Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

I'm definitely smiling in this picture because of the package of awesomeness that I received last week from my swap partner Sibohan.

It was late in the day when her owl dropped this package at my door step. Once I opened it, I found it full of blue and siler wrapped goodies.

 

 

The perfect end to a long day is getting to unwrap all sorts of goodies. Here is everything that came in the package. Quite a a haul! 

There was chocolates, jelly beans, Harry Potter activity books, sock yarn, a sock pattern, Starbucks coffee, a crochet beanie, more blue and grey wool, stitch markers and blocking pins. Like I said, quite the haul!

A close up of the yarns. The sock yarn is really soft and I can't wait to make myself some socks with it. 

The height of awesomeness... a Hufflepuff Prefect Badge!

 

Lastly, a close up of the crochet beanie, which I was able to wear while shoveling snow this week. Thanks again to my awesome spoiler! 

Final Quidditch Post

Well it's the final week of Quidditch Around the World: HSKS9... where did the time go to? It seems like we just signed up a couple of weeks ago. I really enjoyed participating in Shuntbumps this time around. It was a really great selection of patterns, they were challenging and the competition was pretty fierce.

My owl Artimus is winging his way up to Canada with my package for Stuart Cauldwell. Those international flight seem to take so long, even though the distance between us is not a great amount. I'm looking forward to seeing what Stuart thinks of the package I put together.

Well  that's all for now. It's getting late, but I wanted to be sure to post tonight.

Artimus Heads North

My kit is all boxed up and ready to go. I will be going to the Owl Post with Artimus tomorrow to arrange his flight out to Canada. The Owl Post will give him protective enchantments against the severe cold weather we've been having. He will definitely be needing that. Fortunately he'll be able to rest up once he arrives at Stuart Cauldwell's before returning.

How Bout Dat!

It seemed like it would never end. Rowena and I were the finalists in the Knitting League of Shuntbumps and neither of us was making progress on our final project. After trudging through the last few rows, the unending I-cord strap, the seaming together and last but not least finding buttons that worked...  I finally finished it!

Hope Mom likes it because it is going to be her Christmas gift.

Make It Work!

Uncle Vincenzio has been involved in a swap of his own that her just received his package for. It was the Sock Kit Swap on Ravelry, where they had to make a pair of socks for their partner as well as put together a sock kit. This package came in last week. Lots of red wrapping paper in that box!

The kit included 3 hanks of Koigu sock yarn! And a "Men Who Knit" coffee mug! Along with the sock pattern was Nancy Bush's "Knitting Vintage Socks" which I had just borrowed from the Knitting Guild's library and was thinking of getting for myself.

The highlight of the kit was the black canvas bag from Mood Designer Fabric! I literally squealed when I saw it! It is a huge bag and it will make a great project bag!

What A Week!

Last weekend I was in Chicago and South West Michigan for the Men's Mid-West Knitting Retreat. There were 14 of us all together and it was a great time!

I think we are quite the handsome group of gentlemen knitters! :-)  I will be posting more pictures from the retreat. I just downloaded them from my camera but have not had a chance to go through them.

While at the retreat we went to several fiber related places; Lorna's Laces, Marr Haven Fibers, Briar Rose Fibers and the Circle R Alpaca Ranch. Got to see a lot and bought some fibery goodness. I even picked up a couple things to send to my spoilee, Stuart Cauldwell. But I'm not going to say what. :-)

Today I taught another Sock Yarn Dyeing Class fro the Knitting Guild of Greater Buffalo. It was a smaller group this time but everyone was really into it. We saw some great colors created today. A fun time was had by all.

MMWKR

Well I am almost packed for the Men's Mid-West Knitting Retreat. My flight is Thursday morning at 7:41. So I need to finish packing and get to bed because I'll be up early. My flight arrives at 8:35, so it should be 9:30 or 10:00 am by the time I get to the bed and breakfast that I'll be staying at on Thursday. We have some things planned in Chicago for the day, then we leave Friday morning for the Circle Pines where we will be staying until Sunday.

I've packed a few projects to work on while I'm there: my top-down henley that I'm making for myself, pair of socks for myself, pair of socks for dad, Queen Anne's Lace shawl, my Shuntbumps finals project and I dug out some wool for a hat. LOL! Wonder if that will be enough...

Speaking of the Shuntbumps Finals... Oiy! What a project for the final round! It is a great pattern and an awesome cabled bag, but it is slow going. It used worsted weight wool on US2 needles! So it is a tight gauge, to give a firm fabric. It does not knit up quickly. Both Rowena and I are going slow on it. I also want to get it right, without any mistakes. This is going to be Mom's Christmas present.

Well, gotta finish packing my suitcase, get the laptop packed up, and print out anything I need to bring with me tomorrow. Don't want to have to do that stuff while rushing in the morning. We will have internet access at the Center, so I'll try to post when I can over the weekend.