Too Much Yarn

Birthday!

What a fun day - except for my cold... Not too busy at work.  Went out to lunch with the remaining co-workers at work - Dave and Ivan.  Ivan, being the generous person he is, he paid for Dave and my lunch.  Then, he dropped us off by the front door and he disappeared!  1/2 hour later, he showed up with this cake!

Believe it or not, it was not rich at all!  The cake was quite light, but I'm not a frosting person, so I scrapped a lot of frosting off.  The flowers were beautiful.  Dave thinks it's plastic.  I snapped a little point and it tastes like sugar to me! 

Back home, I received more restaurant gift certificates from hubby and 2 books:  The Great Empress and a Book on Birds.. WTH?  I asked if they were books he would like...For Christmas, I bought myself in iPad.  Emily got me a wireless keyboard and for my birthday, she got me the camera attachment (ok - I was with her and I paid for it - she just wraps it and put it in a gift bag!)  sorry, the iPad is a bit "touched".

So now, I'll all set to blog on my ipad at Sock Summit!  By the way, in case you forget your birthday, this is what your avatar will look like on Ravelry.  See the birthday cake - yep - if you see that, you'll know it's your birthday that day...

 

Yesterday, I finished my SKA Nov Mystery Socks.  That would be pair #21!!  minus 1!!  total of 12!!

And I forgot to show you my December Hazel Knits shipment.  I think Wendee dyed them for me cos I like blue!  I had to take the photo inside as I was unable to capture the color outside.  Starry Night:

and Cloudy Day:

Last night, I cast on the second sock of South Forks.  Remember these? 

I will knit as much as I can and on January 1, I'm casting on The Solstice Slip:

with Socks That Rock in Petunia:

A Hazel Knits Mystery Sock - in probably Splish Splash.

And Susan from Michigan and I are going to take on a sweater KAL.  We are going to knit Tea Leaves Cardigan from Madelinetosh.  I'm going to use my Malabrigo Rios in Zazamora.

What are you goals for 2011?

 

'Twas the Day After Christmas

when all through the house, not a needle was knitting, not even stash was touched. I will stop there.  I do not read or write poems as you can tell.

Actually, I did knit a few squares on my blanket and I've reached a point where I want to get the width of my blanket, so I have to cast on a new square in order to continue.  So, I'm packing it away so I get back to socks.  Here it is at 58 squares:

No new yarn this week, although I did give sock yarn to Jennifer (I didn't add so I won't minus), Christy (ditto!), but for Yvonne, I will take a minus one, which brings me to 13.  As this is an unlucky number, I'd better finish some projects before the start of the year... stay tuned for a surprise on New Year's Day on Yarnwatchers.

Speaking of Yvonne... I did a swap with her on a kit that is modeled after Woolgirl's kits.  We love her kits, but found that lately, they were not as "good" in quality as they used to be.  We set a limit of $60 on our kits as that was about the price of Woolgirl's kits.  I went over by a couple of bucks, but coupons keep me close to the limit.

Without the tissue:

A skein of Hazel Knits Artisan in Laguna, a Knitspot pattern, Les Abeilles, a snowflake stick pin, a stocking ornament, a project bag, and a bag of Pretzel Turtles.  I love this box I bought from Michael's.  I thought it would be perfect as a project bag/box for a shawl:

I liked it so much that I bought another one for myself - just a size smaller for my blanket.  One day, the blanket will outgrow the box (hopefully):

Now, Yvonne, stayed true to the Woolgirl kits. She even wrapped the kits in a Woolgirl plastic bag and filled it with lots of goodies:

And this is how I usually photographed my Woolgirl kits:

She gave me 2 skeins of Spud & Chloe Sock yarn (which I don't have!), Shepard's Choice Secret Stash hand cream, Eucalan lint pickup sheets and wipes, a typical Soak single wash pack (as Woolgirl usually sends in her packages), candy canes and hot cocoa mixes, a beautiful mug, stitchmarkers (of course!!), and the 7 Small Shawls e-book subscription.  She even printed a free pattern, Haruni, for me.  I told her we have to do this again next year...

