I’ve been on hiatus for a little while, so to hold you over until I get my blogging back on track, Sandy says Merry Christmas!

It’s been a little while since I last posted, things have been keeping me pretty busy here on the homefront. School, work, getting sick and then better, and lots of other little responsibilities have been taking up most of my time, but I have some progress pictures to show of my knitting!

First off is Secret of the Stole. I think I’m liking the look of this pattern less and less as I knit it and see others’ progress, it’s just not something I would ever wear or use. I’ll stick it through though, because it’s been dedicated as a Christmas gift to a grandmother. I know she’ll love it, especially since it’s handmade. Here’s my progress after Hint#5:

Another lace project I’m working on is the Mystic Waters shawl, and I’m loving the pattern so far. I’ve knit only Hint #1 so far, because the SotS has been taking up more of my time since it’s a gift. I enjoy every minute of the Mystic Waters though, so I’m trying to breeze through the stole.

Keep in mind, both of these are my first lace projects and objects knitted from charts, I love charts now and can’t imagine doing these from written instructions!

The scarf I’m knitting for the Ravelry scarf exchange is almost done, but I can’t share the pictures here, it’s a secret. Just remember that yummy blue Malabrigo and imagine it in scarf form. Also, my Central Park Hoodie is coming along nicely, I’ve got the back, one front, and half of another finished and next I’ll be working on the sleeves. I don’t want to follow the written pattern of knitting them in one piece and seaming up the sides, so I’m trying to find a modification for converting flat into round knitting. Any sources?

Depending on the weather, a few of my friends and I are going to the North Florida Fair tonight, it should be a lot of fun. Last year we had a blast, and this year we have another unlimited ride ticket. Here’s to good weather!

Sorry I didn’t get to this earlier, this week has been crazy, and I just finished with my video assignment that’s due today for Sign Language. I bet everyone’s eager to know who won a skein of Noro or Treehouse Lace! Here are the lucky commenters, drawn by a random number generator:

#104 MamaLady

#59 Hedi

#102 Cindi Hoppes

#86 kadusey

#29 laane

Congratulations guys! I’ll be emailing you all to get shipping information tonight. And thanks to everyone else who stopped by to comment on my blog.

In other news, I decided I am going to participate in Project 365, taking a picture every day for a year. I’m starting on December 1st, but until then I’m going around every day with my camera to ‘practice’ and take random photographs.

This should be fun practice with the camera and hopefully I stick to it.

I’m participating in the Fall, Y’all giveaway, go check it out and see if you want to host a giveaway on your blog as well!

Here’s what I have to give away, I apologize for not posting it in advance – I saved it but forgot to post!

3 skeins of Noro Kureyon, color #183

Also, 2 skeins of Yarn Treehouse laceweight, 600 yards in each skein!

That’s all for now, have at it!

So I think I have another camera coming my way, due to my diligent searching of Craigslist and finally finding someone in Chicago who is selling the same exact camera but without cords, charger, or anything extra. I can deal with that, since I have all that stuff still with me, it’s not the stuff that was stolen. Best part is, a normally $300+ camera is gonna be sold to me with shipping for $120. Score! I paid for the camera and it was just shipped today, so hopefully it comes soon so I can get back to my regularly programmed posting of pictures and updates. I have a few projects that I’ve progressed upon, like the Secret of the Stole (I’m actually keeping up!) and my CPH. Until then, I’m borrowing my roommate’s camera. And look what I have to show you!

I received my package from the Mystery Theme Swap! My pal LaVerna is awesome, I got lovely yarns, neat trinkets, and tasty treats. I forgot to take a picture of the sushi drawstring bag, that will have to wait until I get my replacement camera.

Inside the box was two skeins of sock yarn in beautiful colors, some cotton yarn, a package of dragonfly stationary, a little bag and lipstick holder, a tin of dragonfly magnets, some lotions, and a bunch of M&M and skittles candy! Yum.

