Noolie Knits

Show and Tell

As I told you yesterday, I received a couple of packages in the mail this past weekend and they're just so good that I have to share them with you.

I won one of the daily prizes from Barbara Bretton over at Romancing the Yarn.  Check out how generous she was:

Included in the package were her book, Just Desserts, (which will be my next pool read), a skein of Noro Silver Thaw. and 2 magnets of her bookcover for Casting Spells.  Thank You, Barbara!

April's kitty, Andy, needed some vet care and to help cover the costs of that care, April is selling some of her wonderful stash.  It looks like she still has more, so go check it out here (Ravelry link).  I purchased a skein of Lorna's Lace's Shephard Worsted (It's much more red than this picture shows). 

 When I opened the pacakage, there was a little surprise in there; a pattern from Blue Sky Alpaca called One Fish, Two Fish.  I can't imagine why she'd think I'd like that ;-)

Thanks April, you're the best!  I hope Andy is back to his old self now :-)

I also promised to show you what else followed me home from Amy's yesterday.  It really wasn't all that much.  I couldn't leave without a little bit of fiber, now could I?      This is 4 ounces of Merino/silk in the Neapolitan colorway.

And since Alice is going to be spending some time with Patti, I really had to get her some fiber too.

This is 4 ounces of BFL in the Castaway colorway.

One last thing followed me home; a beautiful new spindle.  Just look at this:

Tell the truth; could you have left it behind?

Yes, I'm Still Here

Apparently when I write, "I'll give you a real post this weekend," it really means "I'll give you a real post eventually."  But you knew that, didn't you? Let's catch up a little, shall we? 

Last Monday was Patriots' Day, which is a holiday here in Maine and also in Massachusettes {and no Patti, it is not to celebrate the football team ;-)}.  I decided to take the Friday before it and the Tuesday after as vacation time so that I would have a nice loooong weekend; kind of a mini-vacation.  I figured I'd sleep in every day and I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish.  So, what did I do?  I woke up every morning by 6 or 6:30 (even 4:30 one day!), but at least I wasn't waking up to the obnoxious sound of the alarm clock.  I didn't do a single thing that was on my list either. 

In other words, I did what I felt like, when I felt like it.  It was WONDERFUL!

I started my mini-vacation by taking a trip with Patti to Yarn and Fiber for their Friday Night Knitting Club led by the wonderful Gina.

What a great way to kick off a vacation; it was a really good time.  Of course, knitting with a group of friends is always a good time; knitting with this group of friends always makes my face hurt from all the laughing.  Here are a few pics:

 
The Gang
(Sorry Ericka & Chris; I seem to have only captured the backs of your heads)

 
Lora (with her gorgeous new do) & Heather with Stitches
    


Melissa brought Rusty and he actually let me take his picture!  Any other time I've tried to take his picture, he's run away from me.  I guess that means he likes me now :-)


Of course, he had no choice about this  picture; after an evening of romping around the store with Stitches, he was pooped right out!

Naturally, there was yarn purchased.  I went with the intention of picking up some yarn to crochet another shawl like this one.  For that, I picked up some Silky Wool.

  The yarn feels wonderful and it's just the color (or lack thereof) that I was looking for.  I started the shawl that night and have only worked on it at Chicks with Sticks on Tuesday night.  There's not much done yet, but here's a shot of what there is.

I also picked up 2 balls of Kauni Effektgarn

(Yes, the one on the right really is that bright!) I'm thinking smallish wraps or shawls out of both of these.  Time will tell.

That's how I began my mini-vacation; can you guess how I ended it?  Why, by knitting with friends on Tuesday night of course.  Tuesday was an extra special Chicks with Sticks night.  It was school vacation week here in Maine and when it's school vacation, a certain Sheep must knit with others (really, it's the law).  Not only was the Sheep there, but Melissa joined us again and Mel was also there (while Mel is a regular, he has been very busy lately and we haven't seen much of him, so it was a treat to see him).  Melissa, of course, brought Rusty who amazed us all with his drinking water from a bottle capabilities.

(Too bad my camera wouldn't cooperate and take a clear picture; sorry about the blur.)

So, I started and ended my mini-vacation with good friends and spent the time in between spending more time than usual with the world's sweetest baby, 

 

 

and enjoying just doing whatever I wanted to do (or doing nothing). 

What could be better?

A Trip to Spunky's

On Saturday, we went to see Amy's shop in Lisbon.  Patti (blogless, we'll have to change that) and I met Gina, Lora, Melissa, and Donna (also blogless) at the Yarn Sellar (Chris and Ericka met us in the parking lot as we were leaving) and we headed up to Amy's, picking up Brenda along the way. 


When we arrived at Amy's, the first thing we saw was an incredibly breathtaking view (of course, being the lazy blogger I am, I didn't take any pics, but Gina took plenty.  Make sure you check out her post about the trip).  Amy's daughter, Moira, came running to greet us and Gina got the biggest hug from her.  What a sweet kid; she even picked lilacs for all of us.


After saying our hello's and chatting for a couple minutes, we all headed into the store.  We were immediately immersed in the most beautiful colors!  Amy really does create magic with colors.  The shop is small right now, but she's planning to move it into a bigger space soon.  That'll be an excuse for us to take another trip up there (like we need one).  The shop reminded me very much of going to SPA and returning time and again to Amy's booth; I just can't get enough of all that gorgeousness.


I didn't do too much damage though. I did manage to stay within the amount I had allotted for purchases. Of course it helped that Amy had a big basket of yarn on sale!  Thanks, Amy :-)


Enough with the talking, eh?  You want to see the loot, don't you? Okay, the very first thing I picked up was something for the baby:

It's a Lambie Bank; isn't it adorable? It was the first thing I saw when I walked in and I fell in love with it. I remembered that before Samm was born, Chris and I found a really cute, very round, Piggy Bank for her and she still has it (although it now has a few chips in it). Samm asked me what the baby was going to do with a bank; silly girl, she's going to collect the money that Nonnie puts in it :-)

There's also this yarn that followed me home:

On the left, from top to bottom we have: Chubby Sock, color Bird Face; Super Nova, color Soylent; Chubby Sock, color Gunsmoke
And on the right, from top to bottom: Beefy Sock, color Navajo Gems; Chubby Sock, color Sangria; Speckles, color Mandy

I brought this home, took this picture, and stuffed it all in this great bag that my hubby gave me a couple of weeks ago:

All before he even saw it :-) Not that he'd mind; he's really very good about my yarn purchases. At least he never says anything about them. Maybe he's just given up; who knows. When I first started acquiring a stash, he'd ask me why I needed more yarn (silly boy), but he doesn't even blink an eye now. This bag is fantastic; not only is it the coolest looking kitty bag, but it is huge!  Even with all that yarn I just put in there, I have plenty of room for much more (hmmmm....).  Plus, check out the zipper pull and wooden kitty tag:

Aren't they great?!

One last thing about the visit with Amy. She gave me some tips on spinning on the spindle and I practiced a bit later that night. And guess what; I think I just might win the battle of Spindle vs. Noolie! I plan to practice a little bit each night until I see something that resembles useable yarn. Thanks so much for your help, Amy!


If you're ever in the area near Lisbon, Maine, you really must go see Amy's shop. In the meantime, you can always have a virtual Spunky visit :)


Now, I'll leave you with this; I've seen it on many blogs and decided to give it a shot.

Noolie -- [noun]: A person of questionable sanity who starts their own cult 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

A cult of fiber worshippers, perhaps?