…why Knittyfolk rock.

It wasn’t enough that I got a TON of birthday wishes via email, blog comments, and my very own threads at the Knittyboard and Ravelry, but I also got lovely thoughtful gifts.

I don’t have a picture of it, but Kiddossk sent me a little surprise from the Fat Witch Bakery (tell me that’s not the best name ever) - an assorted box of their Brownie, Walnut, and Blonde Babies, and a bag of hot cocoa mix. Let me tell you, these are some of the most incredible brownies EVER. And keep in mind, I usually make the Barefoot Contessa’s “start with a pound of butter” brownies - I know good brownies. Thank you, sweetie - it was a lovely surprise. And yes, I did share with Kris. He got one. :D

While I was at my regular Thursday knitting meetup today, the lovely (although blogless) Kathy gave me a huge box of assorted teas - I totally didn’t expect that, and it was so sweet of her! I will smile every time I have a cup.

Today, an envelope arrived from my Crafty Sister herself, Ms. Turtlegirl. Now, I knew this was coming, mostly because I’ve been getting daily text messages from her asking if it had arrived yet. (In her defense, she mailed it LAST Wednesday from Charlotte. My mother mailed my card from Las Vegas on Thursday, and it arrived on Monday. So I see why she was anxious). I opened it up to find these:

My very own “So Long and Thanks for All the Fish”-themed Adjustable Row Counter (available at her Etsy shop. VERY cool tools.) and on the shawl pin, a set of 14 WIZARD OF OZ STITCH MARKERS!!! Wanna see them all?

And you can actually put some of them on the pin to wear that way, too!  What a cool idea!  I am so in love with them - the next row I do on Charlotte’s Web, I am switching so that these are all on the shawl, as well as the row counter. Thank you, my dear friend. I am a lucky, lucky woman to have so many amazing people in my life.

(Oh, and if you are curious, the markers are from Seahorse Designs over at Etsy. She’s got some fun stuff over there!)

See, when a decision actually gets made, I can make actual PROGRESS!

Yup - I finished the SP project, and I started Charlotte’s Web V2.0. You know what this means? ACTUAL WIP Wednesday posts! Aren’t you excited? ;)I did tweak the pattern slightly - the original calls for 2 repeats of the pattern in each color, with 2 repeats alternating the colors in between. (So, 16 rows of color A, then 16 of 2 rows A, 2 rows B, then 16 rows of color B… etc.) I decided that I want this to be a nice big shawl, so I’m doing 4 repeats of each single-color section, and 2 repeats of the crossover sections. This will add 5 repeats to the shawl - it should be about half-ish again as big as if I had followed the pattern. I’m also going to do something fun with the edging, although I’m going to think more about that later.I was playing after I wound my yarn, and I took a picture of all five colors lined up in order. Front to back, that’s Peaseblossom, Titania, Fire on the Mountain, Firebird, and Knitty Rocks.

This is my favorite shot, though. I think Cristi will approve of its pr0nnyness. :D
ETA: Oh, yeah. And I don’t know what the hell happened to my blogroll. It used to be over there <— nice and neat, right below the Knitty and Ravelry buttons, and all of a sudden, it went poof. I’ve tried everything i can think of, including re-tagging all of my blogs and re-building the code for it. If anyone has a brilliant suggestion (I use Google Reader), I’m listening. Oh, and if you click on the “Save as OPML” link over there? Yeah. You get the whole list. So I KNOW they are there.Gah.

…from yet another week without WIP pictures (I’m almost done with the SP project, so normal pictures should resume next week), allow me to share with you the fabulousness that is my final Knittyboard SP9 package, which arrived today (OK, I picked it up today. My mailman tried to deliver it yesterday, but I wa mid-haircolor and couldn’t answer the door.). Warning - LOTS of pictures ahead.

When I pulled off the wrapping, I found this, which just tickled me so much that I had to take a picture:

Yes - that would be a Bran Flakes box. Sounds better in French, doesn’t it?In the box? These lovely tissue-wrapped packages, along with a card that said “Please open me first” and a small box labeled “Please open me last.”

