A little knitting

It doesn't seem like I have had much knitting progress lately. But here are a few small FOs.
The first is my KTC project for The Joy Luck Club. I loved the book and wanted to make something that would remind me of it. Jing-mei is one of the characters in the book and shortly before her mother died she gave Jing-mei, her "Life's Importance," a 2" long apple green jade pendant, on a gold chain. Jing-mei put the pendant away until after her mother, Suyuan, died. Then she realized the great meaning behind the pendant and wore it every day. When Suyuan began telling her life's story to Jing-mei, she unraveled yarn from old sweaters as she unraveled her tale. So I knit the cord for my pendant from an unraveled black sweater to symbolize the past. I added a strand of metallic gold to represent their hopes for great riches in their new country. As I knit the I-cord and moved the stitches up the needle and down the needle it reminded me of the hilly streets of San Francisco, where they lived. The cord is bumpy in places, like the lives of the families in the book. The magnetic closure is the tie that binds the families in this book together. So...here is my "Life's Importance"


The next FO is the teeny tiny felted bag made from one skein of Noro. My granddaughter loved it!






I also finished my project for the Whoduknit Spring Swap - but can't post the picture until Patty has received it.
Now I am working on this felted bag. I'm making it in blue/pink/purple/green.
And that's my knitting update!

International Tote Exchange IV

International Tote Exchange IV has begun! I enjoyed the last two Tote Exchanges so much that I'm going to be a hostess for this one!

You’re invited to join International Tote Exchange IV. We hope you will decide to participate. So how does it work? You will make a tote/purse/handbag for your Secret Pal and a different Secret Pal will make a tote for you. The "totes" can be big or small, knit or crochet, felted or not - whatever you want to make. If you are interested please go to the blog http://internationaltotexchangeiv.blogspot.com/ and read the rules. If still interested, send an e-mail as described below. Hurry! Sign-ups close 05/15/2007.
The Sign-up Process:
Send an email to ToteExchangeHostesses gmail com Please include:
Your full name
Email address
Blog address (if applicable)
Blog Signature (e.g. Deb Brown is how my blog posts appear)
Street address
Phone number
This information will only be available to the Hostesses and your Secret Pal.
We will send you an invitation to join the blog.
Join the blog.
Complete the questionnaire and post your responses to the blog no later than 05/15/2007
Sit back and wait for partner assignment!

Red Sox 7 - Yankees 6

Congratulations Jeff! Jeff's guess of Red Sox 8 - Yankees 6, was the closest. (You must have been watching the game Patty). There were some other really close guesses - thank you all for playing!

Some scenes from Saturday's baseball party.



(I support two teams - the Red Sox and whoever beats the Yankees)

Contests

Karen, Kim, and Kris are three sisters who knit and have a wonderful blog (that you should visit!) called "Unknitted". This month they celebrated their 3 month blogiversary with a contest. To enter the contest all you had to do was comment on their blog. For every comment you made, your name would go into the drawing for an autographed copy of The Yarn Harlots new book

AND GUESS WHO WON!!!! I'm so excited I'm going to have my own contest!
If you read my blog, you know that I am an avid Red Sox fan. Today they play their ultimate rival, the NY Yankees. My sister and her husband (Yankee fans) are visiting from NJ, so we are having a Red Sox/Yankee party this afternoon complete with ballpark food - hot dogs, hamburgers, nachos, etc. It is such a beautiful day I wish we could take the t.v. outside! I also have a little contest going on during the game -guess the final score - 25 cents a guess, closest wins the money. So, I thought I'd let you all in on it. You don't even have to pay the 25 cents. Just guess the final score of Sunday night's Red Sox/Yankee game and you will win - what else - but some 'sox' yarn. One skein of Magic Stripes sock yarn - enough to make a pair of socks - not red socks - but socks nonetheless. To enter - post your guess for the final score and winner of tomorow night's Red Sox/Yankee game as a comment to this post before the start of the game at 8 p.m.(Eastern time). Good Luck!

What's that Yellow Thing in the Sky?

There was a strange yellow ball in the sky today - I heard some rumors that it might be the sun!!!
My sister and her DH are visiting from NJ and although they had a very wet drive up, it seems like they brought some sunshine with them. We had a pleasant day today. A drive out to Schoodic Point which looks relatively undamaged except for a lot of trees being down. The waves have subsided, but there were no fishing boats in sight. Then we went into town and had lunch, stopping on the way home at a used book store, where I picked up Death at the Bar by Ngaio Marsh. We are reading another one of her books, Died in the Wool, on Whoduknit in May. I have that book ordered on paperback.com. If you like to read and have lots of books to trade, you should check out that site. Then we stopped at Shirley's Yarns and Crafts- my favorite LYS. I was good - didn't buy any yarn! But I did visit, pet, and squeeze a lot of it. Pat bought some pretty fuzzy stuff to make a scarf with. We got back to my house in time to see the Red Sox win game three of their series with Toronto. Tomorrow.....Red Sox/Yankees at Fenway - what could be better!

