You've Got Mail!

My Sock It To Me Package arrived!! The girls were very excited to help me open up a package I received from Germany. It distracted them from wanting to go outside into a brewing thunderstorm. :) It was full of fantastic dark chocolate, some scents for tea lights, a notebook, some pretty tissues (how did you know I have a snuffly nose?), and wonderful yarn.
The girls were very excited about the chocolate. Lily kept saying, "Some?" "Treat?" I was very excited to see that because the chocolate is very dark and because Europe has wonderful chocolate laws (or guidelines or something like that) that Lily can actually eat it. The chocolate doesn't have any milk in it! Yahoo! So Lily got to sample her first European chocolate (probably her 2nd taste of chocolate ever). I can safely say that she is hooked. I've got a picture of her with chocolate running down her face, but am having trouble rotating it - silly computer.

And this. Lots of sock yarn! Beautiful sock yarn. Two skeins of Regia in a beautiful muted blues and greens and one of Wollmeise Sockenwolle in brilliant blues. Both German sock yarns, I'm such a fan of buying what you can get locally - this is awesome. Although I've seen the Regia (not this colorway though, and I've never bought any) I've never seen the Sockenwolle up close. It is very pretty. Thank you knittergrrl!

One Sweet Deal

Wanted: Babysitter for 2 little girls
Will Trade: Hand knitted socks (see photo)


Thanks D, you're the best! I'm not sure which one of us gets the better deal, but I think we both win. See, crazy things happen at Knit Night. We talk about making chocolate orange port, drink a little of said port, swap socks for babysitting.... imagine the things you miss if you're not there!

Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peak at the yarn I'm using for my Sock It To Me sock.... That's not the pattern though...

Contest #2 - My Favorite Yarn

My favorite yarn is Yarni, a sockweight yarn hand dyed by a couple in St. Paul, MN. Their blog is here. The stats are: 460 yds./100g 75% superwash wool, 25% nylon. Machine wash, air dry . It's sooo soft... it's sooo nice to knit with... and it feels lovely on the feet. One of the beauties of this yarn is that there is just so much of it! I knit the River Rapids sock above and I still have a large ball left. It's enough to knit a baby hat and probably booties too.

The only place I've ever seen it for sale is at the Yarnery in St. Paul. Since it's not always (read EVER) easy for me to get there, I call the store. Yes, I actually ask them to describe the colors they have in stock. Oddly, I love all their colors. The colors always seem to be like watercolors - light and soft. There's not a ton of variation in most of the colorways so they work very nicely for lace patterns. I saw the green colorway on someone else's blog and I think that will be the next one I go for. (Although the pink and purple would look great for the girls...)

I seem to be into lacey patterns and cables lately so I'm picking up more and more yarn with just subtle variations instead of the self-striping. I bought the last two balls of Pagewood Farms yarn at our LYS this week. They had Denim and Really Red left so I snatched them up.

And last but not least, here are pictures of my two favorite sock helpers. They tend to pick up my socks and bring them to me wherever I am in the house. Their greatest ambition at this point (besides becoming real princesses) seems to be to learn to knit. I keep saying, not until you're 6 years old.

*Sigh*

The sock I've ordered from Lorna's Laces is just not coming in. The store said it would be 2-3 weeks but it's been 3 weeks and still no word. So... What's a knitter to do? Buy more yarn! Fabric Works (my LYS) just got in some new yarns so I had to try them out. My Sock It To Me pal likes blues, so I found two that just might work. The first is Pagewood Farms hand dyed superwash merino sock yarn in Denim and the second is Knit One, Crochet Too Soxx Appeal in Oceana. The Soxx Appeal is super springy since it has some elastic in it. Both are very cool and I'm going to have a blast knitting both.

More Baby Hats

This is Shelly's Slip Stitch Quilted Baby Hat by Shelly Kang. It's the reason I haven't been knitting on MS3 lately. Or at least one of the reasons. The other being insane headaches from a sinus infection that just won't die. But no whining. This hat is so freaking adorable. I just love knitting it! I'm using Panda Wool from Crystal Palace yarns and I love it love it love it. I might have to make up some boy versions as some one I know is having a boy this fall. I might have to make up matching booties first though - I've got quite a bit of yarn left over. I also had 2 people in my networking group ask if I would make yellow and purple (Viking colors) hats for their babies that are due this fall. I'm not a fan of purple and yellow... this is going to be a stretch for me.

They Fit!

Yes, I realize I'm a glaring fashion Don't. However, I thought I would put in a picture of me wearing my new Sockapalooza 4 Socks.

Here's a better just feet picture...
And a picture of the wonderful package that I described earlier. Yummy chocolate by the way!! Both the red package and the black package is chocolate from Marks & Sparks. Very yummy.