There's Been Some Knitting...

Festivus Wrap from Sunflower Designs - 6 balls of Noro Silk Garden Lite.
Byzantine Wrap - again Sunflower Designs - 6 balls of Noro Silk Garden Lite. You can either use one color or two colors - I chose to use 2.
New purchase -Gateway Netbook with mobile internet. Now I can check email, read blogs, find yarn shops no matter where I am.

If you are wondering about the short, pointed comments, it's because I've been at this for hours. First I tried to write the post with Windows LiveWriter but it wouldn't publish the pictures - then I was trying to figure out how to adjust my picture size but it still wouldn't publish. Then I discovered that you can blog with Picasa - which is what I'm doing now - if this doesn't publish I'm done for today!

That was some storm.....

last night we must have been hit with the edge of a tornado because it was wild around here!

When everything settled - this is what we were left with:

We were blocked in and the road was impassable. It took until around 10 am this morning for the region to send tree removers - apparently, we were the least of the problems.

There was some chick who sat for 45 minutes, flapping her arms and complaining while the tree was being cut apart - she lives 2 driveways over - in all that time, she could have gone around, been home, had lunch and walked back to check on the progress. Another guy tried to drive past while one of the guys was in a cherry picker cutting the higher branches - he gave the workers the finger when he got yelled at to turn around. Another woman driving a big Beemer jumped out of the car in her tennis outfit and proceeded to walk right over to where there were falling branches from the chain saw to complain that she couldn't get through. Honestly.....some people - as if it's the tree removers fault that a tree was blown over and blocked the road. Patience, people, patience! We were the one whol couldn't get out of the driveway (Greg, Jeremy & Andy couldn't go to work lost and one doctor's appointment got cancelled) - we just waited patiently, offered cold drinks (it was stinking hot!), had fun with the kids watching all the goings on.

At least the horses enjoyed all that water! :)

There's been a bit of knitting, mostly preparing for the Knitter's Frolic in September in Kitchener - we will have two possibly three new sock yarns and tons of wonderful projects to highlight some of our best yarns!

Unbelievably - or maybe I should say predictably it's raining again. It's supposed to rain all week so I suppose we should all be used to it by now, given how much rain we've had this summer. There is a bright spot about this crappy weather for our family - the motor on our furnace pooped out late last week so we have no air conditioning. The part won't be here until August 6th so I actually don't mind that it's on the cool side. Five whole minutes have passed and now it's sunny - with dark clouds looming for round 2.

I have been knitting - I finished the Lulu Leggings from Spud and Chloe - they were fun. Here's Emma modelling one - because they were for her I did shorten them quite a bit. After I finished these I went into a bit of a knitting slump - nothing I picked up particularly inspired me. I spent a few days working on stuff only the rip it all back. My beautiful We Wear Red Sweater was begging for attention but it wasn't quite what I needed.

I whipped out some Prism Cashmere from my stash and cast on for a shawl - I only had 2 - 100 yds skeins so it's pretty tiny. I think with a good blocking it will be fine. I love my ruffle - I doubled the number of stitches by k1, yo and then purled in the back of all the yo's to close up the hole slightly then finished with a k1p1 rib until I cast off. I'm sure I'm going to use this edging again - I really like it alot.

For the past few days, I've been happily knitting away on my We Wear Red February Lady Sweater - my mind is ticking away with future projects but this is a priority! It looks a bit on the small side for me so I think I might give it to my cousin for her birthday - she's not a knitter but was extremely close to my mom so I know she'll love it.

On the shop front, new yarn is starting to arrive - we've had 4 big boxes of Fleece Artist/Handmaiden with Casbah, Mini Maiden, Sea Silk, Merino 2/6, Thrum mittens and Thrum socks arrive. Berroco is expected this week - I've ordered all the new Noro Silk Garden and Silk Garden sock colors and I'm in the process of considering a new yarn to debut at the Knitter's Frolic in September.

I'm Flap Happy and Proud

Isn't this soooo cute? It's the Flap Happy Hat from Spud and Chloe

Sweater and my first ever pom pom - the pattern calls for lots of pom poms but this is for my granddaughter and I think just one pom pom on the top will be fine for her. Instead of just one color, I used all the colors - still needs a bit of a trim but overall I'm very pleased. And....I'm sure there will be enough yarn left for a whole other hat! Or maybe a Ribbit in each color? Hmmmm! Decisions, decisions!!!!

I really like this combo too! Maybe a bit more sedate for older kids.....one skein each of 7500/7506/7510/7503.

One down and another one on the go...

Girasole is finished and blocking on the spare room floor. Stunning is really the only word to describe it. It finished up with just over 9 skeins of Tanis Fiber Arts Aran in Chestnut. Just another reason to love this yarn!

We Wear Red Knit Along began today and I dutifully cast on! Again Tanis Fiber Arts in We Wear Red - our custom colorway. There's kind of a Tanis theme happening lately!

Oh - guess who's coming to the shop tomorrow - Spud and Chloe - all the yarns, all the colors, all the patterns. Ahhhh!