My Empowe(Red), Inspi(Red), and Desi(Red) Mamasita

One person can make a difference, three can make a larger difference, and together we can change the world.

Christmas morning Mamasita brought down three presents wrapped in gift bags. She handed one to my brother, one to me, and kept one for herself. When we opened the bags we found one red t-shirt and one red bracelet's. Mamasita explained the current promotion going on with many brand names right now and a movement called Project Red. Our shirts were from the Gap and they said "INSPI(RED)" across the front. Mamasita explained further that 50% of the profits from these products will go to helping women and children with AIDS in Africa. You can read more about it here. These were our first gifts of the morning and we wore them all day long.

I want to congratulate Mamasita. She has always been an inspiration for many people other than just her family. She often tries to purchase thoughtful gifts that will give back to the world. Like buying goats from Heifer for a 3rd world country in the name of someone else, or donating money to PETA in honor of someone's pet for the holidays, etc. She has spoiled her children and provided the necessities for a comfortable lifestyle but she has always offered the idea that we are some of the few who have been lucky enough to have a comfortable life. It is this yearly reminder that allows us to be truly grateful not just for what we have in our way of life but also for Mamasita.
Thank you for a wonderful holiday Mamasita!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Christmas is over and while I am fighting off the post Christmas blues I am fondly looking over all my photos with complete happiness.

Our family Christmases have always been a happy time. There have been years when my little brother got sick or I was having cramps but we always managed to continue on with our traditions and it's these traditions that make the 364 day wait worth it.

This Christmas was just as wonderful as those in the past. On Christmas Eve my little brother and I decorated the tree/ decorated ourselves and Sally our dog. Can you say "next year's Xmas card"?

We spent the evening with Denny who is like a Dad to Dylan and I and a good friend of Mom's. We all went to church because my little brother had to play the piano for the Children's Choir. I have never attended the Children's Mass at any church and I can honestly say that I hope to never do it again. Why? Because it is LOUD!!! Screaming babies and little children dressed in robes screaming lyrics about Christ's birth is not my idea of a good time. However, leaning over to my Jewish brother when the priest said, "Father, Son, Holy Spirit" and saying, "Specticals, Testicals, Wallet, and Watch" is my idea of a good time. My 16 year old brother then informed me that I was bad for his work rep. Probably true.

We had a lovely feast later that evening and exchanged gifts with Denny. He seemed to be really happy with the griddle I gave him and I was equally excited to receive the presents he brought, espeically this new fancy knitting book!


We all grew tired as the clock ticked forward and Miracle on 34th Street played in the background. It was that time, to get to bed and wait for the big man to arrive. Preferrably Santa.

The morning had come, the time was here and my little brother and I were very excited! There were lots of presents and Mom got up when we did so we didn't have to wait too long! I was very excited to receive my brand new Camera! It's a Canon SD600 and I have spent 2 days trying to learn how to use it. My brother recieved many fabulous things but since this is my blog and I have been holding off on showing what I was making him I will only talk about one thing he received. It was the hat I made for him! Doesn't he look handsome!?


Santa was very good to all of us!







My Christmas day always ends at my father's house with my step mom, Barbara and her parents and usually some other friends of theirs. This year one special guest in particular was very excited to be with us! Please meet Chick, this is her first Christmas. She is on 10 weeks old and suffice to say that all the excitement that comes with Christmas just plain tuckered her out.

Hope you all had equally exciting and exhausting holidays!









Happy Knitting!

Christmas for Me!

It's almost Christmas time and I couldn't be more excited! I've got all my shopping done and just a little bit of wrapping left to take on. Yesterday I made 4 batches of cookies and started yet another last minute knitting project!

Here's a little survey that I stole from Kelly B.


Egg nog or hot chocolate? I can drink hot chocolate all winter long so I would have to say Egg Nog or Spiked Cider ( my new found love!)

Does Father Christmas wrap presents or just set them under the tree? Gifts from Father Christmas are always wrapped in paper featuring himself and signed by him!

Coloured lights on tree/house or white? White lights, please.

Do you hang mistletoe? Not recently.