Wild and Woolly, but Not White!

The storm that has come pounding up the east coast has reached us. Some parts of Maine are getting up to 10 more inches of snow! But, here on the coast at least, it is rain - torrential rain, and high winds, flooding and power outages. The ocean is roaring, and I'm anxious to go up to Schoodic Point and get some pictures of it in all of its awesome glory - but...I think I'll probably stay home and knit today instead! Maybe tomorrow I'll have some pictures to share. It's a holiday here -
Patriots' Day (celebrated in Maine and MA) and the beginning of my spring break (not looking much like spring!). I'm working on a project for my Whoduknit Spring Mystery Swap Pal. It's a fun swap, where pals exchange a skein of yarn, and then knit something with it, and send it back along with a book. I can't tell you what I'm knitting, since it's not a secret swap and she reads my blog - but here is a peek:

How to get to Paris

1. go to www.google.com
2. click on "maps"
3. click on "get directions"
4. type your city and state in the first box (the "from" box)
5. type "Paris, France" in the second box (the "to" box)
6. click on "get directions" again
7. scroll down and read the directions

Have a good trip!

(Thanks Vicki)

And the babies keep coming!

Introducing the newest member of my extended family - my great neice Giana:

I'm working on some girly versions of the Mason Dixon bibs for her.

Happy Easter

I don't know if the Easter Bunny will find his way here in all of this snow (if he's smart he hip hopped down to Florida and is sunning himself by a pool), but if he does I'm ready. The plastic Easter eggs are stuffed with goodies and are ready to hide, the baskets are brimming over, and the ham is in the oven. The sun is shining but the ground is still white, so it will be an indoor hunt this year! Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Snow Day

We didn't have a white Christmas, but looks like we will have a white Easter! 18" of snow today - more than we have had all year. School was closed, so I had the day off. The bad news is that we will have one more day added to the school calendar, the good news was that I got to watch the new Red Sox Ace - Dice K - the multi-million $ pitcher win his first game. We are going to celebrate the spring snow and the Red Sox win by grilling some steaks on the outdoor grill - why not!
We have some friends who live here in the summer and go to Arizona in the winter. They play golf every day and complain about the hot weather - so my DH posed for this picture to send them - It's supposed to be him playing a few rounds of golf - hitting a ball out of a snow trap.

The mail did make it through today and I received a package from my Whoduknit Spring Mystery Swap partner, Patty. In this swap, partners send each other a skein of yarn and then they knit something for their partner from this skein and then mail it back. Patty sent me two beautiful skeins of Artyarns Supermerino handpainted yarn. She also included some goodies - a beautiful washcloth in the colors of Easter eggs, a darling little lamb Pez dispenser (I think my 7 year old granddaughter will claim that!) an Egypt key ring, a reminder of the Whoduknit January book, which took place in Egypt, and CHOCOLATE! Guess she knows I'm a chocoholic. So, I spent part of my snow day looking through knitting books and magazines trying to decide what to make with the yarn that she sent. Any ideas? It's worsted weight - super wash, so no felting, and each skein is 104 yards - so 208 altogether. I have a couple of ideas - but would love to hear yours. She received the yarn I sent to her today too. A skein of fingerweight alpaca yarn in a pretty aqua color that I had no idea what to do with. I can't wait to see what she will make with it. She crochets, so I'm hoping for something crocheted.

Do you think we could just postpone Easter for a week????

Belated April Fool's Joke

That's what Mother Nature is playing on us this morning! And I can't say I care much for her sense of humor!

Bobble Heads

ROTFL - You are all very creative!
Yes, they are announcers - but not Monday Night Football - that is finally over and the Patriots won the Super Bowl (just checking to see if you are paying attention Cathy and Linda!)
Not - Rowan and Martin - (but at least I know you are in my generation!)
Don't know who Bill Rafferty and Dick Vitale are - but good guess since we've just gone through March Madness (but I'm not a basketball fan unless my grandchildren are playing)
Kim came pretty close - "Dave McCarty and Jerry Remy, and the hint about April 2nd would be Boston's Red Sox opening day!!"
But, Stephanie said it best "OK I think the guy with the mustache is Jerry Remy and the other guy is Don Orsillo; together they comprise the play-by-play announcer team for the one and only Boston Red Sox."

Yes - those bobble heads are Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo - two of my favorite guys in the whole world (and they don't even knit!). They announce the Red Sox games on NESN. And today was opening day. (My son -an avid Red Sox Fan gave me the bobble heads for Christmas.) For the next six months, we here in Red Sox Nation, will be living the disfunctional life of Red Sox fans, as evidenced by today's game. I will survive the season by knitting while watching the games - maybe even knitting red sox!

So...the winner is Stephanie - and the runner up is Kim! Thanks for playing!