Halfway Down the Stairs

Goodies!

I got my package from my International Notions Bag Exchange Pal today! Woot! There is a really cute little lined cotton zip bag (done very well!), Some Tofutsies, a cute sheepie card, a wee crochet hook and little heart rings, a foldable scissors and a sock needle holder and my favorite, a piggie tape measure (spider pig, spider pig...) and a magnet of the state of Iowa! Above and beyond!!! Thank you so much Antoinette! (http://oneblond.blogspot.com).

Did anyone else find themselves unable to stay away from the Loopy Ewe's sneak up last night?
(sigh)
At least it wasn't ALL sock yarn.

Stay tuned.

Also? Hate. Seaming.

My World is Green:

Again, very snaky-looking to me. For the rest of the week we are working on All Sweaters, All of the Time! (Finishing the Eyelet Cardi and sewing together Banff, then I am picking up the lovely violet Leafy Bolero from Knitty.) I think our next Project Spectrum color is purple, no?

This is Carolina, Queen of Naples in Yarn Ahoy's Retro Bleu colorway. Yarn Ahoy's on vacation until August 12 - but until then, Ruby Sapphire has added some new Treadsoft and Luster colorways. I'm kind of liking the Mykaela and the Brucie.

Carolina is a pattern from Gigi Silva over at Socktopia - you should really check out the library of sock patterns she has going over there at the Socktopia website. I think Nagini will be next on the needles (after the Week of Sweaters, of course).

We have recovered from the weekend of Lacrosse. Our 10-12 year olds played two games on Saturday and four games on Sunday - all in 90 degree + heat. They won game #1 10-0 (10:00 am on Saturday), game #2 15-0 (3 pm on Saturday). Then on Sunday they won game #3 10-2 (9:00 am), they won game #4 14-0 (1:00 pm) - handily winning their division. In the semi-finals they played the Wildcard seeded team (opponents from game #3) and won that game 7-2 (5:00 pm). So imagine these kids going into the Championship game at 7:00 pm on Sunday!! They won 5-2 playing the most exhausted Lacrosse I've ever seen. It was like these kids were running in molasses. (Puck had a serious meltdown after the trophy was awarded - way too tired). Lacrosse is done for the season so my boys are sleeping for as long as they want today.

Later, we are driving to the DMV to pick up the Learners' Permit. (Gulp.) If you don't hear from me tomorrow? Send out the Highway Patrol.

ETA: To those who wanted to know, the little bag pattern seems to be lost at the moment, but as soon as I find it, I will let you know what it is.

St. Croix Shootout Bay-bee!

That's where I'll be 'til Sunday night.
Have a great weekend everybody!

Wanna See My Notions Bag?

I love this little bag...It's going off to a swap pal tomorrow, but I am totally buying some more fabric to make a couple of these for myself. Easy peasy - love it! (It's stuffed with stuff too, yarny stuff even.)
Look - I even did a pretty zipper!
Eyelet cardi sleeves - off the needle tonight. Tomorrow we'll go buy some floss for finishing then we'll have the Banff and the Eyelet Cardi. In the meantime, I am three inches into the second snake sock.

Heh - check out Lime 'n Violet's Chore Wars - a gothy game!

Puck and I went to see The Transformers today - and for rockin' cartoon adventures - it kind of ruled! I have to admit, as a mom of two boys, I have a soft spot for the Transformers; there were many a weekday morning spent watching Optimus Prime and Megatron and his Deceptacons on TV. However - the teenage love (Megan Fox) interest in this movie was way too hot for even Puck to watch. He covered his eyes whenever she was on the screen with the teenaged boy character (Shia LeBeouf - seriously I think his last name means "the beef"?) But all in all - we both ruled the movie Excellent!

Peppermint BonBon & Wollmeise

I finished my first Carolina sock in the Yarn Ahoy - as I knit it reminds me of Peppermint BonBon ice cream, but now that it's done I'm not sure what is reminds me of. A snake? Anyway, I'm four inches into the second sock, but I'm not wild about this pair. The pattern is really easy, though.


My Loopy Ewe Wollmeise order came yesterday. So, so beautiful.

With the overcast sky yesterday, I managed to capture these colors pretty accurately on my computer screen. I'm excited to knit with this yarn, the texture is different from anything else I have in my stash. It almost looks like a cotton.

I've caved and made a doctor appointment to get the foot checked out tomorrow, but it's actually starting to feel better today. I don't have an aversion to doctors, I have an aversion to wasting time in doctor's waiting rooms.

I am sewing a notions bag for a Notions Swap I joined over here. I've got to have it ready to ship out by the end of the week. My sewing skills are quite rusty so wish me luck.

What Exactly Did I Do During My Yarn Diet?

