Good Karma

I participated in yet another Good Karma swap on Ravelry. Yet again, I got an awesome swap partner. This time we exchanged with each other, which was kind of fun. I enjoyed getting to know her and felt like we had a lot in common. She doesn't have a blog so I won't link, but I will say that alura (Ravelry ID) is a pretty cool Momma. :)

She gave me this....

Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn in Beach Fog. I've really wanted to try out this yarn, but never was willing to pay shipping for sock yarn that I haven't squished in person. I know lots of people who rave about it though.

This... Lantern Moon rosewood needles. And a little black sheep measuring tape. Which is perfect because sometimes I feel like a black sheep. By the way, all photos have been borrowed from their own websites... I am a total slacker/sick person the last couple weeks and haven't taken photos off my camera.

I also got some super cool tan wool/yak blend worsted weight yarn. It's from a local-to-alura place I think. Sorry, don't remember where.

Then to top off the coolness, I got a bag of my favorite coffee (fastest way to my heart), a handmade project bag, and 2 kid size crowns (perfect for the princesses in my life) and 2 coloring books for said princesses. The girls were super excited about their crowns.

So now I had better get crackin' and knit up some of the great yarn I have. I've been feeling a bit guilty about the sheer craziness of the amount of yarn I have. It's. A. Lot. I'm hoping to have a finished project soon too.... My pink cardi is over halfway done. Just in time for fall!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I have nothing witty to say today. I'm at the tail end of a super nasty cold. It hit me like 3 semi trucks loaded with bricks. It hit me hard. I ran a fever for 4 1/2 days and have a cough that just won't quit. I'm feeling better now, but mostly just want to sleep. It's been a week so every day I get up expecting to feel just fine.

We celebrated my birthday last weekend at the cabin. Our friend from college came with her little boy. The kids all played. I don't think Lily quite understood that this was just a baby - after all, he's 10 months old and the same size as her! She played a little rough, but by the end of the weekend we were able to convince her that he was a baby.

Our friend bought me this yarn for my bithday. The blue is Mountain Colors fingering weight - just over 400 yds. The red is 800 yds of lace weight Misti Alpaca. Pretty! Sorry, no links, I'm tired and I'm running too many windows as it is right now.


I also got a nice gift certificate to my LYS from my Mother-in-law. I headed there yesterday for some low-impact knitting, but haven't bought anything for myself yet. I'm pretty sure I know what I'm getting, but I have so much in my stash right now I want to wait a bit. I'm really hoping I can do some stash elimination for Christmas. Otherwise I'll be on a yarn diet for the new year.

Check This Out

There's been minimal knitting in the Big Blue House by the Shores of Lake Superior this week. I started a new job and have been completely wiped out at night. I've fallen asleep at around 8:30 in Lily's bed every night this week. The information overload at the new job is just over the top. My head is swimming with rates, sizes and projects that are going on.

I'm hoping to get back on track this week and I've found some motivation to do so. Living Crafts magazine. This month is full of fun wool crafts, including a very cool set of felt crowns. I think I'm going to make a couple for Christmas. I think it would be a riot to see my nieces and nephew along with my own girls running around in their crowns. Plus, there's a great resource guide in there for wool roving. Gee, twist my arm to get more spinning done. :)

I guess it's a little neurotic to be planning Christmas presents already, but I have a lot of ideas swimming in my head. I'm hoping to do a lot with the stash I already have. It's going to be Stash Christmas this year!

What's the Story Morning Glory?

Sorry for the blurriness of the photos, I am having camera issues. I haven't been doing a great job of blogging lately and just wanted to catch you up to date on what I'm doing. First, I started a new job today. It's full time so I have all these Mommy Guilt issues to work through. Not to mention the busyness of having a 4 year old's birthday party, closing up things at my old job and the hubby being out of town. It's just a generally busy place around the Up North Household this last month.

We did get out of town for Labor Day weekend. We went to the Minnesota State Fair. I hadn't been there in almost 15 years - not since I was in high school and marching in their parade. I was shocked to see that the price of the All You Can Drink Milk went up to $1! Really it's a deal when you consider that a bottle of water was $2.



I drug my hubby into the Creative Arts building on the off chance that I would see this Blankie. It's Shelly Kang's blankie. I haven't really been keeping up with her blog, so I wasn't sure if she even entered it this year or not, but I knew she had wanted to. This photo doesn't really do it justice, but it's all mitered squares make out of leftover sock yarn. It was beautifully blocked and finished with an I-cord edging. This blanket is amazing in person - way better than any photo can show. There were a lot of other really neat knitted projects. I wish I had known Adam had my camera with so I could have taken more photos. There was an adorable little girl's Fair Isle cardigan with the abc's at the bottom. There were also lots of socks and popular patterns that looked great, but my favorites were by far the ones that people had designed themselves.