The card:
Particularly amusing to me, as I went to college in the middle of Amish country. :D The inside was a lovely sweet note that just made me smile so much. Package #1 - Peeps notecards. Too freaking cool. And she has a set of her own as well. :)
Package #2 - A bag of 8 oz. of the loveliest green and white (color “Lichen”) 80/20 Merino-Silk. The note on it: “I bought this bag of gorgeous fibre on impulse at a funky little shop that sells health food and spinning supplies (?!?) while on ski holiday. I don’t spin. And I was being clueless to think I could afford to pay someone to spin it for me, when an equivalent amt of the same laceweight is only $40. The color screamed YOU! Enjoy!” Yeah… I think she was dead-on about that color. :D

Let’s get a closeup of that, shall we?

Package #3 - The most beautiful Odessa hat I’ve ever seen. In the perfect colors, with the perfect beads, and in the softest alpaca imaginable. I really, really hope it gets cold enough for hat weather soon.

Package #4 - This beautiful bag. Per the note: “These bags are produced by a local indie artist I run into at shows sometimes.” The fabric is so soft, and it’s such great colors! I have a new knitting bag!

Package #5 - Possibly the most intriguing item in the whole bunch. The note: “I know it sounds like an odd combination, but seriously? You’ll do someone bodily harm to get more once you try it. I already won’t tell friends where I buy it, for fear that they will go and clear it all out from under me.” Truly, I cannot WAIT to try it.

And in the final package, the one labeled “Please open me last.”

She had warned me that she had put her head together with Cristi to come up with the reveal, so I wasn’t entirely shocked to see the Oz theme. :)Inside the tin:
And behind the curtain:

Etcgirl! Thank you, thank you, thank you, sweetie. You have truly spoiled me rotten and made me feel like such a princess this entire round. And I cannot wait until Rhinebeck, because I get to meet you in person!!!

First of all, happy birthday to… me! That’s right - as of today, I am 34 years old. Maybe one of these days, I’ll even get around to growing up. (Oh, stop laughing. I didn’t say it was likely.)

Second - check out that Hats for Alex counter! Since Weezalana started her contest, I’ve gotten 32 hats! And today’s mail isn’t here yet, so I’m betting I’ll be adding to that tally again later.

Third, there was much curiosity over the cellphone charm I was going to make for Kris. Well, he was going to sacrifice a D20 (that’s a 20-sided die, used for Dungeons and Dragons, for you less-geeky-than-me types), but the more he looked at it, the more he realized that the ones he had were just a little too big. He did discover one on Etsy that was made with an older, smaller D20, but figured he didn’t really need it. Yeah, whatever. So, I convo’ed the seller, and she had some other colors available. She made two of them for me - the blue is for Kris and the green… yeah, that’s for me. :D Go check out her other stuff - it’s really cute!

I had a great weekend - Amanda decided a while back that I needed to have a birthday party, so she came up Saturday morning and we cooked and laughed (and, um, perhaps had some wine) and then some other folks came over for the afternoon/evening. There was lots of Wii-ing and we really had a great time. Sunday, we went over to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Amanda and I both got henna tattoos (pics to follow when Kris uploads them), and we watched some shows, ate some food, and had a little mead.

So, a while back, if you were reading my blog (which was of course still on Blogger back then), you might remember some activity about blogstalking. There was a group of folks from the Knittyboard who decided to post according to a theme each week. It eventually died off. However, OLPP decided that it needed to be revived, and I figured I’d join in again. It was a lot of fun last time, and hopefully this will encourage me to post more than just WIP Wednesdays (lame as they have been lately) and Yarn Pr0n Fridays. Due to the parental visit and prep for the party, I’m a bit behind, so we’ll be doing two weeks at once.

So, Week One is “Who Am I?”

I am a wife, daughter, sister, cousin, niece, friend, but not a mother, which breaks my heart on a daily basis.

I am a very good knitter and crocheter, and a newbie spinner who knows she’d get better if she ever practiced.

