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Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Secret Pal Package, Finishes, and a Great Weekend!

I was gone Saturday and when I arrived home, I found a card in my mailbox stating that I had a registered piece of mail to pick up and sign for at the post office. That made for a very long weekend, as there was no information on who it was from or anything.... I had all sorts of thoughts going through my head. LOL

So, when I finally got to get to the PO - there was a wonderful package waiting for me from my Secret Pal!! Maybe it's a good thing I didn't know who it was from now, as it would have made the wait seem even longer.

Oh goodness! Let me tell you, my pal sure knows just how to spoil me! I received 2 charts: Blooms by San-Man Originals and Bent Creek's Holiday Snappers Happy Independence Day complete with the snaps! There was a large piece of a beautiful blue evenweave, 6 skeins of Needle Odyssey's Dip & Twist in 205, 076, 087, 096, 206, & 097 (clockwise in the picture starting at the top left hand corner). Also included were two of the most nice smelling candles in a decorated delicate blue drawstring bag.

Last but not least, were two of the most adorable buttons that I tried to photograph - but they just bleached out :-( They are white and pink strawberries with black seed dots, and green tops - very cute and will be a perfect addition to one of my spring designs that I have in my 2-do pile! How did you know, SP?!!! THANK YOU!!!


We had a great time this past weekend. We when to the Fort Freeland Heritage Days and as always it was FANTASTIC! Every year the Fort Freeland Heritage Society puts on a reenactment of the capture and destruction of the Fort as well as having a ton of demonstrations of crafts, cooking, butchering, and life in that time period. The actors dress and demonstrate "their lives" being totally in character - and using the words "I" and "we", making you almost believe you were transported back in time. I spent a LOT of time talking to the women demonstrating different textile skills. I learned so much, and couldn't believe that we spent the whole day there - and still could have seen more.

The kids and DH had as good of a time as I did, and they all came back with more knowledge than what we left here with. DH was fascinated with the cigar making and watching the blacksmith and the nail making. It is amazing that each nail that was used for building was made by hand! DD's favorite part was the magic show - which was much more than magic, but the history was woven into it. The presentation was wonderful!

I think the thing that makes the Heritage most appealing to me, is the passion that the things are presented with. These people LOVE what they do! This wasn't acting - but a true love of their crafts and wanting to share with others. The woman that made crochet rag rugs doesn't have any need for them any more, but will give them away to a child that falls in love with them and wants them in their room, or to someone else that could use them. She won't sell them. She spent all her time ripping and sewing the rags to get them ready for the presentation, only to just give them away!

So another year has gone by - and we will have to wait another whole year to be able to attend again. We've only missed a couple of years due to bad weather or other unforeseen circumstances, and each year it gets bigger and better. If you ever had a chance to get to one of these, please make the effort - you won't be disappointed!

After we got home from such a great day out, I relaxed for a bit then decided to check email. To my surprise (and DELIGHT!) I found an email from Soxie, stating that I had won in the Opal Chatters drawing! So now I have a mystery color skein of Opal flying here from the other coast! I still can't believe my luck!

Now, onto the personal side of crafting news. I finished the mate to the CIC sock, and DH's second sock has been started. I'm also fooling around with my own design - and trying to make DH a fingering weight sock out of 3-ply Kroy that he'll like. He wanted the ribbing to come down to the ankle to fit tightly and not sag. I did what he wanted, but he wasn't pleased, so I ripped it back, only to find I had a difficult time getting those little loops back on the needles at the time. The project was abandoned, and last week I found it, and fixed the dropped stitches and am now plugging away on it again. I think I will try taking the ribbing down across the top of the foot, and hopefully with doing that, it will preven the sag that he had before. DH is a tall man and has a big ankle/wide foot, so I'm working on 88 sts. It's a slow go, but I think I'll do it as an in-between project for now. That way I won't get bored with it.

I'm itching to get back to some cross stitching. I've got my LK's October Flip-It to get done yet. Here it is, October, and I still have my September pic up. I also have to get a box of small things out to Online Angels for their annual St. Jude's Children's Hospital Christmas party. I'll probably mail both that box and the CIC Vest and socks at the same time.

I placed an order at Knitpicks yesterday. I decided to try their yarns since I've heard so much about them, and they are considerably cheaper. I bought some Simple Stripes sock yarn in Sweet Tarts, Pallette fingering weight in Apricot, an Alpaca hat pattern and Wool of the Andes yarn to make it, some Shadow lace weight in both Jewels and Grape Jelly. One of the Shadows is for Knitpicks free pattern for a Scarf Cowl and the other will be used for a lace scarf I plan on doing as soon as my Sampler Scarf is finished.

Now, just to wait all that time until my new goodies arrive..... :-)

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