toys are good food

Happiest of (holi)days

We are back from our winter wonderland trip to the north. Yes, it was cold and snowy. Yes, it was fun. Yes, we are glad to be back.

My fella' and I took the train up to visit our families in OH and MI. Yes, the TRAIN. Amtrak. Yes, it still runs and people (a few at least) still travel via this method. We both had a great time and highly recommend it as long as you have some spare time. I hope to write more or post another article just on our travel/train experience, so I'm not going into much now.

But the point of this article is to say that Yay!, we're home and the holidays were good to us. We hope they were good to y'all, too. And not that the gifts or the getting is the important focus of the holidays, but I had to share a pic of the bounty that Santa left at my folks house. Amazing, no? (Okay, so click the image to see a not so skewed image, but still insanity.) Between the two families, we ended up celebrating three Christmases and gift exchanges. phew!

Merry Everything and Happy Always

Benny-boy & snow

So I'm happy

Matty and I did this last holiday, Thanksgiving, up well. Although we missed our traditional turkey-day family trip, I think that we more than made up for it. We road-tripped up north to visit Rachel, Jason, and (of course) baby Benny. (And don't forget Scout & Rossi-roo, too!)

We had a great, if not too short, visit, and did the requisite eat-until-you-can't-budge meal. What may be surprising to some of you is that those places up north... well, they're cold.

Oh, sure, sure. It's been nippy down in the big D lately. Frost an' all. But in MN, we got snow. In the foto, jimmi is covered. (His first snowfall!)

It was also Benny's first snowfall. It's a good thing that his auntie had knit him some sweaters to wear! Yup, proud me knit that blue sweater (with football buttons), hat, and matching booties.

What? Does that sweater look familiar? Huh... oh - that may be because it was knit way back here for my friend's twin boys. They had out grown them before I was done knitting 'em. And then they were indented for Jackson, but he was too big and the weather was too warm. So guess what sweet lil' boy lucks out?!

And yes, the original deal was for two sweaters, and two there are! I changed out the buttons (R & J aren't really into sports, so the baseballs had to go) and put on some Peter Rabbit buttons. You might recognize this sweater from here!

The knitting probably bored Mr. Bonez to tears, but he sure joined in on the baby lovin'. Are they some cute boyz?

Yarn... in my mailbox?!

Oh, could things get any better?

When I came home last night from the Rogue SSSP, I was giddy. When I picked up the mail, I hit the roof! I had gotten my first knittable samples from Elann.com.

Sure, I knew these were coming soon. I paid money and joined their 'sample skeins subscription' after all. And we were just talking about it at girls-knit-out. But it was still a nice surprise.

What did I get? Four swatchable samples of their new yarns for the month (December). They're all similar colors/hues (reds), and I think that I like them all. I haven't knitted the swatches up yet, but just you wait!

They also come with their newsletter about the yarns, which have small samples of the colors. I really like that feature. Call me silly, but that's 100x better than just printing the color sheets.

So I'm happy, ensconced in yarn and ignoring loads of boxes to unpack. yay me.

Not completely greenie

I finished by beanie cap. You know, that lurvly Silk Garden cap that I was ranting and raving about just a post or two ago. The green one. Well, guess what? It's not all green!

Oh, I knew that it wasn't going to stay all green. I saw the other colors and I even mentioned them in the other post. But what a shocking change from the greens that were happening. And how I lurve it! The hat fits snug and good on my noggin, and it's yummy-warm. The colors are great and it was fun to knit up.

So it's a FO. Yay! The pic here is the "extra" yarn that was left over from the skein. More than I was expecting, but don't worry - I know how to use it all up.

But I couldn't stop there, could I? (A knitter is never truly done knitting.) I've started some more project(s) and learned some new tricks/tips. I'm evolving into a right, fine knitter. yup.

So I've showed y'all my stash (never mind that it has since grown due to my apparent inability to say 'no' to yarn). Now I'm gonna reveal shame to all you nice folks and tell you 'bout my WIPs and WWIPs.

Why is it necessary for me to share my shame with the bit of public that visits ché Toys? Because I can and you're still reading. (You are still reading this, right?) So here goes, a list of projects currently on needles:

1. Voodoo wrist warmers - the first done (but not sewn up);the second is not even started. Do you like my wintery-image mouse pad? That's a pic from around the block this past Valentine's Day when Dallas got hit with inches of snow! My sweet Matty made me a commemorative mouse pad.


2. My First Sock - Sockotta yarn in orange, gray, and cream (comes out speckled, not striped) on US #2 dpns. I started this during our Thanksgiving trip to MN to see baby Benny and his parents. I have just a little over 3" done.




3. Matty's monkey scarf - another project started during the MN trip, this one during the 1000 mile car drive going there. (Um, I was a passenger at the time of knitting.) No, it's not made to look like a monkey, but instead the brown & white threads look similar to sock monkey fabric. In the end, he will have a matching monkey sweater and possibly monkey socks and a monkey hat. Go figure. (I like saying "monkey".)
4. Nephew sweater - a red cardigan sweater with cables running down the sides. For a nephew. 'nuff sed.
5. secret #1 - nope, nothing to read here. Move on.
6. Tricot - For the love of wool, woman! When am I gonna seam this biatch up?

Phew - that's a list, huh? And I think I forgot to list some items - oops. There are also a handful of items that I would *like* to get done for holiday gifts, but am not pushing it. No use, anywho.

Ohh - the Bounty!

Oh how the lords of plenty rained down upon us knitters last night. It was a beautiful thing to witness (and even better, 'cause I was part of it). The baubles! The fibers! The laughter and joy! I could just weep from the goodness of it all.

Last night, some rogue knitters (hi gals) I know had the first of two season secret-stealth pal (SSSP) exchanges. Does this even need explanation? Everyone's familiar with secret pal's right? (The recipient doesn't know who her gift-giver is.) We all snuck into the cafe carrying ambiguous brown grocery bags, secretly labeled with our pal's name. And then the fun started.

The bags were handed out to their intended parties (thanks, Sophie!) and everybody dug right in! Ahh, the sweet aroma mix of candles, soap, and body products! All the oohing and wowing, sharing and showing off that carried around the table. I can't even imagine what the other patrons or staff thought. (And who cares - I got kewl stuff!)