Dream yarns

Ok, so here are some yarns that I want to try knitting with (hint: none of them are Noro)....The other day, I stopped by Miss Chickpea's, and I saw some awesome yarn...


Like:

Ozark Handspun

Lampes Lumps (pictured below)

and Bamboo yarn.

I'm also curious about this ceramic yarn that I've heard about...

In knitting news, I am seaming up the sweater! (yeah!) It's all blocked and everything, just need to put it together and find some great buttons.

In other (non-knitting) news, I have been busy these past few days, doing work--we have some HUGE events coming up, such as the Kent Fest, and our Hallmark Ornament Premiere...so we're getting everything ready and ship-shape. Not to mention that I think we're going to promote the heck out of trollbeads and Chamilia (did you forget what those look like? Here's a reminder:














In a few weeks, we're going to have a huge special on Trollbeads & Chamilia--buy 3 beads, and you can get the bracelet for $25 (regularly priced at $48--that's a savings of almost half, people! Interested? let me know...)

Today, I went to the library (huge used book sale), and I walked away with some really great books, like 3 textbooks (2 statistics books and one about advertising, each were 75 cents!) and a lot of books like The Poisonwood Bible (75 cents, looks like someone read it once), a hardback of "The Perfume" by Patrick Sueskind (So I have the German language version, but I'd like to see the movie sooner than later to compare...I am sooooo slow at reading the German, though that book may come with me to Las Vegas), Middlesex (1.50), "The Curious Incident of the Dog in Nighttime ($1.00). Not bad. Many more. I also picked up some knitting books with some of the most horrifying patterns I've seen in my life, but each of them have like, one redeeming pattern or style...so I figure 75 cents per book isn't too bad. Not to mention a copy of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. (one dollar). Not a bad haul. Now I just need the time to read everything. (Oh, and I found a couple autographed books for a dollar each! How cool is that?)

Viva Las Vegas!

Well, in July, my family and I are headed off to Las Vegas (somewhere we've never been, for all our traveling)...hopefully it will be stress-free (I need and LOVE stress-free).

In other news, I have been busy doing things like...making ads for our store, websites, a store blog, etc...because we have Webkinz...lots and lots of them at our store. I'm not even kidding about how many we have. Think I'm kidding? This doesn't even scratch the surface. In the backroom, we have piles of boxes, too.

Not to mention that we have tons of events coming up, so I've been making coupons, flyers, mailers, etc., etc. See, I don't necessarily need to be an audiologist. Give me a computer and I can whip together a few choice things for a small business. Special talent of mine, I suppose...

But on the job front: I may have a per diem position through the university! I'm just in the process of all the paperwork stuff. Fun.

In knitting content...I was hoping to get the sunrise circle jacket finished, but I'm still finishing up the back (not too much left now! Maybe I can finish everything on Wednesday, except for the buttons? That would be great if I could!

This week, I will post some of the yarns I long to knit with...stay tuned...

Happy Birthday to ME!!

(I'm off MY diet too!)

My dad woke me up early this morning (being a birthday girl and all, I was hoping to sleep in...oh well. I'm awake now). He wanted to talk to my brother and me, to get our ideas about what to do for my parents' anniversary...both my brother and I were so groggy and sleepy, and you could tell. But dad was thinking of taking a trip or something...Despite the fact that my brother and I think it would be great if dad and mom went on a trip together, ALONE, he wants to make it a family vacation.

So far, we've come up with New York, Vegas, Chicago...anyone have any ideas? Something quick (weekend trip) and not too expensive? Or even in Ohio, if we can't make it out of state? If so, let me know what your ideas are...(post in comments or drop me an email).

And, if you're looking for Webkinz (shameless plug), we received a shipment at our store: Vale Edge Blog.

One day away!

Good news:

Garfield is now celebrating his countdown to his 29th birthday, which makes me oh-so-very happy.

And here are pictures that I promised:

This is the back of my sweater--or what I have of it so far. I'm pretty excited that I've made it this far. I'm going to finish as much as I can this week (all of it?) we shall see!

