Knitter's Tea Swap

This is the package that will be making its way to my pal today. This is the first swap other than Secret Pal that I've participated in and I've really enjoyed it. Not more than SP, just in a different way. I can't wait until my pal gets her goodies. I think she's really going to like them.

This swap has also made me realize just how pathetic I really am. Why? Because this is my favorite mug. No, it's not the fact that it's a Dale Earnhardt mug that makes me think I'm pathetic. It's the fact that I don't own a real tea cup. Oh sure, I have lots of coffee cups. But it's not the same thing. I'm 34 years old and I've never owned a tea cup. Hell, I don't even own a matching set of grown up coffee cups. My entire coffee cup collection consists of cups just like this. NASCAR, Taz, local businesses that I was gifted when I worked. You realize this means I'm so going looking for a real tea cup now, right?

How To Appease The Sock Gods

As you all know, I've been in a bit of a sock slump lately. It's true that I did finally finish my Scales Skin Socks last week BUT when I picked up my latest and greatest sock project it...well...it went to shit. Fast. This angered me. I ripped the entire cuff out even though I had about 3 inches of it worked. I sat here at my desk and just stared at the unravelled ball of Gaia thinking unreasonably that if I stared at it long enough and hard enough that it would start knitting itself. I'm sure I don't need to tell you all how that ended. Then I looked at the unravelled ball of Jade Sapphire still sitting here since the last time I ripped the shawl. I picked it up and smiled at it's softness. I stroked it and pet it. Then I went to reach for the needle I bought to knit the shawl with. It had worked it's way under the Glad Ragg sock sitting in the back corner of the desk. I picked the sock up and fondled it. Such a lovely sock with its pretty green beads. Lovely indeed. And lonely. That's when it hit me. I've angered the Sock Gods by leaving that poor sock mateless for such a long time. So I picked up the pathetic start I'd made on the mate and started knitting. And before I knew what had happened I had completed the ribbing. Perfect. So I knit some more. After 4 more rounds my eyes were sore and I was too tired to go on. I brought it back to the desk and laid it next to it's mate. Wait a minute. Something. Is. Not. Right. I wanted to cry. Instead I went to bed. I laid awake for hours trying to figure out where I had gone wrong. I finally fell asleep. When I came down this morning I took a good long look at the sock. Then I took a good long look at it's mate. Then I READ THROUGH THE PATTERN. It was so obvious that I had started with a beaded repeat when I should have started with a plain repeat. I frogged 3 rounds and was happily on my way once again. I think I've finally done it. I figured out why everything I've touched for the past month has gone to hell. I hadn't finished my Glad Ragg and therefore, the Sock Gods were not glad. So, if you ever find yourself in this position here's what you want to do...

Dig out the most neglected sock in your to be completed pile and knit like hell!

In other news, I received those three hanks of yarn I ordered from Lazy Perry Ranch in yesterday's mail. Yup. Already. Only took them 2 days to get here from CA via First Class Mail. Amazing. My faith in the USPS is gradually being restored.

Meet Desert Juniper, Splendid Gilia, and Periodic Table. There's still one Splendid Gilia (the most beautiful shades of purple you'll ever want to see) in her shop. And you still have until Saturday to take advantage of her free shipping offer on orders of 3 or more items. Plus, you get a coupon good for 10% off your next order with each order you place. I'm thinking I may still have to go back to get a few more. She's got some really pretty self stripers.

For all of you sitting on the edge of your seats wondering about the football game on Friday...I'd love to tell you the boys won, but they didn't. The final score was 12-7. They did a phenomenal job holding the other team back. If you could have seen the size of the other kids you'd agree whole-heartedly. They were huge. And they were good. I'm so proud of our boys.

I've also received my pal for the KTS2. I've wrote her and heard back from her once already. I've asked a couple questions to help me do a little shopping and am anxiously awaiting her response. I've also had a note from the person spoiling me and she's told me she's already mailed me a card. Isn't that sweet? I can't wait to find out who she is!

Phew. I think that's it for now. I'm quite impressed you've made it this far. ;-)

Perfect Pick Me Ups

This arrived in the mail yesterday from Marga. She was one of the winners of my last drawing for my SP8 group and she sent these gorgeous markers and card. I was so touched to think she took time out to do something so sweet for me. Thanks so very much Marga! It was a pleasure having you in my group!

