The Bag Lady and The Pro

What makes my mom special?

Taking her granddaughter to Golden Corral each week so they can spend special girl time.

Being the one person who always chooses my side when the world is out to get me.

Being someone who can come around even after we fight or yell or argue, and still laugh and cry and share.

Forgiving me all of my many mistakes, and reminding me instead of any accomplishments.

Always remembering my special days - but more importantly, remembering my not-so-special ones, too.

Loving the things I knit for her, even if they’re not always perfect or pretty.

Trying to branch out and do new things, even when they’re harder as she ages - because it’s something else we can share.

Doing special things for the dog when no one’s looking, even though she grumps at him when others see.

Being unreasonable sometimes, but dealing so well with the fact that I can be too.

Being someone I can argue with, get frustrated with or angry with - and still being a woman I love and admire so much for all you have been through, accomplished, and done - not the least of which is loving me no matter what, and making sure I know it every time you can.

I love you Momma, and I miss you. Happy Mother’s Day!!

It has been a VERY long week.  month?  Oi.  I worked until 3am at least twice this week, and 6am once. Granted, I don’t go in until 11 or so those days most of the time, and I can work from home - but jeeze it takes a lot out of you. Add in some allergies or just fatigue-based migraines, and it was a long, draining week. The good news is, I can see the finish line through the fog, so far as work is concerned.

And ya know what else? I got a package!! Wheee!  Seriously, I don’t even know when it arrived, as I went to the post office today but had not been since Wednesday or so.  But oh my. What a lovely package at just the right time to lift my spirits!  It was gorgeous all week - you know, while I was working.  Today, on the other hand, is dreary, cloud-filled and at times rainy.  But look - THESE blues are better than MY blues…

That, my friends, is courtesy Knittensilly (ravelry link).  She was my upstream spoiler in the Malabrigo Junkies Swap - and man did she ever spoil!  That’s 2 skeins of worsted weight in “Emerald Blue”. It’s such a gorgeous mix of blues and teals and ohhhh it’s lovely!

There are my other goodies - how cute is that yarn bag?  The little bag to the left of it is dragonfly and butterfly buttons!! And I’m currently sipping some of that coffee (ok, how targeted to me is a coffee shop that says “strong coffee since 1993″ haha) from my new, BEAUTIFUL mug with a dragonfly!  Isn’t it all just SO me?

And here - check out a closeup of the stitch markers:

Thank you so much for brightening my dreary weekend, Knitten!

I did swing by the sale at Cast On Cottage.  I really do love that shop since Teresa bought it a year ago, so what better way to celebrate her one year anniversary than to get a bit of goodness from the shop?

This was my non-sale purchase. I couldn’t resist..

Viola!

It is the Total Tote from Creative Options - I don’t much like their website, as they have it set to make it impossible to direct link - but I DO love the bag.

I was relatively good when it came to yarn - I limited myself very well, thank you - and the two yarns I got were 3.00 and 4.00 per ball, respectively:

Very likely to become items for Warm Up Winc (the left) and for a friend’s baby (the right) as soon as I figure out what to make with the blue.  I’m not sure I’m up for another baby surprise, though the gauge would probably go just right with it.  Any suggestions?  It’s Linie 11 “Alpha”, a 100% cotton, and I’d love to tell you gauge, but there aren’t Americanized translations… and I’m too tired to figure it out right now.  It says 3,0 -3,5 needles and a 10×10cm square shows 26 stitches and 34 rows.  I have 6 balls at 104m each.

I have been knitting - quite furiously, actually - just can’t show you yet, but I’m really happy with how the project is going.

I’ll leave you with this shot of Cleo, as I need to get back to work, try and do some laundry, get my own pal’s packages together, and attempt to maintain my sanity.  Who says she’s not a knit lovin’ kitty?

Do excuse the 900 toys everywhere - most of my livingroom looks like that.  And she promptly ignores it all for the needle, any pen of any type, and the box sitting in the corner with some tissue paper from my Spring Fling Coffee Swap Pal.  It’s like she’s 2 and prefers the pots and pans in the cabinet to her toys!

As promised, here are some pictures of the lovely, generous goodies Nancy sent me in the Spring Fling Coffee Swap. Here’s an overall view to start: (BTW, just to let you know, I took these pictures at 9:45 PM.)

As you can see, I received two yummy kinds of coffee, my favorite Brussels cookies, 3 different kinds of incredible yarn, a handmade neckwarmer with a coffee theme, not one but two dainty cups, numerous stitch markers, and two lovely handmade dishcloths. There was some magnetic knitting poetry too. Here are some close ups:

Yummy coffee! I just finished a cup of the Peet’s coffee. Very nice!

The dainty cups have a story to go with them. Apparently Nancy went to a local antiques store to find me a china cup. Once there, she saw a china cup with an Alaskan theme and had to get that one in addition to the Spring-themed cup. I love them both, and my husband LOVES the Alaskan cup. He’s drinking his coffee from it right now. He thinks it is so cool!

The yarn is awesome. I got Fleece Artist in Marine, Koigu, and Dream in Color Smooshy in Nightshade. The gorgeous colors just scream “ME!” Any one of them would have been fantastic, but Nancy sent all three!

