Letterboxing, Anyone?

I was browsing someone else's blog today and came across a post where he and his wife had stumbled upon one of these "Letterboxes". Has anyone else heard of this? It's news to me, but sounds really cool. Something a family could even do together.

Basically, Letterboxing consists of a little "treasure hunt". People come up with a trail name, much like a screen name or user name online and they meet up in chat or message board communities where this hobby is discussed. Some people place letterboxes out in the wild to be found and people hunt for them. The boxes usually are made up of waterproof, tight sealed, plastic kitchen containers that hold an information sheet about Letterboxing, a log book, an ink pad, a rubber stamp and a pen. The seekers will carry their own log book, rubber stamp that has some meaning to them and basic supplies, just in case. The gist is to covertly locate the box, step away from the exact location, open the box, read the contents, take the rubber stamp inside and use it to mark your own personal log book and then you take your personal stamp that you carry and mark the log book that belongs to the letterbox, you sign your trail name and date it and maybe add your hometown and a comment. After you do all of that, you replace the box where you found it so that the next seeker can locate it too. Kinda cool!

There's a whole website about it here, check it out!

~Suz~

Sherbert Ripple, Fin!

Well, i ended up being quite pleased with this little baby blanket. The stitch pattern was very easy (Larry over at KnitDad said it looked like Feather 'N Fan?), but i got it from Lion Brand.com and they call it a "Ripple Pattern" it is as follows:

Multiple of 18 stitches

Row 1: *[K2tog] 3 times, [k1, yo] 6 times, [k2tog] 3 times; rep from * to end.
Row 2: Knit
Row 3: Knit
Row 4: Purl

Repeat until you can't see straight.





It goes along very quickly. Which is always nice.

These may not be colors that i would have chosen, as i've said before, all of it was given to me by people who had already made whatever it was they wanted out of it and had leftovers. All in all, not too shabby for leftovers!





That's all i got for tonight!

~Suz~

Tag!, You're IT!

I was tagged by Casey~

The Rules:
Go to Wikipedia and type in your birthday (only the month and day). Find three events, two births, and one holiday that occurred on your birthday. Then tag five friends.

Ok. My birthday is May 28th:

Events -
1). 1533 - The Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declares the marriage of King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn valid.

2). 1937 - The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, DC, who pushes a button signaling the start of vehicle traffic over the span.

3). 2006 - German-born Pope Benedict XVI visits Auschwitz to conclude his pilgrimage to Poland.

Births -
1). 1779 - Thomas Moore, Irish poet (d. 1852)

2). 1909 - Red Horner, Canadian hockey star (d. 2005)

Holiday -
1). This year and many other years, it was Memorial Day in the U.S.

There ya go! And i'm taggin' people this time! I'm taggin' Scarlett, Cookie, Lesa, Kele & Kat! HA!

~Suz~

Summer Of Socks 2007

The Summer of Socks 2007 - Knit Along, began bright and early on the First Day of Summer. I know, i'm a day late blogging about it, but i'm here now. :)

I actually did cast on for my new sock at a little after 5amEST. I was up all night anyway. I cast on and got this far...







So far, it's just a cuff. Nothing too exciting. I picked this yarn up a while ago when Webs was having a closeout on it. It's Gedifra Fashion Trends Sportivo. I had tried knitting it on size 3 dpns a while ago, but it was knitting up too loosely so i frogged the whole thing and the yarn has been on a time out for a few months. I decided to give it another whirl on size 2's, and it's working out much better.

I've also cast on for a new Big Black Sock (BBS) for Socks For Soldiers. This one and it's mate will be destined for Soldier Patrick who is the local fellow that ended up being in that hot air balloon that Deb and i chased down one weekend. (You can't see him in any of those pictures, he's on the other side of his sweetie, Trish)





In other sock knitting news, i received some wonderful contest prize yarn from the Socks For Soldiers Group today. Our leader, Kim (a.k.a. Sarge) holds contests for the members all of the time. She likes to do things to boost our morale and get us knitting more. I was actually late to the contest because i get my posts from the group in email - digest form and i had let them sit for several days during my initial Ravelry time suck. The contest was to tell a watermelon related story that was true or made up. I knew i was late, but sent my story in just to share it, cuz it's a good one, and one of the other prize winners asked Kim to let me have her prize. Wasn't that sweet of her? A few of the members who dye yarn, agreed to dye some in watermelon themed colors. I'm such a lucky, lucky gal...i got yarn that was dyed by Joy again! (Joy is the lady who dyed the gorgeous Autumnal colored yarn that i was knitting last month)

Without further ado, i give you Joy's Handpainted Watermelon yarn!

