The part where I put it in writing

I’m sorry it has come to this but I see alternative. 2007 will be a year of severe curtailing of yarn purchasing coupled with a concerted effort either complete or frog neglected, nay, abandoned projects. See examples: Noro blanket, Coral Cables, Noro Butterfly, Cece, Knitting Pure and Simple cardigan, etc.

My complete lack of self control has caused this situation and I have no one to blame but myself. So without further ado, here are my rules:

Yarn may be purchased for the following situations:

• Small birthday bonanza – re: March
• Abbotsford Fibre Festival – re: May(Note: thank the heavens I found out about this! What a great excuse.)
• I will actually look ALL the way through magazines before I just chuck them in the cart. I know, this seems obvious, but the “Oh! The new whatever knitting of the month magazine is out! Yay! Ka ching” thing happens way too often.
• If Elann puts any Rowan/Debbie Bliss/Noro/Jamieson on sale, I will have to seriously have a good soul searching and see if I can be justified in purchasing some. I’m not made of stone people!

Other rules:

• No Blog Rachel had an excellent way of doing things that she shared with me. For each item she completed for herself/family/friends, she would make an item for Dulaan. This point is my favourite and the one I’m going to enjoy the most. I really hope no blog Rachel gets a blog in the New Year too!
• My current Elann credit and the Michaels gift certificate I got from mom for Christmas, totally don’t count. Double duh. I’m keeping those for a couple of very rainy days indeed. You know, the kind of day when it’s yarn or someone gets hurt.
• I will make a concerted effort to start and gasp!, complete some of the kits I have in the basement, such as Kilim, Rogue, Diva, Mariah, etc. You get the picture.
• I may cast on any damn thing I want, at any time. As long as it is from stash. I’m not going to try and curtail my yarn collecting and startitis in the same battle. That would just be stupid.

Finally, this madness ends the first weekend of November. Just in time for the Langley Spinners & Weavers Artisan Show. Boo Ya!

That’s it. That’s all I’ve got. I feel drained, shaky, and a bit sick that I’m doing this. I am the world’s worst impulse shopper when it comes to this particular corner of my life.

However, seeing as spousal unit and I started this yesterday:

I may not have any time or money or energy left for such frivolous things as yarn. Yeah right. And blue monkeys might fly out of my bum, but it’s not very likely!

We are so going!

Abbotsford. Fiber festival. May 2007. Sweet.

I googled. There are classes. One is two socks on one circular. I'm thinking I just might be in there. Second sock sydrome is a personal problem for me. It's also on a Friday, making this the first time I would have to book a holiday day to go knitting. How cool is that? Linda, Rabbitch, warm up your needles girls. Hey, Lavender, you in?

Maybe we could be a convoy! This here is the Rubber Duck and I'm about to put the hammer down! Bahahahahaha. I swear, I am my own best friend.

ETA: duh, it would help if I actually gave a link to the site, right? Go here. That is all.

Re: the rules

Ummmm, Lavender, what is the Abbotsford Fiber Festival? And, more importantly, why have I never heard of this?!?!?!?!?!?! Linda! Did you know about this? Nevermind, about that, wanna go? Teehee! It's still pre 2007, I can write it in as a rule, no sweat. ;)

The Rules

Following the lead of Rabbitch (except for #6) et al, I am currently drafting my own set of rules for living within the confines of my stash for part of 2007. Obviously gift certificates and elann credits I currently possess would not be counted. There will have to be some form of cheat day or falling off the wagon day, or something. I'm not too sure how I wills schedule or allow for those. It has to be over by the first weekend in November because that's when I hit the Langley Spinners & Weavers Guild Artisan sale. I totally lose my mind that day, and I'm not willing to give up the sugar rush feeling of that much yarn in a day.

Definitely a work in progress. Hopefully I will have it all fleshed out this week and be ready for the lean times (as I will be referring to 2007, bahahahaha) which are a' comin'!

We have a winner!

Actually, we have five of them. So, without further ado:

Here is the incredibly high tech voting system employed by us here at House o' Beentsy. Yep, that's the Tupperware votomatic 6000. Spared no expense!

