Gifts form a friend

The interesting thing about the internet and blogging is that you get to 'meet' such interesting people from all over the world that you would never know otherwise. Such is the case with my friend Vivian in California.

Vivian is quite the knitter and an interesting person however one of the most interesting things about Vivian is the love and admiration she has for her mom, Lena. Her mom is also a knitter who has a passion for knitting for CIC.

Lena has some recent surgery right before her birthday so Vivian reached out into cyber world and asked if we could send a card to her mom. I decided to sent a card plus some yarn. It worked out better just to send an order from knitpicks directly to Lena once I figured out what it would end up costing to mail from CT to CA. The yarn and card arrived and I knew Lena would be happily knitting some wonderful vests for CIC.

Imagine my suprise to get a package that contained this
and these

Everything lovely made by Lena. I'll donate the vests in her name to CIC and throw in a couple pair of socks too. Isn't she just a treasure of a person. Vivian you are so lucky.

Happy Holidays

Today is D2's 24th birthday. She was due on December 10th but even before she was born she was doing things on her own time table. We always joke that the only reason she came out at all was because she didn't want to miss Santa. 2 minutes before midnight. Talk about waiting until the last minute.

A while back I got a beautiful shawl in the mail from someone who didn't want to be known. Instead of doing detective work to track down the maker of the shawl I decided to play it forward. I did a shawl for a coworker and a hat scarf set for an internet friend (although she knew they were from me which is fine). This came yesterday again no name but it put such a smile on my face. The timing was great since Violet and Shadow, the last of the 8 persians I've been fostering, were placed in their forever home yesterday.

There's an icicle growing on the back deck today. Snapped a picture before it breaks off.

And I'll close this posting with a picture of the grandkids visiting with Santa. A and W decided Santa was ok but little Mr N wasn't so sure about sitting on his lap.

Happy holidays to you all.

Love, Diane

Ray of sunshine on a cloudy day

Here's the latest picture of my foster kittens. Moe is laying down with is eyes closed pretending not to notice and Curley was walking over him. Larry has that deep thoughtful look probably thinking something like 'When's Mom going to put down that silver flashy thing and clean the litter box.'

So yesterday was a picnic at my parents house. Usually I love family get togethers but now they are just making me sad. Is this the last birthday with my Dad? The last memorial day? Last 4th of July he'll be around? And to make matters even worse my oldest brother is pissed about all this. He thinks my father should do everything possible to fight this cancer. He can't come to terms with non treatment.

Now I understand that everyone goes thru stages of grief. Heck last month I was pissed at all 3 of my brothers because they don't have kids so they only have to come to grips with this situation and don't have to help young adults and small children thru this process. Irrational? Yup but I was going thru the process.

So by the time I got home yesterday I was just drained. Too emotional to cry. Brain just racing a million thoughts a second. I sat upstairs with my kittens for about 2 hrs and went to bed but didn't sleep a wink. Today? Super sad for everyone. Just trying to get thru the work day. And then this came.

Who is it from? I'm not sure but I do know it's from someone in the Ravelry Brave Whores group. It's a hysterical group where you can freely admit that you are addicted to far too many reality tv shows. The discussion are light and lively. I love all the people in the forum like they are neighbors I'll never actually see. It's a great escape from real life. The note says: To wear Sunday's reading the paper with dad - and in the years to come to remember him by - Not expertly knit - but knitted with love - A Bravo Whore

Now I've never discussed any of this on Ravelry so someone took the time to read thru my blog, knit a beautiful shawl, get my address, and mail this off to me. I'm so touched. Thank you fellow BW. I love you for doing thing.

Forrest canopy and my exchange package

Finished casting off my forrect canopy shawl last night. It's about 44x20 unblocked. 400+ stitches. It took forever!!!! Now all it needs is blocking ..... kind of like the shawl I finished for my daughter over a month ago ..... no really I'm not lazy.
And I received my defeat the winder doldrums package from my wonderful exchange buddy Felicia. The dishcloths are beautiful! Included was a notepad, a few patterns, some wonderful soap, candy, some yarn, a needle gauge (which I really really need), and the cutest stitch markers (one is a little snowman).
Thanks Felicia! Oh well, gotta go hide my candy ..........

End of the year stuff

Don't ya love blog friends? My blog friend Gypsy had a contest about your best holiday. I submitted my story about the year we had 2 little kittens who tore our christmas tree apart every night and my husband's quest to keep them away. In the end the kittens won. Random selection sent me this ..... You can see more of Gypsy's yarn in her esty shop. Lovely stuff. Gypsy's daughter got married on the 22nd so there should be some great wedding pics on her blog soon. Happy bride and the mother of the bride did nothing to harm the groom's family so I'd say that's successful.