I am a collector. I have collections of cookbooks, Wizard of Oz memorabilia, and Marvin the Martian stuff. I also have a habit of needing to complete collections even if I’ve lost interest (hence the continued purchases of Xanth books even though the series has been really repetitive for some time now)

I’m a geek. I love fantasy novels and movies, and I still enjoy the occasional game of D&D with my hubby.

Most of all, I’m happy. I really am. Are there things I’d change about my life if given the opportunity? Probably. But the truth is that I’m in a place where my life is good. I adore my husband, we’re healthy, my parents are healthy and happy, I have great friends, and I have opportunities to pursue my hobbies and interests.

Week Two is a much simpler proposition: Purse Guts. This one was kind of fun. And yes, I played honestly - I didn’t clean it out first!

My purse (Thank you, Target. I love a cute, cheap purse!):

The front pocket - my wallet, my fingerless gloves (thanks, SP!), my iPod, headphones, my keys (see the sheep key cover? Thanks again, SP!), THREE lip glosses (remember that…), a roll of Tums, a pen (which is usually clipped to one of the rings at the base of the handle, but got put in my purse at some point), and some stuff from the RennFest - my old horns (I bought new ones this year to match my hair), the program, and the care instructions for my henna: The back pocket - lint remover stickies, a spare pair of contacts (I wear daily disposables, and I’ve had them rip at very inconvenient times), the silica gel pack which apparently never got taken out of the bag, some wet wipes from heaven knows where, my makeup bag, my travel container of Mineral Veil (love my Bare Minerals!) and my pocketknife with my discount cards from various stores. You know how I said to remember the three lip glosses in the front pocket? This is why. Here are the contents of the makeup case - EIGHT more lipglosses, a mini mascara (DiorShow - way expensive, but damn it’s good stuff), a mini mirror, and a sample jar of Peter Thomas Roth Mattifying Gel. I may have a minor lipgloss addiction. Someday I’ll have to show you the rest of it…And in the little back zipper pocket on the back side - 2 packs of gum. And you might remember that whole “Which STR should I use for my second Charlotte’s Web shawl” thing. Amanda sat down in my craft room Sunday morning and played with my STR and came up with this:

Peaseblossom, Titania, Fire on the Mountain, Firebird, and Knitty Rocks.
I think we have a winner! As soon as I finish up the project I’m working on for my SP, I’ll get started on it. Yay!

Once again, you will find a sad lack of pictures on this WIP Wednesday post (I’m going to be kicked out of the club soon…).  BUT!  My folks were here from Thursday night until yesterday morning.  The only knitting I got done was my part of the cooperative project with Carrie and Maryanne, and I really can’t show that, since it’s a gift.  So yeah, I’m lame.

I did decide to join in on the Knitty Blogstalking v2.0 that is going on, and I have to get my post together for that.  That’s one of my projects for today, along with making a cellphone charm for Kris’s new phone.  (It will be VERY appropriate for him.  Wait until you see it.)

Oh, and thank you all for the recommendations on Wii games.  Kris and Dad were thoroughly addicted to Carnival Games this weekend, so we’ll be adding more games to the options in the future for sure.

Pictures and a better post tomorrow, I promise!

So the folks arrived safely last night, and we met Amanda (her J was golfing), JMac and Mary Beth at DuClaw for the Twisted Kilt release. I’m pretty sure that by the end of the evening, all three of them were thinking, “Oh! THAT’s where she gets it from.” :D

After dinner, Kris and Dad wanted to poke around Best Buy (because they’re boys), so Mom and I were wandering through the dvd section when she FINALLY commented on the nosering. She was actually surprisingly calm about it. I have to wonder if maybe she has accepted that I’m a loon, and there isn’t really much she can do about it any more. So, crisis averted!

