THANKS!!!

I got my first package from my secret pal today. She checked with me the other day to see whether it had arrived. I had a mail notice and thought it was for the package, but nooo! and as usual I never coordinate well with the postman when it comes to being home to accept packages. While I was at the post office picking up a package Saturday morning, he was delivering 2 packages to my apartment!! The slip I had was for Victorian Lacy Today. This was exciting, but it was not secret pal! Well, today's 2 packages included secret pal and boy was it worth the wait for Monday to arrive!! My SP is awesome! Let me show you the goods! First thing I smelled when I opened the box was Burt's Bees Essential body kit. . Just in time for the cold weather! MY skin gets so easily chapped.
I love Burt's Bees products! This was only the beginning. I've been totally spoiled! Next was Zhena's Gypsy Tea (raspberry earl grey) I absolutely love tea and will definitely be having a cuppa tonight. There was also a tin of Traveler's chocolate. However, the only place this chocolate will be traveling to is my stomach! Along with all these goodies came some cascade yarn begging to become some fetching wrist warmers or maybe a little felted something. Lookie here! Now by this time, your all thinking what more can there be? Let's continue with Show and Tell! I got something new to try called An embellishment Kit for felted knits. This one is called String of Lights and just in time for the Holidays. My head is swimming with ideas! Perhaps a felted scarf with a string of lights or a wall hanging. Hmm...that cascade yarn might notturn into wristwarmers after all. Of course,there's plenty of yarn in the stash... My picture doesn't do justice to the beautiful colors of roving included in the kit.

I also got a Christmas themed memo pad!

Thank you SP for such a wonderful package. I'm going to enjoy every bit of it!!!

I'm a Winner!

In more ways than one! But I'll just share the good, fun kind tonight! Our Hostess for this latest Secret Pal exchange has made things even more fun by having a series of contests! The most recent contest required participants to make a dishcloth and post it. Here's mine It's the famous Mason-Dixon ballband dishcloth made with sugar&cream yarn. It was easy and fun to make. Well, guess what? I won second place (names of winners drawn from a hat). There were four winners chosen. Here is my gift!!! The colors are really beautiful. The yarn is from Newton Country Yarns and the color is Truffle. It's a cotton rayon boucle. It's quite a good size hank too. My challenge is to decide what to make. So, stay tuned I will think of something cool. I love it! Thanks Patty!

In other knitting news:
I am working on a simple pair of socks using self-striping yarn and being amazed at the stripes! (I'm so simple to amuse sometimes 8-)). The heel is done in short rows with wraps. I like doing short rows, but hate the wraps! I had to frog once because, I had holes! Second time has been the charm. The swatch is done for beadwork and I'm ready to cast on!

Have a good evening everyone and good weekend. I'll probably be posting again this weekend because I have some postal notices about packages waiting for me. Yahoo!

Happy Thanksgiving

~*~*HAPPY THANKSGIVING ~*~*

'TWAS THE NIGHT OF THANKSGIVING, BUT I JUST COULDN'T SLEEP.
I TRIED COUNTING BACKWARDS, I TRIED COUNTING SHEEP.

THE LEFTOVERS BECKONED - THE DARK MEAT AND WHITE.
BUT I FOUGHT THE TEMPTATION WITH ALL OF MY MIGHT.

TOSSING AND TURNING IN ANTICIPATION,
THE THOUGHT OF A SNACK BECAME INFATUATION.

SO I RACED TO THE KITCHEN, FLUNG OPEN THE DOOR.
AND GAZED AT THE FRIDGE FULL OF GOODIES GALORE.

I FELT MYSELF SWELLING SO PLUMP AND SO ROUND,
'TILL ALL OF A SUDDEN I ROSE OFF THE GROUND.

I CRASHED THROUGH THE CEILING FLOATING INTO THE SKY
WITH A MOUTHFUL OF PUDDING AND A HANDFUL OF PIE.

