In the Mail

It's been a busy week or so on the front steps of our little house in the suburbs. We've had several happy deliveries show up - some expected, some not. I shared the Pomfret score and the surprise candy with you yesterday, and today I'll show you some more goodies.

But first, I want to say hello to people who may be coming over from other places that have linked to me this week. The Yarn Harlot, who included me in her post on her visit to St. Paul and pointed everyone here to look at the videos - thanks, Stephanie! I'm really glad you and so many others have enjoyed them.

I know there have been other sites linking here in relation to the event as well, so welcome to any visitors and feel free to hang around and see what else I get up to. I mostly like to talk about my knitting, my girls, and food. Not necessarily in that order.

Oh, and also welcome to anyone coming over from Whip Up. I've long admired this blog, and always enjoy seeing what kinds of crafts the team there manages to find and highlight. When I got the message from Kathreen letting me know that I'd be on Whip Up, I was thrilled and could hardly believe it. But there's blankie in all its glory. And anyone coming over looking for more details may want to just click on the "All About Blankie" button in the right-hand column.

Also, I want to respond to a couple of reader comments. Several people have asked me about the purple sweater I was wearing at Yarnover the other day. Sorry, it's not a handknit. It's from Eddie Bauer. I bought it online last fall, and unfortunately it's not available there any more as far as I could tell. I love this sweater and have worn it a lot over the winter. Maybe I'll have to knit up an "inspired-by sweater" and write up a pattern some time.

Oh, and thank you to the people who commented on my mention about Joe doing his own ironing. You reminded me not to take him for granted. I am incredibly lucky to have a husband like Joe. He does at least his share of chores around the house. I don't iron at all, really. I hate ironing, and plan my wardrobe to avoided it almost entirely. He knew that since we were dating, and when his dad (who used to own a dry cleaners' store) stopped doing his ironing for him, Joe took on the task. He does a much better job than I would do anyway. He cleans the litter boxes and helps clean up the kitchen after dinner too. Yay, Joe!

So speaking of Joe and mail, Joe is out in the living room right now playing with his Wii, which he just got back in the mail today. Something was wrong with it - something about the way it displayed some games or something. So he had to send it off to be fixed, and he was very happy to get his new toy back.

I finally got my Moo cards in the mail on Friday. Too late for the Harlot event, but in time for Yarnover. I ordered two sets - one with pictures of the girls on the front and our family information on the back. They will be perfect for handing to parents of the girls' friends when we want to plan play dates. The pictures of the girls will help jog busy moms' memories of who we are and why they have our contact information. And the other set is all blankie close-ups, for when I'm talking to knitters. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. They are nice thick, glossy cardstock and feel nice in the hand.

Editing to add a clarification about the cards - by contact information I mean our family name and my e-mail address. I left it at that with room for me to handwrite in our phone number if I choose because I feel like e-mail is the least invasive way to reach us. Even so, people could still look up the rest of our info in the phone book, but for that matter so could any of my readers (and some, unfortunately, have!) I'm well aware of security considerations, and y'all are going to have to trust that I take precautions - number one being that my kids don't leave my sight, and that I'm good about actually paying attention to what they're doing when we're out of the house. There are only so many layers of paranoia one can track, after all.



I also got a shipment of books from Amazon last week. It's kind of an eclectic little pile. I'd had Barbara Abbey's Knitting Lace in my wish list for a while, and made up my mind to go ahead and buy it when I was looking for lace trims for those socks a few weeks ago. This book has a huge collection of lace trims, as well as doilies and a detailed section on making lace and designing lace garments. Some day I will be able to design my own lace patterns, and not just copy them out of books!

I'm not exactly sure how I ended up buying a book on spinning. Except that I've had an ongoing conversation with myself for years now about how I don't want to spin - no, I really don't want to spin - no, I have too much knitting already, so look the other way quick. But I keep seeing all this awesome spinning and fiber in the blogs, and at least I feel like I wish I understood more of what they're talking about. And when I saw that Priscilla Gibson-Roberts had a book on Spinning in the Old Way, I had to add it to the cart. I love the book "Knitting in the Old Way" - in fact, if I had to pick only one knitting book to look at for the rest of my life, that would probably be it. I haven't really cracked the cover of this one yet.

And finally, I bought The Creative Family by Amanda Soule, whose blog I read regularly. She is always showing awesome projects that she does with her kids, and seems so gentle and capable a parent, I had to check out her tricks. I need all the tricks I can get. I've only had a few moments to glance through this one so far, but I'm pretty sure there is some stuff in there we can try now, and more that we will grow into.



And finally, another surprise gift came today that absolutely gobsmacked me. It's a beautiful little sock-project bag from my loyal reader and commenter Michelle a.k.a. SwissKnits! She made it herself, and sent it as a thank-you gift for the needles she won in a contest here a while back. So unbelievably sweet - thank you Michelle!



I love this bag so much, and had to wonder whether she would be making them to sell. The answer is no, they're just for friends, which made me feel even more special. I may have to start another sock project just so I can use the bag!

And now I must go fold a giant mountain of clean laundry - maybe if I fold fast I'll have time for a few more rows of the snowflake scarf before bed. I'm only twelve rows away from finishing the body, so maybe by tomorrow night I'll be knitting the border. Which could mean a blocking post as early as Thursday or Friday if all the stars align and Sophie agrees to actually go to sleep at her bed time tomorrow.