I’m sending out her package today after a test, and I hope it gets there fast so she can enjoy all of the neat stuff that I got her. This was a fun swap and I enjoyed communicating with my partner throughout.

I’m also working on my Scarf for the Scarf Exchange on Ravelry, and I only have about 2 feet to go. Yay progress!

So I would have posted a nice post earlier this week, except for the event which topped my list of “things that went wrong last week” – my camera was stolen from where I work. I left it there for the night (a DAYCARE, no less) and by the morning, it was gone. I assume the cleaning crew took it and am doing whatever I can to get it back or a monetary reimbursement, and I might have a chance at the latter if nothing turns up. I’m really upset about this, it was a new camera given to me by my parents for my birthday a couple of months back.

Since I don’t have any new pictures to show, I’ll just say that I’m almost a foot into my Scarf Exchange project and almost done with Clue 1 of the Secret of the Stole. I’m not sure that this will be my style of stole, but I know someone who would love to get it for christmas. For my first lace project, I’m not doing too bad! A couple of missed YOs and such, but I diligently tinked back and reknit all imperfections. Charts and beads are your friends.

I also signed up for a new mystery lace project -  Mystic Waters Shawl. It’s a triangular shawl and has a very interesting name, though I might start it a little later than everyone else because of my current projects.

But right now Sandy kitten is walking and mewing all over my hands and the keyboard, making it slightly difficult to type. I’ll try and post an update about my camera as soon as I get more information. Wish me luck with getting it back!

Before I show you the knitting I’ve done so far, let me share with you pictures of the newest addition to the house!

Her name is Sandy, and we adopted her from the ECAH Humane society on Saturday. Misty went along with us to Petsmart, and she behaved very well for a kitten on a harness in a busy store with dogs! She got many compliments from everyone and lots of petting, so I think she’s happy. This was her general reaction to her new sister:

Very watchful, she kept her eye on the newcomer all day. They had a little conflict at the beginning, but now they dart around the house playing and chasing each other with no more growling from Misty, so I’m happy. This also means Misty doesn’t attack toes or meow in loneliness in the middle of the night! Everyone wins.

In knitting news, all I’ve got left on the Dreamswatch headwrap is weaving in some ends, attempt at blocking, and then I’ll be done! The Wavy scarf has also progressed nicely and is now about 2/3 of the way done. My interest in it is starting to wane, but I keep it around for travel knitting and although it has slowed down a little, I’ll have it finished sometime in the next couple of weeks.

My newest project (I know, starting so many and none finished yet!) is Knitscene’s Central Park Hoodie! I’ve been wanting to knit this for a while now, have the yarn, pattern, and now the needles from Knitpicks, so I cast on yesterday. So far I’ve got the ribbing done for the back and am taking it to my Knitnight tonight at Borders so I can make sure I’ll be doing the charts correctly, since I’ve never knit with charts. It’s also my first constructed sweater that I’ll have to seam together, and I’m not looking forward too much to that. I mean really, is there anyone out there who just loves seaming? Nobody I’ve talked to really does.

I also went to Joanns today to pick up a tiny crochet hook for the beading I’ll have to do for the Secret of the Stole, which starts Friday! While I was there the bead aisles caught my eye and I came home with three strings of pretty beads to try my hand at making stitchmarkers with. I found a good tutorial here and am looking forward to trying it out tonight or tomorrow afternoon.

Today is filled with classes and going to Borders for knit night! Last time I went was two meetings ago, and I had a good time. Hopefully my friend Carol is able to join me tonight, I’ll be working on either my hoodie or the scarf for my Exchange pal on Ravelry. This should be fun!

I’ve been busy lately! It’s kinda nice and keeps my mind occupied and prevents mindless wandering through the internet. Not that wandering is so bad, it just gets really old after a while. But I’ve gotten stuff done in this time, and am ready to start some new projects!

