Better late than never, right?

Gah. I am so very sorry. Things have been hectic, to the say the least, around here. And while I never intended to let the contest go this long without announcing a winner, life went and got in the way.

I'm going to shamlessly blame pregnancy brain. Because, in case there is anyone left who doesn't know, I am pregnant. What's more, I'm having TWINS. So I have double the pregnancy brain. Y'all are lucky I remembered that I started a contest at all :)

I do have a winner to announce...

I wrote every entry out and put it into an ice cream bucket, and called upon the man himself to draw the winner. Doesn't he look handsome with his bedhead?


And the winner is...


In case you can't read that, it's Teresa Perkins! Congrats Teresa! Please email me straight away with your address so I can get your goodies mailed out. Email is philsmustache@hotmail.com

Thanks again everyone for your donations and thanks a bunch for your patience.

I haven't forgotten, I swear!

The last 13 days have been hectic, and I wanted to be able to show off the prize package when I announced the winner, but I've lost my power cord to my sewing machine which makes it really hard to sew a bag! I'm hoping to get to my mom's this evening to use hers and get it all done. If all goes well tonight then watch for an announcement tomorrow. With pics and maybe video of the actual draw if I can get my act together.

Thanks again to all, the final tally for Phil's efforts was $321, and the tally for his team was $676!

Canada rocked it big time by raising $20,854,376...we were in the lead but it looks like Australia eeked past us at the last minute with $20,905,568. Regardless, that's amazing and I look forward to seeing bigger totals next year.

We had a blast at the Gala Parte, thanks in no small part to you who donated which meant we were able to attend for free. The party was a big reward for our efforts, and the nachos were awesome, the playlist was like the soundtrack to my teen years...overall and awesome time so thanks again!

And now, I get to kiss my husband again :)

Almost done

Either tonight or tomorrow morning we'll be saying goodbye to the mustache.

So this is a last call for donations, and remember every $5 you give gets you an entry into the contest for yarn and goodies!

Phil's Mospace!

These are the 'stache shots I took last night



"It's ok...I have a mustache"

Close up of the whiskers


All along Phil has had what's called "The Rockstar" mustache, and last night he decided to do some alterations in order to give himself a new look

This is "The Tom Selleck"


(made more alarming by the fact that this is the same mustache style my Dad wears. So weird!)

I am very much looking forward to tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for your support, draw will take place at some point tomorrow, with pics of a newly shaved Phil.

Now with MOAR MUSTACHE

I really really miss kissing my husband properly. I still kiss him, but there is this added feeling of being kissed by a push broom.

Took this Saturday, Day 20 of the 'mo


Get a really good look at what I have to put up with now


There is still time to donate, and thus get your name into the draw for yarny goodness. I have narrowed the yarn choice down to three, and chosen the fabric for the bag, and collected some other goodies for the prize pack. No limit on how many entries, each $5 donation gets you an entry.

Donate here

And once you've done that, please email me at philsmustache@hotmail.ca to let me know.

Thanks so much for your support so far!

Movember

My husband is participating in Movember this year, an annual fundraiser for Prostate Cancer research where participants grow a mustache. The rules are simple: No shaving the stache between November 1st and November 30.

Here he is on November 1st


And here he is, 10 days in


He's going for "The Rockstar"

As his loving wife (who really misses kissing him, I cannot stand the tickly mustache, it's too weird), I am helping with fundrasing efforts.

I am offering up a prize package containing yarn, a sewn project bag, stitch markers and a few yet-to-be decided upon extra treats. For every $5 donated, you get one entry into the draw. So the more money you put in, the better your chances of winning :)

Here's how you do it.

Go to Phil's Movember fundraising page. There are a couple different methods, and paypal is one of them (yay for paypal!) Once you've done that, send me an e-mail at philsmustache@hotmail.ca letting me know your name and how much you donated. I'll be doing the draw on December 1st.

I'll be updating throughout the month with mustache photos and with teaser pics of the prize you could win.

Let's raise some money for men's health!

You know that thing I do with sticks and string?

