An FO and an update and a package!

I did it! I finally finished my Candle Flame Shawl. But first, I'll start with the update.

I wasn't able to find the color way of Lana Grossa that I wanted for my Harvest Sock Swap pal. But I did find some nice Trekking that will work just lovely. See:

So, I have a pattern, I know have sock yarn, and some great ideas for goodies. So, since I have knitted a stitch since I finished the shawl, I'll be casting on tomorrow.

Now for the package. Monday evening, I came in late and there was a box sitting on the kitchen table. I didn't get to open it until yesterday, and wasn't able to blog about it till today, 'cause those blasted pixies ran off with my camera cord! Really, if anyone have a pixie bone grinder, please send it this way. Anywho! Here is what my lovely pal, Claudia from Rhode Island, sent me:

Here is the card that was in the package, along with the pattern for the bag:

Here is the bag, in the perfect colors. It will go with just about everything I have:

Here are some yummy goodies! Mmmm...... White chocolate, my favorite! I've had to fight off the girls and Mr. S. There is a good sized sail boat and 2 pumpkin suckers:

Here's some fibery goodness. Some Paton's SWS, which I haven't got a chance to work with yet. The colors remind me of Lorna's Laces Mixed Berries:

And here's a smell good. A great smelling Juicy Apple candle. I love candles:

Thank you, Claudia! I just love everything!

Now for the FO! The Candle Flame Shawl. I love this pattern. I would like to make another, some time. After I finished, I can to the conclusion that it looks a lot better in person that it does on the computer. It turns out fabulous! Here is a pic of when I finished it Friday night, before washing and blocking:

Here it is, after washing, and blocked on a piece of foam insulation board (which was Miss Amy's, and she graciously let me use):
Here is the final pics, washed, blocked, and modeled by the bushes in front of the house:

Here is a close up of the lace detail:

The specs:

Pattern: Candle Flame Shawl from Knit Picks
Yarn: Knit Picks Gossamer
Colorway: Leprechaun
Needles: US 4 circs
Finished size: 16" x 70"
Notes: I worked a Moss Stitch edging, as I hate garter stitch. I worked 15 pattern repeats to get the length needed. You can see all the pics on Ravelry. My profile name is Rosiegypsy.

And I was prompted to finish it so I could wear it to the Loreen McKennitt concert Saturday night. Which, by the way, was beyond fabulous. I have been to few concerts in my day (Kool & the Gang, George Jones, Fall Out Boy, Poison, several Metallica concerts, Limp Bizkit, Lincoln Park, you get the idea), but this was by far the best I have ever been to. The over all atmosphere was relaxed and fun. The band was having a great time just performing. And, we had dinner at the Claddagh Irish Pub. They had some pretty good Guiness beef stew, which was piled on sweet cream mashed potatoes.

Needed: 1 Pixie bone grinder

I'll explain the title in a minute. But, first. What a wasted weekend! Being that I was on call, I had 3 shipments to watch, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that I had wait for a driver, coming from Philly, to load up 1 skid. Now, I figured that since he loaded in Philly on Friday evening, then he would be in early Saturday morning. Boy, was I wrong. I tried to keep myself busy, knitting as much as I could, but keep my hands free to drop and run at a moments notice. I told them that if he called when he was a half hour outside of Columbus, I could just meet him at the office. I finally got a call around 11 am, just to tell me that the driver would be in around 2. So, I thought I could buckle down and knit my heart out till about 1:30. At 1:15 I got a call that his A/C unit went down, and he was delayed and he would be in around 6 pm. So, the girls and I ran to Wally World with mom. Then, 6 o'clock rolls around, and I get a call from his dispatcher that he was just west of Zanesville, OH. I said, great. I can prep dinner, and leave around 6:30, he'll be there about 7. I was at the office at 6:45. By the time it was all said and done, I didn't get this guy loaded till 8 o'clock, 24 hrs after he loaded in Philly! I was a little angry. We hadn't had dinner yet, Mr. S was waiting for me to get done at the office before coming over, and all that lost knitting time! So, I didn't get the felted bag finished and in the washer until 4 on Sunday. But it looks great! See:

Before felting:


After felting:
I left the pattern book in for size reference. Isn't cute. Here are the specs:

Pattern: Kitchen Sink Bag
Size: Short
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool Merino
Colors: Harvest (multi) & Leaf Green
Needles: 10 1/2 circs
Thoughts: I love this bag, I'll have to make another, for me. This was the first time I used this yarn, and it felts great. I would even use this yarn on a regular pattern.

