Summertime Socks & Showers

Hi, Knitters,

I hope you are all off to a super start to your summer! It's going to be a wild one around here.

I've selected a winner for the ShopLouLeigh tote bag. The winner is....

Patricia or 51Off on Ravelry!

Congratulations, Patricia! I've contacted all parties to make arrangements. I've got lots more to giveaway so I'll pull something very soon to share. Thanks to everyone for the wonderful response. And thank you to Leigh for the generosity.

Currently I am working hard on a handful of new designs and patterns to be released this fall. I'm pretty excited about the potential of a new collection or two. It still makes me happy to design new things in knitting so that's a continued good sign. 

Well, as far as sock news goes I am working on a new cuff-down sock pattern with the afterthought heel and toe with a twist. It's going well but it's going to take me awhile. I think it will be worth the wait if you are interested. 

In the new sock pattern I am using Must Stash Yarn in the Family Reunion colorway. If you are interested in this yarn you can pre-order it right now, click here to find out more! The yarn has 12 different color and even stripes and it is super fun to knit. The yarn is dyed in two matching skeins, one skein per sock. This makes getting matching socks a breeze.

I'll keep you posted on my progress. 

On a quick side note I found this adorable cable sweater tape measure at Fibrespace.com. I don't know if they still have them in stock but you could check. It's super cute and sturdy, too.

The bridal shower I hosted for my niece this past Sunday went off without a hitch. I loved every minute of it. The theme for the shower was Iced Tea and Sweets but the gifts for the bride could be anything. We had iced tea, lemonade and ice water, brownies and lemon bars from my sister-in-law, cake pops (more on this below) and my sister brought chips from Pasqual's (the best chips ever!) and taco dip and veggies and humus. The chips and taco dip were so popular. I took note of this for future reference.

We played a couple of simple games. One of the games was that each person got a piece of paper with the bride and groom's names spelled out. The challenge was to come up with as many words as possible using the letters in their names in 5 minutes. Guess who won... my sister. My sister came up with a whopping 44 words, second place was 34 and Peachy had 33 words. My sister loves a game. 

The party favors for the guests were my favorite thing. I don't know if you remember but a long, long time ago I made a whole bunch of granny squares. Well, I looked it up and it was in 2008 and I blogged about, too. Click here if you want to reminisce with me.

I used Tahki Cotton Classic yarn and the free pattern for granny squares on Purlsoho. Click here for the free pattern!

I had these granny squares stitched together in an unfinished blanket. I undid the seams on all of the squares until I had a large stack of individual squares. I couldn't believe that when I stitched two squares together it fit perfectly around the mason jar. Two squares make the perfect Ball mason jar cozy! 

I pulled out an old tag cutter I have had for many years. We had some sturdy craft paper from another project and we cut out tags and stamped them with the happy couple's initials to make the cozied jars more personal.

We tied the tags on with baker's twine and filled the jars with chocolates, tea and mints. The shower guests seemed to really love picking out their favorite colors in the granny squares. It was a fun favor. 

I also made an embroidered journal cover with a blank book inside and I had all of the guests sign it with a note for my niece. It's super sweet. I gathered the shower cards, her save the date and wedding invitation and a few recipes that people brought. I will put it all together nicely for her and give it to her later.

The other fun and quick game we played was the classic guess how many _______ are in the jar. I found some giant Ball jars and the kids counted the candy when we filled the jars. I had pieces of paper and pens and little bowls in front of each of the jars for the guesses. The person who guessed the closest number won the jar. This was a fun and easy game, too.

I asked what the favorite candies were for the bride and groom. The bride picked Reese's and the groom picked Skittles. We also had Tootsie Pops and Sour Patch Kids.

Lastly for the shower, TC made a valiant effort and made Cake Pops. She had so much fun with these and they were just adorable. I got her a Babycakes Pop Maker and it worked great. So she set out to make three different flavors and a bunch of different toppings. She used chocolate melting wafers in some different colors to coat the cake pops. She used coconut, sprinkles, Reese's Pieces and M & Ms. They were just adorable as decorations and as bite-sized desserts.

And finally, a couple days later the cake pop maker turned 17 years old. Incredible. We love her so.

It's a busy time coming up. We have our wedding anniversary and Peachy's birthday in less than two weeks. This coming Sunday my sister is giving a shower for Miss Molly. I can't wait for that. My niece is getting married a couple weeks after Miss Molly and my son so we have had showers going for the two brides for the past four weekends. 

Is anyone else having a schedule like this? I'd love to hear about it (and your knitting, of course!). 

I'll be back soon with more! 

xo ~ susan