I have some finished stuff to show you

Just before the Tour de Fleece started I cast on yet another lacy shawl

I finished it around the time TdF finished up

Pattern: Laminaria
Yarn: The Unique Sheep Eos in the Raven's Wing colourway



detail shot


I love this pattern. I love the texture. I didn't love doing the make-3-into-9 sts but I love how they turn out. And it only used up some of the skein of Eos that I bought so I have more than enough to make another lovely something with it :)

Of course, once I finished this I needed to cast on another lacy something so I grabbed a skein of Tosh merino light that a friend of mine gave me, in the colourway "Opaline" and cast on for Swallow Tail shawl that I've had on my to-knit list for years



First off...I love Evelyn Clark shawls. They are very well written, designs that are easy to get the flow of. I've even forgiven her making me do nupps.



And this yarn is stunning. Depending on what light you see it in, it can be pink, purple, or grey with touches of pink or purple. It's stunning.

My current shawl is being knit in malabrigo sock yarn in a gorgeous blue-green. I can't wait to show it off when it's done.

Over the summer one of my very dear friends had her fourth baby, a delightful baby girl.

I knit one of my favourite baby patterns, the Seamless Baby Kimono (rav link)



I did the 3-6 month size, knit it in soft but functional Knit Pick Swish DK, the colourway Storm (which I bought years ago, and that colour is no longer available)

I've also managed to break free of my sock rut...since May I hadn't been able to cast on a sock and knit further than the toe. Towards the end of summer I was able to finish these



Alright, they don't match. On the right is the first of my pair of Leyburns(rav link), another pattern that's been on my must knit list for a while. I'm knitting it with koigu (rare moment where I'm knitting with the called-for yarn). I've modified the pattern to suit my foot, ditched the lower st count on the sole for a better fit, doing my standard type of toe and using Deb Barnhill's toe-up sock formula for the heel (I prefer a heel flap over a short row heel). The second sock is progressing a lot faster than the first sock because the mods are all sorted out.

On the left is the first of a pair of Manolo socks. As soon as I saw this pattern I fell in love with it. It's so well written and it's incredibly charming. I'm using The Unique Sheep's Verve, in the colourway American Beauty, which was part of the Lust shipment from the Seven Deadly S(p)ins club I was in a couple years ago. The pattern that came in the shipment wasn't to my taste but this pattern just screamed for a nice red yarn. The second sock is progressing, already done the heel and working my way up the leg.

So that's us caught up with the finished knitting content :)

Not quite what I was going for....

Summer of 1989. I was nearly 11, expecting a baby brother very soon, and I was spending a week at my aunt and uncle's cottage. Not far from their cottage was the summer home of a girl my age, and we became fast friends.

One day I was hanging out at her cottage watching while her mom dyed my friend's aunt's hair. We were waiting somewhat impatiently because we were headed to the aunt's house for a swim in her pool once we were done.

The aunt was trying a new shade. She did the rinse and said "Hmm...seems a little red." The mom said "Oh, it does. Let's dry it and see what it really looks like"

So they dried it...and it was red. A gorgeous shade of red, and we young girls loved it. The aunt, however was not loving it. We gushed over how amazing it looked and how much we liked and she was very nearly swayed...until I said

"You look just like Tiffany!"

From my not-quite-11-year-old self who had spent many many days singing along with Tiffany with her like-minded friends, this was high praise indeed!

Um, for reference:



She looked at me in horror, then realized I thought I was complimenting her and said "Thanks hon, but that's not really the look I was going for"

Off she went to the salon to have her hair fixed, while off we went for a swim.

I find myself thinking of that moment again today.

I've always approached my hair with a "meh, it's hair, it'll grow back!" and have been rather fearless with regards to colour. In my late teens early it was mostly about being blond, until I had to recognize that my hair had enough natural red to it that my blond dye was destined to always be a bit strawberry. When I was twenty I gave into that completely and dyed my hair a deep red. A few years later I abandoned the deep red for reddish brown.

When I pregnant with my daughter I put away my stained dye towels and kept my natural brown with hints of red. Not a bad colour, but eventually I got bored and started to play with colour again.

This spring found me adding blue stripes to my hair, which I LOVED. Unfortunately maintaining it comes with a lot more fuss than I have attention span for, so I let it go. The result was blond stripes with a hint of green leftover from the blue dye.

A week or so ago I decided to grab a bottle of dye and cover up my blond streaks (I'll be honest, it looked AWFUL by that point)and I loved my red/brown hair once again.