Anyway, we’re looking at the new releases, and I spy something I hadn’t known was coming out - Season Three of Fraggle Rock! Yay! I of course grabbed it, and we went to find the boys. They continued drooling over laptops while Mom and I went to check out (she was getting cases for their phones). As we were standing in line, Mom comments to me that the police officer we had seen outside as we came in was now in line buying something. I look over, and I realize exactly what he was buying. A Nintendo Wii. As in, the incredibly hard-to-find system that Kris and I have been wanting to pick up since January. I sent Kris a quick text message, and he went to look. He didn’t see any on the shelves, so I suggested he ask someone. The first guy he found (using the “Look for a blue shirt and tackle” method) was actually from a different section of the store, but he found the game guy, who confirmed that yes, they did have them. And now we have one, along with a copy of “Carnival Games”, because we’re dorks like that. We laughed a lot last night as Kris was getting the hang of the controller and learning to play Wii Sports (which comes with the system) and the Carnival Games (Virtual Skee-Ball! What’s not to love?). He says he’s sore this morning. :D

Anyway, on to the pr0n. Amanda and I were chatting on Google a while ago when she asked me if I liked the Little Bunny Foo Foo colorway of STR. She had ordered it for herself, but it wasn’t as pink as she’d hoped, so she asked if I wanted it. Never one to say no to free STR (Momma didn’t raise no fools!), and being, in fact, rather fond of the color, I said sure! She brought it to dinner last night.

Pretty, innit?And like every other knitter this past week, I’ve been drooling over the new Knit Picks Harmony Needles. I was lucky enough to see them in person in Philly, because Amyknitty was testing a set. So, I’ve been stalking the website to see when they were released, and I pounced immediately (because I remember what happened when the nickel Options came out and they were out of stock for a while).

I got the interchangeable set and the DPN set, and then I caved and ordered the small circulars and the cable needles (yeah, I cable without a needle. They’re just so PRETTY!).

Here are the interchangeable tips (minus the 10.5’s which are in use already)

And the cable needles.

The one concern I’ve seen voiced from a few people is that the colors on the website looked pretty obnoxiously bright. Now, I’m not one to complain about bright colors (Hello, big red streak in my hair), so it didn’t worry me, but I also don’t think those pictures were quite accurate. The colors are definitely more mellow on my needles than in the pictures on their site. I think they are beautiful. The tips are lovely and pointy like the nickel ones, and the finish is really smooth - much smoother than any other wooden or bamboo needles I’ve tried, although still grippier than the nickel.  LOVE.

Speaking of love, have you seen the new Fall Knitty?   There are some really lovely patterns in it.  Lots of lace and texture details that are right up my alley. Yay!

Erm… yeah.  I’m working on two things right now, but both of them are gifts, so I can’t actually post about them.  I will say that one of them is for my SP and the other is a cooperative project with some friends, but that’s pretty much all I can reveal.

On the Charlotte’s Web 2.0 front - I’m still making up my mind (Hello, Libra!), but I think I’ve narrowed it down to the combo in the last post or a slightly rearranged version of one of the earlier combos -Rhodonite, Sherbet, Knitty Rocks, Firebird and Fire on the Mountain.  Thank you Carrie for pointing out to me that if I didn’t want the Rhodonite to make a big old pink stripe across the middle I could just, you know, START with it.  You’d think that might have been slightly more obvious to me…

OK, I’m off.  I’ve got some stuff to finish around the house before my folks arrive tomorrow evening, and I need to put a couple of things together for tonight’s South River Knitting Guild meeting.

See y’all Friday!

I have on more color combo, and I think it might be the winner. I definitely agree with those who have said that the Sherbet seems a little too bright for the rest of the colors (although I love it and I can’t wait to make socks from it!). I’m also a little concerned about the Rhodonite, because I don’t want a big pink stripe across it.

So - Peaseblossom, Knitty Rocks, Firebird, Fire on the Mountain, Titania.

