Home Sweet Home

Simon and I drove through 6 hours of rain, actually Simon drove and I rode, and napped and knit. Mostly I napped. But we're home in our tiny apartment. I missed our place with our drafty windows and tiny rooms.

Also all my yarn is here!

No luck with black friday for my etsy shop. I am hoping for something tomorrow!
Free Shipping till December 5th!

Country Girl

Tomorrow it's back to Philly and this is one of the first times I kind of don't want to go. I don't want to live here, but i'df love to stay an extra few days. If I didn't have to work and Simon didn't have class we would stay longer, but I do have work and Simon has class on Monday. The more and more I think about it the more I miss the country, but I think I would miss the city once I was living in the country. And by no means am I ever living in the subburbs.

At heart I will always be a country girl.

Shanty Town Christmas

Every year after Thanksgiving my family gets together with all our family friends and have shanty town Christmas. We eat a ton of food and all of us make a gingerbread house and decorate it. It so much fun and has become a holiday tradition to make the begining of the christmas season. Here are some high lights.


One of the kid's houses.

My Best friend Beaner's house. His house is super classy this christmas, no tires out front.


Mora adding more goodies onto her house. She really likes the Tootsie Rolls.

This is the one Simon and I made. I worked on the front with it's classy waffle cone walkway and pretzle square windows.

And Simon worked on the back. That green thing is his impromptu gumdrop and reindeer corn dog.

No Way!

I'm in the free shipping promotional gift guide on Etsy!

Check it out, My Neapolitan Coffee Cuff is listed!
http://www.etsy.com/gift-guides/free-shipping/103?&page=9

mmmmm...food!

Turkey and Stuffing! One of my Favs!

My Mom made home made crust.

I made the whipped cream.

Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

I will post some pics of my thanksgiving later tonight. The turkey is in the oven and my parents house smells delicous. The pies look great and now Mom and I are just waiting for the rest of the family to show up. After I post i'm going to go get ready and put on my fancy pants...or really just my fancy sweater. We have a ton of food for today, I forget every year how much we eat, and drink. My family are big wine drinkers, and my mom is an enabler as she works for an amazing winery up the road.

Also I thought I'd quickly post about my sale on Etsy.
To celebrate the holiday season I'm offering free shipping on all orders made till December 5th. Also all bags are 10% off (prices have been edited to show discount) and all orders will come with a free solid color coffee cuff, for you to keep or give as a gift.
Feel free to stop by and take a look.

Have a great day!

Turkey Eve

I'm home for the holiday. After three hours of driving through the keystone state, some free Hot Chocolate (thanks VFW Travel days), three hours through Upstate New York , and one stop for gas, Simon and I arrived in my Home Town and my parents house.

I must admit I love coming home for the holidays, or any reason to visit. I don't want to stay, but I love visiting. My brother is also home from college and my mom's side of the family is coming down for Thanksgiving, so tomorrow should be filled with wine, food, and interesting family matters.

My parents took us out tonight and we had a great dinner at my mom and dad's new favorite resturant Pepper. After that we ended up at the AT&T store and I got a flash new Blackberry Curve. It is one of the fanciest pieces of technology that i have ever owned. My Dad got one too he liked it so much!

I'm so glad i came home for a few days, i really love being with my family. We are tons of fun!

Posting in the AM

My day hasn't even started, but my day isn't ending till 11:30pm tonight, so I thought that I'd post be fore work. I found this photo in my blog folder. This statue is in this tiny park on the corner or Chestnut and 5th. I use to walk through it on my way to the theatre this fall.

I'm still Hookin' .

Hookin'

I've started hookin' again. Yay Crochet!

Candy stripes

I dyed this yarn a year ago and found it while I was going through my stash. It was a nice wool that I hand painted in yellow, orange and pink. I carried a strand of cream mohair with it, and it reminded me of these citrus candies my grandma use to get that looked like slices of lemons and oranges.

Check it out!

I met this awesome fiber artist today namd Lisa. She spins yarn out of recycled sweaters. Take a look at her site, it links to her etsy shop. Her Fibers are amazing and she was super cool.

