Sugar Bunny Boulevard

Eye Candy Friday

 

Even the tiniest thing on Earth can be of extreme interest to little children.  Emeline and Lila Pearl are staring with curiosity, wonder, and disgust at the teeny tiny earthworm on top of this pumpkin.

October 2008 at the Pumpkin Patch

Busy Bee

Mommy has been a busy busy bee!  I took pictures of this bee in the flowers when we visited the William Allen White house in Emporia, Kansas a few weekends ago.  He was probably the biggest bee I have ever seen in my life - this picture is close to life size if you can believe it.  I did zoom a bit but he was giant!

• Yarn for The Loopy Ewe is finished and mailed
• I don't know how long it takes for it to be listed in the Loopy Shop once it arrives but I do know picture taking has to happen.  And various other things.
• Very important package of pink dye for Pink Ribbon Sock Yarn has arrived just in time for me to leave on the trip to my sister's wedding in Michigan
• I can't prepare the kits when I'm not home
• Probably not a good plan to ask my sister if she'll consider rescheduling her wedding because I haven't gotten the kits out yet
• Pink Ribbon Sock Kits will begin shipping July 7
• It will be nice to move all of this yarn out of my house and into someone else's house
• Packing for the Michigan trip is interesting - it's the first long road trip I've taken with knitting included (Estes Park last summer didn't count because I was doing the driving!)
• I strangely believe I can knit at least two sweaters on the trip
• And a dozen pair of socks
• I'm only taking the yarn for one sweater
• And 1.5 pair of socks (one pair of socks is already 1/2 finished)
• I'll be visiting this lady
• And this lady
• And this lady
• I strangely believe I can visit at least a dozen yarn shops on the trip and that my husband and two small children will be thrilled to do so
• I only plan to visit this one though I just might have to visit this one as well since I'll be in the neighborhood  :)

Everyone take good care of every little thing and have a super wonderful and fun and Safe 4th of July - even if you don't celebrate the US Holiday!  XOXOXOXOX

For Margene

Courtesy of Mr. W's garden.

Sometimes when I'm intensely focused on something it's very difficult to step back and see the big picture.  That's what this series of photos makes me think about, even though I didn't plan it that way.

Goals.  Committments.  They've been kicking my arse ever since June 1.  I'm winding.  Skeining.  Tagging.  Dyeing more.  Waiting on an ohsoimportantpackageofpinkdye.  Watching the weather and packing an "emergency tornado bag of life's essential things just in case" several times per week.  And feeling a bit of a squeeze because we're leaving Jun 21 for a trip to Michigan for my sister's wedding.  Oh yes.  Life happens in the most difficult ways sometimes.  I suppose that's what keeps us alive, hm?  :)

Eye Candy Friday

This is such a cheery sight!  Sunny and pretty - yummy wool and sock yarn in Springy Colors!  Just a little preview of some of my shop additions for Monday.  I'm clearing out the old stock of sock yarn getting ready to order more of my Benjamin base yarn PLUS Zephyr silk/wool laceweight.  I can't wait to get my hands on that!!

Have you seen the handspun and roving I've got listed in the shop??

Have a wonderful weekend and may Spring be just around the corner for all of us!  :)

Eye Candy Friday

I've been telling you for quite a while that I've been doing a lot of knitting lately.... but hadn't had much to show for all that talk.  Here's something. 

Heartbreakingly Cute One Piece Baby Kimono from Mason Dixon Knitting. 

The more I knit the more heartbreakingly cute it was.  And the more in love I fell with the yarn.  I used Mission Falls 1824 wool.  100% superwash merino.  Soft as a baby.  Sweet.  Delicious.  I hope it doesn't pill too badly with all this softness.  It was gifted at a baby shower yesterday evening that I couldn't attend because I was teaching a class at Michaels so I can easily fantasize about the chorus of oohs and aahs that must have been when the package was opened.  But then again, maybe it was like a kid opening (store bought!) socks at Christmas and they just tossed the thing into the pile of other gifts without the proper pomp and circumstance that a knitter thinks her hand knits deserve.  The whole thing probably plays out in my mind WAY better than reality.  It's best that I wasn't there.  ha  I also get to avoid the potential mental games I play with myself if there happens to be another (rare) hand made gift... me thinking "is their hand made gift better than the knit/sewn/whatever thing that I gifted?"  Am I the only one that has these terrible thoughts?  Do I only make a hand made gift for the applause??  No.  That can't really be it.  I show it to YOU GUYS for the applause!  hehe  Thank goodness for the blog.  We all know how much people generally don't care if you knit them something.  But maybe this girl will.  I don't know her well enough to know.  The yarn and knitting happiness was enough for me.