When do you put up your decorations? The day after Thanksgiving.

What's your favourite Christmas dish? Mom's morning pancakes and mimosas!

When and how did you learn the truth about Father Christmas? I think this is probably tramatizing for all kids but I was probably around 10 or so and it was actually Easter. I was just about to go to bed, had on my footie pajamas and all, so that the Easter bunny could bring me my basket when my Dad turns around and says to me "Hey Hon, do you wanna stay up and help Dad with the Easter Baskets?" Then his girlfriend told him to be quiet and my Dad said, "What? She doesn't believe in the Easter Bunny anymore." Then I screamed, "Well, I did!!!!!"

I didn't cry but I did get mad at him for squashing all the magic out of the fun holidays. And I pretty much figured that if there was no Easter Bunny there was probably no Santa.

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? No, I did when I was a child but now I wait till the Day.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? I decorated my own tree this year with my friend, Bridget. I'll decorate my Mom's tree with my Mom and little Bro. We usually end up hanging ornaments on each other, or wearing antlers and blinking noses while listening to Christmas music.

Snow! Love it or dread it? Love it!

Can you ice skate? Define "ice skate"

Do you remember your favourite gift? Probably my Cabbage Patch Doll, I was about 5.

What's the most important thing about Christmas for you? Being with my family.

What's your favourite Christmas dessert? Figgy Pudding (JK)

What's your favourite Christmas tradition? Waking up on Christmas morning with my little brother before my Mom wakes up and comes downstairs. We take the comforter off of my bed and get out stockings which have several little wrapped items, curtousy of Santa. I make some coffee and my bro. makes some Coco. We turn on TNT's 24 hours special of the Christmas Story and snuggle under the comforter while we drink our warm beverages and not only open but show off to each other what Santa brought us. Then we pack it all up in our stockings and wait for Mom to come downstairs. When she does, we take everything out and display for her to see like she's never seen it before. It's a lot of fun!

What tops your tree? A green fairy.

Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? Giving.

What's your favourite Christmas song? Baby it's cold outside .

Candy canes? Yes, please!

Please steal this and fill it out and let me know that you did... I'd love to hear everyone's Christmas memories!

Awesome Secret Pals!

It has become more apparent this week that when the holiday season starts all blogging is put on hold. All the blogs I regularly visit have been put on hold with warnings placed in their last blog post. Something along the "working on secret knitted gifts, can't talk about it, no time to post" has been posted on many knitting blogs. And I am here to say "Me too!" I'm too busy to post. I'm working on like three things currently and I can post pictures of none of them. They are keeping me busy and I promise photos of all current projects will post after the holidays.

So, while I have no pictures of projects to show I do have some pictures of my 2nd awesome Secret Pal package! Pretty, pretty green yarn to begin with! It's a nice finger weight wool, perfect for warm winter socks! Once I opened the entire package this is what was included:
Yummy, yummy cookies, cute note cards, place markers by Lion Brand, a cute Christmas note pad complete with pen, fun Christmas bear soap, and my most favorite thing of all...a handmade needle holder! I can now stop storing my needles in my sewing bag held together with a rubber band! Yay for organization!







Thank you Secret Pal! Thank you!

Happy Holiday Knitting!

What's in a Name

Sara Kirby -- [noun]: A dance involving little to no clothing 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Defeat

I was not raised to be a quitter. I was raised to recognize my strengths and to have the knowledge to know when I've been defeated.

Meet my competitor and the victor of this Sweater Tank Competition:

First Place goes to the Brown Sweater Tank who wore this lovely two toned shade of Chocolate Cascade Yarn.






Personally, I don't think this sweater ever wanted to be created. As a result, it made knitting it as difficult as possible. First there was the two purl stitches instead of knitted in the ribbing portion of the sweater band. Then there was the time that I dropped a stitch and unraveled about 10 rows thinking that was the only solution. Then I ran out of yarn (I had used 2 skeins given to me by my SP8) when the pattern said I would only need 2 skeins. So I order more yarn and cannot really tell untill about 5 more rows in that the new yarn is a different dye lot and the color is so incredibly off that I won't be able to wear the garment. I am not detered though and decide that I will finish the garment anyway and it will be my first hand made knitted garment and it can be a rough draft for a future perfect one.

