Spring Fling Yarn & Coffee Swap

Let’s pretend for a minute we all live in the home of our dreams, have land, and don’t have to work so time is unlimited! It’s Spring planting season! What would you grow? A little veggie garden? A bed of bright spring blooms? Or is your thumb so far from green that the only thing you’d be planting is your tushy into a nice chair on the porch to get some knitting or crocheting done in the nice breeze?


Well, I would like to think that I would plant huge beds of flowers. One of my goals when we moved into the house was to always have flowers available for cutting BUT in reality I am a very lazy gardener. I slap in beds of annuals and enjoy the perenials that struggle back each year. I really prefer to plan my bottom at the beach or Starbucks and knit and talk!!

Lots of Quilting done

I've had a relaxing week off from work, a day at the spa, a day yarn and fabric shopping but in between I've been sewing away. I've completed another shower giftfor a friend future daughter-in-law, a tote bag for my swap partner, finally found the quilt tops for another teacher's twins AND finished the quilt top for another teachers new baby. Now I have miles of binding to sew on SO I am going to sit on the couch and watch the DVR stuff I have saved and just sew.

I also put pictures of my finished sweaters up on Ravelery. I'm franhaz there!

Yarn Crawl

Yesterday, five of us from our Tuesday night knitting group got together and went on a yarn/fabric crawl to New Hope, Lamberville and Doylestown. We got together at 8:30 coffee in hand and set off. Linda set up the trip so I don't remember the names of any of the stores but really one was nicer then the other and each store was staffed by friendly people. We had a nice lunch, walked around New Hope and Lamberville and wished we had left more time to wander Doylestown. So now I have about another few years of projects ready to go on top of all the other stuff I already have at home! We are planning another one for the early summer to Princeton. We did make an error in trusting online quilt and yarn shop finders. About half of the places we wanted to go to were closed down!

Thanks to my Spring Fling SwapPartner

Today I got a surprise in the mail, stitch markers. Beautiful red stitch markers. I just love them! Thanks !

I'm in three swaps right now and I think I am confusing my partners for each swap just as I've been confusing the hostess for the swaps. This is not the first time I've been in a few swaps at the same time but it is the first time I keep messing up!!!!

SO THANKS FOR THE STITCH MARKERS!

A Great Red Box Weekend!!!!

This week end I received two great swap boxes. One of the boxes was a Red Yarn Swap from Swap-bot.com. I received delightful red lace weight yarn AND matching red stitch markers. This is such a pefect red for me. Thank you so much!

I also received a box from Favorite Color Swap 3 (well just guess my color). This box was just jam packed with red goodness. Beautiful red yarn to make Mr Greenjeans,(a really sharpe cable sweater) and a back up pattern, two red journals and a matching organizer, a very cute red tiny tote bag just perfect for a pair of socks, a book of one skein patterns, a selection of WW treats, red! stitch markers, a cute little tin box and a handmade magnet flower, tiny sock blockers, and red patchouli soap just as I am running out of my own!----just enough to make my day. THANK you so much.

Now I'm fighting with myself not to start the melon stitch scarf/shawl in Victorian Lace (not sure of the title and too lazy to go upstairs and check!) or Mr Greenjeans in red. I have too much on the needles already so I'll try to knit the pinwheel steadily then relapse!

Sleeping and Knitting

I'm taking a few days off from work because I finally went to see the doctor about my "allergies" and found out that I have a sinus infection and bronchitis! I've been feeling crummy for a while but just didn't want to deal with it. I'm also having some testing done on my thyroid which my expalin some of my tiredness. Or at least I hope it does. BUT anyway after all the dr stuff this morning all I've been doing today is sleeping and knitting dish cloths. They are small enough to handle and who cares if I drift off to sleep in the middle of one. The pinwheel sweater is just too big and bulky to work on in bed. I'm in a dishcloth swap and if I get enough done I'm going to give then to my mother, grandmother and sisters as part of my Mother's Day gifts to them.

Coffee Memories

I don't remember when I actually started drinking coffee. One of my earliest memories is of walking with my grandfather to an Italian Bakery/Coffee shop. He always had black coffee with lots of sugar and anisette in it. He would dip the tip of a spoon and give me a taste. As much as I liked it I was more interested in the Italian ices, the old fashioned creamy kinds with fruits and nuts in them and soft not hard. I also love the cookies I had there.

My mother is a tea drinker so only my father drank coffee when I was young in our house. In the morning he drank American coffee but after around 11:00 AM or so there was only Italian demitasse coffee in the small cups with a sliver of lemon and lots of sugar or liquor added! We also had two types of coffee pots-- the perc type for the morning and the Italian flip one for later.

More Hospital Knitting

I have trained myself in the last few years that when I need to run to the emergency room or a doctor's visit I NEVER go without my knitting. This weekend we had a small scare with my grandmother. She looked like she was having a stoke but it turned out to be probably Bell's Palsy. She is pretty miserable and can't use most of one side of her face but is certainly is better off then if she had a stroke! This required two visits to the hospital with her this weekend and I did get lots of knitting in. I finished two dishcloths for a swap I'm in and finished one sleeve of my pinwheel sweater with about 3 or 4 inches to go on the other sleeve then back to the hundreds of stitches long body!

This Sunday we were stuck in between two women who were very particular about the types of pain medications they wished to receive. It was interesting---- both were on their cell phones having loud conversations using words my 96 years old grandmother rarely hears and were only writhing in pain when either a nurse or someone else was around! At one point my grandmother thought it was me talking that way! Knitting helps keep you sane in situations like that!!!

Current Knitting

For the Spring Fling Yarn and Coffee Swap the question is asking if we switch from winter to spring knitting. I don't think that I do really make a switch because I rarely knit something really geared for spring or summer. When I'm knitting at the beach I will not take a huge afgan but I don't knit those anyway!When I want something warm to snuggle under I make a quilt. For a few years I was on a sock jag and socks are perfectly portable and seasonless. Now I'm back to knitting sweaters. Maybe I need to think of some lighter tops!

Signs of Spring

I'm in New Jersey and Spring is certainly popping up here. I have a few clumps of daffodils up in the garden and a whatever other spring bulb got planted out there and continue to struggle up every year in spite of being neglected. My peony plants have lots of shoots, there are green leaves pushing their way up and the flowering tree buds are just ready to open. Now everything has been just like this is years past and a freaky round of snow or freezing weather nipped it all BUT I'm hoping we have had a end to all that for this year!

April 5th

Another busy week and weekend finished. Friday I took some comp time and left work at 12:30 and met up with some knitting friends for lunch and a few hours of knitting. It felt like such a luxury!!!!! Went home took a nap and knit on the pinwheel sweater.
Sat. flew by with getting my nails done, borrowing a beautiful shawl to wear to a wedding and going to the wedding of a teacher I work with. Beautufyl bride, and a great wedding.
Today, slept until 9 then started the grocery, errand, cleaning cycle and I've done as much as I'm going to do today SO I think I'll go upstairs, put my feet up and nap and knit. Such an exciting life!