Night Owl...

As darkness falls I always find myself getting a second wind and can't seem to find my way to bed before 1:00 AM on a daily basis. Why is this? Fear of the dark? Fear of the horrible thoughts rolling around inside my head? Fear of everything because of all the violence on TV? Ghosts in my house? Or, can I just not get knitting out of my head? I'm not sure really... tonight I really did try to sleep but laid in bed for 2 hours before finally working my way downstairs to my computer (and eventually my coffee). Thank goodness for Ravelry to keep my mind on fun, exciting projects I can work on instead of the crazy, horrible thoughts that always seem to pop out at night. Tonight I found a fun blog, thestraightmaleknitter.blogspot.com, that kept me pretty entertained. It's refreshing to read a male perspective on knitting. I'm looking forward to following this blog and seeing what posts come next.

Don't you just hate it when you make a mistake? It took me an entire hour to complete one row of knitting last night. I had to rip out 11 rows of work (over 200 sts per row). Uggghhh... When making a shop sample you can't "hide" those mistakes and hope nobody will notice. I'm just happy I saw it before I knit too much further. Guess it doesn't pay to watch TV while knitting sometimes. I'll be happy when the two sweaters I'm working on are done. I think I'll work o some smaller projects for a while... time to stock up for Christmas.

Time to get organized...

Time to get off my butt and get re-organized. At one point last year my craft room was looking pretty snazzy but now it's back to the same old cluttered mess. I'm taking baby steps and starting small... my needles. I bought this Nameste needle organizer last month in Tucson, AZ. I love the purple color and it matches my purple room. I was wondering if this small bag would be able to hold all my needles. Surprise, surprise, it really holds more than I thought. Most of my needles are in there now with the exception of the really BIG needles. I was happy to be able to fit so many needles and even happier when I was able to just pull out a needle for my latest project without having to determine what size it was. It's such a small thing but organized needles makes me smile :) Get yourself one, you will love it.

ZOO Wool?

I forgot to show and tell my new yarn I purchased at the Woodland Park Zoo. Yes, you heard me right, from the ZOO. Can you believe that? My daughter's class went on a field trip in June and towards the end of the trip I got a phone call from best buddy Lisa Ellis (who was also on the trip) asking me if I had been by the yarn. I thought she was joking... but she wasn't. Over by the snow leopards was a display of yarn. So, you know me, the mere mention of the word "yarn" put me in a frenzy to find it. She was told there should be some in the gift shop so off I went (tyring not to run) to the shop. I had to see this yarn for myself. When we finally reached the shop I was pleasantly surprised at this gorgeous hand spun camel wool yarn. I found a color in a pretty shade of brown that I just loved. It wasn't cheap but I talked myself into it anyway. After all, my purchase did help support the snow leopard conservation and "help improve the livelihood of the impoverished nomadic herding women and families". How could I say "no" (as much as my husband probably wanted me to). I can't wait to knit this up... maybe a gorgeous hat or mittens? We shall see!

This last week the kids and I tried to escape the Washington summer grey skies by heading to Eastern Washington for some fun, summer camping. We did get some sunshine, along with some pretty strong wind and a little bit of grey skies. But, for the most part, the kids were able to be in the water everyday. After 3 days of bonfires, jet skies and tubing we took off for home with a stop at Grand Coulee Dam. On the way there I happened to notice a small little shop called Needles & Hooks and of course I had to stop. It was a cute little space that doubled as an antique shop. The yarn selection was not huge but I was hoping to find something different. I found that in this pretty, soft, "cabernet dream" yarn by Karie Ann (she can be found on Etsy). The yarn is actually a bit darker than in my picture. It is really pretty, kind of wine colors (worsted, 100% wool). Can't wait to make something with it, perhaps a nice hat. I also found a needle guage by Skacel. Now I can properly figure out what size my turbo's are. It's so fun to find these little yarn shops out of the blue. I think I need make a goal of visiting as many yarn shops in Washington as I can. Better start making my list, I wonder how many there are... check Needles & Hooks of that list!