The winds they were a-blowing

Well, my weekend didn't turn out quite as I expected. As I mentioned in one of my earliers posts, my mother, me and my kids were going to take a trip to a farm Farmhouse Yarns, LLC to get some yarn. So we take this long trip out to the middle of nowhere, only to find that the weather is too severe for her to hold her sale today. Oh well, I guess we should have checked before leaving, and yes, the weather was very severe. We had to avoid many branches in the road on the way there. The wind was unbelievable. So, we decided to find somewhat nice to have lunch. We ended up in Old Saybrook, and had lunch at Dock & Dine . This restaurant is right on the water, and is built on a dock. When we pulled up to the restaurant the first thing that caught our eyes was the waving crashing over the docks and the huge white caps. We took a window seat and watched the waves. It really was amazing to watch. The waves in some parts of the dining room were crashing over the docks and into the windows. And that was not even high tide. I have to admit, I almost felt a little seasick feeling the waves crashing underneath us. But it was a delightful lunch all us girls.


We decided after to do a little shopping, and stopped by the Saybrook Country Barn, which an incredible place to shop. Ahh, if only I had an unlimited cash flow.... I could spend the whole day there. But two teenage girls quickly became bored and were anxious to get to the mall. So off to the mall we went, and both were able to find winter jackets, and incredible prices too! I may have not turned out to be the day I intended, and I did not touch one hank of fiber, but it was a great day anyhow, spending it with my girls and my mom.

My youngest daughter and me are the only ones in the family who really like horror movies, so while hubby and oldest daughter went to the high school football game, youngest daughter and I hit blockbuster and spent the weekend watching "Silent Hill", "The Blair Witch Project", and the "Exorcist". We also saw a bit of "Nightmare on Elm Street" Saturday afternoon as well. Halloween is always a great excuse to see a scary movie!

Well in the knitting world, I'm still working on my Christmas list and making okay progress. I'm planning on making my mom the Branching out scarf for Christmas. So I joined Lacevember. I've been wanting to do this scarf for so long, and Im looking forward to starting something new besides socks and dishcloths. Not that I don't love knitting them, but once in a while I need to expand my horizons. I also joined Knitter's coffee swap, as if I didn't already have enough caffeine from KTS2. I love to drink tea, but mainly in the afternoon and evening. I have to have coffee in the morning though. I'm looking forward to this. Should be fun!!

Grrr!! I have lots of photos to share, but unfortunately blogger doesn't want you to see them!! I'm going to have to try later!!

I'm back!

Okay, well, it was a tough weekend. The Mets lost their chance to play in the World Series Thursday night. I spent the next few days in mourning and banned the household from speaking their names. I think I'm over it now and can now look forward to next season. For me this is strange, before this spring, I didn't even care about sports at all!! I guess that's what happens when your married to a sports fanatic, some of it's bound to wear off on you. So here's a couple pictures of the first game we all went to as a family (my oldest daughter is taking the pic). Since then, we've become a little bit wiser, and we get better seats now. These nose bleed seats were our one and only. I'm not really afraid of heights, but I did not like walking up these stairs!!



















So, onto the knitting, I finally managed to finish my Cascade Lace Wings Fixation socks. I love them! I decided to make these for myself, because I wasn't sure how I would like working with the fixation, but these socks are so comfortable!! I will definitely be using more of this!












That's about it as far as knitting goes. Kind of pathetic. I feel like I haven't gotten much done this week. I have been finalizing my Xmas list for this year though. I'm just hoping I am realistic about getting them all finished on time. This weekend I'm going to a farm that sells their own yarn with my mom. I'm excited to check this out. She usually only sells wholesale to LYS's, but a few times a year she holds special private sales by invitation only. My mom had met her at an artist's festival this summer, and she had put herself on the mailing list. Which is funny, because my mom doesn't knit. She's the seamstress in the family.

I've also got one more pair of socks that I'd like to finish before Socktoberfest is over. A pair of socks for my older nephew. It will be the same pattern as the socks I made my youngest nephew a couple weeks ago, and the same yarn, just a little bigger. Should be no problem!!

I've got the bestest Tea Swap Pal!

