Thanksgiving Day

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Just so you know...

I'm heading out of town in a bit and I shall return Saturday (at some point)!

final Falling for Ewe Swap package

I received my last package from my FFE spoiler, Liz. :) She truly outdid herself! I received lots of yummy candy-two mini bars of green & black dark chocolate--only one is pictured because the other one got devoured by my fiance!, some peanut m&ms, a bag of russell stover ny cheesecake ganache (which I've never seen before!), lots of spices from Savory, some polar bear stickers, a cute rubber stamp, some ultra cool pebble magnets, and some nice squishy mirasol hacho yarn in the dreamiest colorway I've ever seen! :) Thank you SO very much, Liz! I love everything and can't wait to start getting to know you now.

Holiday Mail for Heroes

A good friend of mine, posted this on her blog and I'm following suit! I think it's such a great idea!!

The American Red Cross is sponsoring a national “Holiday Mail for Heroes” campaign to receive and distribute holiday cards to servicemembers and veterans both in the United States and abroad.

Holiday Mail for Heroes, which began Tuesday, Veterans Day, is a follow-up to the 2007 effort that resulted in the collection and distribution of more than 600,000 cards to hospitalized service members. This year’s program will expand its reach to not only wounded service members but also veterans and their families. The goal is to collect and distribute 1 million pieces of holiday mail.

“As we enter this holiday season-a time to celebrate with family and friends-it’s important to remember the thousands of men and women who serve our nation in harm’s way and those who are recovering in military and veterans hospitals,” said Army Col. Norvell V. Coots, commander, Walter Reed Health Care System. “The Holiday Mail for Heroes program is a wonderful outreach effort and a great way to acknowledge the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform.”

Holiday cards should be mailed to: Holiday Mail for Heroes P.O. Box 5456 Capitol Heights, MD. 20791-5456

All cards must be postmarked no later than Dec. 10. Cards should not be mailed or delivered to Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

For more information, visit www.wramc.amedd.army.mil or www.redcross.org/holidaymail for Holiday Mail for Heroes program guidelines.Walter Reed is not accepting mail addressed to “A Recovering American Soldier.”

a knitting break

Please excuse my delay in posting...friends and family discount at Gap and Old Navy took over last weekend and this weekend, I attempted to do some holiday shopping. I say attempted because I managed to leave the house without a single credit card so there was no shopping to be completed just a lot of browsing! We also checked out Cal State Northridge which could potentially be where I go to get my reading specialist credential. Reading has always been a passion of mine and when I first started teaching here in LA, I knew that I eventually wanted to become a reading specialist. I'm still toying with the idea though. I finished my lace ribbon scarf last Sunday! Here's a pic of it while blocking. Before I finished it, I began working on the evening shrug. I finished one sleeve but can't seem to get the second sleeve off the ground just yet! No pics of that yet but hopefully soon. I haven't been in a knitting state of mind lately. I knew once I finished the lace ribbon scarf that I would be in need of a lil break. I've been thinking about knitting though and know what I want to work on while I'm at my parents' home for Thanksgiving! I need to dust off my sesame and see how much I can accomplish. My sister has also requested a sweater (who knew she thought I was that talented!) ;) I had actually considered giving out hand knit gifts for this holiday season but my family is unappreciative of anything that is hand knit so I'm not even going to bother. And then my sister threw a curve ball from left field! She's already been made aware by my fiance that if she wants a sweater, it won't be finished until summer. :o I haven't asked her what exactly she'd like because she's in major study mode for the LSAT. I think this will be the last time she takes it and then it will be off to apply for admissions to a reputable school of law. Adding to my desire of a knitting break was when I received a call from my sister at school that an ambulance had arrived at our parents' house and she had no further information. The short of it is, my dad thought he was having a stroke and called 911. Did this really need to happen before Thanksgiving? He's okay. He had to spend about 2 days in the hospital but all his tests came back negative. Here's to hoping that he's really truly okay. I haven't quite been able to function since receiving the news. I'm heading home on Tuesday for the Thanksgiving festivities at my parents'--they both said not to worry and that there was no need for me or my sister to hop in the car and drive on up to check things out. Being the obedient children we are (once in a while!) we listened. I hope it was the right decision. While I've been away. I acquired some new yarn. (what's new??) Here's my malabrigo sock dogpile: I also received some mama blue but have yet to take a pic of either one of them. Bear with me! If I don't return before I leave on Tuesday, I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving (that is, if you're in the US!).