Until...well, red doesn't last long. It's never been a problem before, since it would fade rather nicely into my hair. But the blond started creeping through, which would have been fine, but so did the green tinge. Couldn't have that.

So I bought another bottle of dye, planning to use it to cover up just before the wedding I'm attending this weekend so I'll have nice hair to go with my new dress and my new shoes.

And I made a mistake. I bought more of the same red dye. Forgetting that when you add red dye to dyed red hair, what you end up with is RED HAIR

See what I mean?


Honest to blog, I have no idea what I was thinking. I remember the disaster years ago when I tried to bleach out red dyed hair (ending up with various shades of bright orange...oh god it was bad!). Red dye has to be handled with care, and I know better.

I considered just leaving it, but my dress for the wedding tomorrow is a gorgeous shade of red, and the hair...it clashes with the dress.

Not the look I was going for.

Spin, Span, Spun

This year I participated in the Tour de Fleece, which is a spinning challenge that runs during the Tour de France. Basically every day that the cyclists are competing, we spin. I looked forward to the opportunity to get through my fibre stash.

Day one I realized that I was going to have to learn to pace myself. My usual approach to spinning is to do a lot in a single sitting. See, my youngest is especially fascinated by the wheel, so I usually keep it in the craft room, out of the way. So when I do take it out I sit at it for hours, usually finishing up whatever I've decided to spin in one or two sessions.

If I kept that pace up for the entire tour...well...I would not make it.

I started with some gorgeous green silk and merino that I had picked up at Sunrise Mercantile last year. I had already spun half of the 1/2lb bag into a single well before the tour started so I spun the second half and then plied them.



In the end I had just over 300yards in about a dk weight. I did this in the first 2 days of the tour...and had a hard time walking after.

So when I chose my next fibre to tackle I decided that I'd spin during one episode of Doctor Who and then I'd stop for the night. But by the time I'd prepped the fibre and really got going my time was up so I decided to keep going, just a little bit longer. Next thing I know it's 1am and my heel is numb. But that single was done!

Next day I gave myself the limit of just the length of one Smodcast , but my ankle and back protested long before the ending. Over the next couple days I worked on the second single.



The fibre I bought from a local dyer/spinner/knitter/belly dancer extraordinaire. Merino top, in the colourways Rose Garden (on the left) and The Briar and the Rose (on the right)

Then I plied them together, finishing just before the day of rest (which my ankle was grateful for)



Final yardage was about 270yards in a heavy fingering.

After the break I started spinning up a FatCatKnits merino top. This was very slow going because both my ankle and my back were protesting any stretch of time at the wheel, and I had some issues with getting the fibre to behave itself. In the end though, it made a lovely soft yarn



About 360yards in heavy fingering weight.

Next to hit the wheel was a batt called "Starlight", superwash merino and angelina from Mandalinn. I've never spun from a batt before, so I used this for the challenge day which is when the cyclists are on the toughest part of the tour. My initial plan was to thread beads onto one of the singles, which I did, and then slide them into place as I plied. I started out ok, but then the beads hit a slub and the single snapped and beads went everywhere. So I abandoned that plan to try another day, and just made a lovely 2ply yarn



174 yards in a dk to worsted weight. The sparkle of the angelina doesn't show up well in pics, but it's very very pretty in person.

So, all tallied up I finished up 24oz of fibre from my stash.

The tour I participated in was held on Ravelry, and I spun with my rubberneckers on Team Hoar. In the Tour de Fleece group there was a daily progress thread where you post pics, and the posts are entered into a random draw. I won a prize on day four, and chose this lovely braid of merino and silk



Donated by All Spun Up. It's so soft and gorgeous, I cannot wait to spin this up.

And I may have had a little falling down when I saw that YarnPirate had put up a little shop update and bought this braid of awesome.

So...24oz out, 8oz brought in, bringing my total fibre out at 16oz. Not bad...not bad at all.

It's probably going to be a little while before I get back to my wheel, I'm a little spun out at the moment. At the same time though, I've hit my stride as a spinner so I'd hate to let too much time pass between spinning sessions and lose that progress I've made.

In the meantime...time to pick out some projects for these pretties

Toys!