However, after all the knitting, and the blocking, and the buying, I am defeated in the final stages. I did not see this coming. It has never been a problem in the past. Apparently my binding skills are lacking. I bound off the neck band and can't get the darn thing over my head! I ripped it all out last night and re-bound off the neck and still no better.


So I give the winner's metal to the brown sweater tank. Perhaps another day, another yarn, closer to spring, but for the winter my friend I consider myself defeated.


Happy Knitting!

Ornaments are fun!

This is my brother holding a tree ornament. When I asked him what he was doing he very dryly said, "I feel like a giant"

Cats and Christmas Trees

I'm not quite sure what it is about cats and Christmas trees but a lot of Xmas movies have cats chewing wires or knocking down trees. Perhaps it is just that Christmas in general is not meant for cats...and maybe they know it! I mean it's the only time during the year where everyone wants to bring pointsettas into their homes and FYI, cats can die if they eat pointsettas.

My cat would definitely die because he has to eat all plants in my house. As a matter of fact I don't even keep plants because I know that Bobi is going to try to eat them. I have three bamboo stalks that my aunt gave me as a house warming gift in June and now instead of green they are yellow and all their leaves have what appear to be little teeth marks. Personally I think it is Bobi's way of picking on living things that are smaller than him. Humans pick on Bobi, Bobi picks on plants...and goldfish.

Anyway getting back to my point about cats and Christmas. Well this is what Bobi did four years ago:
Yup, that tree is knocked over and there is Bobi to the right looking like "I don't know what your're talking about. This big green thing fell over on it's own."





So here is this years Christmas tree and so far Bobi has only attempted to drink it's water. I've batted his nose each time I've been around and told him "no" but he just seems to think that any available water in an open container is meant for his enjoyment:
I don't think he'll be able to knock this tree over.








He's been spending most of his time climbing into the bay window and knocking over fake candle lights and other such breakables. Once again flexing his power over things smaller than him, especially if they are in his way.
Happy Knitting!

FO's and Turkey Day Part Deux, note: very picture heavy.

When you celebrate the holidays spending time at all your relatives' homes but not your own you often find yourself with the "I have no left over's" Syndrome. It is because of this that my girlfriend Bridget and I decided to have Thanksgiving Part Deux!

Here's a lovely shot of the turkey pre-cooking and then the basting of :












Then it was time to carve and sit down to our lovely second meal which was so full of leftovers my mother suggested that I freeze some!









Happy Thanksgiving Part Deux!

So, last night I finished two projects! I was so excited. I started like 50...or 5 projects all in the same month and knew it was going to take a while to get through them all. I can now officially check Odessa and the Red Scarf project scarf off of my WIP's list!

Here's what I learned from my Odessa:










When you are afraid you might run out of yarn, don't shorten the project by about an inch just to see the finished project, you should use all your yarn and see if you can finish the project. I ended up doing this and now Odessa could fit a child's head but not not my monster cranium! Also, if your ears stick out at all, this is not the hat for you. My left ear, which is not shown in this picture, tends to have a bit of a Dumbo effect to it and it totally popped the other side of the hat out.

And here is my Red Scarf: pre-block
It's really quite thick but I am going to block it and stretch it a little.

I think it drapes nice though and will be plenty long enough for whoever receives it.




Here's a close up of the design:

Happy Knitting!

What kind of Needle are you?

My friend sent me such an interesting comment the other day I decided to share it as a post and send the same question out to all you other knitters. Here's her comment:


Gretchen said...
Here's a curious and fun knitting survey question which you can answer in your next blog - if you were a knitting needle, what would your "ideal" size be? (you can base your answer on the size that you think would be most utilized...this isn't dress size, and my limited experience knitting has proven to me that smaller is not, necessarily always, better...)


I am going to take Gretchen's question a little further and also ask what brand needle would you be?

I think I would choose a Brittany size 7 1/2 straight or an Addi Turbo 8/16 circular.


