Present from the Wild West

Princess Knitsalot headed out west to Fort MacMurray at the end of her third year at UNB in April for eight months.  She landed herself an eight month co-op placement in the Alberta oilsands.  Nice! 
Earlier this summer, she had the opportunity to visit Calgary for a conference.  While she was there, she got to attend the Stampede, but probably even more interesting, she got to visit The Loop.  (Sorry, I can't seem to find a link for them.)
And she sent me a present!  Isn't it pretty???

Rocky Mountain Dyeworks, Jasper Sport, 100% Superwash Merino, 50 grams, 146 meters and the colour is called "Fire Rose".  Now - what to make...  I'm thinking fingerless gloves, but would love some suggestions.

Wool Share

Do you ever just happen across something that is really interesting or intriguing? Back in December I came across a link somewhere (I don't even remember where) for the Stoddard Family Farm in Little Britain, Ontario - not to be confused with Little Britain (*warning - do not click on the preceding link if you are offended by politically incorrect humour). Considering that Mr. Me and I live on part of the land that was original granted to his family when they came from Donegal, Ireland in 1820, I found the story of the farm quite charming, and in an era when I think most of us are trying to be at least a little bit more responsible with our planet, I really like what they are doing.
I wish I was closer so that I could purchase meat and egg shares - but they would spoil in the shipping. However, one of the many beauties of wool is that it doesn't spoil. Yes, I bought a wool share! My first skein arrived last week. The colourway is called "Fire". I am away on business again and don't have either the yarn or the camera with me, but I will try to post a picture of it later. I'm not a huge fan of orange, but the colour truly does remind me of a campfire - and I love a good campfire... Now - what shall I make?

P.S. Once I sort that out and make it, can you all head over to Facebook and "Like" it for me? There could be another wool share in it for me.

Is It Breeding?

I only asked for one thing for Christmas this year. I asked for a laptop. I had become very tired of having to fight off the boys (all three of them) for computer time. Mr. Me got me a lovely little pink Sony VAIO. I don't know the model, but it is a very cute little computer so I can take her anywhere - and I love her!
Over the Christmas holidays I decided that I would start to actually catalogue my stash on Ravelry. Even though we all know that sock yarn isn't really stash, I decided that I would start with it anyways... I don't have photos of all of the yarn - since I haven't upgraded to Flickr Pro yet - but spend some time patiently sorting and cataloguing one storage tote of sock yarn.
It was a very interesting experience! I'm not done yet, but have determined that I easily have enough sock yarn for 50 pairs... I could probably have entered the 52 Pair Plunge and new had to buy a skein of yarn. When did I buy it all? I don't even recognize some of it!!! If it wasn't a ludicrous idea, I would suspect some other knitter of storing their yarn in my stash... Some of it is that unfamiliar! Maybe the sock yarn is breeding?

Reflections on Blogging

Here we are on the 26th of July. It has been 20 days since I last blogged. While I've never seen myself as a daily blogger, this is unusual for me, although I do think that it is a part of a trend in my blogging. Is this part of the natural cycle of blogging or is it something more related to me? I have noted recently that some of the bloggers that I have truly enjoyed reading over the past couple of years have either completely stopped blogging (some deleting their blogs entirely) or have decreased their blogging significantly. Truth be told, I still read others blogs almost daily, although I don't comment as much as I once did. And since I often read them through a reader feed, I'm not even sure if it registers that I do still follow them and read them.

When I look back to my first blogiversary blog post, I think that I still blog for the same reasons that I started to blog. So why do I blog less often? It isn't for lack of things to blog about, but perhaps I feel like what I blog about is more irrelevant now than I once thought? Perhaps it is that I have pretty well given up swapping? I don't know.

I know that it is not from lack of things to blog about. C'mon - Miss Me has an opinion about just about everything! I fully respect your right to have an opinion, but I also expect you to respect my right to have an opinion that differs and to express it. I do still wonder about things. For example: Have you ever looked at looked at the neighbours section of People in Ravelry? Have you ever wondered what the implications of this might be? For me personally, I think that perhaps I need to move... How hard could it be to learn to speak either Estonian or Finnish? And then immigrate and find a job...?

