What a weekend.

This weekend was busy, and crazy, and fun! Saturday, we had planned on a low key day at home. Until, at 2:30 or so, the power went out. Not sure if it was the heat, it was over 98, or weather, or a fluke. But we were out of power, and it was getting HOT in the house. So off to the mall we went! We had fun, walked around a bit, got a few things from Old Navy's maternity section, then went out for dinner. I hadn't been to Chili's in ages, and it was SO good. I could have just gotten the Skillet Queso and been happy. After dinner, we headed up to Buy Buy Baby, which is a massive store, filled with baby stuff, on 2 floors! One floor is furniture and nursery things, the other floor is all the other things you need with a baby. We picked up some bed rails for Celia, because my mom is bringing up my old bed (an antique), for Celia to have, so we needed rails for a full/double bed. While we were there, we told Celia she could pick out a little present for her baby brother or sister. She was SO excited, and kept running around, saying that her baby needed towels, and bibs, and bottles, and clothes, and toys. She wanted to get one of everything for her baby. It was way too cute, and I was nearly in tears as we're walking around. We let her pick a cotton one piece outfit, and a hoodie towel. She's so convinced that we're having a boy, that the outfit she picked is yellow, green, blue and orange, and has animals over it, and the towel is blue with a crocadile on it. Oh yeah, she's sure. And insistent. She's just so adorable about the whole thing. Then on the way home she was talking about how she was going to be the one to change diapers, not me or daddy. And she wanted to feed the baby, and give baby a bath, and all these other things. It really made me happy to see her already getting excited about her brother or sister.

And yes, it's definitely, without a doubt, just one. I had another ultrasound this morning, at 11 weeks 3 days, and there is one baby in there. The other sac is still present, but empty. Which is good, it means that the other embryo was absorbed, and the sac will hopefully soon follow. It was so much fun to see this particular sonogram this morning. It was the first trimester screening, and they checked for markers for Downs Syndrome and stuff like that. It was just so detailed. I could see the nasal bone, and loads of other things. No sex organs yet though...but next time we should be able to see. I go back in 6 weeks. ;)

Yesterday was busy with usual errands. Grocery shopping was oh, so much fun. I forgot that the first day of school is today in our area, so it was a mob scene. Thankfully I got in and out relatively quickly. Then I spent the afternoon dyeing. I got my new toy- a skeinwinder- in last week, so I played with it a bit the day I got it, and some more yesterday. SO much faster!! So I dyed up 9 skeins (one is already spoken for). But I have two Fawkes, a Lord Voldemort, a Crookshanks, a Ron Weasley, and several new colorways that will be uploaded as soon as they're dry. I had so much fun, and while I was working away yesterday, I had loads more ideas for different colorways, but they'll have to wait for next time.

Prize pics!

Here's what I came home to on Thursday! What a fantastic surprise! I didn't expect so many beautiful yarns, and all ones I haven't tried yet!! Thank you SO much Sheri!!!


We have: All Things Heather, laceweight alpaca in a really pretty green, Urban Gypzy, twisted, in fun fall colors, and my personal favorite- Yarn Pirate, in pink, purple, yellow, white...just so pretty!! I can't wait to cast on.

But first...comes my Hogwarts Sock Swap 2 pal's socks. I need to work on those first!! Here's a pic of the yarn I dyed up a few weeks ago. I love how it came out, both the burgandy and gold are done with different concentrations of similar/the same colors. I'm trying a pattern that I haven't used before, and am going to do gold for the cuff ribbing, heel and toe. Fun!

Holy cow!

I was just checking Sheri's blog over at The Loopy Ewe, and I was a winner in her Anniversary contest!! I'm SO excited!!

To stay or not to stay...

I am going to a conference for work, in October. I'm really excited, because it's in San Jose, CA, and I've never been to California before!! Now, before I got pregnant, I was planning on either going a day early or staying a day or two late. Now, I'm not so sure!! I know San Jose is like an hour to San Francisco (and the only reason I know that is from looking at flights), and I'm dyeing to get to Artfibers after seeing and hearing so many great things about their stuff. But the idea of travelling alone, in a big city like San Francisco, kind of freaks me out. Is it worth it?? Or are there any neat yarn shops in/near San Jose? I really know NOTHING about California, it's terrible! Any advice would be awesome.

Sockapalooza 4 package

Yesterday, I finished my Sockapalooza 4 socks! Here they are!

They immediately went into a woolwash bath, and they're drying as I type! I'm hoping they're dry by tomorrow morning. My fingers are crossed!!

