{The Mailman Loves me!!}

Well, I know it's not the mail man who sends me great and wonderful things, but it's just hard not to get excited when I see him!  Today, I had a wonderful and beautiful envelope from Tulsi Leaf Traders!  I won a giveaway on her blog and now I can't seem to find the dang address!  That link is to her Etsy store, which is also very gorgeous.  I'll update this as soon as I find it. lol

I won a pair of citrin gemstone earrings!!  Aren't these SO pretty?  They are perfect for me! I love the length and the neutral colour and I love that they are rusticy.  I could wear these every day!

And also in the envelope was a completely unexpected surprise: A skein of yarn!!  A really pretty Alpaca yarn in a fun colour!!

She said she discovered she can't knit with Alpaca, and while I'm very sorry for her loss, I'm VERY excited to be the recipient of this gorgeous fiber!!  This is from The Alpaca Yarn Company in colour Caribbean Chocolate.  YUM.

And hey! Have you I told you guys that Jenny is coming to visit me? From SWEDEN!! I couldn't write about it before because it was a big huge surprise from all her friends and family for her birthday!  Her sister Sanna contacted me after I wrote about her during Knit and Crochet blog week, and everyone pitched in to pay for her plane ticket!! She's going to be here probably next spring with her husband Thomas.  I am SO SO SO excited!  I have to probably learn to be more calm though since that's a while away. lol

Her first instinct is to buy a second suitcase when she gets here and fill it with yarn.  I think that's a GREAT idea. :D

{The Niddy Noddy Revisited}

So far I'm getting lots of people who have entered their name in to the drawing for my PVC Niddy Noddy and I could not be more excited! If you're not yet one of those people, just make sure you follow my blog and then go to the previous post and leave me a comment!  I'll pull a random number next Sunday, July 4th, and the give away is open to anyone in the world!

I did get a few questions about the purpose of a Niddy Noddy (or Niddy Naughty as one commenter pointed out. hehe), and since illustrations always work best...

 A Niddy Noddy is capable of taking any yarn (such as this summery yarn I got in the mail from my $10 Swap partner today. Thanks ScrapingD!)...

and turn it in to a pretty hank, like this!

by a process that looks something like this:

You just hold the yarn in the same hand that's holding the center bar and wrap the yarn around and around with the other hand.  Here's a YouTube video from JoyofHandSpinning that shows exactly how that's done.  She also uses a beautiful traditional Niddy Noddy made of wood.  Love (1).  This process is useful for dyers, spinners, or even just anyone who likes to store their yarn in hanks instead of messy balls. :)

Also, because the overall length of the tool is 18", it manages to produce something close to a 2 yard skein, which gives you a quick and dirty estimate of how many yards you have in your skein.

As a side benefit, I've also proven that my spray paint for plastics didn't come off on my yarn, YAY!  For those who noticed that one of the arms is bent in the picture above it's because I didn't glue all the pieces together so I can ship it in a little bitty box.  I have the four arms are glued to the center "T" piece on my own, but I didn't glue the long arm to the short sides so that I could store it like so:

Brilliant, amiright?

{100 Follower Giveaway!}

It still amazes me that I have managed to attract (more than) 100 people to my little tiny corner of the Intraweb.  I love sharing all my crafty and knitting adventures with all the wonderful people that I have come to consider friends, and am so incredibly thankful that every one of them takes the time to visit me during their busy day.

To show my appreciation I would like to host a giveaway. 

This is the Niddy Noddy that Mr. Pie and I made this week especially to give away to one of my followers.  It's a device used by knitters to re-skein yarn and is particularly useful for anyone who dyes yarn.  Also, because of it's size it's also fairly useful for measuring yardage.  This model is made from PVC piping and is spray painted using a brand specifically for plastic. It's a very useful tool!  I know because mine is just like it, only not as pretty. hehe 

Enter the give away simply by following my blog then 

commenting on this post.  I'll use the random number generator 

next Sunday, July 4th to choose a winner!  This giveaway 

is open to any of my followers from anywhere in the world!

Thank again for following me.   You guys are what make this whole blogging thing fun!

Sincerely,
 Sarah
The Student Knitter

{I Have...}

I Have....

 Oh my goodness you guys!!  This blog has 100 Followers!!  I will certainly be celebrating this occassion with a give-away this weekend.  Stay Tuned!

I (also) Have....

New Yarn!  Another swap and this time for this very yummy sock yarn called Zen Garden from their yarn club, in colour Flaming June.

Zen Yarn Garden Blog

This yarn is so not my usual colours but for some reason i. LOVE. eet.   The composition of the yarn is pretty cool too: 70% Merino, 20% Bamboo, 10% Nylon, so it could make excellent machine washable socks, but I'm not convinced that's what I want to do.  I want to search around on some Rav pages and see what inspires me! 


Alrighty! Check back this weekend to see what the Follower Appreciation Giveaway will be!

{Check Me Out!}

 

The CSI Project

Hey!  You can't imagine my surprise when I realized that I was chosen as one of the Top Ten projects over at the CSI Project!  This is super exciting because all the biggest decorating and designing blogs submit their work here.  More than 200 people linked up!

I am so honoured! Thank you!

{I Got Flowers!}

No Particular reason, other than I have the greatest man ever. :)  He just woke up this morning and thought, "I'm going to get my girl some flowers today."


*SWOON!*  Aren't they pretty? Just a great summer bouquet.

That's another kitty, not Popeye, sniffing my flowers. Her name is Girl Cat. She adopted us, I'm afraid, and we were out of creativity for names. lol  She came to us as a kitten and then well... she grew up and we found out she wasn't a girl. We decided she had a girly spirit though, (and Boy Cat just sounded stupid) so she was gender reassigned. hehehe

{Keeping Busy}

The summer swing of things has certainly settled in, and that's not to say that it's a slow pace.  I've had plenty to keep me busy!

School

My first accounting class.  I'm doing this one independent study over the summer, meaning I don't have to go to classes, but I still have to take the tests and turn in homework the same as a normal class only without the lectures to help me out.  Oh yeah, and I have to finish it in 7 weeks instead of the typical 15 we get during the fall or spring. lol

The Gym

 I've been trying to get to the gym 5 days a week and I've been fairly successful thus far.  If I can just make it a habit then I'm less likely to get lazy or lose motivation.  I've been running on the treadmill, doing circuit training, weight training, group classes, swimming... anything to keep me interested so I can trim down a bit. It's working so far, I'm down about 7 pounds in the month I've been working at it.

Knitting

This Malabrigo Worsted is a DREAM to knit with.  I've really been enjoying this scarf that will be for a Christmas gift.  It's two sided with three cables on one side and the two on the other.  It's repetitive so I watch movies and whatnot while I'm doing it.  I'm at about 30 inches or so at the moment and aiming for 50 inches - does that seem about right for a man's scarf?

The Icarus is not sitting idle either.  I'm two rows shy of completing chart 2 and moving on to chart 3.  

Cooking

Mr.Pie has been working long hours at his new position while he's training, which could go on until nearly Christmas time. Ugh.  I'm doing what I can to keep the house tidy, the laundry done, the meals cooked for him when he gets home so that our time together is the best it can be.  Oh lord... does that sound domestic or what?  I don't mind it though. :)

What has been keeping you guys busy this summer? :)