I love the beautiful stitch markers that Nancy sent as well:

From Alabama Fiber Dreams:

From: Blume’s Accessories

And these too. Katie loves these; one has a hummingbird on it :

I used my new fridge poetry pieces to send a final message to my sweet swap pal:

Thanks for such a great package!

One thing I try to do in life is remember to tell special people they are special. It’s just something I do, because I know it makes me feel like a million bucks when someone lets me know they think that of me. As such, I’m starting a new feature! Every so often, I’ll spotlight a fellow blogger - someone who’s special because they’re special, not JUST because they knit! ; )

And for the first, I give you my dear friend Holly.

That’s Holly on the right there, at her local knit night with the ever adorable Jessi, who’s determined that Holly should henceforth be known as Holly Hobby!

Holly is a sweet, dear lady who always tries to be there to listen to her friends, does just adorable things for her kids (Cameron the Elf anyone?), and tries to be the best friend a girl can be even to those she doesn’t know so well. Several folks agree!

Says Michelle…

Holly is my virtual twin sister.. we think alike in so many ways, and share so many of the same opinions and thoughts. It was funny because we connect SOOO quickly through the coffee swap and while I’ve made awesome connections through swaps and the whole internet knitting community, I haven’t connected so deeply or so quickly with anyone as I have with Holly

I love her to pieces..

[Photo copyright Jessi]

And her sister Lacey has a few sweet tidbits to share! She tells me…

Anne of course I have many stories about my dear sis. I can tell you about how she caught her hair on fire one sunday before church. Or how she was induced because she wanted me to see her son before I moved away from home. Or as we all know the secret she kept just to suprise me for my birthday. Holly has a heart of gold and would do anything for anyone. I am honored and blessed to have such a wonderful sister.

Check out these great pictures!

They don’t look at all alike, do they?

Holly, you’re a dear, sweet woman, and I’m glad you’re in my life - I’ll be praying for your last hospital visits and hope they go well, and will get to Alabama sometime soon - you, me and Jessi together could tear the town up! I’m so glad you approached me about us doing the coffee swap and that we’ve grown closer.
And lastly, I’ll leave you all with some shots of Holly Hobby’s handiwork!

These socks are her sister’s project - but made with yarn they dyed together!

Here’s a rather.. er.. creative project she made! A blues buster buddy for a swap pal who’s a huge advocate for Breast Cancer research and education..

And finally, an adorable hat she made for Megan when Amanda was looking for donations to brighten a little girl’s rough time - and here’s what Amanda says about Holly..

Holly? Oh my, she is so sweet! I know we both like chocolate and the band Mae! I love sharing a good chat with her, or some friendly advice on knitting. Would love to meet her in real life.

You know with Spring the famous saying goes “April Showers, bring May flowers”, please tell us what you like to do when those April Showers are pouring down on you. Do you like to curl up with your knitting, take in a movie or crawl back in bed?

I like to curl up with a good book, my computer, or some knitting. I like to be under a quilt and I like to have a good cup of coffee or tea and maybe some sweet treats to nibble on. Rainy weather makes me feel like staying home and being cozy. Of course, our April showers last week turned white and heavy pretty fast, and that just made me want to cry.

OH my!  It was a beautiful day here in Anchorage; the snow is melting fast, and the sun was warm. I am driving with the sun roof open.

Then, I came home to the most wonderful Spring Fling Coffee Swap package imaginable. It is crammed with lovely, colorful, awesome items. I can’t even believe it! My spoiler is someone I’ve gotten a package from before:  Nancy  from Days Go By! Last year I won her Blogaversary contest and got some lovely yarn as a prize, and this year I got absolutely spoiled. I cannot wait to find the time to take some pictures n the sunshine so you can see the truly lovely gifts she sent me. The yarn alone is enough to make you drool. Incredible colors. I am anxious to get some of it on the needles. I wanted to be sure and blog about it so that she knows I received it, but I promise a lengthy detailed post later in the next couple of days with all the great information and pictures!

I have had some not-so-successful swaps, including one where I never got a package at all, but this swap makes up for them and more. Nancy, you are a wonderful spoiler and I thank you for your generous and thoughtful gifts. You made my day!

Okay maybe not REALLY, but it is one of the more enjoyable things in each of my days. I do so love a good cup of coffee! And I’m enjoying some now, courtesy of my amazing Spring Fling Coffee Swap pal, Frances.

Check this out.. I open it up to find a box full of bright spring colors -

They were torn into quite quickly though - I could seriously smell the awesome soaps Frances makes as soon as it was opened! Check out the mass of “so very me” goodies!

If ya’ll could just see the little eyes and expressions on the ladybug stickers - and the box is adorable!  The yarn a little closer..

That is a 100% bamboo yarn from Wisdom Yarns that I’ve never even seen! And it came along with some scarf patterns (Gee, think she read my blog recently or checked my ravelry stash to see what I’ve been knitting a lot of??)

And then there was this adorable little tote for my handmade gift!

