The Good, The Bad & The Ugly #3

February 2, 2006 By Carole

Good: Having a heartfelt discussion with my quilting friends about my lack of interest in quilting these days. I love my friends and want to see them but really want to knit and not quilt. We all agreed that what matters is getting together, not whether someone is quilting or knitting or just sitting around doing nothing. We even decided to change our name from the “Hungry Quilters” to the “Hungry Friends”! Now that’s friendship, kids!

Good: Finishing sock #1 for the Bloomin’ Feet swap.

Good: Weighing the remaining yarn and finding out there’s enough for sock #2. Yippee!

Bad: Seeing so many of my bulbs pushing their way up through the ground already. I want to yell at them, “Turn back! Retreat! There’s six more weeks of winter yet!”

Bad: Not having finished a book in ages! I’ve tried and tried but it seems like no matter what I pick up, nothing holds my interest. I’m a librarian and this is bad. I’m open for suggestions, though. If you have any ideas to get me out of my reading slump, I’d love to hear them!

Ugly: Learning about RFID technology and consumer privacy. I attended an eye-opening workshop on this subject last week. Let’s just say I won’t be recommending this for my library anytime soon.

Buy More Yarn Update

February 1, 2006 By Carole

Have you all been following the ~~hoarders~~ shoppers over at the Buy More Yarn Along? These people are mad. Or maybe just independently wealthy.

Whatever the case, the program has been a huge success so far! I thought there would be a handful of people to sign up. Maybe 7 or even 10 at the most. There are actually 38 participants! And they are mostly all out there buying yarn.

As of today, Risa is in the lead with 73 points, but Dave is looming behind her with 72 points! Dee has 63 points and Elspeth has 52. The rest of you aren’t even close to these overachievers! They’re leaving you in the dust, people!

Want to sign up for the program? It’s not too late and all purchases made after January 19, 2006 count. Send me an email at cjulius AT carverpl DOT org and put Buy More Yarn in the subject line.

Have purchases to tell me about? Just send an email to cjulius AT carverpl DOT org and, again, put Buy More Yarn in the subject line. Tell me how many skeins of yarn or ounces of fiber you bought and I’ll add your points for you.

Now, get on out there and SHOP!

Taking Care of Business

January 31, 2006 By Carole

Thank you all so much for the blog birthday wishes! All your kind words and compliments and encouragement warmed this little ole blogger’s heart. And my Better Pal says she got those light up ducks at World Market, for those of you who asked.

Now, down to business.

Last week or so, Julia tagged me with this automeme. I’m supposed to show you what makes my car distinctly mine. Probably just the fact that I drive a Jeep Wrangler, in the winter, with canvas doors, makes it distinctly mine. Or maybe that just makes me distinctly crazy.

In any case, here’s my Jeep and the two things that I think make it distinctly mine.

The spare tire cover was a Christmas present from Dale. I’m a librarian, of course my spare tire cover should say “Read” and not “Jeep,” don’t you think?

And the magnet is all Scout’s fault. She showed hers and of course I had to have one, too. You know you want one! Dale isn’t thrilled about driving around in a Jeep with a pink ball of yarn magnet on it, but he’ll just have to get over it.

The Jeep is mine, after all.

The Blog Turns One!

January 30, 2006 By Carole

Yesterday was my blog’s birthday and it is now one year old! The first year for any baby can be difficult and growing pains are typical. However, I’m here to tell you that it has been a wonderful year for the blog and I!

When I started blogging, I had been reading other knitting blogs for a few months. I never felt comfortable leaving comments because I didn’t have my own blog so I mostly just lurked. But one Saturday morning in late January I was home alone and I started fooling around on blogger. Next thing I knew, Carole Knits was born. It wasn’t long before I wanted something more uniquely my own than blogger could provide, and that’s when I contacted Missa. She created the “look” for Carole Knits and set me up with knitblog and Movable Type.

I always hoped for regular readers and commenters but really didn’t know how I’d get them. I just figured I’d start leaving comments on blogs with the link to my blog and eventually people started commenting. It took a while but now I have regular readers and commenters and you like me! You really like me! For the bean counters out there, this is my 167th post and the blog has received 1676 comments. Pretty slick, eh?

The thing I didn’t anticipate and could no way have predicted was that I would make real friends through this endeavor. Talk about the icing on the proverbial cake! The sharing of knitting stories lead to the sharing of life stories and that in turn lead to the forming of lasting friendships. It’s really been a gift and I feel incredibly lucky to have made a whole bunch of new friends this past year!

Speaking of new friends, the January gift from my Better Pal arrived.

What a hoot! There was this fantastic kitty wresting card, along with the cutest light up floating ducks, and some chocolate dipped biscuits, and a lunch box full of Boston Baked Beans, and the most gorgeous roving from Lorna’s Laces. I’m counting this as the blog’s birthday present. Thank you, Better Pal! I can’t wait to find out who you really are!

So, without getting any sappier than I already have, thank you all for coming back and reading what I have to say. Thank you for all the comments. Thank you for inspiring me to knit more, knit harder, knit cooler. Thank you for being my friends. Happy Birthday to my blog! Here’s to the year ahead!

More Knitting? No Way!

January 26, 2006 By Carole

I promised more knitting, didn’t I? I always keep my promises!

First, allow me to show you some finished Feather & Fan Socks. These socks are for Cecily, my spoiler from Secret Pal 6. She was so good to me and her favorite color is purple and I promised her some socks. Like I said, I always keep my promises.

Here we have the full frontal pose:

And here we have the “dressed” pose:

My thanks to Grumperina for teaching me how to make a sock label. I just love the way it looks!

Of course, you know as soon as I finish a pair of socks I’m ready to start my next pair. See these?

Yup – my third pair of Jaywalkers! However, they are my first pair knit with Socks That Rock. They are for my Bloomin’ Feet pal. Now, there are lots of fancy sock patterns out there but I think my pal deserves the latest fad sweeping blog land, don’t you? Sure hope she likes ‘em.

Here’s some exciting news, even if it’s not about knitting. My friends Betty and Jim got engaged! Go tell Betty “best wishes,” would ya? Thanks!