Yarn shopping...

Call me NUTS but I was up bright and early this morning at 5:00 AM to hit the Yorkshire Yarns after Christmas sale. I had my shopping bag and my strategy for fighting the crowd all ready to go... luckily since they are now in a new, larger shop it wasn't so bad. It was busy, it was crazy, it was a yarn frenzy and I had a ball. Heck, who can pass up a 40% discount on their favorite yarns? I know I couldn't (guess I must be the only die-hard in my knitting group... lol) and I wasn't disappointed (other than the fact that the yarn I REALLY wanted, Malabrigo, wasn't on the shelves :( I had no problem filling my shopping bag though with all kinds of yummy yarn. I think I have enough "stash" now to last me all through next year. At least until the next annual sale that is! Thanks Sonya for my most favorite Christmas presents of all!!

Santa's coming...

Well tomorrow is Christmas Eve... did you get all your knitting done? What about me you ask? Ha, ha... I sure as heck didn't. I'm such an idiot for thinking "hey, the kids are on break, I don't have many places, I can sit home and knit and I'll get a lot of knitting done". I must have been drunk or something (too many hot buttered rums), I don't know what I was thinking. Guess I'll be pulling an all-nighter to get as much done tonight as I can since most of it needs to go out the door tomorrow evening. Oh well... there is always next year. Best of luck to you if you are still knitting into the night like me!

I wanted to wish all my knitting buddies, friends, relatives and everyone else out there a VERY Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year! Relax and ENJOY!

Christmas...

Decorations are up, the chill is in the air, excited children are every where... all we need now is a little snow! I can't believe Christmas is just around the corner. My how this year just flew by. I can't believe how all the holidays just seemed to creep up really fast on me this year. Christmas is next week all ready and I still have a ton of knitting to accomplish. Will it all get done? Probably not... I'll have to figure out what will have to wait until the new year. Can you believe it will be 2010? Seems like only yesterday we were ringing in the new millennium, the year 2000, the year my beautiful daughter was born and now she is going to be 10 years old. I guess my Mother was right... the older you get the faster the years go by. I didn't want to believe this but this past year flew by like the blink of an eye. If only I could slow time down (and keep my kids from growing up).

I do love this time of year though... the hustle and bustle of busy shopping centers, the look of wonder in the eyes of children and the hope of a white Christmas. I also love going into my local yarn shops to see all the new, wonderful, wool yarn in brilliant winter shades. I just love all the cool colors of winter and I get so excited to see and feel all the marvelous wool that fills the shelves in my favorite shops. I recently visited Yorkshire Yarns in Lakewood and found some yummy new Dream In Color yarn called Be Your Own Superhero (Knitosophy). As you can see in the picture above, the colors are just beautiful. I also found some pretty green and blue sock yarn, my son keeps hounding me for "Seahawk" color socks. My next stop will be Renaissance Yarns and Allyn Knit Shop to see what's new there and get my hands on some more of my favorite... Punta Yarn. I can't wait to see what new colors they have in so I can decide on my projects for the new year.

I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year! Here's to 2o10... may it be the best year yet! Happy Knitting!

Knitting time...

Christmas is in the air... and the needles are in my hands working as fast as they can to get all those hand knit gifts done. My most recent project was coffee cozies for the bazaar at our school. I made quite a few but than, just days before the bazaar, I stumbled upon the sock monkey cozies. I was only able to get a few made but they were a big hit. I loved making them and that's a good think since I have 4 more I need to make. I just used leftover yarn, they were pretty quick to make. The pattern can be found at www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/george---sock-monkey-cup-cozy. Anyone who is a sock monkey fan will love these little cozies.

I've got cramps...

Knitting two hats in one day I believe is called "a knitting addiction". Ok, OK, most of you would probably say "idiot". I agree... my hands really cramped up from that. I haven't knitted all day because of it. But, I popped the motrin and let my hands rest most of the day. Now I'm ready to go again. I need to get some more coffee cozies done for a school bazaar on Friday. I sure hope someone buys them :)

My first hat above is another Orvieto, requested by a friend. She has been fighting the big "C" and I've been wanting to make her a hat for a while now. It was knit, of course, out of my favorite yarn, Merisoft from Punta Yarns. This pattern is so quick and easy and can be accomplised in a day (hey, if I can do it you can too). The second hat is the Dean Street Hat I also found on Ravelry. This was a fun, easy, quick hat also... the best kind. It was also made out of the merisoft yarn for my nephew. The third hat is the Koolhaas Hat (also on Ravelry) made out of di've yarn and was made for my sons teacher. My Christmas pile is happily growing daily but it still seems like I have a ton more to do. Does it ever end? NO... I believe that a "true" knitter has a never ending pile of stashed gifts and a never ending pile of stashed yarn to keep that pile going! I AM A TRUE KNITTER! (lol) Or, as my husband would say, a knitting nerd :)

New sock yarn...

I'm in heaven... today I drove out to Allyn Knit Shop and surprise, surprise, they now carry Punta Yarns. If it wasn't clear before (lol) this is one of my very favorite yarns. They had some beautiful colors for sock yarn so, of course, I bought some. The colorways are so vibrant and pretty it was really hard to choose just one. The nice thing about this sock yarn? Besides being soft and wonderful it is a bit cheaper than most but oh so darn pretty. I was in a rut with socks but now I can't wait to start a new pair. They will have to wait until after Christmas though. If you haven't been to Allyn, it is a great little shop with a nice big selection of yarn. It has become one of my favorite shops. Check it out sometime (http://www.allynknitandspin.com/).

Christmas in coming...

It's almost Thanksgiving and Christmas is just around the corner. I can't believe how quick it has snuck up on us. I'm in full swing with Christmas knitting now. Finished several projects and am working on requests from friends. Once I finish that it's back to my own gifts. Last week I went to one of my favorite shops, Renaissance Yarns. They carry the yarn that I seemed to be obsessed with lately, Punta Yarns Merisoft. I can't help it, I'm addicted to this yarn (http://www.puntayarns.com/all-yarns.htm). It is so nice to knit with and the colorways are just beautiful. Everyone is getting a gift with this yarn this year. What can I say? I LOVE it!

I hope you all have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving! Be thankful, be happy, have fun!

(PS: Purple hat & headband were made with Malabrigo and the pink gloves were made with the Punta yarn)