Not waiting for Black Friday! It's YAY YARN WEDNESDAY!

YAY! YARN! FIBER! WEDNESDAY SALE is on NOW! 15% off EVERYTHING in my TreasureGoddess Etsy Shop! Sale goes through Monday, Nov 30th. YAY! I need to clear things out to make room for all the goodies coming in December! OOOOOOOHhhhhhhh I've got some purties drying right now. There will be much CYG photo shoots happening in the next week or two. Crossing fingers for good sunlight and not too much wind!

Also, did you know it's almost CHRISTMAS? Did you? Well, I've ALREADY started working on Christmas Knitted Gifts! I know. It's unbelievable. It's not even December 5th, my usual start date. (No, I've never had a peaceful, calm Christmas season since I started knitting, how did you know?) Well, this is going to be my Year of the Wrist Warmers!





I'm hoping to have eight pair done in time to distribute to teachers, nurses, etc for both kids. I'm more than half-way done! WOO HOO! I've not completed any socks or anything else of substance (other than a crap-load of granny squares) but I'm getting these teacher gifts DONE baby! Using my own version of the pattern in Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I love that book! It's my go-to pattern for all stoplight knitting, conference call knitting and various breaks here & there & around the square while waiting in line, etc. There's a million patterns on ravelry and a lot free as well. Super fast.

I've still got an only-possible-if-a-time-continuum-cooperates knitting gift list. Don't worry. I'm not as with-it as I appear. (or as I think I appear.)

Happy Happy Thanksgiving everone! I'm truly thankful for all the blessings in my life, my family, my friends, my fiber world, all you guys. Happy Turkey Eating (or Tofu Eating for my veggie friends).

The C word

I know, I know. It looks like Halloween, all orange and black and everything, but it's for CHRISTMAS. I just have strange children. Ben, my youngest stepson, has decided that he wants an orange and black blanket. OK. Being a big fan of orange, this is just fine with me. I'm using up tons of extra yarn left over from a baby blanket that was made for a LYS owner's new baby. After making my square out of the orange, I had almost an entire skein of yarn left. Add that to a bunch of other almost new orange skeins donated by other knitters and you have half an afghan! Knitters rock. WOOT!

AND in other crochet news.....I'm doing a granny square mystery Christmas project as well. Yes, I DO realize that Christmas is coming. Yes, I DO realize I've once again agreed to knit various presents, only one of which has been completed. Yes, I DO realize that Christmas is only 45 days away. That's more than a month. Really. No need to worry, right? Heck, this mystery project could even end up BEING a present. right? Sure, I'd LOVE some company in crazy-knitters-almost-Christmas-time-warp-reality. Come on in!

Project Details, click HERE.

First Set of Instructions click HERE

Cool crochet blog with good picture tutorials, SarahLondon. (One word of note, English patterns often call the Double Crochet a tr, ex. when told to work 3 tr's in the chain space, it's actually 3 double crochets).

Another very cool crochet blog with FABULOUS free patterns and good descriptions (where I went to remember how to make a granny square to get started on Ben's blanket) is Attic24. She rocks.

Amazing pictorial step-by-step granny square instructions PurlBee Granny Square Project

Back to normal knitting craziness soon....and of course I'm still knitting every day. No worries.

OH, and H1N1 update...Joey slept through the night for the first time since last Tues. He seems to be feeling better, we started him on his super-antibiotics (he's immune to all the regular stuff) and made it through part of the fight with insurance company to PAY for it, good times. Found a half-way mix where the ins would fund half the meds in order for him to get started to fight the bacterial crud that's invaded his lungs and continue the battle with many faxes of dr's signatures, extra documents, etc. proving that he really DOES need the stuff. cripes almighty. If you've not got enough stress deaing with a kid that feels lousy, just add in fun with BCBS. They need to have a pill to help you stomach that!