Isn’t that adorable?! And just the right size for a project - plus, it’s reversible!

Thanks so much Frances for being a great pal and for the great package - the coffee is delicious too!!

Okay, so .. I made a little swatch..

For 1, I K2Tog, without moving any stitches around - again, knitting into the back of the stitches because that is the ‘happy’ way.

For 2, I K2Tog, but first turned the stitches around so I’d be knitting through the front of them like ‘normal’ knitting.

For 3, I SSK, slipping knitwise

For 4, I SSK, slipping purlwise

: (

None of them appears to be a right-slanting decrease, which is what the stupid K2Tog is supposed to do.  KM was right - my problem isn’t the SSK, which I seem to manage in a million ways - but my K2Tog is the one that doesn’t really ‘work’ right.

Here’s the thing.. 1 and 3 should look alike, I think - because for most people who knit combined, you are supposed to K2Tog when the pattern calls for SSK.  Then the question becomes - why doesn’t my 4 look like my 2? That 4 stitch should be the SSK I do when the pattern calls for K2Tog, but it IS NOT WORKING.

CRY.

Edited to Add: All you lace knitters out there, swing over here and help Dorothy out - she was in a free KAL for a mystery shawl that became NOT free and now needs some suggestions for a new pattern. C’mon Grace, I know you’ll have ideas *grin* 

It’s been a rather rainy weekend..

That was at like 3pm LOL Looks more like sunset, no? Made all the more dismal by the fact that my boys are playing HORRIBLY against Detroit. I could ramble on and on about that, but I’ll spare you. There’s a Colorado Avalanche Fans group on Ravelry, I think I vented sufficiently there ; )

Sigh. And Knitting. Hrm. We’ll go with yarn first. Here’s the shot I took of the Malabrigo Trudy won in the March contest..

And here’s a link to her photo/post.. And then to the Malabrigo page.. between the 3 of them you might get a general idea of the true color - I really thought it was gorgeous when I saw it, and just had to send her that one. Luckily, she seems to like it also!

I changed things up a bit on the scarf I was working on - I really think the Ulmo colorways are just gorgeous - and this one in particular.

I’d started with this…

I didn’t much like that so I started again, and after knitting, had a nice.. curl..

Which with a lot of water and a bit of drying with some yet to go, became this:

I’m working on one last scarf.. sigh. I’d asked you guys how you do your SSK - and everyone seems to have a different opinion!

Marie best said what I’ve seen many other places.. Agree. The stitches should be slipped purl-wise. If you slip it knitwise, you will actually twist the stitches … before you want them to be twisted.

The problem with that is if you knit combined, slipping purl wise doesn’t really twist the stitches.

My larger problem is that no matter HOW I slip the stitches, unless I literally turn the stitches around (remember, I knit combined, so I knit through the back loop ALL the time if I’ve purled on the other side - otherwise, I would be twisting the stitches) so that I’d knit through the front, then do the SSK.. it all looks the same : ( I’ve tried and tried every way you can imagine and my SSK looks pretty much just like a K2Tog. It’s hard to explain - if I have some time later I’ll knit up a swatch and show you guys what I mean.

What it amounts to though.. is that I can’t make true lace projects look like they’re supposed to! I’m working on a gift for someone, and tried several different patterns - and mine just doesn’t look like it is supposed to!! Seriously.. very frustrating. I am about resigned to just stick to dishcloths for the rest of my life or chalk Knitting all up to a learning experience and move on. Sigh.

At any rate, I want to catch up on some blogs before I start working and cleaning and doing laundry (you know, fun Sunday things! LOL) - I hope you’re all having a glorious weekend!

Let’s pretend for a minute we all live in the home of our dreams, have land, and don’t have to work so time is unlimited! It’s Spring planting season! What would you grow? A little veggie garden? A bed of bright spring blooms? Or is your thumb so far from green that the only thing you’d be planting is your tushy into a nice chair on the porch to get some knitting or crocheting done in the nice breeze?

I like to garden here in Alaska, when I can actually see the ground. (Why no, of course I’m not feeling bitter about this weather. Really, I’m not.) I love perennials because they come back on their own; I am not into the whole starting-seeds-in-the-garage-under-the-grow-lights kind of thing.

I have a gorgeous peony that gets loaded with incredible pink blooms each year. We have delphinium, tiger lilies, campanula, forget-me-nots, and others whose names escape me right now in our little garden on the side of the house. I like to grow herbs among the flowers, such as parsley and chives, and I like to grow lettuce to pick throughout the summer. In back of our duplex that we used to live in, I had raised beds, one loaded with juicy sweet strawberries, the other filled with red, white, and blue potatoes. I grow carrots and radishes for the kids to pick, and we have the most incredible broccoli and cabbage too. Because of all the natural sunlight, thing grow nice and big here in AK, even if it takes some extra coaxing to get them going in the beginning. In our front yard, where we have a lot more shade, I have big lacy ferns and lots of hostas. I am an occasional gardener, though, because I get distracted by too many other things (soccer, biking, knitting, reading.) And the planting the tushy on the porch? I do lots of that here in AK, where I am lucky to have my summers free.