Hey, Did You Knit That?

So, I totally admit to being a lazy blogger. It's been hot, there was a holiday, and we had an illness with two trips to the emergency room. Cut me some slack! Okay, okay....during that time there was some knitting being done. Check it out! Irene had her 4th birthday in June. We had the family together at the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek. We got to feed giraffes. It was amazingly cool. Irene wore Eden's Adam which is the vest version of Eden's Eve. I managed to finish it in the wee hours of the morning before the zoo trip.

I also made another Storm Cloud. Unfortunately, I didn't notice the hole in it until after I was done.

On Ravelry I participated in a bookmark with postcard swap in my favorite group, A Swap in Time. Below is the bookmark I sent.

I received this cool flower bookmark and postcard of Chatsworth from our group Moderator. Love England, love the bookmark, love Chatsworth :-)I also received my Summertime Swap package from my secret partner. Imagine my happiness and surprise to find out that once again it was our group moderator that had me in the swap. She sent the best package ever. Three packs of stickers, of which only one is shown, and three packs of Haribo for the kids. The shawlette is in such a pretty shade of sage and so beautiful too. That fantastic skein of yarn? It is Araucania Ranco Multy. I am currently knitting with it and the colorway is gorgeous. You're welcome to drool over the picture and be jealous of all my goodies! I was very spoiled :-)

I did send out my Summertime Swap package to my partner in Australia. It took less then a week to get there which surprised me. I only have a picture of the shawlette that I made. My partner was a special woman that I found to be not only bright and fun but very courageous. She has actually helped me, but for personal reasons to both of us I will leave out the details.

The pattern is Chastain from Ravely. I wasn't completely pleased with it but I had such a difficult time with getting yarn that I finally decided I could no longer fuss with it or I would not make the deadline. My partner's favorite color is charcoal. I found one skein of Stonehedge Fiber Mills Shepherd's Wool in granite. I decided to knit Little Colonnade (also on Ravelry) but I did not have enough yarn. I thought I could safely switch dye lots between the stockinette stitch section and the openwork/lace section. Unfortunately, no area stores had the color. I had a store order in more. Two weeks later it finally showed up...with a slightly blue-ish tint. No way could I use it. So I scrambled to find a project that only used one skein of the Shepherd's Wool. The rest of the goodies sent were two skeins of Malabrigo, strawberry stitch markers, a project bag made with daisy fabric, coffee (Michigan Cherry and Michigan Black Raspberry), a book, postcards, bookmark and magnet of my town.

Shepherd's Wool is my new favorite yarn. It is Michigan made and so soft. It is made by Stonehedge Fiber Mills and is available in stores throughout the US and it is also available at some stores online. One skein is 250 yards. I am also knitting Multnomah (yes, ravelry pattern) using this yarn in the beautiful colorway of Lakeshore.

I apologize for the lack of links and more in depth info on the patterns, yarn and projects. I am overtired and lazy today. I highly recommend the yarn!