Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone! Today has been a fabulous day! First my computer tech got me a new checkout computer! I've been using the computer back in my office to check in and out books for the last three months. It seems wierd to have my desk back after all that time. There was some definite celebration going on after the computer was installed and working.
Second, I finished the Monkey socks and they will be sent out tomorrow (right on time). I love being on time. I'm really proud of getting these socks done, because I really didn't think that they had to be mailed until the end of November. Luckily, Becky told me better. This brings my total sock count for Socktoberfest up to 6. Three pairs of baby socks and three pairs of adult socks, all done.
Gotta send some e-cards! Have a happy and safe Halloween , everyone!

Can You Keep a Secret?

Remember the Secret Project I was working on for my Hogwarts Sock Swap partner? She got it today and you can see the socks I knit her at http://vikkelatvarpaat.blogspot.com (for some reason, when I got my mac, I lost the ability to do the here links). Check out her blog while you're there, she knits some really awesome stuff!

101 Designer One Skein Wonders

Looky, Looky, I got a Bookie. 101 Designer 1 skein Wonders came to the house today. It is super cute. I'm totally making the fishbowl hat for the Baby shower I'm going to next week. There's a Boy-Oh-Boy sweater in there that will go with it perfectly. I can't wait to cast on, but I need to. The monkey socks are going slowly but surely. I'll get them done and in the mail by the right time, there's just not going to be a ton of other knitting going on. No pictures again today. I went to Kathy's to discuss something and forgot the camera there again today. You'll have to wait until tomorrow. Have a great day all!

Left Behind

My camera got left behind yesterday at the shop. No worries, Kathy has it safe and sound. The shower went well yesterday. A fun time was had by all. I needed to be working on the monkey, but I started knitting The Everlasting Bag Stopper Pattern from Knitty. Bad LaLa! I plan on finishing that today, during the football marathon and then getting down to the heel flap of the second Monkey. I really don't have to send them out until Thursday. Which gives me until Tuesday night before I have to wash them. That's plenty of time, right?

Guilt

I stress about going to baby and wedding showers to an obsessiveness. I'm always afraid that I didn't do enough. Today is Dora's shower (I'll show you pictures of what I knit after it) and I feel like I didn't do enough. If Eloise was here, she would tell me (for the 15th time over the past two weeks) that what I have is fine. And for a few seconds I think, "Okay, it's enough, it will be fine, no worries." And then I catch myself planning on waking up at 6 am (on the only day I get to sleep in) to knit a pair of baby booties. I didn't actually do that, my hand managed to find the snooze in time.

With twins, the guilt is doubled. I somehow managed to make 3 pairs of socks for the girl, but one one for the boy (Luckily, one can kinda go either way, at least the number came out even). Likewise, 3 hats for the girl, 1 for the boy (I'm just going to give 1 hat for each). I also bought some stuff. Deep breath. It'll all be okay. Now I just to figure out how I want to wrap all this stuff...

One Down...

I finished the first Monkey sock at my beginner sock class last night. I had the best group this time around. They walked into the last class with at least 1 pair of socks done (some had 1.5). Very Cool. The sock class is going on the back burner for the next few months and some simple skil building classes are comming. Next Sat (the first Sat of Nov.) I'm teaching a hat from the top down class. It's one of my favorite ways to make hats (you can try them on as you go). Very cool for, insert your seasonal holiday here, presents.

Friday Night Out

Friday night, I took a full car load up to Stash to see the legendary Cheryl Schaefer of Schaefer Yarns. She spoke about how she dyes her yarn and the inspiration she gets from women (famous and not). All of her yarns lines are named after women that she knows and most of the colorways that she dyes are based off of famous women. A god time was had by all and Melissa had a great turnout. A few skeins might have slipped and hit my credit card into the machine on their way into a bag. But can you really blame me? Look at all the yarny goodness I resisted.

