Well, here I am after a long absence. You know, I took several pictures and I was all excited this morning because I was going to post all of them and show you what I have been up to and well... I have either forgotten how to do this, or something is not working correctly. But the most exciting thing that happened this week was that I got a package from my Secret Pal!!! Oh my gosh does she have wonderful taste! I took a picture of what she sent me and eventually I will figure out how to get it on here, but since I am having problems now, let me tell you about my package. Are you ready? Well, for starters there was a wonderful pattern called SIRDAR for a lovely baby sweater. And not only that, but the yarn to make it. The yarn is close to the color of the text that I am using. I had to get as close as possible to describing it. The yarn is lovely and it is called Sidar Snuggly. And as if that wasn't enough there was some "Hogwash"! If you don't know what that is, it is a hand cleaner to take all the dirt from gardening off of your hands and get them prepared to pick up the knitting needles. Then there was a really cute card. My secret pal calls me Lacy which is kind of fun. Secret Pal you are wonderful and thank you so very much!! I love the smell of the Hogwash. I have to confess something to you SP. I have never knitted using charts before. I keep reading that it is easier to follow a chart instead of the written instructions, but up to this point I have only used written instructions. So......looks like it will be time to learn something new soon. I love learning new things so I am excited about this.
Other news to comment on. I told you on my last entry that I had started a sweater for myself and that I had to frog it and start over. Well, I did that and actually it was rather painless. I was surprised that I wasn't really sad about having to do that. I am doing nicely on the sweater. I took pictures of it last night to show my progress and eventually it will appear. But it is a top down and I am doing it in yarn from New Zealand. It is Naturally Sensation which is 70% Merino and 30% Angora. The shade color is #302. The color is a light green again similar to the font color I am using. I put it next to the Snuggly baby yarn and they are so close in color. I love the color because it is so calming to work with. Ok, other newsworthy events are that I have made two more pair of socks. I was making a pair of socks to match my sweater, but unfortunately I made them for a size 7 instead of size 9 that I wear. Guess my daughter-in-law will benefit from them. I always have to have more than one thing going on at a time.
Ok, the other fun thing that happened since my last post was my trip to San Diego to the TNNA show. I went with Terry and Devvy the owners of the LYS. We had so much fun and it was so great to see all of the yarns. They had a wall of New Yarns on display in the lobby and they furnished a book with all of the suppliers names and the new yarns and samples. So you got your book, and went down in alphabetical order feeling the yarns and the ones that you liked you got a sample of and taped them in the book next to their name. It was really a nice way of introducing new yarns. Then that night we went back to the hotel and went over our samples and highlighted certain places that we really wanted to see. It is such a large show but much of it was needlework and since I don't do needlework and the LYS doesn't carry needlework, we were able to skip much of that. The notions were fun to look at. I tried knitting with square needles and that was interesting. The end result is the same. I took two classes and learned from both of them. I am making a Moebius basket. Unfortunately I missed about 90 minutes of that class because the rubber eggs I had for breakfast made me sick. It was ok though because I have made several Moebius scarves and a Moebius cat bed so what I learned was how to cast on correctly. I had been doing it wrong! The results were similar, but by doing it correctly I am able to hide the starting point so much easier. So, that was great to learn. Then the other class was different stitches for felting. I think the most exciting thing about that class was learning completely new stitches. I mean I didn't even know how to read the instructors instructions because I had not done the stitches that she was talking about. So, now I am a little smarter about that. It always amazes me when I think of two stitches (Knit & Purl) and all of the different combinations and different things you can do. The options are endless. The biggest problem is that there are not enough hours in the day.
Last Thursday I had to take a trip to visit the beauty shop/espresso shop that we own. My best friend Donna had been the manager there and we didn't have to do much. Since her death in December, I have to be more hands on at that facility. Thursday I drove down, stopped at the Hummer dealership in Sacramento to get an oil leak fixed (which they said wasn't a leak, but a spill when the mechanic changed the oil). That didn't take very long at all and I was back on the road. But the worst part of the drive is that I cannot knit!!! I drove 4 hours down and 4 hours back and quite honestly....that was really taking away from my knitting time. I was not able to knit at all that day and I felt sad about that. I had just pulled my sock out of my knitting bag at the Hummer dealership when they came in and said my car was ready. So, not even one stitch in the waiting room. I guess I should really be grateful about that because it got me back on the road earlier that I had thought. I met with the six girls (our tennants) and we all got our concerns out in the open and it was a good meeting. I was really happy because I could come home that night instead of staying over. I got to have lunch with Dave (Donna's husband) and that was good to spend time with him.
Today is a wet and windy day in Paradise. The fire is going and it is perfect knitting weather. Time to get some more rows on that sweater of mine. I need to go to Knit Wits though and talk to Heather. Hopefully she can help me with my picture problem.