TODAY WAS A GOOD DAY

Knitting Goodness
My Knit Picks order arrived. How very exciting. Not only for me but also for Cathy as she ordered some knitting goodies when I put my order in. Here is a photo of what I ordered for me.

I know the photo is a little dark but the others were blurry. This is the best. So you can see what books I finally decided on. They include: Heirloom Knits which I have been oogling everytime I am at the bookstore at my knitting get togethers, Picture Knits which from how long I have had it out of the library you would think it was mine, Nicky's Epstein's Knitting Beyond the Edge (now I have all her edge books and just need her Emblishment book, and The Yarn Harlot's newest book Casts Off. I also got myself the Baby Suprise DVD and two skeins of Gloss in the color Dusk. Of course, I got a few items to go into my ITE4 exchange which I mailed today and should arrive at my partner's home by August 1. Cathy also ordered Knitting Beyond the Edge and yarns. I felt the box was not packed very well. They put the DVD under the two Knitting Beyond the Edge books and it got crushed. As for the yarns, the yarns are probably packed 10 to a bag. The bags I received were all ripped open. The yarns not ordered were removed and others yarns ordered were shoved in those ripped bags as a full bag of yarn was not ordered. The bags were not cut and not taped back up. They were ripped open. Some yarns were not in bags. Some of the labels on the yarns were even off and coming off. The box was gaping. Boy was it heavy. It was good I was home when it came and I didn't have to pick it up from the postal out. Yes I was disappointed with the packing of this box of goodies. I have not yet had time to play with my goodies it was such a busy day.

The postman came about 1PM or a little after. What I did was take out what was for my ITE4 partner to pack it all up with what I already had for her. After showering I headed out in this awful heat and humidity. I made three Avon deliveries and came back for my cart that contained more Avon to be delivered, library books to be returned and my package to mail. I delivered more Avon, mailed my package via express so it would get where it needed to be in time, went to the bank, went to the library and went to the grocery store. Remember I do not have a car and need to take a hot bus wherever I go. Thank-goodness for my window A/C unit in my apt when I came home. Being Cathy is coming over to visit tomorrow, collect her Avon and her Knit Picks order and cool down I wanted to make her something nice for lunch. When I got home I made Beet Soup with fresh beets from the store. I also got a large container of sour cream. We will also have a fresh summer fruit salad although the sweetness of the watermelon and cantaloupe leaves a bit to be desired. I hope the cherries I added without the pits as I have a cherry pitter, strawberries and blueberries make up for the lack of sweetness of the watermelon and especially the cantaloupe. I also mixed in a can of manadarin orange sections. We will also have sandwiches on multi grain whole wheat bread from the local bakery. I even did up some huckleberry tea we can have iced. Neither Cathy or Diane who is also coming over have been to Mona's shop up the street so after lunch we will go there and pet some luscious Lorna Laces and Fleece Artist yarns. Yes, Cathy it was okay you invited yourself and Daine over to have lunch and to visit. LOLO And when all that was completed I put a small Epicure order in online. Not enough to qualify for a party but the items are needed by a certain date.

More Knitting Goodness

I also got my Whoduknit Bottle Swap package although not in a bottle. It was from Debbie. This was the second one she sent since I didn't get the first package.

It was a box filled with lots of goodies which included the following items
- a tea towel with a coffee cup on it. It is very nice thank-you
- a darling dark green granny's fave dishcloth which matches my kitchen if I decide to let it touch dishes
- a skein of Moda Dea Sassy stripes in a blues and wines variegated colorway
- a skein of hot pink yarn which is either DK or WW I will have to check using my WPI guide but I do know it isn't wool as it didn't dissolve in bleach
- Avon Soft Pink Bubble Bath (love it) well I should I sell it also. For all of you who don't know it removes most stains since it is "soap" without a lot of other ingredients. There are tons of great uses for this product besides as a bubble bath
- Candy (Werther's Original)
- Lipton's Ice Tea to go but it is now gone it is so hot here
- Caramel microwave pop corn
- a new book to read by Anne Perry Half Moon Street and I am on page 32 already. It isn't in the photo as I am reading it and forgot to put it with the other goodies.
Again thank-you Debbie for the treats. I love everything.

Ravelry, here are my new stats. So I am slowly moving up the list.
You signed up on July 6, 2007
You are #14564 on the list.
7947 people are ahead of you in line.
5499 people are behind you in line

No more now as before I head off to bed I want to browse through my new books and touch my Gloss yarn some more. Then I can have some sweet dreams.

Well What should I Call this Post

I don't know what to call this post. I thought of frustrations, no knitting I've been at the frog pond swimming instead or decisions decisions decisions.


