quick update -- I may be a hypochondriac...

Thank you everyone for your concern! It seems I had you all and myself worried for no reason. I did go to the doctor, and she gave me the all-clear. I probably just irritated the muscles with all this new, unaccustomed walking. She suggested ice, ibuprofin and good shoes and cushioning if needed, but by all means, keep on walking. Which is a good thing, because I did before I went to see her. ;)
Not much else to report...have to get READY FOR SPA! Hope to see lots of you there Friday night at the Hilton Bar! (Nora, book that flight yet?)

Crap. Crap. Crap.

First, let me premise my post be saying I am NOT a morning person. Not. So not. It takes me a while to rev up the mental engines. A cup of coffee, a cozy kid-snuggle, some mindless e-mail reading and Raveling and I might be ready to get off the couch. Now, that said, a few weeks ago, in the morning, hubby took the dogs outside for their morning business and Ta-shi wandered up to the back deck where a bag of lovely smelling trash was residing, awaiting removal. I noticed her mad sniffing and oh so apparent desire to tear into said bag, and in a truly Neanderthal-ish and primal move made the physical equivalent to a hefty grunt by kicking the door to startle her from her intended course of action. It took a minute or two, but after walking away I noticed a distinct and sharp pain deep in the ball of my foot. It hurt. Bad. I got my trusty block of frozen spinach used for just such occassions and nursed the foot most of the day. Although I didn't kick that hard, I must have hit it just right. The foot seemed to recover after a day or so and all was well until this morning. Once up from the couch, coffee coursing through my veins, I became obsessed with cleaning and decluttering and after about an hour of such began to feel that foot pain once again. (SEE why i don't clean?) Crap! What have I done? I am sitting here now, foot in the air, imagining a hairline fracture and fretting BECAUSE I CAN'T TAKE THE DOG FOR A WALK. Even with the grey, rainy day, I had every intention. We missed out yesterday (although Chewie got to play for hours with Coco and new friend Rosie, a gorgeous yellow lab pup) and it is so hard to develop a routine that I am freaking out. I'll nurse it a while and see how it feels later. Heck, the threat of loosing my walks could even make me go to the doctor.
In the meantime, paperwork for tax prep and Mr Greenjeans will be my companions.
dammnit.

Of Amanda, Jericho, Greenjeans, and long walks...

First off, I finally made an Amanda hat! Here is my lovely little model and recipient wearing her chapeau...
The only mod was to go down a needle size (I am an average tension knitter) to a size 8 to create a slightly smaller size for the girl. Fits great and she says it is very warm (and soft and cushy, too). Thumbs up, Gina!
Secondly, my Mr. Greenjeans is growing exponentially thanks to a marathon of Jericho.

OMG I love this show. Talk about quality TV -- which we can't often do. The Universal HD channel ran a marathon last weekend of the entire first season and what we couldn't watch or record I watched through on-line streaming at the above link. Seriously -- go watch it. I don't want it to get cancelled! (It was already brought back from the brink once...) This was the perfect pairing of easy knit and intense TV watching. There was no chance of being bored while I purled furiously across the entire inner expense of this sweater while intently watching the denizens of post-apocalyptic Kansas deal with survival and the best and worst it brings out in humans nature. Adding 2.5 inches to the body length had me casting off the body Wednesday morning, and I have now picked up the front ribbing. I am doing this first out of yarn shortage fears. Once this is done, I'll knit the sleeves until I run out. I am confident I'll have at least a 3/4 sleeve out of the rest as I used just a smidge over 2 balls out of four for the body prior to starting the ribbing. I can't believe how quickly this has gone and couldn't be more thrilled.
As for the long walks, I have been converted by Cesar to believe that the key to my puppy's happiness is walks - nice, long, energetic walks. Chewie and I, and sometimes Tashi, have been walking everyday for over a week now (other than during Wednesdays storm -- ICK) and yesterday I drove out our route to calculate the distance. 2.7 miles! As tired as I am, and as much as I hate the cold, I am very excited about this. I'm getting excercise! It doesn't cost anything! And I am already seeing a second digit on the scale I haven't seen in a looong time. I love my puppy.

To frog, or not to frog...

