It's been too long.

It's been too long. I have to get into a routine with posting. With my first born now in preschool, we have had to adjust to a new routine. Getting her ready in the mornings is still a nightmare but getting better as each school day goes by.

I have so much to mention in this post. First off is my wonderful Secret Pal 6 sent me a gift certificate to Knit Happens tonight. Just today I told myself that I would buy no more yarn until the next year. The end of the year is always a little tight around here at the KnitWit's house....and I have enough yarn to hold me over. So now I get to get yarn and not feel like I am breaking my promise! WhooHoo for my SP.

I also have some ROAK thank you's as well. I got a beautiful origami crane from Julie at Stoneview. Greg grabbed it and it now resides in the office of a Safeway....because he really needs good luck to run a grocery store (yes, I am rolling my eyes). I also want to thank Jennifer of Shamrock Crafts for the beautiful hand made card that she sent me. It really made my day. And last but not least, Juli of Juli's Jots sent me a really sweet e-card. Thanks Juli!

And before I get to what I have been doing, please stop by Snooze's blog and check out her de-stashing sale. It's not under the best circumstances but you might be able to help her out and get something great out of it.

Now me... I have a FO!!!!

It's a OSW that I made out of Cotton Ease. It's a little tight under the arms so I will ship this off to my niece, Aimee in Florida. She'll get more use out of it than me since it's wool sweater season here!

I bought this hat kit at Knit for Her Cure that was held on Saturday at Filati's in Rocklin. It was a lot of fun to go see the lace and felting demonstrations and see all the fun kits. 10% of the kit price will be donated to cancer research and 100% of the money that the yarn company makes off of these kits will go to cancer research as well. For such a good cause how could I resist this furry HOT PINK hat??? The blue cascade is for mittens for my two sons....can you believe that just a little jaunt up the hill it is supposed to SNOW this weekend!!!!!

These are my Beautiful Sockapalooza socks that were knit for me by Tine. Funny thing is that during SP5 I was spoiling Jaq and she was spoiling Tine! Small world huh!

And the above is my very pink package from my SP5, YarnGirl. She sent me two skeins of a beautiful pink cotton wool blend, a sock pattern, a pink notebook and a pink bracelet. I had to wrestle my daughter for it but I won :-) I am in fact wearing it right now. Go check out her blog. Her lace is amazing! Thanks Chris.

Well, I am off to try and finish my Lace Leaf Shawl for Greg's Grandma. I think we are going to pop in National Treasure tonight. Why, I don't know. To me it doesn't look very good. Not to mention that I HATE Nicholas Cage.

SP6 Questions

It's started again......here are my answers.

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you? There are some Liond Brand yarns that I would like to try....but mostly I avoid them

2. Do you spin? Crochet? Nope and Nope

3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.) Not really...exceot I can't stand the smell of smoke.

4. How long have you been knitting? For about a year now.

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? Yes....I'll post a link in my sidebar.

6. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.) Baking scent goods :-)...Vanilla and citrus scents

7. Do you have a sweet tooth? A very large one. I love chocolate.

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? I bead and cross stitch....

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) Country music and yes I can play MP3's

10. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand? I love yellow and soft pink. I really like the fall colors. I don't like really bright colors and I hate red. Well not all read, just bright red....maron is better for me.

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? I am mariied with 3 beautiful kids, a 4 year old daughter, a 2 year old son, and a 7 month old son.

12. What are your life dreams? (really stretching it here, I know) To finish college, move to the Northeast and remodel an old farmhouse.

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? I've been on a Lorna's Laces kick!

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? Scratchy wool.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s? Socks :-)

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? Socks :-)

17. What are you knitting right now? A shawl, and a couple socks.....oh and a sweater for my son.

18. What do you think about ponchos? Not for me.

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Both

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? Bamboo......but I bought my first Addi's for the shawl I am doing and I am really enjoying them.

21. Are you a sock knitter? Yup.

22. How did you learn to knit? My amazingly talented Mother.

23. How old is your oldest UFO? My son's sweater. I started it in the spring and then it got warm.....I really have to get cracking on it.

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird? I love cows....can't you tell.

25. What is your favorite holiday? Thanksgiving and Christmas.

26. Is there anything that you collect? Oh wow......yarn, cows, old postcards, Jasperware, pie birds......I could go on and on

27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? None

28. Any books out there you are dying to get your hands on? There are...check my wish list

29. Any patterns you have been coveting, but haven't bought for one reason or another?? There are some I like......but haven't bought because I don't need anymore right now. I'll post them as they come up.

