Careful what you wish for!

I love snow, I really do, and living on the southwest coast of BC I don’t get a lot of it. Mother Nature remedied that this week! About 15 inches Saturday night/Sunday and then another 5 or 6 inches last night. It’s really pretty and just not something you see around here very much.

As you can see we haven’t even dug out the old pickup. She’s just sitting there waiting for it to all melt.

Then I went to work and made a snow angel. ‘Cause I’m five. At most. My butt was cold and damp for the entire day as I sat at my desk. Totally worth it!

Then Amy got her angel making mojo going. We are so terribly cool. So there you have it. The beentsy weather network. Apparently the storm has left the province, kinda like Elvis leaving the building I guess, so life should slowly get back to normal. Hopefully it doesn’t melt too fast though. Then we’d have flooding and we already did that two weeks ago with our record rainfalls. You get the feeling the Gods are pissed at us? Hmmmm, maybe.

Now, on a completely unrelated note, I’ve had some request to extend the deadline for the Dulaan contest. There are a few people who need just a bit more time to get their items finished. Who am I to say no to these generous souls. We want Dulaan to get as many items as possible, right? Plus, it’s getting into that Christmas season and folks is just plain busy. So, I’m extending the date by two more weeks. The absolutely final deadline is now December 23, 2006. If you aren’t done by then that’s okay, maybe I’ll do a little mid-winter contest in February and you can enter your creations then.

eta: duh! email me a pici or a link to a pici at sockpal at mail dot com

So, here is a complete review of the game so far, You have until midnight, December 23, 2006 to enter. Each item you knit, crochet, sew, weave, or whatever, will earn you one entry into the contest. One hat – one entry. One set o’ mittens – one entry. Clear like mud? I will announce and contact the winners on Sunday, December 24, 2006. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it. Winners will be drawn at random from all entries and now, on to the prizes:

Third Prize – two skeins of Regia sock yarn – 100gm balls. Each ball will make a pair o’ socks.

2nd prize – 5 skeins of Classic Elite Maya – 50gm skeins, 50/50 llama and wool. Soft!

1st prize – 1 skein Fleece Artist hand dyed Mohair Locks. 94% mohair/6% wool, 250 grams = 125 metres. Calls for 12 mm needles. Soft, and the purples are amazing! I can’t quite catch how really pretty this is, the colour depth is amazing. In my knitting news I finished 5 more Dulaan items this week and cast on for two more. Of course I was so dazzled by the snow that I didn’t actaully take any pictures of them. Sheesh, what a twit. I’m a bit useless about remembering to take pictures of the important stuff. Like FO’s. I’ve also been doing some Secret Santa knitting that I can’t post picis of in case the recipients are lurking here. I’ll have to post those in a week or two.

Okay, keep warm everyone, I’m out of here for now.

Dulaan Entries

Hey, wanna see some entries into the Dulaan contest? Sure you do! (Only 12 more days to enter.)

Super cute sweater, courtesy of Linda. I love pooly yarn. Baby sweaters are the best form of instant gratification we get as knitters. Also, from her second to last blog (the woman will not stay put lately!) mittens! They look so warm and cozy.

Four really nice hats from Ann. I love the stripes and tassels she has going on here. She’s also working on completing two sweaters to donate too! Trooper!

And of course, crazy Rabbitch is throwing her 6 hats and one scarf in the ring. The woman is a knitting machine, I tell you what!

I’m so happy I could just plotz, I really could. I’ve got a wee tear in my eye.

So come on kids! There’s still 12 days left. Whip up a hat, or two! Maybe some mitts or a scarf. Maybe win some swanky yarn.

Now, on a completely unrelated note, a picture of our upside down Christmas tree all decorated. Hilarious, no? We call it our Christmas tornado. I do really like it though. It seems to take up way less of the room, if you know what I mean. And, the dogs can’t reach the really nice ornaments that they would like to get and shred. We all win. Hey, look at that, it’s peace on earth at the beentsy house!

Wow

Why yes, that is a metric ass load of snow.

This was at 12:30, we’ve gotten six more inches since. We are well over a foot now.

Pretty much the happiest creature in the house. Only because she doesn’t have to shovel! By the way, the Stones were a blast.

Jumpin’ Jack Flash

I am out of here to see the Rolling Stones tonight. I’ve had an unhealthy crush on Keith Richard for more than 25 years and tonight I will finally see him in all his wrinkly, craggly, old man glory. Don’t be jealous now.

I also wanted to remind everyone that you still have two whole weeks to knit something for Dulaan and send me a link or a pici of it to be entered in the contest to win some yummy yarn. Send you pici/link to sockpal at mail dot com

As an added bonus, there is a weather advisory of 20 – 30 centimetres of snow before tomorrow night (that’s 8 – 10 inches). Super. You simply have not lived until you’ve seen folks in the Lower Mainland attempt driving in the snow. We are a rainforest and we can barely drive in the rain, nevermind snow. Bahahahahaha. Gonna be fun.