This is what the front portion (and sleeves) of the sweater look like. It's actually a much prettier turquoise shade in person.

When I came home from work...this package was waiting for me...It's from my Secret Pal, and inside were some goodies for my birthday...

Some Noro yarn, with a great pattern (I seriously can't wait to try it! I am going to finish that sweater first, though!), a copy of Domiknitrix, some C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T-E , including a square of Ritter Sport, which always brings back memories of Germany (I had a friend, Aaron, who was hooked on this particular brand--so every time we went grocery shopping (or shopping), he always had to buy chocolate. And there is the cutest stationary. Between this and the cute sheep book, I have no idea where you find this cute paper! I love this package, and I've had a great pal--so thanks so much to Suzie!

I just wanted to show you a close-up of the awesome scarf pattern (the Noro yarn goes with this)...it's really great! (Shoji screen wrap and scarf pattern).

And, I wonder if I can get my boyfriend to wear this (Mohawk hat from Domiknitrix)?

Countdown to June 19

I was disappointed that there were no Garfield birthday comic strips over the past week, or even today. It's become a tradition for me, over the past few years, to read those strips.

And it's because Garfield and I actually have the same birthday (June 19). This year, Garfield will be 29 years old, and I'll be 28. Ever since I was about 9 or 10 (when I found out that Garfield and I share the same birthday, he has remained my favorite cat, and I'm sure that's part of the reason why I grew up loving Italian food ;) I hope that Jim Davis will have a birthday comic strip for Garfield on Tuesday. Or else that will be a sad start to my birthday, indeed.

As far as knitting, I finished the right front for my sunrise circle jacket (yeah!) and I am working on the back--and now am feeling MUCH better about being able to finish everything--thus, accomplishing my goal to make at least one sweater this summer--because I plan on making another one this summer! Yeah!

I'll post pictures tomorrow. I haven't taken them yet.

And yesterday, the boyfriend and I went to an Indian Restaurant, and we had pretty bad service but a great waiter who noticed that no one was serving us...so he waited on us...and we got free ice cream...coconut and pistachio. Actually I hate coconut.

The reason?

It tastes like suntan lotion to me.

I told Adam as such, after trying a little bite of the coconut ice cream, and the poor guy had a hard time eating the ice cream afterward--because he was like..."you're right. it DOES taste like suntan lotion. You ruined it for me!"

3-0

Whew. Apparently Blogger has some feature where you can type in Hindi. Hmm. I'm not sure that people could undestand what I write, if I type things out in Hindi--but that's kind of cool.

Anyway, when my blogger suddenly started spouting out Hindi, I got really distracted from my annoyance, so I am not sure I can do it justice...

But...

WHAT THE HECK IS UP WITH THE CAVS??? How come they're playing so bad? And LeBron was totally fouled at the end! Augh!

Lest you think I'm a rabid basketball fan, I'm not. I don't watch sports, but when one's sports team makes it to the finals (and come on, Cleveland? Our football team stinks, and I don't even know when the Cavs were in the playoffs, and I know we've yet to win a pennant in the World Series...)

So yes, I care. For this time being.

And I did knit a couple rows during tense moments of the game. Apparently I knit faster when there's more tension.

Pictures!

So I promised some pictures!

So first...some knitting ones from the package that I described yesterday...I love the fact that the box is pink:

And oh, why did the package have to come right before I left for work? I tried not to open it before I left. I lasted about 30 seconds, and this is what I saw inside (minus the biscuits and the chocolate).

There's some moisturizer (specially made, lemony-scented stuff which smells delicious), some great colorways (Vero), some rosebud tea and lemongrass tea--both of which I am curious to try, as I've never had either before. I'll make myself a pot when I have a few hours to sit down and relax.

