upset and, needless to say, I was a little disappointed:
So then I drove around town looking for this specific bag that I wanted for when I do a REAL letterboxing trip (the other ones in the area are on 5 mile routes so I want to be able to carry water, journal, pen, stamp, ink pad, and pups!) Of course I couldn't find what I wanted. So, again rather disappointed, I head home. I get home around 330. I was chilling for a little bit, watching a little TV for about 10 minutes when I realize Coopers muzzle was swollen. I go to take a closer look and decide it's vet worthy. By the time I made it to the vet it had spread to his eye and his eye was swollen shut. He got an antihistamine and an anti inflammatory shot and then had to stay for observation for a while. He's doing much better now. Now I've got 2 and a half hours left in my sweetie-less day. I think I'm going to watch Friends and whatever other sitcoms are on that he hates and knit like crazy (I haven't knit a stitch yet today and it's 6 at night!!)

My knit-tastic day

HILL COUNTRY YARN SPOILER: there will be pictures of my September HCY sock club shipment at the end of this post.

Yesterday was one of those almost perfect days that I rarely see! I had to go to Richmond for a bridal shower (which is about 90 minutes or so away). I figured since I'm up there I'll got to an old friend of the family's new gelato shop but he wouldn't be around until after 4. So, I mapped out a few yarn stores and hit the road! I left for the shower but got there about 20 minutes early so I sat in the car and knit (this will be important later). I went to the shower at the Jefferson Hotel (where the stairway scene of Gone with the Wind was filmed.) It was a great time but only lasted from 10-12. I thought it would go until 2 and I would only have 2 hours to kill, instead I had 4. The best thing that happened in the whole shower was the soon to be mother-in-law of my friend told me I have first dibs on her future alpaca fleece! She has yet to get any alpaca but is planning on getting 2 for her ever expanding farm.

So, the party ends and with my directions in hand I head out to the first yarn store. It was only a few blocks away in the Carytown section of Richmond. The Yarn Lounge. And what a lounge it was!!! First off, let me set the mood for you. I'm driving around and find Carytown, a cute artsy, alternative, part of town. I always FREAK out about parking in cities cause I DO NOT parallel park. I didn't see any parking lots. I get to the block the store should be on and there is one free spot. There was no choice but to parallel park. Usually if my option is parallel park or skip the store, I skip the store! But, look at what I do for the love of yarn:
Yes, that is my boat of a car, parallel parked and not too badly, if I do say so myself!! That traumatic experience behind me, I trek on to the yarn lounge. I walk into the store and there is gorgeous yarn in lots of little cubbies lining the walls of the long narrow store. In the very back of the store are lots of little IKEA chairs and couches to hang out and knit on. And in the middle of the store is a large wooden table with about 8 chairs around it. 5 of which are filled with people knitting. And here's the conversation:
Me: oh, is this a class?
Them: No, we're just knitting
Me: Fun, I have my knitting in the car maybe I should join
Them: Sure, that would be great
Me: running out to car to get yarn!!
I sat with the ladies and worked on my Jaywalker sock for about 2 hours or so. Then did some shopping. In the 2 hours of knitting. I knit about 7 or 8 rows and realized that I had made a mistake in the 20 minutes I did while waiting for the shower to start. I had to frog back past the mistake row and then realized I needed to go back one more row so I had to tink that row. It took forever!! But by the time I started shopping I had at least gotten back to the place I was before I frogged. Speaking of my Jaywalkers:
Isn't it cute! The yarn is Apple Laine, Apple Pie from the Loopy Ewe. The color is English Garden. I got it when I ordered the yarn for my HSKS 3 partner (it shouldn't be giving anything away since the loopy ewe sells about everything!

What about my stash enhancement from the yarn lounge. . . well, I really tried to be good and I think I did a pretty good job. I no longer buy yarn cause it feels good. I buy it with a particular project in mind. I recently got the One Skein book and really wanted to make the baby bolero (although I have no babies to give it to. . . it will sit around the house as an emergency baby present). I got yarn for that, Blue Sky Dyed Cotton in a very light green.
And then I got some sock yarn, Fleece Artist basic merino sock.
I can always find something to do with sock yarn and I always know just how much to buy to make a pair of socks.

That was it for that yarn store and I was off to the next. Unraveled. Now, the Yarn Lounge was a very hard act to follow. I mean really, it was the perfect knitting store experience. Unraveled was in the same shopping plaza as my friend's gelato shop, which was rather convenient. It's in a suburban outskirts of Richmond. I walked in and it was very pleasing to the eye because the yarn was arranged by color. . . all oranges together, all purples together, etc. But it was not so easy to shop in. I was trying to find some vegan yarns for my secret pal and I had a hard time digging through the wools of a certain color to find the vegan yarn and then having to take it across the store to compare it with another color of the same yarn. I did wind up getting two skeins of vegan yarn for my pal. But I didn't get anything for myself. Oh, and the sock yarn was just sad. They had 4 or so types, each in only one color.

I finish up there and meet up with my friend at DeLuca Gelato. If you are ever in Richmond, Virginia I HIGHLY recommend it. I had cannoli flavored gelato with bits of cannoli shell and little mini chocolate chips. It was fantastic!! I hope that they do very well.

I hung out at the gelato shop for about an hour and then started the drive home. When I was about 20 minutes away from home I get a call from my sweetie to see if I want to go out to dinner with some people from the bridal shower. Of course I did since our good friend Pamela was in town from Hotlanta for the night and I only get to see her every few months. I walk in the door and say hi to the pups then turn around and leave for dinner with my sweetie. I grabbed the mail out of the mailbox on the way out and there was a package for me. My September Hill Country Yarns sock club shipment. Good thing this post is so long so I can post a picture but give fair warning to anyone who hasn't gotten their shipment yet. So, are you ready for the last of my yarny goodness for this post? Here goes, Hill Country Yarns color periwinkle:
It's gorgeous. I was just discussing with someone how much I want more semisolid sock yarn. And the pattern looks just precious. I can't wait to start it. I've got too many socks on the needles now though. I really have to finish some of my big projects so I'm not so stressed about my knitting.

