InsanKnitty

So.. with just over 1000 photos taken… I am going to have to divide our trip into a daily report

Day 1… the trip to FL…

4am wakeup… bleh.. with a 2 hour drive… to Philly for our flight… oh that sounds like fun huh! It was ok, the kids mostly slept and the excitement of the plane ride kept them fairly well behaved at the airport. I actually got a nice bit of knitting in with our wait time and flight time …

here’s the result: 1/2 a fetching!

We arrived in FL right on schedule, and I have to say, that if you do Disney… go with their Magical Express.. they collect your baggage for you… all you need to do is get on their bus and you’re off to the hotel and your trip is already underway! We checked in dropped a few things in our room (just because it happened to be ready).. and off we went to Magic Kingdom…

We decided to divide and conquer… The Big Guy and Middle guy headed to Space Mountain, while we tackled the first part of Fantasyland… we met at the tea cups in the middle Our first night there had extended hours at Animal Kingdom, so we headed there after our Character Dinner (with Cinderella, Prince Charming, The evil Stepmom (Lady Tremain), and Cinderella’s step sisters (Anastasia and Drizella) at The Grande Floridian hotel. Great food, wonderful experience…

Animal Kingdom ended up being one of our favorite parks, but I wouldn’t have guessed it from our first visit. We had never been there before, and so were disappointed that we’d picked an ‘evening’ to go.. the ‘jungle-like’ design made things quite dark even before darkness totally fell on us… We started off on the wrong foot too by taking the kids to Dinosaur… YIKES…. a scary ride that terrorized the older two… to the point of NOT wanting to go on many more rides that night and in the days to follow…

We crashed into our bed that first night at about 9pm… knowing we had a very early morning (Magic Kingdom had extra magic hours (early opening) for the residents at the resorts on Thursday)… this cycle of get up ridiculously early and go until ridiculously late was a theme we held for the entire trip!

We’re home!  And what a fabulous trip we had… I’m exhausted and of course.. as the saying goes… need a vacation to recover from our vacation… I’ll be back later with a real post.. but I have over 300 emails and I have a swap pal or three to contact etc. ;-)  Here’s a glimpse at our trip…

Oh… and ladies… look who her ‘encore’ performance was with… (I know I’m dating myself.. but he just gets better with age)

there was some knitting.. mostly airline knitting… I have half a pair of fetching, and a ‘needs to be seamed’ set of Saartje’s booties, and 3/4 of a Ball Band dishcloth that I’ll photograph later!

Yep… you know you’ll think that after you see these photos…

 

Megan, you’re hat is on it’s way :-)  Good luck in your recovery sweet pea!

Cocoa Swap Topic #3

What is the most ‘random’ memory you have from your childhood? I know it’s not knitting content, but I love learning about the little quirks and interesting things about people!

When I was in Kindergarten I distinctly remember loving the Quaker Oats instant Oatmeal packets, (Apples and Cinnamon were my favorite flavor), and at the time, the packets were tan-ish in color, and had green printing on them (just like now I believe… not much has changed in 30+ years…) and they had these jokes and random facts printed on them.  I was an early reader, and loved the jokes, so, for show and tell one time I brought in a bunch of spent packages of oatmeal to share the jokes with the class… I was picked on mercilessly by this one girl, who’s name I’ll never forget, Jessica…  it made me so mad that she thought I was too ‘Simple’ and that the oatmeal packets were in her words ‘gross’…  I remember watching her get off the bus that day and going up her driveway and being so angry that I wanted to cry, but deciding that I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction in that…

In first grade she moved and didn’t return to our school…

So… I’ll be on vacation from Tomorrow through next Tuesday!  See you next week!

(We’re not sure if we’ll have internet… )

So, I finished up my sister’s birthday gift of 4 cloths, 2 dishcloths (ie. for dishes) and 2 washcloths (ie for the bath)… I had started this fourth one at my Ravelry sit and knit that I mentioned last night. I finished it while we watched the rest of the Giants: Packers game. I’m just thrilled my Pats are in the Superbowl as I’m not a huge football fan, and when the Pats are there, I’m more likely to actually be interested in more than the commercials…

My final two cloths for my sister are from Harvest Moon Designs patterns, the first, Gathering around the Christmas Tree (or is it Fir Tree), no matter, a very cool and interesting lace pattern that I knit in sugar n cream ’summer’, and the second is called Baby’s Breath, knit in white Cotton Ease. Both were knit on bamboo size 6’s.

I will cast on my Megan hat today. The one I’m doing is a quick knit and therefore will hopefully be out in the mail to Amanda tomorrow I have a cute idea I’ve been toying with for a while so we’ll see how it comes out.