So I have once again managed to mess up my knitting. yup, that old counting thing. I have no idea how, but I seemed to have been off by 10 or more (18??) when counting stitches before separating sleeves for my Mr.Greenjeans/Bluejeans sweater and did so a bit too early. Which means knitting and increasing on the two front edges now for another 21 rows to get to the proper stitch count to proceed for the medium, rip back and add in the missing rows and increases, or continue on as tho I am knitting the small. Now, the thing is, it fits in the shoulders and with the button band, should do so in the bust, as it is now, but is a much more fitted sweater than the design called for, but I think I like it. And, I am trying to get back to the gym and loose weight, plus I need to start taking the puppy for VIGOROUS walks to curb his energy, and I am soo hoping I slim down.... grrrrr -- what to do! I'm just so mad at my distracted self for messing this up. So much for a simple knit. (well, now that I have tried it on for the picture, I like the fit. I'm gonna go with it.)
On another note, I haven't entirely messed this one up yet...

Yes, I finally cast on for an Amanda hat for Rachel. I bought this Malabrigo in the Dusty colorway from a friend a while back, but I was never thrilled with the color, so I overdyed it red. You can see a hint of the original color variation ( a dirty brown over a dusty rose), but not too much. What an easy stitch pattern to memorize! I went down a needle size to make a slightly smaller hat and it looks like this will be just right for the girl. This one should be finished up today.
Thank you all so much for your input on my club plans! I hope to have finalized details very soon. In the mean time, I have a small update planned for this weekend in the etsy shop, so if you are up for some window shopping or otherwise, do take a peek!
Oh! Before I forget! If you are heading to the NETA Spa, there will be a Blogger/Raveler meet-up in the Hilton Bar on FRIDAY EVENING! Let's start the weekend right! I can't wait! I'll even grab a pack of "Hello, my name is... tags that we can put names/blognames. Always good to know!

calling all knittahs, spinnahs, and techies

Hi folks! I am trying to come up with a structure for a yarn club for Sereknity, and would like to bounce my ideas off you folks and take advantage of your collective creativity. My idea is for this to NOT be solely a sock club (get it? sole? ok...moving on...very little sleep last night...) and I was thinking of it being a yearly subscription shipping every 2 months, with various payment options. I want to incorporate all the yarns I currently offer and while there will be at least one sock pattern, I'd like to have patterns for other items for the sock yarns as well.
First -- I need help on the name! I'm thinking Skein Winder Club, but that name doesn't reflect the Sereknity moniker in any way, but I don't want anything corny like "Happy Club" or whatever...SUGGESTIONS, PLEASE???
Second -- Does that structure sound enticing to you? What else would you like to see?
Third -- I'd need a design or two. There's yarn (or fiber)in it for ya. And, when a year has passed, the rights to self publication. Or, I could publish it through the website with you receiving payment for each copy sold. I'm in it for the club pattern, not to make $$ off your design, and I love promoting my friends. I'm hoping to get to a point where I really can!
Last, I want a new look and logo for the company, and am going to start poking around on etsy, but if one of you wonderful peoples has a talent for graphic design or photography and you really, really like free yarn and fiber and/or a little scratch, give me a shout!
Thanks in advance -- you guys rock.

Bleary

...eyes, not photos, I hope. I have been diligently plugging away at the site revamping pictures and adding or deleting colors. I think it looks SOOOO much better. (Don't you?) I added a new category, as promised, for kettle dyed yarns. I love these! The two newest are Caramel Macchiato and Sweet Baby James (I do so love me some James Taylor. Been wanting to do this one since I went to his amazing concert in August!).


The blue was so very hard to capture, even with the help of photo shop, and when I bounce form one to the other of our many computers in the house, it is a titch different (hey, look at me, making words!). Frustrating. It is gorgeous, tho -- I am so pleased with it. I hope to dye some up for my next pair of socks, but these will head to the shop tomorrow, along with the Caramel M. I have so sorely neglected the Etsy shop lately. If you do want to lay claim before I list them, just give me a shout!
My next big task will be to build the fiber portion of the Sereknity site, which means lots of Photoshop work and futzing with my shop system. I KNOW there are easier ways to do things that what I have been doing, but computers are not nearly as intuitive for me as knitting and coloring. I get so frustrated with the time wasted on the NOT KNOWING. UG. I'll get there! I have so many grand ideas for the site, and I am anxious to get them going, but I need to streamline things for it all to work. Again, I'll get there. (I will get there, I will get there...I WILL GET THERE!....)
Wanna see something pretty? Sure you do...