That's the end of my knit-tastic day (actually my night went until about 2am when I had to DRAG my sweetie away from our friends cause I was the DD and I just couldn't stay awake any longer.

Stitch Marker Contest winners

I posted comments on the winner's blogs, but just in case you happen to check here, the winners are:

Betty
Lesley
Auntlyh

The markers will get out in the mail as soon as I get your addresses. My contact info is in your comments but I have been having gmail problems so please leave me a comment if your e-mail is bounced back to you.

So, today was a fun little day for me. I went to Office Max to get ink for our printer. We have not had a working printer in over 3 years because we just haven't needed it. We print out everything at work. But, being jobless we have to print out our stuff at home. I was getting tired of copying patterns into my notebook and inevitably making a mistake and getting very frustrated. We have no where to set up the printer, it will just have to sit on the floor while we print things. Anyway, trips to Office Max are almost as good as trips to the yarn store for me. I have an absolute obsession with office supplies. For no reason at all I have a million packages of post its, 2 million notebooks, and a cagillion writing utensils.

So, after that trip I went to Dillard's to get a bridal shower present for a friend's bridal shower that is this weekend and something to wear to the shower. I HATE HATE HATE clothes shopping cause I've seemed to gain a crapload of weight lately.

I was so upset by this clothes shopping that I had to go to a new yarnish store. Colonial Fiber Arts. There was very little yarn. It's more of a spinning/weaving store with roving, looms, and wheels for sale. I got a few little goodies for my swap partners. I also walked out with their schedule and I really want to take their intro to weaving class. Not that I need another hobby, but I've been fascinated by weaving lately.

Then I came home and sat on my hammock and knitting while playing fetch with Trapper. It was great for about 30 seconds until the hoards of mosquitoes found me. I managed to stay out there for about an hour but then I just couldn't stand it and I was worried all the dead mosquitoes on my fingers might start staining my yarn (oh the joys of living by the water in VA).

Fawkes are finished!

I've decided I've had enough of my knitting ADD. I'm going to finish some projects. I've got too much going on and I can't concentrate on anything. I think it's the same as when my house is messy I just can't seem to calm down until I clean it. My knitting world is very messy with all my projects. So, I barreled through it last night and finished the Fawkes socks:
Pattern: Fawkes
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM Color P803
Needles: US2 DPNs
Pattern alterations: I got gauge on US1 but I couldn't get the sock past my heel so I had to frog it and reknit it on US2. It's still tighter than I'd like but I can get it on my foot now! The leg was very short so I added an extra pattern repeat, even with the extra repeat it's still a little shorter than I'd like. But I wound up with very little yarn left over so I'm glad I'd didn't try to do another repeat.

Here's a shot of the foot detail:
I think I'll work on the August Mystery Sock. The last clue isn't up yet so I can't get too much further along. And when I do finish it I'm going to want to cast on another sock cause otherwise I would have no socks on my needles (oh the horror!) I do have some sock yarn on it's way from The Loopy Ewe and from the Hill Country Sock Club so maybe I'll wait for those to get here.

Super Secret Project #2 is going to take far longer than I expected. It's much more complicated than I thought and will start to take up a lot of my time. I'm also still working on my sweetie's sweater and an Irish hiking scarf. I have to make some serious progress on one of the projects soon!

And some very good news. . . Our house is under contract now. I don't know if I've mentioned that in the last week. We still have to get through the home inspection and stuff before anything is set in stone. And we still have to find jobs. We're not closing until the end of October so we still have some time. If October 1st rolls around and my sweetie still doesn't have a job, that's when a serious freak out will occur!

Other good news. . . After my bottle of wine the bag I made still looks pretty damn good to me! I made another one yesterday for my other swap partner. I'm going to make a couple for me in my thirties reproduction fabrics cause the bag is just too cute and perfect for small projects.

Friends don't let friends drink and sew!

My sweetie (that's what I've decided to call my husband on my blog) and I have been spending the labor day holiday smoking meat and hanging out with our dogs. Not very exciting to most, but very fun for a couple who have lots of hanging out time to catch up on after a year of my sweetie being in Iraq. Today we seemed to have forgotten about the fact that we are jobless by drinking massive amounts of beer and wine. My sweetie spent the day grilling what I'm sure will be an amazing dinner of brisket and I spent the day sewing. In case you didn't know, sewing and drinking don't go well together. I'm currently on my last glass of wine from MY bottle (my sweetie has his beer) and I just finished posting on some ravelry stuff (those are probably very interesting) after finishing my second bag for the day. I'm making sock knitting bags or small project bags. I made one for myself which came out fantastic (although my sweetie's comment was "it looks like something anyone with the slightest bit of sewing talent can make", he almost got slapped!) Then I started one for my HSKS 3 pal. It started out fantastic then as the glasses of wine started disappearing I seemed to poke my finger more often and pinned things to the wrong surface. I finished it and ran around the house singing songs saying I was the sewing goddess and these bags will someday be sold on etsy and pay the bills! Tomorrow, when I sober up, I'll find out just how fantastic these bags are and see if the second one I made is truly worthy of my HSKS pal (who happens to be a master bag maker!). I did have enough common sense to wait until tomorrow to work on the one for my secret pal 11, who will also receive one of these bags! No pictures, sorry but I have to keep it a surprise for my pals!

Thanks to everyone who entered my contest so far. There's still time, you have until 6 Tuesday night.