Fruits, nuts, and berries

I got a skein in the mail yesterday from Habu Textiles.

I do believe it’s from my No Sheep Skein Swap Secret Pal.

It’s beeautiful.

It’s the 98 Blue Kasuri

http://www.habutextiles.com/webfile/a-64.html

I played around with it this morning on four-aughts (size 0000 needles).

Hooray!  My pal has persisted and made contact!  Hooray!

Oooh La La!

I have picked out both of my downstream partner’s skeins . . . picked from a small shop in Sonoma, CA, just off the Plaza, where I stayed for sil’s wedding two weeks ago. The wedding was beautiful, but the yarns are exquisite! Going to have to stop coveting them myself long enough to send them off.

I haven’t heard from my upstream pal.

Her email might have been caught in my spam killer. Hey, upstream Pal! Please try again! The AskQue sends a weird little letter to ask if you’re friend or foe, but it will recognize you if you reply to the query letter, and will forever after recognize you as friend.

No Sheep Skein Swap! Say *that* three times fast.

No Sheep Skein Swap

No Sheep Skein Swap

No Sheep Skein Swap

Whoa–sounds like I’ve been drinking, and it’s still pretty early in the morning.  (I haven’t).
I’ve emailed my downstream pal, and am noodling on what to send. Maybe my trip to CA next week will yield the perfect thing.

I stole most of the suggested questions, but added a few of my own:

11. Are you also a spinner?

12. What are you reading now?

13. What fibers have you tried and loved?  Tried and despised?

14. Any yarns you’ve been looking at, and haven’t gotten around to picking up?

I joined the S2K orpan swap just in time for my original pal to send the skeins. There’s a beeeautiful mossy green one and a pink-and-purply one with the softest, softest pink fiber in it. Thank you, Secret Pal!

I’ve spun my first skein for my orphan pal, and will send it off this week. My new upstream pal hasn’t yet made contact, and I worry that she got stuck in my SpamKiller and chucked by my hubby not paying attention . . . but she just might not check mail often, so I’m not sweating it.

All of my spare time has been spent spinning and working on the new store Fiber in the Hands of An Angry Spinner which still needs a shopping cart, or at least Paypal, but Michael is working on that.

In the meantime, my LYS Harmony Yarn Studio is carrying my yarns, fibers, and stitch markers.

Hooray for the champions of locally produced goods!

Harmony Yarn Studio

1034 N. 3rd Street

Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho 83815

208-676-9276

I’ll post the pics soon . . . though I’m a bit disturbed that the colours in the picture (bright) don’t reflect the colour of the yarn (subdued).  I tried with and without flash . . . but no banana.

I hope my downstream buddy likes the yarn.  (fingers crossed).

As I mentioned before, this seemed like a really good idea.

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A veritable sock army . . . no, wait . . . I mean to say, originally, I meant to make one calendar for my sil:

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Which led to one for my mil:

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and one for my mom:

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And then the socks went marching out of control:

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(This pic shows a bunch of the ones that are on my calendar, the white-with-coloured-tops socks).

And soon the whole project spiraled out of control:

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The Google Doodle Kangaroos . . . have stolen the swag,
and balled it,
and are now knitting. –Jen

It seemed like a good idea when I started . . . but doesn’t it always?

I’ve seen scads of quilted/sewed Advent calendars, and got to thinking about a knitted one, when my latest knitting rut (socks) and Michael’s love (woodworking) suddenly struck me as a great combination: have him make the “hanger” bit, and I’d make the socks for each day, and voila! the world’s cutest Advent Calendar. Originally, I was only going to make one for my sil. Then I realized that my mil would love one, and my mom would want one, and Michael and Alaetheia would want one, and suddenly I was knitting 24 socks times at least 4 calendars.

It wasn’t until I’d knitted the 150+th little sock that I realized I could make a calendar with the number of socks equal to the number of people in the family, just one board, and have it used over daily, and everyone could get a little treat (especially nice for a family like my family of origin, where there were 4 of us squabbling over the chocolates).

Duh.

Pictures to follow when I get them uploaded.

10641I just signed up for Interweave’s Spin to Knit Secret Pal Exchange.

When I get out of the Knitting Mines, I can spin some more.

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Secret Pal Swap