Anastasia in Crush. I won't claim the pattern has been a breeze for me. It is actually quite straightforward, with nice charts, but I am doing these 2 at a time on magic loop, and, at times, a yarn over is required at the END of a row (ie. where the needle stops before jumping from front to back). This can be done, but I very definitely forgot on at least one occasion to grab this yarn over, causing a faulty stitch count and much confusion. Also, being in my usually distracted state (I think while watching and chatting at the kid's karate class) I managed to reverse direction on my nice little lacy spiral for one round, giving my lovely line a protruding bubble. Again, thanks to my usually distracted knitting, I am becoming quite good at the drop-down-six-rows-and-reknit-on itty-bitty-dpns technique. Why six rows? It took that long for me to realize that, even though the socks were for me and the mistake would be hidden in my shoes, it would grate on me for all eternity. And thus perfectionism rears its ugly head, but, thankfully, the results will be much nicer.

Ready...

At long last, the sleeves are done, but, as predicted, I had to rip about an inch from both front and back of the sweater to make the armholes fit. I'm going to give the sweater a light blocking today and bring it to "knitting practice" on Wednesday night. I have never seamed a sleeve. I love me a nice top-down raglan with it's happy little kitchener stitch under the arm. But, being the technique junkie I am, I have to get over this fear of mine of seaming. Besides, kind of necessary unless I want to wear this thing as a sweater and not a vest with matchy-matchy armwarmers...although... (Did you notice how close the stripes on the sleeves are, until you get to the top? Just in case, here is another view. Really hope the shift doesn't drive me.)

That being (nearly) done, I, of course, had to cast-on for my next project in waiting -- Mr. Greenjeans (hereby to be known as Mr. Bluejeans).

After a bit of debate, I settled on the Med. This won't leave me with much in the way of ease, according to specs, but I will never have enough yarn if I go to the large. As it is, I'm on a wing and a prayer. My plan is, should I run out, I'll pick up a darker blue in a similar wool and knit 1/2 the cable section on both cuffs and body in that. The ribbed button band will be decided later. I figure Peace Fleece would be a good match for this yarn. I am using a somewhat local wool -- Walpole Wool -- produced by the woman who ran the rescue from which I got my Lil' Big Dog, Chewie. It is rough, but not scratchy, and delightfully woolly. I made a swatch and EVEN WASHED IT (it's ok, breathe...) and then gave it the ultimate test. I stuck it in my bra. If I wear it there for hours and forget it is there, I am good to go. Yup. No itchies. It did soften up a bit with washing, and will be long wearing and durable, I am quite sure. The perfect jeans sweater.
Other news? Well, one wouldn't know it, but I did do quite a bit of dyeing last week, but nothing new made it to the shop -- my buckets have been well pillaged by local knitters. I did manage to get pictures of the new colorways, tho, and am diligently working on the website to get these added. Trying, anyway! I am not a tech girl, so it is a tedious task for me, and, unfortunately, too much time at the computer finds my mind and mouse wandering in Ravelry and many many blogs. FOCUS WOMAN! Like I said, it is a work in progress.

The sweater that won't be knit

Ok, so, I'm really really trying to get Poppy (here and here, as well) done. I want to have it to wear for SPA. I've had to put it aside for soooo many other things, holidays being the biggest culprit, but now, with all clear, for some reason I just. can't. get. it. done. One sleeve left people! ONE SLEEVE! I've been putting in a row here or there, and this morning thought I was finally past the increase section until...
wait a minute...
how many stitches should be here???
Shit.
RIIIIP.
This is why I was an English major -- can't count. Way too many cast-on stitches. UG.
The little girl is home from school on day two with conjunctivitis. (Docs didn't call in her script until mid afternoon! Don't get me going on that frustration.) I'm going to take her to see "The Waterhorse," and am hoping ot get some knitting in there. Problem is, I just KNOW the sleeves aren't going to fit into the armholes. Sigh.

Seriously?

