My Favorite Things.....

May Day Sock Swap

Yesterday I had a few errands (one being the dentist) to run and when I came back there was a box sitting at my front door.  The return address meant nothing to me as I didn't know who it was.  I ran inside and tore the box open (well, I didn't really tear it apart) and what to my wondering eyes did appear but.........this.........

On closer examination you will see a pair of hand knit socks made especially for me by my secret pal, KT to "keep my feet warm on those nippy mornings up on the mountain top".  Aren't they beautiful!  KT knit them from Blue Moon Fiber Arts Heavyweight yarn in the color Sapphire.  The pattern is a k2p2 ribbing all the way to the toe.  They are a perfect fit KT.  Thank you very much.

Not only was there a pair of hand knit socks, KT sent enough yarn to knit up not one but three more pairs of lovely blue yarn.  There was Blue Moon Socks that Rock in the color "In the Navy":

Two skeins of Koigu Merino in a solid tourquois blue:

Two skeins of Koigu Merino in varigated blue (sorry for the blurred photo):

I could tell that KT read my blog from cover to cover because she sent me supplies for one of my other favorite hobbies----drawing.  She sent a small sketch pad that I can carry with me, a box of drawing pencils, and a box of water color pencils. WOW!

She also found out that I love Christmas time and sent this wonderful book by Robert Sabuda called "The Christmas Alphabet"  Oh I'm going to love to share this with my little ones:

On each page are two little cards and when you open the card, up pops a "pop-up" for each letter of the alphabet.   What a fun book that also goes along with Vicki's ABC-along 2008:

 

But, there's more.  A box of Glass Orchids magnets.  Each little button magnet is made of glass in brilliant colors of--guess what?----you got it----BLUE and green

Some gorgeous blue beaded stitch markers:

and last but not least, KT stuck in some of Fran's Smoked Salt Caramels---hmmmmmmmmm chocolate hmmmmmmmmmmm!

Now wasn't that a fabulous May Day swap box!!!!!  Thank you so much KT.  What a fun swap.  I can tell you put a lot of thought into organizing the box of goodies and I love and appreciate everything!!!!!   I've got to start knitting some more beautiful blue socks!  Thank you! Thank you!  Thank you!   

"G" is for..................

the color green and the new green socks that I cast on for with my new ga-knit pick ga-double point ga-needles that I got in the mail yesterday. "G" is also for the green leaves of my Bradford Pear.

I wanted to try the needles because I have heard so much about them.  Let me tell you, I'm in love--------  I'm using the US #1.  They are very sturdy but yet light weight.  They are 6" long and are really a pleasure to knit with.  Knit Picks was having a sale on the whole set from size 0-3.  They certainly beat the warping wooden ones all to pieces.

The yarn I'm using for these socks is Austermann "Step".  Green is actually not one of my favorite colors, but I've been knitting blue so much that I thought a change in pace might be needed.  I started these last night, but haven't had a lot of time to work on them today.

Time to fix John's ga-dinner!

And the Winner Is.........

Sorry for the delay in announcing the winners, but I have been and still am a bit under the weather.

Any way, the Cherry Blossom Yarn will be on its way to "Blogless" Stephany and Lisa.  I decided to split the yarn since I had two  and one will knit up a pair of socks.  I used the random number generator and assigned each person a number based on the order in which I received their comment.  The generator picked Stephany and Lisa's numbers.  I have notifed them by email and as soon as I get their mailing addresses, their yarn will be in the mail.  I do apologize for one of the skeins as it was wound into a ball because I used it to start Maggie's little sweater.  I don't think there will be a problem knitting with it.

Thank you to everyone that left a comment.  Most of you appear to be blogless.  We need to change that! ;)

Happy Knitting!!!

Rip-it, Rip-it.........

I was so excited about knitting up the Cherry Blossom sweater for Maggie.  Unfortunately, it is being ripped off the needles.  For me, the yarn was just not working out to what I had expected.  I was looking for a pink and green; but, when I started knitting into the skein, up popped brown and lilac as well.  It may work fine on a pair of socks, but on this little sweater it was just not working for me.  See what I mean:

Yarn skein:

Knitted up:

   

                                                   

I'm just not going to spend the amount of time it would take to knit this little sweater if I don't like the yarn in the first place.  I also don't think Alicia would like it. 

