Enter The Haggis - TOUR

Kirk Avenue Music Hall, Roanoke - Thursday, September 3rd.
Andie & I will be the pair bouncing off the walls. =)

Enter The Haggis - TOUR

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Wonderful Things

...in no particular order. I just uploaded all of the pictures and decided to share.

This is the start (the body and beginning of the head) of my second Sock Monkey. Fellow fiber fanatic, Linda, gave me a Backstitches gift certificate for my birthday. I went to the store and was delighted to find this shade of Cascade 220 Superwash in, what I call, "Red Heel Brown." I bought the last three remaining skeins and I'm happy monkey knitter. :)
Linda also gave me this adorable book.

My neighbor, Muriyea, and I are knitting Interweave's Cabled Raglan Baby Sweater together. This is my first Interweave pattern and I barely got through the neckline before I went running to Yarn Theory/Jan for help translating the pattern. LOL

Here's Linda again. She keeps on feeding the sock mojo! :)

And then there's Dianne. Dianne feeds my Imelda Marcos-like love of knitting bags. In addition to a Nana Sadie Rose Posey and sundry bag (that matches my big Mera), Dianne gave me this beautiful Jessalu bag too.

Marianne. A box arrived in the mail and I dove into it and found these beautiful dishcloths. I really don't want to share them (Mohamed completely commandeered the mitered one you sent last year), so I don't feel badly for being greedy.

Sock Summit souvenirs from Dianne. I've been ogling ceramic buttons for a while now and even entertaining the idea of a pottery class to make them myself. Dianne picked up these beauties at the Button Emporium in Portland, as well as at the Sock Summit marketplace.

More sock goodness from Linda.

I grinned like the village idiot when these came walking through the door of my office. Dianne struck again.

Sock Summit's "Apogee" from Dianne. This was dyed by the incredibly talented Angie McNamara of Serendipitous Ewe.

Bluebirds and Alpaca Sox. :) These arrived in Marianne's box along with a beautiful set of cloisonne butterfly earrings that I couldn't photograph well, scrumptious roving in striking colors, chocolate and handmade soap.

Thank you guys for an AMAZING birthday! I am again blown away by your generosity & I love you dearly! Thank you! Thank you!

**Smiles**

Another finished project - - yaaaay! It's the Mission Falls Bob Blankie that I've been working on (and off) since March. It was an incredibly long knit, but the blanket is cute & colorful.

And kitty-approved too.

Andie is a "Food Network" watcher and one of her favorite shows is "Ace of Cakes." Enjoy the photos....her efforts just tickled me to death!

The yarn balls & knitting needles are made from rice krispies and colored fondant. They're edible (and the size of tennis balls).

The top, chocolate layer of the cake hit the floor during construction, but the yellow cake is just fine.

And finally, my sweet baker. THANK YOU ANDIE! I ADORE my birthday cake!!

Sock Monkey No. 1

At long last, I have finished a project! (Yaaaaay). Here's the first of several (I hope) sock monkeys. I'm going to dress this one up with a tutu and bows and give "her" to Brianna for Christmas.

Happy Knitting Everyone! :D

In the Midst of a Mood Swing...

I am annoyed. I intend to whine. If you're not in the mood for a rant, I suggest you walk away or close your browser now. You know the expression that says, "Bad things come in threes." Well, in my case, it's four (so far). First of all, my car died. The little glorified golfcart known as my red Kia just ground to a halt and stopped.




Shortly after and secondly, the well water pump died. Imagine having company at your house (be they family or not) and the toilets won't flush because there is no (I repeat NO) running water for 36 hours. In a word, it sucked (or more specifically, didn't).

Third, I made a terrible discovery in the mirror. I was scratching my face and I felt something prickly. Have you ever touched a cactus and caught a little spine under your skin? That's what it felt like. Not painful, just there and disconcerting. I made my way to the mirror to pull out the prickle and OH SHIT! it was a mustache hair. I stood there thinking, "No way! I'm too young!" and visions, like the one below, came to mind.

Yesterday afternoon, my son and I went to have our annual eye checkups. Everything was going along fine until the doctor "clucked," shook his head and made a "Hrumph" sound. "Well, Mrs. Soltani, you're going to need bifocals probably next year. For now, get yourself some reading glasses." I thought to myself, "No f***ing way! I'm too young!" This morning, I went to see my family physician and lovely man that he is, he took excellent care of me. As I was waiting for my brand new prescription of P-R-O-Z-A-C to be filled, I tried on some reading glasses and learned that the damned opthamolgist was right.