Nice, right? Don't mind the Koolaid, I was doing a bit of dying last night.


Here we see the selection of the winners. That's the hand of the hubby doing the honours. And here is our list of winners:

Leanne has won a prize to be named later that the self proclaimed contest whore Rabbitch is donating.

Blogless Rachel has won the gorgeous handmade book that Lavender created.

Lucet, who also appears to be blogless, won the two skeins of Regia sock yarn, so she'll have some warm tootsies in the new year!

Ann in PA won the five skeins of Classic Elite Maya. Whatcha gonna make? Scarf? Hat? Mitts?

And, drumroll please, our grand prize winner Kathy, won the skein of Fleece Artist Mohair Locks. I can't wait to see what she creates from that!

I will send all of you an email and if you can send me back your snail mail addies I will get your prizes out in the mail prolly this week. Once the post office opens after Christmas. Now remember, these are coming from Canada and it's the busiest postal time of the year, so it may take a wee bit for them to get to you.

I really enjoyed this guys, it's been great to meeting each all of you and seeing what everyone is creating. Loved it! One thing I didn't know when I started this contest was that there is a Yahoo Group for Dulaan knitting, so if you are interested go have a peak at that too.

Oh, and I'm sorry Cheryl, I had my fingers and toes crossed for you, but it just didn't work. :( Everyone, go see her creations. She is Talented!

Knitting Update

My inbox overfloweth! Is that spelled right? Is that even a word? Nevermind, look at these!

Lucette has knit three items, one of which is this lovely hat:


Raven has also knit three lovely hats and has a neckwarmer on the needles. They look so nice and tweedy:


Rita is also sadly blogless, she has made this adorable baby surprise jacket and her son made the snowman to model it:



And Cheryl has knit the most gorgeous mittens! Go look at them, then scroll down and look at her quilts. I absolutely love the Thong Birds one, makes me smile big time!

It's fabulous I tell you, just fabulous!

Feelings

I've been in a bit of a funk this week. I went to the funeral of a former co-workers son this week. He was seventeen and was murdered. One of those situations of young males, alcohol, young girl in the middle, house party, and some other idiot brings a gun to the party to show just how cool he is. Needless to say it all ended in the worst possible way. The pain on the faces of all those who loved this boy, in particular his mom, has stayed with me. I'm a fixer and I just don't know how to fix her pain.

Then, this morning, I opened my email and there were all these lovely people showing me all the great things they had created for Dulaan. And I felt better, a lot better. I also realized that I can't fix everything, particularly someone else's pain. But I can be there for them and that's enough. It has to be, right? I can also do things that will lessen other peoples suffering. Helping the local food bank, SPCA, the UN World Food Programme, and of course, knitting for Dulaan. And these folks feel that way too, because they also create to help others. So without further ado:

Lauren's been busy, and she has the most adorable model! Doesn't the Tychus from Knitty look great?

Leanne is doing some very nice stuff. Scroll down to the Tomten. The stripes make it so fun. Love it!

And Kathy has been busy as well! Scroll about halfway down, that shaded blue one is my personal fave. Really nice! She's got a sweater on the needles right now.

Minnie has been booking along with five Dulaan items. This is my favourite, and it's from her handspun. I love those colours.

Rachel, who appears to be blogless, sent me this pici of her efforts:

I love the earflap cap, so cute.

Isn't that amazing? All of you, give yourself a pat on the back, and have a chocolate or a nice glass of eggnog, you deserve it! And for those of you who haven't entered yet, there is still time to email me. I'm here all day! :)

30 Hour Warning

It's almost time. Aren't you excited? I am. I can't wait to draw names. So, all of you who have done some Dulaan knitting and not emailed me a pici or a link to a pici, it's time to do so.

I found some super bulky wool today and I'm pretty sure I can crank out a hat tonight. I have four days off of work and all the Christmas preparations are complete. I'm going to eat and knit and nap until Monday. Then, Christmas dinner at mom's followed by some knitting! After the dishes are done of course!

So, send me your link or your pici to sockpal at mail dot com. Thank you!

