Knitting?

(No, the mitts are not finished. Look at the pretty birdhouse. Move along.)
So while not much knitting is going on, we did have a busy weekend, with the kiddos graduating to the next level of their karate classes. The Girlie is now a blue belt and the Boy is a brown. A brown! My mom and good friend Amber came for the ceremony, and the kids were thrilled. As requested, here are some pics of my dangerous little duo.


And today, we not only received the first snow of the season, but this was also the first snow of Chewie's very short little life. I made sure to arm myself with my camera, fully expecting Chewie to approach this even with his customary delight and gusto. He did not disappoint.


Even his favorite stick was oh-so-much-better.

Tashi is not much of a fan of the cold white stuff, herself, and was less than enthused with the silly puppy's antics. She was happy to come in and warm her paws.

I do have an FO to share, that was actually completed at Grandview and never photoed. As I approached the toe on the second sock -- socks I had been knitting for quite some time FOR ME, that I had been dying to wear -- I had the thought that they would make a lovely gift for my sister. DAMNNIT! Why? I then felt guilty at the thought of keeping them for myself, depriving her of their wooly goodness. The languished in my bag for 2 weeks unworn, their fate uncertain. Yeah, I'm over it.

These were made with my Woolicious Superwash Falkland wool sportweight yarn. So warm and wooly and cushy. I've already washed them, too and they got even softer. mmmmmm (Sorry, Sis!)

Gettin' Chum-my...

Ok, so that was BAD. Real Bad. But seriously, I'm fading fast here and that was all I could come up with. So what is it all about? WELL, my shop was featured on Lime and Violet's Daily Chum as the Etsy shop of the day yesterday! YAY! Thanks to all the folks who visited as a result.
I also just posted my first official ad on Ravelry! I was quite pleased with the results, not being much of a computer aficionado (beware of falling understatements). Here it is...

I am slowly learning a bit of Photoshop, and with hubby's direction got the above ad done without a terrible amount of trial and error. This little software tool has become my best friend with shop photos, too. I can finally get my colors to look almost right! My purples LOOK LIKE PURPLE!!! Red is red, not orange! I used to dread the photo taking/posting regime, and while it may take me a bit longer to run everything through Photoshop first, it is so worth it.
There will be a fairly decent shop update today, mostly of the fiber variety. I'm low on yarn presently, but have some on order and should be good to go shortly after Thanksgiving. In the meantime, don't forget to head over to Woolgirl, Yarn and Fiber, and One Planet on-line for Sereknity yarns and goodies (see the links in the sidebar), as well as visiting Yarn Sellar (York, ME), Knit Pickings (Plaistow, NH) and Yarn and Fiber (Windham, NH) locally.
I am anxiously awaiting Knit Night at Y&F tonight! I miss my peeps! You see, I've been holding out on you a bit, my blogging faithful -- fear of $4 heating oil prices and the looming visit of that big guy in the red suit I need to subsidize has caused me to run out on y'all a bit. No, I am not simply living and breathing yarn, fiber, and color everyday. I am now a substitute teacher. LORD, I forgot how tiring teaching could be! I have had the pleasure, however, of subbing in my children's school, both days in the same 3rd grade class, and -- never thought I would say this -- I really enjoyed it. Maybe even miss teaching a teensy-tiny bit. (For those who don't know, I used to teach HS English. I honestly don't spread it around because people really scrutinize a persons blogging grammar so much more when they know, and I enjoy being lazy here!) The kids were cute and well behaved -- a testament to their teacher, the school run fabulously, and it was nice to walk down the hall and enjoy a sweet kiss from my excited 7 year old when he ran into me. Sadly, I subbed on Wed. -- knit night -- and then later in the evening wrangled my Brownie troop, and seriously? I was so spent by the time I got home NOTHING was pulling me out the door. So, tonight, watch out, folks, I'm makin' up for lost time.

Status report...

All other knitting has been paused in favor of Christmas knitting for the time being -- even Poppy, which is SO CLOSE. Lil' sis's scarf is 1/3 done, and I cast on mom-in-law's mitts as planned, and hope to get a lot further on them today while the kids are at karate class. So soft and pretty...

It is so dry now that I actually don't have nearly the sensation in my hands that I normally would, no matter how much lotion I apply. I so hate that about the cold weather. I'm working with cashmere, for goodness sakes! So cruel to take that feeling away. I expect these will be done by the end of the day (crossing fingers) and then I hope to cast on for the Mosaic Mitts from last years Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts issue. I did a bit of stash diving and will use some Knit Picks WOA and some newly purchased Ella Rae Classic.

The light blue and white I am planning to transform into EZ's Snowflake mittens from her Knitter's Almanac, but am still on the fence as to whether or not I want to over-dye the blue to more of an aqua/turquoise. I think time will be the deciding factor there.
In shop news, I've been poking away at the web-site to get the new colorways and all the yarn types listed in the dye-to-order section. You will soon notice some colorways will come with an additional option to choose "mild" or "bold" patterning in regards to how the yarn is dyed. Mild will have smaller color sections and less chance (always with the disclaimer in regards to gauge!) of pooling, whereas the "bold" patterning has longer color repeats that allow, based on gauge, for a nice swirly/stripey effect. I have had such a hard time deciding how to cater to all manner of tastes and thought that this just might be the way to do it. Now I just have to figure out how to post a gallery on the site of knitted objects so everyone can see the difference. Computers are not my forte, for certain.

of Halloween, Hackers, and Horrors...

So, yup, been a while. I can pretty confidently say you don't need nor want to know about everything that has happened, but I'll give you some high- and low-lights.
Halloween -- great fun. Ain't they cuties??

Daddy took them around the neighborhood with friends while I manned the door, after an hour of which I became paranoid that they were cold and called his cell phone to be sure I shouldn't hunt them down with coats. He laughed me off -- they were fine. Silly mommy. I was getting cold, however, sitting out on the porch, but at least I had my knitting.

As for hackers, well, some of the wildest and most fabulous (and ridiculously generous) knitters I have the pleasure of knowing and myself converged upon Grand View Lodge for a weekend of knitting, shopping, drinking and jell-o-shooting (yum), and encountered all kinds of horrors and mishaps. I, for my part, contributed to the weekend debacle by having my Paypal hacked into the moment I logged onto an unfamiliar and unsecure wireless connection. Yup, they cleaned me out. MAJOR KUDOS to Paypal, however, for speedy action. My account and money was restored by Monday evening. Definitely NOT the stress relief I was looking for, tho. You can read more about our weekend here and here. And there was more, but again, you don't come here for the horror. You just want the knittin'.
I got little done while away -- finished the Mystic Mountain socks pictured in the candy bowl above; got the duplicate stitch and bobbles on Jacob's R2D2 hat finished, and he now proudly wears it to school everyday; I have one last thumb to put on Rachel's mittens, started AGES ago; didn't get to start Hip in Hemp; I did complete one sleeve of Poppy and cast on the second. I did also buy some nice Lamb's Pride Superwash Bulky from the sale bin that is surprisingly soft and cushy. After a few tries at various stitch patterns, I settled on a reversible ribbed cable design on sz13 needles and I am really loving it.

This will be a Christmas present -- lots of those in the next few weeks, I hope. I am going to cast some mitts on today to alternate back and forth from the scarf, so I don't get too bored. I'm going to make some of my Smocked Gauntlets (see side bar) in Posh yarns cashmere from the stash for my mom-in-law. (Yes, yes, pictures later...)