And way back on the 4th of July I turned 45! And I got yarn for my birthday... I haven't even taken photos of it yet, although truth be told, one of the skein is STILL damp from my initial slobbering. It is that pretty.

And we went on "vacation" to Cape Breton again. We went to Louisbourg and I bought fibre related stuff! And I went to Baadeck Yarns and spent a few dollars...

What is the point of all this? I'm missing blogging. I'm mourning the disappearance of some of the bloggers that I regularly read. If anyone out there is still reading - leave me a comment, okay? And if I have every read you with any regularity but might have been quiet recently, rest assured that I AM still reading you! Or better still, if you read me and I don't read you, leave me a comment - I'll come by for a visit!

Late Night Shopping

Or maybe it was early morning... I have long since accepted and embraced my addiction to and dependence on all things yarn related. It's legal. It keeps me in line since if my hands are happily busy I am usually able to ignore situations and/or people who I might find upsetting or annoying. I haven't done a thorough economic analysis, but I'm pretty sure that it is much more economical than most illicit drugs, unless you decide that you can only knit with qiviut... However, I have recently noticed that my innocent little knitting problem has developed a new symptom: compulsive joining of mystery KALs!

It started innocently enough with SoTS ii (there are actually 3 links there to the progress of the stole). Since I got through that without real issues (I'll come back to my minor issue), I joined in the Mystic Light KAL. Since I got through that without real issues (again), I joined the Goddess Knits Anniversary Shawl KAL. It was my first pi shawl - what fun! And then came the signups for SoTS iii and MSK 4. Yup - I've joined them both!!!

So yesterday evening after everyone else was in bed, I decided to work away on the edging for Goddess Knits shawl. Aaack!!! I am 7 twelfths of the way around the shawl and have run out of yarn! I am knitting it out of Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in the Papaya Heather colourway. Clearly, this required action. Read: A trip to Knit Picks to buy more yarn. But isn't it pretty so far?

Let's hope that they still have the same dyelot so I don't have to re-knit the whole edging...

And since I was at Knit Picks anyways, I might as well pick up a few other things, right? If you recall, I mentioned having a minor problem with these lovely lace KALs. My small problem is blocking knitting. I'm sure that my new blocking wires will help me with this issue.

See? Here is my completely knitted by unblocked Mystic Light shawl.

And since I didn't have anything in my stash for MSK4, I bought some Shadow Lace yarn in Snorkel Heather... Yum!

Look What I Won

Nancy celebrated her 2nd Bloggoersary on June24th with a contest. I haven't been reading her since the very beginning, but started reading her around the time that I began to blog, so close to a year and a half. Since you knitters are all pretty darned smart, I'm guessing that you've figured out by now that not only did I enter the contest, but I won a prize! And here's what I won:From the top, clockwise we have: Knit Picks Renaissance Sampler, 2 skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Socks in the Liberty colourway, a Protect the Swag! sachet from Scouts Swag and a bar of Sweet Paradise soap from Corinne's Creations.

To give you a few more details, the sampler contains 6 balls of yarn with co-ordinating patterns for 6 small projects. How great is that?

Nancy had posted pics of the sock yarn back on the 4th of July and I had commented on it... I may not be American, but having been born on the 4th, I loved the colours and am THRILLED to have this yarn! Besides - it is my first ever Lorna's Laces yarn. (Anyone have any pattern suggestions? Must include "stars and stripes".)

I'm not sure which smells better, the sachet or the soap. The sachet contains natural moth repellents pennyroyal, lavender, cedar and rose - yum! The soap is layers of Guava Extreme, Mango Tango and Tropical Vacation and it too smells good enough to eat...

And accompanying the package was a lovely cat card. The cats are all quite lovely, but don't really compare to the princely Reggae!I like that there is a cat hiding in the cupboard... Very realistic.

Thank you so very much Nancy for a fabulous prize!