(please forgive the horrid picture quality of this post -- can't find my good camera. grrr)


So, Cowgirl sock number one is finally finished (well, except for grafting the toe -- shhhh!). Looks great, huh? Look again.

Seriously? WTF? This sock is BUTT UGLY LUMPY off the needles. Is it me? I was confused on a few points of the pattern, but slogged on, and am wondering if this is the problem. Plus, my short row heel is fraught with holes. Good thing I am happy with the colorway. I HAVE TO cast on #2 today or they will never get done, especially since I cast this on.

See my itty bitty toes?? I don't know why I have avoided learning toe up socks for so long -- casting on was super easy using this tutorial on Knitty.com. These wil grow up to be Anastasia socks. The colorway is a new one for Sereknity -- Crush. LOVE IT!! It is a kettle dye, so it has a much more random and subtle tone-on-tone type patterning. I've been very much into the kettle lately (I died up some more Crush, Pharaoh's Gold, Rock Lobster, and Martian in various fibers). I want to perfect the colorways so I can have a complete line of tonal dyes in addition to the hand paints. Gotta work in more blues and neutrals. I am in a bit of a rut insofar as what to dye for the handpaints. Once I dye up colorway, it quickly becomes old hat to me, and I just don't know what to make! Speak up and tell me your favorites, please! I have some Cowgirl and Blue Hawaii in the shop, and some Pumpkin Patch, Lilacs in Bloom and a few others to list. HELP!!!

C'est finis!

She is beautiful, no? Seriously -- so much better in person than my terrible self-shot photos. I love this hat! I'll try to get hubby to get a better pic of me in it for the Ravelry page. I finished it up at home last night, not at the ManchVegas "knitting practice", because, well, after getting home Wed. nights from running the Brownie troop, I'm done, spent, and don't want to budge from my couch. Next week -- I promise. Seriously!!
Also as promised, the mitts. Sister-in-law, she approved, so they are a go for mitt #2. I have recovered from my initial hatred of the color scheme. Once the orange was added to the top, it sort of worked a bit better for me. And they are warm. Soooo -- onward and upward. I'll cast on mitt 2 sometime tonight if I can fit it in between meetings and karate class. (

Holday knits = Heather 5, Time 2

Yep, of the 7 planned and hoped for knits, 5 were completed (1 of the five admittedly after the Dec. 25th deadline, but done nonetheless) and two are still in process. The R2D2 hat is presently being worn -- often I am told, and Jason received his Skully hat on Christmas morn when he made me one happy big sister by staying at my house Christmas Eve so he could wake here and be a part of the joy with the Boy and Girl. I had also completed my mother-in-law's mitts (no final pic, darn it) and my lil sis' scarf, seen here on the gorgeous recipient herself.

she, as it turned out, spent the holiday in Aruba with her boyfriend and his fam, which, if I had planned better, would have meant I could have put her scarf on the back-burner and finished the others, but hey, I also could have started in August if we're gonna get picky. (hello, McFly) Slightly belated were my mother's Loving Hands mitts, also modeled by the Gorgeous One, but I did make mom a pair of earrings to tide her over.

Those not completed were the Mosaic Mitts from the 2006 Holiday Issue of IK. I forgot to snap a pic today, and I find the color choices to be a bit lacking, but Sinead is happy with tem, so I will proceed. These are for my sis-in-law and are now nearly 1/2 done, and another pair of mitts -- Smocked Gauntlets -- for my hubby's gran. The real problem here is I AM SICK OF KNITTING MITTS. So what is a girl to do? Cast on a new project and work on it obsessively until completed. I present to you, Gretel.

Oh, how I love her! I began knitting her cable portion the other day with company over and misread a bit of the crossing instructions, so there is a mistake in a crossing row, but I did the same thing all the way around, and since I had already tinked back a number of times due to distracted mis-knitting -- and no, the Mike's had nothing to do with it -- I decided to leave the weird row. I know it is there, but I can live with it, and I will definately be knitting this hat again, so it is a learning experience, right?. Right. (Right?!?) I am knitting her in some lovely Patons SWS given me by Gina, which makes the knitting even nicer, knowing the yarn was from such a great friend. It is lovely to work with, as well, although predictable a bit splitty for cable work, being a single ply, but the final fabric and the sheen and smooth softness is more that worth any trouble. The colors blend so beautifully as well. I am just tickled.
In fact, she is calling me. I will leave you now with some lovely pics of the proud Boy and Girl with their snowman, Alvin. And yes, that is a handspun, handknit scarf around his neck. Lovely tho it may be, it was torture to wear -- horribly scratchy Border Leicester blend spun and knit before I knew better. I think it suits him just fine.