On the Monkey sock front, I deliberated for quite a while what to do with the Humbertoified sock. I wasn't real happy with the pooling on it and I wasn't sure about the colorway for my swap pal, so I ripped it out. I then spent the next 11 hours knitting. After knitting on it for around 2 episodes of Firefly today, I have 1 more full pattern repeat before I start on the toe. The plan is to finish the first sock tomorrow and complete the ribbing of the second. I hope to have both socks completed, washed, dried, and in the mail a week from today. That will still give them a few days to get to their destination. Then I have some shop models and a baby shower to knit for. Crazy...

That Darn Cat

ate the monkey sock I'm knitting for my pal last night. He got into my CLOSED bag and to them out and ate them! He only eats my good yarn. Grrrr.... I'm off to reknit a monkey sock (luckily, I wasn't very far into it).

Monkeys, Monkeys, Everywhere

I got so much stuff in this swap that I can hardly remember it all. Look at the photo... now look closer. That's all stuff I got. For serious... Heather spoiled me rotten. I must be the luckiest swapper, I always get the best people. I've already used the sock monkey keychain for my keys for school and the have the Mon Key covers on them. I put the one with the tongue sticking out for the office doors and the one who looks sick for the outer library doors. I've also worn the handknit monkey's and loved them. I really could go on and one about how rockstar this package is (just ask my mom and coworkers, they've heard it all week.) I loved it all.
As for the monkey package that I'm getting together... I've gotten all the Monkey stuff, I just need to knit like the wind this week. For some reason I thought the swap was over at the end of November not the first. I'll be panic knitting all week long, but stuff will get done and sent by next Sat.
The Hogwarts package is leaving the house on Monday (the socks are done and drying but I wanted them to stick around to meet some royalty of the hand dying last night, so I had put off finishing them until they got to meet her). That's my story and I'm sticking to it. You'll get to see all the pictures of the event and the stash additions in the next post. Until then, may your needles be swift and your yarn free of tangles. :)

Skein Winder

I just bought a Will Taylor skein winder. I can't stand winding skeins on the niddy noddy anymore. I think I may have a yarn problem...
I'll post pictures of the awesome Monkey package I got when it stops raining and there are no tornado warnings. I find that tornados put a cramp in my picture taking.

Buddy Walk

On Sunday I walked in the Memphis Buddy Walk to promote awareness and help for the MidSouth Down Syndrome Association. A great time was had by all. It was a beautiful day and I am so proud of the students from my school that showed up. They took time to get rides up to Memphis on their fall break to help other people. It gives you hope for the future, doesn't it?

Monkeying Around

I get the best upstream swap pals (I can only hope that I live up to their awesomeness). It's pouring here, otherwise you would get to see all my Monkey Swap goodies that arrived in the mail today. I got socks knit out of cotton. That alone is a great treat because I hate to knit cotton. I also got soooooo much stuff. I'm totally overwhelmed. I can't even think! More raving tomorrow, but I had to get a head start now. Thank you so much Heather!!!!! I love every bit of it!!!!!!!!

Socktober Fest

For some reason, I always seem to be lacking on the blogging during October. This month always makes me feel a bit behind on everything. Luckily, I have today and tomorrow off to catch up. These are Nikki's socks. I finished them the first week of October, in celebration of Socktoberfest (there's a flickr group). My goal for Socktoberfest was a pair of adult socks every week and a pair of baby socks every other week. That would be 6 pairs of socks total during the entire month. How am I doing so far? Well, I have Nikki's pair to count for the first week and a pair of really cute baby socks that I need to take a picture of. I also have my pair of baby socks for this week done (again lacking on the picture). But I've been lapse on completing a pair of adult socks for last week. I'm almost there. I just need to find time to sit and knit. Maybe I'll work on that this afternoon... Tomorrow, I'll post some pictures I took of the Buddy Walk that I participated in yesterday. And maybe some pictures of those baby socks. Maybe even a picture of some adult socks.... Who knows????

Edited to add: apparently, blogger is having some picture loading issues. I'm going to load the picture into flickr and you can check it out there in the meantime. Got it now. Bad Blogger!

