Did you know…..

that earlier this week was I Love Yarn Day?   I didn’t realize there was such a day but then there is a day for practically everything.  There was some yarn purchasing – just not on that day – but more on that later.

My week, and the last couple weeks, were mostly made up of  “I’m too dang busy days.”  You know things are out of control when the extended deadline for Quiltmaker 100 Blocks upcoming issues is pending and about a week before I finally just email them to let them know I won’t be sending a submission for that issue.  Dang!  way too busy when it cuts into things like that!  My  brain was on overload I think and  the creative part was just not coming up with any great applique block ideas and rather than continuing to drive myself crazy trying to come up with something, and then still having to get it quickly stitched up and in the mail, I decided something had to give and that was one of the things.

I also decided today that the laundry was one of those things I simply wasn’t going to bother with today – Sunday’s are for fun and I still have clean clothes to wear so why bother. 😉

So what a I doing?  A bit of puttering here and there.  I’ve cut out another set of Halloween Swap Blocks which I’m stitching on.

I found this pumpkin print I really love – large scale – so here’s what I ‘m doing with it.

  Just simple stars.  I think I have changed my mind on all but one block that I’m making for this swap.  I was going to make a couple that were paper pieced and when I was going to print the patterns out today, I remembered my print is out of ink.  Oh well, I don’t really love making paper pieced blocks anyway.  So I’ve been search in EQ for some other block designs to use for the fabrics I really want to use.

Halloween Block Swappers – I’ve now received all the swap packages that are going to be sent so hopefully next weekend I’ll do the swapping and then get them back in the mail.  Can’t wait to take a peak at everyone’s blocks – I haven’t even had a chance to do that yet.

I’ve also been working knitting away on a scarf on my way to and from work — broke down bus one morning halfway to work gave me an extra 20 minutes of knitting time — sometimes a broke down bus isn’t a bad thing! LOL

Here’s it is – I’m a little disappointed with the yarn — only half of the balls have the dark purple wider swatch of color in them — the other two don’t.

Not a huge deal – I just really loved that dark purple in there.   It was some yarn I got on sale through Craftsy and although the ball band says “Colors will vary within ball due to striping effect”, they didn’t bother to list that in the information about the yarn – which would have been helpful.  The sun is washing the colors out just a little bit — they are definitely very bright!  I’m nearly done and then will add some fringe to the ends.  It looks like a really deep rip stitch but not a single purl stitch to be found in that scarf which makes the knitting of it go very quickly – especially with bulky yarn and larger needles.

Since I finished my mittens for Loopy Academy, I decided I wanted more of them since they fit so nicely.  I was able to find in a local store some Berroco Blackstone Tweed yarn (which the original pattern was shown in on Ravelry) and since it was on sale, decided to try some.  It’s a blend of wool, mohair and angora.   The one that I’ve started knitting on in the photo is more dark taupe than the gray it appears to me I the photo – with aqua,purple, yellow, green flecks for the tweedy look.  The other dark reddish color is gorgeous too.

I also found a beautiful shawl pin that I couldn’t pass up – but forgot to take a photo of it – I’ll save that for another day.  It will go beautifully with several of my shawls/scarfs. Oh and there’s another scarf on the needles too — my sweaters were getting too far along to want to be dragging them back and forth on the bus so I had to switch to some other bus riding projects.  Plus my Socktoberfest socks – one sock is nearly ready to start the heel flap but I’ve hit a snag – I broke a needle and of course have no more in that particular size so need to put it on my shopping list so I can continue.

The rest of today may possibly be spent watching movies and knitting.  But first, I need to go decide whether I need to make some apple crisp or some baked apples.  I’m thinking baked apples if I have raisins here because I’m not so sure there’s any butter here for the apple crisp.  My Aunt has apple trees and my parents were visiting here so when they stopped here yesterday to take me out for a late breakfast, they brought a bag of Macs along for me – and my kitchen smells like apples every time I walk by – yum.