Okay, enough of this conversation with myself.  Here are the pictures.

This took exactly three skeins of MF 1824 wool.  Like, exactly.  Including the i-cord ties.  That means it was right at 255 yards of aran weight wool on US6 circular needles.  The pattern was a BREEZE.

As awkwardly thick as the i-cord tie looks at the side, the yarn is so sweetly smooshy and soft that you instantly forget it ever looked awkward because it's so easy to tie.  I have to confess that I've seen these on other baby knits and thought "I'll never make an i-cord tie like that for anything I make."  GULP.  I had to eat those words.  This is so perfect I couldn't find ANYTHING else that worked as well or felt and looked as sweet.

Another confession is this:  the yarn.  Where would I buy this?  I haven't got the slightest idea.  It's not available around here.  During the time when I was requesting seaming yarn for the afghan project I got a TO-DIE-FOR box of yarn from Margaret in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  Margaret, when I die I would like to be buried in your yarn stash.  Can we work that out?  Margaret sent this box of yarn that was, first of all, a BIG BOX.  The box was half filled with partial balls of every color of Cascade 220 ever made.  I swear it.  Heathers and regular solids.  Oh this stuff is PRETTY.  The other half of the box was filled with 20 skeins of Mission Falls 1824 Wool in the light taupe/tan color you see above and a sagey green color - 10 skeins each color.  Mmm.  Yarn love at its finest.  But on top of all THAT... Margaret sent yarn presents for ME.  And some awesome hand lotion.  Why?  I haven't got the slightest idea why Margaret in Canada was so generous with this yarn. And gifts for me.  But I'm so glad she was.  I've been absolutely FILLED with guilt about this box of stuff because I have hoarded the box during the seaming and everything, hoping to have a special Greensburg-related project to use the Cascade for.  So I could knit with it of course.  And the 1824 Wool?  Umm... I avoided touching it for quite a while because I've been coveting it ever since seeing it on the original DeStash blog when people would list that they had some to sell.  Then this baby shower came up.  I somehow overcame whatever was holding me back and grabbed a ball of this yarn out of the box.  Yarn Heaven.  Knitting Heaven.  I couldn't stop myself.  Then, as I was looking at these pictures and making this post I remembered the sweet letter that Margaret wrote.  And remembered that... uhh... I now have 2 skeins of Koigu Kersti and 2 skeins of Hand Maiden Cashmere Laceweight yarn (colorway Vintage!) in my stash from this lady.  I really think she's gonna be okay with knowing that I used 3 skeins of the 1824 Wool to make a baby gift for someone at church.  I really think so.  Whew.  Good Bye Guilt.

And the Cascade 220?  I've found a use for it too.  The "Special Needs" afghan square packet of mitred squares now has a home.  Right here at home.  As soon as I posted that it was available I pulled several colors of Cascade from the box o' yummy stuff and started making mitres.  I have four finished and only need three more to seam the afghan.  And I'll be adding a knit border to the blanket as well.  I've gotten kind of attached* to this little set of squares and will enjoy seeing it come together.

* Attached:  I've bonded with a few other packets as well and can't seem to let them go.  Like the small afghan I've already finished (no pictures of it yet).  It included the pretty squares from the person in Finland and also some squares that I've made.  For some reason I really wanted to put that one together myself. 

SO.... everybody have a great weekend.  Safe.  Cool.  Enjoy your football - I know we will.  We have the cutest little Oklahoma Sooner fans ever and I've been trying to catch video and pictures of them singing Boomer Sooner and cheering for their team.  It's so adorable.

Have a wonderful weekend and take care of every little thing - OH! My GRANDMOTHER is coming from Michigan to visit so I probably won't be posting again until after she's gone next week! 

XOXOXOXOX

Eye Candy Friday

Hi everybody!  Yeah.  It's another video.  Hope you don't mind.  I'll get back to some regular posting and more afghan info after I have some time to finish organizing things around here.  Watch for a post telling that afghan packets will be available for seaming by request and a list of what and how many are available.  In the mean time, here's a little tour of my flower garden.  :)

P.S.  The music on the last video (afghan seaming event) was a song called East to West by Casting Crowns.  Also, there were about 25 people at the event and we had ten complete afghans and a few partially complete afghans at the end of the day.