My friend Laura told me she'd share some of her lemon balm with me once it dried. When I picked up the box sitting on the mail post yesterday I thought she might have sent an entire plant. Nope.
This is what she sent. Teas, teas, and more teas. I had a cup of Happy Christmas and Raspberry last night and they were both so good. I'm planning on trying a couple more later today. And yarns. OMG the yarns! My favorite is the natural colored hank on the left. It is so soft and appears to be handspun. Laura says she thinks it's Alpaca and I can't say I disagree since it's that soft. Dailaesse promptly swiped Mickey Mouse and Yoda. And of course, there is her very own organic lemon balm in there too. Thank you so very much Laura! What an amazing and thoughtful package! I appreciate you so very much for thinking of me.

Finally Finished

I finished these on the way to dinner after the football game Friday night. They've since been washed and are currently hanging from the pot rack in the kitchen to dry. I was so worried that I wouldn't have enough yarn to finish but look at the size of the ball that was left. You know what that means right? I have a whole other ball of this for another pair of socks. (Plus the other 6 I bought when I ordered the extra ball but who's counting right?)

These beauties arrived this weekend from Rubysapphire Yarns. If you've not checked out their yarns yet you really should. They are butter soft and the colors are just amazing. I can't wait to get to work on the red and white since those are our school colors. I'm going to have a nice new pair of socks for the football games!

These came from Lazy Perry Ranch and they are gorgeous. I've not bought from this Etsy seller before but I certainly wasn't disappointed. The yarn has a great twist and is super soft. Collette is offering free shipping for the remainder of this month if you buy 3 or more items from her shop. Yes, I've ordered 3 more. Bran has already staked claim to the blue. He's not getting his until I get my red and white ones though. He's ok with that since I re-knit the toe in his 6th Sense socks that he put the hole in before I went to bed last night. I think they're his favorites. If you could have seen his face light up last night when I handed them to him you'd think the same.

Turning a New Leaf

Or in this case, a new heel...

You have no idea how excited I am about this. I'm hoping to at least get the gusset decreases done tonight. That will make me super psyched.

Now, I want you to meet my new friend...

Her name is Abigail. Isn't she beautiful? I got her from Sam and Lauri at Rubysapphire Yarns. I can't wait to whip her into a gorgeous pair of socks.

Football really kind of sucked on Friday. The boys played Ausable Valley on their brandy dandy new turf field. JV won 21 to 14 again this past week. They are still undefeated. I fnd this amazing. Especially given the fact that they receive absolutely no recognition. I just don't get it. They didn't turn on the scoreboard for the boys or bother to announce the game. Those of us who are short and have a hard time seeing over the heads in front of us had a hell of a time following along. To make matters worse, they don't even post the results of the game in the local paper. The varisty team lost and they got almost a full page write up. I'm surprised the JV boys stay as pumped as they do. Anyway, here's the only picture I found with my little man (74) in it on the school's website...

Keep your fingers crossed that he'll get more than 3 minutes on the field this Friday.

Slitherin' Along

Are you guys as sick of looking at this sock as I am starting it? I don't want to tell you how many times I've ripped this stupid thing since the last time I posted about it. I thought the last time I posted that I was off and running with it but it turns out I wasn't. I don't even remember anymore what the problem was, but it was enough to make me rip it. If it weren't for the fact that I love this pattern & that I have the other sock completed, the entire project would have been tossed in the garbage by now. The cuff of this sock is 7" long and the skein is only 400 yards. I started to worry that I might not have enough to make the pair. So I dug through my PayPal receipts and found the email address for the seller I bought the yarn from. I was thrilled to hear that he still had a ball of yarn in the same color and dye lot so I ordered it. And several others.

Aren't they pretty? I couldn't have that one little skein of yarn travelling by itself and since they were still only $3.95 a ball I took one of each of the colors he had left.

These adorable little critters arrived in the mail last week. Are they not the cutest little things you've ever seen? Santa Sheep markers. They were custom made by Pink Sheep. I see her store is empty right now, but I believe she's working on some new stuff to put in.

I want you all to know that I've not tossed Gaia aside in favor of another yarn. I've been swatching. I think after ripping for the 6th time last night that I've finally decided on a pattern. I'll post a picture as soon as I have something interesting enough to post.

Saturday was spent at the football game. Both JV and varsity won again. The boys are undefeated and I hope their winning streak continues. This week they play under the lights on Friday. They're all really looking forward to the night game.

Gouverneur is a really tough team and the sophmores were pretty much the only ones on the field this game. Dan (74) was bummed to spend so much time on the sidelines.

He gave it his all when he did get out there though. See him gettng ready to take out the opposing player? That's my little man.

Finally Friday

Here is the picture I promised of the Gaia from Savvyminx Yarns. This was taken just before I ripped it out. I normally tend to swear a lot as I'm ripping projects, but I didn't this time since I ripped it because I wanted to and not because I had to. My mindset really makes a difference.