I also received the socks from my pal yesterday!! I have to say, she went way above and beyond- they are absolutely gorgeous!! Here's a pic of the package she sent:



The socks are truly stunning. Made of Cherry Tree Hill, and SO soft! The lacy pattern is the hanauma bay sock pattern, and I absolutely love it. The other gifts in the package include Claudia Handpaint in Toast, hand soap, a Loopy Ewe sock book, a row counter/bracelet that is just awesome (and made by my pal, Moonlight Knitter), a fun ornament that's from her home town- a pig for the hog capital of the world, a notepad, a keychain, and a beautiful handmade bag- which has sheep on the outside and piggies on the inside. I love it!! Thanks so much Stacey- you completely spoiled me ROTTEN!! I love it all!!

Gifs!

A few weeks back, I was asked to be an angel for a SP10 participant who didn't receive anything from her pal. I gladly put a package together, and sent it off. 2 weeks ago, I came home to a fabulous box! Apparently her pal did come thru, and she sent me a fun package in exchange for the one I sent her. I finally found the cord for my camera, and the battery charger, and I got a great shot of everything. Here it is!

Some beautiful hand dyed yarn and roving, beautiful wooden sticks, a fun pez dispencer, and some chocolate. YUM! I love it all. The colors are awesome! Thanks so much Michelle!

Thank you!

Thank you all for your kind words! Thankfully I'm doing really well. I know that twins would have been a huge challenge, and a long and risky pregnancy for me and both babies. I'm thrilled that we're having 1 healthy baby!! My daughter is so excited, we told her about it on monday. She keeps running around telling me there's a baby in my belly and its' her brother. Of course it's way too early to know the sex, but she's convinced it's going to be a boy. If not, we'll be in some trouble!!

I've been working away on my Sockapalooza 4 pals socks. I love how they're coming out. I'm about halfway done with the second sock, so I have some major work to do tonight!! I hope I finish them in time! They're supposed to go in the mail tomorrow!! I'm guessing they'll make it in on Friday or Saturday, but I'll more than make up for it in the package. I bought a few extra goodies for her, knowing that they might be a day or 2 late.

Secret Pal 11sign-ups are done! I will start working on sorting the names into groups as soon as they're all verified! I'm looking forward to another round! Though this time I won't be participating, just hostessing. I'm afraid to commit to a pal with the pregnancy, I won't have the time and energy to really put into it. I'd hate for a pal to feel neglected.

I also joined the Hogwarts Sock Swap 2, hosted by our lovely headmistress, Rebecca. The second years (which I am!), get to send yarn in their package with the socks, so I decided to give all participants a 10% discount on their yarn purchases from my shop. The Hogwarts series of colorways have gone so well, it's amazing! I have more to put up (as soon as I finish my sockapalooza pal's socks), including a few new colorways- Ravenclaw (which incorporates both book and movie colors), Prophecy, and one skein of Night Bus. I LOVE how Prophecy came out. I may keep 1 of the skeins for myself (I loved how the first one came out before the colors were even set, and I made a second). So much fun!!!

Good news and bad news.

Today we had another ultrasound. It looks like we're only having 1 baby! Not sure how I feel about this yet, a little sad yet relieved. But the one baby measured 7 weeks and 1 day and had a very strong heartbeat, and the other measured 6 weeks 2 days, with no heartbeat. Looks like the second one won't make it. It should just reabsorb, and the other baby will be fine. Thank goodness! I'm just glad that it looks for now, like everything will be just fine. ;)

Dyeing

To my Sockapalooza 4 pal- I got your comment. I can easily re-create the Ronald Weasley colorway. I take notes on most of my Hogwarts colorways (with the exception of the first few since I didn't know how well they'd sell at all). I have 2 different superwash merino bases, and a BFL base in either fingering or sport weight. And someone asked me to do something in the merino/silk blend, so I'm going to be ordering more of that. Let me know which you'd like, and I'll try to get it done next weekend. My pregnancy will not interfere with my dyeing, until I'm too big to bed over. ;) And even then, I have a butcher block table that will be brought down to assist me.

I just spent a few hours dyeing again. I have a few new colorways coming. Plus I dyed the yarn for my Gryffindor pal's socks for the Hogwarts Sock Swap. I LOVE how it turned out, and I can't wait to see how they knit up. I decided on 2 different skeins, one in various golds, and one in burgandys. Soo pretty!
PLUS, my Knitters Treat Exchange swap pal Katie, and my Hogwarts Sock Swap pal Lacey sent me some undyed yarn, so I finally did 2 skeins for myself. I did 1 in Night Bus, since I love the colorway so much. I decided to let go of the one in my base that I've been hanging on to, so I could make one specifically for myself. Then I used some pinks, blues and silver to create a new colorway for myself. To do something special for my daughter, and I LOVE IT. Not sure if I'll repeat it again, or if it's just for her yet.