Ok, on to the Candle Flame Shawl. Yeah, what can I say? I wasn't able to touch it all weekend. I tossed it into my Namaste purse and brought to work on at lunch yesterday. When I picked it up, I was on row 4 of repeat 10, of 18 repeats, 36 rows per repeat. Just a little over whelming. Between what I was able to get done at lunch, and what I was able to work on after pixie hunting in the kitchen (more on that in a minute), all said and done, when I couldn't hold my eyes open any longer, I stopped after row 6 of repeat 11. I am going to try to sneak in a few rows at my desk, as my boss is out on a golf outing today. Then, see how much I can get done at lunch, after running to the bank. So, hopefully, I will have fingers of fury for the next few days, 'cause I so want to wear this to that concert.

Now, for the pixie hunt. I thought I had left the blasted things in the old apartment, when I moved over a year and half ago. Apparently not! In the past month, 1 small frying pan, 1 medium frying pan and one of my Tupperware ice cream scoops (yes, I have 2, but I used to sell Tupperware) have come up missing. Between Miss Amy, Katie, Mr. S and myself, that kitchen has been torn apart more times than I'd like to count. Granted, my pans were about 10 years old and needed replaced, but I wasn't ready to replace them yet. The ice cream scoop wasn't in the best of conditions anymore, but it matched the rest of my hunter green Tupperware. When I finally do find these pixies, they'll be dust! Maybe I'll let the cats have one to play with, it'd serve the little buggers right.

Anywho. For my Harvest Sock Swap update. I have picked out the pattern, bought a few goodies, but I may have to order the yarn I want to use. I'm looking for specific color to go with the whole fall theme.

Ooh! The office manager just went to lunch, now's the time to see if I can sneak a few rows in. Later.

Motivation?

I think I have motivation to knock off 2 projects this weekend. Shall I explain? Why, of course I shall, because unless you decide to find some other blog to read, you're almost a captive audience. Hee hee!

Where to start? Oh yeah! My wonderful man. He loves to do things for me. Say I want to go see a movie (i.e. Resident Evil: Extinction - saw it this past weekend), he does his absolute best to make it happen. I was going on about wanting to go the Witches Ball at the end of the month, so he said we would go. Then, on Tuesday, out the corner of my ear, I hear on the radio that Loreena McKennitt is playing the Palace Theater *only* on Oct. 13th. I happened to mention it to him. And on Wednesday, he tells me that he would love to take me to both, but can only do one, and I had to pick. Mind you, I never said that I wanted to go to the concert (even though I really, really do), I just mentioned it in passing. So, now I have a tough choice. Although, that may be my own fault. See, when I checked Loreena's tour schedule, she will only be in the US this month. So, we may have to order the tickets tonight. And, if that's my choice, then I have to have something to wear. I was thinking that my Candle Flame Shawl would be perfect, but it's just over half way done. If I crack down, I could have it done, washed and blocked in time. However, right now I am working on my Fall Fiber Bag Exchange bag for my pal. So, that being the case, if I really crack down, I can have both done by Monday. I can, really. (I'll just keep telling myself that, and I may actually believe it.) So, in my delusional little brain, once I have my shawl finished, I will have to arrange an outfit around it. Because, as Katie pointed out, this isn't a Fall Out Boy concert, no jeans and t-shirt, because there will be no mosh pit. lol. And, to top it off, I'm on call this weekend for work. As of right now, I have 3 shipments to watch, and I have to come into the office sometime tomorrow (Saturday) to load a truck. So, what do you think? Can I do it?

Another FO and other pics

School started this week for the girls, Katie started on Monday and Annie started today. And in honor of that, Annie got a hair cut. See:

She wouldn't sit still, so it's shorter than I wanted it to be. But she looks so cute! (In this pic, she's not too happy with me, as I wouldn't take a pic of her drinking her cool aid single.)

As I mentioned before, we had the Morris Family reunion Sunday. I wore my Josephine top, so I'll share the one pic that I was in, and the one pic I have of the finished top.

From left to right, we have: Mr. S, me, cousin Savannah (ducking down), my uncle Verlie (in the back), mom, grandma, my aunt Sebrina (Verlie's wife), Katie, and down front is Annie.

The next pic is of Annie starting a water balloon fight, Uncle Verlie was her target.


The next pic is of some Lorna's Laces that have inspired me. The color is Tuscany.