Spoiled Rotten

Check out what I got in the mail this week. It's my Hogwarts Sock Swap Two package! In it were all kinds of goodies like awesome yarn, chocolates, tea, a bookmark, a Moomin, a sock pattern, and socks. I know there were awesome other things that I've missed, they were there too and they were awesome. I'm really lucky to have such a great pal! Thank you Victori! I'll get your package out this week.

Coffee and Hogwarts Swap

I got my Hogwarts 2 swap package a few days ago (bad blogger, no cookie) and it is rockstar! I'll post pictures and rave about it tomorrow. In the mean time, here are my questions for Coffee Swap 3:

QUESTIONS
1. Whole bean or ground? Whole bean, please
2. Fully-loaded or decaf?The more caffine the better
3. Regular or flavored? either is fine with me
4. How do you drink your coffee? with cream and splenda (I'm a wimp)
5. Favorite coffee ever? Pumpkin Spice Latte or White Chocolate Mochas from Starbucks
6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do? Most anything is fine
7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee? cookies
8. Anything else about your coffee preferences? I'm good
9. Yarn/fiber you love? I love all natural yarns
10. Yarn/fiber you hate? Novelty crap
11. What's on your needles? It might be better to ask what is not on my needles at this point. Hmmmm... 3 shawls, a they might be pirates hat, 10 pairs of socks, a baby surprise sweater, a kid's skirt, several baby hats, several bags, a lace scarf, and a my so called scarf.
12. Favorite colors? Purple, pink, blue, green, and black (not all together)
13. Allergies? Nope
14. Anything you really love, really don't like, or just need to get off your chest? No dark or white chocolate, please. I only like milk chocolate. I think that's about it...

Fall/Winter

I was going through the mail from Saturday and came across some L.L. Bean and Land's End catalogs. They are filled with warm wooly winter and fall goodness. Unfortunately, these things are totally inappropriate for the 90 degree heat that we've been having in Mississippi lately. I think the thing that I miss the most about the north, besides the family, is the cool weather. I am a cool weather person at heart and love the fall and winter. That seems to be lacking down here. I'm planning a trip to visit Becky in March, so I might get to see some snow then. In the meantime, I need to prevent myself from ordering that lovely bright pink jacket with matching boots and polar-fleece vest. I can't see much in the negative degree temps happening here

Muggle and the Motorcycles (Part Two)

Wonder what I did during the field games? Yup, I knit. And I listened to people compare engines and speed and all sorts of things involving numbers and motorcycles. Everyone was very nice and stopped to admire the socks in progress.

After the field games, we sat and waited for the prizes to be awarded. Mom won the nifty hat she's wearing and something for Becky's bike.




As we were waiting, the Alabama group came in dressed as pirates. Apartently, when my dad's group went to the Alabama rally (known as the chicken rally) they wore chicken hats and this was the Alabama's version of retribution (I think motorcyclists may be odder than knitters, but don't tell Wheezy).

A Muggle in a Motorcycle World (Part One)

This is Wheezy. He is my father. He likes motorcycles. In the motorcycle world, they do things similar to Fiber Festivals. They are called rallys. Wheezy took me to the Return to Shiloh BMW rally this weekend (Mom and Maggie came,too). There were tons of bikes.

And vendors.

And field games where people compete to see who can throw water ballons over a pole and then catch them on their way down, and put Kermit chairs together.


Wheezy got his butt kicked on the Kermit chairs. I'll post some more later. There will be knitting included in that one.

Sock Wars

I just removed myself from Sock Wars and I feel that I made the right decision. After reading numerous posts, I just felt like I had enough going on and really was not as obsessed into it as some of the other members. I like knitting socks for the enjoyment of knitting socks. They are reserved for people I like and I take those people's considerations into my knitting. Socks Wars is not for my kind of knitter and I have so much stuff going on, that I felt like it would be taking up knitting time, energy, and materials, that could be better used elsewhere. So goodbye sock wars and good luck to all involved!