fun

Only 9 days til Christmas!

Cookie swap was lots of fun last week, like I knew it would be. Made my 200 cookies, that's my baking over for another year. And brought loads home, have a couple of bags enticingly lining my freezer, yum.

Here is diastelo's Irish Potato Candy - not strictly a cookie but I forgive her -


KnitRedSox loitering by the chocolate fountain...

Table o' goodies, mmm

Pheelya and Knitty showing off their knitted finery!

There was even a rare appearance by Twiceknit, in between her travels round the world. Great minty cookies too, yummm...

Here's my Argosy scarf, which I am working on between Babette and wee sweaters. Just love the colours. And yes, it's for me. I really am embracing this whole 'Selfish Knitter' ethos...

On the home front - getting ready for Christmas by dropping many dollars at the post office. I always have a helper when I go:

Cheriwan got her swap package and I think she was pleased :) This is one of the best swaps I've been in. Thanks for organizing Pheelya and TulaBug!!

Paddy and Jamie also join in the festivities. Not willingly, necessarily. You know I had to hold out some serious treats to get this picture...

Busy night ahead...

I say this every year, and yes it's a cliche, so shoot me. I Love Christmas. It's The most wonderful time of the Year. From the reliable "Christmas is not just about shopping and eating you know" sermon from the parish priest, to the emergence of more and more lights every evening driving home, to the 'what on earth can I get for my father this year' dilemma*, just love it all.

And this year - we are home in our own house - for the first year ever! Usually we spend it with in-laws (Florida) or my folks (Ireland) - neither of which are bad options let me add, but I always feel like I miss the fun in our own neighbourhood. Grandparents coming up to share in festivities for Christmas week, adding their Boston Terrier to the mix. I predict a good snorty time...

And the fun starts tomorrow night, with a cookie swap. Making about 8 dozen cherry chocolate cookies tonight for a swap with neighbourhood ladies. And then the next night, another cookie swap with my knitting friends, about another 8 dozen. That means I need to make about 200 ~ 17 dozen cookies tonight, at least...

I didn't pick a great recipe (will post later - if successful). Bucking the usual trend the recipe I chose from a random cookbook (bought when newly married and planning to cook/bake a lot - ha!) turned out great the first time, so I passed it on to TulaBug, hostess extraordinaire, who is again hosting Wednesday's shindig.

Subsequent efforts, however, resulted in 1: tray o'crumbs; 2. tray o'hockey pucks. No room for mess-ups tonight so fingers crossed...

And my yarn swap loot arrived this weekend! Separate post coming on that as soon as camera cooperates, grrr.

*this year - donation to charity. So he's getting that, a sock keychain, and pictures of his grandson :)

Some pictures to keep

Tuesday night was a momentous one -

Wednesday at Sip n Knit we were discussing whether this would be one of those 'where were you when...' occasions - all too often those are linked to tragic occasions - 9/11, Diana dying, Kennedy getting shot (bit before my time that last one), so it's wonderful to have a happy memory to anchor onto. Of course, if anyone asks where I was when the first black president was elected, I'll have to say I was fast asleep in bed, hugging big pregnant belly :) Ah well.

PS - though I had the chance to buy actual newspapers on Wednesday morning, it never occurred to me. By the time I realized that I was missing out on wonderful souvenirs, this is what I found:

Well - there's always Inauguration Day!

A year already?

Yayyy been blathering on here (intermittently) for a year now. And I still have stuff to say!

Well - the knitting is going good - deep into scarf season, my favourite. I recently finished a skinny clapotis and a short entrelac scarf for my friend's 5 year old - and am on my second entrelac scarf, all looking lovely and - thankfully - not boring to knit. I am using Noro matsuri for the scarf on the needles now and it's a lot of fun to see the colours developing. It's a cotton/wool blend - so no wispy bits to stick to my winter-chapped lips. (Note: I have been listening to this on audiobook while knitting this scarf, so will probably always have some weird associations with this particular garment...)

In sad knitting news - Himself washed and tumble-dried the purple cardi :(

let's just say it is now a wee bit snug...It may be stretchable, or maybe I'll have to wait to wear it when I drop some of the baby blubber. Speaking of, am now nearly 7 months along.

I tested presumptive for gestational diabetes though, have to do the follow-up this weekend. My major in college was Human Nutrition, I should know better*(she says, still scarfing down Halloween candy).

In other sad knitting news - the hat and scarf I donated to the school's fund riaser? They were put on sale for $2 each! I nearly bought them back in annoyance. I should have added labels saying they were handmade especially, washing instruction etc. But didn't. Ah well. Last I checked they were gone. No update on this accursed item...

In other sad news, my Tivo died :( And even though I have 18 months service paid up, the only option to access it is to buy a whole new Tivo box. Ranging from $150 to $350. Grr. And I had loads of stuff saved on there that I was going to watch sometime. Am a big fan of 'Murder TV' as himself calls it. I particularly like the Oxygen show "Snapped" where some long suffering women off their men. Usually following laundry-related mishaps...

Rare trip to the movies last weekend, to see Zack and Miri make a porno. I really liked it, Seth Rogen always cracks me up. The only reason I mention it here, though, is for the surprising amount of knitted and crocheted items on view - it's set in wintertime Pennsylvania so afghans/scarves/hats/sweaters are in nearly every scene. Good a reason as any to check it out :)

The Columbia Sip n Knit celebrated 2 years and counting last Wednesday, still going strong. I've been a member just over a year, and I love it. A nicer bunch of ladies (and Textillian!) you couldn't hope to meet. Lynn even had cake for us - and surprises from her trip to China!