Good-bye 2007...

...and don't let the door hit you on the arse on your way out. For me, 2007 was one of the most difficult years I have had in recent memory, and I am happy to see it done. Enough said on that.
I enter the new year with renewed hope and strength, and the knowledge gained. Things I know? Well, for one, I know the value of great friends, and I am blessed with many (man, I love you guys -- and I know you know who you are!). I also know that I am strong, and have learned once again to have faith -- in myself and the universe. 2007 also saw the start of Sereknity in earnest, and even with great struggles, a swiftky turning learning curve and some certain mistakes, it has done well, and I look forward to an even better year. I've re-dedicated myself to my family and my children and our home, anxious to remove the clutter and chaos that holds us back. (I've joined Fly Lady. I used this program once before and it is fabulous. I'm ready to take control again and even cleared off the top of the refrigerator!) As a knitter, I am also excited to find new challenges. I am now in love with stranded knitting and want to conquer lace. Finding time for spinning is a priority as well. Knitting Daily recently said it best -- I feel Fearless. I've been through fire and come out scorched, but like a farmer may burn a field, I feel ready for new growth.
Thank you my friends for sticking with me and putting up with me. I promise to be much less of a pain in the ass this year. (oh, and the holiday knitting recap is already being written, so stay tuned...)

The force is strong with this one...

now complete and it is awesome! I am so stinking proud of this, I can't stand it. The score? Scully hat =done, R2D2 = done, MIL Mitts need 1.5 thumbs, mom's mitts need .5 mitt, sister scarf done, hubby's gran's mitts need mitt #2, still hoping to seam a sweater, too. Oh, and I have to wrap EVERYTHING.
Merry Christmas! (oh, and May the Force be with you...)

Look Ma, TWO hands!

That's right -- I did it! Two-handed knitting. Started this Sunday night, and I can't believe how quickly it is working up. This is for lil' bro Jason and next up -- hopefully to be cast on today -- is a hat using this R2D2 chart for my other lil bro, Zac. I really enjoyed the whole Fairisle, two-handed thing. When I did Jacob's R2D2 hat, I had to stop and switch yarns to throw and my floats ended up a bit too tight and puckery. Somehow, this was much easier to knit loosely and was just all around quicker and more pleasant to work. I can see a lot more colorwork in my future now! Don't count on me going Continental anytime soon, tho. The whole purling thing still mystifies me, and I have got reasonably speedy in my old way.
Oh, and at some point I'll finish my mom's mitts. I have until Christmas eve to see that side of the family, so I am feverishly making use of the time! As for lil sis, her scarf is done (OMG, I want it!) and I'll try to get some modeled shots once I weave in the ends. She is going to Aruba for Xmas, so I am going to give it to my mom for her before hand. Glad that one got done!
all for now -- back to knitting!

Still pluggin'

Still knitting along on gifties and otehr various small knits. For some reason all the "have-to" knits bring about a desire to cast-on other "frivolous" knits. Some sort of comment about my covertly rebellious nature, I would imagine. I have picked up lil sis' scarf once again (not pictured) and it is nearly done. Finally started the thumb on the MIL mitts, mitt #2 for my mom is underway, and in the meantime I have knit 2 pair of slipper socks for the kids -- Rachel's are pictured, but Jacobs came out a bit too tight, so I'll felt them for my nephew -- and two Calorimetries. Both are from my handspun. The blue/green one was left over from some wonderful Spunky Eclectic Brainfreeze I used for socks, but it is much too itchy for prolonged wear, but good enough to get me from house to the car until it warms up. The pink is a fabulous sparkly confection of BFL, silk, and silver glitz from Holly EQQ spun into singles. THIS one is soft and suits the girl beautifully, don't you agree?

