Halfway Down the Stairs

Gusto or Stealth?
(or the linky post)

All right, so this is a day or two delayed. If you followed my link the other day you will have seen that I told Limedragon that I admired her gusto in breaking the yarn diet. I, myself, tend to do it rather stealthily. So stealthily as a matter of fact that all of these have managed to sneak their way into my house in the last month or so!

First we have Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks Mohair-Merino (55/45) sock yarn from Crown Mountain Farms in Merlot. Alongside of that is Dicentra Superwash Wool-Nylon (75/25) in Eomund - also ordered from Crown Mountain Farms. So yummy.

Next we have Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Daffodil off of ebay.

and from the Loopy Ewe I ordered some Fleece Artist ever-so-squooshy Nova Socks in Blue Lagoon. Also from Loopy All Things Heather semi-solid superwash merino in Scarlet (I am in search of the perfect red - this appears a little orange/blazey on my monitor.) She sends such cute little goodies in her bag, with a really sweet note that really personalizes the transaction. I know that I will reach that discount point before I know it because I really want to give her my business.


Lastly, but not leastly, I hit Posh Yarn on their sale Wednesday. I am impressed with how quickly I received this skein of Helena in Babyface. Their website is actually down until the New Year.

All of these yarns are being counted up for the L&V Sock Marathon 2007. I like my chances, how about you? I actually still have a couple of stragglers still in the post (one from e-bay, the other is my Lisa Souza Violet's Pink Ribbon.)

Today I brewed up some barbeque sauce for the meatballs on Sunday and the rest of the weekend is cleaning flurry to if I don't make it back before Christmas. Season's Greetings to you all!

WIP's, FO and GUSTO! (ha ha - see that, I have made the veritable internet ring!)

Today is going to be a day of many photos - I will break it down in multiple posts.

First - List update:

and the WIP's! (Pay no attention to the fact that I have totally skipped over the Debbie Bliss cardi...have I mentioned how much I hate seaming?)

The Banff sleeves:

These are going on and on and on and on - it is going to be one cozy sweater though.

The S'more Slippers. I am debating another round in the washing machine, I'd like to see if they'll felt another little bit.


And just because I can't stand to NOT be knitting socks - I cast these on - the design is inspired by this (Phineas) pattern that I found through the LimeNViolet message board. (Mine are cuff down and I've messed around with the pattern to fit my stitches (60 on #1 Knitpicks Options dpns.) I am using the ever so lovely STR Jingle Bell Rock Lightweight yarn.

Lest we forget, here is the FO! Peek!

This is the Dream Swatch by Wendy Bernard (who has a very charming blog). I plan on wearing this at the Outlaw family Christmas (which will be held on New Years at the cabin). I bought the yarn off an etsy store called Lux2night.

I think it's charming.

Gusto! is coming in part deux.

Today, We are the Proud Mama...

For those of you lulled to sleep by Hockey talk? You can ignore me for the day, because I will be bragging quite blatantly about my hockey player for the rest of this post.

Okay, see this?

This was earned this weekend by Puck. His team is the "Little Team Who Could." They are not big kids but they sure played with all the heart in the world. They left their first tournament of the season with this:


Game 1: They won 2-1 in an Olympic style shoot off (Puck's best friend, Coach's son made the shoot-off winning goal). Be still my heart.

Game 2: Okay, our third, fourth and a couple fifth graders are dwarfed by these boys. (This is a non-contact league). The first thirty seconds one of their kids lowered his shoulder and pasted one of our little guys. Their League Commissioner told one of our parents to "teach our kids to skate" and to "shut up" - nice, huh? He didn't just tell her, he yelled at her from the top of the bleachers. Uch - it was ugly. Want to know what made it beautiful? Our kids scored and held them scoreless until the last minute and a half of the game. They scored to tie it up with 45 seconds left in the game. Puck's best friend (Coach's son), picked up the puck in front of their goal, raced down the ice past his dad who yelled "Win this game Son!!!" Son took the shot, it flew behind their goalie's head, hit the corner post and went in as the horn blew!!! Holy Crap! They won the game 2-1!!!!!!!! That meant they were in the Championship game. (We weren't far from home, but it's our only "out of town" tournament so we stayed at a hotel in Otsego with a fantastic water park and those kids were out of their minds!)