Let's see why decisions decisions decisions? Remember those books on sale at Knit Picks. Yes, those all books that are 40% off. Well I wanted them all. Almost all of them anyway. AND I didn't think I was going to be able to make a decision and chose only one, a couple or even a few. Especially when they are 40% off. It was just terrible. I did finally get it down to only 11 books (there were over 100 to choose from) and them I was stumped. Remember I wanted them all. I paced, I thought while I paced, I crossed out one or two and then changed my mind and crossed a different one or two off and then would change my mind again. BUT finally I did make up my mind on which I would get for me and one for a swap. I also got some yarn for socks for me. Not that I need any more sock yarn. HEY what does need have to do with it anyway. I also got some yarn for a swap pal. I finished my order off with something else for my pal in one of the swaps I am in, something that was asked for. Last but not least I ordered the Baby Surprise DVD for me which I've previously ordered but wasn't available yet. HMM!!! I wonder if that will that help me finish the UFO baby surprise sweater I have in my LR staring at me. All it needs to no longer be a UFO is to sew up the two seams. Of course that is unless I want to add a collar and cuffs. It then will be ready to give away to someone. I also ordered some items from Knit Picks for my friend Cathy. One of the books she wanted wasn't available and if she wants it she will have to wait until next month to order it but they said it would still be on sale. So instead she ordered extra yarn. They only ship to Canada on Tuesday and Thursday. I hope it comes quick so I can add those goodies to my swap. It is funny. I called and spoke to someone in Vancouver Washington who took the order but it is shipped from Ohio I was told. I thought the sales rep on the phone said it went from Ohio to somewhere in NY close to the border and comes over to Canada that way. A very around about way but by doing it this way it is brokered through a craft company for a 10% fee and it is delivered directly to me with no customs fees or duty. Apparently the 10% covers any taxes and the extra $5.00 delivery fee charged when ordering from out of Canada. AND with the dollar so strong here it is even a better deal than it would have been a few months ago or last year even. BUT boy did I sweat over which book I should get. And as soon as my package arrives oh my some more knitting goodness.



Now why the frustrations and why I knitted very little. Last night I thought I would use up that last half ball of yarn on my Noro serape shawl and then put it away, unfortunately in the UFO pile until I can purchase some more Noro on sale. There I am knitting merrily along doing several rows of garter stitch for a while with no problem until I get to the pattern row and it doesn't work. YUP I was short a stitch. Now how could that be. I had to tink it back to fix it and when I thought I had it fixed and started to knit the tinked rows again after counting three times the correct number of stitches it still was short a stitch when I finished that first reknit row. I even found the original missing stitch that seemed to have been dropped but wasn't really running down the shawl which would have made it obvious to find without going to the frog pond and getting my feet wet. It was strange. I would count one way and it was correct but when I counted the other way I was a stitch short. I just wasn't getting anywhere. It was like when you knit and knit and measure and then knit and knit some more and when you measure you haven't seemed to have gotten anywhere. There must be a little knitting frog or elf somewhere above sprinkling some magical dust on the knitting and us just to make sure we do not get to full of ourselves thinking how wonderful the knitting is going along and what a great knitter we are especially when the knitting we are doing is a very easy pattern. So no knitting for me on Thursday. AND no knitting for me on Friday.

Friday I put three new items on ebay. I had to talk with the live chat computer ebay person three times. I had to clean out my history again and I had to install Firefox. I have to admit ebay was easier to list items with Firefox. I wonder if blogger will also work better with Firefox. Only it is something new to get used to. It has messed up all my favorites which were in alphabetical order. No I do not have an A personality, just check my apt and you will agree with me but it is easier to find what you are looking for when it is in alphabetical order. And it is difficult with Firefox to have my two yahoo email programs open. It keeps changing the one to the other leaving me with two screens of one email program. I also worked on my tote for the ITE4 this evening. I am putting a lining in and am fighting a mental block on it and the zipper I want to put in the bag. It is not that I haven't made bags and totes before or put zippers and linings in them. AARRGHHHH!!!!!

And now I can't sleep. BUT I better try again. I am going to visit by friend Cathy in the nether regions of the city sometime Saturday. While there and watching her walk (she had a total knee replacement about six weeks ago and will have the other done in a Sept) I am going to felt a hat for the whoduknot group Maisie Dobbs project and put Cathy to work on making me two pompoms for my ITE4 tote. Gotta keep Cathy out of mischief.

Solara who was bugging me while I was trying to make a test lining for the tote this evening says MEOW and will you get to bed already again.

Gotta say bye for now..