My Potholders Arrived!

Look what arrived in my mail yesterday... my pothoders from the swap. I love them.

Starting with the round potholder on top, my potholders came from Annepalandet, Nova, Emily, Leila, and Bertha. It was fun to look at where they all came from . I immediately noted the one by Nova because I used one of her patterns last year to make a cowl from my handspun. It's always surprising to see what a small world it really is.

I have to say that I love all of the potholders I received. The one with the blue showing through the openings in the red side is really striking and reminds me of the ones I made and how I loved the way the colors on one side showed through on the other.

It's neat that I got two red and white ones that are so completely different. One is bold and square-ish and the other is round and patterned. The colors in the other round one are very happy and I love the raised ridges. I need to try something like that.

The one with the black has so many colors in it but they all work really well together. It looks hot to me which is probably appropriate to the purpose which is funny because the only thing these potholders have in common is that I probably won't use them. They're just too pretty to use.

I really enjoyed this swap so much. A big thank you to Adrian and Maritza for organizing this. I'm still not really a crocheter but the more crochet I do, the more I like it.

Willow Potholders

I've got another finished object to share. This project has actually been finished since April 28th and I'm finally getting around to blogging it now. Sheesh! Busy isn't the word.



Anyway, I've already discussed the many things I love about this project. I enjoyed picking the pattern and working out the kinks. I enjoyed enhancing my crochet skilz. I really enjoyed seeing the finished product turn out exactly the way I hoped it would.

The only thing I'd change is the colors I selected. I like the colors and in most cases they worked out well. I'm not embarrassed by the results at all. I just think that with a bit more planning (as opposed to dropping a bunch of random "pretty" yarns in my virtual cart) may have made the results even more satisfying. It's not even a matter of color as much as it's about the shades. More contrast would be good.



I suspect that I'll make more of these because I'd like a few for our house. That's probably just my new excuse to make more of these. Initially i thought I'd make a few extra to send off but life got in the way.

Meanwhile I need to get these labeled and shipped out. I hope their new owners like them.



Cross-posted to the Hot Pads and Potholder Swap blog.

Treats

Earlier this year I was invited to take part in the Special Swap and the theme of the forst one for me was Sweet Treats. I really wasn't sure what to expect at all but it was fun putting together a package for my pal. Friday afternoon I got home and found that my treats had arrived. It was obvious because Stacy had decorated the box with a big sheep and a yarn ball. The whole family was curious about the contents.

The treats that Stacy collected for me were perfect and what you see here is only part of it. Not pictured is a tin of hand balm and a copy of The Knitters Book of Yarn. I actually had that book out from the library and returned it the following day. My daughters marvelled at how Stacy got me so perfectly. I love Smarties, Twizzlers and all things lemon. And don't you love the sheep Pez? It is almost as cute as the little tape measure dressed up as a cake and the stitch markers with cupcakes on them. Then there's the yarn. I adore this yarn. It is so beautiful and soft. I could go on and on but the bottom line is that this package was perfect and it made my day.

I also think that a certain meme making the rounds right now is a bit of a treat. It's fun because it's all about pictures and as someone observed recently - I like pictures. I went into flickr to do the meme and I was amazed at some of the creativity that I saw there. It's kind of inspiring.

The variety of pictures to choose from was wonderful. For some answers I was very literal and for others I just went for pretty or fanciful. It was great fun and I strongly recommend it if you haven't done it already.

The Concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name? Hillary
2. What is your favorite food? Goat Cheese
3. What high school did you go to? Commack South
4. What is your favorite color? Green
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Johnny Depp
6. Favorite drink? Iced tea
7. Dream vacation? Greece
8. Favorite dessert? Ice Cream
9. What you want to be when you grow up? Happy
10. What do you love most in life? My girls
11. One Word to describe you. Creative
12. Your flickr name. I had to get a little creative with this one.