WWKIP Day - The Recap

I know that this is a little bit late, but better late than never, right?

BIG FUN was had at WWKIP day in Fredericton! Eight of us took a ride on the city bus and did a little bit of knitting and chatting during the ride. Granted we seemed to scare one young man, but for us that was just part of the fun! (He tried to shrink as far as possible into his seat and turned up his music very loud... It's not easy being surrounded by scary women with pointed sticks and string apparently.) Then we sat around and knit in the gorgeous sunshine, and since there was a sale going on, I was kind enough to relieve Trish of some of her inventory. Aren't I selfless? (I haven't taken photos of it but I bought enough for 5 pairs of socks, a sweater for me and a baby sweater. Just for good measure, I also bought a new pattern book from Patons...)

But perhaps the highlight of the event was that I won the scavenger hunt!!! I won a Needful Yarns kit to make the Sally Melville Classic Blouse pictured below.

How's that for a GREAT PRIZE?

Thanks to Trish, CanKNITian and the other organizers for putting on such a great event. In addition to the knitting, they also collected donations for the Community Kitchen which is a very worthy cause. Fortunately knitters tend to be generous and realize that not everyone is a lucky as we are.

I won't bore you with all of my photos, but here's a sample.

Look What I Won!

Way back in December, when she was still Cynical Knitting Gal, (Not-so) Cynical Knitting Gal held a contest - and I won! I've had my prize for a while, and Not-so CKG knows that I received it, but I thought that I should share some photos. Look what I won: A skein of Trekking XXL sock yarn in very yummy browns that make me think of chocolate and coffee and some adorable Mary Engelbreit sticky notes.

I thought that the yarn deserved a close up to show off those colours. But here's a question: have I mentioned how much I like Mary Engelbreit before? Or was the inclusion of those sweet sticky notes just one of those things... Thanks (Not-so) CKG for a fun contest and a great prize!

Event One Finished

Thanks to The Knitting Wildflower, I became aware of and joined the Sock Knitters Pentathalon. Don't you just love it when friends enable? (It makes me happy!) The first socks are the Jacobean Socks.Looking at these photos, it makes me remember how hard it is to take pictures of one's own feet! I don't think that my feet are as lopsided as the first picture makes them look, but maybe I'm wrong...? I knit them out of the silly Sisu pictured here.
Things I learned while making these socks:
1. I can't do the Magic Cast-on to save my life! However, by going down a couple of needle sizes and paying close attention to the direction of my loops, my cast-on is invisible.
2. I learned how to do a sewn cast-off! Very exciting, I must say. I was having trouble with it until I came across some instructions that suggested splitting up the stitches and "grafting" the cast-off edge. Very clever...
(Just as an aside, when I was adding in the link for the Sock Knitters Pentathalon there was a warning about how the group was in an age restricted area of Yahoo Groups. I knew that socks were fun, but I'm not having that much fun - am I??? Maybe I need to get out more?)

