LOTS OF KNITTING NEWS PART 1

To start off Andrea how do you make a link using a word such as blog, here etc in a blog without writing out the entire link? I did see it in your comment and on other's blogs but I don't know how to do it . Can you explain it to me? BUT it was cute very cute putting that link in there. AND notice I didn't remove it?

PHEW finished some knitting projects and some are just in time for mailing.

The Monkey Socks for the Monkey Swap are finished. They need to do some traveling and say good bye to a few friends. Then they will have a bath. I am working on another monkey item for my pal. If I don't like it or it doesn't come out the way it should I won't send it. Can you tell what it will be?

And here are the completed Monkey socks. I hope my pal likes them.
The color is a bit off but you get the idea of how nice they are. They also match up quite well except for a couple rows at the toe where the front and back are opposite.(??????)
They are a little bit too big for me so they should fit my pal's feet since her foot is a tad larger than mine. I have had many compliments on them. Are those hints for a pair?
I have several other goodies in the box for my pal. Everywhere I look now I see monkey items. Oh my poor pocketbook and the Monkey Swap isn't due to be mailed until the end of the month.

I have made the neatest item for my Knit One Tea Too pal. Well at lest I think so. What do all of you reading my blog think?
Here they are right out of the oven and even frosted. LOL
These first two are a strawberry cupcake with strawberry frosting and chocolate sprinkles and a vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting.

These next are a vanilla cupcake with a coconut frosting and chocolate sprinkles and a black forest cupcake. Unfortunately, some of the cherry filling leaked out of the cupcake.

AND this is how they are being presented. I hope they survive the trip south of where I live.
OH and all the cupcakes as you see have a cherry on top and the calories removed. HMMMM YUMMMY!!

AND here is a photo of my Solara lying on a hot spot she found on the heated mattress cover on my bed.

To be continued......

THREE DAYS SINCE MY LAST POST

Where has the time gone? I can't believe how busy I have been these last three days during the day and during the evenings. Busy with errands, knitting and my Avon banquet.

I will start with:

Knitting Goodness

I received my ITE4 package from my angel Sarah in Arizona. AND what a great package she sent. She told me there was a surprise in the box. Sarah didn't send me just one bag she sent me two bags!!! She also sent a whole lot of goodies which included: three knitted mug rugs, size 3DPNs by Susan Bates, a Leisure Arts leaflet called Knit Beaded Bags, a row counter, note cards, a magnetic note pad, a miniature calendar, sticky notes, jelly Bellys, patterns for one of the tote bags and two skeins of Lion Brand Micro Spun yarn.

Here is a photo of the bag called a Bag of all Reasons which was designed by Sarah. Notice the bottle holder pocket. Clever very clever and the pocket will fit a 20 ounce bottle. Here is the inside of the bag showing the three pockets. You can also see the little toggle button closure. What doesn't show up is the little hook to put your keys or another item on you don't want to have fall to the bottom of the bag and get lost. The color is somewhat off also. She put really nice handles on this bag.
This is the second bag Sarah sent. It has knitted handles and doesn't have the water bottle pocket on the outside.
BUT it has several pockets on the inside. She knit them with double strands so they are nice and sturdy.
Thursday I received a puffy from my one of the group members in a pen pal group I belong to as this month I am Member of the Month (MOTM). In it was a looooong pen that can be twisted into different shapes, a mini pocket memo note book, note cards, and a kit to make 3D cards. I also received my journal back of which I was the first to write in. We each take turns and write in it for a week. Each time we send a journal around it belongs to a different member of the group. It is amazing to read what is happening in other people's lives and see how different our lives are yet how similar they are also.

