Kiss My Knits!

I got my package last week, and it was awe-inspiring!
Let’s take a look, shall we?

My Fiber Godmother package arrived! How fantastic was it? I took a picture of the unopened box, then set the camera aside to open it. After I opened it, I was so excited that I couldn’t remember where I put the camera, so a good post with pics will have to wait. Suffice it to say that this box is crammed to the gills with AWESOMENESS.

Thank you, Tracey! You’re the best!

I’m part of sock_kit_swap, a group of LJ users who were, as the name implies, swapping kits for knitting socks. Packages are supposed to go out in the month of June. Well, today, I got a package from Canada.

Eeeeee! My kit arrived! Pics and details under cut!

Now that the Jar O’ Joy has gotten to its destination, I wanted to show a new craft that I included in the jar.

I have a little 2″x2″ loom made by Buxton Brooks called a Weavette. I’ve had it for a while, but this it the first time I’ve made something assembled from it instead of little squares. There was a tutorial for this project in the winter 2005 Spin-Off by this author, who has a website here. The loom came with the book pictured and excellent instructions on its use.



This is the flower I made with it. I wove two little squares out of leftover Debbie Bliss Aran Tweed color 02 (red), then pulled a couple of the center threads to make them pucker up into a more flowery shape. I stacked them on top of each other and tied the center threads into place. The leaf is another square made out of leftover Noro Kureyon, folded over into a paralellogram and tied to the flowers. I stitched a few rows of yellow Baby Ull for the center. The whole thing is sewn to a pin back. U.S. penny, British penny, and Canadian penny for scale. (Great Britain, why is your cent piece larger? Whaddya think you’re better than us?) This whole project was very quick and easy to do.

It occurred to me after finishing the flower that this would be an excellent way to use up those tiny bits of handspun that aren’t long enough for anything else. I may be doing that in the near future.

I’m participating in a swap called Jar o’ Joy. One of the items I put into the jar was a bar of felted soap. This is a really nifty project, and now that the jar has reached its recipient, I can show pics of the soap and how it was made.
Many pictures and instructions behind cut.

Knitted up some of the cuff on the Tofutsies sock. Now I think I’ll have to put it aside – again – because there are things I need to make for other people. Sweaters, slippers, and of course, paid orders.

After looking again at the waistline on Emily’s sweater, I think I may just scratch the hills and make it a straight green/blue delineation. I’m undecided. Either way, the green does need to be higher. Of course, since she hasn’t asked about it or mentioned it at all, maybe I can put that off a little longer. Not too long, though. This kid ain’t getting any shorter.


I have a couple of purses for a lady in Huntersville in my queue. I am really not looking forward to these. I have to make tons of i-cord and sew plastic pony beads around the flap. Neither is what I’d choose to do, given my druthers. However, I told her I’d do it, so I will. Apparently the original purse was knit by a little old lady in Davidson who has since passed on who sold these at craft fairs. My client bought one, and her sisters have been admiring it ever since. She decided to get some for her sisters, so they could all have them. It was a nice story, and looking at the purse I could see it wasn’t rocket science, so I agreed to recreate it. Since I initially took this commission last summer (she ordered several, she picks them up every now and then) I’ve gotten more firm about saying no to commissions I don’t think will be enjoyable.

I made another teeny tiny project, this one weaving instead of knitting. It’s pretty cute. I can’t show it to you yet because it’s about to be stuffed into the jar o’ joy. Why was this jar so hard for me to fill? I am terribly late in getting this out, so today will be devoted partially to mailing things!

In the winter I joined a swap organized by called “Jar o’ Joy.” The idea is that there’s a jar o’ stuff that you send to someone, and they take what’s in it and put more stuff in it. You know a little bit about the person to whom you’re sending the jar, so you can tailor it some. The flickr group for it is here.

Coincidentally, the person who was sending me the jar happened to be someone I knew! and I have worked together, and we read each other’s livejournals, so she tailored it really well. Saturday morning, the doorbell rang. My daughter looked out the screen door and saw the box in the porch, so she grabbed it and ran it to me, telling me to open it. This girl loves mail. And she was not disappointed! Jadelynx included lots of goodies for her! In fact, I opened it, went to get my camera, and by the time I got back it was fairly demolished, as you can see. Jadelynx made a post with a detailed pic of what’s inside, which you can see here. She also included Pocky, which didn’t fit in the jar. Delicious! She knows I love this stuff! The interesting thing is that it tastes a little different than the Pocky I’ve been able to get locally. Hers has more foreign writing on it, so I think it’s more authentic. Jadelynx has the best Pocky!

There are a couple of things I want to make for the jar (time permitting) before I send it along to its next recipient. I already know some about her, but I’m going to try to find out a little more. I love random mail! Thanks, Jadelynx, for the jar, and thanks, Crazycatladymel, for organizing the swap!

Yesterday I was feeling low, and rather than inflict my germs upon any of my knittees, I decided to lie on the couch, eat tomato soup, watch some DVDs, read some library books, and rest. Anything else made me heave great sighs while my body tried to get enough oxygen. I sounded like I was trying to get attention for poor pitiful me. But I did have enough energy to intermittently knit, so what the heck, I decided to knit for myself. I can count on one hand the number of things I’ve actually made just for me. So I picked out something incredibly bright and cheery and had at it.