I really don't mind aging - - I genuinely don't. What I object to - - STRENUOUSLY - - are the side effects, such as reading glasses, a mustache hair on my upper lip, mood swings of apocalyptic proportions and other indignities. Now that I'm older, I like to think of myself as wiser, more experienced, kinder, more patient (except for today) and a several other nice things. What I'm not coping so well with is going from this...

in principle

to this....

End of rant. Thank you for listening/reading. SWAK!

Summer Fun

Here's how my nephew, Tyler, and my daughter, Andie, have been spending a bit of their
time this summer.

Reading........No.

Volunteering.....I think not.

Playing chess......no way.

Ah, here they are.... (Enjoy!)

And who's recording the insanity?!?! My sister! LOLOLOL Have a great weekend everyone!

Bliss (Debbie & Personal)

Over the 4th of July weekend (oh, how I love a three day weekend!), I went to Maryland to visit my sister. On the 3rd, we went to a cookout at my cousin and her fiance's house. There were lots of assorted family members, excellent food, fireworks and a hot tub. I've edited out all but my arm and part of my leg from the photo (for your viewing pleasure), but needless to say, Friday was wonderful! :)

Another pleasure of mine is getting something wonderful on sale. I consider it a coup if I can find something I like and can use at a serious discount. Did I mention that I'm an Ebay addict?

Birki's Dijon (New in Box) = $35.00

Birki's Calais (New in Box) = $24.00

Using KnitMap.com, I found a "new" yarn store that wasn't far from Denise's home, Crazy for Ewe of Leonardtown, Maryland. The owner was incredibly nice, the store was stocked with amazing fiber and names I've only read about, e.g. E. Lavold, Louisa Harding and others, and there was a sale - - - 40% off of....

O-Wool and

Manos del Uruguay.

Given what I saved, I bought a couple of skeins of Debbie Bliss' Donegal Chunky Tweed too.

So, if you're ever in Leonardtown, Maryland, I'd highly recommend visiting Crazy for Ewe! One last thing; I knit yet another beret. My niece, Taylor, liked Briana's and Andie's berets so well that I did one for her over the weekend.

Trevor and Briana

Here are a few kid photos from this week. Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend! :)

Quote of the Day

At 7:15 a.m., young Trevor (who's visiting with his mother and sisters) offered up the quote of the day,

"Aunt Dana, can I hold your rat?"

Me? I'm thinking "RAT!?!?! What rat?!?!?" and then I realize....



Guinea pig? Rat? What's the difference?

WIPs' and FOs'

Here's a photo of Andie's new winter hat. It's another Wooly Wormhead "Rollin Beret" using Malabrigo. She looks very pretty in it if I do say so myself.

This is what I've done so far with Yvonne Boucher's "Sock Monkey" pattern. Rather than doing it on single point needles and seaming it up, I've been using circulars. It's a fun knit and I like how it's turning out so far. I will be sure, however, to use a marled brown yarn on the next monkey so that it looks more authentic.

Below is an early birthday gift from Dynaknits; a Nana Sadie Rose "Posey" with a matching sundries bag! The fabric matches my first NSR bag from Sedalia 2008. I love it, of course, and thank you so much D! :)

And sadly, the monkey has now outgrown the bag and must move into something else.

Happy knitting all!

Here Comes The Bride...

and boy, did she look beautiful! :)

Congratulations J & S!

Hats Galore

Ten hats down in record time! These little guys are going to the 2009 Sock Summit with Dynaknits as part of a donation for Afghani children. I used the "Rollin Baby Beret" pattern by Wooly Wormhead. Using bulky yarn and a higher cast on count created several different child/teen sizes. This pattern just rolls off the needles and I love it!

Lamb's Pride Bulky
New Zealand Wool

Eco Wool

Carodan Farm Wool purchased at Montpelier 2007

And this...I can finally post it. It's a Tunisian tradition to give a bridal couple a pillow and with that in mind, Dynaknits and I gave this to Jadielady and her groom (it's their wedding colors) on Saturday.

Next up...Jadie's wedding photos!