Then this afternoon I received a UPS package. I was sure I wasn't expecting anything when I read the return address. It was from Yves Rocher. Yes Yes YES I know I sell Avon but I have to see what the competition sells and there are some items they sell I like. Also, I have a few friends that like Yves Rocher and Christmas is just around the corner. I was quite surprised it came by UPS though and not via good old Canada post. AND there were two identical 2007 catalogues???? HMMMMM

There is other goodness happening. Last night was my Avon banquet. I am working on my 10th year with Avon and 10 years in the President's Club. Next year I will receive a tribute for being with Avon for 10 years. Every year I get an anniversary card from Avon when that time of the year rolls around when I first signed up. I also get a birthday card and a Christmas card from them. They send gifts a few times during the year including a Christmas gift. All because I am in the President's Club. Well last night we had a lovely dinner at one of the city's fancy hotels. The food was delicious. I had hoped to take a photo of the dessert a chocolate cheesecake which was like a mousse in a chocolate cup with whipped cream, fruit decoration and a triangular shaped piece of chocolate. It was on a white plate with some coulee for decoration and it tasted great. I had hoped to take of photo of it but that is when the batteries of my camera died.

I did win a door prize at the banquet. Can you guess or even imagine what it was??? It was a red bag. I had a choice of a small one or a large one. Of course, you figured out I took the larger one. It has capital As all over it and was made especially for us by Avon. Here is another view. It has a lot of pockets, not that you can see them from these photos.
When I picked the larger bag of the two my manager Sue said to me, I knew you would pick that one.

That isn't all I got at the banquet. I was given a tea light candle holder and tea light candle especially made for those of us in President's Club,
a beautiful and large rhinestone pin which on the back says Avon 120th anniversary,
and a miniature Lady Albee of the larger one I will receive when I reach President's Club status again this year.

Then if that were not enough we were also given a bottle of the new Eau de Parfum that will be out in a couple of campaigns called ROUGE by Christian Lacroix. I like the smell of this new parfum. I am sorry it isn't a great photo. AND there is more news.

Well Andrea you may have put your Tuesday knitting photos in on Thursday but I am putting mine in on Friday. Tuesday was our monthly knitting get together. There were almost 20 of us knitting. Of course, I have a few photos of us knitting to share. Well us except moi as I was taking the photos. We are all mainly knitting except when we were having a good laugh. That is Andrea taking a photo of me taking a photo of her. Her photo of me is on her blog. I don't know how to link to her blog with her name so I have to do it the long way with a full link to her blog. Oh well, you really don't want to see a photo of me taking a photo of her so I won't bother putting the link in. HEE HEE!!

Pat, Janice and Andrea you look so serious. Aren't you having any fun? Janice I like that shirt you are wearing.Now to interrupt my own post what is that noise I hear??? Why it is my rad. The heat is on this evening. Hooray!

I was so busy yesterday I was only on the computer briefly in the morning. When I got on today and checked my email I found I got my Harvest Sock Swap Partner. I have already contacted her secretly and my partner contacted me secretly. WHOO HOO!!!!

Here is my furchild waiting for me to come out of the shower today so I can rub my wet feet on her fur.

How about a ravelry update?

Ravelry Update

I'M IN! YAY!!!!!!! You can find me under pennala. So far I have joined some groups, listed some of my books (they don't have all I have) and said hello to a few of the gals I know. I also have been browsing around. I will have to put my photos in flicker and then into ravelry. I could spend way tooooooooo much time there.

So until I write again.

TREAURES, FALL FOLIAGE AND A PHOTO OF SOLARA

Saturday as I wrote in the previous blog I went to Ram's which I did. Janice and I went together during our gadding about which also included stopping at Value Village, Sally Ann and Michael's. We ended up back at my place and knitted.

Here are some of the treasures I have found Saturday.

This tapestry cat bag was $3.99 at Value Village. I used it today. Another great bag for my knitting projects. You can never have too many knitting bags.