Her Site
http://re-yarn.com/

Her Etsy
sexysheep.etsy.com

Another

Another one! I'm back on the scarves. This one is a hand dyded cotton linen blend with some nylon ladder yarn running through. I worked this scarf lengthwise and striped the hand dyed and the ladder yarn. I used huge needles US 17, not my 35's, but pretty beefy. This one came out super long.

Handmade Pledge

I took it!

Done and done. Time to start my holiday shopping!
I sold my first scarf yesterday on Etsy. I ran into the kitchen and almost took Simon out. He's so suportive and sweet. He gets excited even though I know it's not as big of a deal to him as it is to me. I'm glad he is so suportive

It snowed today in Philly. It is also very cold and our heat is all weird in the new place. It sounds like we have a small stream running through our bedroom.

Running

I've been workig extra hours at the shop as well as more hours as a nanny. Lately I feel like I've been running, but the extra cash is nice. The extra money is going toward Christmas presents. I'm making a few, but I'm going to try to purchase most of my presents on Etsy, or at least atempt to make most of my purchases hand made.

I happen to mention this to Simon and he was a little dis heartened. First, he is worried that whatever I purchase for him will look silly, or like somthing nanna made out of yellow acrylic yarn. (sorry nanna, I loved my afgan). Secondly, he cringed when I mentioned I wanted him to purchase hand made items for me. I don't quite understand this as he hate going to the mall. I'm going to chalk this all up to the fact that it's new or different. I'm going to win him over to the handmade side.

Snacks

I am a snacker. I love snacks and my new favorite is popcorn. Simon and I have been making it on our stove and it is so yummy.

So our evenings have been watching Friends or some other show while I knit. Then we make a huge pot of popcorn.

Maybe I should use my rekindled love of popcorn and make some new items with a crochet popcorn stitch.

Hand Spun Cowel

I knit up that hand spun of mine into a cowel. It came out really nice. This is the first time I ever knit with my own hand spun. I love the way it the silk slubs in the wool. The silk is from nepal and is recycled fibers from the sari looms in India. the colors in the silk are so vibrent.

I'm going to spin more of this combo up, because it is so much fun to spin and to knit.

Sunday

I worked today and the shop was hopping. There were two girls waiting outside the dhop for me to open and then i had a couple come in and the girlfriend spent 45 min picking out yarn and then i had someone else come in. That was how my day was, I barely got any of my usual stuff done. I got about a 5 min break between customers to vaccuum the rugs.

I would much rather work be like today with lots of customers who ask questions and want to know about yarn then the days when there seems to be no one any where.

I'm still hyped up from my Etsy sale. I hope to have more of those in my future.

First!

I just made my first Etsy Sale. I am so excited!
Whoo hoo!!!

Blah

I feel so blah today. I didn't have to work till 3:30 and it was only watching the boys for two hours (I nanmy 3 times a week, it's good pocket money), but I don't feel like I did anything today. I started a new project and wove in some ends on a few that I had finished. I feel very uninspired and that anything I started today is ick.

I did get all nice and dressed only to get curry sauce on my shirt and have to change. I also told Simon I wanted to go out, mostly because I want to be around people and not sit on our couch like a bump on a log, but the longer we stay here the more I think we should just go buy ice cream and put on my pajamas and curl up on my couch.

I better leave my apartment before I become stuck on the couch

Finished Mitts

I finished the mitts. Ok they've been completed for awhile, but they needed somthing. I played around with ribbon and bottons, but I like this surface crochet instead. The green sock yarn brings out the green in this creamy heather yarn.


This will be up in my etsy shop as soon as I get some good shots

Hand Spun Yum

Here are some better pics of that green hand spun I posted.
It's so beautiful, I took a ton of shots and none of them do this yarn justice.


This one was the same wool only undyed and spun with rycycled sari silk fibers

I used mostly red and purple silk its a double ply. I spun a single with the wool and sari silk together and then I spun a lace weight single of just the wool.

Then I plied the two together. It was a wonderful experiment and i feel that the result is beautiful and exotic looking.

Brrrrrrrrr!

It has gotten so cold out side. It's nice I like bundling up and wearing all my knits. The best is cuddling up with hot chocolate and a toasty blanket.

Tonight walking home I wish I had worn my heavy winter jacket. I think I'll make a new scarf for me, or two or three.

