Summer Vacation is Over

This is what greeted us as we walked outside this morning. A friedly little spider. Look at him, he is furry......eeeeeeeeks.

Today was the first day of first grade for my son C. Morning came early and the bus arrived at the bus stop promptly at 8:00 A.M. This is the first full day of school for C. Last year was only a half day. So, he had recess and lunch today for the first time. I packed his lunch and told him that I put a special suprise on his napkin and to think of me when he sees it. It was a smiley face sticker!!!! After a long day, he came home and changed into shorts and had some snacks. He had a good day. Liked his new teacher, reunited wth some old friends and met some new ones. Now mom can rest assured since the first day is out of the way. Below are some pictures waiting for the bus. When I went to Walmart last night for some last minute school supplies, I picked up a Boston Red Sox t-shirt for him. IHe was so excited. It was his only request for new clothes. Sport shirts.

Crocheting along

I am feeling like a human again. Yay. I picked up the hook last night as I caught up on listening to my favorite fiber podcasts. I have a couple of favorites, o.k...maybe more than a couple. I listen to Brenda Dayne's Cast on, Webs' Ready, Set, Knit, Jenny and Nicole's Stash and Burn, Marley's Yarn Thing, Guido's It's a Purl, Man, and the Lelly's Knit Pick's podcast. I really enjoy listening to these podcasts when I am crocheting and everyone in the house is sleeping. It is nice to turn the T.V. off...and listen to itunes. I find it extremely interesting about the newest fibers that on the market with the Webs podcast. Actually, I drool when I listen to all the great buys the store has going. They have a good website that photographs the fibers beautifully for perfect color matches, A-1 customer service, and super close out prices. They usually interview someone that is active in the fiber industry be it an author or an editor of a fiber magazine to a president of a successful yarn manufacturer. It is worth a listen too.

I recently started to listen to Stash and Burn...and it makes me realize that I really do not have a stashing problem at all. Jenny and Nicole have huge amounts of yarn. It makes me laugh knowing that they can go into their yarn stash, and find enough yarn to make a sweater. I don't know about your stashes, but I may be lucky to find a complete skein in my collection. I guess I have a lot of one skein and left over skeins. Never enough to do a large project. I get a kick out of their friendly banter back and forth.

I did not mean for this blog entry to become a podcast review, but it is definitely worth the time to download some of these shows for a listen. It keeps you update on fiber trends...and the newest yarns. Enclosed are some pics of the comfort shawl that I am working on. I have about 2 more skeins of Caron Simply Soft to add. I know it is not very exciting pattern, but I think she will enjoy it nevertheless. The third picture is the most color accurate, although thy are all pretty off from the rose color. It is hard to believe that they are the same color at all. Hmmmm...it must have been the flash on my camera. It was taken at dusk. If there is anything that I learned about blogging, is that my pictures come out the best when they are taken outside with natural light.

Under the weather

Just wanted to check in. Have not done any crochet all week because I have been feeling crappy. This head cold has really knocked me off my feet this week. No fun. Ho Hum. Woe is me. Hopefully, I will feel better soon and start crocheting again.

I am IN!!!!

Finally. I got my invite to Ravelry late Saturday night. It is rather comical because I have been checking daily my number in line. Friday I was #80...and Saturday it read that there was NO invites in front of me. I was freaking out at this point, because I had not received I got an invite although it said it did. Eventually I got the invite and was so pumped. As soon as I got access to the site, I was fooling around with all the options, entered my data and then went to bed it was so late. On Sunday, I was feeling sick, so I did not even get a chance to play around on Ravelry. WHAT??!!!! I waited three months to get my invite and then I am too sick to play. AGGGGGGRRRRRR. I know, I know, I have plenty of time, it was just a bit ironic. I am feeling a bit better now.

So, this weekend, I woke up to this in my yard....



This is our first time growing sunflowers, and we are so thrilled that it popped open. The kids are super excited. Just look at the pattern that the inside seeds are doing as the spread open. It is an interesting pattern.

On the crochet front...I have put all projects aside and started working on a prayer shawl for my sister in law's friend who just got diagnosed with cancer. I was thinking about what I could do for this woman...and flowers did not seem appropriate. It dawned on me that I could make a prayer shawl for her. It will comfort her as she goes through her treatments. It is a super easy pattern of 3 rows of double crochet and a one row of single crochet repeated through out. It just takes some time to complete, and I would say that I am 1/4 done with it. My brother's girlfriend had asked me a while back if I could crochet her a head band. Of course I would! So she bought some Bernat ping pong, and it was a disaster to work with. So I purchased some Bernat softee baby yarn in pink ans made the headband.

I used this pattern from The Crabby Crafter. It is done in bobbles and is a great project to use up some scraps which I think I maybe doing soon. Bobbles are rather easy to do. According to The Crabby Crafter, bobbles are made in the following way: bobble -- yo, insert hook in st, yo, draw a long loop through st (3 loops on hook), yo, insert hook in same st, draw a long loop through st (5 loops on hook), yo, insert hook in same st, draw a long loop through st (7 loops on hook), yo, draw through all 7 loops on hook. This is her version of what is sometimes called the pineapple stitch. Try it out, it is rather fun!