Last night I experimented with a new cookie recipe for the 2nd annual cookie swap at Stacey's house next month: Cherry chocolate Yumsters, I think I'll call them. Himself thought I was having a 'craving' he should know by now that I kind of always crave cookies, and now I have an excuse to eat them (see*!!)

My Sheep and Wool haul

I went along to the Sheep n Wool festival last Saturday, as did every other fiber enthusiast within a 500 mile radius (and some from waaay further afield by the sounds of things). It's just such a treat, quite the nicest thing I've done for myself all year. It was held at the Howard County Fairgrounds, only about 17 miles from home, and was set to open at 9am. I left home a little before 8, thinking I could amuse myself (by knitting maybe) before the gates opened. To my surprise, when I got there (missing all the traffic yay) the parking lot (i.e. surrounding field) was about 1/4 full, and the gates were open, and the majority of the stalls were already doing a steady trade.

Second stall in I met Helene and Karen from Sip N Knit, and we talked about how we were going to be good and pace ourselves...then another friend came and joined them, her shopping bag already happily bulging.

Later on I met up with Lyn and Knitty McKnitknit and we walked around fondling yarn, cooing at alpacas, marveling at the skills of Textillian and others who fared well in the various competitions, and wondering if the small of roasting lamb flesh had anything to do with the apparent consternation of some of the sheep...

And my haul: I got these, from "The Fibre company", 4 skeins of about 100 yards each of...something...in my rush to avail of these ($2.50 each) I managed to snag 2 skeins with no label, and the other two have labels but no yarn name. It's an alpaca/ingeo/merino/silk mix. Anybody know what it is??

Then, in a fit of madness, I bought 400 yards of boucle (mohair/wool/nylon)- I could not resist - look at these colours, all natural dyes, from, appropriately enough a company called Natural Dyed Yarns, who do not seem to have a website...
I say madness, becuase I have 400 yds of undyed boucle from last years S&W, which has been wound into a ball but lain untouched for about 9 months...maybe the two will come together some day in something wonderful. Maybe?
After I left Lyn & Debbi to go home (to bring DS to a birthday party) and was heading for the gate, I was called, drawn I was, to Tess' Designer Yarn, where I bought the pattern for the traveling cable top, and 2 skeins of microfibre ribbon. Soooo silky and pretty. I think I might make this into a waistcoat/vest rather than a shell as pictures...will see. And finally - couldn't make it all the way out without getting some sock yarn.
Lovely lovely soft hopefully non-itchy sock yarn. I felt kind of bad for the bloke running the stall though - his wife and daughter were keeping up a constant stream of moaning at the old guy.

But I left with a song in my heart, ten skeins of yarn in my bag, a sack of kettle korn in my hot little hand. Ahhhh life is good.

small progress

This new job is all well and good but is seriously cutting into blogging time. However, because I can't work from home (but rarely) anymore, I get some good knitting done on the Metro:

These socks are for my friend K for her birthday (around Memorial Day). Knit solely on the Metro. Kind of gives me a sense of achievement...hey you take it where you can get it right...

A few weeks back I went into All About Yarn (car just swung that way as I drove down Rt 108 - funny that) and bought something or other - and was told I had just earned my second $25 bonus. Which means I have now spent $500 there. And it's not like that's the only place I buy yarn or anything. Most friends would steer me to an intervention after such a confession. But I know you all are nodding along (right?)

So here's what I bought with my $25 (and the rest): An Elsebeth Lavold pattern book, and some Berroco Bling Bling yarn, to make this waistcoat/vest thingy. The yarn was on sale, but still expensive, and there wasn't enough of a single colour for the pattern so I mixed the gold and the silver. I've completed the back and one half of one front. This'll be a gift for Mum for when we visit in June (yay another Ireland trip!). I sent off the Mother's Day gifts to Mum and my MIL two weeks ago (they both waited maybe half an hour before opening, apparently).

And yes, am still plugging away on purple cardi.

Got the summer Interweave Knits in the mail last night yay. A lot of mad colourdey stuff I'd probably never have the patience to make. pretty though. Love my pattern pr0n ;)

Had to miss Sip n Knit this week, DH and I have seen each other for 5 min all week what with him traveling and me traveling, so someone had to watch the little guy. So I haven't made any arrangements to meet up for the Sheep & Wool, but will probably locate them by the squeals/catfights (heh).

Till tomorrow!

Denise xxx

Stitch n Pitch!

Way back last century when I met the young lad who would one day become Mr. Needle-dee, I was a most-unamericanised Irish lass. One of his passions was baseball, about which I knew 2 things. 1. Babe Ruth 2. the phrase 'home run'. That's it. And as far as I knew babe ruth was some kind of cheerleader. When we started dating in the US* one of the first places we went was to Veteran's Stadium in Philadelphia to see the Phillies** play the St. Louis Cardinals***.
Anyhoo, the home team won, and my love affair with the game began. Also my rather one-sided love affair with certain players, but mostly just with the fun of it all, outside on a summer's day, all the stats, the stories, the $7 beers...

And now, two of my great loves are together at last - Stitch n Pitch!
The closest games are:
Nationals June 20 ****
Orioles July 19
Phillies August 5 *****

I'm also posting this on the Ravelry board - but who's up for for it??

*I met him in Ireland, long story
** A pretty shockin team at the time, but they won that game
***This was 1996. Why yes, I do still have the ticket stub
**** in the snazzy new stadium
*****2 days before my birthday :)

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

Planning to go along on the Sunday. This year minus DS and plus comfy shoes. And plus big shopping bag :)

Anyone want to meet up?