Contest time!!

There's a great contest going on over at 5 Minutes for Mom for a fabulous TV, sponsored by Best Buy! Go enter!!

cleaning house.

With the news of the twins (it's still really wierd to say/write that!), I've decided that we really need to organize our house and make it super kid friendly. Thankfully, we just moved last year, into a much bigger house than we had before, so some of the rooms are really in good shape. Then there's the office, which is a disaster zone. We use it as an office for both of our businesses. My hubby is a consultant (writes software), and I do my jewelry/stitch markers/cards/yarn dyeing. Since we moved in, the office has been the "catch all" for random things. No one sleeps there, so out of sight, out of mind. I started going through things last night, and got rid of a bunch of random boxes that have been sitting in there collecting dust. I have to organzie my yarn stash. And beads/cardmaking/scrapbooking supplies. I do have a wonderful neighbor who is an avid scrapbooker. And she had this fantastic travel paper carrier (it's HUGE). She hardly used it, and it was sitting collecting dust, so she offered it to me for $45. So I gladly accepted, and brought it home Wednesday. This weekend I plan on organizing all of my paper stash, and putting away the stuff I don't use all the time. Which really is most of it. And figure out what to do with my fabric stash. I have loads for quilting, but haven't in a while. I think the twins will help get me out of that rut. I made a quilt for Celia (or quilt TOP I should say), but never actually put it together. The top, batting and backing have been sitting in a box for over 3 years now! Sad!!

Anyway, I seem to be in the mood to clean and organize. We'll see how much I get done this weekend. Hopefully loads! And some dyeing too- some of my Harry Potter yarns have really flown off the "shelves!". I'm so psyched!

Oh my.

I think I'm still in shock. I had my first ultrasound appointment yesterday, and everything looked good for 6 weeks. No heartbeats yet, but that should come next week. Wait- did I say heartbeatS? Yes, I did. Apparently, there are 2 sacs there, so it looks like we're going to be having twins! I'm excited, and terrified at the same time. A LOT is going to change. But I'm excited. And this will be good! It's just going to take some getting used to the idea.

At least this explains why I've been so incredibly exhausted, and why my jeans are already tight.

Double Thank You!!

SP10 has been awesome! I love these exchanges, because I love buying gifts for others, and trying to figure out what they'd like based on their blog. I had the pleasure of spoiling Fairy GodKnitter, Joan. She was great to spoil, she's a wonderful lady, and has gone through a lot the last few years! She also lives in my hometown, so hopefully I'll even get to meet her when I'm home next!

Later last week, I came home to yet another package from my pal! I opened it up to find two incredible skeins of Scout's swag. Beautiful, beautiful colors- I love them! I'll post a pic later- the theme this time was "S is for Shelby...S is for Scout!". I can't wait to cast on another pair of socks for myself!!

Then yesterday when I opened up the mailbox, it was STUFFED! completely stuffed with a huge package. I pulled it out and ran inside to open it. Inside, was the final, reveal package.
It contained a pattern for an adorable sweater for Celia, called the bow wow sweater, and the yarn to make it- Cascade 220 in a fabulous light purple. She squeeled when she saw the color, it was so cute! Then there was the soap- from one of my favorite soap companies- Alchemic Dragon in a yummy red clover tea scent. Then there was the reveal card. I open it, slowly, because I"m dyeing to find out who it is, yet am trying to figure it out at the same time. I had no good guesses, so I opened it. My SP10 was Kerry!!. I had absolutely NO idea it was her! I was a little suspicious that it had to be someone who "knew" me, either from a different exchange, or my hostessing her, but boy was I shocked! I spoiled Kerry in SP9, and had so much fun with it!! I guess she wanted to have a turn with me, and I'm so honored that she did! She's such an amazing lady, and I've had such a fun time getting to know her over the last few years of SP hostessing. Thank you Kerry, you really went above and beyond, and spoiled me completely rotten! I can't thank you enough!

I'll post pics of the last 2 sp10 packages Kerry sent tonight. I'm still blown away!!

Hogwarts Sock Swap Questionnaire- Second Years

1.What Hogwarts house have you been sorted into?
Ravenclaw

2.Shoe size? Foot length? Foot circumference?
US 10 wide. 10.5 inches long, 9.5 inches circumference

3.List your three favorite sock yarns.
a. Fleece Artist
b. Socks that Rock
c. Koigu

4. Would you like to try a new brand of sock yarn? If so, which brand?
Anything you love! I really love great colors, so I'm happy with everything!