P.P.S  OH MY GOSH I JUST GOT MY RAVELRY INVITE AT 9:06PM LAST NIGHT!!  WOOHOOOO!!!!!  Wow... I was number 15,289 on the list and there are 18,864 behind me in line!  Isn't that just amazing??

Eye Candy Friday ~and~ Checking In and Catching Up

(Mostly Written on Thursday...)

I'm going to TRY to keep this short and let the pictures speak for themselves.  Additionally, there is a long long list of names here that represent the latest update in afghan project data.  Thank you to EVERYONE that has sent squares, sent money, commented, emailed a little "how are you?", said a prayer or sent us good vibes.  I'm sorting squares and trying to keep it all under control - the dining table has been COVERED UP with squares for several days .... just waiting for inspiration to strike and tell me what to do with them all to keep them organized for the next step.  So far I've washed and sorted about 1250 squares and that took about five hours last Sunday.  I've spent today getting my mind and house in the right place to continue with the next bunch.  I've basically only got one week left to finish the sorting - let's see how it all goes.  :)

THE DATA:  The items and quantities added to the sidebar total are shown below.

• 474 squares
• 3 pair mittens
• 1 winter hat
• 1 scarf
• seaming yarn
• 83 yarn needles
• 1 shawl
• 2 afghans
• 4 cloths
• 1 baby bib
• $80

The grand total of squares is now at 4672.  Whew.  I'm kinda thinking we won't probably get all those afghans finished on September 15th.  But I could be wrong.  :)

All of these squares and mittens and the darling hat and seaming yarn and needles and money and other wonderful things came from the following people:

• Elisabeth - Chicago, IL (my Sockapalooza knitter!)
• Kathy - El Dorado, KS
• Bea - Bergen, NORWAY
• Britt - Floroe, NORWAY (Bea's Mum!  maker of the Cutest Hat in the World)
• Kristin, Kelli, Andrea and Melissa - Kansas City, KS (for the University of Kansas Medical School Knitting Group)
• Jessica - San Jose, CA
• Virginia - Pine Hill, NJ
• Maeve - Arlington, VA
• Millie - Vienna, VA
• Beverly - Lawrence, KS
• Clara - Silver Spring, MO
• Penny - Tulsa, OK (HUGS!!!)
• Renee - NEW ZEALAND
• Kate - South Natick, MA
• Annell - McPherson, KS
• Kelly - New Brunswick, CANADA (Brought in PERSON 131 squares all the way from Canada!  Thank you Kelly!  XOXOXOX)
• Mary - Churchton, MD
• Anonymous Knitter - Smithville, TX
• Amy - North Adams, MA
• Jill - Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA
• Doris, Lana and Sue - Orverland Park, KS (for Blue Valley Baptist Church of Overland Park)
• Norma - Florissant, MO
• Juanita - El Dorado, KS
• Yvonne - Unknown Location
• Patty - Lakewood, OH
• Laura - Arlington, VA
• Amy - Houston, TX
• Pam, Karen and Misty - Lompac, CA
• Bev - San Jose, CA
• Catalina - Rye, NY

That's everything y'all!  It was a little bittersweet to open the last package today (I had about five sitting around waiting for me to clear off the dining table).  I think there are other packages yet to come with completed afghans being made by knitting groups around the country but this was probably my last package of squares.  What a relief but... ha.  No buts.  It's very exciting to move into the sorting phase.  I'm touching every single square again.  And measuring it.  And putting it in a stack with other squares the same size.  It sounds boring but with all the colors and textures and fibers you wouldn't believe how exciting it is.  It's hard not to make a stack of squares I want to put together except that I keep wondering what will the next one in this size look like?  And the next?  It's fun.  Fun also to realize that squares who have been patiently waiting together, made with the same yarn by the same knitter or crocheter... are now going their seperate ways because they are a different size!  People who sent more that one square are touching a lot of different families when their squares are sorted by size.  Then color.  Then maybe texture?  I'm having fun with it.  I guess I'm easy to entertain.  :)

OH.... and you'll be interested to learn that in the Sorting Game the 8" squares are winning.  7.5" and 8.5" are tied with each other and each are half the quantity of 8" squares.  All the rest are fairly minimal but 7" and 9" are about tied as well.

