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Rainforest Knits

SP 10 Reveal Package finally revealed!

I got my last secret pal 10 package probably last week or so, but I've been a naughty SP and haven't posted about it yet. Sorry Amy! Here's what was in the package:a beautiful cake of black silk with beads, two balls of Gedifra Beauty Cotton and tasty mint soap. Also a reveal letter. Thanks Amy :-D Visit my great SP here and say hi. I've enjoyed being spoiled by you, once again thank you and when I have time I really want to make a lovely lace scarf out of the gorgeous silk you sent!


Here's the Panda Cotton I purchased from The Loopy Ewe
It's soft and pretty, but be careful it can split easily. The two balls on the right side are faded jeans the colour is a little off. The lone ball up top is strawberries and limes (making a monkey sock from my sockapalooza pal with it, the other ball is being knit up). Lastly the balls on the left are blueberries - grapes

More stash enhancement is the Handmaiden Seasilk I bought from Pickup Sticks. They are beautiful colourways: Burgundy and Mineral.


There is more to add to the Stash Enhancment but you can look for yourself on my flickr account. I got some rowan calmer in oynx hopefully enough for a carti or sweater, two balls of wick, and some balls of cascade fixation

Virtual Vacation Questionaire

1. If you could visit any state in the US, which would it be and why? Hawaii I'd love relax on the beach, hike up a volcano and snorkel. It's a place that my daughter and I have said we would visit together and are planning to go in the next year or so. To plan a trip to Hawaii with a guide dog takes A LOT of planning to avoid her being quarantined, so I need to start planning first by getting her AVID microchip put in.

2. If you could visit any country in the world, other than your own, which would it be and why? I've always been enthralled by the beautiful island of Crete. I am a huge Greek mythology buff. Besides that I've always wanted to visit Ireland, being 1/4 Irish I've always wanted experience for myself the green wet land of the isles. I know we are asked if we could visit any country in the world and I have more than one, but hey I could list way too many; however I will only list one more and that is Japan. The Japanese culture has always been intriguing to me. I've met many people who have travelled there and their experiences have perked my interest even more. I'd love to go and travel throughout Japan and not just in the tourist areas.

3. Have you ever driven across several states/providence/countries? Yes I've driven from BC to AB, all over my province BC, I've taken road trips to WA, OR, CA, NV and when I was in ON, we drove down to MI as well as drove from Windsor, ON to Guelph, ON.

4. Have you ever visited someplace you consider exotic? Where was it? Nope.

5. What was your favorite "travel" vacation? Why? I love going to the Gulf Islands here in BC. It's so nice to relax on the cabin on Galiano Island that my partner's parents own. There's gorgeous beaches, greenery and usually peace and quiet on the point that their cabin is located. It's nice to sit and crochet or knit, or curl up and read a book or explore the beaches.

6. Have you ever played tourist in your own home city/state (if international, country)? Explain. Yes, as a child my family would go camping all the time. I go for trips to Victoria for some sightseeing and other cities all over my province. As for playing tourist in my own city, there are so many places to play tourist in the Lower Mainland, go visit Lynn Valley suspension bridge, drive up to Cypress Mountain to enjoy the view and go hiking, I love going to museums with my daughter or go beach combing. There is so much to see here that sometimes we will go and explore parts of the city and the surrounding cities that we don't know well just for fun.

7. Are you a museum visitor, beach comer or an amusement seeker? All of the above, depends on my mood.

8. What's your favorite type of yarn? I love soft silks, cotton blends with either silk, model and/or tencel and soy silk!

9. What's your least favorite type of yarn? coarse acrylics especially if it makes that horrible squeaking noises while you are knitting/crocheting with it. The sound of cheap synthetic fibers rubbing against each other is like nails on a chalkboard for me, even when I was really little.

10. What items do you like to knit/crochet? scarfs, shawls, dishcloths, socks!!!, bags, hats and I really want to knit my first sweater. I'm mostly addicted to lace and socks right now at the moment

11. What do you pack, knit/crochet wise when you go on vacation? small projects like socks, something simple like a stockinette sock or a easy scarf and then a few projects that I need to think for when I want to concentrate and de-stress by getting lost in the pattern and yarn

12. What other crafts do you do/would like to do other than Knit/Crochet? I'd love to learn to draw and paint, spin

13. Are you allergic to anything? (Yarn wise or treat wise) Lol, what am I not allergic to! I CAN NOT use animal fibers even the slightest amount in a yarn. I'm allergic to them all alpaca, wool even extra soft superwash merino, cashmere etc... I'm allergic to lemongrass and/or citronella and more really floral smells in lotions, food or scents. When it comes to lipbalms any lipbalm with glycerin in it actually makes my lips chapped, regardless if they fix chapped lips or not. No milk chocolate, I'm allergic to lactose, I'm so happy I can eat certain cheeses though!