5.Do you prefer variegated or solid sock yarn?
I love both varigated and solids equally

6.What colors would you like to add to your sock yarn stash?
any colors. Except orange and yellow- not really a fan of those colors.

7.What kind of sock patterns do you gravitate toward? Lace? Ribbed? Fair Isle?
lace

8.Do you have any allergies? (smoke, animals, etc.)
Really dislike smoke- it gives me migranes, and makes me nauseaus (I'm pregnant).

9. Will your socks be exposed to cigarette smoke or animals as you knit them?
I have 2 cats, so stray hairs are a given. I'll wash in woolwash before sending though.

10.Are you willing to have an international Hogwarts Sock Pal?
Sure, why not.

Big News!

I have some big news. I've been sitting on it for 2 weeks now, and probably should for 1 more, but I just can't wait!

It's been a crazy couple of months, and we finally got to give IVF a shot last month. After what seemed like forever, we finally got to try. And...it worked!!! I had my beta last wednesday (and a repeat on friday and this morning), and everything so far looks completely normal! A little high, but that just may be that this kiddo is robust. Or it may be that the 2 embryos they put in took. We'll find out how many babies there are next week!! It's so early, so I was a little hesitant to stay anything, but I just couldn't help myself! I'm excited!!

But, I'm just over 5 weeks pregnant now, and I feel fantastic. Sore, tired, queasy, and it feels great! I had my embryo transfer on "day 3" on June 26th, and I took my first home test 8 days later. I've been trying to believe it ever since then! If all goes well, we'll be giving Celia a brother or a sister at the end of February/beginning of March!!

Another Thank You!

Yesterday when I got home, I found another package from my SP10! I figured it was my final package, so I opened it and expected to find out who she was. But she's so sneaky! She sent me yet another "S is for..." package, and here it is! The theme this time was "S is for Stole", and it has the most beautiful shades of Schaefer Anne, and a beautiful pattern. I'm in love!!


Thank you so much pal! She told me she had 2 more packages coming- one earlier this week, and one later. She's just spoiled me so rotten!! You're amazing!!

Thank you Lacey!!

My owl arrived over my vacation, and kindly waited for me to arrive before leaving for his next task. This is what he brought me!

We have the Charmed Knits book, some great yarn in Gryffindor colors, some Knitpicks bare yarn, a great bookmark, a personalized journal, some Bertie Bots every flavor beans AND...

The best Ravenclaw socks ever!! I love them! And they fit perfectly!! Here are a few angles. My pal was Lacey, and she did an amazing job spoiling me. I'm such a lucky Ravenclaw!! I can't thank you enough!!

Vacation!!

Last week, we were on VACATION! We headed up to the Finger Lakes in NY after my friend's wedding. My uncle has a house on Canandaigua lake, so we stayed there, relaxed, and had loads of fun! I was in another wedding first, which was awesome! I was matron of honor, so I was busy, but I really enjoyed it! The only problem was that we were outside for pictures, and I got scorched on my shoulders/arms/neck. I coudn't enjoy being in the sun for the rest of the week! ;(

When we got back, I was surprsed by my package from my Hogwarts sock pal! I'll do a proper post tonight, and a proper post for my SP10, who sent me yet another amazing package! You guys just ROCK!

Dyeing again!

Since my Hogwarts series yarns at my etsy shop have done so well, I've created a few more colorways over the last week! Here are a few shots of them. They aren't re-skeined yet, and as soon as they are, they'll be uploaded to my Etsy shop. Let me know if you are interested in any of them, and I'll work on those first! I'll be out of town from 6/28 thru 7/9, so if you want them before them, let me know!

We have:

The Night Bus, Rubeus Hagrid, Ronald Weasley

Basilisk, Albus Dumbledore, Crookshanks

Dementor

SP strikes again!!

Thursday, I arrived home from work, to find another package from my Secret Knitting pal! She completely blew me away with her generosity, and her ability to choose things that I absolutely love! This package also had a theme: S is for Shelby, S is for Socks! Absolutely me!

It included: Some beautiful stitch markers, the perfect size for socks, from Hide and Sheep, ChiaoGoo bamboo needles in size 1, a Cookie A pattern, and yarn. Oh my, the yarn! First is some Socks that Rock lightweight in Tanzenite, Fleece Artist Sea Wool in amethyst, and Crystal Palace Panda Cotton in the blueberry-grapes colorway. I absolutely love it all!! Thanks so much pal!!!