IT'S ALL KNITTING GOODNESS

Knitting Goodness

First let me thank my SP 11 Lisa in Toronto and also apologise for being tardy in posting and saying thank-you to her for a surprise puffy I received on Wednesday.

I debated on if should open it now or save it for Christmas but seeing I will have several swap boxes to open it I tore into it. The puffy was squishy soft. HMMM and yes there was yarn inside. Lovely yarn. Hand Painted Opal yarn to be precise. It is similar to what I had purchased from Mona a couple months ago that disappeared after a Tuesday night knitting at NcNally's. It is a slightly different shade. Lisa also sent me a lovely little red M&M compact with an M on the cover and when it is open it the inside lid says always room for chocolate and the bottom has a little bear with his head on a yellow M&M pillow. Isn't my yarn lovely?

Here is a close up of one side of the skein.
And here is a close up of the other side.
AND here is the inside of the M& M compact.
This was quite a wonderful mail day for me as I also received my 2008 dishcloth calendar. There are wonderful patterns in the calendar. I got one last year. I hope there will be a calendar again for 2009. There is also a yahoo group to join where there are more patterns to share. I chose to purchase the actual written calendar and not the down loadable version.

The package I picked up Friday that was not an Avon box was I am guessing but I am pretty sure it is my Harvest Swap. It is from Jane in Kansas. I have put it aside for Christmas. What I do know is in this package is one sock completed, a pattern and yarn to complete it's matching mate. Anything else in the box is a mystery until it is opened. I will work on finishing the mate to this sock as one of my first projects after Christmas. My Harvest Swap package was mailed out November 23. It should be arriving shortly as I was told it would be about three weeks since I sent it surface and the other packages I sent out that day have now been received. I now have five packages to open on Christmas day. I will be receiving several more (five if I am correct which includes a gift from my friend Rori in Florida) and I have been told they have all been mailed. WOO HOO!!!!

BUT there is more knitting goodness. I also received my whoduknit Slip Knot project prize this week. That I found stuffed in my mailbox. It consisted of two skeins of yarn one being a variegated by Kroy and the other Hot Sox by Bernat in turquoise, a lovely pattern called Old Shale Two Yarn Sock Pattern http://stitchesofviolet.blogspot.com/2004/12/old-shale-two-yarn-sock-pattern.html which reminds me of pattern called Cut Your Teeth socks from knitty http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring04/PATTcutyourteeth.html, and of course there was candy. AND here is the candy or should I type here was the candy. HMMM HMMM HMMM!!!
I now should write about knitting goodness going to others.

For my whoduknit November read The Dead of Midnight by Catherine Hunter project I chose to knit a bookmark since this mystery is about a fictional cafe bookstore which takes place in my area. What better to go with a mystery book than a bookmark. It was an easy pattern to knit and you can find it here: http://www.grannys-garret.com/pattern/leandra_e.pdf. I used Grace cotton so my bookmark probably came out a little bigger but it will still work. I am now going to give this bookmark to my friend Paula for a belated birthday gift. She will be getting it later today along with a card and another small gift from Avon. Here is the photo of my bookmark which is in blue no matter what the photo looks like. Here is a close up of the pattern. Because I used Grace I only knit six repeats of the pattern.
AND with these yarns which are not my favorite colors I am making one of Paula's Christmas gift.Here is just the beginning of her gift. AND no matter what the color on your monitor of this tea cozy it is olive green. The yarns above are yellow, brown and olive green.

Another project in the works and needed to be completed by Christmas is a sweater for Solara. I am going to try to knit one especially made for her and the pattern is here: http://www.christinelandry.com/. To start with she wasn't pleased with me taking her measurements but I got that done and have even knitted the required swatch!!!. I am going to make my first attempt in a chunky variegated yarn of pinks, blues and purples.

Here is a cute photo of my little sweetie no I mean my big sweetie. AND here is a photo of her after her mouse catching ordeal all tuckered out which I forgot to put in with that post. AH the poor baby.