For my birthday present to myself, I enrolled in Sundara Yarn’s Petals Collection (I used Sundara Yarn for the mitered heart satchet, too). Every 2 months, you get 2 skeins of hand-dyed sock yarn in a colorway not available on her website, and a pattern for socks using that colorway. This is the first shipment. 
Isn’t it beautiful?! It’s just so lovely and squishy and the sock is neat and has a heel and toe I have yet to try. Another cool thing: the pattern is written for DPNs, magic loop, AND using 2 circular needles and has been test knitted in all 3 ways**. How freakin’ cool is that?! Sign-up for the collection is closed, so I’m glad I got in when I did. Keep a lookout for Calla Lily socks in the next few weeks.
**Edit: Sundara left a comment and said that she wrote the pattern without knitting it, and had a DPN knitter test knit it. Sundara happens to do socks on 2 circulars, so she knows the numbers are right. Is there anything this woman can’t do?!
Sundara’s Petal Collection June 28, 2006
Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid June 27, 2006
This is the fantastic package my secret pal sent me. A note was enclosed with sentiments of perhaps dyeing the skein of wool with my boys. It took me 5 minutes of pleading to make them understand that the 14 packets of Kool-Aid were NOT to drink. My secret pal was amazed that it was so hard to find the stuff in Manhattan. It’s not really surprising to me; having lived in Washington state for most of my life, I’ve always viewed Manhattan as a more sophisitcated place and figured the children there would drink much more sophisticated things than Kool-Aid. What amazed me the most was the softness of the un-dyed yarn and the fact that she found mango Kool-Aid. I didn’t even know there was mango. Thank you SP! 
Here are 3 of the 4 sets of baby mitts that are going to Baby Max. The green thing at the bottom is a Chibi needle case, just to give you an idea of the size of these things. I have some sagey green Fixation on order, and then I will crank out another pair of little and medium ones.
It’s still roasting hot here. At least this weekend and part of next week we’ll be on Orcas Island in the San Juans. Island=water, so at least we’ll have some place to cool off.
Feelin’ Hot! Hot! Hot! June 26, 2006
It’s a little toasty here in the Seattle area. 91 degrees or so. I think my secret pal jinxed me when she sent my first package with a little note that asked if it really gets hot here. 
It gets hot, but we get some breaks between really hot spells. It always cracks me up that people who move here from warmer climates freak out when they are looking at houses and they don’t come with air conditioning or central air. Of course, they also don’t realize that rain gear is a year-round necessity, either.
The Last Day of School June 24, 2006
This is the “Mitered Heart Satchet” from IK Webknits. I used Sundara sock yarn in “Venetian Sky” colorway and I think it turned out beautifully.
This was my first mitered project. I had to rip out the first square about 10 times (8 of them in one night because I tried starting the project when I was too tired to concentrate). It all worked out though.
This is Mrs. Walsh, Colten’s kindergarten teacher. The look on her face alone should tell you how pleased she was with the gift. I’m glad that she enjoys handknit gifts!
Just a Note June 23, 2006
Thanks to Sarah of Knot Another Hat (one of THE coolest shops ever), I need to make a clarification about my ideas of animal fiber. I consider animal fiber to be off of actual mamals, like: alpaca, llama, yak, buffalo, cat, dog, sheep, goat, bunny, and so forth. Yes, silk does come from silk worms, but they’re insects, so I consider them as insects and not as animals that “donate” their hair to fiber uses. And I know for a fact that my mother is NOT allergic to silk.
School ended on Wednesday. I’ll catch up with photos and such a little later today. I need to fold and do some laundry so that we’re not running naked.
Updates and Tales of Woe June 20, 2006
This is Charity’s finished scarf, tied up nicely for presentation. Made of roughly 2 balls of Lion Brand “Incredible” (I believe it was named that for the incredible pain in the butt it is to work with!), size 13ish needles (Lantern Moon says they’re size 15, my Skacel needle gauge says more like 13), and modified pattern from SNB Nation.
Miss Turtle, getting her felting bath. The eyelash makes her cute, but it sheds when you felt it.
Miss Turtle in completed form, ready to be mailed to the lucky recipient.
Remember the “Branching Out” I completed for my mom’s 50th? The one out of the lovely blue Frog Tree alpaca because she’s allergic to wool/mohair/cashmere?
Guess what… she’s allergic to alpaca too.
Back to the yarn store. I purchased some Dale “Svale” (50% cotton, 40%viscose, 10%silk), no animal fibers to be seen, except for the incidental cat hairs that happen to be knitted in with it.
The story does have a happy ending, though. My mother-in-law was gushing about how lovely the scarf I made for my mom was, so I asked her if she wanted it. She said “you mean, one like it.” After I filled her in on the story, she said that she would *love* to have it. So it will have a happy home after all.
Note to self: when unsure of allergen issues, send sample of yarn BEFORE completing project.
Visiting with the Nephew June 17, 2006
We got to see our adorable nephew today for the first time. He is a cute little peanut. He’s got a bit of a habit of sleeping through feedings and scratching his face, so I’ve been helping his mom out a bit with information and just cranked out my first-ever set of mitts for an itty-bitty person. We’ll see how they work.
The mystery purple object is a felted turtle. She’s being made for another new addition to the family, this one by way of adoption from China. Miss Turtle is felted and currently drying, awaiting stuffing and a ride through the postal service routes.
I would imagine Charity is wondering if she’s ever going to get her freakin’ scarf. Fear not, I’ve been working on it, bit by bit, and it will make its grand arrival with me to my appointment on Monday.
Knitting Bag Makeover June 13, 2006
Aren’t these the COOLEST patches? They can be found here, for cheap, great shipping (ordered last Thursday, arrived Monday), and they have another one for spinning! I added them to my poor knitting bag that has been suffering the humiliation of a “microsoft” logo for months. 
She looks better than she did!
My husband works as a desktop engineer at a bank and his boss gave him this bag with some other stuff as a prize. The bag itself is fantastic for knitting. Outside pocket for holding patterns, interior is lined with slick fabric so needles and yarn don’t catch, and it’s black so I can dump it on the floor and not worry about stains and such. Just had an issue with the logo. So after months of internally whining to myself about how I had to get rid of the logo, the answer showed itself to me in a knitting magazine that I usually don’t read. Ahhh, my bag is finally fully knit-worthy, even if it has moved from one type of “geekiness” to another.
Care to guess what I’m kntting? June 13, 2006
It could be a hat, could be a purse, more likely is something completely different and so “out there” that few people may guess what it is. Just thought I’d throw it up here for fun. BTW, the photo above is the top, the bottom is below. And it’s not finished.
Baby Baker is Here! June 10, 2006
William Maxwell, aka Baby Baker, made his arrival last night. Born June 9th at 10:36 pm, he weighed in at 7 lbs and 20 inches. Hopefully I’ll have some pics to show in the next week or so, we’re letting them get home and settle in a bit before we visit.
Edited to add: go here for a pic of little Max.
In other news, my secret pal sent this great card that really sums up life around here. I got a kick out of it. Thanks for the funny, secret pal!
