Saturday, May 23, 2009

I seem to have developed a fair amount of luck lately. Today I found out that I had won a blog contest for some of the new Spud and Chole yarn on Knit One School Two. Can't wait to see it I've been hearing so much about this new yarn from Blue Sky Alpacas. I'm sure it will be wonderful and promise to post pictures on the blog as soon as it comes in.

This is the fourth blog contest I've won in the last several months. First was a copy of Charmed Knits and a hat from Alison of the Blue Blog. Then it was a copy of Fiber Gathering from Cindy Moore who is a friend of mine on Facebook (sorry Cindy I can't find your blog address). Next came some funny gift tags from Knitterella who has truly lovely gift tags for sale check out her blog and website. I honestly don't know what to say. Before this I had a fairly unbroken record of losing every contest I enter.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Hello all. Sorry it's been so long since I posted. I keep telling myself that I need to make a blog entry and other things get in the way an suddenly more than two weeks goes by.

DS is home for the holiday weekend but I have to work for much of it, it's a big sale for us so all three of us in the department have been scheduled this weekend. However I will probably not go in on Sunday so we can have a family BBQ. I discussed it with one of my co-workers and he thought it was dumb for me to come in anyway. We don't need three people and I have some days coming to me.

On the knitting front I have been busy. I am working on Branching Out and should be done with it well in time for my friend's birthday. Here's a picture courtesy of my new camera:














I am also working on a pair of socks for myself out of some Kroy sock yarn from my stash. I am using Charlene Schurch book Sensational Knitted Socks for the pattern. Here's a photo of that:

As you may be able to see from the photo I am still using four DPN's to knit them. One day I will conquer using 2 circ's but for now this method is working for me so I continue to use it.

I've been hanging around the Cuppa Tea group on Ravelry and just had some fun with their traveling tea box. A large box goes around stuffed to the brim with tea and goodies. When it reaches you, you take out what you like and add some more. It arrived yesterday and I got it mailed off this afternoon so I get the Hot Potato award from the Moderator. More importantly I got some yummy tea and goodies for myself and DD (who I cannot get interested in knitting but is as stuck on tea as I am)

Secret Pal 14 is still in the works. The blog for it should be up and running very soon, I will link to it when it goes live.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Thanks to all the kind people who sympathized with me over the loss of our little furry friend. We still miss him and had intended to wait some time before getting another pet but an opportunity fell into our lap. After we were done saying goodbye to poor little Midnite, our Vet gently asked us if we might be interested in a little guinea pig she had up for adoption. A family had brought him in to be put down because he had a small cyst on his neck. She was horrified and told them that if they didn't want him she would take the responsibility of taking off the cyst and find him a home. Well after a week of thinking about it we decided to take him home with us. It has not been easy to see another animal in Midnite's cage but we feel good about giving him a home. He's a little skittish, and not as cuddly as Midnite. Probably the people who had him before didn't handle him much and he's not used to it. So we are being patient with him and trying to tame him down by giving him extra attention.

On the knitting front I've started Branching Out for my friend Sally's Birthday. It's in early July so I have plenty of time to get it done. It's an easy pattern and I am having fun with it. Progress photos to follow.

Secret Pal 14 is in the planning stages. It should be open for sign ups in June. I will be a hostess this round and am taking the job of posting Twitter updates (when there are any to post). When we have a blog up and running I will post a link here. In the meantime you can join the Secret Pal 14 group on Ravelry to keep up. If you want to follow the updates on Twitter follow secretpal14.

Got some yummy tea in the mail today. I discovered this seller on Ravelry where Troy is a member of the Cuppa Tea group as I am. He'd mentioned a tea that he was drinking and it sounded interesting so I asked where he got it and found out that he sells tea and does mail order. I ordered his Cinnamon Toddy and some Jasmine Green tea, smells wonderful. He also kindly included a couple of samples for me to try. I am nearly as obsessed with tea as I am with my knitting. I've a good sized tea stash. Usually my favorite is the one I am drinking at the time :).

One of the historical societies in my town runs a Sheep to Shawl festival on the first Sunday in May each year. For a long time I kept saying I wanted to go and never seemed to make the time for it. This year, despite the fact that it was raining I went. Not all that much to see since it's a small operation but what I did see was interesting. There were some spinners there and they invited me to come to their Guild meetings so I could learn more. I think I will take them up on the invite especially since they set aside time before the main meeting starts for socializing and teaching. As you may remember I've been trying to spindle spin and not had much success with it. I found out on Sunday that part of the reason was that I didn't have the roving prepared properly. I tried doing what they said and it did go a bit better but I still would like some hands on teaching, so if the next meeting is on a night when I am not working (and perhaps even it is on a work night, I do get a few personal days that I never seem to use) I'll go. The festival had some animals including a llama, a station where they had a rigid heddle loom, one where they had crocheters , one where some women were doing needle felting, one where a lady did some lovely bobbin lace, a craft that I've done in the past and two stations with spinning both by wheel and by spindle. Sadly, there were no knitters to be found and no fiber goodies to buy. You'd think that a sheep to shawl festival would have some yarny goodness around but unless you count the stuff on the spinners bobbins and spindles, plus the few examples of crochet, there were none. I did walk around the historical society's little antiques shop. I nearly bought a tea pot but I could see that it had had a piece broken off the top that had been inexpertly mended and for $75 gave it a pass.