Aunty RaRa's Antics

My swap package came

I got my Fall into Autumn Dishcloth Swap on Saturday. It was from Nicole. She sent me so many wonderful things. A pretty blue dishcloth, Lion Brand cotton, 2nd Time around cotton(I was told that it is recycled), a stitch holder, a candle, a cute pad and pen with a sheep on it, some pumpkin shaped peeps, pumpkin pop rocks( I will be giving those to my son), a pumpkin face that you decorate a balloon with, a little booklet with different dishcloth patterns, two bookmarks from the ASPCA,dove body wash, a soap, a needle inventory card, and a cute card with a dog on it. If I forgot anything here are pictures. THANK YOU SO MUCH NICOLE!!!! I LOOOOVE EVERYTHING!!! 

This weeks topic....

Now that it is getting cooler here, it makes me think of apple picking and hay rides. Are you the type that likes to go to participate in all the fall festivities like apple picking, pumpkins, decorating for the fall, hay rides, baking fall goodies, etc. or do you just sit and count the days till Thanksgiving/Christmas/Hanukkah? I have always enjoyed apple picking and making homemade apple sauce.

I got it....

I'm a big kid now!!!! I got my invite to Ravelry today now I just need to figure out what to do with it. Anyone interested my user name is none other than mamarara. The topic for this week in the Fall into Autumn swap is..... In many a swap we get asked to flash our stash of yarn. However, we hardly ever (might even venture to say never) get asked to show off our needles, hooks, notions, and other tools of the trade.

So for the Topic of the week:
Either flash your needles and other items you use to make your wares or, if you don't have a camera, describe your goods for us in detail. Dpns, circs, straights, hooks, tape measures, darning needles, favorite stitch markers, needle holders, cases, the works! Well seeing as I am fairly new to knitting I really don't have alot of notions. I have three pairs of circs, a very cute sheep tape measure, a plastic container that I keep my yarn in so as to not get CATONIZED(4 cats would do it), and a beautiful bag that I made for myself(you can see it on my blog). So that is about it for now. Now I think I need to go play on Ravelry. Happy Knitting!!

Coffee Swap Three Questionarre

SWAP QUESTIONS

Here are the questions:
QUESTIONS
1. Whole bean or ground? Ground
2. Fully-loaded or decaf?Fully loaded(is there any other way)
3. Regular or flavored?Regular although I do like Mocha
4. How do you drink your coffee?Milk and sugar
5. Favorite coffee ever?Dunkin Donuts
6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do?I don't really care too much for cheap stuff
7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee?anything
8. Anything else about your coffee preferences?None that I can think of
9. Yarn/fiber you love?Love sock yarn and soft cotton
10. Yarn/fiber you hate? fun fur,acrylic,sugar-n-cream
11. What's on your needles?Two different socks
12. Favorite colors?black,red,gray,blue,and pink
13. Allergies?none
14. Anything you really love, really don't like, or just need to get off your chest? I am a smoker but I try not to smoke when I am knitting. We also have 4 cats that live here.

Ravelry amongest other things

Found you!

• You signed up on August 22, 2007
• You are #27761 on the list.
• 3077 people are ahead of you in line.
• 12573 people are behind you in line.
• 59% of the list has been invited so far

Well as you can see I am almost there. For what? I am not 100% sure since you can't get on until you have been invited. My sister is having a good time with it though. I already have a flicker account so at least I am one step closer. Well I have started my third pair of socks even though I haven't completely finished the second pair but I was a little curious about these. This yarn I actually dyed myself at my sisters camper a couple weeks ago. I needed to see what it looked like knit up. So here it is. I have named it Chocolate Raspberry and I am doing a Lacy Mock Cable Sock. It is knitting up rather quickly. I started it last Sat. Other things that have been going on is I recieved this from the UK from Liz on swap-bot.  It is one skien of baby alpaca, two balls of Rowan, a beautiful card,chocolate,and two stitch markers. For those of you who know my sister knows that she carries around an orange bag that I made for her, well today I decided I was going to make one for myself because my mother thought it was tacky carrying my knitting around in a Market Basket plastic bag(I have my little pink bag inside that but because I am now working on two projects they both don't fit) So this is how I spent my Saturday instead of knitting. The only thing to do to it is sew a button on it and stitch up the lining. At least now it is big enough to carry both knitting projects in and then some. Well that is all my rambling for now. Happy Knitting!!!!

