Hot Socks and Good Scarves

Wahoo! The package from my Hot Socks Swap pal arrived today! La Verna over at Ridiculous Obsession sent me the most amazing package including:

• positively yummy Claudia & Co. hand-painted South African merino wool sock yarn in shades of sky and earth (I said that I like earthy colors and she said that she likes the blue sky...a perfect marriage of colors! I love it!)
• two boxes of wonderfully-scented decaf teas to enjoy while knitting my socks
• a maple pumpkin bread scented candle
• tasty Larabars and a delicious "health by chocolate instant bliss beauty bar"
• adorable stitch markers sporting polar bears
• a bath...a bath...a bath just for me...I can't wait to soak and relax in it!
• 4 sets of knitting needles for the Girl Scouts - how cool!

Thank you so much La Verna!

What a thrill it was to receive these treats. I can't wait to start knitting with my blue sky yarn. I just have to dig around for a really great sock pattern for it now...

Speaking of knitting (never fear, yogurt & granola readers who come here for Jackson news...more photos of him are coming! I have to balance the babe and the knitting on this blog, stay tuned!), I finally finished and gifted the project that I couldn't talk about for so long. It was a baby blanket and booties for my sister-in-law whose baby boy is expected any day now (my sister's baby girl is also expected any day now, so yogurt & granola will get baby-baby-baby very soon!). I am very happy with how it turned out and also very happy because now I get to move on to other projects!

So, my next projects:

• A hat for ME in the beautiful Eskimo yarn that I bought at Playing with Yarn a few weeks ago. This yarn has been taunting me on my shelf since it came home with me. "Come on, just swatch me so you'll know what pattern my colors will make! You'll finish the baby blanket on time, come on!" It was REALLY hard to hold back. But the second I wrapped up the gift today, I whipped out my circular needles and set in. Just wait til you see the awesome pattern the colors are making. I'm so excited that I can hardly type right now, I just want to knit it up! (I'm sure the hat will be done tomorrow or the next...I plan to knit in church tomorrow, Unitarians don't mind!)
• SOCKS in my beautiful blue sky yarn
• mittens for ME in my beautiful Eskimo yarn
• a scarf for ME in complimentary Lamb's Pride Bulky (leftovers) to go with my beautiful Eskimo yarn (this will be my scarf for the Good Scarf Project...read on!)

This is a lot of stuff for just me, me, me, but I'll also be throwing in some mittens for Jackson and a few baby hats here and there. And you know, a Knitter has to knit some things for herself every now and then - it's awfully fun to give things away, but I can't wait to have a new winter hat set! (And I keep losing my hand-knit mittens...isn't that awful? All of that time and effort and I lose them at the mall...I think these will need an I-cord string to go through my coat like the kiddies have...)

Okay, a few more things, but I'm getting antsy to knit, so here are the bullets:

• Our neighbors brought over this pumpkin for Jackson today...his first Jack-o-Lantern!!
• I canned three jars of cinnamon-applesauce tonight! I did it! The jars popped! How exciting. I can't wait to can, can, can some more stuff.
• I found a wonderful knitting book through my knitting friend Joyce and fell so in love with it that I called the author up to meet her. (She lives in my city.) She's fabulous! The book is "Knitting Nell" and you can learn all about it here.
• Julie (the author) is the one who started up the Good Scarf Project. The premise behind it is to knit a virtual scarf in honor of "goodness." So I knit a scarf for world peace (that's good) and you knit a scarf for your Aunt Agnes who just kicked breast cancer (that's good) and the Knitter in the next state knits a scarf for charity (that's good) and then we all send in photos of our scarves to be virtually "knit" together for this project. How cool is that?! It goes through July of next year. So come on, Knitters! Join me in knitting a good scarf! Take this button to add to your blog (download to your own computer please) and check back often to watch the gray scarf change colors as the virtual scarf progresses.
Okay, I'm spent. Time to get back to knitting my hat. Have I told you how much I love this yarn?

Baby photos next time, I promise. Girl Scout's honor.