After weeks of anticipation, it is finally here!!! I practically stalk my mailman every day!! Well I had just gotten home when I saw the mailman pull up across the street. I watched him walk across the road, but as I was going to the door, he turned around!! Hey, where are you going with my package???? I know that's for me!!!! Whew, fortunately, he came back. He had just forgot the slip that I had to sign. And this package was huge!! I immediately looked at the return address. Canada, it came all the way from Canada!! Well there was no taking pictures of the package unopened. I was just too excited. And while I started opening my box, my kids came home from school, and they were as excited as I was. One by one I took my gifts out of the box (while taking my daughter's hand out, these gifts are for me!!). I can't even begin to tell you how special I felt. My pal sent wonderful gifts to me. I felt like she knew me. First of all the tea. She sent some wonderful Celestial Seasonings Apple cinnamon Spice. It just sounds tasty saying it. She also sent Lipton Asian White in the triangle bags that I've been dying to try. (I was just discussing this with my mother the other night!). Another favorite of mine, Tetley Chai. I love chai. I always order this when we go to Gloria Jeans. She also included some wonderful loose teas; some Metropolitan Maple, and Raspberry Leaves from the Farm Pantry in St. Jacobs, Ontario. But that is far from all!! She also sent me the coolest tea mug. It has an infuser and top. I cannot wait to try this! She also sent me a separate tea infuser which will definitely get a lot of use! As far as goodies, mmmm, she sent some wonderful Canadian Maple Syrup and chocolate, which will not last long in this house! My girls already took dibs on the candy, I guess I might share a little of that. And is that all? No way. She also made me two beautiful dishcloths. I was so touched to get this. She did such nice work on them. I knit dishcloths all the time, but I have only kept 2 for myself, I always make them as gifts, so its nice to be the giftee this time around. Is that all??? Not yet, she sent a knitting magazine, which I will definitely be browsing through tonight.


And last but not least, the yarn!! Regia bamboo!! I've been wanting bamboo. I've never knit with it before. Its a beautiful blue and brown colorway. Now, what kind of sock will this yarn become??? My swap pal turned out to be Kim. I'm really looking forward to reading her blog and getting to know her. I think she's a fantastic person!!! Thank you Kim, you made this swap turn out to be a wonderful experience. You don't need to be worried anymore about wondering if you picked out the right things, because these are all things that I would pick out for myself. You did an awesome job and thank you so much!!

Dear New York Mets:

Dear my beloved New York Mets:

I've followed you faithfully all year long. If I wasn't at the ballfield, I was watching on the t.v. I'm one of your most true blue fans. In fact, we are a family of fans. We spent our summer rooting you on and watching you make the playoffs. Now, my only request of you is this: Do you think you could win tonight?? Another win like Sunday would be perfect. You see, I knit while I watch the game, and when your losing, I get frustrated and its hard for me to concentrate on my sock. At some points last night I actually threw my sock down in disgust. It would be even better if you could take a big lead early on, then I'd be less anxious. I started this sock on Monday evening, and I would really like to get this first sock finished up tonight.
I know you like to finish what you start, just like me, and you would make us all happy if you could show the Cardinals what your made of tonight!

GO METS!!

I got a package!!

From my Sock-ret Pal! She told me it was coming, and our mailman finally delivered it before dinner last night. I had my parents for dinner last night so I had to open it quickly, and then after they left, got to ohh and ahh over all of it. She packaged it all up so pretty with sheep wrapping paper.

Look at all the wonderful goodies she sent. Shortbread (mmm my favorite!), milk chocolate with nuts (another favorite, and had to hide these from the family!), some wonderful tea which I got to taste last night. Look at the beautiful merino sock yarn in a "pink panther" color. I've already got a couple ideas for that! And lastly, a pattern for some felted Xmas ornaments for the tree! I love to felt, and I can't wait to make some of these ! It's all so wonderful. She was right on with everything she picked out. I love it all! Whoever you are, I can already tell you are SUPER SWEET, and I'm looking foward to getting to know you after the reveal!!

I got yarn!

Here it is!! And the picture certainly doesn't do it justice! The yarn is from Little Knits, and the one on the left is Cherry Hill in foliage color, and the one on the right is Anne Schaefer. Only one is for me, I can't tell you where the other is going!




