Happy Labor Day!

(A few days late...)

There were some exciting happenings around these parts lately, the first of which was the partially successful mailing of my Whose Lace Is It Anyway swap! Since my package should have already arrived (it better have US Postal Service!) to my pal Caroline (currently blogless, but soon not to be!) I think it is safe to give a looksie at what I sent:


(Sorry about the flashy indoor photos in this post - it had been overcast for like a week - up until today of course.) Half of the package didn't get sent because it wouldn't fit in the package I had and it was 10 minutes before the post office closed and I had to go catch a train for the holiday weekend. Not included were those 2 items standing up in the back (do you know what they are?) Don't you know I forgot the card as well? But the important fibery and patterny parts got sent. Caroline is an experienced lace knitter that will soon showcase her work (I hope!) on a new blog. Since she has been around the knitting black I decided to get her the above yarn and go for quality, not quantity. I also wanted to send her a pattern that was a "unique" (not a circle, square, or rectangle) shape. I hope you like it Caroline!

Right after I mailed the package I got in line for the package pick-up window and received this:


My package from my giving secret pal, Grace (also blogless)! She sent me three skeins of KnitPicks Shimmer in Turquoise Splendor! I love KnitPicks yarn but have never used Shimmer before! It is really pretty with fairly subtle variegation, which I like. It is 70% baby alpaca and 30% silk. I'm so glad she picked it, because I probably wouldn't have (because of the variegation) but I really do like it! She also sent the Candle Flame Shawl pattern, courtesy of KnitPicks, and some of those new Options needles! Yay yay yay! I have so wanted to get some, but I am on a knitting budget right now... Yay! Plus she sent some yummy smelling homemade soap from a local fiber fest, some local Earl Grey Tea (I love Earl Grey - how did she know?) and a lovely copy of At Knit's End, which I did not have (and which did not make the photo shoot for some unknown reason), and which I love. Thank you so much Grace! I think I am going to like this crafty swap thing!

After giving and receiving all that good stuff I took a train home to CT to visit family and of course go to the Goshen Fair. I love the (self-proclaimed) world-famous Goshen Fair. This year was a little disappointing though. A little thing called Hurricane Ernesto put a damper on spirits and kept both fair-goers and vendors away. OK, so it was Tropical Depression Ernesto by the time it made it all the way up here, but it still was an event. M tells me it poured in the city, but it actually didn't rain up in CT until after we had left the fair. It was really cold though (50s?) and extremely windy. I did take a few photos:




There were lots of other sheep too, but Blogger won't let me download more than 5 at a time and I haven't sent up a Flickr account yet... I was very disappointed to find out that the goats were not there yet (we went on Saturday) The cows and horses were though. Baby cows are so cute.

I finished the Butterfly Stitch Dishcloth and gave it to my sister as a gift for picking me up at the not-my-regular-close-to-the-family train station and driving me back to a different also-not-close-to-the-family train station (stupid Metro-North...) Icarus is, um, still not blocked. I am trying to figure out how to do it. Remember I live in a teeny tiny apartment with a roommate and a cat that likes to sleep on the bed. What do I do? Any suggestions? Pin it to the wall? Oh, I also probably don't have enough pins. Hmm. And I am almost done with the secret knitting project alluded to in a previous post but I can't show you because of the photo limit again. Grrr. Maybe tomorrow. I have also successfully not cast-on for any new projects, thus decreasing the WIP pile a little bit. Oh, and I am pretty sure that I don't have enough yarn to complete Tubey. Nearly Sure. Yeah, there's no way. So I will likely frog that one too. Sigh.

Better weather is in the forecast - perhaps some better photos are in the cards?

posted by Carrie @ 5:05 PM