Pretty in Pink

A pink weekend it's been.

First some unexpected mail - one of my asian friends sent me a pretty pink Friendship card from Thai land. The postmark has cute elephants on it.



Then, my fabric bag came in the mail. Brenda (Ruddawg) was kind enough to swap a bag I received in one of my swaps for this flower fabric KIP bag (aka Knit in Progress). It is the cutest thing - and I love the pink flowers, and the red-pink coloring. I also asked her specifically for the bright fuchsia cord, which I really love - because pink is well, pink is my color. The bottom of the bag is black and soft, and the bag stands up on its own. I tucked it in my purse today, and flattened it a bit for the photo:-





Today I went for my massage at Silk Road, then browsed the Sunday Market on Government st. right in front of the tea shop and found this cute pouch on sale at Leo Rising.



It's about the size of a pencil case. The last one (bird) I used for my sunglasses. This one's destined most likely for knitting stuff, or perhaps, pencils.

It was so windy downtown, that the tents were being whipped this way and that. After that, I walk towards Market Square to explore a little. Luanne was at her shop (A Little Bit of Hanoi) and had restocked her little flower-shaped silk bags that are also perfect for small knitting projects, as well as the little jewelry-sized ones. I also looked in at Beadworld, and picked up some 10s. There I also found some small dusty-rose colored organza bags.

Yep, I'm back on my pink kick. MMMmmmmalabrigo

Re-inspired for the Ravelympics 2008

I'm re-inspired - I just went on the Ravelympics 2008 group on Ravelry and discovered that they have an event just for me - WIP-Wrangling. I have at least 5 projects that need to be finished and this just might be the time to do it - cast on during the opening ceremonies August 8, and finish before the flame goes out on August 24. hmmmm...just 17 days. I think I can, I think I can..

Also received the 4 skeins of Malabrigo Worsted in Pink Frost from Linda today. She was one of my ravelry swap partners, and when I added her to my friends, I saw all of her stash posts, and spotted the yarn. It arrived today, and I'm very happy with the colors, and it's so veeeery soft. Mmmmmmmmmmmalabrigo.

Restless about UFOs

Today's tuesday - so another knit night tonight. If I hadn't promised to bring my swift and ybw, I would probably skip as I have a stack of projects that are all nearing UFO stage.

#1 Shapely Symmetry Sheath - I'm re-thinking the colors on the front. It's feeling good, but I need to lay out the pieces and figure out the colors so I'll be happy with it .

#2 Salto Socks - these were going great guns until my heel flap, and now i'm at a crossroads to rip it back, or block it out after I'm done. Seems the pattern has an over-increase there where the ankle is, so if you have a flat ankle area, there's just a bump there .

#3 Neck-down Cardigan in Alpaca - I think I'm at the 2nd cuff of the sleeve; but feel like I should try this on again to be sure that's all that's left to do, and the, to do the blocking and the zipper.

#4 The Lotus Bamboo tank which I recently found again - this one I just need to pin, block, and seam together the strap and the body, then, crochet around the edge of the neck, and armholes, with what I think is enough yarn.

Small things
#5 - cable footies on the needle;
#6 - star stitch fall scarf on a holder - half done, need to dig out the needle again.
#7 - baby coriolis sock - half done one for Marjorie; need to finish, and do the second; also 1/2 of a pair for me out of BMFA Worsted

Projects I'm dreaming about starting:
#8 - flower basketweave shawl in samira silk - teal/blue/red/gold - need some waste yarn for the provisional cast-on
#9 - coriolis socks in Ursa's sock yarn
#10 - be mine cuff-down socks with cabled hearts in bamboo rain (red).
but have stalled thinking about until I can get #1-4 done.

Knitting is slow-going because I've been so distracted lately with Ravelry that when I go home, I haven't been doing any knitting (nor reading for that matter), just on the pc, and being distracted. Knitting is mainly happening at knit night - twice a week, and even then, it's not happening much because i'm so stalled.

Another relaxing weekend...

What a nice relaxing weekend. Friday was my flex day and I was out and about with my mom - to the tailor, the post office, the bank and home. Saturday, I'd planned to go to the Moss St. Paint-in, but ended up doing things at home - and relaxing in a cool fan breeze. Saturday evening went for dinner at Olive Grove on W. Saanich Rd., and had a wonderful lamb dish that was so tender and yummy; preceded by escargot (yes, snails, and yummy too), and ending up with a lovely light creme caramel. Service was superfast. The meal was so good, I also posted a review on dinehere.ca. After that horrible lunch service I had at the place near to work, I was very pleasantly surprised about the quick service to go along with the great food. After dinner, I went to the Post office at Royal Oak in Country Grocer - the post office is open the entire time the grovery store is open - 8am-10pm every day except Christmas (the postal lady said) - amazing!
great hours and very helpful service.

