I have been good

I was at Stitches yesterday and I have been so good. Well, let's face it, it is easy to be good when you work at a LYS and hence get the employee discount - it really does not make much sense to me to buy from others. And I am not saying much because I do not want to steal the thunder from Hollis, but she is doing four or five awesome "cash and carry" today from various vendors - I am really excited!

But back to my purchase, my first stop was the Shelridge Farm booth - Cookie and Kristi often mention their yarns so I needed to try them:



Shelridge Farm Soft Touch Heather and Ultra - I must say they are true to their names, so soft!
Speaking of Cookie, I bought all of her patterns, to save myself the trouble of choosing:



and this uber-cute baby sweater pattern from Kristi:



The Bay Area Knit Coop booth was next to Purlescence:



Claudia Handpainted Worsted in Shark, and ChicKnit Ariann (paper copy for the same price of the pdf!)

Next stop, Lisa Souza:



The one in red is Blue Faced Leicester, and Lisa told me it's pronounced "lester" - and she agreed that it is weird (I mean, where did the "c" go?). I have been wanting to see BFL for a while, and wow, it is shiny and soft, you would think it is a blend of merino and silk. The other two are merino superwash sport.

And that's it. Since sock yarn it is not stash, just one skein.

It's going to be one of those posts

It's going to be one of those posts in which all you see are photos and photos of gifts I have received - boring, I know, but my partner in various swaps I have joined have been so generous and kind, they do deserve public thanks. So, in chronological order:



Crazy Afghan Square from Ruth. Isn't it beautiful? Thank you so much, Ruth!



Next up, a package from hockeymom-lj for the Sassy Sock Yarn Swap:



She sent me two skeins of Ditto yarn in a colorway that is definitely "me" - and needles, stitch markers, and candies for the kids. I have never used this yarn before and I am looking forward to try it. Thank you!

Last but not least is the package from Beth for the Special Swap Lynne organized - and a very special package indeed!



That is the content of the box very ungracefully dumped on the dining table - look how many packages!



Note cards, needles huggers, and beautiful stitch markers:



Tea and cantucci - yum!



Dish-cloths she made for me:



A book I wanted:



My favorite candies:



And of course, yarn:



We both laughed about the CTH, because check here what I did send her!

Thank you so much, Beth, for the wonderful package, and thank you, Lynne, for organizing the swap!

I am done!

Remember when I declared my February project for the UFO Resurrection 2007 knit-along? I am done with them! (We shall not talk about the fact that I have not finished the making of my January project, I have worked on it in January and that's what is required by the knit-along rules).



Sweater for my niece, pattern from Jimmy Bean's Wool, yarn Tess' Designer Yarn Superwash Merino.



Socks for Principessa, yarn Handpainted Sunshine Yarns Watermelon. And yes, they are identical, and Principessa is pointing that out to everybody.

This UFO Resurrection 2007 deal really rocks, not only because I am finishing stuff, but because I am giving myself permission to frog projects that are not inspiring me anymore. Rule #2 of the KAL says that each month we should post about the chosen project(s) and state if we will work on it or frog it. So there, a light went on in my head: I do not have to finish all my UFO's, I can send to the frog pond the ones I fell out of love with. Of the 16 projects I had at the beginning of 2007, only 8 are left standing!

I am down to only 9 projects on my needles, it has to be a historical minimum - better cast on for two or three before people start wondering what's wrong with me!

Three weird things

I have been tagged by Rita for the six weird things about me meme - I have not forgotten about that, but I am having troubles to find six weird things. Not that I am that normal, but the weird stuff about me would be considered completely normal here. Like, I have 500 balls of yarn. Muggles would think that I am crazy, you guys know it's normal. Same for my 14 miles of sock yarn.

So, I came up with three things:

1. I can't stand pealing pineapple, the idea of it makes me sick to my stomach. I can eat pineapple after someone else has taken away the skin, but cutting off the skein. Ugh, I am starting to feel sick.

2. I do not like garlic. And I am Italian. People think that being Italian and not liking garlic is weird, but the truth is, there is not that much garlic in Italian food (the Italian food you find in Italy, I mean.)

