sheep in the city

Back-Tack and other various goodies!!

I am overwhelmed by the package that I received in the mail over the weekend. I participated in the first round of Back-Tack over the summer, and I loved it. I was introduced to all sorts of new-to-me crazy, creative bloggers, and was inspired by all of them. The one thing that kinda sucked was that I never received my final finished project. Alison and Nicole, the organizers, came to the rescue though and they hooked me up!! They set me up with an "angel" who within days had emailed me 3 times, then she sent me a postcard while she was on vacation in Las Vegas! She turned out to be none other than Cindy of Sauvage Blue, one of those crafty people that I mentioned before! She blew me away with her generosity and sewing skills.

Click to see the inside of the needle roll!!

Besides the beatuful needle roll that she made just for me, she included other little gifties that she knew I would love...and indeed I did!! There were a couple kinds of stitch-markers, and some fancy notions (including a birch cable needle that I've never seen before), and 2 books!! I've been eyeing the new Sarah Dallas Knitting book for a while now and just haven't had the chance to pick it up...plus she indulged my love of Japanese crafting books! It's a book on making traditional Hawaiian floral quilts. Very cool. There's a pattern for making a cushion, a tapestry, and even a bag. (can you say knitting bag?!) Thanks sooo much Cindy for helping make my experience with Back-Tack end on a positive note. I absoulutely love all the gifts, but it's the thoughtfulness and kindness behind it that I really appreciate!! Thank you, thank you!!

This past weekend was very knit-filled again. There was an insane sale at one of the local yarn shops starting at 6:00am on Saturday, so Cynthia I decided since I didn't even get to her house until 1:00am, that we would just stay up all night:) I kind of dozed a little while we watched a couple movies, and would occasionally wake up to see Cynthia madly cleaning something (apparently she got a second and third wind halfway through the night:) Before we knew it, it was time to head out at 5:30am!! Why would we go out this early??? Ummm, all yarn in the store was 60% off...ummm yeah...that will get me out of bed anyday!! So what did I decide on?

How about a little Blue Sky Alpaca for $3.17 a skein?! I'll take 10 skeins please. Or Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock for 3.98 a skein? Oh yeah! I'll take 4. And last, but not least a little more Arucania Patagonia Cotton. (that's the yarn that I knit my OSW out of) Yummy stuff. We then left the shop, grabbed breakfast, and headed to a morning knit group. This day was dedicated to knitting on my sockapal2za sock...which I have been putting off for way too long! Here's a picture of the progress I made:

I'm knitting the Petticoat Socks from the book Weekend Knitting. So far I've enjoyed knitting them, with the exception that I'd like to be further along in the pattern. Slow and steady is the way it's going, so that has to be good enough. I think that I've finally memorized the pattern, so that should help:) Cynthia and I (she is participating in Sockapal2za as well) along with Michelle and Wanda had lunch (for Wanda's birthday!!!) and then headed to a different local shop so Michelle and Cynthia could become "real" knitters. They both finally broke down and bought ball winders!! Ha!

One last goodie bag that I wanted to post about was a little gift from Cynthia, given to me as a thank you for hosting a knit group last weekend. She had seen me eyeing this yarn at String last week, so she picked up a couple skeins for me! Aww! Thanks Cynth! The Yarn Bras crack me up everytime I see them! I actually didn't have this size yet, because believe it or not I bought the Jumbo! Yarn Bras when I bought some last year:) Ha! (no kidding, there is actually a "jumbo" size)

Thanks so much everyone for all the fun presents...I am continually amazed by the generosity of knit-bloggers. What a great community we have here!!