Mail

I think everybody loves getting a little something in the mail every once in a while.  When I was a little girl I lived in Maine and my grandparents lived in NY.  My grandmother would send me cards and letters and an occasional package which started my fascination with sending and receiving mail!  A couple of weeks ago my friend Yvonne sent me a tracking number and said to be on the lookout for a package.  I couldn't imagine what she had sent me and then the day came when the package arrived.  I was so surprised and very honored that she knitted me a shawl!  She used my Tyrion's Gift pattern and added beads to it.  The yarn is Madelinetosh lace and the colorway is Lapis or Tardi's Blue as I call it.  Every time I've worn it, I've gotten a million compliments!  I'm still overwhelmed by her generosity!

Here is a close up that shows the beading:

Speaking of mail, I'm really excited to be able to reveal that Wentletrap was the May 2015 Poststitch Sockstitch club pattern! If you haven't checked out Poststitch, they have a subscription program and you can subscribe month by month which I love.  Be sure to check out their blog too, they have some great knitting tips on there.

Winter is Here

Never mind that Winter is Coming, it's here!  The temperatures have been well below normal here for the past week, dipping well down into the single digits.  It was only 2 degrees here yesterday morning and barely got into the double digits.  I had all the intentions of blogging yesterday afternoon only to discover that we had a frozen pipe.  I spent a large part of the afternoon thawing the pipe with a heating pad and a blow dryer.  This doesn't sound really awful and normally I don't think it would be, but the pipe happened to be in between a wall in our basement and the foundation in a spot that I could barely squeeze through.  While I was squeezing in and out of this tiny space I noticed that where the main power to the house comes in had a large hole and was letting cold air in. No wonder the pipe had frozen!  I plugged it up with insulation and then insulated the pipes with pipe insulation.  So far it seems to be working. 

This was the spot that I squeezed into and yes, I was terrified I would either get wedged in there or attacked by spiders the entire time!

Because there was exposed insulation and god knows what else, I dressed properly for the occasion:

Now, onto some fun and much happier stuff!  

Last month Verity from Truly Hooked contacted me to see if I would be interested in having my Wentletrap pattern included in her sock club!  The mail has been really slow here and I sometimes wonder if our mailman likes to keep the yarn packages for a bit before delivering them.  After all,  they are really soft and squishy and hard to resist!  I can't tell you how delighted I was when I opened the lovely lavender package that contained Verity's yarn!  The colors are bright and cheerful, just the thing for the middle of a dreary winters day.  The yarn base is an 80/10/10 Superwash Merino/Nylon/Cashmere with just the right amount of twist to work well for socks, and soft enough for me to just want to wrap the skein around my neck and dance around the house for a bit.

As well as being a fantastic indie dyer, Verity also just recently had one of her crochet designs published in Inside Crochet. Verity also has a group on Ravelry and there are quite a few Wentletraps knit up in this colorway.  It's called Quirky, which suits it's cheerful colors perfectly.  Here is a link to this months yarn club: TruelyHooked

Here are Verity's Wentletraps in Quirky.  Don't they look like happy socks?  The colorway is perfect for them!

I've been working on a second Arya's Needle that has three of the lace panels and omits the sword in the center.  It's going to be used as a sample at the booth I will have at The Powhatan's Festival of Fiber in April.  I dyed up the yarn myself and will have some kitted up with the pattern at the festival. It was snowing again this morning and I wanted to capture a bit of it in the pictures without actually going outside. Even though they are a touch dark, I really like the way they came out.

Six More Weeks of Winter KAL

Well the groundhog from hell has spoken and we will be having six more weeks of winter.  As you know, I love winter and next to fall it's my favorite time of the year.  This years lack of snow in our area pared with biting cold temperatures has been rather disappointing.  My friends in New England have gotten more than their fair share of snow and I would gladly take some of it off of their hands! 

To get us through the next six weeks, I started a Six More Weeks of Winter KAL in my Ravelry Group.  It's a casual KAL and you can even knit one of my patterns that you may already have.  If you want to purchase a pattern for the KAL use coupon code: Phil for 20%, good until the end of the day.  I'm giving away three patterns for prizes, all you need to do is post a picture of your FO from the KAL in the group to be entered.  I'm going to be joining in the KAL to help me with my goal of using 10 skeins before MDSW. 

Two pairs of socks knit from stash using two skeins of yarn.  I'm not counting the contrasting color on the Hearts in Owlantis since it was leftover from another project.