Game 3: Okay, I have to say that we were just grateful the kids made it to that last game. We never would have thought they could do it. They're just a very young Squirt C team, they've only played two games this year and they were 1-1 going into the tournament. They went out and both teams were scoreless the first period. Then in the second period, Puck, our Puck made his very first hockey goal (ever!!) to bring the score to 1-0. It was a beautiful thing. They tied it up in the beginning of the third period, which our team quickly answered in the following thirty seconds with another goal. Little Puck managed to keep them from scoring again with a very strategic back check and our rather undersized little team skated off the ice with the Championship today!!!

All right. Next post will be back to knitting as there really is quite a lot of it going on here - just have to work on the finishing part.
Mwah!

Today we have a Christmas Treat from my SP9 Pal!

This is one serious gift-giver. Can you believe she sent me all these goodies - and I have to laugh at the combination of sweet (snowmen) and sour (CANDY!).

How cool is it to open a box and see this?


I was the proverbial kid under the Christmas tree - by the time I was done I had a nice mound of torn up paper. My Grandma's would have been horrified - you save the paper and bows, don't you know?




Puck has run on with the Peeps and the jelly beans are somehow gone already. Thank you so much pally!

Thank Goodness for Podcasts!

They are allowing me to knit away while still entertaining me!

See the list? I am soon to cross one more thing off of it!


See also the recycled silk purse? This was the easiest thing to sew together, but the knitting did hurt my fingers. ETA: Oops! This pattern is Unbiased from Knitty

I also received a yum-a-licious package from my SP9 Swap Pal - treats, treats and treats! Photos will come tomorrow, I'm actually hoping to have another project finished by tomorrow!

I imagine anyone that reads my blog (all half dozen of you!), is also aware of The Heathen Housewife, but she posted a request for leftover yarn for a bear knitting project. I e-mailed the lady involved and I am sending her a box of yarn ends this weekend. Check it out! It's knit bears for kids! Bears. Kids. How can you resist?

I was going through old files tonight and I found this photo that I took of Puck in Washington DC. Click to see the big, because I love my amateur photography in this one.

A Quickie this Morning

Over at She Shoots Sheep Shots Gale has done some research on Sock Yarn Clubs - Many good links all in one post. Check it out!

The List, she is progressing...

All of you who doubted me - behold:These are "More Fun Than Cables" from Stitches of Violet. I managed to knit these from a skein of Lisa Souza's Can't-Elope in Sock! Merino. Note: I had enough yarn to finish these without frogging the too-small Conwy. I wore them yesterday and they are comfy as can be.

My second FO is the Arrow Lace Socks from the 2007 Knitting Calendar (note: I do have some errata in the toe - the have you knitting on 24 and 30 stitches when you get to the toe so you need to make a few decreases to even out the stitches). However, these socks knit up very quickly and really, how can you go wrong with Socks that Rock? This colorway is Nodding Violet.



These are still blocking for the wearing next week.

I was lurking and looking for some Vespers sock yarn yesterday, but I missed out because we had a hockey game! Puck's team won 2-1. I have to tell you, they are enforcing stricter penalties this year and it was really tough on the Puckster yesterday. The coaches hadn't yet spoken to the kids about the new rules and five minutes into the game he got called for hooking. He wasn't playing any differently than he ever has, the refs are just calling the penalties much tighter. He wasn't back on the ice for more than three minutes, and they called him again!! I looked across the ice and his little ten year old face was beet red with the struggle not to cry. He had no idea why they were calling the penalties on him! So, coach leaned around the glass to talk to him and he was okay for most of the rest of the game. Middle of the third period, boom! they call hooking on the poor guy again! (The difference is you can put your stick underneath your opponent's stick, but not over the top.) If any one player gets called for hooking four times, he is removed from the game. These are not infractions that result in anyone getting hurt, he's not even touching the body of the other child. So - six minutes of penalties and he doesn't even know why, or how NOT to get the penalties. It was crazy. His team did learn that they play an amazing short-handed game. Seriously, the puck spent 75% of the game on the other team's ice. So, enough hockey talk. I missed the Vesper (sigh).

