Stella

Meet “Stella”...

I picked her up at Have a Yarn when I was on vacation. She is from “Les laines oberlyn” (sorry - I can't find a website for them), 50% Baby Suri, 40% Extra-fine Merino and 10% Cashmere. Isn’t she pretty? “Stella” is going to become my new winter hat – I think – unless she tells me otherwise. I’m considering this.
And some “Fiddlesticks” lace weight “Zephyr Wool-Silk” in “Lilac” also jumped into my bag, followed by 4 balls of “Sisu” in 2 colours. Considering Deb’s comments about the “Sisu” (Splitsu?!), I’m feeling a little worried about it, but the colours were so pretty!

The whole gang. (Sorry about the picture quality and I didn't realize that the Sisu was clowning around and standing upside down...!)
There was also a pattern designed by Catherine Vardy, but that was part of my Knitters Virtual Vacation Swap package.
Other news on the yarn from includes the arrival of package number 2 from the Sweet Sheep Flavour of the Month Club. This month’s colour is “Fiery”!


And the pattern is for a very pretty pair of fingerless mitts, Delicato Mitts from Knitspot.
In project progress, well, there hasn't been much... The Sockapalooza 4 package still hasn't arrived.... Have you seen these socks?
And the socks that I started for Sock It To Me when I was on vacation turned out to rude and evil.... I'm suffocating them in a bag before I gather the strength to frog them. I'll post pics later - I don't have enough energy to share with the evil little things right now. And then the re-think pair, while they're much nicer, just weren't going to work from a measurement perspective... And we all know that it wouldn't be nice to receive a pair of socks that your spoiler knew wouldn't fit. I frogged the first one a lunch and cast back on on the commute home. Sigh...

SITM Contest # 2

So it's time for the second contest over at the Sock It To Me swap. The challenge is to post about your favorite yarn, including a picture and why it's your favorite yarn. (I have added the extra parameter of it being a sock yarn just because it's a sock swap...)
As far as I can tell, the hard part is choosing just one! However, if I had to choose just one yarn, I'd probably have to go with Fleece Artist Merino. Why? It's from Nova Scotia - go Martime Canadian products! It's 100% wool. It's machine washable. It's handpainted and the colours are gorgeous. And it has a great hand and springiness to it. I'd have to go for a dig through my sock drawer to get pics of all of my FA socks and ask for photos from people for whom I have knit socks with their yarns, but if you look here, you can see what I added to my stash back in February and then you can see what the skein in the middle grew up to be here. The skein on the right is currently travelling as part of the Knitters Virtual Vacation Swap. I tried to purchase a skein for my downstream pal, but that proved to be impossible (demand exceeds supply often) and that skein just about begged to travel. Want some for yourself? Check out their Where to Purchase List.

Destination: Wollongong, Australia

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my Virtual Vacation swap package arrived on Thursday, and I think that the following words are appropriate: Wow! Awesome! Amazing! I was actually speechless for a few moments and anyone who knows me will attest to how incredibly, incredibly rare this type of occurrence is! My spoilee was Donyale, and she spoiled me quite nicely, thank you!
There was a skein of Australian wool sock yarn that she dyed herself (colourway: Urban Grind), 2 balls of Lana Gatto "Cabiria", an incredibly different and unique scarf that floats and flies when you wear it, it is made out of some of Donyale's hand spun and some other novelty yarns (this will match my hot pink cut velveteen jacket perfectly - photos later in the Fall of me wearing it!), tourist information on Wollongong and surrounding area, some Australian stickers and temporary tattoos, a magnet, a set of 2mm Crystal Palace bamboo needles, a magnetic row counter, a pattern booklet of cushions and throws and last but not least - a tube of Vegemite all wrapped in the most lovely paper with Australian flora and fauna on it! Now - I'm going to try and get all of the photos in order to match the list - wish me luck!






Oh, and Donyale's work is marketed as "Moggy and Me". Thank you again Donyale - its a TERRIFIC swap package that will bring me much enjoyment. I'm sure that I've forgotten to mention everything, but that's just because there is so much!

Mail Call!