First of all, I received everything needed to start my Central Park Hoodie (yeah I know, a little late on the trend), except for the most important thing – needles! I have the pattern and yarn scored for $3 a ball on Webs, but totally forgot to check the size of needles when I was making my orders. So hopefully this week the interchangeables I ordered from Knitpicks (not the new wooden ones, I’m a metal needle gal all the way) will be arriving and I can finally start the project and have it done in time for the cooler weather. Hah, cooler weather in Florida, who am I kidding? Anyways, here’s the color yarn I chose for this project: It’s Ella Rae

In the background you can see a project I started this week also – painting my walls! So far I’ve gotten about 2 walls done, and already my annoying textured walls have sucked up about a gallon of paint. Gah. Remind me when I buy my own house, go for the flat or only slightly textured walls so I don’t have to deal with this again. The color I chose is called guacamole, and it’s a very pleasant green that I can complement easily. My interior decorating skills are next to none, so I’ve been scouring the internet in search of inspiration for what I want to do with my room, and I think I have a general idea. Now to find everything that I have pictured in my mind!

Also, I went to my LYS this weekend to pick up the yarn for my Ravelry Scarf exchange pal, and I think she’ll be pleased – teaser picture ahead! I bought this lovely Malabrigo, and from what I’ve heard and felt, this will be a real soft knit to work with! I’m looking forward to it. I’ll leave you with a picture of it, but you’ll have to wait until I’m finished to see what I’m doing with this yarn!

Enjoy!

Look what I started yesterday!

It’s Wavy from Knitty, done in some Caron Simply Soft that I’m trying to get rid of in my stash. So far so good, the yarn is a pretty color and the pattern is simple enough. I like how it’s turning out!

Also, lots of mail came for me this weekend! Shame on me, spending my financial aid monies like this…

This is the yarn I’ll be using for Secret of the Shawl, along with the beads that also came in the mail from Artbeads.com. The yarn is Jaggerspun Zephyr lace weight, and this will be my first project using charts and knitting with lace weight. Hope I don’t get too confused with the charts… Anyways, I also received a ball winder, and I felt like showing off my first cake of yarn. Don’t laugh, I’m pleased with my new toy! It’s that wool eBay yarn that I’m using for my dreamswatch.

Also interesting! Today the boy and I set out to start the task of cleaning up the backyard, since it was pretty overgrown with weeds and leafy since we moved in. We got all the leaves raked up and hope to finish the raking and planting some grass seeds since it’s mostly just dirt and weeds now. While we were cleaning, two interesting things were found: First this really neat flower was discovered by Trevor -

I have no idea what kind of flower it is, any guesses? Also, a strange find for a backyard:

Do those look suspiciously like bullets to you? That’s what I thought and picked one up, and turns out, I found 8 bullets in a little corner of the backyard! It’s really weird because they’re not spend or anything, just laying there. Kinda makes me wonder who were the previous tenants of the house, but at the same time, I don’t want to know!

Here is where I will share some acquired loot of mine.

My swap package from the Ravelry Summer Camp Exchange came in the mail today! I was a little worried because my bunkmate emailed me saying that the package was not delivered yesterday and a note was left, but I never got a note. Luckily, it was redelivered today and has fallen into my eager little hands! Let me share:

Included in the package was a lovely skein of Mountain Colors Blackbear yarn, nice little DPNs in 2mm, very tasty watermelon candy, a lantern moon bag, and cute handmade sheep stitchmarkers! Here’s the yarn:

Isnt’ it in pretty colors? Look at the stitchmarkers!

More stitchmarkers to add to my little collection! I’m very happy with the way things turned out, as I received my package a day before the deadline. Funny thing is, this is the same person I sent my summer camp package out to as well! Looks like we were paired up. Thanks so much, guenevere29! Misty also appreciated the package:

Aside from that, today I made a delicious s’more. Yum!

Now I’m just waiting on my yarn to come for the Central Park Hoodie. Anyone have the pattern they can so kindly donate to me?

Edit: Here’s what I sent to my Summer Camp Swap pal – She posted the picture on the Flickr group, as I forgot to snap one before it was all wrapped!