I should be knitting,

but I wanted a break. The Shawl I am working on is over half done and Hubband and I will be spending two or three hours in the car tomorrow, so I figured I could take a bit of a break. (It might actually be done if I hadn't been been distracted with cooking yesterday and errands and cleaning the porch today, but hey....) Plus I missed you guys and had swap reports to deliver.
So, as I said, on Tuesday I got my WhoDuKnit Trick or Treat package from Patty, who did a great job with the cute wrapping thing.
(I fear that my wrapping jobs may leave something to be desired some days!)

 

She sent treats that included chocolates, warm and fuzzy socks, Halloween music, and some autumn candles.

 

Of course there was yarn and books as well, since this is an online Knit and Read group! Three great sounding books, at least one of which Hubband will probably read when he is done with his latest Terry Pratchett. There is some really pretty Peaches and Cream dishcloth cotton with a pattern I haven't seen before, and some great looking fall colored sock yarn with a pattern as well.
Thank you Patty! This was a great treat and I am looking forward to making the dishcloth as soon as my shawl is done (which means it will be going on our trip tomorrow just in case).

 

Then on Thursday, My All Hallows Eve Dishcloth Swap box came from Brenda,which of course was another cute wrapping job.

 

She sent a great Halloween glass (which I have used twice for dinner already), beautiful "Strawberry-Banana" sock yarn, chocolate covered raisins and cocktail peanuts. She also sent that cute witch, who is still guarding my peanuts in the pantry.

 

Since this is a dishcloth swap and all, she went above the call of duty and sent not just one, but two great Halloween dishcloths. The bat one is one I have been wanting to make for over a year, so it is great to have one without having to wait any longer, and the ghost one is really great too. There is some goat's milk soap and the Chibi was inside the spider bag. It is wonderful to have a second one as I don't always remember to move the one I had from bag to bag. Thank you so much for such a great package!
We had two groups of Trick-or-Treaters tonight. The fist one was the twins from down the street around six, and the second one was their neigh or and two of his friends around seven. Hubband thinks since we get so few every year we should give out something more exotic than candy. Something like a canned ham. I am thinking if he wants to do that next year, he is on his own.
Well I guess I shall go back to the knitting.....

I really did knit a Pop-Tart

Well, it is also a camera case. It even has a pocket for those "extras."
The original idea/pattern can be found here, but I did a lot of modifications to it. It makes project number five over the finish line. (Please note that these have all been small, fast, easy projects!)
This item, along with the chocolate rabbit are serving double duty (hence, why I tossed them into the Ravelympis ring in the first place). For WhoDuKnit in July we read Dead Sleep by Greg Iles. It was a really great read; I enjoyed it enough to read a couple of his other books afterwords. (Which has made me a bit behind on this month's book.....)
At one point in the book, the main character, Jordan, has been kidnapped and is having insulin put into her via IV. The plan is to keep her almost dead, but not quite. She had found a bag full of junk food, including Pop-Tarts and Twinkies, and had eaten those to counter-act the insulin. (I won't bother explaining the science here that they explained in the book.) So I did the Pop-Tart and figured a chocolate bunny counted a junk food. I am going to give the bunny to a friend of mine next Easter. She doesn't really like chocolate at all, so never has one in her basket and I figure this will be a good substitute. I think I will make one for our other friend became diabetic in this past year. I actually don't really have a need for the Pop-Tart camera case, but Jordan is a professional photographer, so.... Anybody need a pink and tan vegan camera bag that looks like food?

One Skein Swap, Part 2

Well, Sharon has received her WhoDuKnit One Skein Swap package, so I can reveal what the "Mystery Knit" was. I made her a pair of Knucks. She lives in a part of California that doesn't seem to need full fingered mittens or gloves, but had mentioned that sometimes her hands do get a bit cold. She says they fit perfectly and will come in handy. (Hubband really liked them and would have loved it if they were for him, so I will be making another pair or two this fall.)
They did get to hang out with the chair a fair amount, both while they were being made, and after they were done.

 

This was really great yarn to work with, but unfortunately it isn't available at this time. I will be figuring out something else to make these with, because I think I really want at least one pair for myself!

One Skein Swap

The other day when I got home from errands and such, Hubband informed me that a box had arrived for me in the mail. It was full of wonderful surprises from Sharon, my partner for the WhoDuKnit One Skein Mystery Swap. She sent some fun books (of course, we are a book group after all!), yarn, a ladybug muscle massager, some potato pops (already consumed-very yummy!), and some (not pictured) very nice Neutrogena products.

 

But best of all was what she had made with the Fiesta La Luz I had sent her to work with. Sharon made the most beautiful scarf for me and included a wonderful scarf pin to wear with it!