Needle Exchange Questions

I decided to do Catherine's needle exchange this time around....I guess I should get my questions up!

1. What do you like to knit or crochet? (socks, sweaters, etc.) Socks and shawls.....but am going to start a sweater

2. What fibers do you like? Wool, silk, cashmere or course

3. What type of needles do you use most often? Bamboo....but I bought my first Addi's for my shawl and really like them.

4. Do you like to knit in the round? Yup

5. Do you use a magic loop method or any other we should know about? Are you interested in learning a new method? No....I really love my DPN's but have been thinking of doing Magic Loop. To be honest I don't think I would switch from DPN's.

7. Do you have a favorite place that you shop online? (knitpicks.com, knitpixie.com, jimmybeanswool.com....)? All of the above :-)

8. Do you want to be surprised? then erase all your answers above and write surprise me!!! I won't erase them but I love surprises!

The days are turning colder, and the nights are just FREEZING. No really, below 32...it's freezing. SO of course I am getting excited because that means it's sweater weather.

It's not that I don't like summer, I just love Fall and Winter so much. Greg and I have been talking about where we want to move to next, and I really don't want to move away from having 4 seasons! We had been talking about moving back up to the north coast of Ca but up there there is only one season...GREY. I would miss the snow and fall colors. But up there I would get to wear sweaters even in the summer :-)

Who knows where we will go. If I had my way we would be back east in a heart beat. Greg wants to go too, I just can't leave my parents. If they agreed to come with us then we would go. It would be too hard to be on the east coast while they were still on the west. I need them and I think they need the Grandkids!

So anyway, I've decided that I need to knit myself a sweater. What sweater I have no idea but I really want to knit myself something. Here are the three that I was thinking of........

Lucille, Hattie, Peggy

All of these are out of the Jaeger JB25 book. They are made out of cotton but I would use some sort of wool. I am leaning toward Peggy.....what do you think?

I've been working away on my Lace Leaf Shawl, but really do you want a picture? We all know what a lace shawl looks like unblocked......a lump of yarn!

Greg's on vacation this week so I don't see a lot of knitting taking place. Just a lot of wood chopping, house painting, and maybe a yard sale. But that's good, I need yarn money for my sweater!

So I'll leave you with a picture of a very cute 7 month old...................

It's been crazy around here!

I have been so busy I have hardly sat down! My sockapal-two socks are finished. I really should block them but I have no idea how to block socks! I really hope she likes them. It's my first pair of "patterned" socks and I am pretty proud of them.

Pattern: Waving Lace Socks by Evelyn Clark

Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock, Glenwood

Needles: Britney US1's

I have also found out who my fabulous secret pal is!!! It's Yarn Girl of Drop Stitch Knitter. She was awesome and so fun. I know that we will keep in touch. Thanks so much for everything you have made my first secret pal experience so wonderful.

The wonderful knitter that I was spoiling hasn't gotten her last package yet. She is in Toronto and it's been taking 3 weeks for my boxes to get to her. So far it's been 2 weeks since I sent my reveal package so sometime this week she should have it. Hummm should I name her? I don't think that she knows of me....ok here goes. Her blog.

I have also started the Leaf Lace Shawl from Fiber trends. I'm using Lorna's Laces sock in Tuscany. I am loving how beautiful this yarn looks. This is going to be a gift for Greg's 95 year old Grandmother for Christmas. I hope she will be able to use it.

Let's see what else.... I joined Catherine's Needle Exchange. I didn't participate last round but I was convinced that it would be fun so here we go :-)

And also I have gotten my two September sets of stitch markers from the stitch marker swap. The bottom set is from Crafty Lilly and the top set is a mystery. Both are beautiful and I love them so much! The set from Crafty Lilly is a beautiful natural stone bead and the tops ones are the most beautiful pink I have ever seen! I can't wait to cast on for something that will need them!!!

Katie's first day of school

My little princess started preschool this week. She is only going two days a week for a few hours but she loves it. So she's been in school 2 days....2 days....and she is already sick! Yesterday she came down with a fever. And so it starts. I know she will get sick a lot. She has never been in daycare of any kind so she hasn't been exposed to too many germs in her life. Hopefully Ben and James won't go through this when they get to school.

Today I have made cookies with the kids, and surfed knitting blogs. Anything but watch TV. Watching the coverage of Katrina makes me sick....I feel helpless. What can I do? Give money? I've done that but I still feel like I should be doing something. My heart breaks when I think of the children with no homes...or food or water..or toys...or a blanket...or a stuffed animal. I just wish I could do something.