I Am Gobsmacked. For a Change.

And you can probably guess why. The Gift Fairy paid me another visit!

This time, it was a gift from Caroline F., another faithful visitor to my blog, and knitter of wonderful arans and fair isles.

The book KnitLit!

This book is a little gem. Filled with essays of varying length about knitting and life, its a great read. I took it to Dreamweaver class with me yesterday and read some of it during breaks and lunch. And enjoyed it thoroughly.

Caroline . . . thank you!

Traditional Scottish Knitting — mini-review

For Sabine, who asked so nicely, a mini-review of the little book Lindsey-Brooke gave me yesterday. It’s Traditional Scottish Knitting by Rowan Reid and is subtitled “Sanquhar Pattern Gloves History and Knitting Pattern.” It was published by The Galloway Tryst in Scotland in 1998.

And it’s just what the subtitle says. It’s 20 pages long, the first 11 being a brief history of the Scottish Sanquhar pattern, complete with wonderful old photos. The rest of the book is taken up by the pattern for “The Duke Pattern” — traditional two-color gloves. Upon reading through the pattern, it looks very detailed and easy to follow.

Virgin Sweater

Here, as promised, the update photo:

In this photo, I’m at the point where I’m knitting the text. The pattern gives you the alternative to knit it in Norwegian or English. I’m knitting mine in Norwegian. It comes out pretty clear — Theresa ought to be able to read it (smile).

Sock Update

Here is proof that I’ve got good knitting karma these days: my Opal socks match!

Too bad.

Because gobsmacked I remain.

I really don’t know what I did to deserve all these gifts, but . . . wow!

Yesterday’s surprise . . . a gift bag chock full of goodies from Lindsey-Brooke, who is one of my most loyal blog readers.

Odie claims that this bag just sort of appeared on her desk. The first thing I pulled out was this:

It’s Joslyn’s Fiber Farm 100% wool fingering weight, called “Dancing Feet.” The colorway is called “TreeBark” and it’s beyond gorgeous. And beautifully soft too. Odie begged me to give it to her and she doesn’t even knit! I think she got caught up in the moment.

The next surprise was this:

This is a little book about the Scottish Sanquhar pattern — its history and pattern for a pair of gloves. Now I’d never even heard of this book let alone ever seen a copy so this was a marvelous surprise. Since I’m such a sucker for traditional patterns.

Then there was this intriguing little box:

And inside the box were these:

Adorable kitty post-it notes and three sets of buttons! The buttons are celtic knots, round snowflake/flower pattern, and little cats.

At this point Odie and I were almost hyperventilating with excitement.

All I can say is . . . I’m not worthy! And, a huge, huge thank you to Lindsey-Brooke!

Another Birthday Surprise

I forgot to mention yesterday (and unforgivable of me too!) that when I got to work on Monday, there was a message on my voicemail from my very good friend Geane (the very same Geane who just finished SL 2002 and the very same Geane who gave me a whopping gift certificate to Bea Ellis Knitwear which enabled me to buy the Heilo for St. Moritz in colorway J, thank you very much) in which she serenaded me with “Happy Birthday” done in a clarinet solo. A beautiful clarinet solo, I might add, as Geane is a talented professional musician. Wow!

WIP or Lack Thereof

I was at a Dreamweaver (html editing software) training course yesterday for work, and will be today, too. I got home later than usual with a not-enough-caffeine headache (won’t make that mistake today!) so I didn’t make a lot of progress on the Virgin sweater. So you get this teaser as the progress pic:

I promise a better pic tomorrow.

I am really really loving knitting this! I feel about this pattern the way Teresa feels about Roscalie. I’m in lu-u-uv, baybeeeeee!

QueerJoe’s Scarf

Didja see the results of the voting on the scarf that Joe knitted for me? I’m getting colorway #2. They are both gorgeous, but #2 was my favorite. Thanks, Joe for your generosity!

The birthday festivities continue! I went into work yesterday and first thing in the morning went down to my friend Odie’s office to meet her to go for coffee, as per usual.

And sitting on her desk was . . . you guessed it . . . another gift! Look!

An adorable hat from Amy, our beloved editor of Knitty and blogger extraordinaire at Squibnocket.

Look at that hat? Isn’t it cute? I love the little knot on the top!

Why am I not wearing it in the photo? My reasons are two-fold. Number one, the only one around when I was ready for a photo shoot was Izzy, and she always jiggles the camera. Number two, Sunday night I got very little sleep so I was looking . . . uh . . . less than perfect yesterday so I didn’t want to frighten anyone with my photo.

The truth is, I tried to get a good photo of me wearing it, but couldn’t get one in good enough light. So under the Ott Light it went!

But thank you, Amy, from the bottom of my heart. It was cold and snowy yesterday so this cute little hat was a very welcome addition to my outdoor ensemble going home!

