Surprise Package

Don't you love it when a package shows up on your doorstep that you aren't expecting/forgot was on it's way???? Me too!!! Robyn sent me a package for being the 6500th commenter on her blog. Isn't that nuts? 6500 comments??? Wowza!



I opened the box to find this bag full of goodies. While it's the perfect size for a project, it's currently in use as my work bag. I love the mix of sturdy khaki canvas with the girly sequins. But wait! There's more...



Paton's Kroy Sock yarn...



Red Cashmere/silk blend. So pretty and soft...



Nelapsa Baby Alpaca. Unbelievably soft! In fact, I'm in the market for a baby alpaca. But I need it to stay a baby. Let me know...



And a bunch of goodies too! The hot chocolate is already gone. Yum!!

Thanks Robyn! I love your blog with tales of the boys, hockey, and Canadian delicacies. (Poutine!) Congrats on your 6500th comment!

The Big Winner(s)

Thanks to everyone who guessed projects for my 400th post contest. You all reminded me of the projects I really want to knit. I really didn't think anyone would guess it but someone got it right on the nose...

Congrats Marisol from Purls Just Wanna Have Fun is our big winner!!!!



Jenny Wren Socks in Noro Kureyon Sock- Color 188. She even had the color 188 right. Wowza!

I also pulled a number from the random number generator because that's how I roll. #4 is Chemgrrl!!! Send me your addy's and I'll get prize packs out to you two in a couple of days.

Now let's talk about the Noro sock yarn. I LOVE the colors of the yarn. The way it transitions is gorgeous. However, the fiber itself is really rough. I've heard it softens up a lot when washed. I hope that's true. I also broke the yarn a couple of times by tugging it too hard. And it tangles up at times when I pull it from the ball. Having never knit with Noro before (I know!!!), I wasn't prepared for these challenges. We're getting through it together. I think Noro and I will be friends but not BFF.

Have a great weekend! I'm on today and tomorrow which means I have a Monday/Tuesday weekend instead. I have the next three weekends off though. YAY!

The 400

This is my 400th post. Can you believe it?!?!??! Who knew I had that much to say!!

It's about time for a contest, dontcha think? Yeah, I think so too. On January 1, I really wanted to cast on something new. Can you guess what it is?
1. Guess the yarn
2. Guess the pattern
Here's a hint... I blogged about this yarn and this pattern together at some point.
If anyone gets both right, they will get a prize. If there are more than 1, I'll pull a number.
If anyone gets one of the two right, I'll pull a number out of these people too.
If no one guesses right, we'll still pull a winner.
Sound good?
Edited to add... Deadline is Friday at midnight Pacific time.

In the mean time, I cast on for the Leyburn KAL on the Ravelry page. I'm knitting them in STR lightweight- Goody, Goody. This is the coolest KAL. Everyone is doing the same pattern but in a different color. Fun, huh?

Brian and I went out Saturday night to Houston's in San Francisco. Yum! I absolutely LOVE the grilled artichoke appetizer. It's amazing.



Notice we couldn't wait to dig in! I had ribs for dinner



And this was a hot fudge sundae. Yum!!!!



We walked down the Embarcadero after dinner to try to work off that dessert. It was so beautiful.

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

Win, Win

Kristy was doing a raffle to support her Chicago AIDS run/walk efforts. 100% of the funds she raised went to providing free civil legal aid to those with HIV/AIDS. A good cause with even better prizes...

And I was lucky enough to get picked as a winner!



A Piddleloop bag that represents the number of people affected by AIDS with red ribbon trim.



A view from the top. It's the perfect size to hold a sock project. And, of course, you always get top notch quality from Piddleloop.

Finally... There was yarn.



Wollemeise- Rosenrot. Oh so lovely!

Thanks to Kristy for a great prize. But more importantly for supporting a great cause.

Nova Made My Day!

I won a contest over on Nova's blog a few days ago. Well, look what she sent me!



Practice Roving...



Spunky Eclectic Merino Roving in Emerald Isle. So pretty and so extremely soft!

All for use on this...



What a beautiful spindle! It's unbelievably gorgeous. I'm not sure how she gave it up but I'm glad she did!!! Thanks so much!!!!

Mama Blue, I Heart You!

A couple of weeks ago, I won a blog contest over at Peaknit! And look at the lovelies she sent me!



Mama Blue Troika Sport in Trifle. This yarn so so soft and squishy. I love it! It looks and feels similar to STR. But there's 10% cashmere in here!!!



She also sent me a cute eraser. This is the perfect one to carry around when you're starting a new job. If I ever feel down, I can just pull it out for a quick affirmation.



And a cute little sheep ornament! I have her hung on my cork board in the office. Isn't she cute?!?!?!

Thanks, Peaknit!

Boston Extravaganza!

OK- Get comfortable. Pour yourself a cup of coffee. Because this is going to be long.

I had a WONDERFUL trip to Boston. I took off Wednesday from SFO.



Lucky me with a window seat!