I just updated my other blog with Christmas layouts, so I invite you over there to check out what happened at our house on Christmas Eve.

 

Favorite Christmas Movies

While people like to watch "A Wonderful Christmas" during the Christmas time, my favorites are usually off-beat...  These are the 3 movies I try to watch every December:

1.  Love Actually.  I just love all the different romantic comedies that are tied together.  For some people, this is very annoying, but I always like to connect each person to another subplot.  And it's got great music. Of course, almost 75% of famous British actors are in this movie, including Hugh Grant, Bill Nighy, Liam Neeson,  Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, and my favorite Mr. Darcy, Colin Firth - who, by the way, I hear is a favorite in next year's Oscar for Best Actor in "The King's Speech".  I totally love him in "Bridget Jones' Diary".  Then, I had to watch the 6-hour long "Pride & Prejudice" - BBC miniseries.  No other version can do.    So, if you've not seen this movie before, try it - you can definitely knit while watching this.

2.  This is so tacky - but it's hilarous!  It's the National Lampoon Christmas Vacation.  Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) has to have the BEST in everything, most lights on his house, biggest tree ever!  I highly recommend this if you haven't seen this. 

3.  Sadly, as much as I dislike Jim Carrey, I just love this story and I'm so glad Jim Carrey is hiding heavily in this Grinch costome in Dr. Suess' How The Grinch Stole Christmas.  I just loathe Jim Carrey's facial expressions, but it is so appropriate when he's the Grinch.  But I very much enjoy Christine Baranski as his love interest.  You can also knit while watching this:

I know I'll end up watching one of my husband's favorites (A Christmas Story).. To be honest with you, I have NEVER seen the complete movie, just the parts where the dog ate the turkey and then, they had to go to the Chinese Restaurant to have duck...

But I do admire the lamp.  I would be very interested in such a lamp if I could use it to post my finished socks in:

On knitting news, 2 new skeins arrived - Bugga in Love Bug (this is a point mutation with some splash of purple or something, but it looks fine to me).  I acquired this through a destash for a good price. It's the ultimate pink in my mind.

This is a one-time dye job in Wheel Bug.

I have a balance in my SG account so I'm looking forward to spending it on the Winter colors.  But they won't be available until next week in the Bugga/Skinny Bugga base!  I did destash Differential Grasshopper

and sent 4 skeins of sock yarn to a knitter who is on food stamps.  I figured if she needs help with food, there's no way she has money for yarn!

Total Yarnwatchers points = 17 + 2 - 5 = 14.

I finished the heel for the SKA November Mystery Sock (sock #2) but mostly, whenever I have a few minutes, I worked on the blanket.  At this point, I had 51 squares and I've filled up the cube with the yarns I've used and what are sitting out are what I have to use before I dig into the cube:

I also finished a scarf which took 2 hours, but I forgot to take a photo - I may ask Emily to snap a pic later on...

I did some decorating over the weekend... (need to get some more votives!)

and bought a new card display/holder...

made these cookie mixes for my co-workers..

and if I don't post before Christmas, I want to wish you Merry Christmas!

 

 

 

 

It's nice outside...

Sunny, blue skies, pretty, fresh snow, but ARE YOU CRAZY???  It's not going to go over zero degrees today - and that's in Fahrenheit!  For my Canadian reader - that would be - 17.777777 Celsius!  This was taken this morning when I first got up.

This was 24 hours ago... We ended up with 16" of snow.  So Jennifer, is there a law against putting patio furniture on the deck in the Winter?  That's what we've always done. No where to store it!

