Swap!

I received my Christmas Swap package yesterday!!!! It was chock full of goodies...most of which I was sorta thinking I needed and some of which I had no idea I needed so badly! :-)

I got some On Line sock yarn (Yay stripes!!!) in City? colorway, some Australian Merinos Lame', silver with metalic bits. So, so , so gonna make these into Rainy Day socks that will be "Snowy Day" socks! Also Andes wool...looks sport weight in a soft yellow and grey colorway....official color name? 08. K. That bag also contained some red and green Kool-Aid, presumably for dying up some Christmas yarn.....which I was actually considering doing. (how'd she know?)

Also. Two pair of holiday earrings....which I've been wanting because I got a cute holiday necklace and needed earrings! "Handmade by" tags. Didn't even know I needed them!!!!! So pumped about these. A beautiful gingerbread house ornament with family name, several sock patterns printed off for me, sweet snowman pin (to go with the earrings and necklace, ya know) and some absolutely gorgeous christmas stitch markers. Again, I had no idea how much I needed Christmas stitch markers but now I know.....and I have some!!!

Yay for Annise! She's da BOMB!!! (that's good, Mom. trust me.)

Got my shirt.

Knitting nerds unite!

Stitches East

Yesterday after work I met up with my friend Geraldine, my knitting sensei....the woman who taught me to knit!

G-dine in the yarn buffet that was Woolstock (there was even Noro in there!).

We drove from her place to Baltimore for Stitches East and really, really had fun. We were worried about onlyhaving 4 hours but I think it was just perfect. We saw most of everything and any more time would have forced me to....well let's just say I decided to feed my children this month instead.

My personal haul.

I was convinced by Geraldine to buy a bag of gorgeous roving simply because it was screaming my name from the corner of the booth. I do love it! All it says is "Wool" so I have no idea which type of sheep it's from. It's nice though. And don't worry, I paid G-dine back by talking her into a giant bag of yarn from Woolstock. It matched the shirt she was wearing perfectly! :-)

O.K., where was I? Oh yeah. Roving. Then, after wandering and drooling and talking myself out of so much yarn we hit Tess' Designer Yarns. I was a gonner. Giant hanks hung by color, and what amazing color! Silk, silk/wool blends, wool, etc, etc. It was a feast for the eyes...and hands. Then I stumbled on her sock yarn table. Crap!

The amazing wonders of Tess' sock yarn table.

I don't know who this woman is but God gifted her with some amazing color sense! I had an armful before I knew what I was doing. At only $15 a skein (450 yards), who can argue? I managed to pry some out of my hands and only bought 3 skeins. I kept chanting tomyself, "I can go online, I can go online, I can go online..." It was my favorite, though the Blue Moon booth was a sock yarn-stravaganza as well. I managed to refrain there. Geraldine bought me some Regia silk-blend sock yarn at the Webs booth so I'm all stocked up on sock yarn now! Not bad for a chick who, this time lastyear, didn't own a single skein of sock yarn.

So. I took cards from booths but only the ones that looked really interesting. And for your browsing pleasure, here they are:

www.tessdesigneryarns.com (the beeeest!)

www.woolstock.com (not impressed by the site, but the prices are good)

www.NeighborhoodFiberCo.com

http://www.kidhollow.com/

http://www.hempforknitting.com/

http://www.windyvalleymuskox.com/

http://www.dellysdelightsfarm.com/

www.weatherly-mize-designs.com (shawl pins)

www.justouryarn.com (nice kits)

http://www.dancingleaffarm.com/

I haven't checked all the sites yet but I figure that'll keep you busy a while.I'm trying to think of all the different vendors you'd be interested in. Blue Moon was there, Webs was there (were there?),

A small corner of the WEBS booth.

the big vendors were there (Cascade, SWTC, Skacel..) but they couldn't sell, only promote. Individual booths carried their stuff. Jojoland was there! Everybody was carrying Addis and Lantern Moon stuff. There wasn't a whole lot in the way of fiber or spinning stuff but there was enough to keep it interesting for the spinner. Like that giant shelf of "pick your own" batts sold by the ounce. You ripped off what you wanted and they weighed it. Too fun!

rip it and weigh it....mix and match

I plan on checking out some other conferences as they come along so I can compare them for you. 'Cause, you know, you never know when you'll be on the East Coast, eh?

So. How's that for TMI?

Enjoy!

-Teresa

It's a good thing.

I did it! I finished my first pair of wool socks just for me!!!! Am I somehow more fulfilled? Is my life more complete? Are my feet somehow happier...more secure in the knowledge that they'll be toasty this Winter? I'm gonna have to go with a, "YES!" on that one.
It's all good.

Two socks on two circs rocks! I love knowing for sure they're the same length and I love, love, love not looking at one finished sock and thinking, "OMG, I've got to do that all over again now."

(Yes, I do have wide feet. It's true. I'm o.k. with that.)


It didn't save any time to do them both at once. It's just a mental thing.

Please be aware that I know this color was totally wrong for this pattern. From now I will listen to the crowd when it comes to hand-dyed sock yarn (I dyed this myself). Some patterns....o.k. most patterns...just don't do it justice. And vice-versa. You can't see the pattern at all in these and the colors look muddy until you get to the plain stockinette foot....where they are fabulous!
Live and learn.

Say hallo to my leetle friend....

This is it. What started out life as a frog has ended up as a pig. On a swing. I'm not sure how that works out in an evolutionary sense but I am so tickled with how this turned out! I'm sure future pigs will have larger heads. I'm unclear as to why this one ended up so small, but it somehow adds to the pig this time. We'll see how future ones turn out.

The Right Reverend (my DH) felt like the handles should work into the overall effect on all my purses so we came up with the swing idea. I thought it was overkill at first but now I love, love, love it! The rope is actually tied on the swing through grommets. How cute is that?

It has a cute curly-que tail too but that's for it's Mama's eyes only! :-)
In an homage to my favorite knitting e-zine I've decided this pig should be called "Percy". You know......'purse-y'. Go Knitty !!! A more perfect name there could not exist.

I won't make any promises, but I'm pretty sure I'll be making one of these to KEEP someday soon!

Hamster's attack!

After doing some contemplating, I decided to branch out and modify the bags a bit.

After some adjustments...

I ended up with a very, very cute hamster!


She even has a cute teeny-tiny tail!!!


Not much in the way of knitting these days. One obsession at a time, please.
Meanwhile, a small snaffoo on a frog is, I believe, leading to yet another sock-creature. Update later.

Knitting On the Wagon Train

I was able to knit some on the first leg of our moving saga...the part where Todd drove a UHaul for 2 days and I rode beside him. After that it was mostly a stressful blurr until about a week after our second arrival here with kids in tow.

I attempted several things on that first part of the trip. A lacy scarf (La Belle Dentelle), a lace stole (Sea and Shells Stole) and 2 socks on 2 circs (Hourglass Eyelet). I learned some important things. First of all, our knitting fore-sisters who knit on their journey west on those wagons....they did NOT knit lace. Not with lace-weight yarn anyway. There is no chance. It was impossible in the UHaul. The scarf in sock-weight wasn't too bad but that lace-weight... arg! Second, I think I like the 2 socks at a time idea. I haven't turned a heel yet but it's looking like I'll be using this method again.

Here's La Belle in process:







She's going slowly but I'm enjoying it.