And finally, here they are, my finished socks. I was able to finish these socks for my nephew's birthday next month. I think they are so cute, and I will be knitting up another pair for his older brother, who also has a birthday in the same week!

And here are the finished socks for my youngest daughter done in Regia. Camouflage is "in" this year.

It's only the middle of the month, so I've got time for more socks to enter into SAM2 and also into Socktoberfest! What should I do next??? I've got another pair of socks for my older nephew. I've also got this pattern that I'm dying to do with my new yarn. I think though that I might knit up some ankle socks for my daughter with the Cascade Fixation that I got. Those should knit up fast! I'm also anxiously awaiting for two dishcloth KALs to start up this week! It's going to be another busy week!!

Socks, socks, socks (and some candy corn too!)

Well, I finished my first camo sock this weekend, but I was kind of bored with the pattern, so decided to start on some toddler socks for my nephew with the yarn I had won from a contest on Sock-ret pal. But, I had to stop that until my sister can measure his feet. I also had to frog this twice, until I finally figured out that the heel instructions were wrong. So now, I'm kinda winging it, just doing a simple 2x2 rib. While waiting for his measurements, I started my second sock on camo. I'll be glad when this sock is done. I just haven't been able to get into this pattern much.

I also knit up the dishcloth for the KAL here. When I saw the yarn colors we needed, I immediately thought candy corn, but as I got into it, I became unsure of what exactly I was knitting. Even when I finished it and looked at it I thought what the heck is this, then I was reading g-girls blog and Hakucho's blog and finally realized what I was looking at. It's an illusion dishcloth, isn't it cool looking?












In honor of Socktoberfest Lolly showed off her sock stash. Well, here's mine. Sad isn't it???? Although on my behalf, I will say that I have two pairs of socks on the needles right now, and I have some on its way from Little Knits this week. For the most part, I buy my sock yarn with someone in mind, but not necessarily a pattern in mind. For instance, I know that the Cascade Fixation I will be using to make ankle socks for my daughter, and the pink yarn will be for my daughter as well.

And as if I could forget, I won Chrissy's September drawing over at Knittin' Mom's blog for SAM2!! Yea. I think I'm on a winning streak!! Maybe I should take a trip to Foxwoods??

I got my purse!!

Isn't it gorgeous??? Tara says this is her first lined purse, but it looks so professional to me!! She did an amazing job!! I'm a very neutral person when it comes to colors so this purse is perfect for me and the little punch of pink with the ribbon really gives it that extra punch. My oldest DD is such what I would call a preppy "girly girl", so when she sees this, she is going to be so jealous. I love that its big enough for me to carry everything I need, and I also love the big handles, because I carry it with my hand or carry it on my shoulder.




I had a lot of fun doing this purse swap . Tara is such a sweet person, and it was fun to have her for my swap partner. I really hope they do another one because I would love to participate again!





Here's a picture of the purse I made for Tara. I think we have the same taste in colors!! Check out Tara's blog for more pictures and tell her how great a job she did!

I just finished up my dishcloth for this this month's KAL. A cute little kitty. I'm thinking about knitting up three more in different halloween colors, stitching them together and making a big dishtowel to hang in the kitchen for halloween.

The last hurrahs of summer

It's a beautiful day here in New England, and I couldn't resist snapping a couple photos of the last days of summer. The roses have been our biggest surprise this year. We live next to Pfizer and they have been buying houses on the outskirts of our neighborhood to act as a buffer from the company grounds, so this spring they bought the house kitty corner across the street from our house. Well they tore the house down but never did anything else with the land. The house had been there for years and all the landscaping was still intact. Well needless to say, all the neighbors had a field day digging all the plants, bushes, trees, bulbs in the yard. At first we were hesitant but what the heck, everyone else is doing it. So we brought our wheelbarrow and loaded up on hostas, lillies, daisies. A few days later, my husband walks in with a rose bush. "Hey look what I found". Well I have never had luck with roses, but why not plant it and see what happens. Well we thought it had died, but later in the summer it came back in full force and look at it now. There are still more buds waiting to bloom. It's so beautiful.