I finished the Anastasia socks on the way there. Just had to wait until I landed to bind off since I didn't have a needle on the plane. Official FO pics later on...

My friend Laura was nice enough to let me crash in her adorable Beacon Hill apartment for a couple of nights before we headed West for the wedding. We had all day Thursday to hang out in Boston. I'm supposed to tell you that the trolley tour was my idea. But really, she's always wanted to do it and needed someone to visit as an excuse. Good enough for me! We hit the trolley circuit for 6 hours on Thursday and went all over the City. Here's a sample of everything we saw...



Laura's street- I miss East Coast architecture.



The field at Fenway. Too bad the Sox were away. I would have loved to see a game.



The Citgo Sign



Pizza and arancini in the North End. California is also seriously lacking in good pizza.



Laura digs in!



The Waterfront.



More Architecture.



And, of course, Make way!!!!

Friday, we headed out to Western Mass to Laura's family's house. They were kind enough to host us for a night. Check out her amazing house.



It's built in the 1800's and her family has meticulously decorated and maintained it to preserve it's historical integrity.



This is their front yard! It's a lovely place to enjoy coffee and a newly cast on sock. But more on that later too!



Laura's dad is an art professor. And this is his studio. I'm so jealous!

Saturday was the wedding and (since I'm an idiot) I didn't get any pictures until later in the evening. Needless-to-say, it was lovely. The bride glowed. The groom looked at her adoringly. And everyone danced until very late. See...



The camera phone doesn't hold up in the dark!

The night ended in a little bit of pain for me. Someone had broken a glass earlier in the evening but I thought it had been throughly cleaned up. As the evening wore on, my shoes started to hurt and I took them off to keep dancing. You can see where this is going, right?



Yup- that's my blood on a napkin. Luckily, I have a doctor friend who was thinking more clearly than I was. She took me into the kitchen of the country club where we pulled a nice hunk of glass from my toe. It was pretty funny actually since no serious harm was done.

After brunch on Sunday, we headed back to Boston to catch our flights home. The drive back gave me plenty of knitting time...



Mass Pike and Marigold socks!!!!



Finally, headed home to San Francisco on Sunday night. It was a wonderful weekend with lots of time with my best girlfriends. I couldn't have asked for a better vacation. More pictures on my Flickr Set.

The Contest... Thanks to WiKnit, I had 56 votes. Holy cow! I hope some of you decide to stick around.

25 votes for Marigold in STR.
20 votes for Tessarae in YP.
11 votes for Jenny Wren in Noro.

I officially cast on for the Marigolds on Thursday night while Laura tried to ignore me.



I used the random number generator to pick a winner from those who voted for Marigolds... Congrats, Andrea! I'm emailing you today about your surprise package!

FO...



Pattern: Anastasia Socks by Minty Fresh
Yarn: The Knittery Merino Cashmere Sock in Orchid
Needles: KP dpn's in size 2.5
Date Started: 10/5/07- Can you believe it???
Date Finished: 5/28/08
Mods: None. The pattern is so great!



Even the swirls match up!

Finally, the May edition of the Rockin' Sock Club arrived while I was gone. Click here to see a photo. I'm sure you've seen it already but I'll still hide it just in case.

Did you make it all the way? Thanks for hanging in! I think I need a nap.

Quick Poll and Contest

I'm still undecided as to which socks to cast on for my trip tomorrow. So I thought we could turn this into a poll and a contest!

There are three pattern/yarn combinations in the running. All you have to do is vote/guess which one will make the cut. When I'm back, I'll pick a random person from those who got it right and send out a wicked awesome prize. (I'm practicing for Boston!) Comment by Sunday night at midnight Pacific time to enter.

Here are the choices... In no particular order...

1. Marigold Socks by the genius of Flint Knits in STR Sunstone. These socks have been in the queue for a long time.



2. Tesserae Socks from KnitSpot in Yarn Pirate BFL in Fog. This pattern looks really do-able in terms of travel knitting.



3. Jenny Wren Socks from Knitzi in Noro sock color 188. I've been wanting to knit up the Noro for a while now.



Good Luck!

This Little Piggie's Name Is...

Wendell Wilson Pigglesworth

ChemGrrl, Knitting Kris, and Catherine are my big winners!

But since Elizabeth gave me a name very close to the style of the one I chose (Theodore S. Twillington), she gets a prize too!

And then I was thinking... This isn't a very objective contest. So I tossed the rest of you into a random number generator and out came 17. Cbknits80 left the 17th comment. Winner winner, chicken dinner!

You all gave awesome suggestions! Lots made me laugh. And they all would have been fantastic piggie names. If you're a winner, make sure you email me with answers to the following questions... 1. What colors do you love/hate? 2. Solid, stripes, or variegated? 3. Which sock clubs do you belong to? (I don't want to double up by accident. ) And don't forget your address!

Now just to answer a couple of questions posed in the comments...

Stripey socks- Thank you for all the complements!! I was trying to match up the stripes but I didn't know it would come out so well. I loved knitting with this yarn. It's so soft, not at all splitty, and the stripes make it fun to knit. I dunked the socks in Eucalan after knitting. So I would have been SOL if the dye had run. But it didn't! YAY!!!