3. I can't stand sunlight. While everybody else is so happy it is sunny outside, I want to crawl under a rock. Then when it is dark, I am all happy and energized. I love winter when it is dark at 4 pm. One reason for this is that my eyes are very sensitive to light, and the other is that I am just a night owl, I just do better at night.

So there you have it, 3 weird things about me. Feel free to add to it in the comments if you have noticed (and I am sure you have) more weird things of mine (I am sure the list is never ending, but these three are the only ones I think noteworthy).

And consider yourself tagged.

Forgetfulness and silliness

Yesterday I completely forgot to mention meeting Cara of january one on Friday night - Nathania took photo of us (new camera) and posted about it so go there and read. Silly me brought a sock with her. That's not silly, the silly part is that I had four socks to choose from:



and what did I choose? The one in purple, that I am designing, i.d. I wrote a lace pattern in Excel to see if it could work. And I proceed to read the chart upside down for several rounds.
Note to myself: out with friends? Pick a mindless sock.

Lots of mail and one FO

Almost a week with no posts? Bad blogger, very bad blogger.
I'll skip the excuses and I'll dive right into mail calls and thank you's.

I have received three of my four afghan squares of the Crazy Afghan Squares #2. Wendy sent me a very nice package, so nice I thought it was from my SP9:


Slide the mouse over to see the square and the goodies.

She definitely did more than required!

Dashenka and Cassandra sent me two beautiful squares as well:



Speaking of my SP9, I finally know who she is. She sent me a final package with a letter:



Like I said before, Sally was a wonderful SP, and I looking forward to keeping in touch with her.

One last package I received this week was a Valentine's package from my Sockret Pal:



"Pretty yarn, and it is soft!", says Principessa. Thank you, Sockret Pal, I love it too!

Just because I would not want you all think that all I do is receive packages, I have a FO that I can actually show:



The famous EZ Baby Surprise Jacket in Lorna's Laces Sport, and no, 3 oz of sport weight yarn are not enough and I had to buy a second skein. While I think it is very fun to see the jacket emerge from this weird object I was knitting, I did not enjoy making it. Garter stitch is the knitting equivalent of a lobotomy, and I do not like the look of it. And I hate to count stitches, and the instructions are all in the form "when you have ### stitches do this or that" - just shoot me now.

It's February

Someone must have stolen January, or maybe I just misplaced it - my family suggested it could be in my stash.
February, so ..... Project Spectrum. February/March is Blue, White, Gray, and I am starting with blue:



DK weight cahsmere almost solid, hand dyed by me, 1,000 yards of it. I have looked at all my book to find a shawl pattern for it, and then it struck me, why not my shawl? The original one is at the store, and it's not really my color, so ..... my shawl for me. Because this knitting for me business is not going too well - look at the finished projects 2007? Do you see anything for me? I don't. The Debbie Bliss Simple Jacket with Collar? Still waiting for the final touches. But I did work on it in January, so it does qualify for UFO Resurrection 2007. I was really good in January with this UFO business:



1. Debbie Bliss Simple Jacket with Collar from Book 2
2. Reynolds Dover Pullover
3. Inspiration Scarf - DONE!
4. Logcabin Blanket
5. Larkspur Hat
6. Simple Knitted Bodice
7. Debbie Bliss' Mia from the "Junior Knits"
8. Lacy Scarf - FROGGED
9. Jimmy's Baby Gift Sweater Set
10. Twin Set
11. Tiger Eye Lace Scarf
12. Foot in the Door socks
13. Jaywalker
14. Watermelon Socks
15. Sock-ret socks - DONE!
16. Lake Taneycome Sunset Socks - FROGGED

I frogged two projects and finished one. Now it is time to lay put my February plan - let's attack #9 (Jimmy's Baby Gift Sweater Set) and #14 (Watermelon Socks).

Blogger's (Silent) Poetry Reading

Mattina
Santa Maria La Longa il 26 gennaio 1917

M'illumino
d'immenso.

Giuseppe Ungaretti

Modello Giuditta