14. What is your favorite color? Least Favorite? favourite colours are blues/greens/reds and least favourite orange/yellows/neons

15. Sweet or Savory (Treat not personality)? Sweet!

16. Anything else we are forgetting to ask that you think your partner desperately needs to know? Another fun allergy I'm allergic to cats, so if you have a cat please avoid allowing it to fondle the yarn.

Pictures!

Well I finally got my issue of IK and I'll go through that later. Another important thing is I have found my USB cord for my camera, so this post is going to be picture heavy, ok not that heavy *big grin*

Here's a picture of my guide dog, "Maylee" showing off my package from my secret pal.

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I received a lovely hank of beaded silk, a bag of yummy cherry sours, 3 balls of Elsebeth Lavold Cotton Patine in colourway #18 Linden, one ball of Elsebeth Lavold Cotton Patine in colouway #15 Misty, a really cute sheep card that I'm allergic to *sniff* and sheep tissue.

Here is my Jaywalker WIP. I am using BMFA Sock Candy 96% Cotton and 4% Elite using US #1 bamboo needles I started it around approx. June 1. This yarn is only slightly stretchy, definately not like Casade Fixation, but it will make a nice warm thicker cotton sock.

This is my lacy diamond scarf WIP. I am using Tilli Tomas' Discolights in Olive. I can't recall the needle size, but I'm using my KnitPicks Options needles.

Yarn addiction

So I had set a limit on how much new yarn I was going to buy and I was going to hold off buying more yarn after my vacation yarn spree. Well I didn't make it even a week of being home before I made two yarn purchases online. I purchased some Panda Cotton from The Loopy Ewe and Cacade Fixation in various colourways, as well as 11 balls of Rowan Calmer for a sweater or cartigan from WEBS. Bad me! However I have some new yarn coming in the mail soon. My birthday is in 13 days from now, so I could look at it as a early birthday present from myself! Lol, it could work really *big grin*

I have misplaced my camera USB cord so once I find it then I'll post pics of my stash enhancements from Dharma in San Rafael plus cute pics of my package from my secret pal. BTW she is very awesome I loved the beaded yarn; however if you are reading this do you know how many yards that lovely hank is?? Thank you secret pal, lots of hugs from me and some licks and wiggles from "Miss Maylee"

Again waiting

I'm still waiting on my summer IK magazine. I'm hoping that it will speed up getting here because I did just renew for two more years! If not I might just cancel my subscription because I can buy the magazine in stores weeks before my copy comes in the mail. I wonder what the point of even having them send it to me is lately!

Still not able to log in using Firefox and I refuse to switch back to the lower versions. It's a pain using IE and I hate it dearly.

As for my knitting projects, I haven't kitchnered the toe yet on my Horcrux sock; however I did start a new sock. Jaywalkers with the awesome BMFA's Sock Candy in Kabuki that Connie from Pickup Sticks sent me. I am working on my silk lace diamond scarf that I may gift to my great grandmother for her birthday that is coming along pretty well. Pictures to come in the future since I'm still trying to get settled at home here.

Firefox is a bad drug for Blogger

It really sucks but seems like Firefox and Blogger are not getting along right now! I had to use the evil IE to update this blog :-( I swear I had more posts this month, but it seems like they didn't actually work out.

I got my package from my secret pal; however I have to load the pictures from my camera before I post them. I'll wait till then to brag about what I got. Miss Maylee modeled the secret pal package for me so look out in the next few days for super cute pictures.

In knitting news, I have sorta finished a project when I was a GDB training with my guide dog. My second Horcrux sock is done, all I need to do is Kitchner the toe! Yay me! I ended up frogging my Branching Out scarf that I used Tilli Thomas' Disco Lights because it was too hard of a pattern for the yarn -- it has sequins, which are getting stuck and ruining the silk itself. So I decided to use a simpler lace pattern that I found in The Odd Ball Knitting book. Now that I'm home I'll be able to knit more and will have some more FO's in the near future. Also I'll clean up my FO list.