SUPER SALE coming soon!

My BIG ASS loss is your BIG ASS gain! Christine recently learned that lukewarm tea and apple macbook laptops do not play well together. Not even HOT tea, lukewarm old tea. Knocked over. Onto the laptop. *sigh* Sorry about talking in the 3rd person. It's just to painful to say I DID IT!

After the weekend I will be posting a massive ravelry destash and etsy shop sale for your holiday stash enhancement. Come on, you KNOW you're not getting good yarn from anyone for Christmas. It's not gonna happen. Everyone that knows you thinks to themselves, "Boy, they have SO MUCH yarn. Can't get her/him any more of that!" (Unless you count gifts from other knitters who always know the perfect gift for any occasion is fiber!)

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Happy Holiday Knitting everyone.....I'm not quite to that freaking out bit yet. Usually by the 10th I'm starting to get just a bit worried that my gift list is longer than humanly possible. I have 4 short flights ahead of me in the next 3 days, so I figure I'll finish at least 4 projects. Right? Yes, each flight is about an hour and a half and each project takes at least 6-8 hours of knitting. Why do you ask?

Let's not even talk about how I behave after the 15th yet. The 20th? Doesn't exist it's so FAR AWAY. Stop thinking about it. Don't count the days. There's STILL TIME!

Anyway, check back here soon to see my super sale details. I've gotta earn a few more $$ to buy a new laptop *sniff*. Going to kick the TreasureGoddess Etsy Shop in high gear plus some serious destashing from my monster stash as well. (And we all know I'm a yarn snob so I gots some good stuff buried in ziplock bags throughout my entire house!)

Yarn magnets, what could be better?

What do you think? Cool stocking stuffers? I figure if you can't knit or spin at work you can at least have a magnet there to remind you of WHY you're working. :)

Available at the TreasureGoddess Etsy shop

On a crochet note, I found the stupid yarn. It was not in the chest with the worsted weight. It was not in the "misc yarn" dresser. It was not shoved into the sockyarn drawers, it was not in the space bags under the bed. It was not in the top of Joey's or David's closets. It was not in my craft closet. It was not in MY closet. Not in the dining room/TreasureGoddess work shop. Do you know WHERE I found it? With the acrylic yarn in the tubs in the office closet. Where it should have been, since it was actually acrylic yarn. Wow. Who'd a thunk it? I remember putting it "in the stash" which usually means a quick shove into whatever stash container is near. I totally don't remember unloading and hauling about tubs to get to the proper acrylic yarn tub and then hauling and loading the stack of heavy tubs back away. wow. Life would be SO much easier if I had a damn craft room. Ah well.

Almost done with the super granny square. Hope to finish it by this weekend, sew in the thousands of ends and be done with it. :) Also finished another pair of wrist warmers. 2 to go now.

Happy knitting all!

And the granny obsession goes on.....now with poetry!

Christmas Present in the works for my niece. She's 1 yr old and adora-freaking-ble. Her mom & dad said she doesn't need any more toys or clothes (although her dad said she really wants a wii, HA!). So, she's getting a super girly super granny square blanket from her auntie. And a pink knitted hippo if time allows. Only problem is......I've lost the yarn. I have a lot of this yarn left, at least 12 little skeins. TWELVE. And it's lost. Not just lost, LOST IN THE STASH.

Yes, I've lost my yarn IN MY YARN. crap. See, if I'd just stuck it somewhere non-stash related, a family member is sure to stumble upon it...."MO-OM! Why's there yarn in the pantry again?" or "MO-OM! There's yarn in the bathroom where the extra toilet paper is supposed to be...can I use this?" (note to self....don't shove yarn in the bathroom. It's just not a good idea.)

No, like a good little organized crafter, I CLEANED MY HOUSE over Thanksgiving weekend and put every blessed thing away. In its proper place. And now I can't freaking find anything. Back to knitting more wrist warmers while the search continues....

Little Miss TreasureGoddess
Lost her yarn skeins, Oh Piss!
And doesn't know where to find them.

Put the blanket away
And search the whole day
Throwing stash all about in great mayhem.

I know, I know. But seriously, YOU TRY to rhyme something with TreasureGoddess!

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!

So Christine, how was your weekend campout?

