Gifts from elem

My first STR package - Walking on the Wild Tide!

Postcard from my SP10

Apart from the fun giveaway that I had, I had a semi-happy birthday. The first wee hours of my birthday were maddening. I spent 5 hours untangling/balling up a skein of Wollmeise yarn. I have balled up many of her skeins before with no problem. I don’t know what the deal was with that one. 5 FREAKING HOURS!!!! The other thing that made it bad was that I got sick. I had bronchitis last week and have been taking antibiotics for that, but then on top of that, I get a cold. Sucks! Michael (who is sick as well) took me out to dinner anyways and we tried to make the best of it.

I did get some awesome gifts and well wishes from some unexpected people. My sister sent me a box full of snacks plus a gift certificate to blue moon (woohoo!). I haven’t decided which one to get, and I’m also waiting to get my 10% coupon to “enhance” my purchase. Michael got me the Rockin’ sock club membership as well as a Wollmeise buying spree and a new monitor (desperately needed). Elemmaciltur got me a knitting stitch dictionary (always wanted one of these) in German because I mentioned that one of the areas I wanted to improve my German in is knitting. He also made me a sweet arigumi arigurumi amigurumi. I named her “cupcake” since he put her in a little cupcake pastry cup. I was really surprised that he remembered and even brought it to me when I wasn’t feeling too well. My neighbor Riki baked me a käsekuchen and promised a delicious stir-fry dinner next week! yummmmm…. Of course Ingrid sent me that great package and it’s driving me nuts trying to decide on what to make with that yummy yarn. The Wollmeise herself sent me a nice e-card (WOW!), my cousins Staci and Amy sent me one as well and friends Sarah and Shari and brother-in-law Denver sent me emails. It’s so nice when people remember out of the blue! Thanks everyone!

I also wanted to mention that I received a postcard from Spain from my SP10 pal last week. I was a bad blogger and forgot. As Miss Violet would say “bad blogger, no cookie!” Sorry about that!!! It was so thoughtful of her to write to me while she was on vacation and look at those strange clay statues. Must’ve been amazing to see in person!

On the knitting front, I received my very first Rockin’ Sock Club package!!! I was hoping to get the February one first, but I ended up getting the April one. It’s funny because the tag says that it’s 89% merino and 19% silk. Huh? I’m guessing it’s 81% merino and 19% silk. Or maybe it’s 89% merino and 11% silk. Either way, it is really nice and soft yarn, I am so excited to cast on NOW! I promised myself that I would finish the Gothic Spires first and whadda-ya-know, I got them done tonight! I also started working on Monkey Socks by CookieA in Wollmeise Sonne colorway for a friend who has postpartum depression. I thought the bright colors in the colorway would cheer her up whenever she looked at them. The colors are not one that she would normally pick, but I’m hoping that this pair will be special. Her birthday is coming up (a little too soon though), so it’s perfect timing. I won’t get them to her before then, but within a couple of weeks.

Finally done!

This is Thuja from Knitty.com. It is knitted with Fleece Artist Nova Sock Sea Storm colorway. The yarn is pretty weird. One end is completely different from the other. Completely.

These socks were a quick knit only 3 days. Granted the pattern was easy and the yarn a little thicker than what I normally knit with but still. I hated it the whole way through though. It just looked like some cheapy thing you bought at Woolworths. Now that I’m done with it, it looks better from afar. It is a tad bit small since when I did the toe area, Michael was always sleeping. But that’s ok. I’m interested to see how these socks will compare as far as wear with the others. So far, Michael has 4 pairs of hand knitted socks! Pretty soon he can throw away his costco socks! Nah, he needs those for working out. I banned him from wearing his socks when he’s doing anything sweaty.

1983 called. They want their sock back.

I’m still on a break from doing the 2nd Gothic Spire. Or maybe I just have 2nd-sock-itis. I couldn’t keep my hands off the Fleece Artist yarn so I had Michael pick out which color he liked best (he only had a choice of two). He picked the Nova Sock Sea Storm colorway. He also liked the Thuja pattern because it was a very simple and plain pattern. I was happy to oblige. I had to adjust the pattern to the thinner weight yarn. I cast on 52 stitches rather than 44.

I started knitting this and was instantly not happy. I didn’t like the way it striped up. It was kind of crayola like and reminded me of the 80’s and it’s neon in black light. Hmm. Michael said it was ok and he’d wear them anyways. I had a hard time continuing with it, but really, what else am I going to do? It was a quick knit though and I finished a sock in a couple of days. I decided to just bite the bullet and complete the pair by casting on the 2nd sock rather than knitting yet another digression.

I accidentally cast on with the other end of the yarn (not from the center) and by the time I realized this, I got a few rows done and didn’t want to pull it out. Strangely enough, this yarn is more what I expected and not so 80’s. It looks like completely different yarn. It is so weird. The first pair had a lot of black in it (every other row) and this one has almost no black. And then I noticed that in the center pull of the yarn cake it is very dark and on the outside it is not. Maybe that’s how it is? Kind of weird though. If anyone knows if it’s supposed to be this way, please let me know. Thanks! In any case, Michael will wear the mismatched pair.

1/2 way there!

Today I finished 1 side of the Gothic Spire socks that I’m knitting for my secret pal. It was a long road. But I’m pretty happy with it. Since my calves don’t fit in these socks, I had my neighbor Riki model them for me. The pattern isn’t that complicated, it’s just reeeeaaaallllly slow.

My So Called Scarf #2

I needed a break before knitting the other side, so I cast on my 2nd My So Called Scarf using Wollmeise worsted weight yarn in Dani colorway (medium). It is fun to knit something that goes so fast! I decided to cast on 36 stitches (instead of 30) and this one is going to be a regular scarf length. Because I only had 1 skein of the Lorna’s Laces yarn, the other scarf ended up being a little short. Enough to use, of course, but usually you want it to be a little longer. I got 2 skeins so we’ll see how it goes.

I have been on a yarn buying binge. Yep. That’s all I gotta say. Blue Moon Fiber got in more mediumweight yarns and I didn’t go too crazy. I’ve been wanting to make one of those chevron scarves that everyone is making. And I also picked up the fair isle book that they publish. I can’t wait to get their yarns!!!

My downstream pal received her package and she loved it. It makes me so happy when someone really treasures the gift that you give them. I think I get more enjoyment out of hearing that someone really liked something I gave them, than me receiving something myself. Unless of course it’s Socks that Rock! Just kidding… I don’t know if I told you but she is also in Germany so I’m trying to make the packages as un-German as possible. And also I save a lot on shipping! DPD delivers to her overnight - that’s really good to know. I thought the package wasn’t going to make it until after her birthday (being the Easter holiday and all), but it arrived today!

Guess what he got me for my birthday?

I’ve only been talking and nagging about it forever… I had no idea that memberships were closed, I thought it was a revolving thing and you just join whenever. I was sooooo disappointed to learn that whenever I went to the blue moon site. But then I checked the blog and it said that they had 20 memberships still open so I immediately told Michael about it and he signed me up for it!!! :) They’re going to be sending me the February kit soon and then the April one next week or so. So I’ll get TWO kits this month. I can hardly contain my excitement!!! Oh yeah, and they’re also restocking their medium weights on Friday!!!! I wonder if it will be like concert tickets where they will sell out in X hours. I am normally not a chevron scarf fan but I saw some pictures on flickr and now I want to make a ton of them, they are so pretty!