Then, I took photos of my blankie... as Sunday is the day I weave in ends.  I'm at 40 squares (counting the big Hazel Knits Laguna as 4 squares).  Before:

After:

And what it looks like NOW.  I need to pick up the house and bake some more cookies before I knit today.  And my box (Jennifer - it's made of thick plexi glass, I think - it's NOT glass) is dwindling down with yarn:

And to answer Carol's question about using Worsted Weight yarn.  You certainly can adjust these squares - to  make more stitches or use bigger size needles for thicker yarn.  My goal was to use up sock yarn, so I used size 2 (3 mm) needles because that's the fabric I like.  And yes, I suppose you can double up the sock yarn, but the fabric would be thicker.  So, techinically, it would be faster to complete the blanket... but the question comes down to how YOU would like the fabric/weight of the blanket.  I just love the fabic right now and the colors.  My sock projects going forward (if I ever knit socks again!!) may come down to what colors I need for my blanket... HAHA!

These are the cookies I made yesterday.  The Orange Cranberry Oatmeal cookies is a new recipe.  I am going to make a batch of the Peanut Butter Blossoms and then, the rest are going to be bars.

(and yes, I put my cookies on the carpet where I took yarn photos!)

I also finished a Malabrigo Rios hat last week.  It was supposed to be a hat with flaps, but it was too big so I had to flip up the brim and no ear flaps.  I may try it in the medium size... But I just don't have a good head for hats!  Here's the hat with the model with a nicer head:

What else do I need to report???  AHHH!  New yarns!  First of all, in the  middle of the Winter Storm, I drove to the LYS (about 3 miles away) - I think I'm one of the TWO customers yesterday as they closed the shop by 1 pm.  I picked up the set of Addi Click Lace needles I had put on hold.  As this month is my Birthday month (I've already received gift cards from Chico's, Coldwater Creek, Victoria Secret, Noodles & Company, a Loopy Ewe gift card from Christy!), I get an additional 10% off in addition to my normal 10% off from the store (frequent shopper discount!).  So, I stocked up with some yarn for projects next year and also gifts.  This was not planned, but they ended up in my bag.  6 skeins of Malabrigo Rios in Azules.  A sweater one day?

Zero points - they're not sock yarn.  BTW, I have a question.  If I use the gift card from Christy to buy sock yarn, do they count in my yarnwatchers point?

Then, my order from Hazel Knits arrived.  This order consist of the new base, Entice, and Piquant.  Everything there is in Entice and the Jay Blue is Piquant. I have not knitted with them yet:

The Aquarius (second left, is a knotty skein, a gift from Wendee).  So, plus 5.  I also destashed Red-Spotted Purple Butterfly Bugga, -1, which brings me a total of +17.  Bye-bye, RSPB:

New Kits & More Blankie Tales

Before I forget, I added the blue yarn that Jennifer spied from my flickr account - so that makes my Yarnwatchers at 14  (see, Barb?  I'm not going to hit 30!!)

OK - the long-awaited Woolgirl Java kit arrived on Friday and the Yarn4Socks and Rockin' Sock Club packages arrived on Saturday (sorry Jennifer, didn't mean to rub it in about Saturday deliveries... everyone else: Canada Post does not deliver on Saturdays!).  Not pictured is the already consumed coffee hard candies and a spoon dipped in chocolate.  No idea who ate that!  Not me!!  The project bag is nice and luckily, it's blue!  The yarn is so-so, but it's intriguing how it's dyed with natural products.

Next, the Rockin' Sock Club last package of 2010...The colorway is called "The skien with no name". It's autumy colored.  The 2 patterns are designed by Nancy Bush and Samantha Roshak.  Both patterns look similar and I will probably knit it some time later.

And last, the Yarn4Socks kit.  I ordered this because I didn't want to miss a special color by Wendee from Hazel Knits.  It's like an intense version of Strawberry Lemonade, but just with a tad more amber!

Sock pattern is from Kirsten Kapur with some beads on the cuff, so if I can finish some socks, I may knit this in red/pink Hazel Knits so I can double dip in the HK December and Solid Socks KALs.  But first, I have to finish some socks!  And why am I not knitting socks?  Be- cause!  of blankie! 

