I’m knitting a sock (very very slowly, due to severe tendonitis-arm-hand-pain attack) in the gorgeous yarn my SP10 sent me.

Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Clay. Oh, so earthy and so wonderful! It’s really sort of… late summery colors, or even autumn, and I considered waiting until… well, late summer or autumn to knit it. But she is a GODDESS and balled it up for me so I didn’t have to, and that sealed the deal. The very springtime/summery colorway (Daffodil? Something like that) that I purchased for myself was still in skeins. And there was no way I was going to mess with balling it up when I had a perfectly yummilicious yarn sitting there ready to knit.

Note to self: it would obviously be worth your time to invest in a ballwinder along with your beautiful swift. Really. You can spend $40 and make your life easier.

Anyway. On that note - my entire SP10 package for May is heavenly. And my pal outdid herself, really. She sent me an AUTOGRAPHED copy of No Sheep For You (drool drool - though granted, if the little “Your book has been autographed!” bookmarky thing hadn’t fallen out when I was flipping through pages, I never would’ve realized it, because I just went straight to the patterns!), and a delicious smelling soap that looks all earthy and mysterious, and some very lovely incense from a Japanese company.

There were two skeins of yarn in the package, but only one is show in that picture.

And that was not the end of my mail. Just the end of that package. The same day, I also got some other happy things that I ordered, including yarn for my spring fling pal (it’s on its way Monday!!), a cute pincushion, and happily, yarn from elann.

Some of that yarn is shown here, in a swatch I’ve begun (also on hold due to pain) for the Lacy Kerchief Scarf out of Interweave’s Holiday Gifts magazine.

Also, in other news, I finished Mom’s lavender sachet! I changed the pattern, deciding to do a lovely triangle instead of a 4″ square, which was neither as cute (I thought) nor as fun. This has the worst seaming job ever. Have I mentioned that I really have no idea how to seam?

Yesterday, I ended up a closeout sale at a quilt store. I bought lots. This first is for a quilt. The fabric line is called Almost Poppy, and I’ve been drooling for over a year. The only fabric that doesn’t go is the coral polka dot stuff, but it ‘matches’, even if it isn’t from the same line.

This, I picked up for a gardening apron:

And lastly, I picked up some charm squares in Moda’s “Sonnet” line. Love it.

I also got a few patterns. I wish I’d had the money for lots, lots more. As it is, I borrowed from Mom…

Anyway, I got my garden all planted at last, and now I’m just waiting for my muscles to stop spasming in pain so I can knit freely again. Hurry up, arms! Hurry up!

So I decided to make myself a cake on Valentine’s Day - and not just any old cake, but a Red Devil’s Food cake, which I’ve loved for years, but have never actually made. My mother or grandmother or someone always did the making, and I just did the eating. But this year, for my birthday (which actually isn’t until late March) I decided I wanted one. And I figured that asking for such a complicated cake (it’s layered) wouldn’t get me very far, so I expected I’d have to make it myself. But it /is/ a complicated cake, so I wanted to try it out first. Give myself a practice run at it, so to speak.

And a good thing I did, because the cake was a disaster. Oh, it tastes good. A little on the dry side, but it’s definitately good. But… well, look:

And that’s the good side - the side that hasn’t crumbled to pieces, the side that actually looks /okay/. The thing fell in the middle, and then the top slid nearly off the bottom when I went to take this picture (and gosh, it’s so dark in the background, and I don’t know why!), and I didn’t get enough frosting in the middle, and I had a helluva time getting the cakes out of the pans and properly stacked on top of each other.

But it is good. And the frosting? To DIE for. I’ll post the whole recipe up later tonight.

But for now, I’ve got a few more pics to share - like this beautiful package of goodies from my secret pal, Stephani - who was such a wonderful secret pal all through SP9! I was thrilled to know her and to have been spoiled by her! Everything in the photo EXCEPT the little heart dish was from Stephani.

A book on coffees and treats (soo many good things in here to make!) and some coffee flavored chocolatey things that spilled all over the box and made everything smell coffeeish, and the cutest little cup and saucer… actually, there’s two saucers, and there WAS two cups, but one got busted in the mail *sniffsniff*… and some uberdark chocolate that I’m tempted to shave up and make some real hot chocolate, and of course, the YARN. Holy cow, do I love this yarn:

It’s cotton. SOFT cotton. Sooo delicious. Patagonia’s Nature Cotton or something like that. I’m at work and can’t possibly look, but it’s gorgeous and soft and… it smells like coffee! *laugh*

And last but not least, something I made up a couple weeks ago - some flannel pillowcases, wintery themed! I love the material, and wish I’d had enough money at the time to buy much more of this, for a blanket or quilt.

I haven’t been doing a lot lately. Mostly sleeping late and reading books (One Hundred Years of Solitude was the latest, finished just tonight) and working. This whole week was work, ever since Christmas Eve. Christmas Day didn’t even exist for me this year - I woke at around six, went to Mom’s to have some leftovers and missed dinner, opened a present from my brother, and then went home. Exciting, eh? And the whole week’s been like that - dull and blurry, mostly.

