April Showers face cloth swap

I received this beautiful face cloth from Angela in California on Monday and am just getting time to post it now. I love round face cloths - and it is definitely a face cloth - no dishes will be washed with this one!



Angela also included a small change/notion purse, a ball of beautiful yarn, and a Hula Girl pineapple-coconut pancake and waffle mix. Tomorrow is pancake day and I can't wait to try the mix!

Edited to say that those were some of the best pancakes I have ever had! They disappeared so fast! We have a little bit left the package and we'll make them on a day when it's just the two of us.



Thank you Angela! I loved everything!

Woolgirl Soc k Club #1 - spoiler

I knew the sock club packages were being sent today, I didn't know I'd get the package today! The contents of the wrapped package were almost too pretty to open.



Inside were 3 leaflets - 1 pattern, 1 leaflet about color inspiration, and 1 leaflet about a contest. I won't describe the rest of the contents because I don't want to ruin this any more for people who haven't gotten their packages yet.



I spent most of Sunday helping Nicholette at StitchCraft (yeah, website is up and running). She had people coming in all weekend to help check off box contents so she could enter the inventory in her computer. I helped with Cascade and Westminster. I had no idea Cascade carried so many different kinds of yarn. I had no idea Westminster carried Rowan, Nashua and Shepherd. I'm in love with Shepherd yarn - the colors are fabulous. Once the yarn is on the shelves for good, it's going to be a most colorful store. I love Nicholette's taste in color. I've always thought I was partial to earth-tone colors, but being exposed to so many colors, I think I just like them all. I think I've even found some yellow that could work for me!

I got to see the organic wallpaper, books, buttons, organic quilting thread, material, and needles. Nicholette shared more of her community-building ideas and I left feeling more excited about the store than ever! I really hope I'm not going to be disappointing swap pals, but the store doesn't open until May and I can't buy anything from there until then.

I'm wearing a splint at night now and going to see an occupational therapist 3 days a week. I'm going to be ordering a foot pedal to take the place of the space bar some time today. I sure hope my thumb heals soon. So much for amigurumi. Crochet hurts, knitting does not. Blogging does, so I'd better stop.

I'm off to look for 1 more thing for Dee, my dish cloth buddy for this month, and then I can mail her package.

Spring Fling Coffee & Yarn Swap Topic #2

Question #2
"Since some of us are beginning to see glimpses of Spring, while others are still getting snow, have you changed what projects you are working on? Have you put away the hats, scarfs and mittens, and brought out the cute tank top sweater projects and lacy wraps? Have you changed yarn to something lighter and cooler, not so heavy and bulky?"

This spring my knitting is being limited to a scarf for the International Scarf Exchange 6 swap and to a sock I'm knitting for a store demo. I knit a lot of socks and scarves and since these are small, portable projects I tend to knit them year around. If I was knitting a sweater, I'd probably knit with cotton or something suitable for warm weather like a short-sleeve sweater or lacy wrap.

Scored my Wollmeise!

I got 3 skeins because I was in the right place at the right time. A benefit of working evenings, I guess! I got Medium Indisch Rot in fluffy 80/20, Medium Amazonas superwash, and Lowenzahn light in superwash. I was able to redeem my gift certificate. What fun! An early birthday present!

Ouch!

Just returned from the doctor and I've got tendinitis in my thumb and probable carpal tunnel. My posts are going to be short and sweet for awhile. I still need to work and to knit a few things for people, so I'll be curbing posts for a little bit - I have to cut back somewhere.

Loopy Ewe Swap package

There was a knock on the door early this afternoon and when I went to answer it there was a BIG box outside the door. The box was my Loopy Ewe Swap package from my spoiler, Pam! As you will see, this was an amazing package. Be forewarned, this will be a long post! I'm also not sure the pictures can do justice in displaying, but here goes.

First, the socks! That's what I saw first. I know these are Wooly Boully socks, but I don't know the colorway. I do know that I love them.



Take a look at the pattern detail:

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They fit wonderfully!

Next in the box was something hard and wrapped very, very carefully. It was a cup, followed by a lid. I knew Pam had had these made for me and I was just so pleased with how they had turned out. It's just that there were more hard things to open and by the time I finally finished opening the carefully wrapped hard things, I had a full tea set: teapot, 2 cups, 2 plates, and a cream and sugar bowl! I was amazed. The set is just gorgeous. Here it is in its glory. Unfortunately, my camera can't capture the beauty, but hopefully you can get an idea of what the set looks like.

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Then I saw a skein of yarn, which was quickly followed by 4 more skeins of yarn! There's Unique Fiber Studio Alpaca Plus in color 600 (tans and lavenders), Miss Babs in Cool Triad (greens, blues, purple), Zen Yarn Garden in Apricot Kiwi, See Jayne Knit in Heaven on Earth colorway, and Socks That Rock in Rocktober colorway. I think I'm going to need my own storage bin!



I hadn't come to the bottom of the box yet! There was a green corduroy shoulder saddle bag with lots of zippered pockets and sections for needles, and a project bag with another bag for knitting accessories (filled with accessories). I got some stitch markers with my initials (M and G) and a button that says SSK, a gorgeous Hide and Sheep row counting bracelet, and finally a nice knitting notebook with pages for needle inventory, yarn and project notes.





Pam outdid herself. It was a package worth waiting for and I'm so touched. Pam has just opened her own online yarn store, Yarny Goodness, and that has been an overwhelming responsibility. That she was able to put this package together for me and to knit a pair of socks was amazing. Thank you so much, Pam! You were very generous and you really did put a lot of thought and hard work into getting this done for me.

April Fool

I fell for the Julia Roberts joined Ravelry on April 1. With all the silliness today I didn't catch on until I saw books on Fabio displayed in book queues of everyone's book collections and came to the conclusion that I couldn't believe very much of what I saw on Ravelry today! Yes, I am gullible!

Lyn and I got to have our anniversary celebration. We went out to eat at Thai Orchid and got dessert at Rose's Deli (Death by chocolate and Mocha torte). We left enough Thai food for leftovers on Monday.

Don't anyone in my family faint from shock, but I was rather caught up by the Davidson-Kansas college basketball game. I really don't like sports very much and look at big game days as a guilt-free way to shut myself up in my craft room and knit. I do like underdog stories though and my 2 brothers and father all graduated from Davidson. Curry played very well until I came downstairs and watched the last 12 minutes (meaning last 1-1/2 hours) of the game. Tim informed me he only scored when I wasn't watching, so it's All.my.fault. that Davidson didn't win the game. Sorry family.

I'm knitting a lot, but have started some swaps and can't say anything until recipients get what I'm knitting.

Oh, and my sister started a blog called Bringing it Down. She and her husband are getting rid of their swimming pool and are trying to redesign the space. Go read it and feel free to give advice!