Isn't it fun! I love it!!

Happy Sock Knitting out there!

~Suz~

Baby Waves

I know it's hard to believe, but...i've actually been doing some knitting!

Lacy baby blanket goodness, using donated baby yarns of this and that.



Want to see that a little closer? I know you do!


There ya go!

That is all.

~Suz~

Photo Scavenger Hunt

Erin over at "Best Friend's A Dork" is running a contest that is a Photo Scavenger Hunt. I've been working for a couple of weeks not on collecting my photos. It's been fun and challenging too. The hardest photo to come up with was a bicyclist. You see, when you're in a moving van hunting down scavenger hunt items, you're likely moving in one direction and bicyclists in another direction. One weekend, i totally missed out on two bicycle cops, that would have been the best. By the time we had turned around and made our way back to where they had been standing astride their bicycles having a chit chat, they had gotten back on the seats and had begun peddling toward us and i felt a bit of fear at snapping their picture out the van window, right up in their faces. Deb said, "What? Are you afraid their going to arrest you for taking their picture or something?" Um, yeah! LOL!

Thanks so much for the contest Erin, it's one of the most fun contests i've entered in blogland!

Here ya go...

a knitter (other than myself) knitting in public.

an ice cream truck.

These were very hard to come by. In fact, this is the only one we ever saw, and it seems to be a bit out of commission.

a sock (handknit or not).

a library card.

I don't know if you can tell in this pic or not, but our library cards are holograms.

a ball of green yarn.

Caron Simply Soft Brites in "Limelight". Now, that's bright!

a bicyclist.

a street sign.

I want to live on this road. I LOVE frogs!

a flower.

A Stargazer Lily from Deb's Mom's yard. A bunch of them are in a vase on the kitchen table.

a public work of art.

your reflection in an unexpected place.

My reflection in the underside of my mouse pad. No. I'm not kidding. Look at all the gunk on that. I think it might need some Windex or something! Ewww!

someone in a catalog pose.

Mom, modeling her "Beginner's Luck" shawl.

a funny billboard or sign.

This was not an easy one either. It's the best i could do. Oh, haha!

~Suz~

Zoinks?! Two days in a row?

Wow. Can it really be? Posts two days in a row? I know, i know. Don't get all excited thinking this will be a daily event, i'm not Dave, Cookie or Scarlett, ya know!

I actually started a new baby item last night, so i'll share that with you.

Originally i was going to use this pattern, but scrapped it as crap! There was a "Knit into the front, back, front" of one stitch in there and it was a complete pain in my ass. I ended up going over to poke around on "Knitting Pattern Central" and came up with a stitch pattern that lead me right back to the Lion Brand website, here. This ripple stitch is much more user friendly, so i'm using it. No real pattern, per se. I just needed a cast on that's a multiple of 18, so i cast on 144 and off i went. I did have to tink back one four row repeat when i realized that i had one extra stitch. Ugh! So, the clue is to recount your stitches each time after row one. Two and three are plain knit and four is plain purl...so those should be good to go if row one is spot on.



I'm using a small batch of yarns that were donated to me, i'm hoping that i have enough to make a nice little blanket and that it doesn't look hideous. We'll see.

This is what i'm working with)I'm not using that smallest ball, it's a different weight):



Happy Knitting!

~Suz~

Yes Becky, it's a blog post!

Where's yours?!! LOL!

Ok. So, if you've been here you know that i've been sucked into Ravelry. It is fantastic! Once it goes public, i'll put up a link so that anyone who wants to can check it out!

Two other knitting notes:

1). The New Knitty is up. With Summer patterns.

2). Knit Picks has some of their yarns on super sale to clear out for Fall. Of course i have no spare yarn money right at the moment but if you're early Christmas shopping for me, i'd love to have some of this in "Campfire" or any of the sale colors here or here. ;)

I finally finished a pair of Horcrux socks for my SP. I'd like to pick up at least one local postcard or magnet or something and then i should be all set to send it off. Hope my SP likes the socks.


