Sockpal 4 Coolness

Okay, I had forgotten to take a pic of the socks and goodies before they headed out to my sockpal, Pericscope Knits. My sockpal recently put up several pics of the socks on her. They look awesome.

Robin recently got her socks in too. I haven't seen them yet. In fact, we haven't had a chance to get together for about 3-4 weeks. Her pal is from out of the country, if I remember correctly. So they took a bit to get to her.

That's it. Maybe I'll catch up with Robin this weekend.

Sockpal Coincidence!

Great minds think a like on this pair! My sockpal, Abigail of 1870 Pearl, hinted that I would laugh when I saw the socks she knit me, but in a good way. I haven't posted about my socks because too many things happened. My socks arrived earlier than expected as Abigail was doing some packing and moving. Unfortunately, they arrived the day before I was off on a trip myself and my parents were visiting. After much squealing and drooling by myself, and I think my mom, I set them aside until the end of my parent's yearly visit.

Where does the coincidence come in? Well, my sockpal really figured me out. She knit me socks in the same pattern I was knitting my own sockpal, sockbug's River Rapids! I thought that was too cool. Before my sockpal's socks, I wanted to try knitting me some of these socks, but didn't have the time. Now, I have my very own River Rapids socks! And in a pretty Lorna's Laces colorway -- Tahoe. It's purple, it's green, it's blue. All the colors I love! Check them out below. The color is closer in this photo than in the goodies photo below.



She also packed in a few extra goodies, like a beautiful little bag that stands up really well (flat-bottomed), At Knit's End by the Yarn Harlot, The Healing Garden lotion and spray mist in lavender (yummy), needle gauge and ruler, Sock It To Me shoe size to sock length conversion guide (which looks like it will come in real handy in the future), some very cute black sheep and angel row counters (the angel ones are in the bag -- I didn't want to lose them), and a stitch marker from the Loopy Ewe.



Did my sockpal pack some stuff in there or what? I couldn't believe what was in my package. I think my mom must have heard "awesome" and "cool" several times, poor woman. Okay, I'll stop before I start saying too cool again.

Happy fibering!

Vacation

Gone, gone, gone! But it was fun while it lasted. My parents were out visiting and we headed out on a couple of trips. We went to Fort Moultrie down on Sullivan's Island, near to Charleston, SC. It is such a historically rich area.

After visiting Fort Moultrie, we checked into our hotel and headed to downtown Charleston for some dinner. Dad had spied an ad for Hyman's Seafood, so we checked it out. I'm not a fish eater, but I love shrimp. The food was excellent.

After dinner, our plan was to go on a ghost tour, but unfortunately for us it rained. And I do mean rain. Not just a light drizzle, but pouring down rain. The streets flooded. We waited the rain out for a bit down in Hyman's General Store. The rain just kept coming. Living in the south, I have become used to afternoon and early evening rain, but this seemed more. We decided to buy a few hats and run through the rain. It was interesting running through the rain, stopping under overhangs, giggling with your parents as you got soaking wet and stepped in above ankle deep water. I had a blast! Some streets were flooded, some blocked off. We got to our parking area sopping wet, but smiling. Wouldn't you know it though, the rain let up about 5 minutes after we got to our parking deck. Figures! We called the tour place and cancelled our tour. They had already cancelled the first ghost tour, but they were planning on going out on the second one. We had it with water though. Off to the hotel we went.

The next day was my husband's birthday, so we were off to home. His birthday was a beautiful sunny day too. No rain predicted for that evening. Oh well, next time we'll go on the tour and see more of the area.

Our next trip included Robin and was to a quilt show up in Asheville, NC. I love that area. We headed up early and went to Black Mountain, a lovely crafty area. The next day we headed over to the show, which was held at the NC Arboretum. It was a lovely show and a lovely place to have it. I took some pictures of plants for my photograph collection. There were 13 vendors, a high for the quilt show, and over 200 quilts on display. My mom has gone to many quilt shows in CA, so she is used to a much larger show, but she enjoyed it. We spent a great deal of time at Batiks Etc. And we spent the afternoon listening and asking questions at the demonstrations. The demonstrations were really great. They had a few well-known quilters giving demonstrations. The Warm Company was there and they gave out a great sampler bag of their products. I wasn't planning on spending much and was doing great, until I saw this table. Sigh, one is due in at my house this week. Mom already received hers. I just hope it is worth the money.

Robin bought a cute pattern to make a rainbow mobile for her classroom. She bought some fabric to make it. I received a "help" email from her as the technique is new, but it sounds like she's done with it. I can't wait to see it. She's working on getting her new art classroom set up before school starts for her, so she's busy busy.

Mom and I also tried a method that we learned in a demonstration at the quilt show, but I won't show that. While at the show, I bought a DVD, Fast and Free, volume 2 by Patsy Thomspon. The video is excellent. Mom ended up buying the two volumes she thought it was so interesting herself. So you think we're enablers? Maybe.

While my parents were here, my mom and I did some sewing. We worked on similar "Who's In My Garden" projects, mine shown below. We purchased the fabric from Bunney Hutch, while I was out visting last Christmas or last year (time flies). Somehow mom's work managed to escape my camera.



I also taught mom how to paint on fabric and use thread painting to enhance the painting. Mom had fun with that and has plans to buy the book I showed her, Coloring with Thread by Ann Fahl. I like the book and think it has some really nice ideas and exercises in it.



My parent's visit always goes so fast, but we have so much fun while they are here. We pack a lot in though. I just hope Dad wasn't too bored during the trip. That's it for now. I'll have another post with my sockpal socks!