Sunday, I went with my mom to look at an Open House for a near $1 million new house off Quadra St, just a stone's throw from Saanich Centre, with a view of the city, and Mt. Baker. It was a very nice view, but only a few parking spots for visitors, and a smallish living space 2200 sqft for the price. There were 2 houses for sale. The first one had an address ending in "8", which is considered lucky in Chinese culture. No red here, but a very light bright kitchen, and large living spaces. The 2nd one next door had an address ending in "4". Ominous...with quiet foreboding - it was very dark inside and made darker by dark paint on the walls - dark brown in the living room, and kitchen cabinets, and at least one sub-level bedroom was painted a dark olive - dark wooden stairs, and railing, and smaller rooms, with views mostly of the neighbor on the other side. We visited a short time then went out and enjoyed the sunshine.

I knit a few rows of my dress on Friday - now I'm thinking of adding the black back in to add some interest on the top of the top. It's so very soft. I'm luxuriating in it. I took the lotus bamboo tank out of its bag and fiddled with the strap/armhole a bit. I need to sit down and finish up the seaming of the strap, and I think finish off the armhole, and neck hole. It sits well, and I'll be excited to finish up a project.

Magic Yarn Ball Swap Rec'd (Ravelry)

Tuesday I received this amazing package from my Magic Yarn Ball Swap partner Mairi, and took a couple of days to unwind it, rewind it, and take pics. It was funny to see how many things we had in common - we both used blue yarn to wrap our swap packages. The Magic Yarn Ball Swap, you pick a pattern that uses one skein of yarn, and the one skein of yarn; then, unwind the yarn and wind it around 15-20 small items so that the will fall out as the recipient unwinds the ball. I had a ball wrapping the yarn around the stuff I sent to Mairi, and I see that she did too in prepping my package. She wound three balls of yarn in total around the items. I had a fun time separating the different strands.

Here's the before shot: and the ball version
And the after pic:

Oooooh Ahhhh! Oooooh Ahhhh!

I am such a lucky (and happy) girl - I received 9 Handmade Stitch markers which I really really love love love ! Clover’s Locking Stitch Markers (which I use all the time), A very cool silicone tea spoon with holes in the base where you put the tea leaves - I haven’t seen this before, and I will definitely use this! A pink M Notebook with pen and a pink M Tin with watermelon jelly bellys inside (yum!), a couple of small zippered pouches which are very handy, citrus candy for my sweet tooth, a small bag of shiny mother of pearl or shell buttons (love these too).

Pkg #2 is a Ritter Sport milk Chocolate bar - I love this!
pkg #3 is a pattern - Cookie A’s Twisted Flower Pattern (Thanks so much for spoiling me!) and a pattern for a tiny sock (to take care of that extra yarn - thanks!)

The Yarn is Lucy Neatby’s Celestial Merino in royal Blue - 100g ball - that’s I think 400m (Wow - perfect for the socks). The Yarn ball winder is mine - but I left the ball on it so you could see how huge this skein is.

Here’s a close up of the stitch markers (with a clover LSM so you can see how tiny these little treasures are. They're beautiful - my fave is the first one in the upper left there...

Now that my partner has opened her package - here's what I sent:

2 skeins of malabrigo lace (wound with the blue), packed the olive; raspberry candies from the english sweet shop, murchie's tea, lavender in little sachets, a couple of freebie lace patterns, a cookie cutter of a grad hat (since she just graduated), also a congrats metal tag, and 2008, a crochet hook, orange scorer (I know, it's odd, but it was small), some canadian confetti, postcards of Victoria, shaped paper clips, 2 butterfly magnets, a pinch/dash spoon, nd a mini wind-up flashlight (no batteries).

Weekend stashing and swap packaging

I had a good weekend all around this weekend. The weather was warm, and I had a lazy Saturday mostly followed by a lazy Sunday. Saturday's highlight was the sale at Beehive Wool - 20% off everything. I went to pick up some lovely yarn for some Ravelry swaps I'm participating in and came away with some beautiful skeins for the ladies - someone's definitely in for some treats. Prudence Mapstone was also there to show off her freeform crochet, discuss techniques and show off samples to a small crowd of onlookers. Afterwards, I went with Megan (BB) for a snack at QV, which was fun. She's acting as a go-between for one of my swap packages, so I'm on the edge waiting for her to deliver my Magic Yarn Ball (MYB) Swap package from Mairi her BFF in Kamloops, and going to deliver Mairi's MYB to Megan on Tuesday to bring back to her via Megan's sister - how cool is that?! Way to save the postage...

Sunday I slept in, arranged contents for my swap packages, and went out late in the day for some window-shopping with my mom. Came home and fiddled with my swap packages again. I'm in three - MYB Swap, Sock Yarn from your Stash Swap, and Four Season Summer Swap.

Magic Yarn Ball involves gathering a pattern, and a skein of yarn to make the pattern; then, unwinding the yarn, and gathering 15-20 small items and winding the skein of yarn around them so that the little items are trapped inside the big ball of yarn. I hope Mairi will like what I've picked. I'll post a pic of the finished ball. I finished up winding the yarn around tonight, so it's ready to go to Megan Tuesday. The other 2 swaps have contents idling waiting to be boxed.

A rude awakening about coloUr

Well i had a rude awakening today...I've been warned for years, yet I'd never seen this perspective before - I spied my blog from a different monitor, and the rich chocolatey brown of the background, and the beetroot red/fuchsia color of my about me box, appeared lifeless and drab. Also, my dyed yarn seemed to be dim and flat. sad. so sad.

