Links to the past

This past weekend when my sister was here we traveled to MD to visit my Grandma. it was a good time. We enjoyed seeing our Grandma and then visiting with our uncle and cousins who also came up that weekend.

I brought some wonderful pieces of family history home with me. The quilt is beautiful and also hand quilted. the aprons i found while i was getting sheets to make the bed. the pink one is my fav. it has some wonderful embroidery on it. Around the pleated top and the pockets and across the bottom of the apron. they give me wonderful ideas of aprons to make. If only I'd get my sewing machine fixed! ARUGH I've got to do that some time soon.
I also brought home some boxes of recipe cards. I've not really gotten the time this past week to look through the recipes but I'm sure they will hold some treasures for me!
I thought that it was really cool, and wanted to share my treasures with you!

Kniterview!

So last week my sister and her boyfriend came for a visit. it was a really quick one though. They flew in Thursday and left on Sunday. It was really good to see her though. I hadn't seen her since we lived in Germany at least 3 years ago. So now since her BF met the whole family I think he's got the "stamp" of approval. LOL that is if our family hasn't scared him off. LOL i guess the best way to gauge if they're going to hack it with the family they need to eat dinner with us. There are 5 of us kids, and we're all pretty loud when we eat dinner. I remember when my DH met my family... I think he just kinda sat there looking back and forth at the action, then he jumped in and hasn't looked back since. You'd have to ask my younger sister about her DH and how he was when he first ate with most of the family.. LOL now add to that my kids and her kids, it's even better. I love it! I think it's something i truly miss living here in PA so far away from the fam.
Speaking of families, when we too my sister back to the airport at O'dark Thirty, OK it wasn't that early but we did get UP that early. then we had a few hours to kill before the Father's day Baseball game. So we hit a local Eat and Park for breakfast. Then we headed over to PNC park and they had some festivities for the kids as always on Sundays. We had a wonderful time, so much fun that i could hardly get them to sit still for the pix. The seats filled shortly after it was a wonderful game and believe it or not the Pirates actually won!
Anyways on Monday I got the semi-monthly newsletter from the local yarn store, and after i read that they were looking for a knitting instructor I called. Tuesday they called me back to set up a Kniterview! (interview + knit). So on Wednesday i went and guess what
I GOT IT!!! I'm sooo pumped. it's like a DREAM JOB! The lady who owns/runs the store is great! (and I'm not just saying that b/c she's reading my blog) We talked for a while it was good. Of course before the Kniterview I had to scourge the house for knitted items I've knit. I didn't really realize HOW MUCH of my knitting I've given away. but i came up with a few socks and a hat for her to look at. Hey what can i say I show my love by giving knitted (or crochet'd) items! How about you, do you show your love in knit?

You may want to sit down.

I actually finished my socks! I guess I just kept putting them off doing other projects, Remember I started them over a YEAR agot (if you read down around the pix of the nancy bush book) Anyway I'm getting the sock bug again and really want to start a new pair. So i quick finished my sock so i could use my FAVE needles, that i got in Germany. LOL I'm telling myself this time that I can't take over a year, my goal is 1-2 months. I'm a member of the six sock knitalong yahoo group, and the pattern is really great for the summer and yes it's a lace pattern, i can't believe i like it! (if you click the link it will take you to the home page and the photo is the sock for this 2 month period, if you like the pattern join!)
I thought if I actually knit that sock and try and do it along with the group... I'll actually finish a pair of socks really quick. or at least quicker than my track record has been this past couple of years..
OK so the pattern is one I figured out myself. I have the Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush and in one of the patterns i found like 10 rows that i thought would make a really great repeat on a sock so here's the result. my favorite part is if you look closely there's a diamond wrap shape in the pattern. It looks similar to a leaf (almost) I tried to get an up close pix... If you look closely down near the bottom of the left sock in this pix to the right is the shape I'm talking about. sorry no arrow or anything I don't have a fab photo shop thingy... just the basics. Anyways the yarn is yarn I dyed myself, with koolaid, about 2 or more years ago. it's the one on the right if i recall correctly. anyways they turned out wonderfully, don't you think?
anyways just wanted to share my slow success.

Pink Elephants!

They're all around, and no, I'm not watching Dumbo...
I made these cute guys for my mom's yahoo group to be our traveling mascots. we're going to send them around to each member and have them take pix and have fun with our families for a while. The tall one, whom I've been calling Ellie, the destroyer just loves and carries around everywhere. I may have to make another one just for her. The short one, whom I've been calling Elena, is knitted from a pattern I found here. She also has it in PDF form for your pleasure. It's cute as it was made with stripes! I was pleased to see that as a solid it's just as cute! I used some black eyed peas to fill the bottom of the elephante instead of the pellets it called for only b/c I had the peas and I'm not going to eat them. So it's truly a beanie! LOL that cracks me up.
So here's a shot of the two of them together.
they are BFF's and soon will be off to their next destination. And yes I'm still working on my neice's gift. I'm just easily distracted.. so sorry Jessica! I'll get cracking! luckily it's not an age thing. I'm sure it'll be done by her 1st birthday, if not before......eek! must go work on it now!

What better combination?

Thank you Shannon!!!
YOU ROCK!
Ok I'm 2 days late but hey I've been er um... distracted?! Yeah that's right.
The package couldn't have come on a better day. Wednesday I stayed late at work so I could pick the bub up, they went on a trip to a local amusement park. So coming home to this was wonderful. It was very hot so I took the girls outside to swim and opened my package there! Boy oh BOY was I excited! and my Partner Shannon.. what a sweetie! (she doesn't have a blog up and running yet so I can't link you up) She made up an awesome package for me.. here's the booty.
Lots of yarn and some clover pom pom makers, stickers for the girls, this really cool stitch holders (correct me if I'm wrong) that you hook on to your DPN's so that you don't have any stitches falling off and they're connected so if you loose one you loose the other! A really awesome mug, Some biscotti, and my fave chocolate covered espresso beans. To top it off one of my fave blends of coffee from a local shop near her. She's from Oregon so there's LOTS of coffee shops around there. I'm so jealous!
But also so fortunate that she was my partner! Thank you sooo much Shannon!
I just wanted to show you guys a up close personal view of my new Favorite coffee mug. the back says Coffee Queen, I wonder if that's a close relation to drama queen? (Drama? Not me never!)
I love this mug! Probably b/c it's really fun and being glass/clear it reminds me of a coffee house. So now my house is a coffee house.. well it always has been a coffee house, but now it looks more official! the front of the mug is great. I wonder if it was hand painted. Maybe Shannon can tell me?

Ok for all you Fiber Freaks here's a close up of the fiber goodness and I'll give you a run down of what exactly... YUM YUM!
So at the bottom is some brightly colored Encore Colorspun WW yarn. Shannon said that she thought I should make the girls some hats. I agree the yarn will make wonderful hats for the girls... now what pattern to use?? LOL the choices!
At the front of the photo is some sugar and cream 100% cotton yarn. I'm already pondering making the destroyer a shrug/capelet thingy, my sister swears that she made one (more now) for my niece with one skein of S&C.
Now on to my most favorite type of yarn on the planet.. SOCK YARN! (yes I love it that much!) So first Shannon sent me some Lana Grossa Cotton Fantasy in pretty earthy colors. and then some blues and greens hand painted sock yarn from Sporfarm in OR.
Ok i think that's all of it... I'm so excited. I hope Shannon enjoys the package I sent her I know I had a blast putting it together.
anyways I'm so happy I had a great swap! if there's going to be another Coffee Swap... I'm so IN!