Explanation

Right. If you’ve got one of these:

And on of these:

You simply must have one of these:

In the simplest of terms, my dogs are insane and I can’t have a normal tree because all those tempting baubles and toys are just too much for them to resist. So, we got one of these and everything is up high and safe from the crazy canines! All my friends are roaring with laughter at me, but that’s okay. If it makes the holiday season easier, so much the better.

Again, 17 days to the end of the Dulaan contest. Click here for details and to see picis of the swag. Remeber though, I’ve extended the contest until midnight December 9, 2006. So you have a bit more time to whip up a little something.

I’m going to go muck about with my Christmas tree some more. It’s so hard to get the branches just so. Especially when you’re all anal retentive and creepy like me. Have a good night all.

I’ll explain later

Why yes, that is an upside down Christmas tree. We’ll talk about it later, I promise. I’m a bit late to leave for work right now!

Oh, and 17 more days to enter to win fabulous yarn! You have until midnight December 9, 2006 to submit an entry. Make and item for Dulaan, sub a pici or link to me at sockpal at mail dot com and you get entered. One entry for every item you finish. Scroll down to see the swag. Sweet, right?

Okay, going to work now.

Why we knit for Dulaan

Okay, I know I sound a bit like a broken record but this is really important to me. People shouldn’t be cold. Ever. They should be able to put on a warm sweater or hat or mitts and be warm. Children should not live like the children in the latest Dulaan photos.

Please, knit a hat. Knit a pair of mitts. Crochet a blankie. Sew a polar fleece toque. Anything and everything is appreciated! Remember, you may be rewarded with yarn! Nice yarn to, if I do say so myself.

Send me a link to a pici of your finished item to sockpal at mail dot com and I will enter you in to the drawing to win fab-o swag! Scroll down to see the picis of the lovely yarn! Oooooooo, don’t you want to knit it! Come on, each item you knit gets you an entry into the draw for the lovelies. And, each item you knit makes the cold retreat just a little bit for someone in Mongolia!

Okay, I’m feeling a bit like Jerry Lewis here. Gonna stop now and go find some dinner. And study for my philosophy final tomorrow. Yikes! Please think good thoughts for me!

ETA: You can click here for picis of the yarn and details of the cutoff date of the contest.

A stolen meme!

Rabbitch had this on her blog and it appealed to me, so I stole it! Betcha don’t want me to come to your house eh? Yeah, I’d definitely keep me away from your stash too.

One Word

1. Yourself: strong
2. Your spouse: smart
3. Your hair: annoying
4. Your mother: caring
5. Your father: grumpy
6. Your Favorite Item: yarn
7. Your dream last night: weird
8. Your Favorite drink: milk
9. Your Dream Car: Notchback
10. The room you are in: utilitarian
11. Your Ex: who?
12. Your fear: chaos
13. What you want to be in 10 years? self-employed
14. Who you hung out with last night? hubby
15. What You’re Not? tactful
16. Muffins: cranberry
17. One of Your Wish List Items: travel
18. Time: insufficient
19. The Last Thing You Did: bejeweled
20. What You Are Wearing: pj’s
21. Your Favorite Weather: windy
22. Your Favorite Book: Lamb
23. The Last Thing You Ate: fish
24. Your Life: busy
25. Your Mood: tired
26. Your best friend: funny
27. What are you thinking about right now? knitting
28. Your car: none
29. What are you doing at the moment? blogging
30. Your summer: dry
31. Your relationship status: comfy
32. What is on your TV? ER
33. What is the weather like? wet
34. When is the last time you laughed? today
35. Who else will do this? whomever

Now how cool is that? You know you wanna steal it! Go ahead.

Oh, and keep the Dulaan knitting going kids! When you get and item finished email me at sockpal at mail dot com with a link to a pici of a completed object and your entered to win swag! Scroll down, see the picis, imagine the possibilities. Yeah, there you go. Now get knitting or crocheting!

Brief Update

Howdy y’all! Sorry, I’ve been very remiss in my blogging of late. There have been some very long days over the last week. Dad is still in the hospital. He is getting better, it is just taking much longer than anticipated. He’s walking now a few times a day and sitting up for meals and such.

I’ve been knitting like a Dulaan fiend. I think in the last week I’ve finished 7 or 8 hats and a scarf. Just banging them out. Pretty much a hat a day. I’ve got a philosophy final next Saturday so I’ve been trying to study for that too. A busy time at the old homestead.

Okay. I’m going to go watch Heroes now. Love it! Hiro makes me laugh and that’s a very good thing right now.

