Yarn Ahoy!!!!

I just signed up for Yarn Pirate's Booty Club! I am such a joiner, but I HAD to. I declined to sign up for Blue Moon's Rockin Sock Club 2 after saving myself a slot, and I really regret it. And, I get lovely sock yarn in the mail. The selection of sock yarn in town is not the best, so what better than to have it dropped at your front door?

I finished the minisweater, FO photos to come at a late date, after this weekend of servitude in the hospital. I am already looking around for another sweater project! This time, no cotton yarn!

Have a fun weekend, and think of me, locked away on the nursing ward of doomy-doom-doom.

MS 3

I just signed up for the Mystery Stole 3 , so should you! The group closes to new members on July 6th, so be sure to head over there and join the fun.

Finishing up the minisweater...more to come.

Knitbloggers are the best!

Why I love etsy:

These lovelies came from the delightful doggedknits's esty store: aeshannon.etsy.com

I cannot say enough about Ashley! She is a great seller. I ordered this adorable wristlet from Ashley, unknowingly while she was on vacation. Not only did she make me a whole new wristlet while at her family's, but she even included a Good Soapworks of Athens ginger citrus hand cream!!! I have been drooling over Megan's soaps and creams for some time, and now I have a tub of my very own! Many, many thanks, Ashley. I have been wearing my new wristlet everywhere, and all of my fashionista friends are eaten up with handbag-lust!

I have been knitting on my minisweater, and working a few rows of my Roza socks during my lunch breaks at work. I also have a curtain and pillows in the planning stages, and maybe a quilt...perhaps. I am waiting on an order from the Fat Quarters Shop to get here before I go further. I am still looking for leather for straps for my handbags I am working on, but I have not found a source yet! See a previous post for a heartfelt plead!! Help!

Gotta go soak in the tub now, my poison ivy rash is screaming for oatmeal bath!! Later!

One sock down...

and one more to go. My first ever sock is off the needles and kitchenered (badly, oops!). I finished off the first of the Desert Sunrise socks on the trip up to Kentucky, but the sun finally came out today for the photo shoot. I learned a lot from this sock. It by no means fits perfectly, and I even kitchenered the toes vertically instead of horizontally (I blame lack of sleep for that one), but all in all I loved it!

Sock knitting HOORAY!! I have a tone of nice sock yarn in the stash. The second Desert Sunrise sock will be knit on the way to the Private Collection in Knoxville at the end of this month. The mindless stockinette makes for good car knitting as I navigate from the passenger seat. Yay for husbands that do the driving so the wifey can knitknitknit to her heart's content!

I have already cast on for Roza's socks from Interweave Knits, and I am loving it! I am using my STR mediumweight in Beryl and size 2 Clover dpns. Love! I knit a few rows at lunch break during my nursing shifts (saves my sanity, it does), and I got a lot accomplished at the Orchid club meeting last night. Although, it kinda ticks me off every meeting when I bring out the knitting and every asks if i am pregnant. Hello...I am working on an adult-sized sock. No baby here. But, they really do mean well, and I am the only member of the club of child-bearing age. Hee. The president this year, Jim, was telling me that he always knew when his wife Pam was pregnant because, "I would see her crocheting baby blankets" So I guess he just flashes back to those times.

Speaking of orchids, my Equitant Tolumnia "Galveston Bay" is blooming. All of the members last night made me promise to show it next year at the Show. Pretty cool! It is a very nice plant. It is also the first of my orchids that I got to rebloom! Every year it gets bigger and bigger. Jim thinks I could get an AOS next year.

The flowers: (there is a good reason they call these Dancing Ladies!!)

The whole plant:

Have a great summer day!

In Stitches...

Hi ya'll. I am planning on making the leather-handled shoulder bag form Amy Butler's In Stitches. I have searched my hometown for the leather needed, but I am going to have to go online . Not that I have a problem shopping online. :)

Have any of you made this bag, and if you used leather, where did you purchase it? I have used our great, glorious Leader Google, but I really have not found a site I feel I can trust yet. Any good sites you can lead me too? Or, if you didn't use the leather, how did you substitute?

Many thanks to you wonderfully crafty bloggers out there!

Swap sadness

I signed up for my first swap. I had so much fun picking out surprises for my partner. I merrily sent off my package, and waited for the person who got me to send me a package. Well, it is now officially June, and I have not heard anything from my person. My sender doesn't have a blog, so I don't know if she was having family issues, and I haven't gotten an email/teaser/sorry I flaky/anything. :(
I am not that upset about not receiving anything, for me the whole point was to make someone else happy. But I am a little peeved knowing my sender got a package, and didn't make an effort to send one out.

Does this happen a lot in swaps? I am kinda wary of signing up for another one is this is the norm.

Kentucky

Wow! What a fun trip:)

My darling SiL Sarah graduated with multiple honors: Cardinal Scholar, Kentucky Scholar, Governor's Scholar, and her gown was so colorful with all of the club/organization cords she had. I took her to Magpie Yarns, but although it was a beautiful store, it really wasn't what I imagined. pretty much it was the run of the mill yarns every LYS has, minus any spinning supplies. I was tempted by the Brittany needles, but the only interesting yarn was the Claudia Handpaint. Everything else I can get for the same price at Unwind, or on the Net. I ended up getting her some baby cashmere in a fab hunter green and some dpns to make her first hat.

Amy, the older SiL, loved her drawstring pouch and BSA alpaca&silk. In fact, she used the bag as a purse the entire time we were there!!!! :) I felt so good that she liked it, and I plan on making more goodies for my new sisters in the future.

On Friday Phillip and I taught Swing/Lindy hop at Sarah's project graduation. It was pretty fun, and I got to see Sarah with her high school buddies. She was so proud to show off her big brother, and I was so proud of her and her friends.
We didn't get to go caving on Saturday. We had to make it to church at 5:30 and we could not have been able to wash the cave-funk off of us in time, so we took Sarah to the stores and to see Pirates of the Caribbean: The End of the World. Not too bad, better than Dead Man's Chest, but not as good as the original. Sarah wore the Pirate-themed Threadless shirt I gave her. We went to church, and then took our cousins M and O to college park to play on the slack line. A good tie was had by all, and M learned a valuable lesson: if you ask cousin Phillip to spin you on the tire swing endlessly, he will do it. She learned a lesson "Some adults will do what is good for you, and some adults will do just as you ask them too. Make sure you know what you are asking them to do" Thankfully, she did not barf in my car on the drive back to JoJo's (the grandmother). And M promises she won't ever spin around that much again. (My hubby is a jerk, I know. He pulls the same 'life lesson' crap with me, too.)

Sunday we took his parents MaryAnn and Perry, along with Sarah to the Red River Gorge for some climbing. We tackled a 5.7 bolted climb, and stayed there the whole day. I wish we could have gone out there for longer. I reached my second wind after we left for the day. I lovelove love climbing! I would go every weekend! Perhaps one day....

In crafty news, in case you made it this far:
I finished my first sock!!!!! The first of the Desert Sunrise socks happily awaits it's mate. I learned a lot from this first sock, and I have a feeling the second sock will be far better than the original, but WHO CARES!!!?!?! I finished a sock! Yay for 10 hr car drives where my darling husband drives the whole time, and I get to knitknitknit until I make myself car sick going through Jellico Mt.

Pictures to come after my camera battery charges enough to let me download my photos.

Tata for now, I must unpack and do laundry. Happy crafting!!