mama knits!

(when they let her...)

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Ants- The Other Red Meat

Ok, I also received my Candyswap package last week. Francie was great- she even sent a second package when the first one never arrived!

There wasn't much chocolate in the box, but that little bit was enough to get a wonderful smell when I opened it! One of the chocolate items is chocolate covered ants! I haven't had a chance to try them yet, but I will. I'll try anything once... plus, how much flavor can an ant have?

She sent a bunch of fruity candies (including strawberry gummies that I couldn't wait to eat).

The Little Guy immediately grabbed the armadillo. He seems to think the tail is perfect to hold on to while he's hitting us with it.

Thank you Francie!

Here's my finished French Market Bag, filled with sock yarn. Pretty crappy picture, but for some reason I just can't get a decent picture of this! I'll try to get a better on if the weather ever get's better here. You can at least see how much it shrank in the wash. I put the yarn in there for scale (each of the skeins makes one pair of socks).

Favorite Colorswap Questionnaire

1. What are your top three favorite colors? Red, pink and orange. I also like grassy greens and turquoise/ aqua blues. Pretty much any clear bright color.

2. What crafts do you really enjoy? Knitting and jewelry making. I bought a nice scrapbook, but so far haven’t gotten a chance to do anything with it.

3. What products do you really covet? I’ve been on a knitting needle kick lately buying vintage needles on ebay from the UK and Australia. So any cool needles would be much loved. Also cool knitting notions.

4. What other activities do you enjoy besides your favorite crafty things? I do like to read, although I don’t get much time for that these days! (other than to my son, although he would rather be eating the book than listening to me!)

5. Is there anything you collect? Vintage kitchen items and linens, especially aprons.

6. What is your zodiac sign and/or Chinese zodiac symbol? I’m 100% Pisces.

7.What are your favorite…

…scents/smells? I like food scents and jasmine, gardenia or any tropical smelling scent during the warmer months.

…types of music and/or bands? I’ll always love the 80’s…I pretty much like most, especially female singers and groups

…authors? Stephen King and Anne Rice

…animals? cats

…places to shop? My LYS!! And I love Target and the Body Shop and Bath and Body Works.

…season? Summer I think. I’m pretty hot- blooded, so I’m warm all year. For some reason the extra heat in the summer doesn’t bother me, but I get to keep the air on all the time without others complaining about being cold!

…yarn/fabric/paper/other craft supplies? I’ve been into sock yarn lately, especially handpainted or self-striping (the ones with just color stripes, don’t really care for the ones that show designs in the stripes). Any neat crafty thing I could have fun with is good!

…candies or goodies? I love chocolate, not too good to ship this time of year though…. I also love Maple Sugar candy or any candy or snacks from your area that I might not find here.

8. Do you have any wish lists? I think I have an Amazon list, but wouldn’t suggest anyone looking at it…. it’s probably a mess from just putting books on there for a few years and never updating it. One day I’ll fix it.

9. Are you allergic to anything? No

10. Do you have any pets? What are they? Two cats.

11. Please include anything else you would like your secret pal to know about you- anything that would be helpful in finding you little gifts that you will really enjoy.

I have an 11 month old son, so I don’t get too much time for myself. So, anything you send will be a great addition to my selection of “middle-of-the-night-mommy-time” stuff. (he doesn’t care much for napping, so the middle of the night is my time. I’m glad I don’t need much sleep!)

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Knit and Crochet Show Haul

I know a lot of people were unhappy with the location of the show this year, but it made me very happy! I never get to go to anything like this, and Valley Forge is only 20 minutes away from me, so I thought it was great. Anyway..... of course I had to make sure I had some spending money with me...

I had two SP's that had said they would like to try birch needles, so I picked up a set of Brittany's for each of them, and of course I had to get myself some needles too! I decided to try the Lantern Moon ebony circulars (although I wish I had gotten a shorter length) and some Swallow cassein DPN's. I also got a #1 12" circular because I had tried a sock on one of these and liked it.

I bought some pretty "Wildflowers" merino from Woolbearers and 2 skeins of cotton chenille
to make myself some soft washcloths.





More needles, this time short DPN's and cable needles. A green Chibi, so now I have one to keep at home.

The yarn on the left is also from Woolbearers and will be a SP gift. I think it is sooo pretty, but just not good colors on me.

On the right is some handdyed merino from Maple Creek Farm that will become a sweater for Little Guy.

I really wanted to buy a knitting bag, but settled for the Lexie Barnes pouch instead. I'm too nervous to buy a knitting bag... I've seen so many I like, it would be hard to choose!




I did buy a "Knitting Nest" though, I had seen them in catalogs and thought they were cute.

I had been noticing this yarn at my LYS for a while, but had always somehow managed not to buy any. I stopped by their booth and it was the show special-- buy one, get one free. So of course I had to get a few!

There's a pretty new needle roll and a spindle.
I bought a spindle a few months ago to see if I could figure it out, but this one is sooo much nicer, maybe I'll actually be able to do something with it!

Catching Up

Well, it's the end of July and as I realized that I haven't gotten to show pictures of the SP packages I received back at the beginning of the month!! Even though they are "Secret" Pals, they still deserve credit for sending such yummy gifts!


This is from my One Skein SP. It's so soft and plummy! She also sent along some other yarn so I can make a cupcake from the book.... I think that will be my car project when we go away.







This gift is from my Mellow SP from Knitty. She sent me some pretty alpaca yarn, notecards, bath confetti and a cute bath toy for my son. I think I may need to get a large quantity of this yarn and make a cardigan (I love alpaca, but I'm too hot blooded to wear a regular sweater made out of it!). She also sent a pretty postcard. Everyone has cute postcards to send me, I wish I had some to send to my pals. I'll just have to stock up when we go away..... they won't be from the town I live in, but it's less than an hour away.


My second lovely gift from my SP8 Pal. A Noni bag pattern (one vendor at Valley Forge said this one sells out fast), a lightbulb diffuser with Cappuccino oil and a book that I will have to make time to read. It's been a while since I had a chance to read. Now that I think about it, I don't think I'm taking any knitting when we go away. I have a huge stack of magazines I haven't gotten to yet... either that or I'll use the bobble part of the pattern and make a whole lot of them. For what I'm not sure.... I'll figure that out later.... maybe a felted bobble-y pillow? I think Little Guy would get a kick out of that!

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Finished French Market Bag

I finished my French Market Bag for the Knitting World Cup just in time. Well, it's actually still felting, but the knitting was finished just in time! I wanted to get a pre-felting picture with the Little Guy sitting inside of it, but he's been crabby all day trying to get a tooth to come through ao that didn't happen... The picture's not that good, it's kinda cloudy out.... but it's better than I could get with the crappy lighting inside today. I'll post a post- felting picture tomorrow.