If they look that way to you. It's time to get a new monitor my friend. The colors on my monitor are vibrant and rich, the pink screams out, and the red is a rich deep red that mixes with the deep chocolate brown and the olive-y green (this is the yarn I'm talking about now). The colors sing and I'm inspired to feel the yarn in my hands and to knit knit knit.

I'm in love !

with my Hand-dyed yarn.

Finally, the 3 skeins that I dyed at Ursa's house on Sunday were dry by Monday evening, and I took the 2 below to work to show my friend Chris on Tuesday

(and to knit nite on Tuesday evening at Khona). Being a gardener, Chris loved the colors.

Today, I just kept one skein in my bag to peek and marvel at.
I love this one - the pinks, fuchsia, and red, and green remind me of flowers in a garden.

Ooooh! Ahhhh!

This next skein pic is of a 560 yd skein of Superwash merino in sport weight that I picked up at one of the Oregon Fiber Festivals (Oregon Flock and Fiber in Canby, OR I think). I actually had 2 of these undyed skeins, but only hand dyed one.

I also showed them off to my mom who loved them too.

Technical difficulties

I've been on Ravelry for about 6 months and had my first opportunity today to post the picture to the group - trials and tribulations abound. I discovered that all to do to post in a group is to paste the html code from the flickr page with the photo. Easy as pie, once you know where to look.

Received - Sock Yarn from my Stash Swap

This beautiful picture shows the fantastic package I received my Ravelry swap partner (bartons15) - That's 2 skeins of Interlacements Tiny Toes in beautiful rich jeweltone colors that are perfect for me!Teal, a rich Red, Turquoise, Indigo. The color tag says #221.

Here's a close-up pic of the yarn:

Mmmmm...Gorgeous!

Also, I received the Funky Sock Monkey pattern that I've been wanting from Blue Moon Fiber Arts (I'm so excited - I can't wait to knit this one!), a package of green tea with lemon, a Dark chocolate Lindt bar with chilis, some Burt's Bees lip balm with pomegranate oil, and a cool knit in progress bag, with a pretty fuchsia cord that I just love!She also treated me to a can of smoked almonds which my dad immediately nabbed. Thanks Linda for the wonderful treats!

Great Weekend!

Well, what a fabulous weekend I had...Friday off and I went out to my storage unit and reacquainted myself with part of my stash. I rescued a couple of UFO projects too, and hope to finish those off soon. One was my Bamboo top from a few summer's ago, i'm in the end zone, and don't have the pattern with me (ugh!). Also, found a lovely berry-coloured Debbie Bliss Cashmerino bolero that I love, and it's done. I'm wearing it around the house now. I also found the footie variation I was working on from the One Skein book. Since Jen K. (different Jen from the ships last weekend) lent me her book, it was timely that the instructions are there, so I ripped back to the beginning of the gusset, and have started to re-knit. It's lovely - Lorna's Laces in Vera - my favorite fuchsia-purpley-pink colour, brown, green, and an off-white. Also, an Adrienne Vittadini shawl collared pullover but haven't found the Vogue Knitting Winter 2004/05 magazine yet to piece it together.

On Saturday I went shopping with my mom to Gala Fabrics downtown on Douglas St. They're having a SALE; yes, I said, SALE - until July 20th. Silk is 25-30% off, and most of the synthetics are 30-50% off, even the rems are on sale. While I was there, I noticed another customer who was wearing a cool cabled sweater. I asked if she knit it herself, and she said Yes. Turns out we're both on Ravelry - so it's a small world after all. Very cool to find another knitter in Victoria.

Mom and I also had a late lunch at Murchie's and I wandered into Breeze and found another couple of cool tops on sale (and I do mean cool, as in, I'll be able to wear something and not boil when the sun hits the 80s or 90s again). Then, to Hillside to look for sandals for me, and to visit the shoe cobbler.

At Hillside, the cobbler was very nice, and identified that the shoe insert I had slipped down under as it was too small. Actually, I'd been digging it down inside the heel of my boot for awhile, and the rains from Portland had once or twice soaked the inside, and that coupled with another heel insert which I'd torn out and taken a huge hunk out of the inside of the shoe, had left a rather unsightly hole, on the inside of the bottom where my heel went, such that not only did it look like a small mouse had taken a large bite, I was also working on building a large callus on my heel. Ouch. Now, to wait a week-and-a-HALF to get my boot returned. Hope the weather is warm and sunny so I can use my new sandals and not worry about missing these boots.

Sunday - I went to Ursa's house to dye yarn - yes, I said, "Dye Yarn". Well, I brought the yarn myself (from yarn I'd accumulated for awhile at various shows and Knit Picks, and a few Wilton Dyes. She had a very nice set up - easy to lay the yarn out, dip dye it in various colours and wrap it up to steam in the microwave. A very happy and pleasing experience all in all; and I'm definitely inspired both by the dyeing dipping process, and the colours that resulted. My 3 skeins are hanging up to dry as we speak, and I hope to post pics soon.