All this and an FO too

The secret Santa scarf is completed, pompoms & all. Hubby did a brilliant job making those. I swear, if he ever takes up knitting, he will be so much better at it than I am. This scarf took a little over two skeins of Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grand. Would have come in under two skeins but for the fab-o pompoms. Size 8mm needles, 22 stitches, k2 p2. Super simple and it is sooooo soft and luscious.

I'm now onto another Christmas project that I can't blog about until after Christmas. I suck at secrets so we'll see how well that goes.

Six Days

on the road, and I'm a gonna make it home tonight. No wait, that's not right. Six days left in the Dulaan knitting contest, that's better. Although I will now be singing that silly song in my head all day long.

I finished an alpaca scarf for a secret Santa gift exchange next week. So pretty. My guy is making pompoms for the ends right now so I can't get a pici of it. Maybe later I'll drape it artistically across the Christmas tree? Yeah, prolly not.

I have four more items to finish for Christmas knitting and it's just not seeming possible. I think I might just wrap up yarn and a pici of the finished object and the yarn and the recipient can open that on Christmas morning. If I stayed up 24 hours a day for the next week I could totally do it, but there's that whole work thing. Blah blah blah.

Oh, and get this, my mom, on the internet! She took the big plunge and she's out there somewhere tooling around websites. How cool is that! Now I have to stop swearing and talking about drinking on this blog. I guess it will be all yarn all the time, eh? Hi mom! Love you! She taught me to crochet when I was like 8. Cool eh? Technically, this whole obsessive compulsive yarn thing, her fault. Isn't that great! What a wonderful gift to give your kid. The ability and urge to create. Mom's rock.

Okay, I'm off. I have to have a shower and head out. Cherylie and I are doing some shopping today. Stocking stuffers and the like. Hubby and I don't do presents for each other anymore. We don't need anything so we just send the money we would have spent to the local food bank and to the UN World Food Programme.

Gives me the warm and fuzzies I tell ya! Have a great day everyone, and if you have a free hour, whip up a hat for Dulaan. Then tell me about it. Then maybe win some yarn for Christmas. How sweet would that be?

Where are you!

Quick note, in passing, Liz of Knitting by Moonlight, where did your blog go! I just get a message saying the domain has not been renewed. Feeling a bit concerned. :)

All Dulaan all the time

I have updates. I received he book that Lavender made and donated to our wee contest and I can't even begin to tell you how lovely it is.
This is a woman of wondrous talents and patience! It is just so pretty I can't even describe it and I can't seem to get a good pici of it either.* My photography skills are sadly lacking. It's all in shades of purple (of course, it's from Lavender! Der!), with graph paper that would be awesome for all your little creating sketches when a design is trying to get out of your head. Gorgeous! All tied up with purple irridescent ribbon to keep your notes and ideas safe inside. She's an artiste I tell you!

Also, I have another entry into the contest. CeCe has made the most wonderful Gansey. It looks so warm and cuddly.

While you're over there, take a look at her Dec 4 entry and check out the beautiful shawl she made and, wait for it, gave away! Wow, right? She also did a great version of the Fake Isle hat in the latest MagKnits.

That's about all I have today. I have to go pry the spousal unit away from his computer for dinner now. He's been playing Weff Riddles and now he can't stop. I think he's on level 15. I knit and try to point out useful details while he's playing. All in all, a very nice way to spend and evening.

I probably won't be able to update tomorrow. Unfortunately my dad is back in the hospital with some complications from his surgery so I'll be visiting him after work. So, I will have a few of hours of intense hospital knitting time tomorrow. That's got to be good for at least one hat.

We have about a week and a half left to enter the contest to win some yummy prizes. Please, enter and enter often. Tell your friends. Post about it on your blog. The more the merrier. It's kind of like spreading a warm fuzzy feeling over the internet.

*Note: Martini is strictly for scale. No vodka was ingested during the taking of this photograph!

17 more days. I think?!?!?