All of the other knitting that i've been doing is a whack of baby items. A few people have made comment to this. NO! We are not expecting. Sheesh! Bunch'a wise guys!



Any guesses what this will be?!

Yep. You guessed it. I'm aiming for seven, one for each day of the week!

As you can see, some of them still need some finishing, ends woven in and buttons added. I also need to finish the 7 sleeve rows on the Baby Einstein Coat and then i'm making a cute little hat to go with it.

All of the baby items that i'm making right now are being made at the request of a Dear Friend of ours. Wendy (sadly, blogless) asked me if i would be willing to knit something to be donated to a Le Leche League event that she will be going to in July. So, of course i will be spending the rest of June, trying to see how much i can knit up for her. Everything will need to be ready to ship out around the 1st of July so that Wendy can see what's there and decide what she wants to take. I asked her that if there was something that was "not worthy" of going to the auction, if she would donate it to the "Mitten Tree" at the First UU of Hobart, where Deb and i used to go to Church. See, there is a very good explanation for the baby items!

Ok. One last thing. I won a prize from a blog contest that another Becky held a bit ago. The contest was to help her find a new and possibly better name for her blog. Someone else came up with a fantastic name! Becky was very generous and offered several prizes, the winners got to choose in order and i chose this:


Oh look! Baby yarn! WooHoo!! Thanks Becky!

Ok. I'm off to go knit for a while. I may even cast on something new...and babyish, of course! ;)

~Suz~

What was that sucking sound?

Huh?

Oh, that was me being sucked right into Ravelry on Monday night. I was so excited to get my invite and knew that i'd be on there that whole night, so i was a good kid and read and replied to all of my emails and did all of my blog reading first before i even clicked to enter Ravelry. Good thing too, i was on there until freakin' 4:30am and then i couldn't sleep well and was back on the site by 9am Tuesday.

Spent hours and hours of Wednesday on there, entering my knitting projects and yarns. I finally had to shut the poor computer down for two hours between 6-8pm so that i could take photos of some other projects and yarns that were deeper in "the bin". I got back on the site after the photo session, uploaded all of my stuff onto Flickr and then went right back to adding things into my notebook on Ravelry (<~~ link won't work until site is completely open to the public).

I wasn't on there quite as much today. But i thought i would drop a note to at least let you know where i've been. ;)

If you have no idea what Ravelry is...it's a very new - still in beta test mode - online community and organizational site for knitters, crocheters...later to be spinners, etc. It's a one stop place where you can list all of your knitting needles, yarns, crochet hooks, crafty books, etc. It's all interconnected with your blog, your photos on Flickr (and later other photo sites), it's completely amazing.

If you are on the waiting list...it's big. Like around 6,000 people BIG. I think they've invited around 1,500 people by now, but they have to add us in little by little until the system can handle more. Please, be patient. Casey and Jess are working their fingers to the bone. The wait to get in is so totally worth it i cannot even express it in words.

While you are waiting, i suggest that you round up all your needles and hooks, take photos of all of your stash and all of your projects...you'll want them later! ;)

Can't wait to see you on Ravelry!

~Suz~

What was that sucking sound?

Huh?

Oh, that was being being sucked right into Ravelry on Monday night. I was so excited to get my invite and knew that i'd be on there that whole night, so i was a good kid and read and replied to all of my emails and did all of my blog reading first before i even clicked to enter Ravelry. Good thing too, i was on there until freakin' 4:30am and then i couldn't sleep well and was back on the site by 9am Tuesday.

Spent hours and hours of Wednesday on there, entering my knitting projects and yarns. I finally had to shut the poor computer down for two hours between 6-8pm so that i could take photos of some other projects and yarns that were deeper in "the bin". I got back on the site after the photo session, uploaded all of my stuff onto Flickr and then went right back to adding things into my notebook on Ravelry (<~~ link won't work until site is completely open to the public).

I wasn't on there quite as much today. But i thought i would drop a note to at least let you know where i've been. ;)

If you have no idea what Ravelry is...it's a very new - still in beta test mode - online community and organizational site for knitters, crocheters...later to be spinners, etc. It's a one stop place where you can list all of your knitting needles, yarns, crochet hooks, crafty books, etc. It's all interconnected with your blog, your photos on Flickr (and later other photo sites), it's completely amazing.