Lows and Highs

Cross posted on the Scavenger Hunt blog here.
If you looked down on the ground today, you might have found me sprawled on the sidewalk or under my car in the sitter’s driveway… I was kind of afraid that the under the car thing was going to result in an “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” moment. Aren’t I too young for that? Enough of the ice and snow already. Unfortunately there is more of it in the forecast tomorrow and again on Friday. So those were a couple of lows today.
Fortunately, our stop at the mailbox was more of a high point to the day. We have one of those lovely Canada Post Superboxes so that the postal workers don’t have to put too much of an effort into delivering our rural mail. (I’ll tell you the moving the mailbox multiple times story sometime when I’m really peeved at our local post mistress.) Having managed to get myself out from under the car once, I wasn’t risking a second time, so Older Son very kindly retrieved the mail. Isn’t it nice when the kids are useful? Just junk mail in the regular mailbox, but there was a key to a package compartment…
I was waiting on two packages – one being something from (Not So) Cynical Knitting Gal’s contest (I had received confirmation from the United States Postal Service that it had been posted) and the other being my Scavenger Hunt Package. Which one would it be? It was my Scavenger Hunt Package from Penny!
And then there was another low… The realization that the camera has gone away with Mr. Me to Halifax for a couple of days and then a couple of days in St. John’s. Ack! I can’t take pictures until he gets home. I (very) briefly considering letting Penny know that it had arrived and explaining about the photos, but I decided that I’d just open it and try to describe everything.
So here goes:
The box was a 12 by 8 ¾ by 9 ¾ Smurfit-MBI recycled corrugated box – hey – she’d already hit the green category! (As a side note, I mention the brand of the box because it always makes me think of the Smurfs…) Upon opening the box I found a layer of sparkly red tissue paper covering all of the packages. The packages were wrapped in tissue – green, red, plaid, floral and one item was in a lime green bag… I just kept on taking them out of the box. There were 15 in total! I opened them in the order that they were described / identified in the accompanying letter…
First - “Green” was 3 balls of a lovely green shade of On-line “Tessa”, wrapped in green tissue paper and a green floral lei. It was purchased at Woseley Wardrobe, who even have their own Ravelry group! Very nice…
Second - “Hard” was a very sweet sheet mug with a hard vacuum packed bag of Irish Cream coffee.
Third – “Local” #1 and “local” #2. How great is that? Local #1 is a box of Morden’s Toasted Marshmallows. I’ll try to keep the kids out of them until I can snap a picture. They look and smell luscious… Local #2 is a skein of local 100% wool hand dyed sock weight yarn. It is heathered in shades of aqua blue, mauve and pink. Penny very wisely warned me that it is NOT superwash… (She must have read about some of my unfortunate felting episodes.)
Fourth – “Spoiler’s Choice”. Spoiler’s choice included 6 separate packages. There is a very sweet and lovely amigurumi book (those things just keep hollering at me) and 5 little packages with assorted yarns from Penny’s stash to make ‘gurumis. Now I think that that was a lovely thing to do in so many ways – it has given me a great colour selection and it would have also been suitable for the green category – and recycling is always a good thing. Love it!!! And there were 3 bags of sour candies to munch while I create ‘gurumis.
Fifth – “Round”. Round was a “Round Tuit”. What is this? It is a very pretty round box that is labelled “tuit”, with the explanation inside of how this should make my life easier since you’re always hearing people say they’ll do something when they get a “round tuit”. (Inside the “tuit” there is a round notebook and pen. The pen is from Penny doing decoy mail, but I’m going to have to ask her to explain that since I don’t know what it is.)
Sixth – “T is for Tiny”. Tiny as in tiny knitting needles, beads and crochet cotton with which I can make an amulet bag. The beads are a very pretty blue and the crochet cotton is a sort of cerise-y pink. Pretty!
And finally, “FUN-ny”. What knitter wouldn’t want a set of knitting word magnets? Very fun and very funny. My kids are going to LOVE these on the fridge!
At the very end there was a package that had a note on it to open it last. Inside there were patterns for a scarf to go with the green yarn (Ribbons Scarf from Yarn Yenta) and for the Bead Knitted Amulet Bag from S. Debra Santaniello.
Thanks again Penny for such a great package!

New Homes

Can you tell that Mr. Me and the sons are out this morning? It's quite refreshing not having to fight for the computer!
All prizes from my contest have successfully found new homes. And all of the winners were so very kind and posted photos on their blogs: Aisling, Angela and Moriah. This was an excellent opportunity to do a little bit of destashing on my part, but thanks to Ravelry, I was able to do some "stalking" so that hopefully this has meant that I've managed to award prizes that are appropriate for the interests of the recipients. Ravelry was particularly helpful in identifying favourite colours, and a cruise through the queues on everyone's profiles gave me an idea as to what they like, or would like, to knit.
Thanks again to everyone who played along with me!

Round and Round We Go, Where the Carousel Stops, Nobody Knows!