However, I’ve been planning a new year’s ritual, and I’ll do some of my Yule stuff then, too, as I didn’t much think about it on Yule itself. Tonight is my last night of work for the week, so I’ll have the next three off, where I can hopefully do something useful with myself.

Like sew.

So, some crafty updates! I’m wonderfully close to being done with the stole - but there’s no use in taking more pictures yet, so no pics there. I’m about 12 rows from being through with Clue 5, and then it’s on to a single round of Clue 6 and the edging, and I’m all done! I expect another 6-10 days of work… at work. So, by November 7th, I should be darned close to finished, if not already there, except for blocking and such! :) Here’s hoping, anyway.

But here’s something I can give a picture of - it’s my 2006 Advent Calendar! For those of you who don’t know me, I adore advent calendars. Especially ones that are unique in some way, or else give prizes! I picked this up at Quilt With Class last month, and am now getting around to sewing it all up! It’s more work than it looks, but is altogether rather easy. All the little numbered spots will be made into pockets, all ornaments (see all the outside ornaments dangling from the tree - those are finished pockets. The red ones inside the tree are what I have left to do.)

Shouldn’t take me long to do - just have to buckle down and get to it. The pockets are a pain in the ass - I should’ve gone the easy route and pinked all the edges - easier than folding them all in and stitching all the edges down. Ah well. Too late now!

I finished my gingerbread man apron! Huzzah! And here it is, in shining glory. Ignore the headless body - that would be me, in all my shapeless glory… I swear, it’s the apron that makes me look like that, but I’m no supermodel in real life. As for headless… well, you would’ve chopped it off, too, upon seeing just how bad the photo was to begin with.

And here, a closeup of the apron fabric, which is sooooo cute.

Moving on, I’ve also taken some pictures of my quilt blocks. I’ll consider this sort of a WIP Friday deal, since it’s now after midnight, and thus, Friday. And it is indeed a work in progress, though the progress might be slow, and I’m 2 blocks behind schedule. It’s for a quilt block of the month class dealie, using the gorgeous, if pastel, fairy frost fabrics. Enjoy.

And one last photo - this is of a quilt my mother just ‘finished’. Okay, so she’s not actually finished yet, but she’s not going to do the actual quilting of the thing herself - it’s her first quilt, and she wants to be sure it’s done right, so she’s taking it to someone to get the thing quilted together. This is the before-it’s-quilted-together photo. I love it, by the way. I’m begging for it for Christmas, but I’m not sure she’ll cave. ;-)

The holidays are fast approaching! Samhain is nearly here, and after that passes, it’s only a short skip to Yule and Christmas, and I have a LOT that needs to be done! So let me list them out - partly for your amusement, but mostly because I need to write it down somewhere that won’t get lost in the shuffle.

Sewing
1. Gingerbread Man Apron - this one’s half done!
2. Autumn Pillowcases
3. Brown/Sunflower Messenger Bag
4. Advent Calendar - it’s cut out!
5. Winter flannel pillowcases
6. Santa Claus table runner
7. Other winter pillowcases
8. 3 quilt blocks (I’m behind by two)
9. Finish purple/yellow quilt

Knitting

10. Mom’s Stole
11. Pair of socks
12. Autumn Colors Hat
13. Blue/White Hat

How’s that for a mess? Gugh. We’ll see what I can manage to finish… We’ll see.

So I’ve been waiting ever-so-anxiously for my KnitPicks yarn to arrive. And it sooo hasn’t. It was supposed to be here Tuesday. It wasn’t. Nor Wednesday, nor Thursday. Today, Friday, it came. But… I slept like a log and didn’t wake up until the post office was closed. See, the post office here is open for such limited hours that my graveyard schedule makes it difficult to get to it during business hours. I either have to a) stay up late to get there in the morning and hope they get all the package notices shipped out to the boxes before I arrive, or b) wake up uber early, by 4pm, to get there before they close at a quarter after. I did neither today. And of course, it being Friday, the last day of the week it’s open, I missed it. And when I went to get my mail… there was a package slip in my box. *sigh* I have the worst luck in the world.

In other news, I have company. My friend Tabby is here for a week, visiting, resting from recent surgery on her wrist, and escaping life’s woes. I picked her up from the bus station 90 miles away on Wednesday. I also bought some goodies.

These are fabrics I got for various projects. The first three from the left are for aprons. The citrus and gingerbread men fabrics are for me. The flowery fabric is for A, who decided she wanted an apron as well. I told her I’d buy the fabric if she wanted to doing the sewing. The two fabrics on the right are for the bag swap I’m doing. It’ll hopefully turn out to be a messenger bag. :)

Next up, the apron pattern I’ll be using!

Then… progress on the SBO scarf! Look how pretty it is! I’m glad it’s looking good. I can’t wait to see it blocked, but I still have quite a ways to go.

Now, off to spend more time with company and all that good stuff!