I love mail!

I do exchanges because I love getting mail. I loved having pen pals and getting letters from all over the country. Now as an adult knitting exchanges can bring me some of the same joy I felt as a tween. On Thursday I got a wonderful package in the mail from my monthly dishcloth exchange partner.

Here is my wonderful package from Cheri. She sent me two vanilla candles, a note on the cutest notecard (an angle thinking what to knit next) and her beautiful cloth.



This picture does not do justice to how beautiful this cloth is. It is done on DPNs so she should get bonus points for that! Thanks Cheri - I love it all!




I have been busy knitting away on my cloth for my exchange partner. Here is the finished product. It is the Wheatfields cloth from Dishcloth Boutique. The details are located here. It will be on its way to its new home tomorrow along with some stitch markers and other goodies. Now I need to start winding down the weekend and get ready for the week. At least it is only a 3 day work week - gotta love holidays! Until next time ....

Happy, Happy Birthday Baby!

Today is my hubby's birthday. There will be no knitting content and lots of mush ahead so skip this post now if you can not stomach this stuff. Here are 20 of the many reasons I love my hubby.

1) He's gorgeous

2) He never minds being silly
3) He is always supportive of me
4) He takes good care of me when I need him to
5) He pushes me to be a better person
6) He's a great father
7) He is very humble
8) He makes me laugh
9) He listens to me complain and never complains about it
10) He loves that fact that I knit
11) He does not have a jealous bone in his body
12) He does not give up on people - even when I think he should
13) He puts up with me and that is not easy sometimes
14) He can strike up a conversation with a complete stranger
15) He is a truly nice person
16) He buys me yarn on his own
17) He has great taste in clothes and decorating
18) He actually cleans
19) He is a very hard worker
20) He loves me more than I ever imagined someone could

Back to knitting content tomorrow.

A dishcloth, a fuzzy foot and your civic duty

So there has actually been some knitting and some finishing around here. First up I finished the November KAL for the dishcloth group.

If you can not tell it is a turkey. This was a nice mindless knit for when I was watching TV. As always the details are located here





Here is the first completed fuzzy foot. Please ignore my sun, moon and stars pajama pants (oh so sexy). I finished the knitting on this yesterday and then dutifully went to knitting help and watched the video on the kitchener stitch so I could finish this up. However, after going through the contents of my notions bag 3 times I realized I had managed to lose not one but two tapestry needles. Oh well, I just ran out to Michaels at lunch today to get some new ones. I actually did not mind kitchener. People make it sound like water torture but it was easy to me. Now I am about a half inch into the cuff of the second foot. Once that is done I think I will try to hand felt them. The part of living in this apartment that sucks is that we do not have our own machines and it costs $1.25 to wash each load. Needless to say machine felting is not easy to do.

Finally, I will leave you with this friendly reminder. Tomorrow is election day so do not forget to vote. There are no excuses - the polls are open from 7am to 8pm so you can find 10 minutes to go in and do your duty. This reminder has been brought to you by this crazy knitting poli-sci major. Until next time ....

Winter 2006 Interweave Knits

So I received my new Interweave Knits today and I LOVE it! There are so many beautiful things that I want to make from this issue.
Here are my favorites.

A Cardigan for Arwen by Kate Gilbert. I love the cable detail on this sweater. I would make it a tad longer than the one in the picture.

Pewter Coat by Shirley Paden. Again I love the cable on this design. I even like the collar even though I usually do not like the wide lapel look.

Nantucket Jacket by Norah Gaughan. Another beautiful cabled piece. Again I would make it a tad longer and the sleeves a little shorter. I do not like sleeves that hit at the elbow.

Rambling Rose Cardigan by Laura Zukaite. This is my favorite design in the magazine. I love the scalloped detail on the sweater. I even like the color it is in. This is going to the top of my to knit list!

Cabernet Ribs by Liz Nields. This is a simple and classic design. I love the simplicity of it.

Arctic Diamonds Stole by Donna Druchunas. This is a beautiful lace design. I love that it was inspired by native Alaskan knitters.

This issue was a definite winner. Until next time ....

Damn lake effect!

For those of you not from around these parts you may not be aware of the glory of lake effect snow. Basically, when the wind whips across the Great Lakes it produces snow and lots of it. Usually in Detroit we are lucky that we do not get much of the lake effect stuff but today we did. The sad part is it didn't even stick - it just made the ground wet. However, this does not stop the idiot drivers from forgetting that we get the white stuff every year without fail. When I left work today it took me 20 minutes to go, no lie, 3 miles! Now traffic is always bad but it was especially so today. I can already tell this is going to be a LONG winter.

I have been thinking ahead to what projects I want to make once I am done with my fuzzy feet and hiking scarf. I really want to make Lady Eleanor from Scarf Style but I am not sure what yarn I am going to use yet. I also want to make the Fake-A-Gamo bag. Again I'm not sure exactly what yarn I will use yet but I picture it in a dark brown with a dark blue lining sewed into it. Of course at the speed I'm knitting it will be the summer of 2008 before I can start these! Until next time ....