I love knitted toys. Love them. I am fully addicted to MochiMochiLand (I just picked up her book, you should definitely check it out, it's amazing!). I especially love toys that are unusual, and the cuter the better.

Danger Crafts has some really adorable patterns as well, I made two of the Greta the Cat patterns for some babies I know (I can't seem to find the pics of those but here are their rav pages: One and Two)

Back in December MochiMochiLand published a pattern of a teeny tiny snowman. Inspiration struck and I thought of something very fun and immediately bought the patterns needed to make it happen. Of course...it stayed as An Idea for a long time, but recently I made it a Reality:



Using the Tubby pattern and the Teeny tiny snowman pattern, and some ice cubes, I made this little scene. I'm going to buy some of those clear plastic crystal-looking things to replace the ice so I can have it on display in my craft room. I am ridiculously pleased with how this turned out.

Speaking of inspiration that got shelved...ages ago I was watching a video cast by Carin called Round the Twist and she showed us some hedgehogs she was making for some little girls that we both know...and I fell in love. Had to buy the pattern and make some. I finished one, but had to wait for an order of eyes and noses to arrive (local craft stores are very eye and nose deficient) and while I waited I bought more fun fur and prepared to make more hedgehogs for my kids (the original is mine!). Got eyes and noses, ran out of stuffing. Then it all just fell to the wayside, but I've finally gotten the first two done:



On the left is "Minnie" and she's mine. Grace named hers "Rose". Gabriel's will be blue. Cam is entirely too cool to admit he wants one too.

During my toy madness, a friend of mine had surgery to remove a faulty gallbladder. Knowing her and I share a similar sense of humour, I knew just the thing to cheer her up



Yeah, that's a knit gallbladder with a card begging forgiveness, lol! She loved it and I feel both ridiculously proud and dorky.

So that sums up the recent toy knitting. Next post I'll show you some pretties I've been spinning, I'm participating in the Tour de Fleece this year (we spin every day that the Tour de France is on) so I've been doing a lot of spinning.

Lacy Bits

I have come to the conclusion that I have a wee lace problem. I love it. Especially shawls. I love shawls.

For Christmas I decided to share my love of lacy things

For my Mother In Law I knit an Ishbel out of Malabrigo Laceweight (a lovely, soft and airy single ply lace yarn)

It was a delight to knit, quick and simple to follow. I had planned on knitting one for myself, and then I saw a friend's done without the stockingette section, straight to the lace and I love the look of it. I'll likely do mine that way.

For my Mom I cast on a Tesla in Handmaiden Sea Silk, in a deep, earthy purple colour.

The pattern calls for beads on the cast on edge, and I modified it to put beads on the cast off edge too. I added a bead for every second stitch because I was worried doing every stitch would weigh it down too much. The effect is quite nice, I think.

Over the Christmas season I got sick of the deadline knitting and cast on something pretty for myself

This is Fingerless Pomatomus Gloves(rav link) which is based on Pomatomus socks by Cookie A. I love them, they are perfect for me since I rarely get to wear my actual mittens...they come off every few minutes to open doors, fix small hats and small mittens on small people, buckle car seats, etc etc etc. Plus they are easier to drive with and for hanging onto small ones while walking. I wish I had gotten on board with the fingerless mitt thing sooner.

Over New Year's a friend of mine went to Toronto and snagged me a skein of Dream in Colour Starry, which has silver spun into it. It didn't stay skeined very long (too pretty!), as it was quickly knit up into Damson

I love this, it's very pretty. And Ysolda's patterns are fabulous, very well written and easy to follow.

The Olympics came to Canada, and Ravelry held their own Ravelympics. Basically you cast on during the opening ceremonies, something that will challenge you, and you have it done before the torch is extinguished. Teams were created and I captained our local group's team. We had a great Opening Ceremonies Party (where I also got to show off the house to my knitters) where we ate a mess of snacks and cast on our projects while watching Canada greet the world. It was a lot of fun.

Ravelry broke down the competition into categories, and my project for the "lace luge" was Ulmus knit with the December Mean Girls Yarn Club shipment, called "Aurora's HOARealis" and a special complimentary pinks skein that Laura (head Mean Girl) was nice enough to dye up for me

I love this shawl. The colours make me ridiculously happy, the texture is fantastic. Totally recommend this knit to anyone.