what a knit

wow. i finished my first clapotis just a few moments ago and can't believe what a fantastic knit it is-when you have the right yarn! My first attempt at a clap ended in the frog pond. Looking back, I think that is because as I knitted and completed each pattern repeat, I couldn't help but think that I was going to need to alter the pattern and it was going to be too short. I'm going to have to make other plans for that yarn.As I got closer to finishing this lovely thing, my feelings regarding her had definitely blossomed. With the first yarn, I wasn't in love with the pattern or even how the yarn was knitting up in said pattern. Once I tried this pattern on the sundara I had, my feelings were beginning to change. Now that she's all done, I absolutely adore her and can't even imagine that I had complained about how many repeats I had to complete in order to finish her or that I even complained about how long it took to finish just one pattern repeat. Ahhhh, but that was before-when I wasn't using my sundara. She is majestic. I'm on the fence rearding whether or not I'm going to block her. I like the drape and have heard that you can no longer wear it as a scarf once blocked. I can't wait to show her off! :)Here's something else I'm loving and am SO glad I can get back to her now that majestic is done-my lace ribbon scarf. They've been bonding these two-ms. majestic and little beauty. I hope to finish little beauty by the end of my three day weekend. I was playing around with the features on my fiance's camera. I wish that my camera could do this fun stuff! I participated in my first Mama Blue update last night and scored one Squid & Ink kit-and that's it. It was insane. It was my first update ever of any kind and I'm wondering if the Sundara updates used to be as crazy as this one was!

November 4, 2008

Whew. What a day. Today will not only go down as a historic day for the US but it also marks the last day of physical therapy for me and I was able to score some malabrigo sock yarn from Simply Sock Yarn! Run, don't walk over there before they're all gone! The last few days have kind of zipped by in a blur. Halloween came and went--and I have to tell you, I was wiped out from our parade that afternoon coupled with my having overdone the whole walking thing Thursday night doing last minute Halloween costume shopping! I was a peacock this year. Sorry for not having any pics of me in my costume. I know a few of the parents took some shots of me but no one has sent me any copies yet. So here's all you get.Yesterday, I received my second package from miss kikibowns. :) Again, she has outdone herself. There's a bag of dark chocolate (I had no idea green and black sold them in individual bits of chocolate!), a Pinocchio tape measure to add to my collection, a sample of soak (my favorite!), a tin of knitting gift tags that I have been wanting for a while now!, a super cool pattern for some fingerless mitts, 2 skeins of gloss, and the best part of all is the cute felted clutch she sent me. :) Nicolle is quite talented and actually makes and sells these clutches! :) Thank you SO very much for everything, hon! :) The adjustment to the time change (for me) has been seamless--although I need to get myself to bed earlier! The kids have been psycho beyond words. Luckily I was only in school for a few hours on account of my last two appointments and I decided to go vote before heading off to school so I only experienced about an hour of pure unadulterated crazy. To add fuel to their fire, we have our big "El Dia de Los Muertos" celebration this Friday so the end of today was spent trying on costumes, stuffing them in bags, and sending them home with the chillins. Good stuff, I tell ya. P.S. Something interesting from my voting experience..While I was waiting in line waiting to vote, I noticed that one of the girls who was already in a voting booth had f*ck tattooed on her arm right below her shoulder not very big but big enough to be seen from where I was standing. I wondered what she did for a living and I hoped that she had no intention of going into education!

knitting meme

Elspeth had this up on her blog and I thought it was time to review and see if I've learned any new techniques!The official rules are mark with bold the things you have knit at least once, with italics the ones you plan to do sometime, and leave the rest.

The official rules are mark with bold the things you have knit at least once, with italics the ones you plan to do sometime, and leave the rest.

Afghan I-cord Garter stitch Knitting with metal wire Shawl Stockinette stitch Socks: top-down Socks: toe-up Knitting with camel yarn Mittens: Cuff-up Mittens: Tip-down Hat Knitting with silk (blend) Moebius band knitting Participating in a KAL Sweater Drop stitch patterns Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn Slip stitch patterns Knitting with banana fiber yarn Domino knitting (modular knitting) Twisted stitch patterns Knitting with bamboo yarn Two end knitting Charity knitting Knitting with soy yarn Cardigan Toy/doll clothing Knitting with circular needles Knitting with your own handspun yarn Slippers Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street) Continental knitting Designing knitted garments Cable stitch patterns Lace patterns Publishing a knitting book Scarf Teaching a child to knit American/English knitting (as opposed to continental) Knitting to make money Button holes Knitting with alpaca Fair Isle knitting Norwegian knitting Dyeing with plant colors Knitting items for a wedding Household items Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars Olympic knitting Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn Knitting with DPNs Holiday related knitting Bobbles Knitting for a living Knitting with cotton Knitting smocking Dyeing yarn Steeks Knitting art Fulling/felting Knitting with wool Textured knitting Kitchener BO Purses/bags Knitting with beads Swatching Long Tail CO Entrelac Knitting and purling backwards Machine knitting Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn Stuffed toys Baby items Knitting with cashmere Darning Jewelry Knitting with synthetic yarn Writing a pattern Gloves Intarsia Knitting with linen Knitting for preemies Tubular CO Freeform knitting Short rows Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers Pillows Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine Rug Knitting on a loom Thrummed knitting Knitting a gift Knitting for pets Shrug/bolero/poncho Knitting with dog/cat hair Hair accessories Knitting in public