The carousel in question would be my Carousel Cap... If we go back to a week ago yesterday, this is how my yard looked.It snowed enough that school was cancelled for the kids (no surprise), the commuter bus that I normally take didn't go into the city (unprecedented) and work was closed until 1PM (shocking), but I couldn't get out of my driveway, so that was a moot point. Yay for technology and the ability to work online from home!
The last couple of years, I was able to successfully ignore winter for the most part, but this year it appears that winter is coming. And winter is staying. And winter isn't going to be a good guest... Since I had purchased some lovely Celestial Merino a couple of years ago for a Carousel Cap, I thought that this would be the perfect time to knit it. I knit a tension swatch. I counted. Okay - I didn't wash it, but I've knit with the yarn before so I knew that it *should* be just fine...
I cast on with a provisional cast on. Since I had some leftover pale blue from my Mom's Christmas socks of last year, I decided to use that for as much of the facing of the brim as was possible and the contrast ridges. So far, so good. As I got closer to the end of the blue, I calculated how much I needed for the ridges, and stopped the contrast in the facing at an appropriate point. The beads were strung and knit into place without issue. I had reversed the rows to compensate for my left handedness... Oh - it was looking nice!
Time to start the lace pattern. Now, I could see which way the "holes" were sloping and which way the stitches were sloping... I thought that I would be fine. After 3 rows, I realized that my lace was travelling in the wrong direction. Time to frog it back to the contrast ridge! It wasn't far... Better to do it right from the start.
Off I set again, and this is how far I got before I realized that I STILL didn't have the stitch pattern right...
So back to the contrast rigde it went again.
Last night I got to within maybe 10 rows of the end of the cap and I ran out of yarn!!! To my credit, I did not throw the hat, nor did I scream, although I wanted to do both. I am now off to frog it back about a third of the way, omit 2 rows at that point and then 2 more a little further up to have enough yarn to finish. Hey - it's only 4 rows that are being omitted, and that will be better than a great big massive and enormous hole at the top of my head!

A Tale of Two Skeins

Once upon a time in a stash of yarn lived a skein of Knitpicks Gossamer in the Caribbean colourway. When the skein had first arrived, he thought that he wanted to knit up to be a scarf. He watched his friend in the Blue Jean colourway grow up to be a scarf and live happily ever after. And then his friend Iris Heather Alpaca Cloud became a lovely lacy scarf. His mind was made up. He was meant to be a scarf! But then something happened. His friends, the Jewels Heather Shadow twins became this. Suddenly, the skein wanted be a shawl... Or a wrap... Or a stole... He wanted to be bigger than a scarf! But at 440 yards, he wasn't big enough on his own. A funk set in. Then one day something came in the mail.It appeared to be from Babs, the knitting chicken from Chicken Run! Was it? No - it was a prize from The Knitting Coop. But what was inside? The skein felt something in each and every fibre. The anticipation was electrifying! When it was opened, this is what he saw:Now the skein wasn't too excited about either the yummy looking chocolate, nor the yummy smelling Vanilla Caramel Yankee Candle votive candle, but the yarn gave him palpitations! Could it be??? Was he about to be able to fulfill his wildest dreams and his destiny??? The two skeins compared tags and this is what they found:TWINS!!! They are now two very happy skeins, and are considering their options.

Even though the skein wasn't too excited about the chocolate or the candle, I must say that I am! The candle smells good enough that I'd eat it if I could... And this notecard is not to be missed - isn't it cute?!

FFBE Package Received

When I got home from work on Thursday, my FFBE package from Pennie was waiting for me! What a nice welcome home. Ta-dah! Look at my new bag! I took it to work with me on Friday and received lots of compliments. I love the colours - they are very ME.

And what else was in the package? Well let's see...
A very cute note card from Pennie with all of her information, so that I can get to know her a bit now, the pattern for the Felted Buttonhole Bag from Mason Dixon Knitting, 3 skeins of Wool of the Andes from Knitpicks in "Cranberry", a Norwegian knitting thimble, locking stitch markers, a row counter, a too cute to believe sheep tape measure, a heart shaped bowl with a sheep on it, a "purl" badge, a pewter button (yarn and needles), a beaded stitch market and a lariat necklace with matching earrings and bracelet! Did I forget anything? I *think* that Pennie made the beaded stitch market and the jewellery... She is also a Bead Retreat instructor! The most interesting thing about the jewellery is the fact that it will all co-ordinate and mix and match with my existing jewellery! You probably can't see it from the photos, but there is a heart theme... I have other heart jewellery in co-ordinating colours! Hmmm...