I’m thinking the pink blends the Peaseblossom and Knitty Rocks, the red works from Knitty Rocks to Firebird, the Firebird brings in the orange that is also in FOTM, and the green in FOTM works with Titania. I’m going to stew on it over the weekend (and see what y’all think). Hopefully I’ll make up my mind by Monday. Ah, the trials of being a typical indecisive Libra…And for this week’s Yarn Pr0n offering (er… slightly late), we have the last of the Williamsburg acquisitions - Mountain Colors Half Crepe in “Chinook”. Maryanne, Carrie and I all picked this up in different colors. Carrie is working on a beautiful crocheted shawl she’s designing, and Maryanne and I are both planning to make the Fiber Trends “Charlotte’s Easy Lace Shawl” by Lily Chin. The ladies at Knitting Sisters had a sample of that shawl in this yarn, and it’s just gorgeous.

Okay, it looks like options 1 and 3 were the winners (since 2 and 4 got a whopping one vote each…). However, I’ve gotten some alternate suggestions!

So, to refresh:

Option 1
Peaseblossom, Sherbet, Rhodonite, Firebird, Fire on the Mountain

Option 3
Peaseblossom, Sherbet, Rhodonite, Knitty Rocks, Fire on the Mountain
The new options:

Option 5
Titania, Peaseblossom, Rhodonite, Knitty Rocks, Fire on the Mountain

Option 6
Knitty Rocks, Peaseblossom, Rhodonite, Firebird, Fire on the Mountain

Option 7
Peaseblossom, Rhodonite, Firebird, Fire on the Mountain, Titania
More thoughts?(And yes, there will still be yarn pr0n, it just might not be until sometime Friday afternoon)

It’s freaking ADDICTIVE! I so enjoyed making the first one that now I want to do another. And I think I’ve decided to. I’ve decided to use up some of my stash of Socks that Rock Lightweight to make a nice big version of the Charlotte’s Web - still five colors, but more repeats in each color. Of course, now I have to decided WHICH colors. I’ve narrowed it to 4 combinations (with some help from Amanda via GChat this morning. The stress of her yarn diet is getting to her, though - she kept insisting that I needed to order some Lemongrass STR for the shawl…)

So, now, my dear readers, I ask your opinions. The colors as pictured would go from neck to edge on the shawl as they are laid left to right. (Does that make sense?) Thoughts?

Option 1:

Peaseblossom, Sherbet, Rhodonite, Firebird, Fire on the Mountain

Option 2:Peaseblossom, Sherbet, Rhodonite, Knitty Rocks, Titania
Option 3:Peaseblossom, Sherbet, Rhodonite, Knitty Rocks, Fire on the Mountain

Option 4:Peaseblossom, Sherbet, Knitty Rocks, Fire on the Mountain, Titania

I’ve tried to arrange them so that each colorway has something in common with the next one. As you can see, I’m also going (st least sort of) light to dark from top to bottom on the shawl - I like the weight that gives the edge.I finshed up the fingerless gloves last night. I really love them, and I can’t wait until the weather cools off so I can wear them!

They are still a little damp here, but the color is accurate.

Yesterday, I went to StitchDC with some of the lovely ladies that I knit with at Barnes & Noble. We had a great time, I got to see the always lovely Olga, and we had lunch at Banana Cafe (yum!). I picked up a couple of single skeins to make more Dream Swatches. Since I’m letting my hair grow out (for the moment - we’ll see how long it lasts this time…), I can see these getting a lot of use.

L to R, that’s some Laines du Nord Mulberry Silk, O-Wool Balance (50-50 organic cotton and organic wool) and Louisa Harding Cinnabar, which has the teensiest bit of sparkle to it.

On the way from StitchDC to the restaurant, we passed this cute little store called Homebody.  Carol spotted some things she wanted to peek at, so we popped in.  It’s a great place with lots of fun kitchen gadgets and gift-y type stuff.  I spotted one thing that HAD to come home with me.  You know the wineglass charms that people use so that you can tell whose glass is whose at a party?  Meet the beer equivalent - beer bands:

Of course, instead of having pretty little beads and stuff on them, these have euphemisms for drunkenness.  I thought they were hilarious, and I had to get them.

Well,  I’m off to debate color choices for CW #2.  And to go to my knitting group, of course.  Catch you all tomorrow for Yarn Pr0n Friday!