Lion Brand Organic Cotton Swap- My part

I spent quite a long time on my part of the Lion Organic Swap. I wanted it to be very special as Jan is a very special person. I ordered organic soap from Mountain Mama at http://www.etsy.com/shop/mountainmamachic and some of the coolest pottery I've seen from The Muddy Muse at http://www.etsy.com/shop/muddymuse For the knitted part of my swap package I chose to make a shawl/scarf called Saroyan. It's such a cool pattern, and my first that included lace on such a large scale. The pictures of the package I'm including are the ones taken by Jan, her's are much better than mine! The lovely girl modeling the scarf is Jan's daughter. I also included a skein of the organic cotton, and a scarf pin that was my own. I wanted to give Jan something of my own. Here are the pics, enjoy!

June Swap for Group Gauge

Our swap square receivee (is that a word?) for the month is beekay, a very nice lady who likes teals, purples, blues, she also wanted the yarn to be washable. After searching my considerable stash, I found this yarn. It is Red Heart, one of their better lines and had a nice feel against my hand. Again I went through a search for an appropriate stitch pattern (this part always takes me forever!). I finally found a stitch called Grass Stitch in the 400 Knitting Stitches book. I like how it looks with the yarn, I thing the contrasts with the stockinette and the Grass stitch is really cool. I think beekay will like it, too.

June Swap for Group Eddy

I'm probably repeating myself, but joining this swap has been a great experience. I'm learning new stitch patterns as I'm trying to do each square in a different pattern. Also it's teaching me to finish project in the time needed. (Something I'm still working on, but I'm learning!) This square is for emayfieldz on Ravelry. As she lives in the southwest, I wanted to go with a southwest theme. I was searching through my huge stash of yarn (which will be the subject of a future blog, shudder), and came across this yarn that I had bought from Karl on Ebay. The colors are perfect! Faded tan/browns, blues, greens, rusts. The yarn is a very raw cotton, it even has little bits of the boll still in it. It's hand spun and hand dyed, and very sturdy when knit up. I used this same yarn in a different color to make a market bag and it's stood up to quite a bit of punishment by me, carrying pretty heavy loads. I looked through some my pattern books for quite a long time before I found a pattern that I thought fit the yarn. It's called Crossed Stitch and I found it in a book called 400 knitting Stitches (a very good reference!). It gives the square this really cool woven effect, which, of course, ties in with the southwest theme. Anyhow, overall I'm really pleased with the square, I just hope emayfieldz likes it, too. I'm including here some pictures of not only the square, but also the yarn and some of the other cotton yarns in the different colors. Most of the other yarns will probably be market bags. The bolls make the yarn a little rough for anything that would go against the skin, although the yarn does soften, and the bolls are removed as you wash it.

Lion Brand Organic Cotton Swap

Wow and super wow! I'm a little late getting this posted as I received my package some time ago, but it's so wonderful, it still gets a wow! It really couldn't have been more on target if my partner and I had been friends for years instead of just having met on-line for a few weeks. The gauntlets/fingerless mitts are exactly what I've been wanting for ages and have never taken time to make for myself. Even the style is right on target and they fit perfectly! The lacy cowl/collar is so lovely, I've already thought of several things I will wear it with. The earrings (made of rose quartz and sterling silver), are in my ears even as I type. I'm using the stitch markers in one of my current projects. I've placed the sachets in my dresser drawers and the smell when I open the drawers is so wonderful. The dish cloth looks wonderful in my kitchen and the soap and facecloth are terrific in my bathroom. All in all the best swap I've been in, it will be hard to find a better partner in future swaps I'm in, and I really hope that my partner and I can keep in touch!

May Swap for Group Eddy

And here is the May swap for group Eddy. This square is of a wool bought on Ebay. I like this pattern, it wasn't so hard to do once I did a few rows. I may just use it again.

May Swap for Group Gauge

Okay, on to the second swap group I joined in the Baker's Dozen group on Ravelry! This lady likes color and so I found in my stash a yarn from the bunch I bought on Ebay from Karl. It's a cotton chenille. I ended up using two strands as I liked the look of the fabric better and it was easier on my fingers (stupid RA!) Here are a few pictures of the square.

Lovely/ugly trees

I have these trees in front of my house. In the early spring they bloom and are really nice. The blooms/flowers are lovely. Unfortunately this only lasts for a few days, a week at most. After that they really are ugly and I'd be more than happy to cut them down. But I thought I might as well show them in all their glory, before they reach their ugly phase.