Wall Street Journal and Knitting?

So the Wall Street Journal has written an article about my beloved and hated Sock Wars. See the Sock Wars Article. Now I don't read the journal now, but I used to when I lived at home and my Dad had it delivered and well it was boring. Filled with stuff about products and margins mergers and millions Dows and S&Ps so Sockwars? Well alrighty. No publicity is bad publicity. There are probably millions of readers scratching their heads going what!??!! Then I suppose the entirely business savvy are researching yarn companies as we speak. ;)
Sockwars this year is over read the article to find out the winner. If you are interested in joining in with sock wars next year join the Sockwars yahoo group and you will get updates as to when to sign up and what not. I am personally a little disheartened but that always happens when I don't win.
Watch this interview!

Ravelry Holiday Swap 2007

So as soon as my SP11 was over I was immediately searching for a new swap. I don't know why don't ask. Here is the package I got from my Holiday Swap pal Kari aka coggieTM on Ravelry. Yay! I love getting stuff!



There are some yummy Lavender lotion, shower gel, and body spray. I love Healing Garden's stuff. I'm a aromatherapy junkie. 2 different types of yarn. Some tofutsies in a lovely black and white. I think my husband might Finlay get a pair of socks from that. And some Rowan Denim and I think there is enough to make my son blue from Knitty. Yay! A pattern for some lovely sandal socks. there were 2 candles but one of them is half burned away now they smell so nice I love seasonal scents! And my husband broke my hot oil burner so I can't burn my cranberry oil. And there was a big bag of caramel filled Hershey kisses and well my boys, husband and I have been working on that bag from the second I opened the bag. :)

Thank you Holiday Swap pal!

Again I was a dummy and forgot to take pictures of my outgoing package so if she has a blog and posts pictures I will let you know.

My Down Stream Secret Pal

So my down stream pal got her post up about her package, and well I'm a dip shit so I didn't take pictures of the package I sent out so I will tell you a little about her, and steal some pictures from her blog. ;) First off let me tell you a little about her because well I think she is pretty amazing really. She home schools her 2 children, so OK wow! I can't even begin to imagine how to do that! And she is raising her family vegetarian. I was Veg for several years and then became Vegan then I "became with child" and craved meat like a T-Rex! I tried to resist but the force was strong in the child. Oh lord I'm letting out to the whole world what a huge dork I am. Oh well it was bound to surface eventually might as well be now. If you didn't get that reference well congrats you are officially not dorky, or you are simply not as cool as me, one or the other. But I digress. Michele inspired me to dig out my sewing machine and dust it off when I was reading her blog. She sews too that's right, and now I can say that I do too! So with that inspiration I made her a little project bag. Here is her picture of it.

Inside there is elastic with slots sewn to slip your needles through when not using them and a little pouch with travel scissors inside, and a darning needle, and a travel seamstress tape measure. It's totally self contained.

Here is a pic of the entire package

She wanted to learn how to knit 2 socks on 2 circs so I got her 2 size 3 32 inch new harmony knit picks fixed circs and sensational knitted socks which is an amazing book, and I got her the little pages to store the circs in the same case as her knit picks options. She wanted Sarah Dallas knitting from her amazon list and I looked through the book very cool arranges everything by color and has neat projects in it nice choice. A prayer book, a handmade soap in a light scent made from rice. 2 hand dyed skeins of yarn that I'll write a tutorial for soonish. Some of those lighted knitting needles just for fun. A Christmas apron I sewed together from a panel, I thought of sending the panel because I'm sure she could have put it together herself but that felt like sending her homework so I went ahead and did it myself. Comes with a gingerbread recipe printed on it. I'll have to try it out I made myself one too. ;) And some mulling spices for cider or wine from Williams-Sonoma which is fabulous. I like to use about half the intended amount because it's so sweet and then I strain out the leftover spices and seasonings and boil them in water and it make the house smell fabulous all day! And to top it all off I found the cutest card at Borders that has a little 3d knitting bag on it with real yarn and stuff sticking out of the top. So cute!

At the beginning I bought her a row counting bracelet and matching stitch markers in size 3 (see I was thinking ahead) from Hide and Sheep on Etsy. Hope she can use them with her new sock knitting adventures.

So that's it. As soon as Secret Pal 11 was over I signed up for a Holiday Swap on Ravelry and have packed up that package and bought the postage online and scheduled a pickup from our postal carrier today! I love the Internet! Usually I make cards online and have Snapfish mail them out for me but this year I saw the coolest cards from the Sierra Club at the book store so I went the old fashioned way but I printed out pictures on my printer to include inside.

Sorry this was so long I'll be posting more knitting soon.

My Secret Pal

I only have a few seconds to spare so this will be quick and I'll be back later to post in more detail. Here is a snap shot of my great second package from my no longer secret secret pal.



I love everything and she actually knitted and felted me a purse which I love! And she got my a Ravelry button which I threw on the purse ala 1984. ;) I actually squealed out loud when I saw the purse! :)



I have read Mr. Nicks Knitting about 40 times since Saturday night, and baby monster has been carrying around his jingle bells book and looking at the pages all day.



She also sent a grow your own dragon and a grow your own dinosaur. The big monster oh I'm sorry I mean "Harry Potter" as he likes to be called of course picked the dinosaur and those were immediately placed in glasses of water and yes they do grow, very interesting I've never seen that before. The big monster is very excited he keeps taking it down off the entertainment center to look at it. I apologize for the pictures I did the best I could with no flash. My camera is broken and I had to use my video camera to take photos. My camera takes better video than my video camera on most days. Hope it's fixed by Christmas.

Yay sock yarn is this so cool color it's called fireman and at first glance it looks grey and red but when you get close up you realize the grey is a light shade of purple and pink and grey so cool. I can't wait to try it out!



A beautiful wooden box with a ceramic tile inlay with a beautiful watercolor of a cup of coffee and some knitting, amazing! I love love love it!



New bamboo dpn's the short ones for little monster socks or gloves, a sticker that says life is good, some so cute stationary that I've already used to write a note to my grandmother in law. Straight pins which I was just saying to myself I need to get some of those for blocking stuff because well blocking does matter!



And now you are all dying to know "Well who is it already!" and the lovely and amazing and oh so nice secret pal is dun dun duh daaaahhh!!! Stacie from staciesadventures hope you check out her page and have fun while you are there.