You may well ask. Before I show you the proof of my Coldwater extravaganza, shall we list out the completed projects? Okay.

1. Roza's Socks from IK out of Yarntini
2. 1/2 of a pair of socks made from Lorna's Laces (this is my only single sock project).
3. Vesper Socks in the Crew colorway in the Mad Weave pattern
4. FLAIR
5. Charade Socks
6. STR Monsoon socks
7. Camisa
8. Cider Moon Socks
9. 1/2 Eyelet Cardigan(I'm on the sleeves)
10. Peppercorn Blend Socks
11. Sunkist Cardi
12. 1/3 Arches & Columns Scarf
13. Eleanor Socks

That's seven and a half skeins of sock yarn, 8 skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca, 5 skeins of Auraucania Cotton, 8 skeins of Bam Boo and 4 skeins of Andes Wool and one skein of lace yarn. Thirty three and half skeins - hmm - doesn't quite make up for this, does it?

14 skeins of this:
Queensland Lama Seta, mmm, it's silk and alpaca, and it was 30% OFF!!

This is the Kathmandu DK, ummm, silk, cashmere and merino? (Also, 30% off!) What can I say, somewhere there is a place for people like me. Just not sure what it's called. I now have 14 of those. Doesn't it look like cotton candy?


And, 7 of these blue babies - manos del uruguay. They were also 30% off - I could justify all of these only if I put myself back into purgatory for another 45 days - it may happen - only after my Loopy Ewe order gets here. I could not say no to the Wollmeise!!! (There are definitely gifts involved in this box.)

In real life business, I an now thoroughly crisped by the sun, 31 games of Lacrosse later...The tournament was a great success! The two EP 5/6 teams took 1st and 2nd place. The High School Sumer team (grades 10-12) defeated Eagan for their league Championship with the Teenager scoring the final goal of the game!!! Now this week is the big leadup to the Summer Lacrosse Finale - Puck is part of a Select 5/6 team that has entered a big tournament in Stillwater - the St. Croix Shootout. He has a team party on Monday and practice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. EP has their first game at 10 am next Saturday. Leagues put together all of their best players to compete in this tournament - so we're really hoping for a good showing. There is no knitting during Lacrosse games - way too much jumping up and shouting - so much of my knitting business will be done during the week.

However, I also did some serious damage to my ankle this weekend. Something to do with all that running around I was doing. All I know was I took a couple of running steps and something in my ankle went pop. Not serious enough to warrant a visit to the ER, but I will be calling my doctor in the morning because there is no way I can handle the treadmill, and that's a problem.

And that, my friends, is that.

Bloglines is Insane!

Seriously, blogs are popping up all over with 5-20 new posts. What is up with that?


So I know some of you have read elsewhere about a little shopping trip. I came out from behind my alias and met up with a couple other bloggers. (Yea, Guinifer is NOT my real name - when I signed up for this blog a really long time ago some people were concerned about axe murderers and stuff).

Anyway, Coldwater is having their big Sidewalk Sale and we shopped (well, I shopped, these guys just dabbled - seriously - three sweaters' worth)! Ha! I'm not even going to show you that today because my Cider Moon order came! But this? This is some seriously scrumptious hand-dyed loveliness from my new real-life friend Deb over at Wound Too Tight! Deb called this colorway "I Would Have Bought It Even During My Yarn Diet"! Yay - thank you so much Deb. Again, Knittahs Rule! Who else would bring presents to a Virtual Stranger? Send happy wishes to Deb who is getting ready to be invaded my her family soon.

Cider Moon's new Blizzard yarn in Pistachio:

And "Apple Crisp":
And I won the drawing for Best SP10 Pal and Robyn sent me two new sock patterns that I don't have (hard to believe - you should see my sock pattern notebook). I got Seize Diamondbacks by John Brinegar at www.yarnballboogie.com and Feather Pluckin' by Erin Vaughan at http://dorkybestfriend.typepad.com.

Other than the Elann.com email, the vendor emails have been slow this week. Probably a good thing? Huge Lacrosse tournament this weekend and next. Puck's 5/6 team did not make it to the Championships but the other two teams from EP are coming in strong so I'll be in the snack vendor booth at Flying Cloud - anybody wanna buy an Eagles Lacrosse tee-shirt?

Aaaaaah! This just feels so much better.....

Welcome to my stash, 1500 yards of Ultra Alpaca. Mmmmmm. Perhaps A Cardigan for Arwen? As a matter of fact, it felt so good that I was inspired.

Banff is blocking:
Camisa got crocheted:
Carolina, Last Queen of Naples grew a couple inches:
I even finished another part of the Eyelet Cardigan - no photos yet.