Maybe someone else out there would like to try it.  If you're interested, leave a comment and I'll have a drawing.  I have two skeins fingering weight/400 yard skeins---one wound in a ball and the other not touched.  To refresh your memory:  Simply Sock Yarn by Rock Creek Yarn--Color: Cherry Blossom. 

All Done..............

Whew!  The May Day Socks have been completed with time to spare.  Now I need to put together my little swap box.  As I have said before, I must admit that knitting for another knitter is very itimidating.  However, I have thoroughly enjoyed Wendy's Double Eyelet Rib pattern (which is a free pattern that you can access through her blog.)  This is my second pair, so that could be a sign that I enjoyed knitting them the first go round.  They serve the purpose for three different events with the first being for the May Day Swap, the second is for the Sock of the Month KAL for April, and the third is for a Ravelry group called A Pair A Month.

Pattern:  Double Eyelet Rib by Wendy Johnson of wendyknits.com

Yarn:  Basic Merino Socks by Fleece Artist--no colorway that I could find on the label

Needles:  US#0 double points

Now I can start on Maggie's little Cherry Blossom Sweater.  I just finished winding the skein.  This will be a fun project knit from the top down.

I'm off to get my hair done.  Have a wonderful day!

Rounded the corner, going down the final stretch....

finish line is in sight................

shouldn't be too much longer.

The other day blogless Stephany,  a new knitting friend from Ravelry, sent me the cutest pattern for a top-down raglan sleeve toddler sweater that is knit with sock yarn.  She also introduced me to Rock Creek Yarn's Hand dyed yarn, who recently put out a colorway called Cherry Blossom--you got it, named for the Washington, DC Cherry Blossom Festival.    I thought it would be the perfect yarn for this little sweater for Maggie---especially since Alicia loves the colors of pink and green for Maggie.

The yarn was sent to me packaged in what I call "organdy" drawstring bags with little satin ribbons---so elegantly packaged.

Don't those bags just make the yarn so much more special? 

I can hardly keep myself from jumping in on Maggie's little sweater, but I'm making myself finish the May Day socks first.  Just gives me something to work towards, right?

Only two weeks left.....

Oh my!  I just took a look at the calendar and realized that I have only two weeks to finish my second May Day Swap sock for my secret pal.  Whew!  The pressure is on----not really, because I'm enjoying knitting Wendy's double eyelet socks so much.  I have finished one sock and am half way down the top of the second sock.   I don't foresee any problem in having the socks finished at this point in time.  See, here is the second sock:

On to the knitting.  Guess another "F" to go along with yesterday's post would be finishing these socks!

"F" is for....

Faces.  These are a few of the ceramic faces that John has collected in the past.  We have these on the wall going down the basement steps.  I couldn't get them all in the photo, but you'll get the idea.  I love the detail that the artists put on these faces.  They almost look like small replicas of real faces.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

   

"F" is also for flowers.  I'm sure you guessed already that my favorite flowers would be the ones that John carved from wood. 

Roses:

Stargazer Lily:

Orchid:

Iris:

Morning Glory (this was the first flower he ever carved):

He is currently working on a magnolia that is looking really good.

I still have "G" and "H" to go in order to get caught up with the ABC-along.  I'm thinking!!!!!

Happy Anniversary!

Tomorrow John and I will celebrate our 36th wedding anniversary.  Seems like only yesterday.  Time does fly by when you are having fun.  We were married on a Wednesday evening.  At that time, John owned an airplane.  He is a liscensed commercial pilot.  He hasn't flown since the girls were born though.  Anyway, after the reception, his partner in the airplane, flew us down to the Atlanta airport in their plane.  We spent the night in a hotel near the airport.  We were starved and walked to the nearest place to eat, which was a greasy hamburger place.  Early the next morning, we were on our way to Los Angeles where we spent a couple of days before we embarked on the most wonderful honeymoon a girl could dream about.  We spent three weeks touring the Orient.  It was fabulous---a trip I will remember for the rest of my life.  Thank you, John for 36 of the best years of my life!

