Sweet Sixteen

No not me although it really doesn't seem that long ago and I do have moments where I find it hard to believe that I'm the mother of a child this age. And one older than that actually!

Patrick will be sixteen next week. I always get weepy around his birthday. His birth was long awaited but almost tragic. Long story short - my uterus ruptured during birth, he was rushed to ICU and we both could have died. Needless to say we're both ok and have been since he tried to pull the respirator out and had the nurses saying he was the strongest baby they've ever seen.

Over the years he's brought me great joy. He's an intelligent, hilariously funny, generous old soul living in a tall, skinny, handsome exterior. He's a cool kid with a geeky side who skateboards, has held a job since he was fourteen, watches Charlie Chaplin movies with me and likes to bake his great Auntie Julia's Scottish shortbread recipe.

I remember when I was pregnant with him wondering how could I love another child the way I love Glenn. How could I feel this way about another human being? How could my heart hold so much more love? My answer came the moment he was born - my heart grew. And continues to grow because I love him more each passing day.

Happy Birthday Lil Man. I love you to the moon & back a million gazillion times. So happy you're mine.

Maryland Sheep And Wool Festival 2013

We got home yesterday at about 7pm and I'm still pooped!

What a great great day! Glenn, Brigit and I left at 5:30 am yesterday and got to the gate at almost exactly 9am as they were opening the festival for the day. Brige and I walked around and did some shopping before meeting up with Rich. Brigit had never been to a fiber festival before so it was fun to experience it with a first timer. She's primarily a sock knitter so we were looking for the same stuff which was a lot of fun because I think she opened my eyes to things I may not have purchased if I'd been on my own. We laughed and walked. Listened to some music, watched spinners and squeezed yarn. There was so much to see and it's almost overwhelming but not quite. We met up with Rich and did more shopping. Then we met up with Alexis who I know from Twitter. She came all the way from Oklahoma for the weekend just for the festival! She was an absolute delight. I wish she lived closer so we could get our knit on together. We were there for about five hours and it still wasn't enough but we had a long drive back so we had to get on the road. All in all a great day. Beautiful weather, great people and oodles of yarn. Who could ask for more?

Ok the loot:





I did good, huh? There's some old stand bys for me like Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock, some Miss Babs, Neighborhood Fiber Co and some knoobies like Persimmon Tree Farm. Actually Persimmon was the only new purchase for me. At Rhinebeck I'm going to make more of an effort to purchase yarns I've never worked with before. I like to spread the love but find some yarns irresistible especially BMFA. For me, it's difficult to pass by something I really love and give something new a shot but I really have to try to do that especially at festivals where I can speak to the dyer and play with the yarn a bit.

Oh and if you ever see this:





Do yourself a favor and get it with the works which consists of cheese, sour cream, bacon bits, chives and jalapenos. I could only have a small portion but it was so friggin worth it.


And as always a big thank you to the best husband ever, Glenn. The one who drives 3 hours to take me to a yarn festival even though he has no interest in yarn. Who gives me money to shop for said yarn. Who doesn't get mad when I say "Just a minute! I'm counting!" And who shares my ribbon chips with me so I don't eat to much. He really is the shiz.

Getting Ready

This weekend is the 40th Annual Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival! We'll be going tomorrow to spend the day and I cannot wait. We'll be leaving here at 5:30 am. Yes we are that crazy about this. Glenn will be driving me, Brigit & Kate down and we'll be meeting up with Rich. It's going to be so much fun! The only thing that stinks is we'll be in the car a long, long, long time and I can't knit in the car or I'll get sick. Blergh.

If you're going to be there, we're having a meet up at 1 pm at the Sip & Knit booth which is sponsored by Rich's favorite shop Fibre Space. Rich thinks the world of them so I'm very excited to meet them and see all the goodies they'll have to show. I'd love to meet up with you so I hope you'll make the time to come by and see us!

Since we'll be up and out so early I'm going to pack up one of my lovely, and roomy, knitting bags this evening and make sure I pack up some green bags to fill with lovely yarny goodies.

Hope to see you there!

Making Deals

My friend, Nicole, is also a knitter. She loves knit socks but does not enjoy knitting socks. I think she's made two pair but rarely wears them because she wants them to last.

