Isn't She Lovely?

This is my honorary neice/granddaughter/baby...baby fix!

On her pretty little feet are the socks I made for her from Witch's Brew yarn.

SP 14

So my final package from my secret pal arrived today. At Sock Summit, a lady named Ruth approached me with a little gift from her "friend" who was my SP. I had initially thought my SP was Ruth herself, so she tried to throw me off. But, as it turns out, she did exactly what I would have done. Good move! Anyway, here's the final package. I am super duper excited about the hemp yarn because I've been wanting to work with it and just haven't had the opportunity or the desire to buy more yarn. The small square project bag, which I will use for socks or booties or possibly as a notions bag, is one that I was actually looking at and considering purchasing!

So thank you Ruth!

Team Spirit

So I'm still in SoCal and still having mixed feelings about the area. On the one hand, and probably the most important, the smog is killing me! I had forgotten how bad it is to see the air I'm breathing...but that's the case. It's not as bad today since it cooled off dramatically.

Yesterday afternoon we went to South Coast Plaza, an upscale mall here in Orange County. I really missed not having a wallet full of cash I tell you! But I'm not going into debt again for "stuff" and there was lots of "stuff" I would have loved to own :-). Anyway, I don't think this area is feeling the recession or the unemployment figures at all. Quite the opposite of malls at home - no closed stores, no empty aisles, no big signs announcing store closing final sale. Instead, there were signs announcing the upcoming opening of a Prada boutique. It was a mall full of designer stores (Michael Kors, one of my personal favorites, for one) and shoppers that weren't just window shopping. Well...we were window shopping, but most of the folks had bags full of their latest purchases.

Last night we went to Downtown Disney. We chose Tortilla Joe's for dinner, and had to wait an hour for a table. The area was seriously bustling - people everywhere, long lines for everything from having a caricature drawn to a sit-down dinner. There is an ESPN store and of course there were television monitors everywhere showing the Angels v. Yankees game that was under way. As I'd heard the other night at Chili's, collective cheers and groans with every pitch. After dinner it was after 9 p.m. which meant it was after midnight on the East Coast where the game was being played. The game went into I believe the 12th inning before the Yankees won, but not until the Angels tied it in dramatic fashion and all of the fans here thought for sure they would pull out a victory. I sure love that atmosphere!! Oh. And waiting an hour for that table was worth it. Food and service was excellent.

Thursday October 15

Just got to Orange County - spending the weekend w/hubby for our anniversary! I left cool, cloudy and slightly drizzly weather for gorgeous 78-ish weather. SoCal seems to always be like that. I remember growing up here there never seemed to be cold or ugly weather. Anyway, kicking it in the room now watching Game 1 of the NLCS Phillies @ Dodger Stadium. We thought about getting tickets but I know the traffic down here all too well, and there is no way we would have made it in time. Such a beautiful ballpark though and I haven't been there in probably 10 years. Maybe tomorrow.

Driving from the airport to the hotel, about 11 miles, took an hour. I don't miss that! Listened to Vin Scully on the pre-game show and he mentioned some milestones related to today's date. Today is 21 years to the day of the Kirk Gibson game-ending come-from-behind homerun against Dennis Eckersley in the 1988 World Series. He was hurt, and came off the bench for this, and the stadium erupted. Rod, Terri, and I had gotten stuck in some pretty crummy seats...behind the plate but waaaaaay back, and it felt like an earthquake. As he gimped around the field with his arm raised, we screamed and yelled and high-fived people we didn't know...for a really long time. We couldn't hear the play-by-play of course, but we heard the repeats of it over and over and over...

Anyway, I'm watching the game on TV but I'd much rather be there! Post-season baseball is the best. And being an Oakland A's fan...well...let's just say there's not much hope of seeing October baseball again. For awhile. So I root for my Dodgers. And always will.

ETA: We went to dinner at Chili's and during the half hour we waited for a table we sat so I could see the televisions in the bar, where the Dodgers/Phillies game was playing. I observed group moans and/or cheers, depending on each play. I looked around the restaurant and in each group of people at least one person was wearing a team-related shirt or cap. Most of them were Dodgers, even though we're in Orange County (definitely Angels country), but there were a few Angels shirts too. I don't recall seeing that kind of support in the Bay Area when our teams were involved in post-season play. I guess I miss this kind of camaraderie as it relates to professional sports and supporting the home team(s).