See how it's doing that really cool shadow sort of thing? I love it. And I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this yarn. It's so soft and feels just like butter running over my fingers. I've got to find a different pattern for it. Something that will really do it justice.

And here's some proof that I actually advanced on the second Scales Skin Sock.

Not much, I know. I completed 17 rounds in the few minutes I took to sit on my arse today while waiting for dinner to finish baking. My darling husband invited his friend and his wife (who I've never met) to the house for dinner tomorrow night so I've been cleaning house today. This is the reason we rarely entertain. It's not because I don't like having people around, I just don't like having to make sure the house is hospital clean. We have 3 kids and our house shows it on a daily basis. It's fine for us but not for company.

Look at what came in the mail today.

Have you ever seen a more gorgeous piece of art in your life??? I got it from Alicia Hankins. Her husband has been hand crafting these gorgeous darning eggs and nostepinnes from the cleared and felled trees that Hurricane Katrina left behind. (I'll not tell you what my husband thought it was.) Alicia's constantly updating her inventory and I believe I saw a little blurb somewhere that said she also takes custom orders. Go have a look for yourself. I'm sure you'll be as impressed as I am.

Thanks Leslie for the wonderful compliment on the blog! I'm really loving the new look. The splash of knit at the top and bottom are the Crusoe socks I made for Stephanie. :-)

Early to Bed

I can't believe how tired I've been these past few nights. I put the girls to bed at 8pm on school nights. Like usual, I have to lay down in our bed with Dailaesse to get her to go to sleep. Tonight I fell asleep too. If my mother had not called at 8:30 I would have slept right straight through til morning.

I finally seem to have found my knitting groove. I was getting seriously frustrated. It's a damn good thing too since I'm teaching a sock class at the LYS this weekend. Since I'm tired and don't feel like taking pictures tonight I'll just tell you that I've cast on for the second Scales Skin Sock for about the 12th time and I finally seem to be on a roll. I can only hope that I've not jinxed it by talking about it.

And the shawl seems to be working much better with the Clover Bamboo needle too although I ripped it back again since I found I was off by one stitch when I got to the end of the last row I worked and was so mad that I couldn't see straight to find the mistake I made. At least I'm happy with the needle and yarn combination now and I'll be even happier when I pick it up tomorrow after having a full night of sleep.

I wish I could say that Pomatomus was fairing as well as the other sock and the shawl but it's not. The more I worked on it the more I realized the yarn and pattern are just not jiving. I'm wanting to work this pattern so badly but just can't seem to find the right yarn. I absolutely love the yarn though so I think I'll do the same thing I did with the Crusoe socks and find a new pattern for it. It's so gorgeous that it really deserves to show off. It's doing this totally funky shadow kind of thing right now that I can't get enough of. I'll be sure to take a picture before I rip it out to show you what I mean. Very cool but not right for the pattern. The search is on. But not right now. Now I'm off to switch laundry and then I'm heading to bed.

Back to School

Today was the first day of school. It went really well. Dan got up and ready and didn't seem at all nervous about his first day of high school. I'm still wondering exactly where the time has gone. One day you're blowing snot bubbles out your nose because you can't stop crying because you've had to leave your baby at his first day of kindergarten then you blink and you're blowing snot bubbles out your nose because your baby is leaving to start his first day of high school. It's just not right. Darcie got up on her own this morning and jumped right in the shower. This is HUGE. There are claw marks on the walls leading to the bathroom from just last week when I dragged her in there. She put on a bra and deodorant without being told to AND got dressed in a really nice outfit that she picked out herself. She couldn't wait to get to school this morning. I've never seen her so excited. She looked so grown up. One more year of elementary school and then she'll be starting middle school. I'm afraid to blink.

The house was really quiet today. Dailaesse and I took Dixie out to run around the yard and on the way out back I felt something bite the top of my foot. I had my Crocs on and couldn't get them off fast enough. I saw nothing fly or crawl out of my shoe and there was nothing in it either but I felt the worse pain I think I've ever felt in my life. Seriously. This made labor pale in comparison. My mother looked at it tonight when she got home and said it looked like a bee sting to her. If it is, I've obviously outgrown my allergy to bees because I'm still breathing. For a couple hours after I got bit there was a quarter size white welt surrounding the red dot that you can still see here.

My foot is still red but not nearly as bad as it was earlier. I just can't believe that it still hurts and it would make me feel so much better if I knew what it was that bit me. Anything that causes a person that much pain should not be allowed to live. Since I don't know exactly what it was I'll be squashing everything and anything that crosses my path.

Like my paint job? Dailaesse did that for me the other day. She loves it when we do each others nails.