 

Thank you so much Sharon for such a wonderful swap package and beautiful scarf. I will enjoy wearing it!

What is it? (Part 2)

Awhile back I mentioned I was knitting a mystery project for WhoDoKnit. I have finished the mystery project and it is now winging its way across the country to Sharon. So for now I am just going to share more pictures of the pretty yarn, and what a patch of it looks like knit up.(Sometime next week after she gets it, I'll let you in on the mystery.)

Knitting pictures

January's WhoDuKnit book was Three Bags Full, your basic "flock of sheep try to figure out who committed the murder" mystery.




These two dishcloths are my project for it. One can never have too many dishcloths after all!



I think I will be able to post pictures of some of my gift knitting soon. I know my Defeat the Winter Doldrums downstream has gotten her package, but I am going to let her post first.
I have my second Lenten Hat almost done. I finished the first one on Wednesday and cast the second one on afterwards. I think I will finish up the second so that I will have a new one for tomorrow.

Mystery project revealed

The other day I posted a picture of a WIP and asked if any one had any guesses as to what it might be. Today I am going to give you the finished product. I am being really nice and not leaving you guessing. I would really rather just skip over this altogether and not bring it up again, but I wouldn't want any of you out there to accuse me of being mean. So I am just going to open myself up to letting all of you giggle at my knitting along with Hubband.
It is my current project for the WhoDuKnit group. The book we read this month was Bone Harvest. Here is the quote that should explain it:

"For dinner there would be pot roast, new potatoes creamed with sweet
peas, radishes from the garden, salad, and of course, German chocolate
cake for Arlette's birthday.



Maybe I should have knit radishes instead of cake.
Hubband thinks I should put googly eyes on it.

Today's mail is full of presents!

Today I found several packages in my mailbox.
Unfortunately, Hubband is gone for the afternoon and has the camera with him. So, I will have to give you photos later of the beautiful COFFEE BEAN (!!!!!) stitch markers from Angela, as well as the Portland post card.




Due to the camera being out for an excursion, I will give you pictures from the Internet of the other two packages content. I will post pictures of my own as soon as possible. The second package was this book from Jane, over at WhoDuKnit. It was my "Mystery Prize" for solving a riddle.

 

The last package I got was from my Secret Pall 11, known to me as Secret Ann. She sent me this book, that had fallen into the "I have checked it out three times" category. Now I can update it on my Powell's wish list.

 

I will leave you with a picture of the missing dishcloth that I mentioned the other day. I think it turned out pretty cool as it looks good from either side.

Mail and shopping yarn

DTE and I stopped at Yarn Harbor briefly yesterday after unloading the truck at her college dorm/apartment. She picked out this yarn so I can make her this hat. The colored yarn is "Brook Trout". I don't think she noticed the name when she picked it, but I find it rather entertaining. I think I will have some left over, but might wind up using it for mittens for her. There may be several fisher folk I am related too that wind up liking the name/color besides her. One of the things I enjoyed seeing from the train window as I went across Montana was real water that brook, rainbow, and cutthroat trout would live in.



There was a package waiting in my mailbox for me today. This yarn was in it and it turns out it was a prize I won for Catie's Tornado Scarf project for WhoDuKnit. I was rather taken back when I had been notified I had won the project prize. Each skein is enough to knit one pair of socks, so I will have choices about what to do with it. Socks for me and someone else, socks for two others than my self, socks and a scarf, etc.

I have made a small amount of progress on Dr. Who since I got home, it helped that I took it to Wednesday night knitting group this week. I feel like I still have catching up from being gone to do before I can settle into a planned knitting time routine. I am getting ready to put a new project on the loom and have hospital visits (which I love doing even more than knitting or weaving) next week, so it might be a bit longer until I start that routine thing. Not like I am ever really that organized.

"Catie's Tornado Scarf" finished

"Now, from under the black, black, oily layer of clouds, she [Catie] watched the funnel form high in the air, watched it dip down once, watched it rise back up again, always moving in her direction.
She gazed up directly into the mouth of it, where she could see the revolution of the air and things-objects-whirling around inside of it. ...And then some of the things inside the funnel began to fall on her. She closed her eyes, expecting to be killed by them. But they fell lightly atop her and all around her.
When she opened her eyes, she discovered she was covered with flowers." (The Virgin of Small Plains, Nancy Pickford, page 185.)



This scarf is my project for the WhoDuKnit July book. Catie is a person dying of cancer and she has come to Small Plains in hope of a miracle. The scarf is wider at the top, narrowing down into a funnel at the bottom. Then I sewed all the flowers on, with thoughts of leaves on a stocking cap and pillow case part way through.