I love shawls but am not a big fan of knitting shawls. I especially love the shawls in Jen's book.

See the theme here? Nic & I struck a deal. I'll make her a pair of socks, her yarn and she chose the pattern, and she'll make me a shawl, my yarn and a pattern from Jen's book. No brainer.

Now I have to say the pattern Nicole chose is really gorgeous. They're Herrigbone Rib Socks from Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarns. They're beautiful & easy but labor intensive. I really have to pay attention to each & every stitch because if you both even one stitch, it's glaringly obvious because of the pattern. This is not your tv knitting. I will say she gave me a fun yarn, Cephalopod Skinny Bugga, which is a cashmere blend that feels gorgeous but...it's pink. Now I love pink, which I'm sure you can tell if you look at the header of this blog, but this is pink, PINK, pink. I tease Nic about it and she's a good sport and we laugh. Don't get me wrong it is lovely but, as previously stated, PINK and I know the socks are going to be show stopping.

Now the other deal I've made is this. If I do a few rows of the sock, I get to do some knitting on my cowl. I'm usually a monogamous knitting but because these socks are labor intensive, I've cast on a cowl that's wicked easy so I can take a break from the socks every few rows. I'm doing the Turning Stone Cowl in Saffron Dyeworks Marrakesh in Autumn Color which I'm loving beyond words. It's a good marriage of yarn, pattern and colorway. A perfect project.

Do you find yourself doing this? Making deals with yourself about your knitting or am I the only one who does this?

Other news. We're going to be at Maryland Sheep and Wool this weekend! I cannot wait. Glenn is going to drive Brigit, Kate & me and we're going to meet up with some Twitter knitters. If you'd like to meet up with us we'll be meeting on Sunday at 1PM at the Fiber Space Shop Sip & Knit booth by the entrance. I'd love to see some of you in person!

Ok I gotta get back to this sock. I'd love to get it done soon because I have some other "on demand" knitting that needs to be done.

Switcheroo Socks

Brigit and I got our March Blue Moon Socks That Rock package last month. I waited a bit and read what people were saying about the pattern matching with the yarn and decided to go a different route. First here's the yarn which is called Hope Springs Eternal:





I decided to go with a pattern from Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn which I already had at home. I picked a couple of patterns and Brigit made the final decision to go with the Switcheroo socks.


We hit a couple of snags with these socks. They call for a size 3 needle which I thought was a bit big but decided to give it a go. About two inches in, I realized they were going to be way too big. I went to Ravelry, looked up the socks and read about how others were modifying the pattern. I went with a 1.5 needle and 66 cast on stitches and we were on our way! It's a for row repeat pattern and three of those are the same so it was easy to memorize and a fast knit. I did make a mistake though. Do you see it?





When starting the heel flap, you end on row 3 then when picking up the gusset you should pick up on round 4. Guess what? I forgot that and picked up on round 1. Eh they're for me so it's not the end of the world.

All in all it's a gorgeous yarn with a really lovely pattern. I'm happy with the outcome and I think I'll be knitting these again.

Fixed!

Sorta.

You saw this the other day.





Yes that's my maraca err darning egg peeping through.


I went onto YouTube and looked at some videos to learn how to darn, this one being my favorite.


So first we got this:





Then we got this:





Ok she may not be the belle of the ball but she'll do. Not awful for a first attempt by someone who has never sewn in her life I think. Seriously though it was a lot easier than I anticipated. I'm happy to know that I won't have to throw out my somewhat costly and hard worked on socks from now on!

Winner!

We have a winner!

Before I announce the winner I just want to thank you all for participating! It was great fun reading the comments and seeing how much you all love knitting.

I especially want to thank Jen & Sarah for their wonderful & generous contributions to this giveaway. If you're not one of the lucky winners, please be sure to check out Jen's Ravelry page to see her designs, order her book or buy individual patterns. Sarah doesn't have a shop but you can find her here on Ravelry if you'd like to purchase a set of her stitch markers.

Ok enough already! The winner is JanFromSeattle! Her number was picked by a random generator. Congratulations Jan! I hope you love these things as much as I do. I can't wait to knit up one of Jen's shawls using Sarah's stitch markers!

Thanks again & happy knitting!