My Goodies Arrived!

My package from Interweave Knits arrived and I am doing a little happy dance. Talk about a goodie box! When I was communicating with the folks at Interweave to get my prize package to me, I was put in touch with a wonderful lady, Annie Baaken. I had explained how thankful I was for being chosen as a winner as not much has gone right for me lately. I just seem to have, well, a constant run of bad luck. Winning the "Blog It To Win It" contest meant a great deal to me. A little recognition goes a long way. She threw in an extra goodie for me because she is awesome! I couldnt wait to open the box and see what the extra one was since I already knew what I was getting. It was a copy of The Unofficial Downton Abbey Knits! When my box arrived I emailed her immediately to thank her for reading my mind as I am a huge fan. I dont know many people that aren't. I thanked her over and over again and shared with her how jealous I was of my parents upcoming 3rd trip to England wherein they will be visiting Highclere Castle where the show is filmed. I cant really think about it too much, it makes me crazy that I cannot be there with them to share in the experience. Anyway, The Unofficial Downton Abbey Knits is fabulous. It has wonderful patterns and great articles. Galina Khmeleva designed a stole for the book and contributed a brief article as well...

"Then, wondering what all the fuss was about, I watched my first episode of Downton Abbey. I was completely mesmerized. The fascinating period settings, especially the attire, brought back thoughts of what the clothing might have been like that my babushka (grandmother) Anna Nikiforovna Sedova, a seamstress in pre-Revolutionary St. Petersburg, Russia, fashioned for the wealthy, aristocratic family - relatives of Sir Alfred Noble (the inventor of dynamite) - for whom she worked."

- Galina Khmeleva, The Unofficial Downton Abbey Knits 

Wow. I love learning more and more about Galina. She is one of the most fascinating people I have ever met and am honored to call her a friend. A little sidenote: I am the Program Director for the Albuquerque Dropped Stitch Knitters Guild and I am going to have Galina come and do a workshop for our Guild sometime in 2014 and I am so excited! It will be wonderful to see her again as its been a while. She and George did not come to Albuquerque Fiber Fiesta this year and they no longer go to the Taos Wool Festival so we missed them both places. She sounds very excited to be coming back to Albuquerque for us!

So let me show you some pictures of what arrived and what I've been up...

The Orenburg Knitting I thought was a book is a DVD! I will have Galina inscribe it for me on the inside nonetheless. The Holidays Knits still isnt even in at Village Wools yet so I'm happy to be the first in my group to get it. Lots of wonderful stuff in there. Then of course there is the Jane Austin Knits 2013 which is stunning. I have been wanting my own copy of this since it first came out and am thrilled to now have one! 

One of the kits I got was for the Ashbury Mitts, a pair of fingerless mitts that you can see here on Ravlery. The yarn that came in the kit? 2 skeins of Bijou Basin Ranch's Bijou Spun Lhasa Wilderness in the colorway Steel. Lhasa Wilderness is a fingering weight blend of 75/25 yak down and bamboo and I absolutely cannot wait to cast these on and work this up. Gorgeous isnt it?

The second kit I got was for the Leadville Cowl which can be seen here on Ravelry. Its the pattern on the cover of the Holiday Knits magazine...

The yarn? Oh my gosh this yarn. Its from The Fibre Company and is their Tundra. Its a bulky weight blend of 60/30/10 baby alpaca, merino and silk in their Mink colorway and it is Uh-mazing. Here's a better look at just the yarn...

 Its very tonal with shades of red browns and its just lovely. I've never knit with bulky weight yarn before but cannot wait to work on this! 

With all of these lovely winter projects that I cannot wait to cast on I think the fingerless mitts will be next. I want a pair to go with the 50/50 angora and corridale lamb scarf I finishing now. There isnt much left to go on it really... maybe another few long days of knitting and it'll be finished...

Its just your basic basket weave scarf framed in seed stitch with seed stitch blocks alternating down the center. I didn't want anything too fussy with this yarn. This scarf is all about the yarn. I am going to make a pair of fingerless mitts to go along with them based off of this free pattern. I am going to make them a little longer and around the cuff and the top I am going to add a row of smaller blocks alternating garter and seed stitch so they match the scarf. the body of the gloves themselves will be plain which is fantastic for a couple of reasons. This will be my first pair and I want to get used to making them and learning how to add the thumb gusset. Also, they just dont need anything else. The yarn is amazing and has such a wonderful halo!

Betty's shawl is coming along so well, just another few nights of working on it and she will be done. I was so worried about this. Sometimes when you've run into problems that you're trying to fix, putting your work down and coming back to it the next day after some sleep is a good thing to do. I am at the end of the skein I was working with and am going to have to break into 2 brand new skeins just to finish this. I have about another inch or so in the purple then it switches back to the wine color for a few rows at the end. Argh. I hate that but it is what it is. Here's what it looks like now....

Pattern is the Morlynn Shawl by Alexandra Weidmayer knit with Silky Wool on US size 8. I thought I was working with a 7 but I'm not, its an 8!

Isnt it beautiful! I just love the leaf detail around the edge. Just a few more nights and this will be finished, then I can block her, photograph her and wrap her up! Those of you who know Betty know that these are her colors too. It's nice to know that I will finally be able to get this to her. It's going to be nice and BIG just like she likes her shawls. And with the solid center it should be fairly warm too. This shawl is also another milestone with my knitting as it's the first time I've ever used more than one color in knitting a shawl. 

Today is going to be a nice day of knitting and relaxing by the fire with movies and shows...it snowed here last night. In my area we got around an inch, no more than an inch and a half but it differs all over town. There were other friends that had more than we did. And Kona, my wonderful companion by my side always.... he's really good company. If you have cats you already know this!

I want to thank the folks at The Knitter's Edge in Bethlehem, PA for adding 3 of my patterns, Grazioso, Vintage Brodeaux, and Lace Tannenbaum in their website's e-news for their patrons. I truly appreciate the exposure and the business it has generated on my side!

I hope you are having a wonderful and relaxing Sunday with plenty of time with your sticks and string! Anyone else working on/finishing up Holiday Knitting?