I don't actually own any Brittany needles although would love to and have always admired their sleek birch color and interesting top design. I most relate personally to the description on their website which says, "provides natural strength and consistency" I think this is true of my personality. I enjoy that the needles have a family history, are made in America, and that the needles have been around almost as long as I have. I also enjoy that they were recently used in a French film. Brittany needles are better for the environment and the Brittany Company is environmentally aware as their site states, " All wood used by Brittany comes from strictly regulated forests or small woodland owners in the United States ensuring proper environmental logging practices and selective cutting for maximum reforestation", this is important to me. I say size 71/2 because Brittany does not make a size 8 which is the size needle I usually have to use to create a garment to fit myself.

I also think I'm most like the Addi Turbo 8/16 circular because 1. I enjoy Addi Turbo's for circular knitting, very sleek and the yarn slides from the tube area to the needle with ease, 2. I'm curvy like a circular needle, and 3. I'm petitie and 16" is a shorter circular.

So, what kind of knitting needle are you?

Turkey and Family

I love stuffing! Seriously. Every holiday comes with that one food that you kind of wait all year to eat and for me stuffing is that food. Mom had the best stuffing this year! She bought an organic turkey from Whole Foods and some sort of premade bread crumbs with craisins. It was perfect, moist, the crunch of celery, the sweetness of craisins, the bread with turkey juices. Mmmm, mmm, mmm. Thanks Mom.

Here's how Mom's turkey turned out, say hello to Mr. Gobbles!
Although she isn't much of a knitter/crocheter now Mamasita has had her moments of domestic bliss. Here are her very first and only ever hand made set of pot holders! These babies are relics of the 70's! She was embarrassed by their holes and wear and tear and requested that I mention that the yellow one used to have a ring holder on it like the orange. I think these pot holders are inspiring. I mean talk about a master craftswoman! When she takes the time to make something it's gonna last! I have never even seen a loose string (except that one i just noticed on the bottom of orange but ignore that) . Props to Mamasita!

Other holiday traditions are getting the whole family in one location to celebrate. Now, I am the product of 2 very large families and for me the holidays always mean a lot of travel in order to see all of the family. And while I might not be able to see everyone, it's nice to see and spend time with those I can get to.

Here is the stepdad with the brother (his hair is gone!!!!, he donated three pony tails to Locks of Love) having the traditional holiday dinner discussion/argument!
A special surprise to me was that my uncle Atom from Colorado was able to make to Taneytown, MD where my grandfather owns a farm. With him Atom brought my beautiful 1.5 year old new baby boy cousin. See how precious he is!

Now, I know that every family claims to have some portion of Native American blood in their line but I seriously look at my uncle and think that if our family has any percentage of Native American in the family line, he got it! Look at those defined facial features, chisled. And his thick black hair. I mean, where did that come from?


Lastly I finished my holiday up with a visit to my dad and step mom's. I helped Dad not only put up his outdoor Christmas decorations but I also helped him get rid of some of his Turkey Day leftovers (wink, wink). My dad is such a kid when it comes to outdoor decorating. He's one of eleven Irish Catholic kids and he was the smack-dab middle child. He always took it upon himself to decorate his parents home and decorate the basement where he and his brother bunked. On Saturday he and I set up 2 light up presents, 2 light up motor deer, 1 set of light-up motorized seesaw eleves, 12 candy canes around a fake ice rink, 5 light strings on one tree, 16 minature trees in his front garden, 1 set of lights on the backyard shed, and 1 set of lights around his front door. We stopped there but the man still had to string lights on his deck, and set up his motorized light-up Santa. And that's just outdoor!

Over the holiday weekend I almost completed Odessa and hope to have pictures to how you tomorrow.

Happy Knitting!

Dear American Music Audience, I am disapointed.

I would just like to say that for the most part I have a lot of faith in Americans.

That being said I cannot for the life of me understand what happened at the American Music Awards last night! For the record, the results of the AMA's are based on a 20,000 person survey and record sales. I'm not going to say that I am necessarily disapointed with who received what awards but I am disapointed with the musicans who performed last night.