Behold! Marilyn Roberts’ “Crusoe” from Knitty! I’ve had this very colorful Koigu in my stash for a couple of months now, and it reminds me of Spring. The best day to indulge is surely a day when the weather is awful and I’m under it.

Modifications so far are that I didn’t do the roll-brim cuff, which seemed bulgy, but instead did some ribbing, so it’ll stay up better. The gauge was supposed to be 6 stitches per inch on a #1, but I was getting 8 stitches per inch, so I cast on 64 instead of 48 which it seems many other people on the web also did. Knitting is so math-y that it’s no wonder so many geeks enjoy it.

I would have preferred to work this on two circular #1 needles, but apparently I don’t have any #1s! Quelle horreur! It’s a pretty astonishing lack in my needle collection. So DPNs it is.


And while I was feeling sick yesterday, what arrived out of the blue?

I got post! From !

At the top is a Tall Card deck! This is a reproduction of the one featured in the Firefly episode “Shindig” where Simon, Book, and Jayne played cards until River went crazy, as she was wont to do. Too cool! I just need to cut it apart and then I, too, can barter for chores. Knock it off, Jayne! I saw that!

Upper right is a card holder made of fabric. I can use this, as my current methods of “stuffed in my pocket” or “loose in my purse” leave a little to be desired. Note also super cute winter-themed emery board.

Lower right is one of Mel’s cool garland kits which looks like a fun project which shouldn’t tax my limited paper-type skills.

Lower left is four big crayons, thoughtfully included for my daughter! How sweet is that? She was excited to get them and has them in with her other craft supplies now.

There was also another little knit-related surprise tucked in for me, which I was very happy to receive.

The timing of this unexpected package was great. Getting a little pick-me-up on a day when I was laid low was perfect. Thanks so much, !

In other news, I meet with a new speech therapist today who specializes in conversational and interactive skills. This is the same speech therapist Emily had when she was about three, who later left to start her own practice. My mother forwarded her name to me, not realizing the connection. I’m feeling good about this. We’ll see how it goes.

After calling Scout HQ on Thursday and Friday and getting no response, I called someone else on Monday, only to have the first person call me back apparently about five minutes later. It was a message on the machine, and she was very interested in finding out what was going on and getting the girls taken care of. I wasn’t able to catch her before she left the office yesterday, so I’ll be calling her back shortly. I’m glad there’s progress on that front.

Jayne hat orders have picked up again, although I can no longer guarantee Christmas delivery on finished hats. The queue’s up to 28 as of about ten minutes ago. Atsa lotta hats.

All in all, physically I still feel like someone’s paving the inside of my skull, but aside from that, life is good. I’m satisfied.

Look what the lovely and generous gave me!

Sock yarn! And the colorway is S’mores. How perfect is that for me? I had admired it on her blogspot blog and joked that if she ever wanted to get rid of it, think of me. And she did! Which was good, because I wasn’t joking, I was gonna put on a ski mask and come over there and get it myself. These’ll be some lovely, lovely socks. I’m all about the socks now.

In other news, the electric ice-cream maker works like a dream. And my daughter learned a valuable lesson in why you don’t eat rock salt. Yikes. Well, at least the ice cream is good!

I’m taking prednisone for the poison ivy, which had better start working soon before my hand goes all evil on me and starts doing things of its own volition. It ain’t good. And of course, since I’m on steroids now, I can’t compete in the Tour de France like I was planning. Darn the luck!

Off to sit with Salty Boo.

I got my final package from the swap today. It turns out my swapper was the organizer, ! I should have known, she puts so much care into the things she does, and her packages were awesome.

Lookit!
A copy of Simply Knitting, a Brit knit mag. It came with 15 free care labels!

Two Cadbury eggs, one of which my daughter has already peeled and poked at.

A round tin of green tea. I hadn’t mentioned this in my Livejournal (I don’t think I did, at least) but I haven’t drunk any coffee at all this week. It’s been all green tea. So, as I kick caffeine, this is a perfect addiction. I mean addition. Yeah.

One pompom maker set. Believe it or not, I didn’t have one of these.

Not pictured: A Godiva Chocolatier bar: Milk Chocolate with Smooth Caramel. No way is my daughter getting her mitts on that.


Wooden bowl (because every Firefly fan needs a wooden bowl) has its own closeup because of the cool stuff within.
A geisha bead, too cute!

A little pin reading “Knit In Public,” which I do daily.

And no, the silver thing is not some kind of piercing, it’s a scarf pin with a little ball of yarn on it. Squeeee!

Last but not least, a “Hello, My Name Is John” nametag from Yoyodyne Propulsion. This made me laugh out loud. It’s on my fridge, which is now evil! Pure and simple from the eighth dimension!


Mel, you did a fantastic job. I’m really happy with everything I got. It’s been a genuine pleasure. Thanks so much. 🙂