Knitters Tea Swap 2

I read about the first Knitters Tea Swap after it was already underway and was bummed that I hadn't been able to join in on the fun. So when I saw that Shelby had joined the second round I went searching for the signup info. I've sent in my answers to the questionnaire and am hoping I make the cut. There's only room for 200 participants so if you're interested you might want to get there soon. :-)

I've Lost It

I'm not joking. I've really lost it. I cast on twice for the second Scales Skin Sock. Why? Because for some reason my join was just really not right. I've cast for so many socks it makes my head spin when I think of it and I've never had this problem. On my third attempt the knitting gods smiled upon me and the join was nice. So I knit 17 rounds, folded the cuff over, and started on my beautiful hemmed cuff with the picot edging. Then I knit another 24 rounds. I stopped to admire it's beauty and realized the hemmed part looked off. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I looked a little closer. The rows of stitches were leaning. Yes, leaning. I ripped it out and started over. Twice. Because the join wasn't right.

Then there's the shawl. I've started it and ripped it 7 times now. I must say that the yarn is holding up amazingly well. I'm very impressed. I'm heading to the LYS now to get a bamboo needle. I'm hoping the eigth time will be the charm.

These are the remains of my poor projects. Pathetic, no?

The good news is that I found some wonderful pictures of my little man from the game Saturday. He's number 74. I've got to find out what camera was used to take these photos. They are all so crisp and clear. My camera really sucks compared to this one. If anyone has any recommendations for a new one please let know. I'd love a digital but a 35mm would be fine too if it takes gorgeous pictures like these.

Storm Warning

Several years ago the school board decided that the name of our sports team had to be changed. Since the beginning of time, we were known as the Saranac Lake Redskins. The board came up with 3 lame assed names and put them out to the students and teachers to vote on. The lesser of the 3 evils won and we are now the Saranac Lake Red Storm. See, lame assed. I still don't know what the problem was. We have several reservations within 50 miles of us and not once did I hear of the Native Americans going on the war path over our name. Anyway, both our JV and Varsity football teams won against Beekmantown on Saturday. This was the opening game and Dan was so psyched that he was going to be able to play. Dan's going into 9th grade and plays on the JV team. They won 18 to 6! He was beaming. So was I. I'm so proud of him. He did a great job out on the field with his team. I wish I had pictures to share, but when we got to the field and I turned the camera on it flashed it's little "low battery" sign and shut itself back off. Opening game and no pictures. That really sucked. I'll have to keep and eye on the school's website to see if they post some.

In knitting news, I've tried 3 times to get this damn shawl started and it's just not working. I can't for the life of me figure out what the problem is now. Yesterday I knew it was because I insisted (like a dumb ass) on using a Turbo to knit it with. So I went to the LYS and bought a Bryspun needle. It's still not working. I'm definitely not a lace virgin so I have to blame the knitting gods. This must be their occasional way of keeping me real. Bastards.

Like Father, Like Daughter

My dad has a terrible memory. Seriously. I could call him this very minute and tell him something and if you asked him about it tomorrow he wouldn't remember having spoken to me. He's been like this for as long as I can remember so I'm not overly concerned about it at this point. Plus, his lack of memory seems to be selective at times. When Dan was little (maybe 3 or 4) my parents would call to be sure we were home before they'd come to visit. They would always ask Dan if there was anything special he wanted at the store while they were out. One day he had asked my Dad to bring him some sort of special treat. Dan stood on the arm of the chair and waited for them to arrive with said treat. About an hour later my parents pulled into the driveway. Dan started running circles around the living room waiting for them to make their way into the house. They walked in and he ran for my dad. Of course my father scooped him up and snuggled him. As soon as he did that, Dan's shoved his hand into my dad's shirt pocket (this is where he keeps small treats, has since I was little) and came out with nothing but a terrible look on his little face. "Papa, where's my treat?" He had forgotten. Papa's face got red, he apologized profusely to Dan, and he turned to walk out of the house to go to the store. When he got back Dan thanked him for his treat but he let him know that his "remembory" wasn't that good. We still use that word every now and then. :-)

I promise I didn't forget about the drawing for my blogiversary on purpose, but I did forget. I remembered this morning and went back through the comments to write everyone's name on a piece of paper. I put you all in Dailaesse's Dora backpack and drew a winner.

javajem

Thanks so much to everyone who played along!

Oops, She Did It Again!

I honestly don't know what the hell is wrong with me.

I came home with these 3 lovely gems tonight. While they are certainly gorgeous, they aren't this...

which was what I went to Sue's to buy tonight to knit this...

into a shawl for my Aunt Noreen. Isn't it gorgeous? It's Jade Sapphire and it's 100% Chinese Cashmere. It's also amazingly soft and I know I'm so going to enjoy knitting this shawl.