And of course, Odie claimed to have no idea how the gift ended up on her desk.

Virgin Sweater

Here is the update photo.

I’m up to the heads on the Foolish Virgins!

Izzy loves this design, too.

Sock Update

Ooh! Ooh! I finished the first sock of a pair of Opal socks. Southwestern Collection, color number 6.

Well, y’all have a good day. I’m out of the office today and tomorrow at a training course so I won’t be around the blog too much. But I’ll stop by when I can.

That’s what I am! Gobsmacked!

For as some of you already know, birthday gifts keep popping up for me!

Friday night I found a gift on my computer chair — a gorgeous scarf knitted from Colinette “Fandango” (which is a yummy hand dyed cotton chenille):

The card says it’s from the very talented Emma of Emma & Co!

I can’t begin to tell you how much I love this scarf, and I’ve made good use of it already, for this is what it looks like here:

A couple of inches of snow yesterday with the potential for a couple more today.

Saturday night we had my birthday party with my family. Among my pile of family gifts a gift appeared without explanation:

Gifts from wonderful Kathy of Far From the Madding Crowd! A teeny-tiny fair isle sweater that I can use as a Christmas ornament (but I’ll undoubtedly display it year round), and some beautiful vintage earrings.

And if that weren’t enough.

Yesterday I put my knitting down and when I returned to it, an intriguing little box was sitting on top of it, along with two bars of Norwegian chocolate!

Gifts from the incomparable Theresa of Bagatell!

Clockwise from top left, a darling little safetypin/bead pin of the Norwegian flag, a little Norwegian flag garland, Norwegian chocolate, and five beautiful pewter clasps! The clasps will be wonderful for the next Norwegian cardi I make.

Umm . . . there’s a reason why there was only one chocolate bar available for the photo . . .

So Emma, Kathy, and Theresa . . . THANK YOU! I love you guys!

And this is still a mystery to me. I know that you guys have coordinated this through Ian, even though he steadfastly maintains his innocence in the face of overwhelming evidence. For example, when confronted with the gift sitting on my knitting, he said “Huh. How’d that get there?” with a look of pure innocence on his face. You have to admire that. He will not cave under questioning.

The Carvel Ice Cream Cake

Yes, we were bad. For the uninitiated (and you are to be pitied) you can learn about Carvel Ice Cream here. Here’s the before photo of my cake:

Here is the after photo:

Perhaps I should say “oink.” In our defense, it was a small cake.

And it didn’t stop there! Friday night we had s’mores. Because I had never in my life eaten, much less prepared, a s’more, the chef went to work.

Ignore the large bottle of vodka visible in the photo . . .

Virgin Sweater

For those of you who have read thus far, yes, you actually get some knit content! Here is the Virgin sweater as of yesterday afternoon:

Gotta love the Ott Light for taking photos!

Some of you may remember that I got the wool for this in a trade with Theresa a couple months ago. It is the yarn called for in the pattern, Vestlandsgarn from Gjestal. I have altered the pattern to knit a pullover rather than a cardi.

What I’m doing is knitting the back chart for both the back and front. I started by casting on 20 fewer stitches than called for in the body of the sweater (total of back chart stitches doubled) and knitting 15 rounds in black for the facing, purling one row for the turning, then knitting 2 rounds in black, increasing 20 stitches evenly on the second row. Then two more rounds in black and then the two-color pattern. When I get to the armholes, I’ll follow the pattern directions for casting off stitches and casting on for the steeks, and doing the armhole shaping. Same for the neck, except I’ll have to play it by ear a bit to alter from the neck for the cardi to a neck for the pullover. It’s a round-neck cardi, so it should be easy to adjust.

I’m using US sixe 3 for the body (I used a 2 for the bottom band) and am getting the gauge nicely.

And I’m very grateful for my Ott Light for reading the chart. I may still go blind knitting this, but it’ll be at a slower pace!

Lastly, Izzy says “Happy New Year” to all!

Hey you guys! Thanks for all the birthday wishes you sent my way. You all are great.

I had a good birthday — didn’t go to work (and am not going today either) so I got to sleep late. Then out to brunch and shopping. Then champagne with dinner. Mmmmm!

We won’t discuss the Carvel ice cream cake. The humanity!

And another amazing surprise gift! This one from Sabine in Berlin, Germany. A ball of wonderful Lang Jawoll sock yarn! And it’s in lovely shades of blues and greens, my favorite colors:

Isn’t it gorgeous? I was delighted, amazed, and touched. Sabine, thanks so much for your thoughtfulness!

New WIP

On New Year’s Day I started knitting the Virgin sweater from Norsk Strikkedesign. I altered the pattern to make it a tunic rather than a cardigan, and am using the pattern chart for the back on both the back and the front. Here’s an early progress pic:

Again, thanks to everyone for your birthday wishes. Have a great weekend everyone!