Additionally I promised photos from yesterday’s sit n’ knit. Here we go…

Welcome to Mountain Knits & Pearls

Mountain Knits & Pearls is located in East Stroudsburg PA. The front glass window has an inviting display of beautifully knit items (I of course didn’t get that photo)… the yarns are well marked and labeled and grouped intuitively. Each section had lovely knit items with their patterns available from Joanne (the shop owner) with a simple question as to the patterns designer.

Here’s Felicia, my co-cocoa swapper

The Debbie Bliss section was hard to leave as I find the Cashmerino so soft and luscious…

Joanne stocks gorgeous hand dyed sock yarns and lace weights, as well as some beautiful high end yarns as well as the knitters stand byes like Cascade 220 and the like. I was thrilled that she had Second Hand Cotton, and that it was ON SALE! My dishcloth swap pal will be receiving some, as well as a skein of one of her requested yarns… Not only is there a sale section.. but lookie…

That was just a close up of the sign, NOT the entire sale section, which was virtual one whole wall or yarns…

The needle selection was tremendous…

Everything from Addis to Brittany’s and others including the plastic crystal palace Daisies that I love! There were Lantern Moons, and others whose names now escape me… an abundance of wonderful selections in all sorts of sizes… Even the Addi’s of larger sizes that are circulars with that tubing that reminds me so much of my years of working in the lab!

Look at some more of the yummy yarns…

mmmm luscious Cascade 220 colors

and oooh look… (this one’s for you Anne!)

Noro!

She had kits too, and a whole huge section of beads and beading supplies… and a luscious section of Dale of Norway… lots of their pattern books as well. The selection of Crystal Palace yarns was wonderful (I love their yarns)… and I just had such a wonderful time petting and oohing and ahhing over everything in the shop.

Joanne has a monthly newsletter that she emails/snail mails and regular weekly gatherings for sit n’ knits, and sit n’ bead, along with classes for socks and other fiber work. She’s starting a class Tuesday for the Great American Afghan knit along. Just a wonderful shop an owner all around!

I will leave you with a shot of some of the Ravelry knitters at work in the back classroom!

Y’all can laugh all you want… but I had fun! And that’s more than I’ve been able to say about here in a long time.  Since moving here I have been LOOKING high and low for a knitting group.  I started a regional group on Ravelry in hopes of finding some folks locally that I could meet with, start our own get togethers sort of thing just like I had in my old neighborhood in NC.. but I seemed to keep hitting a dead end…

Well, I had sort of ignored my Ravelry group for a bit, kinda because I get easily sucked into hours of surfing Ravelry sometimes and just don’t really have that kind of time…  so I popped into my group the other day to find out that a semi-LYS for me was hosting a monthly get-together at the shop!  The shop is Mountain Knits & Purls, in East Stroudsburg.  The shop owner was absolutely lovely, and her shop.. wow… wonderful!  Great selection, great prices, and great discounts!  20% off in your birth month on your purchases… free patterns with the purchase of yarn, and even a discount section!  Fabuloso!

The teaching room was wonderful, large, well lit and the group of Ravelry ladies there were all such a pleasure to meet!  I had such a fun time meeting and chatting with Felicia, who I selected to be in my group for the Cocoa Swap when I saw her address was as near to mine as anyone who might randomly sign up!

I did manage to finish the 3rd dishcloth for my sister’s birthday gift… and started the 4th and final one before making the 50  min drive home

I’m finally thinking that it might not be so bad here afterall…
I took some photos of the shop and will post them tomorrow and write up a report for Anne’s LYS blog!

Weekly Topic: Dishrag. Dishcloth. Face cloth. I’ve seen folks get all fired up in forums when someone refers to their knit or crochet creation as a dishrag, as that’s somehow offensive to them! When you’re working on yours, what do you call them? Also, is there a difference between a dishrag and a dishcloth? How bout a facecloth? Are they all really the same thing?

A dishcloth is for washing dishes at my house while a washcloth or face cloth (though I most often refer to them as washcloths) are for the bathtub.  I don’t know why I have followed this unspoken rule, must be my mom’s fault

This weeks Cocoa Swap Topic is:

Now that we’re in the thick of ‘Winter’… has your knitting changed to match the season? Are you moving on from dishcloths, and tank tops to afghans, hats and mittens? Has your yarn changed from silk or cotton to wool, superwash or heavier cottons?

Hmmm this is hard.. I don’t really knit hats and mittens all year round, though I do baby hats any time of year…  I knit dishcloths year round, especially because of the Dishcloth Swaps hosted by Anne, and now Holly too, but also because, I could always use another, and they make great quick gifts…

I think that my yarn is the most that changes… living in NC I would knit with light cottons or acryllics through the summer months, and switch to heavier cottons, or superwash in the fall and winter.. but again it all depended on what I was knitting.  My colors seem to change with the seasons too.. following the bright cheery spring and summer colors with the more earthy fall and winter colors..