I'm tired and heading to bed, but first I want to ask... have you ever entered anything in the fair??

Still Sizzling

It matches our coffee table!

Yarn: Sirino Yarn from Great Adirondack Yarn Company. 50% silk, 50% merino. 100% softness and shine! 675 yds per skein.

Pattern: Sizzle by Knit and Tonic. I was showing my Mom the Sizzle I made for myself and she absolutely loved it. I decided I would make one for her. I'm going to make a few changes... perhaps knit it in the round because I hate to purl, add a picot edging instead of the seed stitch and probably raise the neckline a bit. After all, she is my Mom, she doesn't need to be showing her girls to the world! :)

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I'm plugging away on the pink and brown yarn even though the Olympics are over. I have a portion of the back done. So not that hot really. I only medaled in one category, but it really gave me a good idea of what I could do in 18 days. By the way, did I tell you that I decided not to do the shrug after all? After all that knitting of swatches, I decided that I probably wouldn't get the use out of a shrug that I would get out of a sweater. So instead I'm making a shawl collar cardigan from the same Needful Yarns pattern booklet. I'd link it, but I guess Needful Yarns has gone out of business and I can't find any photos anywhere.

The Medal Stand

It's cuter than Shawn Johnson, almost as fast as Michael Phelps and is winning more than Misty Mays and Carrie Walsh. It's a EZ Baby Surprise Jacket. I used EZ's pattern with help from Dawn Adcock. Her notes really helped to demystify the process. This was really fun to knit.

The yarn is Cascade 220 which I got at 20% off - oh yeah baby! Actually I was a little annoyed to have to buy yarn for this. I have a ton of stash yarn. I had planned to use some homespun that was in my stash (my mom bought it for me years ago). However, as part of the Ravelympics team for a LYS, I got a 20% discount on the yarn for one project. When I explained what I was doing and asked if I could use the discount at a different time, they were very prickly. They only wanted me to use the discount on this particular project. I also picked up a circular needle at the same time. They asked me if I was going to use this particular needle on my Ravelympics project. I said I didn't know because I needed to see if I got gauge. Since I wasn't sure I was going to use that needle, I didn't get the discount. Ergh. That's probably why I don't shop at that store very often.

I have enough yarn left over in the green and yellow to make a matching hat (with maybe enough brown to do a cute accent on it) and maybe socks.

This one will be sent off to Warm Woolies as soon as the hat and socks are done. I did try this on both girls and completely fell in love with it on. I was amazed to see that on a 4 year old, it becomes a super sweet short sleeved sweater. I am going to experiment with more stitches across the back and see if it comes out right for her. I'm determined to use stash yarn on this.

I also finished my Sizzle from Knit and Tonic. Despite the horrible picture, I love it. I'm going to have Adam take some nice photos on Saturday, but I wanted to get this up. I've already bought more yarn for another one of these for a gift.

The Olympic Saga Continues...

*Warning: Not so cute kid story ahead*

I woke up early Saturday morning to Lily saying, "I go potty Momma." Fantastic. What more (other than 2 more hours sleep) could a mom ask for? A not quite 2 1/2 year old that gets out of bed and goes potty by herself is pretty spectacular. Well... almost.

I walked downstairs (some could argue sleepwalked) to make a pot of coffee. I found that all of my knitting notions were strewn across the living room floor. There were 2 inch pins used to make stitch markers everywhere. Lily had glass beads still clutched in her hot little hands. Tape measures strung out like drunken Christmas lights, basically it looked like a frat party had happened in my knitting bag.

It wasn't until I walked upstairs to the bathroom that I realized that there was poop smeared all over the floor. Fantastic. Lily had pooped in her Pull-Up (night-time safety device) and had tried to take care of the situation herself. So I washed the floor, the toilet and the little potty.

I went back downstairs to flop on the loveseat (no couch, long story) with my hot cup of coffee when I realized that there was poop smeared on my WHITE loveseat. Now the loveseat is not new - we got it secondhand and I've been trying to keep it covered by a thin throw. However, it's all we've got at this point. To make matters worse, she also managed to smear poop on my yarn. Yep, the yarn for the shrug that I struggled with all day the day before.

The yarn is washed and is drying in the windowsill.

It's a sign. I cast on for my backup project. A Baby Surprise Jacket with Cascade 220. Pictures coming soon.