There is yarn coming from Webs in a week or so, but I really am progressing slowly. I am hoping to nab some Wollmeise when Sheri updates in a day or so, and I wouldn't mind a little Knitpicks order as well, but I may wait until the end of the month for the KP. However, all bets are off when I head over to Coldwater on Thursday for the sidewalk sale. I did some serious damage last year at their sale.

Preparing for Re-entry:

Well, at least my checkbook is preparing for re-entry into the yarn buying frenzy! Woo and Hoo!

Remember that Suri Merino I was sighing over? Well even at Webs the pricetag is steep. I need to find the perfect pattern and then it will be coming my way. In the meantime - I'll show you the replenishment as it appears - he, he.

The good news? This week Cider Moon has their Blizzard sock yarn 20% off - that is their sock yarn dyed on the Louet Gems blanks! It is on sale through July 20 (by the way, that is the sock yarn that should have been on my list, not that there's anything wrong with the Flurry - the louet is what I coveted.

Also, I received an e-mail yesterday from Jessica Thomaz of Yarntini glory - she and her husband have opened their own online store. So now I don't have to be stalking her all over the innernets! I can FINALLY get some Appletini without it being stolen straight out of my shopping cart!

Eleanor was completed yesterday.
Sorry about the backlighting, somehow the color doesn't get any better though. These will be good winter socks. I picked up another skein and cast on Friday before I left - that picture is up top. That yarn is from Yarn Ahoy at Etsy and I'm really liking how it's patterning already. This is the Retro Bleu colorway.

Remember Banff? I was working on this back in October. Well, I've picked it up and am nearly finished with both sleeves! I plan to finish this sweater this week before I cast on anything new! (Really, I promise!)


One last little piece of business (that was tongue in cheek, it's actually kinda huge)-


I got home from my week at the cabin last Monday and had a few emails giving me a heads up about this:
My virtual friend, Knittymama, has nominated me as a Rockin' Girl Blogger!! How awesome is that?

Now I'm supposed to pick five of my own and nominate them! My bloglines are at around 125 blogs, but these are the gals are near and dear to my heart.

Lorraine over at Of Faith & Fiber - cause she homeschools and man, I just couldn't handle the pressure - and she knits like a maniac and has a sense of humor about the whole darn thing. (You will find I value a sense of humor in a large way! Hmmm, along with run-on sentences. Lorraine - I may need an English writing refresher course - any of your kids available for teaching?)

Amy over at Knit Think - 'Cause not only does she rock Prince and the Slayer, she Walks with a Purpose. (She's funny too!)

Deb at Wound Too Tight is a newer "blog friend", and I have a feeling she's not going to let me get away with being shy. I love reading her daily examination of her life, and she's funny too! Not to mention, she kind of lives (almost) in my back yard. Frankly, I love anybody that'll give me hard time, and she started right away!

My friend Mia over at Knit & Play with Fire has already been nominated, I think, but I'm gonna nominate her again 'cause she's one of my heroes. Not only does she knit, she fights fires and is a great cook on top of it all. And I still owe her some yummy sock yarn 'cause she gifted me when I was dieting, and well, we all need to keep friends like that, don't we?

Rani over at Raniknits is in my backyard too. She's only been blogging since February and that girl is getting it done with a vengeance. She's taught herself to knit socks and dye with Kool-aide and generally kicking b*** and taking names (while still MAKING ME LAUGH!)

Now, I could also list Chris and Jeanne and Mary and Deb and Harriet and Megan, 'cause they deserve it too - but I'm gonna leave some of the Rockin' girls for the rest of you to nominate!

All right you nominees, now it's your turn!!! Go on!

Day Zero!!!!!

Meet Eleanor:


This is my C*eye*ber Fiber Project Spectrum sock. I love working with red, really wish the grey was not the second color. I know it's supposed to be silver - but it's just grey. Easy, fast pattern - I've started the cuff already.

Have you seen the new Socktopia patterns? Bellatrix and Fawkes? They are both on the top of my pile to knit. (New Harry Potter movie by the way? Rocks.) I also stumbled across another new sock pattern called Sprung Socks - very pretty (check out the sidebar at The Keyboard Biologist). See!!!??? I don't just enable yarn buying!!! I enable yarn using!

(Three more days...)

I'm going to get one more post in before we head off to pick up the Teenager at Inline Skate Camp and head to the cabin for the weekend. Next week: Yarn Diet ends and we begin the terror of Driver's Ed!!!

Remember

when I joined that Yarntini Yarn Club (it was over at Pure Knits)? Oh Holy Cow - I just clicked over there and they are having a Sale (four days left guys) there's some pure baby alpaca there.

