I started knitting up a swatch while i was waiting for those last pictures to upload. Sock yarn - Trampoline Stretch in a red rainbow colorway - on size 1 needles. It's like knitting a bitty something for a doll! It's been so long since I've knit so small. I've been dying to do another pair of socks. I was thinking it might be a pain to knit on the small needles, but it's actually a nice change.

Had a busy evening tonight. Winter was going to a "Belly Jam" with her Brownie troop tonight - actually learning to belly dance! I had to drop her off at the school for her ride @ 4:15. Than back home with the boys to get Shane ready for hockey @ 6:30. Morgan and I hung out in the bleachers while he played. Morgan(3) loves to climb up and down the bleachers. Tonight he discovered he could throw his mitten down behind the bleachers, then go all the way down and retrieve it. :) Up and down, up and down he went.

After hockey, we headed over to pick up Winter from her troop leader's (and daughter's) house. They were having such a good time, and I hung out and talked for a little bit. It's nice getting to know another new person. The girls get along really well. It turns out they have a camper at the campground across the way from us. We were already talking about getting together in the summer when they're camping.

I used to be so shy and aloof about meeting new people and making conversation, but as I get older, that seems to be falling away. I once had a guy I was dating say, "You can ask anyone anything. The worst they can say is no, they don't want to answer." At the time I just felt pressed to come up with conversation topics, and really awkward, but I never forgot that. Nowadays, my curiosity leads me to ask things I never would have thought of before. Not rude, just getting to know you things.

Here are the Pictures!

After a couple other failed attempts at getting the pictures that went along with Sunday's entry, I decided to just try to send the pics.
Above is the Berroco Medley. Below, the Kathmandu Aran.

The bag I'm lovin' and dd at the sewing machine:)

Here's the scrumptious Berroco Medley I got yesterday.


And here's the Khatmandu Aran in this sage green color. I'm discovering how in love with sage green I am lately. Not that I didn't love it before, it's just becoming more and more apparent in color choices for lots of things, namely our bedroom and clothes/yarn for myself...

As well as the fabric for this DIY Tote Bag I whipped up today! It's from the Stitch 'N' Bitch book, and it was really simple. Simple is good. I'm so psyched, I want to get more fabric and whip up a couple more of these babies for friends. We (the kids and I) brought out the old sewing machine a few days ago, and as you can see, we've been having fun with it.

Here's Winter sewing on the machine all by herself for the first time. She was so excited and proud of herself. Do you remember the first time you got to do that? I clearly remember sitting with my mom and sewing, and how much fun it was to play with all the mysterious buttons and knobs.

Here she's working on pillows made from sleeves of a soft fleecy pajama shirt. We made a pillow from the body of the pj's, why not from the sleeves too?!
Shane and I started a shirt pillow for him...this one with the sleeves still attached. Now we just need more stuffing. Big sis claimed all that.

Stash Enhancement

Ah, the call of the Annual Sale at the LYS, The Warm Ewe! I had to come into town to drop off dd for a Brownie function and run some errands and remembered today was the last day of the sale. Can't pass that up!

I had a whole 45 minutes to browse around before I had to pick her up again. Ah! It was heaven to just keep wandering around and around in there, taking my time looking, touching, listening to other knitters chatting in the background. (You can tell I don't often get to do this...or for that length of time ;) ) What cool, fun energy to just be in there with a bunch of people with the same love for knitting that I have.

Pictures tomorrow, but I got :
1 ball of berroco Medley in a blue colorway
4 balls of Berroco medley in a more pink/red colorway
11 balls of Kathmandu Aran in a beautiful sage color

What I'll do with the Medley I don't yet know. The Aran yarn I want to make a sweater for myself (finally). "Finally" because it's been a long time since I've wanted to knit a sweater, or something big like a sweater, and with big expanses of stockinette to do. I've wanted to stick to smaller projects, or projects made up of smaller pieces. Not small yarn on small needles, mind you, just smaller pieces with worsted weights and average size needles and interesting combos of stitches.