This week maybe????

Ravelry

You signed up on June 14, 2007
You are #9196 on the list.
450 people are ahead of you in line.
16140 people are behind you in line.
34% of the list has been invited so far

I opened up a flicker account, so I can start taking pictures of my stash.

Knit Picks

I got a wonderful package in the mail the other day. My order from Knit Picks. I really have been wanting some yarn from Knit Picks for some time now. I would cruise the site...dreaming about all the yarn choices. I wanted some nice yarn to doodle with that did not cost me an arm and a leg.

I tried to buy yarn that had projects attached to them. HA! That only half worked. I bought the Wool of The Andes for mittens. I am now on a quest for a great mitten pattern. Any ideas? I tried using the pattern I used for the bath mitt...but it came out way to small. I bought the Spinnaker 100% cotton to make a baby sweater. I had a heck of a time unwinding it from it's hank. It became an absolutely knotted up mess. I almost cried. It took me about and hour and a half to unravel it. And as fate would have it, I loathe working with the yarn. The texture is just so difficult to work with. Very difficult to see the stitched and forget about ripping back your work....almost impossible. It is so pretty to look at. I should have read the description of the yarn better.

I also purchased some Elegance (70% baby Alpaca, 30% silk, dk weight) in a lilac color and a grass color. It works up like a dream. It is really pleasure to work with. If you haven't tried Elegance...it is a must. I also ordered one skein of Andean Treasure in sunset which is 100% Baby Alpaca in a sport weight. Talk about soft. My review a couple of weeks back, sort of scorned Bernat new Alpaca Natural Blends because of it shedding. I assumed that a yarn that included more alpaca would make it shed more. That was a bad assumption because it is simply just not the case. For some unknown reason, I did not photograph these yarns. Hmmmmm What else?????.....

I also ordered some cotton blend yarns called Shine sport and Shine worsted, with absolutely no project in mind. These are made from 60% Pima Cotton, 40% Modal. The colors are just so summery. I could not pass it up. I have not tried to play with this yarn yet. I would love to get some comments on what exactly what I should make from these single skeins. Please, any suggestions would be welcome.

As far as other news in and around my household, my kids have only 2 weeks of summer vacation left. Where did the summer go? I have to get some school clothes for C. A. can wait a bit because he does not go back until the second week of September. Besides, since it is still so warm out, they will most likely go in t-shirts and shorts for the first weeks. I noticed a few acorns the other day on the ground. You know what that means. FALL.

Ravelry...

O.k...it does not looks so bad...I am getting there.

You signed up on June 14, 2007
You are #9196 on the list.
864 people are ahead of you in line.
15207 people are behind you in line.
34% of the list has been invited so far

Mail call

I have patiently waited for my anniversary present to arrive in the mail for about 8 weeks. Today was the day the package arrived in my mailbox. I am lucky to receive these great custom crochet hooks by Sonshapes. They are made with ebony wood, and engraved with my name on them. The picture to the left is the engraved box the hooks came in. The hooks are super light weight and are super smooth. I want to start collecting hooks. Well, technically I have already started. There are so many unique ones out there made out of many kinds of materials. I already own a metallic set by Boye (my first set), a Soft Touch set by Clover, and a nice set of Bamboo hooks that I purchased off of ebay. My mother-in-law bought me a Skacel Addi in a size J, and I bought myself a birch hardwood Brittany hook in size I. It is funny how I decide on using a particular brand by the type of material that I am working with. For example, I like to match my bamboo hooks with a bamboo yarn. Although sometimes a yarn might be too slick to use with the bamboo hooks. It really all depends. Thank you honey for a wonderful nine years!

If you look hard enough, you can see my name engraved.

A night with the Yarn Harlot

Last night, I had the rare opportunity to listen to Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee aka The Yarn Harlot in Burlington, Massachusetts! She was a riot. I laughed harder than I did in a long time! It took me about an hour and a half to get there (lots of traffic), but it was well worth it. I got there almost an hour in a half early...but it was good because I got to get a good seat, and one of the first tickets to be called for the book signing. I felt a little weird pulling out my crochet in a room full of knitters, but I did. I even met some of the people around me like Kim. Kim teaches 3rd grade, and gave me a little lesson on knitting. Hmmmmmm....maybe some day I'll get it. Thanks Kim!

As I was standing in line, I met Jess, one of the creators of Ravelry. She was so sweet and told me to have some more patience about getting my invite to Ravelry. She said they are trying real hard to get things going. She was so excited talking about the new site. It makes me want even more to get my invite. A couple of more weeks.

I bought Stephanie's newest book on CD. I figured that way, I can listen as I crochet. I had her sign her Knitting Rules book. I said to her when I finally made it to the head of the line...."before you sign this, you must know that I am a crocheter...you know, one of THOSE people!" She laughed and said...."hey, we're cousins!" I had such a good night! And remember, the Harlot does not knit for crack hoes!