gifts for me

On Saturday morning, I discovered a box on my porch, just for me! Cheryl is my February Color Swap 2007 pal and she really spoiled me! This month's theme is Brown and Tan and here's what she sent me:

- 2 skeins Lorna's Laces shepherd sock yarn in a blue/tan colorway, so soft!
- 2 balls Regia sock yarn, grey tweed, gorgeous
- 3 balls Daletta sock yarn, tan
- Hershey's kisses lipgloss and keychain - :-)
- Milk chocolate bar (gone already)
- a cute brown monkey stuffed animal
- Milk chocolate Lindor truffles YUM!
- interesting, DELUXE needle holder from KnitCare
- Circle of Friends sock pattern
- clover needles and holder
- Eucalan woolwash
- brown measuring spoons

Isn't my treasure wonderful? Thank you Cheryl!

Yosemite

This photo is from Oct 2005 when our family was fortunate enough to visit Yosemite for a few days. We love to hike and ride bike on our travels. It's a great way to get up close and personal with nature. I took this photo of my son and husband.

Secret Pal 10 Questionaire

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? I love cotton/wool blends and have started to use smaller and smaller guage yarn. I haven't tried wool/tencel yet but would like to. It's hot here in NC and heavy wool it too warm. I've been craving sock yarn lately. I have stopped liking fuzzy/novelty yarns.
2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in? They are disorganized - in my knitting basket.
3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? I'd say I'm intermediate, but there is not much that I won't try if I get interested.
4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? Yes, amazon under "white oak studio"
5. What's your favorite scent? oh, I love so many. Right now I love sandalwood, citrus, eucalyptus. I love soaps, lotions, candles...
6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy? yes, I love hot tamales and junior mints. Tootsie rolls, milky way, and on and on... you really can't go wrong here
7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin? No I don't spin - I dye fabric and create art quilts (fabric collages). I make jewelry and polymer clay beads and buttons.
8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) I can play mp3s but still like getting regular cds. I love country music and jazz right now. Celtic is great and other new age is good for yoga background.
9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand? I love color - strong, bold and lots of it. Red is my fave. Love lime and avocado greens. Love unusual, interesting color combinations. Don't like pastels.
10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? I live with my husband of 26 years and my 12 year old son. And our beloved black lab. I work fulltime as a computer scientist/software developer.
11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos? Not so much since it's warm here in NC. I do love vests and summer knits, even sleeveless. And socks.
12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? Sweaters, socks
13. What are you knitting right now? Socks
14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts? Sure
15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? Bamboo, circ
16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift? Just ordered a swift.
17. How old is your oldest UFO? 20 years. I started a sweater in 1986 when I was living in Germany. Can't bear to part with the yarn or the pattern which is in German.
18. What is your favorite holiday? Halloween, because of the autumn weather and it's 2 days before my birthday.
19. Is there anything that you collect? Yarn. In general, have too much stuff in my house already so try to buy things that can be used up.
20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? No knit mag subscrip yet, but buy all the Interweave so I should subscribe. Would love multi-color koigu sock yarn. Colinette looks great too. Love all debbie bliss yarns. Would love a sock book, don't have one yet.
21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn? knitting two socks at the same time on one circular needle!!
22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements? Uh, not sure how to measure since I'm fairly new to sock knitting. I wear ladies' size 9 or 9.5 Will have to figure out how to measure. I have a high instep.
23. When is your birthday? Nov 2, 1959 - I'm still 47!!!

Color swap goodie bag is in the mail

Whew - I packed my Color Swap goodie bag for my swap partner and it's in the mail. It was fun, except that finding brown and tan items was too challenging to me. Next month is green and that will be even more fun.

now a sock knitter

I never understood the obsession with sock knitting until recently. I used to read knitting blogs and when I'd see all these photos of people's feet I'd think - why do these people want to show off their FEET? Feet are NOT attractive.

Well now I understand the sock knitting craze. It makes perfect sense. The wonderful yarn is what drew me in.

Much more interesting than a scarf and much less expensive than a sweater. Perfect.

Crazy quilt on tour

Early in January 2006 I was suddenly struck with a desire to create a crazy quilt. I had already done scrapbooking and stamping so taking those ideas and applying them to cloth seemed natural to me. I discovered an art quilt group that was located nearby and their deadline for an upcoming exhibit was exactly the motivation I needed to finish the creation. This is a closeup of a portion of the quilt. This quilt is named "Mary's Garden" after my grandmother, and it is on tour with this show PAQA-South ARTQUILTSimages.

I love to shop

Well I'm hot on the trail of some wonderful surprises for my Color Swap pal and my Knitted Purse Swap pal. I am a serious shopper - really. After I had spent an hour at T.J. Maxx once, digging through the piles of clothes looking for the magic red clearance tags, I sighed loudly and said to the well-dressed woman next to me "Why do I do this? It's hard work!". With a straight face, she wisely answered "It's a sport.". So true.

I have to admit I'm finding it harder than I expected to decide on my swap gifts. I want to give something that's "just right". But I am enjoying the process and am glad that we have deadlines to make our decisions.

One of my husband's businesses is a packaging/shipping store so he'll be in charge of shipping my gifts when they are ready. I love delegating.

And today I made a big yarn purchase for me. I've decided to learn how to knit socks. I've been seeing hand-dyed sock yarn around that is just pulling me in. I've ordered Monarch sock yarn from Angora Valley after seeing some bloggers post about their purchases. Of course I had to order 3 skeins so now I'm committed!

On the top left is one of my art quilts made with my hand-dyed cotton. This one is titled "Color Study 2" and it's about 18inches wide and 5 feet high. It was in a show at a local art center for the month of October 2006.

Happy shopping!