This I got at Sally Ann for all of $1.49. I will be hanging it up above my bed with my other pink stuff. It is more pink than it photographed.
Last week I found these at Value Village.
The four never used Christmas mugs were $3.99. They are sitting on two blue flannelette pillowcases which were $1.99. I got the pillowcases this past Saturday at Value Village. I think I will give the mugs as a gift this year and put in them some tea or coffee, a couple of sweet treats and a gift card.
This jacket was all of $5.99 and it also was from Value Village. It just needs a button on the top and one on the bottom. The zipper works, there are no tears. It looks like it was never worn. I washed it today. I have been told this jacket is me!
On Sunday I went out for two plus hours delivering brochures in the neighborhood. It was very very warm. It was 30C or 86F when I left and not much cooler when I returned. So it was strange taking photos of the fall foliage.

This first photo is of a tree at a customer's house where I was dropping off an Avon brochure.

This is one of the park across the street from my apartment. Look at that one tree with all yellow leaves.
This is on the corner of the back lane by my apartment. In a short while it will all be oranges and reds with no green at all and oh so pretty. But that only means winter is near.It may have been warm out but it was quite cool in my apt. Remember it was quite cold during the week and it hasn't warmed up much.

Today on my way home from doing errands which included more Avon deliveries and some more Avon brochure drops I stopped at Mona's and couldn't resist this.
A close up of my new Americana shirt. it was $4.95.
This was Solara on Saturday and she was definitely not very lady like.


She is lying on a heated gel pad under the comforter. What a life, eh?

SOME VERY GOOD PAST MAIL DAYS

Yes shame on me for not writing in my blog sooner and I have such nice things for show and tell.

Knitting Goodness
This came on Thursday. Well actually delivery was attempted on late Wednesday afternoon but I was out and missed the post man by about 8 - 10 minutes. I had to wait until Thursday and go and pick it up. It was my August Pink and Peach Color Swap from Ranee M in Washington.

Here it all is. This 100% Baby Alpaca is chunky weight and oh so soft. I am afraid I might wear off all that softness with the petting I have been doing since I received it. It is made in Peru, 100gm and 108yd. Ranee said I should be able to make a skinny scarf with just one of these skeins. The tension for this yarn is 3.5 stitches to an inch on # US 10 needles. It will be for me!!!! I love pink and I love this yarn.
I received two skeins of this next yarn by Cascade, a yarn I can't find here where I live. It is 80% Pima Cotton and 20% wool, made in Peru. Each of the two skeins is 100gm and 191 yds. In two of the photos you can see I also got some buttons. Ranee wrote me I could make a vest or shrug with this yarn. The buttons go very nicely with the yarn.
This is also and another Cascade yarn 4 1/2 stitches to the inch on a #7US needle. It is 64% cotton, 36% nylon with 80 yds in each 50gm skein.
I also received two bars of In the Pink soap by Sudz and a small bottle of Honey Mango bath and shower gel by Alba. One sniff and I wanted to slide into the bottle. It smells so yummy.
There was also a lovely card from Ranee.
I am so glad I found this swap. I am not joining in the September and October swaps as the colors of those months are not on my favorite list (yellow and orange) but I will join in again in November (greys and black) and December ("multicolor - because there are so many different variegated, hand painted, space dyed, self-patterning, multicolored yarns") You can find the swap here if you are interested: http://arabianknits.blogspot.com/search/label/Colorswap. Scroll down to see the colors for each month. Thank-you Ranee for the wonderful goodies you sent in my swap. You really out did what I thought I would get. Being it was my first time I had no idea what to expect.

Then on Friday another package came. I was home when it arrived. It was a package from my secret pal in secretpal 11. Here is a photo of it. What wonderful goodies I got. I don't know how my secret pal knew I wanted the Nicky Epstein's Beginner's Guide to Felting. It isn't that I don't know how but I wanted the book for the pattern of bag on the cover and also the felted pears pattern inside the booklet by Leisure Arts. Unfortunately, the photo above of the colors of the yarn I received doesn't do then justice. The RYC Cashsoft Aran is very pale lilac in color and the "blue" skeins on the right are actually a pale purple cotton chenille from Crystal Palace another yarn company I can't purchase from locally. Those "dark" chocolate M&M's which I haven't seen here are long gone but were oh so very good. I found purse handles, two seed pots to plant when I eventually get my own place in my package. I will put them with my others. AND also in my package was a little book to list my stash yarn, library books and needle I own until I get my Ravelry invite which should be toward the end of this week sometime. There was even two pieces of fabric which I will have to put away until I move to where I can sew again. Such lovely fabric too. There was some Kiss My Face Treats and such a lovely card. This is such a fun swap. Another swap I am glad I joined and will join again. I did the secret pal way in the beginning when it first started after which you needed a blog and I didn't have one until this swap. I had a secret pal swap for those of us who didn't have a blog about a year and a half ago. AND no angels were needed as everyone played nicely.

