To The Victor Go The Spoils

Good Morning! Today I woke up like a shot full of energy and frankly very excited to blog- which was sort of a surprise because last night we were out late and usually I'd wake up with a little less pep.

Why so excited? Maybe because it's finally May. (There are really cool things happening every weekend this month that I've been waiting for.) But probably because I'm still high from the great night we had last night. 

It was the annual Chamber of Commerce Auction. Now I know, blah blah chamber auction- that sounds exciting. But really it is! Every year we get amazing things and all the money goes to help the Chamber do what they do to make our little city so special.

This year I was high bigger on this... (imagine fanfare here)

The Webs Bag full of yarny deliciousness! 

Seriously, I know this makes me a total yarn obsessed geek but I was bouncing up and down when the bidding on this closed and I was still highest bidder on the card. Last year I got outbid. This year when I saw it listed again I had my eye on it like a hawk.

It is full of great stuff- 12 balls of Valley Yarns, Deerfield, Color: Sweat Pea (it's sooo soft and a gorgeous fresh green color). The book Continuous Cables which I flipped through this morning and it looks great. 

Another cute little book called Knitticisms.

 

A tape measure, some packets of wool wash, Two pairs of needles (straight and round) and it all came in this beautiful silk project bag.

I used incredible restraint (hubby was surprised) by not unpacking it last night. It was a battle between, take a picture during daylight for the blog- or figure out how to light it enough to take a decent picture late last night. 

Amazingly I chose the more patient less crazed option and waited until today.

MSCE April- Gift Tags

I love, love, love to wrap presents. I'm one of those odd people who actually enjoys having a mountain of boxes to wrap at Christmas.

In fact on a complete side note- There are quite a few things I really love to do that I think most people don't enjoy in the least.

• Wrapping presents
  
• Counting and rolling change
  
• Stuffing envelopes
  

The list goes on (really, it does) but I'll return to the topic at hand- Gift wrapping or gift tagging I guess.

I don't actually have anything to wrap at the moment but Mother's Day is soon and I've been thinking about birthdays a lot recently- hubby's is coming up (and note to hubby- yes, not having anything to wrap yet means that your gift isn't here yet). Mom's birthday is soon too. All of a sudden there is also a plethora of babies waiting to be born around me and I've been wondering when they will arrive and what to get the new parents.

All of this has me really wishing I had a gifts to wrap- so I've done the next best thing (in my mind) and made some gift tags! Now I fully admit- these tags may not be useful for any of the gift giving occasions I've listed- but it was fun and I'll use them for something.

For this one I used a bit of tye-dye coffee filter between a solid tag and one that I've punched a flower out of.

This tag didn't turn out well at all- 

That silver pattern I drew just doesn't look right- but I wanted to show this close-up because I mod podged over the coffee filter which gave this a totally different look. It brought out depth in the color and made the filter look like a really cool handmade paper instead of the cheap filter it really is. (I'm definitely going to experiment with this more.)

And I couldn't resist this. 

I'm still obsessed with this cupcake paper punch. This time I put some yellow cardstock through a paper crimper, then punched out the bottom "wrapper". (Are you tired of seeing the cupcake yet?)

 

This little bit of dimension really makes the punch stand out.

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Here's an older post you might enjoy- Getting To Know You. 

MSCE April? Baby Sweater

So- it's been a busy, hot, really hot few days.

This weekend was spent fitting in errands where I could and doing a few household projects- so I'm afraid there was almost no time at all for crafting. 

But despite the unseasonably hot weather we've been having the last three days (and therefore me wanting a lap full of yarn about as much I wanted the flannel sheets that were still on the bed) I managed just a little bit of knitting late each night and I'm pretty much done with the baby sweater. 

Which is just in time for both the heat wave and the baby girl my friend is due with anytime now.

I had intended to do a new project for every day in April- so I feel a bit bad about not getting anything but a few inches of this sweater done in the last few days- but I am really glad I've been able to get this done and almost ready to mail out. I'm also really happy with how clean the stitches picked up on the collar- it was my first one like this.

Tonight I'm going to sew the side seams then add the ribbon tie along the top- and that should be it. This is pretty much how it will look when it's done.

This weekend I also did something I've been a bit shy about doing- I signed up for a knitting class. I don't know why I was so hesitant about taking a class, but it's something I've been putting off for years.  I think it has to do with being a book and online taught knitter. I've always muddled my way through patterns and problems- and I'm pretty confident in my skills, but for some reason I have this little insecurity- like I'll get there and find out I've been knitting totally wrong for all these years. Or I'll be missing some really basic skill and not even have know it. (Silly I know.)

And... I'm really excited about this one... I've also signed up for a spinning class. Ever since I started knitting I wanted to try to spin and eventually dye my own yarn. I cannot wait for this!!!!

Last but certainly not least- I've just found out there will be more baby knitting over the next few months because my sister is going to have a baby! YAY I'm going to be an Auntie. And that has propelled my Mom straight out of her "new knitter scarf rut" and directly into Grandma knitting. We just found out and she already has booties on the needles!