Everybody have a wonderful weekend and take good care of every little thing!  XOXOXOX

More Life Candy Friday

My friend Marisol gave me a "bonsai pine" growing kit in a recent swap.  The kit comes with about ten seeds but I only planted two, not knowing how they might grow in the conditions I was starting with.  So after several weeks of waiting, one seed came up.  What a surprise!  I'm a very impatient gardener so anything that takes more than about two days to come up makes me think I'm a complete failure.  ha

So this pine seed came up and it still had the little seed hull stuck on it.  It's hard to resist the urge to pick that thing off but I left it alone.  And left it.  And left it.  And left it.  The thing took about four or five days to fall off!! 

The entire time I was thinking "I will not be there whenever this thing falls away."  So I watched it.  And took pictures.  And went about my daily life which involves... you know - everything in life.  Including parenting.  This seed hull made me think so much of parenting.  The kid is trying so hard to stretch away from you and you're trying so hard to keep them from growing too fast.  But you can't stop them.  And finally one day.... you have to let go.

Yesterday I knew the moment was near.  The seed hull would fall away some time when I wasn't there.  Then - late last night as I was cleaning up the kitchen and getting ready for bed - I saw that just part of the pine needles had come free.  I took a picture.  Surely the hull would fall off during the night.

Five minutes later as I finished up at the sink, I glanced up just as I saw the seed hull fall down to the dirt. 

Wow. 

I could not believe I was there.  What an awesome moment to witness in life and nature.

And I thought, Oh wow.  I hope that I am there and know the moment when my children break free from me rather than being too busy with my own life to notice.

The only problem with this picture is that now I cannot find the seed hull.  And I wonder if parenthood will leave me empty and I'll disappear into the soil once I'm through parenting.  I'll work on a happy illustration for that one, okay?  hehe  Isn't there a story where two seed hulls live happily ever after in their rocking chairs while the pine cone grandchildren come visit or something like that??  :)

Happy Friday!  Happy Weekend!  I'm BUSY with some things but I AM keeping up with the afghan mail.... I just need to do an update.  Hopefully I can get to that this afternoon - if not.... look for me on.... oh maybe Sunday? 

Take good care of every sweet little thing.  :)   XOXOXOX

Life Candy Friday

Life is good.  In a random manner, here are some of the good things of life.

• Things are growing in the garden.
• I have a squash.  It doesn't appear to be dying.  The plants are healthy and don't have signs of infestation with SVBs (squash vine borers).  For this I am incredibly happy.  And the huge number of blossoms are a bright spot in the garden.
• The Hollyhock is a beautiful sight even though it's alone.  I hope to have more next year.
• Mr. W brought over tomatoes and cucumbers from his garden.
• I love to eat a garden tomato over the kitchen sink with a shaker of salt.  Is this a bad thing?
• I also slice them in thick slices on a plate and eat them salted.
• The cucumbers too.
• Watermelon is cheap this time of year.
• The babies are giggly and happy every time they see the big kids.
• I received a fun surprise email this morning from a high school friend who I mentioned on my blog back in May when it was her birthday - but I'm a terrible person and haven't written her back yet (Hi Carrie!).  I'm guessing she Googled her name and found my blog that way!  Cool!
• I have had students in my knitting classes at Michaels the past two nights (Thursday and Friday).
• A few already knew how to knit and purl when they got to lace class and cable class.
• But not all of them so I got teach them!  And they learned.  :)
• I'm revising my class descriptions to state that you need to know how to knit and purl to take a technique class like lace, cable, entrelac, etc.
• I drove past someone's house and their morning glories haven't flowered yet either.
• Last year I had sunflowers on August 4th, surprise lilies on August 14th, and morning glories.... not until September 17th!!  Wow, it doesn't seem like I waited that long last year!  Okay okay.  I'll be patient.  But I am still out there breathing on them at least four or five times per day.
• I have transplanted brussels sprouts from the "inside the gate" garden to the "outside the gate" garden where they'll get more sun and could be spaced farther apart.  Who knows if they'll do anything this year - I probably planted them way too late.
• The okra will be blooming any day now.
• I wish I had planted corn - I hope to next year.  I've been a corn-on-the-cob addict this year.  Eh hem.... salted and buttered of course.  Don't ask about the WLC. 
• The lettuce is gorgeous but I had my first salad last summer on July 17th and I'm trying to wait a little longer before picking lettuce because it's still growing quite well and the leaves aren't terribly big yet.
• Tomorrow is a big community celebration here called the Prairie Port Festival and Katie will be marching in the parade which starts at 10am.  We'll be going early to eat breakfast at the Senior Center.  Hopefully I can recruit some afghan seamers there!  Benny is playing mud volleyball at 11am and I'm not sure if the flea market is on Saturday or Sunday but we'll be there for sure - it was GREAT last year!
• I opened afghan mail for Tue-Wed-Thu-Fri on Friday afternoon but don't have time right now to list the squares and data.  I'll try to do it on Saturday afternoon if that's okay with y'all.
• I think I would like to get my hair cut but I'm very afraid that then it will require some kind of effort and maintenance, for which I don't have the time or brain space.  What to do.... what to do....
• Not long before Kelly and Moose get here!!  Yay!!
• Don't forget to enter your guess for the number of squares received by August 1st on the Contest Post!!