Holy crap-a-moly, it truly was! Good times were had for most of the weekend, but I have to say that was one of the longest nights I've spent. I am not cut out for this kind of thing. A fair weather tent in a heavy frost? Froze my freaking butt off. Our other choice was bunking in the rock shack. A gorgeous, neat building with a fire pit and walls. And rat poop. Lots and lots of rat poop. The rats were temporarily moved out, but I didn't really want to take the chance after hearing the story of Jeff waking up one night to a rat chewing on his hair. ACK! All in all, a great weekend. Here's a few highlights...











The kids had a great time riding horses, dirt bikes, 4 wheelers (all with helmets), playing hedge apple baseball, creating a monster bonfire and keeping the fire in the rock shack pit going strong. We spent a long, cold night listening to packs of coyotes, Big John the bull MOOOOOOOOOOOing from the pasture over the hill, dogs barking, kids snoring and that damn rooster cock-a-doodle-dooing at 1:30am, 3:30am and 5:30am. We awoke to about 15 visitors, one of which was over 2000 lbs. It's a good thing Big John the bull has a sweet disposition. I have to say I love that my husband made me a port-a-potty almost as much as I love that he stained & painted & assembled my spinning wheel. It rocked.

Oh, yeah, this is a KNITTING and SPINNING blog, right? Here's a shot of what's on the drying racks at home waiting for a photo session to be loaded onto the TreasureGoddess etsy shop.


Actual knitting content coming soon. I've been going to town making a few Thorpe hats. Some out of handspun, some out of Nashua creative focus chunky 75/25 wool/alpaca. I'm even working up one with a big floppy, pointy top. Airplane knitting rocks. Off on business to Minneapolis, the land of yarn shops on every corner! I love this town.

Yarn School!

Boy, I gotta post more often. Too much to report. Basically, Yarn School was just what you'd imagine. Creative people, fabulous food, fiber, fiber, fiber, spinning, knitting, chatting, fiber squooshing, cute wooly critters, good times all around. I was much more laid back this year. I pretty much just took it as a little vacation from the real world and stayed up late curled on a couch reading spinning & dying magazines and books, creating awesome batts from fiber I'd bought plus some provided by Nikol. If you can ever get yourself there, do it! She's got Yarn School and Felt School in the Spring and Fall every year. I also scored on some sweet destashing from other Yarn School attendees.

Here's what my couch looked like for the past week:

Here's a little bit of what I created this year for my personal stash enhancement. My goal was not to just dye orange fiber. I know. Really. I thought I wasn't. I ended up dying rust, sunset, pumpkin, spices but absolutely not orange.




Here's a couple of the batts I created. I call them "My Little Pony Barf". Not that they look like what a My Little Pony would barf up, more like someone or something chewed up a bunch of My Little Pony toys and, well, there you go. Let's just say that after about 1:00am, I embraced the sparkle.



My view in the evenings:


Gee Mom, I wanna go....but they won't lemme go.....Gee Mom, I wanna go back to Yarn School! Dang real world called me back much too quickly!

BIG SALE at TreasureGoddess.etsy.com!

WOO HOO! 20% off ALL PURCHASES on my TreasureGoddess Etsy Shop all weekend long!! From Friday 10/2 through Sunday 10/4, I'll refund 20% of the purchase price by paypal (not including shipping fees).

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Pumpkin Spice Treasury and YARN SCHOOL! WOOT!

Please click the cool treasury pic above to go see it in real life. The more people that click on the individual photos, the higher ranked this treasury becomes and the more exposure the artists get, which makes us very happy. Any comments on the treasury would be highly appreciated as well. (I'd totally be your best friend!) Thanks to On a Roll Cozies for creating the treasury and including my pumpkin patch sockyarn in it! There's some REALLY cute wristlets on there and yummy pics and other fun stuff. OH, and On A Roll Cozies has some fabulous mp3 & coffee cup cozies, go check out her shop when you get a chance. She sells knitted objects and patterns as well.

YAY! I love Halloween and pumpkins and the cooler weather just makes me want to KNIT KNIT KNIT and SPIN SPIN SPIN. So, perfect timing, but guess where I'll be headed tomorrow? YARN SCHOOL! WOOT! (ok, I don't even know what woot means, just that people use it when they're very excited. I'm a techno-challenged dork.) I have to go a half-day late and miss the festivities of the Thurs night evening get-together, but I'll be there by mid-day Friday. Going to spin, dye, knit, eat, veg out. I really REALLY need a break from the daily grind. It's grinding me down. Hard. Good thing there's knitters about to help bring you back out of a funk, isn't it?

Many fiber filled photos to come after the weekend, I'm sure. WOO HOO for YARN SCHOOL!!!!!
Have a great fiber-filled weekend, everyone!