i have made my fair share of trips to mora recently it seems. put a fabulous ice cream shop next to churchmouse yarns and it is worth the ferry ride. knowing that it would probably be some time before i go again i tried to recreate one of their flavors last week.


my attempt at what they call "tango". orange sorbet with chocolate shavings. i used this as my base recipe, although i didn't let everything chill for as long as it says. i basically made the syrup, juiced my oranges, combined the rest of the ingredients and put them in the freezer to chill.

it actually turned out wonderful. i added the shaved dark chocolate at the end. it tastes so fresh. the only thing (as with all my handmade ice creams etc) is that it is best straight out of the ice cream mixer. the freezer tends to change the texture a bit because it freezes so solid. i don't know if making the freezer less cool would work but i should probably try that. i wonder how places get their stuff to keep such a smooth texture.

anyways, i am working on gathering stuff for the "grand" prizes for the blogiversary. i have most items, but need to pick up a couple more. thanks for being patient with me. lily is still a bit mopey but doing better, it is probably the drugs making her that way and i am starting to give them in smaller doses so hopefully she'll perk up.

i should also mention there will be a small marker sale tomorrow morning on the shop blog.

quiet

so sorry about the lack of posting. i spent the last 5 days or so waiting on some test results for my kitty and i just wasn't myself. thankfully i find out last night that she is just fine. it took forever because they were closed over the holiday weekend. it was agonizing.

basically she had a cloudy eye. and although it can be common with no real reason behind it that they know of (i suspect she got poked somehow) it is also a symptom of feline leukemia and that trio of fatal cat illnesses. so we tested just to be safe. i should not have worried as much knowing she had also been tested at the shelter i got her from when she was a wee one. but the vet said there was a slight chance she could have contracted it just before the test and it didn't show up. ugh. but all is well, she tested negative to all and her bloodwork looked good. and her eye has cleared up too (due to many, many drugs poor thing!).

so i have a post that i meant to do last friday that i may get to later today. then onto my blogiversary wrap up in the next couple days!

*Stash Sale*

Ok, items for sale below. Price as shown plus $4.00 shipping per order regardless of how much you buy (or how little i suppose...).

email me at amyATgoodtobegirlDOTcom and i will send you a paypal invoice

Please click on links for further product description, let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!!


$12.00 for 4 oz (enough for a pair of socks)
cherry tree hill superwash merino mill end. i believe this may have been the cherry colorway. it is a mill end so the color is variegated a bit. deep blood red to a brighter orangey red with lighter spots of color here and there. i believe mill ends are where the color isn't as controlled, but this is still beautiful!SOLD OUT


$12.00 for all 4
jo sharp silk road. 2 each of truffle and birch. 85% wool, 10% silk, 5% cashmere, 60 yds each (total for all 4 240 yds)


$17.00
vesper sock yarn in knit and tonic colorway (full skein already wound)SOLD OUT


$15.00 for 2 skeins
koigu kpppm in colorway p529, 2 full skeinsSOLD OUT


$5.00 for 1 skein
cascade 220 in colorway 7821, 1 full skein.SOLD OUT


$5.00 for 1 skein
cascade 220 quatro in colorway 5018, 1 full skein.SOLD OUT


$15.00 for 2 skeins
prism bowen in colorway sierra, 2 full skeins (original price was $16.50 for skein, click on link for more information about this yarn)


$8.00 for 2 skeins
cascade fixation in colorway 9907, 2 full skeins (one is unwrapped).SOLD OUT


$10.00 for 3 skeins
ella rae classic wool in colorway 26, 3 full skeins (100% wool, 219 yds each).SOLD OUT

7 random things...

i was tagged by angela (you know her for her awesome duets sock yarn!!) for the 7 random facts meme

1. i don't really like plain fruit. i try, i want to like fruit (i just had raspberries on my yogurt) but i don't really. i'll eat them, but don't really enjoy it. i do love veggies though.

2. my favorite color is not pink (*gasp*) but green.

3. i never thought i would actually make it to paris in my lifetime because of my huge fear of flying. i am SO glad that i did.