Back to the list.

Today I thank my Coffee Swap Pal!

I sat down to do this right away this morning, but I became sidetracked by the new Knitty. (Exasperated sigh!)

However, I'm back now, so I must say thank you Abigail, thank you!

So yesterday, I scurried into the house (because it was FREEZING here in Minnesota yesterday), with a package from my front step. I opened it up to see this:


I had to pause for just a moment in awe. The first thing I took out was these, and I could only think: Mittens! (Did I mention? FREEZING!)

Then, I dug into these:


Yum! (crunch. crunch. crunch...) Then of course, there was more! Did I mention yesterday how sock-happy I have become? Abigail knit 36 pairs last year. I now have a goal to shoot for, and she helped me out with this:


A perfect color for me! This is the Rennaissance colorway, and I took the picture last night and it was dark so it's really hard to see the colors, but this is awesomely blue and red and purple with a little bit of green. Then, finally, the treasure that got me very excited because I have never been able to pick up two skeins of this and decide which color I wanted!!! Some Koigu KPPM!! In an amber/toffee colorway. Such socky goodness for me!


But that was not all, there was coffee, of course! Biscotti, shortbread, an adorable cup and a cute little postcard from Arizona!!!!


After seeing the mayhem that a few bad apples have caused over on the Yarn Ahoy 2 swap, I have to say, I find myself incredibly lucky in the two swaps I am currently in. But this? Totally made my week! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

Peace.

Today, I am one lucky SP9 Recipient...

Seriously, my pal, Just Me has been so great to me, and I have no idea who she is, or where she lives - I only know she has a connection that is local to me (unless she's fibbing and it's really her address).

Anyway, yesterday (or was it Tuesday?), I got this little envelope with these cute stickers (I am a scrapbooker as well as a knitter, after all, so totally appropriate), and this little soap that is crazy in it's awesome cuteness! Thank you so much Just Me!

I am going to town on my list from the other day and I will have an update tomorrow, with pictures and everything! I also have some yarn erotica to share. I could not resist Lime 'n Violet's Christmas Gift-Giving Extravaganza List. Mmmm. I am going to be knitting socks for all of 2007.

Well, to top it off, I just hopped over to the L&V website and Lisa Souza has come up with a new colorway to help support Violet during her medical trials and tribulations. Check it out. Violet's Pink Ribbon is what it is called.

Today we are starting the "Knitting To-Do" List

This is what I want to complete before the end of 2006. Whattaya think? I just have to Kitchener the 2nd Can't-elope sock and that will be checked off. But there will be no casting on until these are ALL checked off. I'm sewing up Debbie Bliss today. There is every possibility!

(sigh) There is hair coloring and cutting happening today.

Send good vibes to Ms. Violet over at Lime and Violet today, she's having a Very Bad Day (week? end of 2006?). Also, Ms. Yarn Pirate is updating her Etsy site on Saturday at 11 pst - her store empties out pretty quickly.

Today, we are decorating....

can we have a moment of silence, please, for my sanity.

CORRECTION: Today, we are spending three hours in the Urgent Care.

Because the 14 year old fell at the ski hill avoiding a small child standing at the top of the chairlift drop (grr) (he did not hurt the child).

He hit an ice patch and fell hard on his right knee.

He went to the First Aid station for ice.

They called me to take him to the Urgent Care/ER.

Three hours and one unbudgeted Xray later, we have a brace and crutches, a bruised bone, Chinese food instead of Pork Roast and mashed potatoes and a tree waiting to be decorated.

Sigh..the best laid plans... 17 years ago today I accepted the proposal of my dear man. He kneeled under our Christmas tree-to-be and offered me his hand and his ring. I love you honey!