Bee in My Bonnet

Every year at around this time I get this itch to spruce things up a bit. A bee in my bonnet for sure. I'm sure many people do. Sometimes I feel the need to garden, others it's redecorating. Rarely is it both but this is one of those years. All last week my head was buzzing with ideas and Saturday I enlisted DQ and we went out to pick up a few things. By the time we returned home, there was a tree hanging oout of the passenger window and my trunk was overflowing with stuff. Oy!
The rain postponed my gardening so I spent a good part of the weekend sprucing up the upholstery in the house. It's amazing how little money it took to take the old, stained, and hard seats of four chairs in a pattern that I never liked and make them softer, and way more appealing. The new, blue seats make a huge difference and were pronounced a hit by the whole family.
I tackled other indoor projects too with similar success. Today I feel very accomplished but so achy. Who knew that using a staple gun could make your hands hurt so much? I need to flex my hands today because tonight I want to take on the next indoor project - painting! I am on a roll.
Another thing that I've added to my plate recently was a pair of swaps. The first was the Wee Tiny Sock swap which was nice for it's simplicity and modest demands. I enjoyed making the little sock that I sent out and, on Friday, I was happy to see mine arrive. I have had a red mini sock hanging in my car for quite a while and it was time for a change. The old sock was red but this sock is striped and springy.
The other swap I'm doing is the Special Swap and the theme this time is Sweet Treats. I'm so excited for this. What a great theme. Lynne sent out a little questionaire for us all. Here it is:

1. What were your three favorite treats in your Halloween bag? Do I have to choose just 3? I love the Smarties, Hershey Bars, M&M’s, red licorice (I love tying knots in shoestring licorice), Skittles….
and
2. What were the three treats that you would trade away? Anything with nuts or peanut butter in it.
3. Do you bake? I love to bake and generally start from scratch. My favorite tools are some that I inherited from my grandmother but my collection has grown a lot. I’m considered a fairly skilled baker and have even made one ornate wedding-type cake for a shower.
4. Do you order dessert in a restaurant? If so, what is your favorite dessert? I don’t always order dessert in a restaurant but, when I do, it’s often crème brulee or an apple cobbler.
5. Tell me about your favorite Candy-colored yarns, and what candy are they inspired from? I never really thought of my yarn in terms of candy before. I do have a bunch of chocolaty looking yarn and there are a few that remind me a bit of red licorice.
6. When you knit a special "icing on the cake" accessory for your outfit, would you knit ...... socks, a scarf, a hat or a bag? I love to knit socks. They’re like a special little secret peeking from under your cuffs. I do enjoy felting bags and I think it would be great fun to do a Noni bag one day. I love the flowers – pansies, chrysanthemums, cherry blossoms… I love them all. My biggest problem is choosing just one.
7. Describe the perfect ice cream sundae. When I was younger we always went to friendly’s and I always got the same thing – One scoop mint chocolate chip, one scoop black raspberry and strawberry topping. Whipped cream and a cherry are a necessity but no nut please.
8. Are there any knitting treats that you would love to add to your collection? I am always up for more knitting treats.
A book you would like for your library? There are a lot of good books out there that I’d love but The Natural knitter, The Knitters Book of Yarn are on my list. I’d also love a really good book on natural dyeing.
A knitting gadget for your notions bag? A wpi tool or a really good needle sizer would be cool.
A sweet yarn? I can never have too much yarn. I love them all except for self striping. I love subtle color changes.
9. Think about the best homemade dessert from Mom or Grandma. Do you have the recipe to share? I really can’t think of any. Mostly I use cookbooks for sweets.
10. What local or regional treats would you insist your swap partner try if she visited your town? How sad is it that I can’t think of any?
11. Cupcakes....talk amongst yourselves. Yum… cupcakes. I just love making cupcakes because they’re like a little canvas for wonderful creativity. I make cupcakes for my girls to take to school on their birthday’s each year and I try never to repeat myself. It’s a challenge but it’s been so much fun.

Wee Tiny Sock

Although this past weekend was a busy one, I did find enough time to do a significant amount of knitting. I even finished a pair of socks. Sadly I can't show them to you yet because they're for an upcoming round of Sock Madness 2 and therefore, under wraps for a little while. I can say that I like them a lot though.


Thankfully not everything I'm working on is a secret. Check out this cute little sock. It was for the Wee Tiny Sock Swap and it went in the mail yesterday, on time. Wahoo! I used some leftover KP sock yarn in a colorway called Hawaii. Isn't is perfect for the start of Spring? I'd been saving it with no clue what I'd use it for since it's not superwash. A mini sock is perfect.

There are lots of patterns out there for tiny socks but I didn't use any of them because they're all top down and I'm a toe up kind of girl. I just cast on 8 stitches, increased every round till I got to a total of 20. Knit even till it seemed like the right time to do a short row heel. Then I inprovised a little slipped stitch cuff. That's it. Not bad for an evening of tv watching.