Have a wonderful safe happy summer weekend!  XOXOX

Yarn Candy Friday

One of my favorite things about food is COLOR.  And it shouldn't be any surprise that one of my favorite things about yarn dyeing is COLOR!!

This skein of yarn feels like one of my greatest accomplishments.  Reds aren't easy and for a long time I was trying to make them in the most difficult way possible by not using professional dyes.  Now that I've been using Jacquard dyes for a while the colorways have gotten better and better as time goes on.

A few holidays ago - not even within the past year - I took some pictures of cranberries as we ground them for our cranberry relish.  I wanted to recreate that color.  (The above picture was taken this morning!)  Now I realize it's not a color but a colorway.  Wow.  The dark reds, brown/blacks, pink and white.... all blend to make a gorgeous holiday dinner favorite.

Now it's a yarn colorway and it can be yours is sold.  This is the most delicious merino/silk sock yarn ever and the colors are very rich.  This subtle yet poppy variegated colorway will make gorgeous socks in so many patterns from ribs to cables and lace.  Oh I wish I could make a million swatches with this yarn.

Below is a swatch I did for the lovely Loksins! socks.  If you divide the swatch into thirds, THIS colorway, CRANBERRY, is on the far RIGHT.  Paul, yours is the far left.  The center is BRICK, which is going to my Sockapalooza Pal.  This picture is a little on the light side - the true colors are much richer and darker.  You know how cameras are with color reality.  It's hard to get the real thing.

SOLD
COLORWAY:  Cranberry
FIBER:  70% merino wool, 30% silk
WEIGHT:  Fingering; 7-8 stitches per inch with US 1-3 needles
100 grams; 440 yards
$23 plus $2 shipping within the US, $6 shipping to Canada  - PAYPAL is preferred
To purchase please email me at sugarbunnyblvd@aol.com or leave a comment here on the blog.  Only one skein available right now.  Sorry, I'm not taking special orders at the moment but I do hope to make more of this colorway.

 

Daily Afghan Report:

Here we are again with a combined 2-day report for Thursday and Friday.  I love getting the squares but y'all, the letters I'm getting are nearly as wonderful!  I wish I could reply personally to every single one.  Today we're adding 58 squares, 6 yarn needles, and $10 to the tally!  Yay!  Thank you for the $$.  I've had several people say that they DO want a PayPal button in the sidebar.  I have checked out what I need to do and will have one up there some time in the next day or so.  This $10 will be added to the $20 I received waaaaay back at the beginning of the project.  At the time I had no CLUE how big this project would be.  Thanks again to everyone for the encouragement and support.

Today's squares and yarn needles and $$ came from the following people:

• 92yo Ruth - El Dorado, KS
• Ann - South Bound Brook, NJ 
• My Aunt Marsha - Eaton Rapids, MI (Hi Marsha! thanks for the picture of the girls!)
• Kristy - Cuyahoga Falls, OH (such a sweet card you sent!)
• Pat - Sierra Vista, AZ (HUG!!)
• Elaine - Portland, ME (hugs to you and thanks for the beautiful letter!)
• Dana - Chicago, IL
• Denise - Berwyn, PA
• Vicki and Carin - Algonia, IA
• Monica - Payallup, WA

Everybody have a fun weekend.  Carole instructed us to do so on her post today!  My fun weekend will start with a visit with my knitting pals in Wichita tonight.  I have only gone to one night-time meetup and it was before Lila Pearl was born so you know it's been a WHILE.  heh  Then tomorrow - I'm not sure what but I'll probably go see what's happening at TWIST and maybe help a little if I can.  Then Sunday the big kids are coming home.  Whew.  I cannot WAIT - we're all very excited to have them back with us again.

Don't forget the contest on yesterday's post and have a great weekend!!  :)