I just love getting mail! So long as it isn't bills, that is. One of the nice things about getting back from vacation was all the mail waiting for me. We arrived home Wednesday evening - 8ish. After unpacking the car, getting milk for Thursday morning's coffee was a must and that just happened to mean that I had to pass our community mail box. (I hate the community mail box, but I'll save that for a mid-winter rant when the door is frozen shut - okay?)
On Wednesday there was my prize from Megan's blog contest and an order from Knitpicks. My prize was a copy of The Gift Knitter, a very cute book with knitted designs for both 2 and 4 legged babies! Now many of my friends have already finished their families, or will never have children for a variety of reasons, but Mr. Me's cousin's wife (still with me?) is pregnant! What could be better?!
And the Knitpicks package was books, too! Fitted Knits and Stephanie Pearl-MacPhee Casts Off.

So Wednesday was clearly book day... And then came Thursday.
Thursday's mail brought an order from Simply Sock Yarn - 2 balls of Cascade for a pair of gardening gloves for my Mom for Christmas, 1 ball of Opal Tiger for socks for the boys and 1 ball of Panda cotton to finish these. Yum! But - even better than the yarn was my swap package from my Virtual Vacation spoiler, Donyale from Australia!!! It is a great package and is decidely worthy of it's own post, so photos and details of my amazing package will follow shortly. I'm still taking it all in! Lucky, lucky, lucky me!

Vacation

Vacation
All I ever wanted
Vacation
Had to get away...



Let's hear it for The Go-Go's...!!!! Their Wikipedia entry says that they were formed in 1978, which makes them slightly older than my glasses in this post. But, I digress... One more day of work and then I'm on vacation for two weeks! I'm just a little tiny bit excited. This year I invested in a new tent, following our last camp adventure in 2005 and the horrible fate of my last tent, so we're going to do a little camping, a little sightseeing and a little visiting. The new one is bigger, and therefore, more complicated, but I'm sure that it will be much more comfortable. The new tent has three rooms and a screen porch and even Mr. Me (who is just over 6 feet) can stand up in the new one.

Isn't it nice? We set it up on the front lawn when it arrived to be sure that we would know what we were doing when we arrived at a campground. Now if any of your knitterly types would be interested in life in the country, the house in the background of the first picture is for sale...
I'm really l0oking forward to getting away for a few days. And I'll taking my Virtual Vacation spoilee with me! Hopefully she'll like receiving things from around the Maritimes. The very last night of the away part of our vacation will be spent in Halifax visiting my MIL... Well the guys will visit with my MIL because I'm going to see the Yarn Harlot! Someone from work thought that this must be a musical group that he hadn't heard of... But I know that other fibre lovers will "get it".
On the other end of my Virtual Vacation, my spoiler was planning on posting my package at the beginning of this week. I'm really curious to see who it is! I know that it is another lefty and that she (or he?) used to live in Canada...

Let the (Long) Weekend Begin!

It's Friday morning and I'm here in front of my computer in my PJs with a nice hot cup of coffee. Aaaah...heaven! The kids are spending the next 2 weeks with my MIL, so I thought that I'd take a day to hang out with them around the house, not to mention doing all of the laundry that needs to be done so that I can pack for their trip. How can two kids create so much laundry??? Considering where they are going, I really need to overpack for them... My MIL, although she drives me crazy some of the time, always means well, but she is a worrier, which is why Mr. Me and BIL nicknamed her "Telly"... Actually, the very first present that I ever bought for her was a small stuffed "Telly". Fortunately, she does have enough of a sense of humour to have understood why I had bought it for her and she took to taking the monster with her whenever she travelled on business. For those of you who don't know "Telly", the eternally worrying fuschia monster, you can find out more here. Now why does this matter? Well, from a packing perspective, it means that every single time that the kids go to visit her, I need to pack for all situations. What if there's a blizzard? What if there's a flood? What if we're invited for an audience with the Pope? Yes - they're all unlikely, but we still need to be prepared. No matter what or how much I pack for them, they are pretty well guaranteed to come home with new jackets, bathing suits, pajamas and socks...
So the kids are going on a real vacation, which means that Mr. Me and I get two weeks of being just a couple - a very different sort of vacation. On the Virtual Vacation front, I've heard from my spoiler and contacted my spoilee. I'm going to really enjoy this! I love having the opportunity to showcase the Atlantic region.
I finally managed to get my 2nd and final package for the SPFE into the mail. I haven't checked the delivery date that Canada Post has quoted me, but it should be at its destination by the end of next week. I hope that she likes everything. I still need to get knitting on my Sockapalooza 4 socks, although I do have the yarn and have chosen a pattern... And I signed up for Sock It To Me. That keeps me going with my once a month swap packages.
Time to go hang out some more laundry - my little part of being green!