I was playing with some new toys and made some soap for the grandkids. Crappy first attempt because I didn't read any of the directions. I was too excited to read. Next batch will be much better .... don't think it could be much worse. lol

So we finished our Christmas ham and decided to put the little left and the bone on the bird feeder for the crows. I didn't notice a single crow today but there was this Joey cat bird hanging around.
Working away on D3's shawl. Really nice.
Lovely yarn.
I think we'll be starting off 2008 with a contest. Details tomorrow. Have a safe and happy new year's celebration.

3 posts in one day!?!?! $78.00

I guess I was a llittle behind. I transferred to another department a short time ago. My new boss is a doll. Actually all my bosses have been wonderful so this boss is the most recent wonderful boss I've worked for.

Using her own money she sent everyone on her teams a little holiday gift. My set is hanging in my kitchen adding a little holiday cheer.
The only upside to being homebound sick is internet shopping. I've been reading Ray's blog for quite a while and have been eyeballing his yarn for just as long. So here we have my latest yarn purchase. $78.00 and possibly the last money spend on yarn for 2007. I'll wait until 2008 and total everything. Should be interesting. Anyways .....

We have a pound cone of brown sheep fingering weight yarn in a nice purple. I'm thinking either a shawl for D1. 880 yrds of merino lace weight yarn in a color called Honeydew. I don't have plans for it just yet but the range of colors just can't be captured by my camera. Whatever I make has to be very special. And some really nice fingering weight yarn dyed Spring Green. This will be a feather and fan shawl for D3. She's been using the one I entered in the fair but I think she needs a younger fresher color more fitting for a 19 yr old free spirit. And last but certainly not least I bought some superwash sock yarn in the colors of Mickey Mouse. This will either be socks for me (since I'm a nut for Mickey Mouse) or socks for my sister in law who is a Disney nut.
Joey says: Is it possible for me to be any less interested in your yarn? I think not.
I had the little men over last weekend. We did quite a bit of running around and playing. This was N when his mommy can to pick him up Saturday night.

With his newest Gram-mades on his feet and all his treasures on the couch next to him, he was all set for a rest. I went to bed around 9 pm right after they left.

The best pal continues and $8.98

Aren't these just so cute? Excuse the awful picture but it was overcast and horrible this morning. Anita put them in the spider web kit in my dishcloth exchange package. I put them back on the pins since I started using them the minute I found them. What a super talented gal you are, Anita! Check out her esty shop for these (with a much better picture) and many more wonderful things.
Plugging along I finished 1 of my Opal green prisma socks (casted on the second one already) and one of my leftover socks. All I can say about the leftover sock is that it doesn't suck as bad as I thought it would. This picture was taken this morning and I'm already almost done with the second leftover sock. It doesn't match but I didn't expect it to.
I got this wonderful package from Jane for her show your socks contest. The yarn has been sitting on my couch trying to let me know it if wants to be socks or mitts.
I was assigned the task of knitting hats for W and N to go with their Halloween costumes. This year they are going to be turtles. W will be a blue turtle and N will be a green turtle. So I picked up some yarn over the weekend to make them hats for their turtle heads.

And since I saw picking thru the clearance stuff I decided to get these. The yarn is called jewlery box? and it was $1 per 2 oz skein. I think I'll make a couple scarves and donate them to the human services department. Every year for the holidays they have families come in and pick out gifts so I think some child might pick out a nice scarf for mom. So add another $8.98 to my yarn total for the year.

I signed up for the MS3 but never got around to knitting the shawl. It was a lovely pattern so I just bought it instead and will make it sometime in the future. 2 versions for the shawl so it's money well spent.

Thank you Anita!!!

I always have the best exchange partners and here's Anita's package to prove it!

How cute is that bag? Could that cow card be any more adorable?
And inside was pretzels (my fav snack) memo paper, soap, chili, a pattern,
a spider web kit, hand cream, yarn, candy, a back scrubber, and a washcloth.
Isn't it pretty?
I even love the back! Thanks Anita! You're the best!

Other stuff

Finished 2 pr of socks for W. I still have one more pair for him and 2 for his brother to go. Hopefully those will be done this weekend and I can get back to fun stuff.
I was selected as a "terrific treater" for the dog days of summer dishcloth exchange. Anne sent this wonderful package. More Cotton Ease! Sign ups are taking place for the Fall into Autumn exchange. This has been great fun so I'm looking forward to signing up again.

Last night this cotton ease must have tried to attack someone. From the tooth marks it looks like the cotton ease was subdued. None of the cats look upset so obviously they got the upper hand on the cotton ease attack before any cats were injured.