I love this color so much, that I wished that I have some worsted to make a scarf so this ball could become a pair of fingerless gloves, as it's a single ball. Well, some great Yarn Goddess must have heard me, because when I went to one of the LYS for lunch the other day (to get an idea for my Fall Felted Bag pal, and that's the pattern under the ball, hee hee) I found this:

Three (not one or two, but three) b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l hanks of Lorna's Laces worsted weight in Tuscany!!! Now my dream can come true. The next question is what pattern to use? Maybe this one? I'm still debating. What do you think?

Next up is another piece of Heaven. My Namaste bag.

Isn't it fabulous? I love, love, love it! And, yes, it's almost as wide as my couch cushion. It's on the large side, but I will never be without my knitting again.

And now, for an FO. It's my finished August socks for the SAM KAL 4.

They were a little long for my feet, for some odd reason, so Katie ended up with them. The specs are as follows:

Yarn: Lorna's Laces
Colorway: Argyle
Needles: US 1 Crystal Palace DPN's
Pattern: Plain Vanilla Ribby Footies

See how the striping came out different on each one. Kinda cool, huh?


Up next is a progress pic. Have a peek:

This is the scarf that the Mystery Knitter is working on. Looks great for a first project, huh?

Next up is the IHS I started for cousin Becky. I just completed the 12 pattern repeat.


The last pic is of the next sock that I am working on. It will most likely end up as my September socks for the SAM KAL 4.

It's a pair of Simply Lovely Lace footies in Regia, color brown, to go with my Josephine Top.

Ok, now for updates. The last space for my PIF Exchange has been filled! Yippee! Now, I can start getting ideas for those projects.

The Harvest Sock Swap '07 sign ups are still open, and doing very well. We have 16 people so far (including myself). And I am thinking of holding a contest. I will announce what it will be tomorrow, along with what the prize will be. So, stay tuned for further details.

I started my new work out program and diet yesterday. So far, so good. But I can tell how out of shape I'm in, 'cause I could only do half of the work out yesterday, and 2/3 of it today. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to complete it. Oh, and I have drank so much water (about the 8 recommended daily glasses, that I'm not used to anymore) that my eyeballs have been floating every half hour. But, drinking that much water does help to curb the appetite. So, look out, favorite pair of jeans that I can't fit into, here I come. I'll be wearing you soon. (insert evil laugh here) Ok, enough babbling for tonight.

May everyone have some Happy Knitting time. I know I will.

Gone Kaput!

Well, I think my laptop has gone down for the count. I can start it ok in safe mode, but it has started freezing in regular mode, again. So, I am stuck using the work computer to blog with. Now, on with our regular blog......



I will be opening the Harvest Sock Swap '07 today. If you missed last year's, or any of the others, now is your chance. Sign up! Come on, you know you want to. And it's so easy to do. Just leave me a comment here, or on the swap blog, or drop me an e-mail at rosiegypsy AT aol DOT com (temp e-mail until I can beat my laptop into submission {insert evil laugh here}), with your e-mail addy and blog addy (sorry, blogs will be required this year. If you don't have one, now's the time to get one. They're easy and, best of all, free!). Please stop by the swap blog later today to see the rules and questionaire. I will update that page today as work and home life permit.

And, in other news.....

While make the rounds of my blog reading (before my laptop took a nose dive {I don't sound bitter, do I?}) , I found something that looked great, and I had to try to join. It was this:





I was over at Knitting Nurse when I was it. It was inspired by that great movie. And what better way to show that you care for your fellow man. Now, I will blatantly steal the rules from her page. They are:

"Here is how it works! I'll send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange! I don't know what that gift will be yet, and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week...LOL... but you will receive it within 365 days, that's a promise! and it will be something yummy!! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog..."

So, there you have it. The first 3 people to leave a comment that they want to join, will be in. Please make sure to leave you e-mail address in the comment, so I can contact you for your snail mail address.

Next up, we have this:



I think I'll join this round. I always have fun making felted bags, so why not? If you'd like to join, sign ups open tomorrow (Aug 15th), just drop by the Fall Felted Bag Exchange and sign up.

And last up is the update on the Josephine top. Well, I did take a pic, but since my laptop decided that it needed a vacation (it may be a permanent one, if it keeps it up), I can't up load them. But anywho, I have finished the left front and am working my way up the back. I may have that done tonight, and can start on the right front. After that is when I have to pick up all those stitches for the sleeve caps, neck and bottom hem. Oh, that'll be fun. But, it'll look great when I'm done. And, seriously, it is a fun pattern. I can see myself making a couple more.

So, to sum up, join the Harvest Sock Swap '07, join the PIF Exchange, join the Fall Felted Bag Exchange, and stop back by for updates on my lazy laptop and the Josephine top.