This Little Piggie Came to My House

A week or so ago, I won a contest on Mari's Blog. She agreed to make me a little piggie from her lovely collection of Japanese fabrics. Yesterday, you can imagine how excited I was when I got home and a box was at my door.

Inside was the pig and a sweet note telling me Mari had been nice enough to read about me on my blog. She went on to say that she was including some sock yarn because she noticed I love sock yarn and hadn't tried this brand. Isn't that cool?!?!?!



Nature's Palette in Zinfandel. As you know, my camera refuses to take accurate pictures of purple. The yarn is actually a little more earthy than this shows. Its color comes from natural dyes and the depth of color is so pretty. Plus, it's squishy soft. And I love that so much!



And here's my sweet little piggie. He's super, super cute. I love him! Thank you so much, Mari! I love the package. You're so thoughtful and the pig is too cute.

I also found out today that I'm a runner up on Sarah's Blog. And she is nice enough to be sending me a little something. So I think it's time to pay it forward with a little contest of my own!!!!

So here it is.... You'll have until midnight Pacific time on Sunday (10/7) to give my sweet new piggie a name. I'll pick my favorite and the winner will get enough sock yarn to knit a pair of socks. You'll get a pick of colors and maybe brand but the final skein will be a surprise. You can comment here or email me at nelltjeATgmailDOTcom. Good Luck!

And the Winners Are...

First I want to say thank you so much to everyone who entered! There were 36 entries. Your guesses ranged from 0 to 53.

But the answer is 19.

Congrats to the CBknits80 who hit the answer right on the nose! (Do you have a blog? I couldn't find it to link it.)

Jen was close at 18. And there was a tie for third with Jo and Chemgrrl coming in at 17 books each. So I'll go up to 4 winners.

I do have to say that Weezalana's entry named all my knitting, sewing, and crochet books. That took some serious stalking on the knitty boards and this blog. So she gets a prize for extra effort!

CBKnits80 gets first pick of the prizes. And I think I've contacted all of you one way or another since blogger doesn't let me email you back from the comments. UGH!

I'm not going to talk about Goals today. There isn't much to tell and I don't want to bore you.

But I will show you what a serious yarn addiction will get you...



I'm a Loopie Groupie! On your 6th order, Sheri hooks you up with an awesome tote, loopy kisses, some Soak samples, and a free skein of yarn! How cool is that?!??!! I'm ignoring the fact that it means I've spent entirely too much money there.

Finally, here's the list of my books if you are interested.
1. Scarf Style by Pam Allen
2. Wrap Style by Pam Allen and Ann Budd
3. The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd
4. Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush
5. Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush
6. Mason Dixon Knitting by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne
7. Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson
8. Favorite Socks by Interweave Press
9. Greetings from Knit Cafe by Suzan Mischer
10. At Knit's End by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee*
11. Cast's Off by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee*
12. Knitting Rules by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
13. The Secret Life of a Knitter by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee*
14. Alter Knits by Leigh Radford
15. One Skein by Leigh Radford
16. Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch
17. Stitch 'N Bitch by Debbie Stoller
18. Stitch 'N Bitch Nation by Debbie Stoller
19. The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques by Nancie Wiseman

*I included these in the count because they are knitting books, although they aren't pattern books. Next time I'll be more precise in my contest definitions.

Crochet Books-
1. A Year of Afghan's, Book 4 by Oxmoor Press
2. The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller

Sewing Books-
1. In Stitches by Amy Butler
2. Simple Sewing with a French Twist by Celine Dupuy
3. Simple Sewing by Lotta Jansdotter
4. Sew U by Wendy Mullin
5. Quilts by Denyse Schmidt
6. Last Minute Fabric Gifts by Cynthia Treen


Happy Easter!!!!

Saturday Stash Enhancement

3 orders arrived here this week.

First, from the Loopy Ewe.



Yarn Pirate in Clementine- I had a skein of this and traded it away for something I needed at Christmas. What was I thinking??? I love this yarn. So I was lucky to snag some when Sheri updated last week.



Schaeffer Anne in Sizzle. This yarn is so lovely, soft and cuddly.



Cider Moon in June Carter- I love this yarn. It's so awesome. Squishy. Soft. Great color. Love it!

Now from the Sweet Sheep-



Seacoast Handpainted Panda in Cherry Fizz- It's a merino, bamboo, and nylon blend. Sheri sold out of it so I had to go through my Canadian supplier.



Colinette Jitterbug in Bright Charcoal- This is my first skein of this yarn. I love it. It has the twist of Koigu with the squishiness of STR.

Last but not least, I received the March installment of the Sunshine Yarn Club.



Deep- This will be perfect for socks for Brian. Dani included a cute little notepad and some candy. Very cute!

Lest you think I'm only shopping and not knitting, I've got a couple more dishrags done.

And don't forget to enter the knitting book contest. It closes at midnight tonight. Winners will be announced tomorrow!