Anyway, back to yarn clubs:

I love her merino/tencel blend yarns and HOW CUTE is this pattern? And Rosewood needles!!! There was chatter at the time I signed up about the value of this club (not cheap), but I am totally satisfied as of today. I think I have one more package coming.

Did I mention four more days in my diet?

Head's Up Gang!

There's Vesper to be had!

So, Who Does This?

(warning: rant!)

So....

We live in a neighborhood where the older children are not much seen as they only leave their houses to jump into someone's car and speed away. Our neighbor across the street has an only child - a daughter - who graduated from High School this year. As a younger girl I didn't think much of her, kind of snotty and stand-offish, but she's had her moments. Her birth parents are divorced and she only lives in our neighborhood for half of any given week.

ANYWAY. Yesterday she turned 18. Around 8:00 cars started pulling up, parking at the curb and unloading groups of 3 to 4 teenagers. At 8:30 a (evidently - I didn't see it) a Hummer limo pulled up and the teenagers all piled in and disappeared. At 10:00, the girl's dog (a lab mix) started barking. He barked and barked and barked. At 12:30, the poor animal was still barking. Evidently, her mother and step-father were not at home. The lights were all blazing at their house, so I thought I'd try to call and let her know the dog was outside. No answer. So - I didn't know the teenagers had all disappeared into the limo and I kept trying to find the daughter.

The front door was wide open, I thought I'd go let the dog in the house, but the screen door was locked. I sat in their front yard with the dog until 1:00, when the Hummer limo pulls up and starts emptying out drunken 18-year-olds, who promptly got into their cars to drive home (seriously, should I have called the police?) One girl was actually carried into the house.

So. I ask you. Who does this? Leaves their 18-year old alone on her 18th birthday?

My instinct was to mind my own business (and did she make it my business when she left her dog outside to bark until 1 in the morning?), but really. Who does this?

Hi Honey, I'm Home!
(pssst! I'm goin' back on Friday...)

This is what I love about knitting with dpn's. I love how the beginning of a sock looks, and that I know what to do with the little sticks. It feels like I'm doing something really cool and mysterious! Then we get to see our pretty multi-colored yarncakes make up into workmanlike items.

Soooooo...I was gone a week and I got 1/2 of the back of my Eyelet Cardi done. Hmmm, sounds like a little bit of extra water time for me! I did start the Eleanora sock this morning, after working on the right side of the cardi for a while.

I did return to many, many vendor emails. Wanna know who(m)?

Pick Up Sticks - but their sale ended on the 6th. Sorry. However, she is now sending Free droplet stitch markers along with free shipping on $70 orders.

Through the end of today, Ruby Sapphire has 20% off and free shipping.

Spritely Goods has handed Handmaiden Sea Silk and the new Amy Butler Soak sent. (A couple pairs of my socks are in her gallery as well!)

Woolgirl.com has added TONS of new yarns. (Six more days folks!) Cherry Blossom Fibers, Curious Creek Fibers, Moonlight Knitter Row Counter Bracelets, Traveling Knitter "Hold My Socks", Wee-ones Woolgirl Stitch Markers, White Oak Studio (new colors), Woolarina, and Yarnahoy.

The Yarn Nerd has 15% off all yarn until Friday.

Holy cow!

Secret Pal 10

So I got an email card from my Pal, but I still don't know who she is! Hello!!! Are you out there? Please introduce yourself so I can thank you for all the wonderful gift certificates (and the yummy smelling package!)

I also won the Best Pal drawing, woo hoo! Prizes! Megan - did you nominate me? Thanks!

Bye!


I'll be here. See you in a week or so!

Done!

These are the Cable Twist Socks pattern found at www.helloyarn.com (free!!!)

The yarn is Cider Moon Glacier in Silver Pine. They knit up very quickly on size 3's. (Not free, but currently on sale!)

I have now officially knit 4.5 miles of sock yarn. Phew. I still think I could have done more, but I'm satisfied with that number. Now I just have to try not to add that many miles back in on July 16.

Now, for those of you who are harrassing me about the yarn weight I'm going to put on after July 15 - there is a list. Not too long, really, but a list.

1. Blue Sky Alpacas Suri Merino
2. Cider Moon's Flurry (Kansas and Apple Crisp)
3. More Blue Sky to make the Zip Cardigan
(oh, and I kinda liked the hemp yarn that Grumperina flashed last weekend.)

The boys (big, small and canine) and I are heading out for a long week at the cabin, so I will be mostly off the Internet until 7/9 - I've got to start planning the knitting packing. The Eyelet cardi will go, along with a new pair of socks (or two), and maybe I'll even pull the Banff out from it's long nap.

An when I return - 6! Count 'em - 6 more days!!! Bwa hahahaha!