AND if that wasn't enough today I also received a puffy in my mailbox. It was from Susan L in the addictedtoknitdishcloth's first of three month swap. I received a cloth and mug rug in the feather and fan pattern using SnC yarn in the color Jubilee. There is about 1 1/2 cups grits fresh from the mill where they are made. (I love grits), and some yummy recipes. Thank-you Susan.

A close up of the cloth, mug rug, grits and post card showing where the grits are from.
Now I need to send each of these gals a thank-you note for those wonderful goodies I have received in the last few days.

I am working on my swaps. My bag I am making for the fall felted bag is finished except for the felting part. Boy is it large. I will put a photo in later. I don't want to give anything away.

The Knitexchange group is no longer and is now call knitnplay and for our exchange this time we again are making bags. Since I have finished my fall felted bag I felt I could join this group. Right now there are only four of us in it. HMMM. I have my partner, I just need to decide what to make for her. It needs to be sent out by the end of October. If you are interested in joining you can find it here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/knitnplay/. We had a lot of members in the old group and I hope they come back to this group. We have exchanged a bag already and toys, hats, scarves, shawls, and mitts. We do several swaps each year.

So what am I working on? I am working on my Monkey Socks, my Mixed Jelly Bean Socks for me, and my knitted item for my Knit One Tea Two Color Swap among a few other items. While at Ram's on Saturday I found a yarn I can use in my Mixed Jelly Bean Socks to make them another inch on the leg and also put the stripes on the foot. There shouldn't be too much noticeable color difference in the two different yarns, I HOPE!!!!

What other goodies did I get at Ram's on Saturday during their sale? I got something for my Fall Felted Bag Partner, a skein of Noro Silk Garden for my Shawl which I will still need several more of to finish the shawl, a pair of Addi Turbo Lace circs 47 inches 3.25mm, and Knitters fall magazine. I found a sweater I would like to make for myself in the magazine but that will have to wait until Ram has their better sale in January. Oh yes I got something for my Knit One Tea Too Color Swap partner. AND I got something else for her at Mona's on Friday.

Here is what I enhanced my stash with from Mona's.

Tiger Opal which are not really colors I am crazy about but I want to make the Purl When Ready Socks. I want to follow the pattern using what is called for to see the kind of stripes are required for in this pattern. Then maybe I can find a different stripe pattern to use in colors I will like better. They are quite deep orange not red and gold.
You can find the pattern for Purl When Ready Socks pattern here: http://users.library.fullerton.edu/jzlendich/purlwhenready.html

AND I also got this. Go ahead and drool just not on my yarn!!! Opal hand painted yarn.
All in all it has been not a bad past several days.
I even got to help Mona choose what yarns from Opal Mona she should order.

Then when I went to check on Ravelry this is what I found. WHOO HOO!!!! I am getting close now. I should get my invite sometime later this week. Oh no will I still have time to knit, read and play on the computer???

You signed up on July 6, 2007
You are #14564 on the list.
984 people are ahead of you in line.
18753 people are behind you in line.
40% of the list has been invited so far

OH IT'S COLD IN HERE

I know I promised to write yesterday but it was sooooo.... cold in my apartment my hands were frozen. They were so cold when I took a shower to warm up the hot water was burning my hands and yet I was shivering in the shower I was so cold. Thus, I had to go and dig out this!