Let's start with Jay-Z with "Show Me What You Got" and Gwen Stefani with "Wind It Up". Now, I love Gwen and really loved No Doubt and I respect Jay-Z as an artist, he's very talented as is Gwen. So someone explain to me why they both performed songs that repeated lyrics for 3 minutes and never really made a significant point or displayed true musical talent. Any monkey can dress up in sparkly clothes and repeat sounds! Most of Gwen Stefani's song was her saying "Wind it up, Uh, Uh, Uh, Uh!!!" And Jay-Z just kept saying, "show me what you got..." this chorus repeats five times with 2-3 sets of lyrics.

Rascal Flatts walked away with two awards and their version of "Life is A Highway" was horrible, really, my ears were bleeding! Too much country twang for me. I mean they sung their song beautifully and I think it's fine that they won for the Best Country Band, however; their ego's were unattractive, "For all those wondering what a Rascal Flatt is, here we are baby!"

Then the show ended with Snoop Dogg singing "I Wanna Love You", this song was not only about loving strippers (nothing wrong with loving a stripper) but on stage the entire set design was a strip club. If it had been on MTV I would have thought "great", but it wasn't, it was on regular basic television and here's some girl's ass sliding up and down a pole and a man, who has already been made fun of for trying to get through airport security with pot on him 3 times this year, throwing money all around the stage and singing about loving a woman who wants to grind a pole for a living! I mean what kind of message does that send to the kids watching this award show? And, more importantly, what does it say about Americans if because of this award show and the artists chosen to perform, records sales sky rocket and next year Snoop wins an award for this song?

What happened to promoting music with a message. Where were groups like U2 and Coldplay, Dave Mathews and Sarah McLaughlin. Artists with a message of hope, peace, reflection, inspiration. Even pop artists with talent like Justin Timberlake were missing. I thought he was suppose to bring Sexy Back?!

But no, instead we get artists named Pussycat Dolls singing about getting their buttons pushed and falling all over the stage (don't pretend you didn't see the one on the far left trip on her chair, I did, and it was funny).

I think that the talented artist with a positive message were just as diapointed as I was last night. The Dixie Chicks sang "Easy Silence" without much feeling looking sad and hopeless. John Mayer sang his song "Waiting on the World to Change", which was amazing, he is truly talented and I can't wait to watch his music develop and change, and when it was over he looked over at his band and said, "Ok, cool" like in a "let's get out of here" kinda way.

I will say that Jamie Foxx did an awesome job and I appreciated the standing ovation he received. I hope he gets the recognition he deserves.

All that being said, I would like to point out that I am not a prude. You can sing as much as you want about sex and violence and I won't get angry or feel violated. It's your right as an artist. However, I don't think that stippers and drug attacks should be promoted on local television and I don't think songs with repetative empty lyrics should be praised.

Rant officially over.

To the change the subject of this very long post I will just show you a quick photo of what I was working on last night while watching the AMA's, Odessa:

In this photo you can kinda see where I made a booboo and accidently twisted my cast-on row. I discovered it on the fourth row and just decided to twist it back. I had already cast-on twice and didn't feel like doing it again. I don't think you're going to be able to tell in the long run!

Here's all the projects I'm going to be working on over the Thanksgiving Holiday, 1 sock, 1 scarf, 1 Odessa, and 1 mini sweater ornament!


Happy Turkey Day!!!

World's Fastest Knitter Ever...Sike!

For the first time in a very long, long time I had a free weekend with nothing planned. That's right, not one thing on the ol' calendar. I decided that as of Friday I was not allowed to make any plans that were less then 1 hour in advance and it worked out to be a wonder spuratic weekend!Friday night a girlfriend of mine came over at around 10pm and we made gingerbread man cookies and chocolate chip (courtsy of Fannie Farmer, yes B you can have it back now). Now as you might see from the little visual aid below, I did not have a rolling pin...I did however have a wine bottle. (Norma Jean collectors wine bottle)Note that you can see some wine in a glass in the background, this followed some chocolate martinis, is it any surprise than that we made the dough a little too thick and the men turned into blobs? Thank you for posing with one Kristin!It was a delightful Friday evenig/morning. Then Saturday I decided to finally make the drive and check out a new yarn store in Ellicott City called The Celtic Knot Yarn Shop. Love it, love it, love it! And the two women that work there Sara and Carol, were some of the most lovely knitters I've ever met not to mention extremely helpful. I'm definitely going back! They had a bumper sticker that said, "She who dies with the most yarn wins!" I thought that was hysterical. Hello, yarn nerd!