4. i am a pro when it comes to social stationery etiquette (wedding invitations etc.). comes from my years managing a papyrus store. according to the strictest of etiquette only the brides parents get named on the invite if they are paying for the wedding. a monogram using the bride and grooms intials and the grooms last name is inapporpriate on an invitation because at the time invitations go out you are not yet married and sharing a name. the woman's name always comes before the man's. you get the idea.

5. i love chocolate but not if it is plain (ie. just a chocolate bar).

6. i don't have any sort of daily routine except brushing my teeth and washing my face. i take showers at all different times, drink coffee/tea somedays and not others, don't go to bed at the same time or wake up at the same time each day. which is odd because i feel like a routine type person. guess that is the gemini in me!

7. i get motion sickness easily. i can bend over and get it. seriously. it is annoying. dramamine is a constant in my purse.

and another random thing is i'm lazy about linkage. so i tag anyone who has an interest in sharing something about themselves, just leave me a comment if you decide to do it!

i am off to take pictures of the yarn i am going to put up for sale. if it goes well i might post it a little later today.

it's done

well it is finally done! the lmkg chevron scarf (only over 36 stitches though) is complete. i used str lightweight in lemongrass and fire on the mountain on size 5 needles. a bold combination, but i love it. it probably came in around 80 inches or so. i didn't block it because i have heard it just curls again so instead i used the iron and it is perfect. i even have enough yarn leftover for some little project.

and because he is my follower, a shot of cooper with the scarf. he is huge now no? both kitties have hit the cat stage more or less. no more little fluffballs. but they are still very kitten like in behavior! cooper loves to steal my yarn and wrap it around the toilet. no kidding. it is too funny to see him with a huge ball of yarn running down the hall to the guest bath every time.


ok off to get ready for the day. it isn't so nice outside which means i should finish up some work on the fireplace (paint touch ups mostly). and knit. maybe visit ellen at vyt to say hi.

tour yarn

ellen, naomi and i made quite a morning, day and night out of it yesterday. the lys tour was a lot of fun. i believe we made it to 6 stores and were gone from 9 am to 9 pm (with lunch, a ferry ride etc. in between). wanna see what i got?


mostly trekking (78,102,108,148) and socks that rock. with a skein of duets lemondstand and 2 skeins of sport weight lorna's in envy. also 3 balls of wool for a felting project in brown. i picked up a debbie bliss book too.

the tour runs today and tomorrow as well. i don't know if i will do anymore, what we did yesterday was plenty i think. although the hunt to see who had what trekking was kind of fun. i really do have an obsession for the stuff. BUT it is only for the trekking that is the 2 color twisted stuff (like the popular 100). i really dislike most of their other yarns (hate self patterning as you know!).

so that is my stash. i picked up farmhouse str to pair with my watermelon tourmaline for my next chevron scarf. i believe that is kind of the "it" color combination on the flickr group. funny that at one time i had farmhouse and sold it on ebay. nice. oh well.

i will have a small stash sale sometime this week (had to make room for the new stuff).

tv, tour and winner (not in that order)

sarah over at knitting bee was the only one to guess the correct answer. at 10 pm i put down the needles and measured. 70.75 inches long! congrats! email me with your address so i can send the prize! (amyATgoodtobegirlDOTcom)


terrible shot, but i wanted to give you a bit of proof showing just how long it is. i am soo close. yeah! i think reducing the pattern by 12 stitches is a fantastic way to make this a quicker knit.

maybe at the lys tour tomorrow i can pick up some more str and start another!

ok, onto another subject. season finales. i won't say much, and if you haven't watched then i suggest you don't read the comments. but here is my take on ugly betty - huh? what? omg! ugh! which = loved it. as for grey's - well they always say if you don't have something nice to say don't say anything at all. that pretty much sums it up. that show is killing me. KILLING me i tell you. jeez. can anyone ever be happy. ever? i can only take so much. and not to give anything away, but ENOUGH with mer's family already. jeez. ok stopping now. sorry.

if vyt happens to be on your list of shops to visit for the lys tour, be sure to check out the markers i made for them


cute no? i also stocked them up on my regulars like peapods, ice cream cones etc.

ok off to bed. i need my rest for shopping tomorrow.

lys tour and another contest!

ellen, naomi and i will be taking the day off friday to start the lys tour. we are starting south and working our way up. probably about half the shops or so. churchmouse will be included so i'll be making another trip to bainbridge and mora. should be a great time! are any of you local readers planning on doing the tour? ellen plans to hit all 20 stores so she can be entered in the drawing for a $400 gift certificate. i haven't quite committed to that yet. we'll see how i feel at the end of the day friday!

so for the contest... i have been working strictly on my chevron scarf. you need to guess how long it will be as of 10 pm thursday (tomorrow) night (meaning after i have sat in front of the tube for 2 hours watching ugly betty and greys). i will measure to the closest quarter inch and round up if need be. winner will be closest without going over. so you should guess a full inch measurement or .25, .50, .75 increment. for example 10.25 - get it?

ok some details. the scarf in the book says to knit until it is 77" so obviously don't guess over that. i also modified the pattern so i am knitting only 36 stitches across instead of the 48 called for. str lightweight on size 5's. ok, so make your guesses in the comments below. as usual you can guess the same as someone else. if i get multiple correct answers i'll draw one randomly.

prize this time is a little neopolitan gifty. one skein each of white, pink and brown kitchen cotton, a handful of very special edition neopolitan hershey kisses (i think you can only buy them at the factory - which is where my friend jan picked them up for me) and some neopolitan inspired stitch markers (not shown).

and the winner is

nobody guessed the exact combination (lemongrass and fire on the mountain) but 6 people got at least one of the colors right. so from that i drew a random winner...

the winner is J who guessed lemongrass and tidepool - now J - there isn't a link to a blog or anything when I click on your name, so please contact me at amyATgoodtobegirlDOTcom to claim your prize.

the prize being...

a skein of str january one to get you started on your own chev scarf or for a pair of socks, or whatever! and an assorted set of 5 gtbg stitch markers!

i am loving this color combination. i promise this one won't be frogged! it is a bit bright, but i love the contrast between the 2 colorways. for those that guessed farmhouse and watermelon tourmaline, you were right that i had been loving those on the flickr group - but the yarn shop didn't have farmhouse so i got fire on the mountain. i first paired it with watermelon tourmaline. when i took a picture of it i realized that the watermelon tourmaline looked really light (a lot like the pictures in the group), but in reality they were much brighter. and the peach just stuck out too much for my taste. so i frogged and got rid of watermelon tourmaline for good. i was wondering why the pics for that color combination on flickr looked a bit different from knitter to knitter.

Contest 2 Now Closed

come back at 10 am pacific for winner and pictures of the scarf!

contest 2 and new yarn

contest 1 is now closed for entries, i will only consider entries up to this point.

this past weekend tami, alyson, denise and i headed over to bainbridge island to visit churchmouse yarns & teas and mora ice cream. it was a sort of going away event since tami will be moving to oklahoma very soon. we will miss her so much, tami is an amazing person (and knitter). i met her through my blog 2 years ago!


and on our trip to churchmouse i picked up this habu kit. i can't wait to get started on it. the stainless steel will be interesting to knit with. and some information that may help you with the next contest - churchmouse is one of the only shops around that you can buy str.

that being said, are you ready for contest 2? you don't have to wait another 2 weeks for the result of this one as i will end the contest friday morning (11th) at 8 am pacific.

so, you all know i have been knitting and frogging a lot of chevron scarves. i may have lied to you and told you that i was going to keep with the last combo of colors. but i frogged and cast on a new scarf (one that i know i am going to keep!). so your challenge is to leave 2 str colors in the comments that you think i used on the new version. they may or may not include any of the colors i used previously. at least one of the colors is something that was already in my stash (but i may not have used yet). here is your one big clue - both colors are listed on the str page i linked to above. good luck!

contest winner will be announced friday along with the prize. if nobody guesses the right 2 colors, i will take all entries with at least one of the correct colors and draw a random winner from those. or for that matter, if more than one guesses the right 2 color combo, i will draw random winner from those too.

first contest

just a reminder that there is a small sale over at the shop blog.

**Contest now CLOSED see current posts for other contests still open ** (all entries up until the morning of the 9th are valid)
as for the contest, this is a fairly simple one - you need to guess how many posts i will have between May 1 - May 28. leave your response in the comments. contest ends on the 28th. prize to be announced!

this isn't the only contest, there will be more along the way!

sale status and beach blanket

i apologize, i have delayed the sale over at the shop blog until monday at 10 am pacific. but just a reminder that i do have 3 designs available at all times for ordering, click on the link at the right to see what i am offering currently.


ok, so on the knitting front, i pulled out an old wip (i only have 2 - i try not to keep things on the needle too long if i am not going to finish them). this one was seasonal so i put it away for the winter. this is going to be a beach blanket made out of the ball band dishcloth pattern. i have one of the 4 or 5 panels completed now and hope to cast on for the next today.

i worked out the colors last year and now of course cannot remember. but it shouldn't be too hard. i kind of wish i had used the multi-color with solid but that is ok.


and i'll be including this blurb in most of my may posts for those that didn't catch it before (although i know a lot of you did, thanks for all the wonderful comments on the last couple posts!)...

if you have been reading this blog for awhile you know that may is my blogiversary month! i'll officially hit 3 years at the end of this month. it boggles my mind. as you know, i have done some give aways in celebration and this year will be no different. i haven't worked out prizes (but duh! you know stitch markers will be involved!) but i will say that i highly encourage you to leave comments in may. i will actually be keeping track of all the comments and my contest will somehow revolve around them. so if you are a lurker i suggest you de-lurk if you want the chance at some good stuff! first contest will be on monday!

not only knitting

you know when those weird coincidences happen? the ones that kind of make you think it must mean something? i had one of those today.

i was getting all geared up to right a post about all the crafty things i used to do when i realized it had been exactly a year since this post. that is just too strange. needless to say, not much has changed, although i did manage to create a couple creative parties. other than that it remains mostly about the knitting.


of course all this musing came from the release of the new martha products (thanks amanda for the tip the other night!). these are the type of products i used to horde. and i probably still would if i didn't horde another little thing called yarn!

anyways, blah blah blah, i had all this stuff written about my old job (i managed a papyrus store for 5 years) and how i was a paper snob and how i miss having a job that i loved but don't miss retail etc. but i won't go there now. just look at the pretty martha stuff (ok so i probably bought more than string and cupcake liners).

and i'll be including this blurb in most of my may posts for those that didn't catch it before (although i know a lot of you did, thanks for all the wonderful comments on the last couple posts!)...

if you have been reading this blog for awhile you know that may is my blogiversary month! i'll officially hit 3 years at the end of this month. it boggles my mind. as you know, i have done some give aways in celebration and this year will be no different. i haven't worked out prizes (but duh! you know stitch markers will be involved!) but i will say that i highly encourage you to leave comments in may. i will actually be keeping track of all the comments and my contest will somehow revolve around them. so if you are a lurker i suggest you de-lurk if you want the chance at some good stuff! more details to come.

tomorrow there will be a small batch of markers for sale over on the shop blog.

cotton

when i posted my cone of peaches & creme from ebay awhile back, Donna A. (an anonymous commenter) left me the link to order directly from the manufacturer. thanks for the enabling donna! i quickly ordered a ball of several colorways to see what i thought (you can never trust your monitor!). so above i have (clockwise and then center) fairy tales, black cherry, aztec ombre, pink lemonade, mint chocolate (which has blue and brown, not green and brown as you would think!), raspberry swirl and in the center, mar-di-gras.

**EDITED TO ADD LINK shop direct

i have no idea what i am doing with them yet. :) dishcloths most likely.

and i'll be including this blurb in most of my may posts for those that didn't catch it yesterday...

if you have been reading this blog for awhile you know that may is my blogiversary month! i'll officially hit 3 years at the end of this month. it boggles my mind. as you know, i have done some give aways in celebration and this year will be no different. i haven't worked out prizes (but duh! you know stitch markers will be involved!) but i will say that i highly encourage you to leave comments in may. i will actually be keeping track of all the comments and my contest will somehow revolve around them. so if you are a lurker i suggest you de-lurk if you want the chance at some good stuff! more details to come.