I want it to either be a very basic pullover, stockinette stitch with rolled edges, or maybe some cables. Something simple and comfortable.

Long Lost Wip

So here she is! An aran sweater I was working on in college...almost 20 years ago. It's so funny that I found this, because I had completely forgotten about it, but have been really recently wanting to make an aran sweater and was starting to look for patterns. I also didn't realize how much I had gotten done on it. It's been so long that I can't remember why I stopped working on it. And sadly, where the last skein of yarn went that I would need to finish it!!! I have this dim thought/memory(?) that maybe, after not having worked on the sweater for a long time, and needing yarn for a project with some kidlets, I just used that. Much lack of foresight, alas.

I originally used Lion Brand Yarn - Debyshire which is a 3ply baby and sport yarn ( I have the label from the partial skein I have remaining). Of course they no longer have that but I emailed to see if they could maybe recommend a good substitute. It may be a longshot, but it's such a beautiful sweater, it's worth a shot. I figure I have enough to finish the front which is good. Then maybe I could find something really close to do the sleeves.

WIPs

Yesterday we headed down to my sister-in law's for a birthday/goodbye get-together for my nephew who is turning 22 and is enlisting in the Army (providing he passes the physical - bad shoulder may keep him out).

I brought along the Noro Kureyon to start my third block for Lizard Ridge. I think I like this color scheme the best so far. All of them have been beautiful. This one, with the purples/blues is really my fave. Took it with me tonight to a meeting and worked in another ridge. The hardest part is counting the short rows and trying to hold up my end of the conversation at the same time. Luckily the short rows are only done on row 4 and 10 of this 12 row pattern. The rest is stockinette.

I was going to post a picture tonight, but it's taking forever for it to upload and my eyes are starting to cross, so...tomorrow.

And, coming soon to a blog near you...this one, in fact...a picture of my oldest living WIP, (re)discovered just two days ago while searching for stuffing for pillows the kids are making. I knew the stuffing was hiding in the trunk in the livingroom upon which the hu-normous (6yo ds's term) tv rests. What I didn't remember was all the other unfinished gems and not-so-gems (no wonder they're unfinished!) that were patiently waiting in there to see the light of day!

Stay tuned...

This is what I bought the size 10 dp needles for. Well, this is the swatch for what I bought the needles for really. My first felted knitting. I got Felted Knits from the library and I'm going to use this beautiful orange merino
from my stash to make a pair of felted mittens for myself.

This swatch is my first time felting knitting and it's the coolest thing. I'm so funny, everytime I spot this swatch laying somewhere, I just have to pick it up, touch it and marvel at it. It started as this loose piece of knitting, and now it's this thick, soft piece of fabric! And I did it myself!

There's a bag in there and some slippers I want to do too. Ah, so many projects, so little time!

This is what a Saturday trip to the LYS produced. Yummies! Two balls of Noro Kureyon , #164 (the green/grey, etc) and #139(pinks/purples/greens, etc) and #10 dp needles.

As you can see I couldn't resist starting a hat with the #164. One time when i stopped in at the store over the holidays, one woman was knitting this hat, andalso had a finished one there with her. I asked about it, and one of the YS folks said it wasn't a printed thing, just something going around by word of mouth, so she wrote it down for me. Oh, my excitement at a new treasure to try!

I'm definitely on a knitting bender right now :). I keep thinking, yeah but will i still be knitting come summer, or will I stop again like last year? Who knows? I'm having fun now!

I'll have to take some more pictures later today to show you what I've got on the sticks right now.

We're going skating today over in Saugerties with our homeschool group. A bit of a trip, but it's worth it to get together with our friends. Our regular meeting place is being renovated right now, in fact since last spring, so we've been planning weekly field trips and get-togethers other places. A couple weeks ago, we went up to Schenectady one day to see the Golden Dragon Acrobats perform. Amazing, amazing, amazing...and breathtaking! Wow! If you ever get a chance to see them, or something like them, definitely go!