Dog Days of Summer Exchange

My dog days of summer exchange pal was Marianne.
What a great package of goodies! A bag, makeup, cream, gum,
yarn, patterns,
a washcloth, and some great soap. All this plus a nice letter so I could get to "know" her. We've got a bit in common .... 4 children and some grandchildren to spoil. lol. Thanks Marianne for being a great partner!

Quick update

Thanks for all the kind words. The town is filled with news satellite trucks;local and national. The CNN crew was sipping coffee at the local Dunkin Donuts. Everywhere you go you see someone standing in front of a camera talking. It's just something I could never have thought I'd see in my quiet little sleepy town.

It's hard to imagine that a trip to the grocery store could put in motion a situation that ends in 3 deaths. Something as simple as driving an expensive car and that car being noticed by 2 career criminals looking for drug money.

We're going ok. A little jumpy. Not sleeping enough. I think it's part of the process to try to put things into perspective and move on. It's too close to disregard yet so random that intellectually I know it'll never happen here again. We didn't even know the family. I can't imagine what their friends, family, and coworks are feeling.

On the knitting front the error on Diamonds on Fire was found and corrected. Then I laid it out for a quick check and found another error 8 rows back. Everything is back on the needles as of last night and hopefully I can get it done next week.

I started blue socks for W. He'll be excited. N asked for green socks so a quick trip on Knitpicks.com should have green socks yarn here next week. I also order The Opinionated Knitter by Elizabeth Zimmermann ..... just to get the free shipping. lol. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Exchange package mailed sooooooo

I'm allowed to open mine! When the group manager was pairing up participants she didn't realize that Sherry and I were exchange partners for a dishcloth swap. Sherry didn't mind being my partner again and I certainly didn't so we made each other bags. It's fun because I knit and Sherry crochets so it's fun to get something that I wouldn't make myself!
Isn't this fun? It's the perfect size to throw in a couple things and run out the door. I will definately be using this one.
Some patterns to make purses, a chicago keychain, hand towel, bag of scented lotion soap, etc, some leg lotion, stitch holders, and
these things called scent chips. They are so full of scent it's unbelievable. I'll be stashing them around the house and according to the paperwork their scent will release for a long time.

Thanks Sherry!
I finished a pair of socks for my son in law. I love how they came out! I love them so much that I think I'll make another pair exactly the same. lol. Both are Opal yarn. The blue/black is croc and the blues and brown is called smoke. The smoke came in my last shipment from astrid so at least it isn't sitting around in my stash.

Hubby is a little upset by all these socks with none being for him so I just might have to knit him a pair to stop the whining.

Another scarf from my pal

I participated in the ISE4. I received the first scarf of the enchange from Rachel, and wife and mom to a couple little cuties. She is the queen of the tag sale getting bargins like you can't believe. Beautiful blue scarf made from bamboo yarn. I've worn it a couple times and it's great. Imagine my shock to have the mailman put this package on my doorstep. Another scarf from Rachel. Soft pink cable, coffee and a book that has great ideas for all different crafts (which my oldest daughter took home with her today). Do I get the best exchange pals!?!?! Joey didn't seem all the impressed and slept thru the entire package opening and photographing thing.

Summer dishcloth exchange

I decided to participate in a dishcloth swap. My package was sent off to Kat. Always fun to have an international pal because I put together a box the speaks of summer in the USA. My pal for the swap was Sherry. I think she and I will be good cyber friends because we both seem to be OBSESSED with grandchildren. Her little Bella is a doll.
Anyways, we start off with a dragonfly cloth, a pattern, brown and blue suger n cream yarn.
Candy, ribbon, a headband, a do it yourself scrap booking card, note pad, soap she molded herself, a tin with a picture of yarn on the lid and inspirational saying inside.
Cow soap on a rope (made me giggle) and a note card with socks on the front. She noticed a few pair of socks on my blog and when she saw the card she had to get it. You meet the nicest people with these swaps and Sherry certainly is one of the nicest of all.

The coffee swap

How can you not love the mailman when he brings you stuff like this? Perri, was my wonderful swap buddy. Coffee, treats, coffee flavoring, more treats, and more coffee.
Won't that knitpicks parade make wonderful socks for little missy A? The Country hill yarn is a yummy mix of orange and white. Sock key chain which will make my hubby definately think I'm over the point of being OBSESSED with sock knitting and to be perfectly honest .... he's right. A knitting rules sticker. I've got all Steph's books. She's hysterical.
A Lionbrand bag that is big enough to hold a bed pillow. It actually ended up holding my cat charlie after this picture was taken (cats crawl into anything don't they?).
These adorable stitch markers
And a lamb pez dispenser. I emailed Perri and told her that Connecticut has given the world 2 things: frisbees and pez.

Thanks for everything Perri. I love it all. Gotta go brew some coffee.