Also there was some chocolate. Like this Caramello Koala, which looks cute, from the packaging. I forgot to take pictures of the biscuits. You can see the good magazines--Yarn and Gourmet International--both of which have drool-worthy pictures. Let me show you some of them:

This is all this passionfruit stuff...like a passionfruit semifreddo with mango and raspberry salad...and passionfruit vanilla slice...

Or how about this meringue stack with raspberries and cream? The magazine is like this. Sure, there are things I'm not quite clear on what they are, like baby shiso, treviso, or cevelo nero. But I'll find out ;) I'm not kidding, I was ready to lick the pages--especially the ones with the desserts--or even the "southern style barbecue" stuff with ribs and cornbread. Yum. But I don't think magazine papers have that finesse.

As far as the Yarn magazine, I like this red sweater...I think I can wear somethign like this.












And wouldn't those coffee/tea cosies make great Christmas gifts?












And for some odd reason, I am fascinated by this sweater, despite the fact that it would probably make me look heavy (those horizontal stripes) but there's something so wonderfully 1920's about it, too.

And aren't you glad that Paris Hilton is going back to jail? This card came in with our shipment today. My co-worker told me, "Nah, they'll never put her back in jail. Too much money." Well, I hope she finishes the rest of her sentence.

This is actually kind of neat. This is some sort of leaf, and on the underside of the leaf...

A flower is blooming! I've never seen that before--and our florist said that in about 20 years, she's only seen this about four or five times. I think this particular floral arrangement is still in the cooler at our store, if you want to buy some roses, with some blooming leaves.

And to make up for all the pictures of pictures of food...here is a picture of some REAL food! This is a tempura banana from Wasabi--this Japanese restaurant we went to for Amy and Rae's birthday. (Yum)

Christmas in June!

I had several fun things happen today...

1) I met an old acquaintance for breakfast at Wild Goat Cafe (yummy breakfasts)...She brought her knitting along, as she had some questions about knitting, so we did that a little bit before our breakfasts came (I had, what I call the breakfast sampler...a little of everything) and it was yummy. As we were paying out bills, this older woman (maybe in her 50s or 60s) came up to us and asked us what we were making. After oohing and ahhing over our scarves, she talked with us at great length about knitting, her knitting group, their projects, etc., etc.. J. was like, that was a weird experience. LOL. I suppose there is some sort of code among knitters...there's a strange kinship about sharing what you're doing and what you're doing (and the names of different festivals and such)...

2) We then hit up the library across the street--which looks more like a bookstore than a library now, that they've done all this remodeling and stuff. Found some fun books and a couple classic movies. (Odd that my hometown library has a huge stock of indie favorites and Hindi movies, as well as blockbusters--and this particular library is oozing classic movies and strange things like "Bill Nye the Science Guy: Digestion"). I also borrowed a couple CDs on tape--I tried listening to Guy Noir (Garrison Keillor) as I was driving, but I found that the more I listened to it, the less attention I paid to driving (I think being alive and intact would be a good thing), so I tried Bill Bryson (same thing), so I finally tried Ruth Reichl (I had been pronouncing her name "Rye-kl", as I would for a german name. However it is pronounced, "Ryechel", or something close to that). That book is fine for listening to in the car...nice, measured tones, no music in the background...

3) I got a package! Thanks to Lara (Discoknitter)! I got the package today, right before I was about to leave for work. It was pink (the packing)...and inside, there were yummy things, such as biscuits/cookies, a candy bar, handmade moisturizer, some very pretty yarn, and two lovely magazines (one of them that has lots of great spinning tips and some pretty sweater patterns!) I will have to take pictures tomorrow...they are coming soon, I promise! Lara's been a great pal--and a very interesting person...and a fun one to write to. Thanks, Lara!

4) I am debating a Trollbead purchase. Sigh. Decisions, decisions.

5) Our store has Webkinz. If you are interested, please visit our store here, or over here. We have shipments!

Links!

I created some fun, cute buttons for linking to this site...if you want to grab one, feel free to do so. If you like any of them, please save them to your computer (right click on the image and save. Be sure to link the image to this blog.)