BUT I MANAGED TO YELL AS I SOARED PAST THE TREES

HAPPY EATING TO ALL, PASS THE CRANBERRIES PLEASE.

MAY YOUR STUFFING BE TASTY, MAY YOUR TURKEY BE PLUMP;

MAY YOUR POTATOES AND GRAVY HAVE NARY A LUMP.

MAY YOUR YAMS BE DELICIOUS, MAY YOUR PIES TAKE THE PRIZE -

MAY YOUR THANKSGIVING DINNER STAY OFF YOUR THIGHS!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING (Irene @ New England Textile Association)

--

I've come to the conclusion ...

that I need to find a new job. If you want to skip this part and go to the knitting feel free. I just needed to get these thought out of my head, where they've been intruding all weekend. I work as a therapist and really enjoy what I do. However, I don't like where I'm doing it. There have been many changes where I work over the last few years and not many of them are positive. Some things have happened at work this week that have made me see clearly that I have to make a change. My body has been telling me for I while(headaches, body aches,stress eating,insomnia), I just haven't been listening. I thought that because I like what I do and the people I see, that I could just ignore everything else, but I can't anymore. So, I've starting updating my resume and beginning the search for a new job. I'm being vague on some details for now...never know who reads these things. It's been a lousy weekend because I can't let it go. Hopefully I'll start feeling better about things, now that I've made the decision to leave. Thanks for listening. I'm so glad I have knitting... I don't want this post to be a total downer, so here's some knitting:
I finished the Ballband Dishcloth from Mason*Dixon Knitting . It was a fun knit and fast. The pattern was really easy to remember after a couple of repeats. It's cool how it all comes together. At first I couldn't picture how the vertical stitches were done, but it's clever and simple at the same time. Here is a close-up of the pattern and colors:
I'll be making more of these in the future! Completing this dishcloth put me contention for the grand prize of stash enhancement, courtesy of Patty our Secret Pal 9 hostess. She is keeping SP9 fun and exciting by have contests. In other knitting news, I actually have nothing to finish, this is sinful. However, I'm correcting the situation immediately by starting the Beadwork sweater by Alice Starmore. I had been putting it off to finish other projects, so Let the knitting beginning. Lest you think I'm slacking, I do have other projects in mind. They're just not on the needles!

Felting 101

I can't believe it, but I've finally finished my felted slipper socks. They came out really cute! They were huge after knitting them! The picture does not clearly show the size and the knitting well prior to felting, but here is the before picture:

I really like the color for these slippers. The yarn is Paint Box and is 100% wool. The pattern is from www.knitty.com . When it came to felting these, I thought it would be a piece of cake. Not True! My machine was not very cooperative and I forgot to put in that little bit of detergent to help with agitation. I must've worked it with the machine for almost 40 minutes and there was no felting to be seen. I got online and quickly looked up "felting". Lucky for me the first hit was a good one. The author talked about felting in the kitchen sink with step-by-step directions. Here's a progress pick:

The soapy hot water and hand agitation resulted in almost instant results. It was kind of fun playing water! I was also determined these were going to felt or else! I think for first time felting they came out really well. They are a still a little bit big, but I was afraid of over felting them. Still, I love the feel of them and they will definitely keep my feet warm this winter.

This won't be my last felting project. I have a bag to make next using Noro yarn. Both felting projects are courtesy of Kate of Secret Pal 8.

In other knitting News...



Our group's SP9 Hostess, Patty has dreamed up another contest! The prize will be yarn. You know I can't pass that up, though I'm beginning to feel like I have a stash beyond life expectancy ( and I've got a long way to go ). The contest is making a dishcloth by the stated date and posted to the blog. Winner will be chosen and yarn dispatched. I'm making the dishcloth from the Mason-Dixon book. I can't believe how easy it is!

Dishcloth in progress
I'm off to watch Bones on T.V. it's a great show. It's a crime drama laced with humor. I can relax and knit too. Who could ask for more on a weekday evening.