OK - I went past my 5-credits.  I knitted 6 more squares, which puts me at 21.  I figured out the size of the blanket I want to make - which is the red one here, about 60x84.  That would mean I need 560 squares!  That would take about a year if I knit 10 squares a week.  I'm just really into the project now, so I'm up by a week, but this is not going to sustain.  Also, I found another bag of leftover sock yarn - all my STR Variegated.  So happy to see them!

And these two photos were specially taken for Christy (whose birthday is not today!  But Tuesday!).  See how clean the back is?  No dangling ends (except for the top row?)...

You know how much I love this project if I'm weaving the ends in as I go!  Well, I'm keeping the ends after weaving them in.  I stuffed them into this needle vial I received last month from a  Woolgirl kit.  I figured once it's all stuffed up, I'll frame these vials up for art!  So, anyone reading my blog who is not using the needle vials from Zecca, please give them to me.  I haven't contacted them for pricing yet, so I have no idea how much they cost.

(this photo was taken with a new 50mm lens I bought a few months back.  I bought specially for taking yarn photos, but haven't used it much).  But I like how much light it can take in... 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!  And I leave you with a picture of my latest love.

 

I have to stop!!

I haven't really knitted anything but this blankie.  I took this photo yesterday with 11 squares.  Last night, I knitted 4 squares.  I imagined myself knitting this for the next few months.... I really like that a square is like a little project - I can get it done in 1/2 hour.  And to feel the MCN... oh, so nice!  As I'm knitting one square, I'm thinking of casting on the next color.  It's like I'm kniting sock #1 and I'm thinking of casting on the next sock pattern (not sock #2).  I'm making myself not pick the same color; I have to use up all the colors before using the same one.  I thought about putting the balls away until every single one has been knitted... I thought about closing my eyes and then, just use what I pick... I thought a lot while knitting the blankie.  Then, Brain stepped in and said, "For every sock you finish, you can knit 5 squares.  So for a complete pair, you get a bonus of 5 squares - i.e. 15 squares for a completed pair."  I said, "OK - I'll start knitting socks again after I finish 20 squares, ok?"  So, a deal was made between Brain and me...  This was after 11 squares:

Christy's Birthday is coming up on Sunday.  She's received her package already and have opened them so it's not a surprise to show you what I sent her:  Shibui Stoccata yarn, the project bag that Anne Hanson has, and a pair of special Monkey Socks - I carried the lace pattern down the heel.  Christy has not knitted Monkeys nor owned any, so here is her first pair!

I also destashed the Frog-Legged Bugga from last week and I just decided to give this up.   It was snatched up within minutes on the Trade/Destash board.  This is Skinny Bugga in Blue Arsed Fly.

Isn't that pretty?   So, that would be minus 3.  Total:  10. 

Then, the mailman brought not 1, not 2, but 3 packages all on the same day!  I don't like that.  Because it's more "noticeable" how much yarn is coming in and my hubby sees them!  He said I have to knit the mailman socks for the packages he brings to the house!  Maybe I'll knit him a hat if I can add 10 squares to my blankie credit.  So, fortunately, only 3 of them were new yarn as 2 of them were from sock club, so my total remains at 13.  From Three Irish Girls... this is the Glenhaven Cashmerino, and frankly, it's a lot muted than the preview pictures.  I was expecting more of a coppery color - not pink..

These came from Fiberphile.  I do like her colors.  I think I may need to get some for gifts (not that I can't find any from my stash):

But this... this is my favorite -it's from GaioColours.  I think I may be getting more from her!  I think the colorway is Styx.

Well, that's all for now. It's snowing like crazy outside and I have to go out.  I'll pack some knitting while waiting for Emily's therapy session.

Edited (7:39 p.m.).  Jennifer noted a skein of blue yarn on my flickr.  Yep.  I bought a skein of Three Irish Girls Springvale Sport in Serenity from someone who was trying to raise money for her brother's surgery.  It was for a good cause... and it's blue: