Happy Halloween

I stocked up on the requisite bunch of chocolate treats this morning, and Terry and I even splurged at Hallmark yesterday (we were re-stocking the Birthday Card Stash) on this ... but can I think of anything to do for a costume? Nope. I may try and get out some of my more hippy-ish clothes - tie dye T-shirt, long patchwork shirt, skirt with patches on it, and possibly even the rainbow socks I knitted for Terry. Hmm. Or go the "princess" route with wedding tiara and see if I can still fit into the bridesmaids outfit from my sister's wedding, but I've lost the corset I wore with it, and I doubt the top would fit. All ideas welcome! Especially as our Stitch'n'Bitch group will be meeting in costume tonight! And in other knitting news ... I got my second parcel from my Secret Pal! Yay Secret Pal! Here's the opened box:
	See all that shiny green wrapping goodness? Inside were these:
	Yummy yummy yarn that's more bright purple than it looks here - mohair and silk and wool. My SP had seen my Knitty board post coveting Cameron Diaz's scarf from the movie In Her Shoes. Smart SP. This will definitely be used, as the little note with it said, for something for me.
A book I've been coveting for ages! Socks! Lots of yummy socks! I've already added 3 designs to my "want to knit NOW" list. It's got really clear explanations and some very fun patterns.
	Chocolate! Thanks to my SP, I'm becoming rapidly addicted to this Dagoba brand, which I'd never heard of before. The lavendar one in the previous package was scrummy, and as for these ... well...let's just say they didn't last very long.
Rounding off the package was this sweet knitting card, wishing me a happy Socktober! Thank you SP, you really made me feel special. I hope you're reading this, and beaming with pride right now! Happy Halloween to everyone else. I hope you get spoiled with as many treats as I just did!

Finally back in circulation

Well I had the most wonderful visit with my sister and my nephew. You can read all about it on and see photos here and here. I'm missing them both like mad. Oscar is adorably cute - and the sweater I made is almost close to fitting him:

The sweater - slightly fuzzy.	A better shot of the cables

I also knitted a fair isle hat for Sal, colours chosen by her:

(She refused to pose with it on, so you just get my hand as a model

And here is the collection of fair isle hats to date. Guess what everyone's getting for Christmas this year?

But thankfully tonight was Stitch'n'Bitch to keep me occupied. It was a small crowd (Amby, I miss you!) - me, MontiLee and Lynne from City Knits. I spent about 3 hours casting on for..er.. yet another fair isle hat, and then putting 5 repeats on the green aggressive beginners scarf (remember that from months ago?). Thankfully the pattern was still mostly lurking in the back of my memory as I'd forgotten to bring the written instructions, so after ripping the first row back a couple of times, I was off and running. Metaphorically speaking, that is. Literally I stayed at Sweetwaters with a nice pot of their Jasmine Pearl tea.

One more project made its way onto my needles, but no photos as yet. Another Booga Bag. Mostly because I needed some "I don't need to see this" knitting to get me through two cinema trips, but also again to add to the Christmas pile.

So that's mostly it. Now off to catch up with everyone else's news...

Updates

Well, Sally and Oscar arrived safely, despite taking a horrendously long time to get through customs (she was sharing a porter with a lady who had a load of luggage, didn't speak English, and got screened by customs.. so...). Oz was an angel during the flight, and was wide awake when they landed. We drove home, considered putting Oscar to sleep, but he was running around quite happily.. so where else would we go but IHOP for Sal to get her chicken fried steak dinner. Both of them are now sleeping.

And Terry and I should be - we have a wedding up north tomorrow at 1pm, so need to be leaving here hideously early tomorrow (don't worry, Tiff is going to take care of Sal and the boy!). And are we packed and organized? Of course not.

Knitting news is that I finished the Wavy scarf (Dana, the pattern is here, on Knitty.com). I only got 9 1/2 "waves" rather than the 10 called for, because I ran out of yarn. Which is odd, coz the previous Wavy, with the same brand yarn, gave me no trouble at all. Still, it's plenty long enough and looks just fine.

That's all for now. Expect minimal, if any, updates over the next fortnight, while I entertain and enjoy my sister and my nephew.

Oh, and happy anniversary to me and Terry. We met for the first time 11 years ago today, on Platform 3 at Victoria train station in London.