No more excuses to avoid ponytails, either.
I hope to get a bit of a shop update done. Pictures must be taken first. Most of this weeks dyeing was done to fill orders, once again, but I HAVE YARN finally, so will get it wound off the cones and into the proverbial pot soon enough. I hope to reveal a new color soon -- OMG, LOVE IT!!! -- as well as my new base yarn.
We here in NH are gearing up for another lovely bout of snow in the form of a Nor'easter tomorrow, delightfully in time for the ManchVegas group's Holiday Party (at the gracious and lovely Gina's house). I am not pleased. Maybe we'll all be forced to stay the night and knit knit knit. That wouldn't be so bad, I guess. I'm bringing ALL holiday my projects just in case!
So, snow -- yeah, we've got it! Some pics from the bus stop...
(My house is on the right.)


Rachel felt this chunk made a rockin' guitar.

The bus was a good 1/2 hour late this day, so the kids got to get some of their snow fever out before school. They have been lamenting the fact that the have to head inside to the gym in the morning, rather than play outside. My guess is that the administration is not keen on having unprepared-for-the-snow children beginning their day cold and wet. This is New England people! Why can't people dress their kids for it? Ug. Off soap box....
And off course, the happy puppy pictures. Chewie went for a play date with Ms. Cocoa. (Tashi got to stay home warm and toasty. The little princess hates snow between her toes.)


After an hour of frolicking, leaving no inch of BIL's yard untrampled, THIS is what came inside...

Snow encrusted doggies! Chewie had snow balls hanging from every flank and bit of fluff -- butt, front leggs, tummy, chest. (If you look closely at the pics above, chewie is on his back, and all that snow is not flying up around him, it is attached ot him!) How do you get this off??? And Cocoa, well, I'll spare you the pics, but she had BIG snow balls where balls should not be on this sweet little girl!! She fared a bit better, thanks to her longer legs.

Abandoned

13 days since my last post?? I would imagine y'all are wondering if I had abondoned blog, knitters and knitting, but I assure you this is not the case. The hectic pace of the season is certainly keeping me from my computer and, well, I haven't really felt that I have had much blog worthy news to tell. (I have been, in the evenings, playing far too much Webkinz, however. Mea culpa!) The MIL mitts are done, sans thumbs. (I apparently have an aversion to thumbs. Rachel's mittens are still wanting one. Perhaps tonight?) I have put a sparse few items in the shop, as well as filling a few requests (Wild Side is huge! Can't keep that one in stock!)
My real thrill lately has been the mitts I am working on for my mom. At the start of my knitting career which was shortly followed by the start of my family camping adventured in Maine, I happily discovered a lovely little shop in Bridgton, ME and a locally produced yarn they carried, Bunny Blend from Acker's Acres farm. (I later bought my Lilah from this breeder.) This yarn is AMAZING (40% of her own angora, and 60% local, lovely, soft wool) and I made a habit of purchasing 2 skeins each time we visited. It has been marinating in the stash and from it I picked out some lovely soft pink to design fingerless mitts for my mom, at her request. I am thrilled with how they are turning out, and who wouldn't love knitting with this stuff??

I found this cable motif in Cables Untangled by Melissa Leapman. It looks like little stacked hearts, so what better motif for my mommy? I also felt it was substantial enough to hold its own with the fuzziness of the angora. When they are done, I'll be sure to share the recipe. I am LOVING everything about them, and am so jealous each time I slip them on my hands -- you know, to make sure the sizing is right. Thank goodness I still have 5 skeins in the stash! It has been a nice bit of cabling experience for me. In truth, I have only knit the simplest of cables, so it took me a bit to envision where I was in the chart and had to rip back and start over once as I had mis-crossed too many spots. On the re-knit, however, I found a mis-crossed cable 2 rows back and was able to successfully drop and re-knit. I love it when I can do that! THAT is when I know I've got a technique down. I had also gone into this thinking to cop-out on the thumb and just go with an add-on afterthought type thumb, but went for the gusset since the fit is just so much nicer. I mean, it is ANGORA people. It must be given its due.

She just better not felt them.
(The wonderful Julie nominated me for the Nice Matters Award. I'm so not worthy, but will do my best to do justice to the honor tomorrow. Thank you Julie! all I can say is, "No, you are!!" lol)

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...)