Then I came home to relax with a night full of knitting. Instead, my other girlfriend called and suggested a double feature movie night and then dinner. Faboo, completley spontaneous! Watch out, I'm goin' crazy!

With all the goings on and goings out I felt the need for total hybernation on Sunday, as I usually do. I spent the whole day lounging around except for 1 hour spent going to the grocery store down the street. Although I only purchased 4 things, it took 45 minutes because it's the holiday season and I am pretty sure it's safe to say that from this point forward all trips to the grocery, even if it's for a stick of gum are going to take that long. People gotta buy there canned pumpkin and cranberry sauce! I'm gonna hit up the grocery store next Sat, get a 1/2 priced turkey and make my own so as to have lots of my own leftovers all to myself. Mwooohahahhaha!

So, aside from my exciting visit to the local grocier I spent the day keeping my hands busy knitting. This was good for two reason. One, my hands were busy so I could not start decorating before Thanksgiving for Xmas (so ready to decorate!) and two, it allowed me to attain my new title of "World's Fastest Knitter Ever!" That's right, I , Kirby, managed to knit not one, not two, but three sweaters!!!! Get ready to be amazed! Here they are:

Yes, I know they are not adult sweaters but I never said that. They are ornamental sweaters meant for a Christmas tree or to decorate a package. The last one, Stripey, took me about 2 hours last night from CO (cast-on) to seaming. I love these little things, i really do.

I also managed to finish seaming the brown sweater tank, wash it and begin the blocking process. I'm going to wait till it's done to show it though.

Gotta love Sundays.

Happy Knitting!

World's Slowest Knitter Ever!

So, I've come to the conclusion that I might just be the slowest knitter that I know. It's true. I've done some perusing around the knittingsphere and everyone has these holiday project lined up and they are just whipping them out. Javajem has 11 planned and has started about six already. It took me 15 days to knit one sock! And 2 months to finish knitting the brown sweater tank. I am halfway done knitting a scarf but I've been working on it for two weeks already. And it's not like I don't spend hours sitting on my butt and clicking the needles as fast as my little fingers will allow.

Because of this recent revelation (world's slowest knitter) I've decided to take on some small projects for Christmas so that I don't feel so unacomplished come present time. Here's one I started the other night. It's going to be a little red sweater tree ornament. I got the pattern out of Weekend Knitting, egg cozies. This little number (approximately 6 " long) took me about 2 hours to knit. I've heard other knitters able to whip out little projects like Odessa in about 3 hours or a pair of socks in a couple days. So I ask you, what am I doing wrong? Why is my speed so painfully slow? I have tried both Continental and Engish knitting. I've tried it on a plane, in a livingroom, in my bed, at my mother's house and have determined that location is not the key to quick knitting.

Perhaps it's that I get too distracted too easily.
I think I hopped up from knitting this little item to check my email about 3 times.
I got myself a nice glass of wine, paused to sip.
I pet the BobCat.
I was reading instructions.

That's is probably why is takes me a little longer! I never make the same thing twice therefore I am always reading instructions and recounting things. Hmmmm?

Well, whatever the reason here's hoping I find a couple free weekends before the holidays to whip up a few more of these. I'm thinking they'd make lovely little gift wrapping decor, part gift part decoration.

Happy Knitting!

One!

What band from the 80s are you?

You're in touch with the world, and you have a very strong opinion on things like politics and war. Even if you do end up changing your image in the future, most of us will still like you.
Take this quiz!