...until the cutoff for knitting contest entries that is. And! Wait for it........AND the inimitable Rabbitch is also donating a prize, so now we have five. A surprise prize. On acount of I don't know what it is yet. I don't think she does either. Tres exciting, non? Yep, that was some grade 8 french coming at you. I'm very proud. Thank you Surrey School District #36.

"Mon crayon est grande et jaune."
"You have a big yellow pencil? Nice for you."

Go ahead, bonus points if anyone can tell me what movie that one is from.

And now, Dulaan knitting updates. My blogless friend Judy has given in a lovely little pair of mittens. Aren't they cute? I just love them!


And look at this adorable little sweater that Ann made! Adorable. Also, over at Ann's site, click on her Dec 6 post. Scroll down. Loving the cat in knitwear, loving it!

I can't remember, surprise surprise eh?, if I told you about Linda's beautiful second baby sweater! So cute. Go over and give her good wishes. Her daughter just got engaged. Nice, right? Besides all that, she just got her own domain and stuff and decorated it really pretty for Christmas.

I'm jealous because I'm a bit useless and haven't a clue how to do that here at chez beentsy. Less trolling the internet for yarn and fewer martinis and I might just learn how to tweak and tune my own blog.

Now, I was a thinkin' and I was a wonderin', maybe folks need some help finding some patterns to get their mojo going for Dulaan. To that end, I present to you the motherload of pattern sites. I'm sure most of you know this place, for those of you who don't, get a beverage, you'll be surfing there for awhile.

First, for knitting, is Knitting Pattern Central. All organized by category and there are literally thousands of patterns here. Or, you can click here and see just those items added in the last week. Cool eh?

Second, for crochet, is, duh!, Crochet Pattern Central. Again, all organized and thousands, and blah blah blah. Click here for the new this week link.

So, you have the yarn, (I know you do, I browsed around on Flash Your Stash Day!), you've got the talent, and now you have limitless patterns. Go ahead, pop in a movie, may I suggest Love Actually, or Footloose, or perhaps Armageddon (I'm hopelessly smarmy when it comes to movies!) and whip up a hat. It's good for your Karma. :) Besides, it makes me all warm and fuzzy, and haven't you always wanted to make a Canadian girl all warm and fuzzy? Sure you have! Here's your chance. ;)

The kindness of strangers

And by strangers I mean that we only haven't met in person! I'm brimming over with good cheer and the need to go out and by a Hallmark card just to express it.

Lavender from Lavender Knits has donated a beautiful handmade book for our wee contest. I've stolen one pici of it but you must go over to her site and take a look. Her work is gorgeous. You have got to go over and see the other picis and read the details about the book, really lovely and useful for people of the knitting/crocheting persuasion.
Can you imagine? She spins, knits, dyes, makes books, makes paper, sews, , bakes, and heaven only knows what else. I tell you, it makes me wonder what I am doing with my time. Also, if you go back in her archives, she is knitting the most beautiful BPT from Knitty for the Fall 2006 Cablealong.

Then I got an email from Kirsten. Check out these hats! Scroll down, to see them all individually modelled. Gorgeous! Wowzers. They are making me want to rip the stash apart and start some colour work. Beautiful, and there are 10 of them! That's 10 entries in the contest. Very impressive!

And Linda has made another baby sweater. Isn't it lovely? And check out Gracie's new coat. She looks so cute and happy in it. (Note to self: must make Abbi a wee sweater).

Lastly we have my Dulaan knitting for the last couple of weeks. A few hats and a scarf and a llama neckwarmer/gaiter. I took them outside into our snowy landscape to begin to acclimatize them to what Mongolia will be like.


I'm really liking the idea of the neckwarmer. No bulk, no long tails to get caught up, doesn't slide over your shoulder and fall off. Dead cunning! I'm going to have to make one for me for my walks to work in the morning. Now that we really are having winter around here!

I've put a link in the sidebar to take you to the post with the most updated dates & details for entering the contest.

And that about it from me for now. I want to thank you all so much for your generous outpouring of support, in crafting warmth and in making prizes for the contest. It's a really wonderful thing we are doing to make sure some person far away from us is warmer and knows that someone cares about them. You guys are rocking my world right now! Thank you. :)