Alicia, John and Maggie left yesterday to go back home.  They have been here for 2 weeks.  I've had so much baby hugging!!!!  In the last Special Swap, Stacey gave me a little plastic tote.  John found it and wanted to use it to carry all his "stuff" in.  The little doll stroller is one that either Alicia or Angela had when they were little.  I brought it up for Maggie, but John wanted to push it all over the house.  Here he is with all his "stuff" (that's what he calls it) and the doll stroller.  Alicia said Ryan would not think to much of him pushing the stroller or carrying his "stuff" in a tote.  I thought it was cute:

Here are Maggie and John playing.  Maggie pushes that little activity table all over the kitchen.  John decided to make it a chair.  The car he is holding is one of Alicia or Angela's toys.  It had a control that you could make it do all sorts of things, but after all these years, it didn't work.  I just cut the wire and John was completely happy playing with his red car.

and one final glamour shot of Maggie in her sunglasses:

 

Both John and Maggie were sick while they were here.  John had a stomach bug and he stayed upset for a couple of days.  He was much better when he left yesterday.  Alicia gave Maggie a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich for lunch one day and within seconds she started breaking out in bumps on her face, hands and arms.  They disappeared just about as fast as they appeared.  She called her doctor in Charleston and he wanted her seen.  Alicia called the doctor's office where she and Angela were treated when they were babies.  They actually remembered her.  They set up an appointment for Maggie to see an allergist.  After a series of tests, it was determined that indeed Maggie is allergic to peanuts, borderline milk and potatoes.  They told Alicia to always have on hand some benedryl and an epi-pen.  They think she will grow out of the milk and potatoes allergy pretty quick, but the peanuts will take longer.  Maggie, too was ok when she left here yesterday.  The house is so quiet now.

I worked on my second May Day Swap sock when I was not working on the little Sublime sweater for Maggie.  I just love that little sweater.  So cute!  I have finished the body and am getting ready to start the sleeves.  It's going pretty fast. I do have to get that other sock finished so I can start putting together my little swap package.  I also have another Special Swap package that I'm working on that needs to go out soon.

Other knitting news!  I signed up for some classes for Stitches Mid-west 2008.  Because I've become interested in knitting with colors and intarsia, I'll be taking "Knitting with Many Colors", which is taught by Brandon Mably who has worked for Kaffee Faucett (I know that spelling is way off, but maybe you know who I'm talking about).  This is a 6-hour class all day on Friday, the 22nd of August.  Another class I signed up for is "Mitered Corner Magic", taught by Ginger Luters.  It just looked like a fun class and is also a 6-hour class all day on Saturday.  Sunday morning I'll be taking Edie Eckman's "Intarsia Without Fear".  It's just 3 hours.  I'm so excited and looking forward to my second Stitches Mid-west.  Hope to see some of you there!

Maggie modeling her Classic Cardigan

Finally caught Maggie still long enough to try on her sweater.  The sleeves are a little long, but we rolled them up and she's good to go.  I don't think she'll be able to wear it next year; but, Alicia said she wanted something she could wear now.

For a guess and by golly pattern, it turned out perfect.

"Little" John has been sick for the last two days with some kind of an intestinal thing, so he hasn't been feeling very well.  He did manage to take a picture of Maggie all by himself:

I cast on for another little sweater for Maggie.  Yesterday, I went to one of our local yarn stores, The Yarn Nook, to use up a credit that I have had there for some time.  I really wanted some Noro sock yarn.  I've heard a lot of good things about this yarn and I wanted to try it.  Linda ordered some a long time ago and hasn't received it as of yesterday.  So, what's a girl to do in a big yarn store but LOOK at yarn.  Linda had a model of a darling sweater that caught my eye.  It is from the Sublime book of knits for infants (that's not the name of it--I don't have it in front of me).  Anyway, I had to buy the yarn and make this for Maggie.  As soon as I got home, I cast on.  I got all the stitches increased as the directions called for, but I didn't like the way I did it.  I did an increase in the front and back of the stitch which left a small hole.   I ripped back 4" and started again today.  This time I did a "make one" to do the increases and it looked so much better.   Sorry for the dark photo, but when I get a little further into the sweater, I'll take another lighter one.

The pattern called for the back and fronts to be knit separately, but I didn't want to have to weave in all those ends from the stripes so I opted to knit them in one piece until I get to the armholes.  I hope it doesn't change the looks of the sweater, but I doubt that it will.  It really is a cute little pattern and the Sublime yarn is so yummy to knit.