March found me itching for a simple, yet somewhat lacy knit. Enter the Simple Things Shawlette(rav link), and my skein of Pagewood Farms Merino/Cashmere/Nylon that Hope brought me back from Sock Summit

I named the project Happy. Because that's what it made me. I liked it so much I made a second one out of merino/tencel that I was planning to donate to a silent auction raising funds for the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life. Unfortunately I was unable to connect with the organizers in order to hand it over, so I might do something else with it to raise funds and make a donation myself directly to a cancer-related charity. I'll get back to you on that, it may involve a silent auction here on the blog...I haven't worked out the details yet.

The shawl bug bit again early June and I knit up this beauty

Annis, knit with Yarn Pirate Merino/Tencel, the Herron colourway (one of the booty club shipments). I did beads where the nupos are supposed to be because nupps are really fiddly and while they looked nice, not nice enough for me to want to fiddle with them here. I am delighted with how this turned out and frankly I'm eye-ballin other skeins of merino/tencel to make another. It's light and pretty and the tencel makes it perfect to wear in summer.

Days after blocking Annis, I cast on Haruni (rav link) in another skein of Yarn Pirate, this time her merino and bamboo blend in a colourway called "Pixie"

I don't really have words enough to describe how much I love this shawl. It's just gorgeous. I even did a crochet bind off on this one! And I think I might actually make a second one...I saw someone else's on ravelry who beaded the the leaves on the edge and the effect is stunning.

Well, that's all the knits I have to show you at the moment. I have some merino/tussah silk from The Unique Sheep that's calling my name...

*Tap Tap Tap*

Is thing on?

Umm...Hi.

It's been a while. 6 months actually. So much for the promise in my last post that I'd post more, lol. Be assured, I make no such promises now.

I have been thinking a lot about the blog lately, I miss it as an outlet, but between Facebook (which I have issues with), Ravelry and twitter I've pretty much said everything I want to say and that leaves little for the blog. But those have their limitations...facebook is creepy with it's weird privacy things, I'm no longer comfortable expressing myself there...not everyone is on Ravelry...and twitter is limited in 2 ways, 1st by its 140 character limit and 2nd my tweets are locked and I use it almost as a chat place for friends and not always stuff I'd share with all and sundry.

So that leaves the blog as a place where I can share, know that what I share here is shared with all and not get weird ads that are half-related to what I'm saying, I can be as verbose as I please, and those of you not on Rav or facebook or twitter can see what I'm up to.

There have been massive changes around here, so much that I don't think I can do it all in one post. We moved at Christmas time into a house, we decided to pull Cam out of public school and start a home schooling journey, I started working as a Pampered Chef consultant, and many other ups and down along the way.

Change is good. Challenging, but good.

I've been knitting like a fiend, lots of projects piled up. The move meant I got a dedicated craft room, so all of my yarn is in one place, and I was sort of alarmed when I saw the stash in its full glory. I have a lot of skeins of hand-painted sock yarns. A lot:


And I've bought more since that photo was taken. So I'm on a shawl kick, simple elegant shawls that aren't too patterned in order to show off the yarn's glory. If you check out the side bar there is a flickr badge that displays my finished objects, and you can see the recent ones on there. I'm still knitting socks like I'm scared there's going to be a global shortage, but I need to whittle down this sock yarn stash and shawls are a great way to eat up the yarn.

I've also been spinning more since the move, more room to use the wheel and having my stuff acessible has helped. When moving into my craft room I was hit with the full extent of my fibre stash, and I was alarmed. Again, I've bought more since then, but have made a dedicated effort to getting that under control. A large part of it is undyed superwash merino....rememebr way back when I went to Pacafiesta? And I enabled a couple of friends right into buying bags of stuff? Well, that worked out really well for me, since once the fibre fumes wore off they both realized they weren't spinners and had no interest in becoming spinners and their bags made their way to my house. Roughly 7-8lbs of the stuff in total. But now I have two wheels...I have Charlotte, the wheel I bought from a friend a couple years ago, and my parents bought me Ashley, an Ashford Traditional that needs a bit of tlc and should be up and running soon.