Here's my babies fattening up for the winter. Can you believe they aren't even a year old yet, but they are big fat fuzzy bunnies now!








This is my current sock on the needles. Its Regia in a camoflage color. This will be for my daughter for Xmas. Seems camo is very big this year for the teens. I wish I knew where to find some wool in camo so I could felt my daughter a bag. I know she would love that! The pretty purple flowers in the background are another one of our saves. My cousin had them growing in her yard, and gave me one last year. Well, again, I planted it, looked like it died and then this year, really took off. I don't know what they are, but the flowers are so vibrant. I think I will move these to the front of the house in the spring.


Lastly, my attempt at a garden of sorts this year. My peppers are now really starting to grow. It seemed all summer long they would blossom, but the blossoms would fall off. Then a few weeks ago, they started forming the peppers. We have to plants and together have about 10 growing. I hope the frost holds offs at least a couple more weeks so they can get bigger.



I joined Socktoberfest and she had a list of questions related to sock knitting:

When did you start making socks? Did you teach yourself or were you taught by a friend or relative? or in a class?
I started at the beginning of the year. I taught myself using Silver's tutorial.
What was your first pair? How have they "held up" over time?
My first pair was just awful!! I used Woolease and one ended up much smaller than the other!
What would you have done differently?
I would have definitely started with a true "sock yarn" and would have been more careful with the measuring. The still sit in my drawer because I can't bear to get rid of them, but I know I will never wear them.
What yarns have you particularly enjoyed?
Well I haven't experimented too much with different yarns, but I enjoyed working with Knitpicks Dancing, and I'm using Regia 4-ply right now which I am enjoying.
Do you like to crochet your socks? or knit them on DPNs, 2 circulars, or using the Magic Loop method?
I have only used DPNs, which scared me at first but now I love them. I would like to learn on 2 circs or the Magic Loop though.
Which kind of heel do you prefer? (flap? or short-row?)
Well I would definitely have to say flap because I haven't tried the short row yet. Hey, something to try this month maybe!
How many pairs have you made?
Hmm, maybe 8 pair now??

Well, still waiting for my KTS2 pal and Purse Swap pals to receive their packages! I hope they get them today! I also have been having fun with my Sock-ret pal. I've e-mailed her a few times and have a list of things I want to add to her box for this month. Im not sure what kind of socks I want to make her yet. I also won some sock yarn yesterday in a contest that Rachel was running. Yea, I never win anything so this is cool!

I got a lot done before I died

Here's a few of my hats from the Caps to the Capital KAL that I am doing with KH. These are so fun to do and they go so quick.









I was able to get my packages for my KTS2 pal and Purse swap pal out on Friday. I really hope they enjoy their packages. Here's Tara's purse all packaged and ready to go.






I officially died 9/30/06 at approximately 12:30 pm. Yes, my socks of doom arrived. Blood red seems so fitting, doesn't it? Well, I have to say they are beautiful and I put them on as soon as they arrived. My wonderful assasin even included a couple packets of tea for me to enjoy (I guess to soften the blow). Made from beautiful hand painted wool. I have to say, with all the ups and downs of Sock Wars, I was very lucky. My assasin and target were both so sweet. You can see my target here with her socks of doom that I sent her.

Some of you have asked for the website where I found the pattern for the tea cup and saucer. Here it is . I can't believe I forgot to mention it before.

I have been pouring over patterns and yarn gearing up for Socktoberfest, which started yesterday. I think I've finally decided. The last sock I knit was very tedious so I'm going with some patterns that will be a little bit easier on my hands. I think I've got it narrowed down to a picot edged sock with Regia, Dublin bay with some nature spun, some ankle socks with Cascade fixation, and finally 3 pair of toddler socks for nephews for Christmas. Phew. That's alot.

Yesterday, we had a nice birthday lunch for my mom. I gave her the butterfly rib socks and some autumn inspired dishcloths, with a silicone bundt pan. My kids had made her some cute cards on the computer, and my sister made some yummy pasta with sundried tomatoes and a salad. Today, I will be going to watch my nephew's soccer game. He's 6 and very active, so it should be a fun game to watch.