All in all, a great package! Oh - and looking at the pictures, I forgot the gorgeous wooden purse handles - I can't usually find handles so nice. Thank you Pennie for a great package and thank you swap hostess Anne (I don't remember if there was a co-hostess this time or not - please feel free to correct me!) for another great swap.

Stash Sneak Peak

The current contest fro SP11 is to "Flash Your Stash"! Now while this is going to end up being VERY FUN - I cannot do it while Mr. Me is within an hour's drive of home. It just wouldn't be good for anyone. His blood pressure would rise to dangerous levels if he ever saw it all together in one place... Words that shouldn't be used in front of the children would probably be spoken...

However - he is going away for a couple of days next week. He will be out of the country! And since Monday is Canadian Thanksgiving, that will give me a whole day to get the stash herded together in one place. I'm hoping for a sunny day on Monday. I may put it all out on the lawn... Or maybe in one of the utility trailers... We have two. I wouldn't need both, but I might need the larger one.

As a bit of a "sneak peak" at my stash, the photo is of my sock yarn stash basket - only full skeins. I have a separate bags for my "bits", and of course you can't see the stuff on the bottom.

Maybe I'll see if I can bury the kids in my stash the way that we used to bury each other in sand at the beach... I've heard that suggested by other knitters and I think it could be fun!

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe...

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe
Catch a tiger by the toe
If he hollers let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
I was surprised at how many variations there are on this counting rhyme! Clearly, some of them are more acceptable than others... In this case, the "tiger" in question isn't really a tiger at all but rather Younger Son.
Younger Son who is the proud owner of a brand new pair of hand knit socks made out of Opal "Tiger". There's just something so "boy" about that yarn. I ordered it back in July along with some other things from Simply Sock Yarns. How long does something have to remain un-knit before I can claim that I knit it from my stash? They're currently out of stock of it, does that count as being long enough?

The challenge tonight: catch his tiger toes and convince him that his socks cannot be worn all week without washing! Boys...!

Needful

That would be needful as in needful of "Needful Yarns"! Okay - I didn't really need more yarn, but I wanted it. I bought 4 balls of this, 2 balls in each of 1020 and 1023. Enough for 2 pair of socks for ME! New stock arrived at my LYS yesterday and was still so fresh that I had to open up bags to get at it... Good thing that Trish is so nice! I did buy other yarn for other people as well, but since it is all destined to be gifts, I'm not going to post pictures of links just now.
Yesterday I successfully posted, not one, but two swap packages. My Sock It To Me package has been mailed as has my first SP11 package. I'm anxiously tracking their progress, and hope that both of my pals will feel at least a little bit spoiled.

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.

Cookie Anyone?

Okay, so they’re not edible, but I would if I could… Not one, but two pairs of finished Cookie A. socks. Another pair of Monkeys in Fleece Artist Merino (from my stash – aren’t you proud of me?) and a pair of Hedera in Regia Bamboo.

I need to measure up the Hederas. They may end up being the backup pair of socks for Sockapalooza 4 if my pal doesn’t receive her package by the middle of next week. If I end up shipping a second pair, yes, this time they will be insured. I could have done it easily “in town”, but my rural post office insisted that I couldn’t unless I was prepared to pay significantly more than I had paid for the yarn!.
My apologies for the date stamps on the photos, but older son came back from a day camp sleepover with this burn on his face…

I know that I’m going to have a conversation with the woman in charge of the local youth centre, but I’m not sure how much further I’m going to take it. There were kids at the day camp from K – 12 and it was the result of one of the older kids melting plastic, burning his finger, him shaking his finger to get the melted plastic off and it landing on my kid. Am I impressed? Not particularly.