So.. Knitting progress…  I actually do have some… if you can believe it.  Of the 3 dishcloths I had hoped to knit yesterday I got two and 1/2 done.  I’m going to run out of yarn on the 3rd, so I need to check my stash before continuing.  I refuse to buy more when I have such a healthy kitchen cotton stash… so if I don’t have any more, I’ll end this one abruptly at an unusual size and keep it for myself.. (some of my favorite cloths are ones that I’ve made in a non-standard dishcloth size… ) I really am enjoying the pattern on this cloth so I’ll just pick another yarn to do it in…

here’s where we stand with my sister’s dishcloths…

I worked a tiny bit on the Ruffles and Ridges pattern. (2  (interrupted) hours got me 4 rows!!!) but now I’m finally down to 273 stitches!  This seems almost manageable!

I also spent some time reading through my Dishcloth partners blog (yes I already have my partner.. special request from a hostess)… and planning what I’ll be doing for her :-)  I have some neat ideas… I am excited to get starting… I love this particular swap since it’s such a simple idea… dishcloths.. they knit up in no time!! If you’re still interested in signing up for that swap the deadline is tomorrow.. so get over there and signup now!

Today I’ll be doing some custom orders for Etsy.. the kids being home yesterday through me for a loop so I didn’t get the things done I had wanted to do …  today though.. I will

Lately all I’ve had time to post is the ‘lists’ and ‘tags’ I’ve had.. but I realized… wow.. the cocoa swap is taking over my posting time I am currently using Shrook to read my fellow bloggers sites… and have really found that I enjoy Shrook, it’s got a great user interface for us Mac users… sadly though a few of my favorite blogs don’t have feeds, or Shrook doesn’t recognize them, so I have a small list of ‘bookmarked’ sites.. but it’s better than the Bloglines interface… so I’m happy (Thanks Monica for the suggestion of Shrook)… so anyway, every day, I go through my Shrook folder for the cocoa swap blogs.. and reading everyones blogs is great fun, but leaves me next to no time to blog myself… bleh it’s ok, really… I haven’t had much to blog about…

My kiddos are off school today, so we’ll be creating ‘marshmallow’ men for the cocoa swap contest.. should be a lot of fun… I have a good idea for my entry and hopefully they’ll all have some outdoor play in the little bit of snow we have so we can have BIG mugs of cocoa when they come in and put their marshmallow men to good use

On the knitting front… well.. I’m concerned… I think I have startitis… Anne chronicaled her issues with it this past summer… but … I think my issue is two-fold… I have decided that with the exception of a few already planned gifts.. this year, 2008, is the year of knitting for me. I have this ginormous pile of patterns I want to do… I have a frightening stash I want to work from… and I don’t know where to start…

I picked Ruffles and Ridges.. and started out with it… 807 stitches! It took me FOREVER to cast on… and at the same time.. I cast on for Odessa… and have my sister’s birthday coming up (we’ll see her while we’re in FL) so I had bought her some scrumptious soaps before Christmas and want to knit her a selection of dishcloths and washcloths… At the moment I have two cloths cast on, the Ruffles and Ridges, the Odessa, and the last felted bag (for my sis-in-law) from Christmas!

Each night when I look at this pile I am frustrated at trying to pick which one to work on… (totally my own fault!)…

Last night I finally was like.. Sheesh, it’s Misti’s birthday for crying out loud get her cloths done… so I cast on yet another that I know the pattern by heart, knew would take me only 1 hour to do, and finished it! YAY! I plan to finish the other two today, perhaps the 4th and will be done with her gift…

Odessa is lovely, the pattern is simple, but the small needles in the round get to me after about 1 hour of knitting.. so it is going to take me longer than I’d like. I had planned to knit 1 more this month for a friends birthday, but now I’m going to have to reconsider…

The ruffles and ridges is getting better, I’ve gotten through the decreases so that I’m down to 523 stitches now…  I have been through 1 skein already and only have 1 ” of knitting to show for it!  WOW.

The bag won’t take long and I should really finish that next.. so it’s just done and can be mailed… but in the back of my mind I know I have to finish the 2nd part of my cocoa swap pals ‘buddy’… because I want to mail it not long after we get back from FL

Ahh… the list grows..

after ALL that is knit.. I WILL cast on my first pair of socks!

see.. look at that.. I just have so many things I want to knit that I don’t know where to start.. and want to start everything all at once… bleh!

oh… that felt good.. a real post…

So I posted the 37 things post the other day.. and I was kinda surprised.. I mean.. I love that everyone wrote back and wished me a happy birthday..

But no one said anything about my Big Girl knitting…

I’m so proud of her!  She is doing pretty well considering that she has only been at it for a few weeks and only every few days… :-)  I taught her to throw even though I don’t… I’m a picker…

She wants to knit blankets for all her stuffed animals… she’ll be at it for a while I think!  She owns hundreds!