Keep up the Dulaan knitting, and tell your friends about the contest. Win some yarn swag!

Yarn Prawn!

I know it’s supposed to be Yarn Pron but I just always think of shrimp when I hear that in my head, so I’m going with prawn.

Let me just say, first off, I have the greatest respect for all you fibre junkies who go to events like Reinbeck and the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. I do not know how you guys do it. How you can go from vendor to vendor of fabulous yarn and fibre and not buy it all, even if it means mortgaging you home and the homes of all your family members. The reason I bring this up is that yesterday I went to the 35th annual Langley Spinners and Weavers Artisan sale in Fort Langley. I lost my freaking mind! I was madly clutching skeins of wonderful yarn and the nice ladies kept offering me baskets to carry it in but I HAD TOO MUCH YARN FOR THE BASKETS! It was amazing, intoxicating, fantastic, I don’t have enough words for it.

Got there around 10:00 and I had a blind date meeting me too, dontcha know! Linda from My Knit Niche was meeting me! This was the first time I’d ever met someone in person that I had met via the internet. Very cool! I was her secret pal back in the spring and we only live maybe 35 minutes from each other! So I invited her to meet me halfway in Langley and come shopping! She showed such restraint, I was wicked proud of her. I’m such a doof though, I forgot to bring my camera so that I could get a pici of the two of us together! Doh. You can imagine us now: we’re both tall, we have medium brown hair, wear glasses, and love to fondle yarn while making little animal noises. She’s also just learned shortrows & wrapping on toe up socks and I can’t wait to see how her heel is turning out!

Okay, yarn prawn, first off I bought seven skeins of handspun/handdyed yarn by Ann Embra. That’s it just below. The oranges and pinks were amazing and I completely devestated the rack of her yarn. I couldn’t help myself. some is 100% wool in a chunky and some is a sport/fingering weight mohair/wool blend. I can’t seem to find a website for her though so I guess I will have to wait until next year to get more.

Then I found this wonderful kit to make a handspun shawl. All different weights and fibres all in oranges/yellows/pinks, like a perfect White Rock sunset. I may just have to cast this on today!

Then I went to see Jane at Mount Lehman Llamas. I love Jane and her llamas. Every year I find something new and gorgeous at her stall. This year it was two skeins of sport weight from the llama Pamela that had been dyed a wonderful dark burgundy. I also bought a Chul’lo hat kit but I’ve already wound it up into balls and I’m casting that on today as well so I didn’t pici it, but here is a link to it. My hat is in natural/rust/orange, nice. You can also get fibre and yarn here. You have never felt anything like this. She had a llama/wool/silk blend at the show yesterday that was pretty amazing too.

The skein of opal was picked up somwhere in my travels yesterday, I couldn’t tell you from who. I was actually in a fugue by then. It’s pretty though, eh?

After the show I went up to visit the papa. He’s doing better, his colour was much better yesterday and they actually had him up and walking around his bed once. It was very painful but he did it. He still sleeps a lot of course, the pain meds knock him out pretty good. I sit and knit and he wakes up once in awhile and we chat a bit then he falls asleep again. I’m going to go back up and visit him this afternoon and see what sort of fresh torture the physiotherapy people have in store for him.

And, last but certainly not least, here is a better pici of the prizes for the Dulaan contest. I wasn’t thrilled with the image quality of the picis last week and there was better light today. From left to right:

Third prize – two skeins of Regia
Second prize – 5 skeins of Classic Elite Maya (50/50 llama & wool)
First prize – 1 skein Fleece Artist Mohair Locks – (94% mohair/6% wool)

You want to win one of these, I know you do! They are yummy and lovely and they want to be won by you. All you gotta do is knit/crochet/sew an item for Dulaan. For each item you create you will get one entry into the draw for one of these babies. Because I haven’t been around very much this week and haven’t been promoting this as well as I should, I’m going to lengthen the contest to midnight pacific time, December 9, 2006. On December 10 I will draw the three lucky winners and mail out their prizes on Monday, December 11, 2006. With a little luck (and the good graces of Canada Post ), you could have a prize in your hot little hands in time for Christmas day knitting. Whoot whoot! So come on kids, whip up a hat or a pair of mitts, or even a pair of socks. It doesn’t have to be perfect or in the most fashionable of colours, it just needs to be warm. I simply want as many of us as possible to make as many items as possible to keep some kids warm next winter in Mongolia. It’s wicked important and you’ll feel good too! Okay, soapbox rant over. Just send me a link to show me a Dulaan item you’ve created to this addy: sockpal AT mail DOT com

I’m gonna go do some laundry and housecleaning stuff now. All this back and forth to the hospital this week my little house if feeling sadly neglected and wants some loving. I’m also totally going to cast on for a new project from all my new prawns too!

Have a brilliant Sunday guys.