OH and it's going to be 95 today. Glad I brought summery clothes!

Trifle

And the winner is....Trifle. A super luscious dessert!! The 100% BFL has just been launched on Etsy. It's been dyed in Plumilicious too, but it's not dry yet. I can see that winter is going to be a problem for this business. I hung it yesterday morning. It hung outside all day yesterday and has been in the bathroom since last night. It's much too cold and windy to hang it outside. I've got to figure out how to dry yarn inside in a reasonable amount of time.

And I spent over 8 hours over 2 days untangling this one. It should cost double, dontcha think?? While it was resting overnight one of the cats chewed through it, fortunately there was still a full skein in one piece. Damn cats. Unfortunately, I think the chewer in this case was my angel Chanel because the family chewer, Nelson, can't get up on the table. Apparently Chanel has been taking Nelson's naughty kitty chewing class.

New Yarn

So I just brought in BFL - blue-faced leicester wool in a superwash fingering weight. It needs a name!! Snow Cone? Some other ice-cream or dessert-related name please.

Here's the first dyed skein in Creamsicle. Not on Etsy yet because it needs a name...




Creamsicle is available on Etsy in Soft Serve, Ice Cream Sundae, and Banana Split!

Received a comment offering up Gelato - I already have Gelato, I just didn't do it in Creamsicle flavor. Gelato is 50% superwash merino/50% tencel and super creamy soft just like Gelato. Next suggestion?

A Swap Package from Sara

I got a pretty darn cool package, but she didn’t tell me her ravelry id so I don’t know who this is other than first name! Once I know that I’ll sing her praises even louder.

This package was so unique…super creative person here! There was a book on top that instructed me to read it first. Each page was a cute little poem and a carnival game. Each carnival game directed me to a numbered package to open. I followed the directions and opened them in the order instructed. The yarn is a hot fuchsia bamboo/silk blend and is super luxurious. I’m going to buy more of it in different colors and create my own mitered corner jacket.

There is a yummy harvest candle, stitch markers, knitters’ journal, and two wonderful hand made items. One is a fold up holder for all of the little knit-knacks such as stitch markers, counters, etc. And the other is a striped project bag perfect size for carrying socks in process!

The tiara has a special meaning. She read my blog post where I was complaining about mowing the lawn! I’ve never had a tiara before, a real one, I had a proverbial one. Now I’ve got a real one!!

So here’s a picture of the whole package on my mantle. Isn’t Sara great??? Now if I could just figure out which swap this is from...

Chicago - Days Five, Six, and Seven

Sunday September 13. The morning was kind of dead, primarily vendors shopping other vendors' booths, but after the grand prize drawing we had a little rush. Folks wanting to make sure they got their last minute treasures. One of the ladies who won some cash in the drawing came to the booth to make sure she had some CraftsMeow yarn to take home! My booth was on her list to shop online later, but now she had cash and wanted to spend it now.

When 4:00 came and the show was officially closed, Jane and I closed up shop so fast. We packed it all up and drove away at 5:15. Not bad, eh?

Monday the 14th was time to conduct business and ship back everything we didn't sell. The morning was spent at the UPS store, then we scouted around a bit and found the train station that Jane would need the next day to go into the city to meet her friends and go to the Art Institute. The afternoon we just vegged. We went to the hotel and hung out in the lobby part of the time, and for me on the balcony of the room part of the time. It was warm, but not hot, and just a really good time to put my feet up and sort of relax. I was doing QuickBooks for part of the show's sales, but I had my feet up and a big glass of iced tea and enjoyed the fresh air of the Chicago suburbs.

Tuesday was way fun. I bought us tickets to go see the Cubbies. Neither of us had been to Wrigley Field and we were excited. I took Jane to the train station so she could go meet her friends and tour the Art Institute while I went yarn store-ing. And yarn store-ing I did!! I went to a little town called Long Grove. The store is called I'd Rather be Knitting. How cute is that??? I perused the store, chatted with one of the employees and the store owner, and am going to send samples of my wholesale line.

And the day was capped by heading to the bus station to catch the express bus to Wrigley Field. I waited and the bus never came, so a couple of Cubs loyals made a phone call to find out there had been only one bus for that game and we'd missed it. These two gentlemen are Cubs loyals and 27 years' season ticket holders. I rode with Gary and Carl to the game so I got an up close and personal tour of what must be seen. We sat behind home plate with them and had a wonderful time!!