Going on a "Virtual Vacation"!

I'm going on a Virtual Vacation! I can't wait to find out what I need to virtually pack. Hopefully it is somewhere warm so that there is lots of room in the suitcase (smaller clothes after all) for my virtual souvenirs. Yes, I am touring with the Knitters Virtual Vacation Swap. It should be fun. I'm trying to time my swap packages at around one per month. So far so good and I am having so much fun!

And without further rambling and delaying, here is my Virtual Vacation questionnaire -

1. If you could visit any state in the US, which would it be and why?
This is a tough question for a Canadian! I think that I would have to go with Louisiana. Why? The link that exists between the Acadians of Atlantic Canada and the Cajuns of Louisiana intrigues me. While I’m not Acadian (heck I’m not even from Atlantic Canada), it is a very interesting culture that really adds very much to the richness of our multicultural fabric. But – there isn’t a single state that I’d say that I wouldn’t be interested in visiting… Like Canada, the US is so large that each and every state would be different with its own assets and beauty.

2. If you could visit any country in the world, other than your own, which would it be and why? Australia. I’ve had an ongoing interest in Australia. It’s unique and remote, and much like Canada, it is very large with very few people (relatively). Besides, they have great wool! (Also a strong contender: Scotland. Why? Their knitting heritage. And I wonder why my husband won’t let me choose our vacation destinations…!)

3. Have you ever driven across several states/providence/countries?
Yes, on many occasions. For sheer coverage, the best that I’ve managed is 3 provinces, 4 states and 2 countries in one trip. I suppose that really it wasn’t “across” all of them, but I’m counting “through” parts of them as “across”.

4. Have you ever visited someplace you consider exotic? Where was it?
Have you ever seen an iceberg, live and in person? I did on numerous occasions in Newfoundland, so I’m going to say “Yes” to exotic locales. I lived in Newfoundland for a year and I must say that it is an amazing and beautiful place. You can stand at Cape Spear and look at the Atlantic Ocean knowing that the next landfall is Ireland. It is awe inspiring.

5. What was your favorite "travel" vacation? Why?
Two years ago we went tenting in Maine - a nice little family road trip. We had fun doing "educational" things with the kids, doing a little bit of shopping and the obligatory coast of Maine beach combing. The only drawback was tenting in the tail end of Katrina. We eventually upgraded to a cabin. The tent didn't survive that trip, but it wasn't because of the wind or the rain (directly). Mr. Me decided that it was better to put the tent in the dryer than to wait a bit to let it dry naturally. It melted. We left it in Maine.

6. Have you ever played tourist in your own home city/state (if international, country)? Explain.
Yes - on many occasions. Most recently, in February I went to Quebec City for the first time. It was a class "field trip" during a French course, but we went to Old Quebec, the Citadel, museums, etc. It was GREAT!

7. Are you a museum visitor, beach comer or an amusement seeker?
All of the aforementioned… What can I say – I need balance! And I have kids so the amusements is a “must”.

8. What's your favorite type of yarn?
I prefer finer weights – usually nothing heavier than a worsted weight – and definitely natural fibres, although synthetic are allowed as strengtheners.

9. What's your least favorite type of yarn?
Bulky weight acrylic or Phentex “Elite”. Those slippers wear like IRON!!!

10. What items do you like to knit/crochet?
Pretty well anything, although I don't usually knit dishcloths. The only exception is when my 95 year old grandmother asks for new ones. I'm just starting in on the crochet thing, so I'm not quite so certain about that.

11. What do you pack, knit/crochet wise when you go on vacation?
Usually smaller projects, often socks.

12. What other crafts do you do/would like to do other than Knit/Crochet?
I cross stitch, sew and have tried my hand a jewelry making. I’m sure that there are others, but since I’ll try most things once, I may have forgotten some long ago projects.

13. Are you allergic to anything? (Yarn wise or treat wise)
No food or fibre allergies.

14. What is your favorite color? Least Favorite?
I like pinks, purples and greens. I’m not such a big fan of yellows or browns, although I do have an odd affinity for orange…

15. Sweet or Savory (Treat not personality)? Savory!

16. Anything else we are forgetting to ask that you think your partner desperately needs to know?
I'm left handed, which might explain why I always seem to be looking at the world from a slightly different angle...