A full view of my portable heater. A close up showing the heating element on low. You can even see a dent in I noticed last year and I don't remember doing anything to make that dent. It really does warm up the area, me and Solara as she will try to get right in front of it hogging the heat and warmth. In addition to the heater when I went to sleep I turned on the mattress pad heater and warmed up the gel pack. It definitely is colder in my apartment than it is outside.

It is so cold my Solara has been sitting on my lap and snuggling up in bed with me at night. Only she doesn't fit as well as when she was only a kitten now that she weights in at 12 pounds or close to it. She does seem to get shy a lot when the camera is on and I get lots of photos of her beautiful coat. She is sitting on my purple pants and black top. She sometimes does turn when I call her.
Now I promised some photos of her when she was a kitten.

This first photo is of a mug I received in a swap last year. As a kitten she looked just like this photo. And here she is as a kitten.



What do you think. Doesn't she look like the kitten on the mug?
I can always remember her baby kitten face when I see the mug.

This is a very cute photo of her trying to peak through the pull out draw which my keyboard sits on.

She also liked to sit on top of the monitor with the stuffed animals I have received from friends and in swaps. Can you find her?

Here is a clearer photo.
It must be the warmth of the monitor when I am using the computer.
Here she is trying to see what other mischief she can get into.
She does like to sit with her paws extended.


Paws extended on towel shelf behind the tub.


Look at those ears. It took a year for her to grow into them.
I wonder what she is looking at? There was nothing to see.
I love to sit in the sink she says with her paws extended.
So there you are lots of photos of my Solara Sprinkles.

Knitting news.
I heard from my secret pal who put a reply in my blog. She has sent her package to me. I would think I should have it by next week. My pal should be getting her giftie soon also. While I was out delivering some Avon this afternoon the postman in the truck came with a package and I missed him by about 8 - 10 minutes. Tomorrow I will add to my list of errands to stop at the postal outlet and see who it is from and find out what goodies I got. It could be my August pink and peach color swap or my first of three monthly exchanges from one of the groups I am in.
I did receive my cloth and food item today but I can't open it until Oct 1. In the love2knitdishcloth group we keep our packages until opening day and everyone opens them the at the same time. I will be mailing mine out either tomorrow or Friday.
My monkey socks are progressing alone nicely. One sock is up to the toe decrease and the other is up to the gusset decreases. My bag for the fall felted bag exchange is also moving along. It should be completed soon. Then I will knit a pocket, the strap and felt it. I know what treats I want to include and on Saturday I will pick up a couple items at Ram's during their sale and open house.
I did join the Harvest Sock Swap. I have a couple of socks I would like to do. Remember on this one you only knit one sock and send that sock, the remaining yarn and pattern for your partner to complete. You can find it here http://harvestsockswap.blogspot.com/ if you are interested in joining. Mention you found out about it from me and I will get an extra entry into the contest. You will also get an entry into the contest which is for skein of sock yarn and a set of custom made stitch markers when you enter and another entry for everyone you refer. It does close soon so hurry and decide so you don't miss out on it.
I heard from my angel in the ITE4 exchange who is going to send me my bag. Isn't she sweet. My original partner should be ashamed of herself for not full filling her obligation in the swap and taking her bag full of goodies and running.
My Angel Sarah from Arizona told me she doesn't felt. I told her that is fine. I would be happy with whatever she makes for me and am very thankful she is stepping in for my partner. I only told her nothing in orange, yellow, brown or lime green and no black licorice and I would be very happy. Hooray for angels!!!!

It remains cold in my apartment and I am once again having a dilemma of what to sleep in tonight, pj's or a long flannel nightie OR should I even take my clothes off??? I might freeze doing so. I do have the little heater on my me as I do this blog entry.

Ravelry Update
You signed up on July 6, 2007
You are #14564 on the list.
2433 people are ahead of you in line.
17675 people are behind you in line.
37% of the list has been invited so far