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Sickness and Finished Knitting

Sad sad sad to say I had bronchitis all last week. Hence why I did no blog posting after Tuesday. And I don't just mean little bronchitis I mean the kind that causes you to call out of work on Wednesday, go into work on Thursday sounding like a 40 year old smoker named Ruth who works at a Deli and calls everyone "Honey", having your boss tell you to please go home by 11am, and then because you couldn't get your antibiotics any sooner develop a slight fever by Friday and call out yet again. Yes sir, that's the kind of bronchitis I had. Ick and Sick.

But the good news is that because I was at home and unable to talk for almost three days straight I was able to, in between naps, get a lot of knitting done!

I have finally completed all necessary knitting for my Brown Sweater Tank. Here she is! All that's left is the sewing in of loose yarn strings and blocking. I am hoping that by blocking it the sweater becomes slightly less blocky looking and perhaps stretches a little bit longer. Final photos to come probably next week. (Again, so sad about that discoloration thing). The picture isn't loading correctly but you get the idea.

I also spent some time working on a certain someone's Xmas gift but since said someone reads this blog I cannot post photos of it here. Note, they are posted some where else. Go see if you can find them!

Does anyone else have a nice Sunday tradition? I know that Monday through Friday is usually taken up by work and driving children around or going to school or attending things like aerobic classes. And that Saturday is usually a nice "event" day like a wedding (had one this Saturday) or an open house. Then Sunday is usually reserved for you to do whatever you would like. I usually try to stay home and prepare for the following week. I get all the laundry, school work, cleaning, grocery shopping, cooking, etc done.

Yesterday I did just that. I had been sick all week so the house was in total disorey (to me) and I needed groceries and there were little projects around the house still incomplete, like lining the kitchen cabinets. So by 3pm I had finished everything all the cleaning, laundry, shopping, lining and decided to settle down for a cozie evening of just me and the Bobcat, movies, baking, and knitting. It was raining and windy outside and because I live on a corner of row houses there was this high pitch whistle that would whirl around the house every now and then. First I put in the Little Princess with Shirly Temple and lit apple and pumpkin candles. It was very cozie. But then I got restless and decided the candles were giving me a headache. So I paused the Little Princess, put down my knitting, disturbed Bobcat's slumber, blew out the candles, put on the Nutcracker soundtrack, and decided to bake some pumpkin bread (get the real smell in the house). It turned out lovely. I think when school is all done I would like to take a baking class, among other classes (painting, beading, art history, Yoga, pottery, etc.). Here is the yummy bread.

Hope you all were cozie this Sunday.

SP9 Strikes

Yay! and Thank you to my Secret Pal 9!

I arrived at work on monday to find a lovely package from my secret pal just for me! Here's a snap shot of the contents!

Beautifully colored yarn, it looks like a box of crayons!

Yummy sour cherry candies, and 2 wonderful blue potholders.

I know this is suppose to be a yarn swap for the most part and all but I must say that I was most excited about the postholders. They match my kitcen perfectly! See all the blue? Ok, not the best photo but it also shows off my new kitchen table which I got on Sunday and I am also very excited about!

Thank you Secret Pal 9, you're the best!

Too Fancy for a Lion

I recently read this morning on Theresa blog about Lion Brand creating a new line of cashmere yarn. Theresa presented a concern over their choice of colors and the fact that Lion Brand has never been known for making such a high-quality fiber.

Here's my arguement:

Lion brand is where knitters look to find something that perhaps has a festive color and a mild quality ( compared to Red Brand). They are willing to pay the $5.99 for the Homespun or the Thick-N-Quick because you can still make a fairly cute scarf that won't be itchy and may even be able to pass for yarnstore quality yarn. Pattons is somewhat similar with their wool yarn, especially their new felting yarns. However, no one would think to go to JoAnn Fabrics or Michaels to buy cashmere. Cashmere is a highend fiber. It is meant to be extravagent, not just in price but in quality as well. Those that shop Lion Brand don't intend to make high-end garments with it. I agree with you Theresa, the demographic that shops for Lion Brand either will scoff at the price of such expensive yarn from Lion Brand or they will not trust the quality because Lion Brand Yarn is not intended to be that upscale. I would assume those that either can afford or like to purchase cashmere would also value the LYS experience and most likely you will not find Lion Brand at your LYS.