Blooms!!

There are so many blooms around me! The lilly in my office, the christmas cactus at home, and THE TEA COZY!








Now I'm officially off to England. Lots of fun posts when I get back:-D

Leaving on a jet plane...

I'm not leaving for 2 more days, but I'm so excited for my trip! I was looking for old data that I have stored on some zip disks and came across these two great pictures from past trips. The first is looking out onto Stenkul Fiord, on Ellesmere Island, Canada (!the arctic!). The second is me in a large wooden shoe in Amsterdam. I don't know who the little boy is with me, he just crawled in on my lap, so I took a picture with him. His parents are standing right outside of the shot, laughing at the situation!




I'll have another knitting post tomorrow, and loads of fun pictures from my trip in a week!

TO DO...and do and do and do

I have a busy week coming up... After I made my to-do list, I realized there may not be much time for knitting. But I shouldn't complain since the week is going to end with a flight to Manchester, UK!

My goal is to finish these by the end of the week:



Excuse the white fuzzies. I took the picture outside and didn't think about sweeping the porch first. These are just basic toe-up socks with wide ribbing and a cable in the middle. Made from Pattons wool on 3.5 mm Addies (sp?). I just have to finish the 2x2 ribbed cuff and then I can wrap them for a Christmas present! I'm really excited to give these as a gift. They are super stretchy, so I have no worries about them fitting anyone who may receive them. They're also super warm and cozy! The only bummer is that they aren't superwash... but I have plenty of superwash ready to take on my trip. I love knitting socks while traveling because they are so portable and with circulars, there's no DPNs to lose!

October!!

October is one of my favorite months. A step into the crisp air is enough to warn you that winter's just around the yet you can still enjoy the last bits of beautiful summer weather. The leaves are turning bright colors and falling, giving off a sweet smell. I love baking "fall foods", anything with apples, pumpkins, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, etc.

I had all of these thoughts today while I went for a long walk from my apartment to school. It was a perfect break from work. Of course, along the way, I took pictures and stopped at a yarn shop to pick up another ball of wool for the wedding project I have to finish this week.

Here's another sneak peak of the wedding gift



I had such a hard time getting a good shot of the flowers with my camera...

And here are some sailboats that I passed on my walk:

:

Happy October!

OH.MY.GOODNESS.

I'm SOOOO excited! The emails just came out for the Knitty 2007 calendar contest, and I'M IN! I can't share my winning picture yet, so you'll have to be patient, but the wait is worth it! I will tease you by saying that the picture would be a pefect shot for my birthday month... yay! yay! yay! If you know me, there's a good chance that you'll receive a Knitty Calendar for Christmas!

Since I can't share the winning shot, I will share this:



Peas and carrots sock yarn from Yarnmonster. I took this pic before i wove in the ends. This was my first ever toe-up sock with a short-row heel using the magic loop method. I love the magic loop, toe-up, and short-row heels....

yay! for socks, YAY! for knitting calendars!

SOCKTOBERFEST!

I'm excited to sign up for socktoberfest! I just started knitting socks this spring, and I love it. Especially when I found out that my parents would love hand-made socks as gifts!

While I'm super excited, my productivity may be a bit low this October. I still have the my big bag project going on and some wedding gifts to finish up.

Being new to blogging, I'm also having trouble putting the Socktoberfest button on my side bar. They have such great buttons this year, so I'll just share mine in post (don't try clicking on it, nothing happens!).



Here's the OFFICIAL WEBSITE !
Sock on!

the good, the bad, and the ugly...

First the good - I have a box o' bags! It's just 11, would have been 14, but there were three mishaps (see below for the latest trauma!)...



The bad - The bags don't have zippers yet! Look at the picture. Not one bag will zip. I always avoid the zippers until the last minute. I know that it doesn't take that long to put in a zipper, and usually I like the change of pace, but I can never bring myself to put in zippers until it's time to give the bags away.

now - the ugly - I checked on my last load of bags while they were in the washer, and this is what I found:



Don't worry if the picture looks fuzzy and out of focus. It wasn't meant to be pretty. I was a bit bummed when I saw this because this was one of the color combinations that I was really excited about. A bit of advice: PROTECT YOUR KNITTED ITEMS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FELTING PROCESS. You know, when the knit is still loose and can get caught on the washer and SHRED! Usually I put my bags in a pillow case to start the process. They don't always stay in the case, but I think they stay long enought to shrink a bit. As a result, when they escape the bag they aren't in danger of shredding.

And finally a fun shot from my office. It's my little chicks n' hens window garden!



Good Night!