Hand Spun Yum

Yummy Yummy hand spun. I dyed and spun this wool. I can't wait to use it, it's got such pretty blues and greens in it. What should I knit with it? I'm thinking a scarf or cowel I have a little less than 300 yards.

Worse theif ever

Just got back from work and the weirdest thing happened. We have knitting circles where I work and we also have art for sale and tonight we had a knitting meet up. We were all merrily knitting away or chatting and this random guy came into the shop and grabbed one of the paintings near the door. Everyone in the shop yelled in one huge voice, stopping the guy and making him have an awkward conversation with my bos about buying the painting.

It was so weird and great that we had our circle of ten knitters to help stop him.

Icky Rain

It's been icky here in Philly for what seems like forever. Ok, maybe it's only been two days, buit it feels like a week. All I want to do is curl up on my couch watch dirty dancing and knit and drink a yummy cop of tea. I think that is how I will spend my evening tonight.

Hope there are better days to come

First Friday

Tonight is the first friday in November. In Philly that means the place to be tonight is Old City. First friday is popular because tons of the galleries in Old City open their doors. It's a great time to go and see new works of art or just poeple watch.
I've accidently been in Old City on a first Friday and didn' t realize what it was till later. Tonight I'm Draging Simon to Old City for his first friday in Philly and my second, but at least this time I know whats going on.

Mitts

I made mitts on two circular needles. It's the first time I made two mitts at one time and It made it so much easier and faster. I tend to not finish my second anything. I've used magic loop and dpns, but i think that two circilar needles is the way to go.

These will be up in my shop in a few days once i weave in my ends and give them a little something something.

Fish Tails and Jasmine

I Just finished this hat. I love this lace pattern and this yarn, it looks beautiful all knit up with the eyelets. The lace pattern is fish tail lace and the yarn is Louisa Hardings Jasmine, which has been sitting in my stash for months and I still have more. This yarn is 48% cotton, 39% bamboo, 10% silk,and 3% polyester , which is the silver metalic that runs through this yarn. These pictures really do n't do this hat justice, but I couldn't wait to post it.

It's so yummy to work with and comes in many colors, the one i used is duck egg and I love it! I can't wait to wear it and I may consider making a few for my Etsy.

And that is a plate that the hat is blocking on. It's perfect for blocking tams.

Election '08

I finally got to vote! And boy am I glad I did.

Election Day

I went to vote before work and the wait was an hour, and I only had a half hour. Now I'm going to go to work and ask my boss if I can lleave mid day to go vote. I really want to vote, but I Have all this anxiety about voting. It's mostly because I have to wait in line and this is the first time i'm voting at my poling place. I voted durring the last election, but by absente ballot. So this whole this is new and i just want to get it done and not have to stand in line waiting to just flip a little lever.

Off to work and hopefully to vote.

Recycled Sari Scarf

I finished another item for my etsy shop. This one is different to what I've listed before, and is a scarf knit from recycled sari silk yarn from Nepal. It came out beautiful and I have more pictures of it at Blue Betty.

Here's one that's not up in the shop.

I love this yarn it a fair trade yarn that's handspun by a womans co-op in Nepal. The proceeds from this yarn is used to send their children to school. It's also good for the enviroment because the fibers come from the salvage from the sari manufacturers in India. These fibers use to get thrown out before, but now they are made in to a beautiful yarn.

If your in the Philly area Nangellini on South St carries this yarn, or you can order it and learn more at www.recycledsilk.com. The same woman's co-op also spins Banana Silk which is a rayon made from the leaves of the banana tree.

OMG!

This morning I was rudly awaken by my next door neighbor playing Metallica at 8am in the morning. Although I was awake before I wanted to be I checked my email and there is a blog that wants to feature me and my etsy shop. I've only been selling for a week so I was shocked. Pleasently surprized, but i thought that it would take longer. I Still haven't made a sale, but this is a great opertunity.

Also i've been working on a few different things for my shop. I have a hat i'm working on that is absolutly gorgous, but i think it's the yarn that makes it as beautiful as it is. I'll post a pic tomorrow when i can get some good pics of it in the light.

Philly

I love South Philly.

I saw these row homes and loved the bright paint, and the more traditional one sandwiched between them.