I've also taken up belly dancing. I love it. It's chocolate for the soul. I've been recommending it to everyone as just a feel-good activity.

Ok, I think we're caught up. I can't say for sure that I'll be posting more regularly, but I hope to be. I have a lot of knitting to show you.

I've been knitting....

But I cannot show you any of it. Not until after Christmas anyway. I can give you the numbers though...out of the 8 things I had planned to knit, 4 are done and 1 has been abandonned (well, I finished it but widely misjudged the size and it fits my 4 year old instead of the intended adult-sized recipient. If I have time to do it again, I will. But otherwise I'm not doing it). I am also half way done the knitting on two other projects, leaving just one to be cast on. I would suggest that those numbers say I'm ahead of the game this year, however that would be tempting the knitting fates I would never ever do that. So I'll leave it at "Progress has been made and will continue to be made as we approach Christmas."

What I can show you is the events of last Thursday.

We had our Christmas party!

We started the tradition last year and opted to step up the fun this year.

Once again we made use of my connection to Chef Live! (seriously, if you have an event you should check him out. Amazing food!) who made us a buffet of chilli roasted chicken wings with a thai peanut charred lime sauce, carmelized onion and asigo tartlets (mmmmmm), Bacon wrapped scallops roasted with brown sugar and other yummy goodies.

I meant to take a pic before we got into the food, but hunger overcame me and I forgot. However, you can see how good it all looks here

Just thinking of it all is making me hungry...

Last year we did a secret sock yarn swap where everyone brought a wrapped skein of sock yarn and we played a game to determine who got to go with what. We did that again, but we decided to do a Magic Yarn Ball version. We would take the sock yarn and wrap goodies into it, starting with a Christmas ornament. Then wrap that in festive wrapping.

The table just before we started the game:

If you look in the middle there you'll see a picture of one of our members on a popsicle stick. She had been hoping to be there, but got called away for school and missed out...so I made a Jenn-on-a-Stick and sent her pics via twitter all evening. It was fun!

One of our members very very recently had a baby, and she was good enough to bring the noob out to play

Doesn't she look great for being a new mommy? That wee girl in her arms is only a week and a half old!

This is what I found in my brightly wrapped parcel


The yarn is Zauberball (in the colourway that I wanted too!) martini stitch markers, blue glass beads, hot chocolate, berry scented epsom salts, and my ornament is a little snowman that lights up. Thanks again Julie for putting together and awesome yarn ball!


All in all we had a fantastic time, and I'm looking forward to next year and what that might bring. Thanks to Kathy for opening up her house, thanks to Richard (aka Chef Live!) for the feast, and thanks to my amazing knitters!!!

Remember when I used to blog a lot?

I have been really terrible about blogging, and with Christmas and a big move coming up that's not likely to change in the near future, but I'll try. The blog seems to go in phases, where I post a lot, then silence for ages. The stuff I plan to post about piles up and before I know it I'm doing a catch up post with lots of pics.

Sort of like I'm about to do now...

Knitting wise I've got something in my hands at all times, but it's all Christmas presents so I can't post about that, just in case the recipient happens to be reading here, but these are a couple projects I can show you:

This is the Aviatrix Baby Hat(rav link)

What a fun knit! I already have plans for other ones, I'd like to try and make a rainbow one.

And I made these:


Wanida socks from the Cookie A Sock Innovation book. Knit with Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball. I opted to make them opposite of one another, and I love the colour changes


The only problem with having them opposite is that it looks like I'm wearing two different socks when I'm wearing pants. My little brother came home for a visit and I wore them when I went to see him, and he dubbed them my Hot and Cold socks, lol.

As for other knitting I can tell you about, Loppem is stalled once again. I had finished most of one sleeve but it was way too wide so I had to rip it back and sort out some decreases. For now it's put away until I make a dent in this Christmas knitting. I'm also working on a pair of socks for Grace, and that's what I work on if I'm around the people I'm knitting presents for.

Non knitting things that happened:

My little girl decided she was big enough

to get her ears pierced. It hurt a lot more than she expected but she was very brave and was very proud of herself for getting the second one even though the first one hurt so bad. She's had them long enough to be able to change them, and we picked out some fun earrings already, but she's nervous to change them. I think she's afraid that it will hurt the same as when she got them done. But that's ok, when she's ready she'll do it. Or not, and that's ok too.

