27 June 2006

Rainy days and Mondays...

I know, I know. It's Tuesday. And neither rainy days nor Mondays usually get me down. But lately it's been raining ALOT and I'm tired of feeling damp.

I suppose you've noticed that there are pictures of yarn in this post? Well, that yarn was dyed for me by my Dye O Rama Swap buddy...Lucia! She lives in Massachusetts and they've been having alot of rain. She e-mailed me to let me know that my yarn would be a little late because of all the rain - she wasn't able to get outside to dye the yarn (see her blog for details).


It was worth the wait! The colors are rich and deep and soooo beautiful! Blues and teal/dark green, purples...it's beautiful! The yarn is nice and soft. And there's alot of it!

I think I'm going to use the yarn for the Simply Lace socks from the Spring 2006 issue of Interweave Knits.

The pictures don't do the colors justice. It was raining yesterday when I took these pictures, so the light wasn't that great.


Lucia also sent me a jar of pink peppercorns. I've never tried them, in fact, thought I'd never even heard of them. I was looking at the jar one day and it came to me. I grew up (for about 7 years) in Southern California. There are these pepper trees all over the place. They have pink peppercorns growing on them. The reason I didn't think of this right away? Well, I never really believed they were pepper. I thought it was just a name or something, because I'd only ever seen black peppercorns.

So I now have some pink pepper. The label states that the "taste is characterized as delicate and aromatic rather than the traditional pungent "spicy" flavor associated with black and white peppercorns". I can't wait to try them!

That package arrived last Thursday. Friday, I got another package! Here's what it contained:


I won this from a contest that Nancy had (by the way, today is her birthday, so go wish her a happy birthday - her best friend, Maribel created a wonderful tribute post to Nancy, so visit her blog, too!). I didn't originally win the prize. But the woman who did win, didn't respond to Nancy's e-mails about her winnings. So Nancy pulled another name (actually, her son pulled the name) - and it was my name!! This Lopi yarn came from Iceland (read Nancy's blog to learn more about it). The colors are beautiful. The book is awesome. That night, I had to knit a swatch (I felted it Saturday, but don't have a picture of the felted swatch).

Sunday, I knit this bag (I got the pattern from the book). It took me about 10 hours, total, to knit this bag. I think it's so cute. I washed it once last night, but need to wash it another time (it's not fully felted yet).
Last night I cast on for a second bag (because I had more than a skein & a half of the yarn left over and I like this bag so much!). I'm about half-way done with the second bag.

Oh! And if you haven't heard, Cara is having a drawing for lots of awesome prizes. She has a registry at Heifer International. For every $10 you donate, your name gets entered into the drawing once. She has raised $13,467.00 so far! You can donate to the registry til the end of the month (I think, check out her blog for the details).

That's all for today (hopefully someone's still reading my blog!). MAKE it a great day!

20 June 2006

I'm still here.

I'm still here. My life has been incredibly boring lately. I haven't been knitting (for several weeks, now). I haven't even checked my e-mail and/or knitting blogs every day. In fact, days go by where I don't even turn my computer on.

I guess I'm waiting for my Grandma's memorial service (which will be July 15th - yes, a month & a half after she died). The QP's been having a rough time with my Grandmother's death. It's hard to explain death to a 7 year old. All she knows is that she misses her Nan. For any person, it's hard dealing with your own grief. It's even harder seeing your child sad/upset/crying. I think that having the memorial service such a long time after her death just prolongs everything. The service (to me) is some type of closure. Having this drag out for a month & a half means a month & a half with no closure.

Anyway. Thank you, everyone, for your warm wishes, condolences, etc. Your comments/thoughts/prayers mean alot to me. Normally I e-mail those who leave comments to my blog, but, well, I just haven't felt like e-mailing. Just like I haven't felt like knitting. Or blogging. Or doing much of anything.

But, I wanted to thank everyone - and to let you know I'm still around (even though I haven't been knitting or even taking pictures).

07 June 2006

In Memory...

This is my (maternal) Grandmother. She was born May 1, 1920. She died around 9:30 PM June 5, 2006. She was 86 years old. She's survived by:

2 siblings (she was one of 6 children)
3 children (she had a total of 5 children)
6 grandchildren
11 great-grandchildren (out of 12 great-grandchildren)

This picture was taken at Christmas time. It is me, the QP, my Mom, my cousin (her mom & mine were sisters - her mom passed away in 1988), and my cousin's daughter. And, of course, my Grandma. Four generations.


Here is my Grandma with the QP and my cousin's 4 children.

The QP & I lived with my Grandma for about 2 years after the death of my Grandfather. She & the QP were very close.

For the past two years, she's been living in a nursing home. She didn't like it there. When her last bit of freedom (being able to leave the home & walk to her daughter's house, less than a block away from the home) was taken away from her, she refused to eat. Then she wouldn't get out of bed. Within a couple of weeks, she died. Her youngest daughter was her power of attorney while her son was on vacation (he & his wife left for Colorado around Memorial Day - knowing my Grandmother was not doing well). She had one of the nursing home nurses call my Mom (her sister) to tell her that their mother had died. Before my Grandmother's son left on vacation, he and his sister planned on having a memorial service for my Grandmother in July (when he's back from his vacation). The service is scheduled for July 15th. They didn't include my Mom in the planning at all.

My Grandmother would be apalled (is that how you spell that word??) at how some of her children are acting.

Needless to say, it's a rough time.


05 June 2006

Thanks SP8!



Saturday, I received a package from my wonderful SP8! It contained two balls of Filatura di Crosa Primo (100% new wool) yarn, a cute heart pictures frame, a bookmark, some sticky notes, some gum, and a wonderful note. Everything is blue (since that's my favorite color). She also included a Polly Pocket and a mini Madame Alexander doll for the QP. The QP loves both of the dolls - and didn't already have either one! And I love my presents! Thank you, SP!


I cast on (that same day!) for a Horseshoe Lace scarf - that's why you only see one yarn ball in the picture. I'm almost half-way done with the scarf. I don't have pictures of it yet.

MAKE it a great day!