I didn't bother to check my gauge since Wentletrap is one of my designs (Do you think you are the only one who plays Russian Roulet with gauge????) and I wound up using more yarn than I planned and actually ran out on the toe of the second sock.  I put an SOS up in the Socks That Rock Group on Ravelry and Turtlegirl was kind enough to come to my rescue.  This was what was on the package when it came:

I finished up the toe and blocked them yesterday.  They are nice and dry this morning and I'm going to wear them today. Woot, woot! The yarn is Socks That Rock Lightweight in the Fire on the Mountain colorway.

I tend to get a little stir crazy when we wind up staying inside so much.  I rearrange furniture, clean out closets and generally drive Andy crazy.  We keep Iggy's crate in the living room during the day so that when we leave he can see Kiwi and not feel like he is all alone.  He is still way to young to leave unattended at this point.  The crate wasn't really an eyesore, but it really wasn't adding anything to the living room either.  I took some quick measurements and realized that it would fit perfectly under a repurposed sewing table that we had by the front door to keep our keys and other clutter on.  It looks much better and best of all didn't cost a thing.  We had been looking at coffee table crates on Amazon, and they are crazy expensive!  The table is a little taller than the crate, which I like because it will give Iggy plenty of fresh air.

Wentletrap

My love of seashells started when I was a small child. I would collect them in my pockets on trips we took to the beach in Maine. Even in the cold days of winter my family would walk on the beach to enjoy the fresh sea air. 

 

Wentletraps are a family of small high spired mollusks. Their shells are one of my favorites – delicate and complex looking with their spiraling forms. The spiraling pattern of the Wentletrap Sock is reflective of the beauty of these exquisite sea creatures.

  I really enjoyed designing and knitting these socks.   The lace pattern is very easy to remember and makes Wentletrap a perfect project to take to the beach or pool this summer.  I strive to make my patterns easy to follow and as uncomplicated as possible while still being interesting to knit.  I hope that you will enjoy knitting them as much as I have.

Wentletrap specially priced at $4.50 until this Saturday, July 20.

My test knitters did a fabulous job.  Thank you so much Jan, Lyz, Bhama,  Lydia, Tamsyn, Jenna, Margi and Ann! 

True Confessions

I think in life when we enjoy something some of us may tend to go a little bit overboard.  Now, a few of you who know me in real life are going to think: oh here she goes complaining talking about all of Andy's fishing equipment (it has it's own room in our finished basement).  No, this time it's a confession of my own.  Not only do I hoard yarn like a crazed chipmunk hiding acorns before a long winter, but I have another fetish.  I can't really call it a hobby because it's gone way beyond that.  But ok, here goes, true confession time.  I'm a MakeupAholic.  Particularly with eyeshadow and eyeliner.  I don't ever leave the house without wearing both along with mascara.  My friend Angie won't even get the mail without lipstick on so I don't think I'm alone in this. 

This is the collection of eyeshadow.  It's mostly Smashbox with some Urban Decay, Ulta and one Mac thrown in for good measure.   It's all much prettier in person than in this low lit picture.  It's a lot, I know.  I really do use all of it though.  The two Urban Decay pallets in the upper right are my new favorites.  The shadow doesn't crease or flake and the colors have a lot of pigment in them.

I love nail polish too.  Surprise, surprise right?  I don't wear it on my fingernails very often as they are soft and flexible.  The polish will usually chip off in a matter of days and sometimes even a few hours.  Ive have professional manicures and they don't last any longer so Ive given up on that.  I keep my toenails painted throughout the warmer months and the seem to do pretty well.  Painted toenails are kind of like little jewels for your toes.  This blue polish made me smile:

 The shoes are to distract you from the white glow from my feet!

The nail polish is all stored in a cute little wig box that I picked up at a tag sale.  The three at the top are by Butter London.   They have some amazing colors that coordinate nicely with my hand knits and wear really well.

 

I had a thumb injury a couple of weeks ago that required a trip to the emergency room and a round of antibiotics.  It injury was quite painful and prevented me from knitting for a while.  I'm finally back to my needles and much happier.  I'm still keeping it covered for a while longer, but at least it's just with a band aid and much easier to work with. 

While I don't have much to show that Ive been working on, Wendi finished her Frost in Bloom and it's really stunning.  I love the color so much that I had to order a skein for myself.  Wendi has her own shop and dyed this herself.

My newest sock pattern, Wentletrap, is in the final stages of being published.  The editor is going over it to make sure that I haven't made any errors in the written portion.  We had a photo shoot last weekend and the pictures turned out pretty well.  Due to the enormous amount of rain we have been having we had to take the pictures inside. I like the contrast of the orange yarn with our blue wainscoting.  Look for the pattern release early next week.

 

Wentletrap