If you are on the waiting list...it's big. Like around 6,000 people BIG. I think they've invited around 1,500 people by now, but they have to add us in little by little until the system can handle more. Please, be patient. Casey and Jess are working their fingers to the bone. The wait to get in is so totally worth it i cannot even express it in words.

While you are waiting, i suggest that you round up all your needles and hooks, take photos of all of your stash and all of your projects...you'll want them later! ;)

Can't wait to see you on Ravelry!

~Suz~

Go See Dave

Not *just* because i've got nothing, but mostly because it will be so worth it...hop on over to Dave's blog and check out his post today!

Dave lives in Boston and a while ago i'd asked him if he'd ever been to the Holocaust Memorial? He said that he had not. I asked him to take some of his amazing photos if he ever got over that way...and he did! Thank you so much, Dave!

I visited the Memorial on Columbus Day in 1998. There were no other people near the towers when we got there. I started reading the inscriptions and very slowly walking through the area of the Memorial, looking at and reading whatever my eyes could see. My visit that day has stuck with me and i think of it often. I stood there in silence and cried for i don't know how long?

Those glass towers, etched from top to bottom on all sides with numbers that represent each individual who was killed. So many lives. So much hatred. Just for being different. Just for being who they were. It is so hard for my mind to comprehend such unthinkable cruelty.

Peace.

~Suz~

Catching up on Thursday and Saturday

Last Thursday Deb and i went out for most of the day to run some errands. We did some banking, got the van fueled up and then we headed to the Joann's in Frederick to do some shopping for my SP.

After our venture into Joann's Deb wanted to head up to Hanover, PA so that we could go to the A.C. Moore, neither of us had ever been in it. By the time we got there, my knee was killing me from walking all around the huge Joann's so i waited out in the van. I did a bit of knitting on this while i waited...





...and took this picture and a few others like it. The clouds were really wild and fluffy that day.



When Deb came out of the store, we decided to go and have a nice late lunch/early dinner at our favorite Mexican place. All of the chairs, tables and booth backs are very colorful carved scenes and designs. This is one of my favs...


On Saturday we went into Keymar and picked up Carla and then headed to the Panera in Eldersburg for knitting group. We had two new gals join us this time, such fun! Here's little pic of some knitting action...

Carla is on the left, then Sarah & Jess. Welcome to the group S & J! We left Panera just before 5pm to head across the street and check out the new LYS, "Knitter's Nest". The owner is very nice and friendly and she has a nice slection to choose from. She happily brought over all sorts of new things that she was putting out so that we could fondle them...including some hemp, soy and corn blends. Very cool! A ball of Trekking XXL followed me home!

Let's see, what else did i have on the camera? Oh, yes...one of the birthday gifts from Deb. (The other one is dirty so you'll have to wait until i wash it!)

It's hanging off of the lamp next to my bed. I'll find a planter to hang it off of sooner or later.

Lastly, look at this handsome guy!

My Mom sent me this cute photo that she took on Saturday. My nephew London. My Mom, DanTheMan, my youngest brother Steve and his son London all went to Brookfield Zoo for a birthday outing for London, he just turned 8, i think.

How's that for a mixed post of this and that? LOL! Hope everyone has a great week!

~Suz~

White Noise

You Are the Index Finger

You are ambitious, driven, and capable. You aren't afraid to take responsibility for your actions - or place the blame on whoever deserves it. You are honest, free thinking, and objective. You see things in your own way - and you aren't afraid to let everyone know about it. You get along well with: The Thumb Stay away from: The Ring Finger

What Finger Are You?

Man, is it HOT!

It's just been too hot here the past few days. Since there is no AC in this house, i've been spending as much time as possible in front of the window fan in our bedroom or under the nearest ceiling fan.

It's 2:05am. Deb's working until 5am and when she gets home we'll have about 5 hours of sleep before we need to get up. We have to run to the bank, the post office, to pick up our friend Carla and then to Knitting Group by 2pm. YAY, Knitting group!!!

Hopefully i'll have some fun pictures to share later on today or tomorrow. Until then, here's a recent pic that my Dad sent me, i'm assuming that since he's in the picture, my step-mom Lynn, must've taken the shot. Nice set up, eh?

"This is The Life!"

The photo was taken on the beach outside of the condo complex where my Dad's condo is. Panama City Beach, Florida on the Gulf of Mexico.