I suppose this is rather knitting related, but I got my package in the Yarn and Book Love swap the Rubberneckers did on rav.

My first Terry Pratchett book...I'm really excited because I've heard so many good things about his work. The yarn is a Araucania Itata Multy, which is a yummy wool, silk and bamboo blend. She also sent me book plates, which I literally squealed over...I had these "This Book Belongs To" in pretty much all of my childhood books, I was really excited to get some new ones.

We also got to take the kids down the road to watch the Olympic Torch get relayed


Grace and Gabriel were excited, but they didn't really know why (Grace shouted "Why are they running with fire? That's DANGEROUS!!!" lol)

The sock enjoyed it though


And of course, you know about the staggette ;)

I think that's us all caught up. I'll pop in more often, I promise.

Celebrate the Good Times!

Ah, knitters. What we can't accomplish when we put our minds together....

The Plan Part 1: Getting it Together

One of our knitting group members is about to get married. It has been a long road to get to the wedding day, road block after disheartening road block, and now that the day is coming together we wanted to celebrate.

Then we got the idea that wouldn't it to be oh-so-much fun to surprise her?

We sat down with a calendar one knit night while she was stuck at home (her groom is a military man and was away) and picked a date. Another of our group is a sales representative for Passion Parties, so we planned to start the evening with some food and drinks and see the new and fun toys for grown-ups. Date set, pm's of invites sent out and secret RSVPs sent back, and we had ourselves a party.

Part 2: Duping Our Bride

The Bride and I share a love of snarking on the Twilight Saga, that completely ridiculous, yet strangely addictive story of angsty sparkling vampires. We decided ages ago that we would go together to the see the New Moon movie, but that we'd go to an afternoon show and wear wigs so as not to be recognized.

When I realized that the night we planned the party was also the opening night of the film, I chatted with the Bride on the phone and said "Hey, know what would be fun? Let's go on opening night and laugh at all the Twi-hards!" She agreed, and a plan was set for her to come to my place for supper and then we'd head out to the late showing.

I furthered the lie by telling her I had bought our tickets ahead of time to make sure we got in and to wear a white bra because I had made us funny tee shirts to wear (I made HER a shirt, for her staggette, lol, with help from another knitter in our group).

Later, when I knew she'd be out, I called her groom to let him in on the plan, just to make sure he would get her to my place on time.

Part 3: Getting a Special Guest

Several times while we planned her wedding (I went with her while she got her dress and helped with other decisions, I'm also taking her pictures and helping her plan her shower), Our Bride told me how she missed her Matron of Honour. MOH lives in Quebec and they hadn't seen one another in a couple years, and wouldn't see one another until the wedding.

I sent MOH a message letting her in on the plan, and said "I know this is a long shot, but any chance you'd be able to get here? I'd love to see her face when she realizes you're here"

Lo and behold, the MOH made it work, and the morning of the party I picked her up at the airport. I had a really stressful trip to Wal-Mart picking up last minute items, worried that The Bride would have ventured out for the day to run errands and would catch us, lol.

The Plan in Action

That evening, knitters began to gather at my place


And we waited, jumping every time the phone rang or the door buzzed. We had been very good at keeping our secret, Alison even exchanged innocent tweets with the bride from my couch..."Bride: headed over to lulubelle's" Alison"Oh what are you two up to?"...lol

Finally she arrived and we all sat hushed and giggly in the livingroom....

And SURPRISE!!!! She was stunned, standing there with the brownies she brought for dessert, it took a few minutes for her to register that we were having a party for her!

But the best part was when the MOH walked out of the kitchen. Our Bride was just saying "Oh, I really wanted to go to the movie, haha" and MOH says "Are you over the shock of the party and ready for the next one?" The look on our girl's face was priceless


Once she picked up her jaw off the floor there were hugs, and nearly tears, and we got down to the business of eating and our rep got down to her business.

Then we gussied up the bride


And headed out on the town!


Had some laughs


And more than a few drinks...


I'm still sort of reeling that we managed to pull it off without her ever suspecting a thing. But it was a great night, fun had by all.

It is rather scary to think of what we could do if we used our powers for evil...