This Weeks Topic

Are there any recipes you especially enjoy having in the Fall? Any foods that are seasonal that you especially enjoy? Feel free to share recipes with us too! I love Beef Stew made in my crock pot. It is a comfort food.

Happenings and Topic

On Saturday I went up to NH where Debbi and Mary have a trailer. My sister had a yarn dying party. It was so much fun to be able to paint on the yarn. There is all different ways of doing it(which I didn't know). Here are some pictures that I took. That wasn't even all of the dyes. When Julie came up she had a lot more. It was so amazing to see the yarn come to color. As soon as Debbi posts on her site you will be able to see alot more pictures(as my batteries died on my camera). Tonight my son starts cub scouts again and I have decided not to be the leader this year. I have been his leader for the last two years, but this year I am going to be one of the parents. Now here is my topic of the week for the Autumn Dishcloth swap: Autumn has now officially begun here in the States!! What is your favorite thing about Autumn/Fall? Why?
My favorite thing about Autumn is the color of the leaves and the briskness in the air(unless of course we have an Indian summer). I have always enjoyed going apple picking. I love the smell of homemade applesauce cooking.

Topic of the week...

TOPIC OF THE WEEK

When you knit or crochet dishclothes, washclothes or face clothes, what do you use? What size needle or hook? Wood? what type? Metal? Plastic? A specific Brand? Why do you love that needle or hook so much? Is there one you are dying to try? Is there a particular yarn you love and use all the time for clothes? What is so special about it?
As I just started to learn how to knit clothes I seem to use plastic 7" straight. For some reason unknown to me, it just seems that it is easier to knit with. I don't have a particular yarn but I definitely don't like sugar-n-cream. It is way to stiff to work with(although I am trying) I like things a little softer with a little bit of give to them.

A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That

As I told you in my last post Debbi and Mary surprised me with tickets to go see Barry Manilow Sunday night. I have to tell you even though it was up in the heavens, it was sooooo exciting to be there and hear him in person. I absolutely loved it, and my sister had a good time as well. That is me on the left and Debbi on the right.Don't we look like we are having a good time. I tried to get some pictures of Barry but they didn't come out as well as I was hoping. But at least I got to see him. In knitting news I finally finished my first sock of my second pair and here it is. I think I did an awesome job on this and it seemed to take forever to do. But it is done and now I need to start on the other one this weekend. If you go and read my sisters blog http://www.adayinthelifeofdebbi.typepad.com/ you will see how busy the postlady has been coming to our house. Well yesterday it was my turn for surprises in the mail. I got my swap from swap-bot. It was from Suzie at http://purlygates.blogspot.com/. It is this awesome yarn called Trekking and a beautiful pattern. You should go check her site out she is doing a Knit With Love. What it is, is she is looking for knitted hats to give to the elderly in nursing homes. She is working with the Little Brothers of San Francisco. Oh ya this is what see sent me. I can't wait to get started on these. Now for my Fall Into Autumn topic of the week. Topic
Now that in some geographic locations the weather is starting to turn cooler, do you change the type of yarn(s) you knit/crochet with? If so, what do you now knit/crochet with instead and why? If not, why do you not switch and what do you knit/crochet with? Well seeing as I just started knitting again I probably won't change yarns because I like making socks. I may do some other things but basically stick with socks. Ok that is all until next time Happy Knitting!!!!

Christmas comes early

On Thursday my sister Debbi calls me from work and asks what I am doing on Sunday night. I say "nothing other than getting David ready for school for the next day". She tells me that I need to be dressed and ready to go out with her. I was like" where are we going". She wouldn't tell me.She says she needs to call Mary and then she will call me back. So I wait,when she finally calls back she tells me she will be home from camp around 6:00 and I am to be ready. We will be going in the car,park at BunkerHill College Then I remember the date for Sunday and I start saying to her " Don't tell me you got me tickets" ? She was like "Tickets to what"? I said" I know what day it is, did you get tickets"? She said "Not yet but will be getting them when she goes to Kats after work". I was yelling"Oh my god I can't believe it I am going to see Barry Manilow" at TD Banknorth. So this is my early Christmas/birthday(4 days after ) present. I LOVE BARRY MANILOW!!!!! I am sooooooo excited. I have been listening to him ever since. One Christmas my mother got me one of his cds and on the tag she put To Cheryl Love Barry. David and I used to dance around the house listening to him. Well looking through different blogs again I came across this http://teatimeramblings.blogspot.com You should go  check it out.