Glad Joey seems to be on the rise health-wise. Thanks for the good thoughts & prayers. He's a tough kid. Oh, and he wants a blue afghan. Add that to the list.... Anyone got an idea for a crocheted pattern for me? I'm getting a bit grannied out. (Still have about 52 more black squares to crochet).

Little Pig, Little Pig, let me come in...

Wish we had the big bad wolf instead of the damn pigs. H1N1 back in the house. My youngest Weasley is down with the super flu. The flu part really only lasted a day, but the fever, the DAMN fever and the congestion is never ending. Poor kid. My son's already battling CF (cystic fibrosis--a genetic lung & digestive disease) and this just adds a whole new level of fun. Work's not pleased since I missed almost a week when I was sick and a few half days here & there with my son now. Good thing hubby's not traveling this week so I don't miss quite as much work. His dr's are now thinking my pneumonia was from the H1N1 and we just didn't realize it at the time. Hoping we can get an antibiotic that'll work for him. The culture results should be in on Monday. damn.

It does mean more knitting time as I'm often up from about 2am-4am or so with Joey. I'm sticking to socks for the night-time knitting as apparently I can knit in my sleep. I kept waking up mid-sweater knitting finding I've knit a few rounds of K3 P1 in the middle of what should have been stockinette. I knit most of my socks as K3 P1 pattern and apparently the fingers revert to that when they are left to themselves. Jeff's long-arse socks are getting close to completion this way.

There has also been a bit of dying recently for the TreasureGoddess Etsy Shop. Have you ever spun South African Fine Wool fiber? Oh my holy hell. It's softer than merino, 23 micron count. SOOOOOOO freaking soft. Also it absorbs the dyes amazingly. Gives such depth and warmth. Ohhhhhh it's nice. Here's a look of what I'm trying REALLY HARD not to keep all to myself. (All fiber was dyed pre-H1N1 and has been stored in nice ziplock bags so no plague will be sent along!)

So, no Weasley Knit Nights for a while. We need to huff and to puff and to blow their germs down with the help of modern medicine and much clorox. Wish me luck.

Kniting Pneumonia

Wow, anyone else notice the irony of the last post showing I was freezing my arse off and this post talks of me getting walking knitting pneumonia? wow. Right after the camping weekend, I flew to Minnesota, had a FABULOUS evening with a yarn school buddy Deb where we knit and SHOPPED at a fabulous little shop (Bella Lana), then had a snack (with more knitting). The fact that I had to go to Target to buy an extra bag to check on the plane should give you an idea of what I did with their super sale yarn. (NORO SOCKYARN FOR $9.50 PEOPLE!!!). They had a LOT left, so give them a shout and get you some.

OH, and I worked at the home office. (the official reason for the trip). On the plane home I sat a few rows ahead of a family that was coughing up a lung the entire flight home. Gotta love that recycled air on a fully packed plane, huh? Short version of the story is that within 3 days I had a monster congestion, cough, wheezing, the works. Into the Dr's office, after X-rays sent to BED for a WEEK! Well, I pretty much did sleep for 3 days straight with only a few moments of knitting here & there and no spinning or dying. Boy, you know you're sick when you don't even feel like knitting! Well, as I felt better, I did have a few moments here & there to knit, knit, knit, KNIT!

THE HATS--2 handspun art yarn creations (the bumpy one was actually knitted last week), red & green handspun Thorpe hats





THE SCARF--Brooklyn Tweed's 1X1 ribbed noro scarf out of 2 skeins of noro kureyon



THE UFO--Eyelet Cardi from ChicKnits, yarn gifted by Chery! It's been a UFO for a LOOOOOONG time, now an official FINISHED OBJECT! WOO HOO (ok, not BLOCKED, but FINISHED)


THE SPINNING--From some of my hand dyed yarn school fiber...8 oz 2 ply, spice rack colorway and some coilspun supercoils art yarn




*whew* I think I'm ready for another week of knitting.... Too bad those whole WORK and REGULAR LIFE things get in the way. Just think how much I could accomplish if I wasn't restricted to stop-light, late night and stall-knitting!