I just listed these three auctions:

purple PopCorn yarn lot x3
Bernat Galaxy yarn lot x 4

Bernat Chunky yarn lot x 3

Shipping discounts (in addition to combined shipping) are listed with each auction, so anyone who's looking at stocking up on yarn, now and with these auctions would be a good time to do it. I'm hoping that with at least one or two of these auctions, it'll help relieve some of the huge inventory I have in my store.

Thanks for looking!

closin' up (ebay) shop

Well, hasn't it been a while since I posted! I've been very preoccupied with finishing kitchen renovations (honest to goodness this time that it's almost done!) + ravelry's been keeping me very busy!

So, my news: I'm starting to grow out of ebay, and will be closing my ebay store towards the end of December. Beyond December, I haven't decided what I'm going to do just yet, but in the meantime, I need to clear out as much of the yarn inventory I have in there. My store's link (again) is: www.stores.ebay.ca/Knits-Yours-Knot-Mine

If you know anyone who's interested in stocking up on yarn either for projects for this upcoming holiday season or in the near future, now's the time to pick it up. I don't charge handling fees, just the cost of shipping, because 95% of my packaging is reused (clean) boxes - very eco-friendly.

I'm pretty good at getting boxes out within 2 or 3 days of purchase, and ship world wide. If you happen to live locally and want to save on shipping, local pick up can be arranged within a few days of purchase! Let me know! Take a gander!

feeling a bit sheepish?

A small collection of sheep, but a collection of sheep nonetheless. These are the sheep that are currently living in my home. :)

hand dyed sock yarn swap came in!

My handdyed sock yarn from Gina came in the mail yesterday! woo hoo! There are two skeins of brown and purple sock yarn (tres funky) + some matching stitch markers + a Vancouver Island magnet + 2 postcards + popcorn-on-the-cob!

Can't wait to give them all a try!

Happy (Canadian) Turkey Day!

Nothing knit or crochet to post today. I shall, though, post my favourite autumn-holiday recipe - Pumpkin Cheesecake. (very easy, for those of us who are not very kitchen-savvy!) What's awesome about this recipe is that you're making 3 pies at a time. I always had at least 2 Thanksgivings, one at my parents', and one at my inlaw's. Having a pie for each was great, and a third left over to give to a neighbor or friend as a hoiday gift!

What you need:
- 3 ready-made gingerbread or shortbread pie crusts
- 2 bricks plain cream cheese (regular or light)
- 1 can pumpkin pie filling, enough for 1 pie
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tblsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tsp real vanilla, or 2 tsp artificial vanilla
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. In a bowl, using an electic mixer, soften cream cheese with vanilla. Mix in spices, pumpkin pie filling, brown sugar and eggs with beater until even. Divide evenly between the three pie crusts. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, until center filling is cooked and solid. Let cool for about 10 minutes before serving.

in a bit of a frump

I'm not entirely sure how to describe how I'm feeling this week, and I feel a bit presumptuous to vent too much, since there's hope still with two remaining days.

Firstly, I've been involved in quite a few knitting-themed swaps over the summer. Since I discovered that knitting and crochet themed swaps actually exist (many are hosted by blogger.com bloggers themselves) I've signed up for quite a few and swapped my heart out. (Naive of me to think that this would also be a great way to advertise a bit my ebay and etsy businesses, but I don't think that brought a whole lot of traffic, but that's neither here nor there.)

What has bothered me especially is twofold: one swap that I was invoved in, not to sound too selfish I hope, I felt that my swappee fairly much held back and I received not even the minimal requirements of that swap, and not only that, but I received items in it that are of no use to me. In this case, what I couldn't use, I gave to someone else whom I knew could use it, but I still felt a bit drafted by it.

Secondly, I'm still waiting on a swap package that I should've received back by the end of August. Again, not wanting to sound greedy (because I'm not) but I've never understood the logic behind voluntairally signing up for something and just not following through with it. If there's even a sneaking thought that there's a fiber of a chance that you can't get involved in something like a swap, then don't do it. But the good news from this one is that I've received an email saying that the package - despite being late (with apologies, thankyouverymuch) had been sent. Hopefully it'll get here tomorrow.

I suppose, after all that, I'm going into this sort of thing a bit more naively. I'll be holding off on the whole swap thing for a while, since I've been burned a teeny bit already, although it could be because I've been overwhelmed with other things that stuff like this may get under my skin a bit more than it needs to.

Phew. Venting's out. All that being said, I'm thinking of hosting a read-and-knit-along via a new blog in the new year, to save from hosting a swap. Kind of like a book-club-stitch-n-bitch-sort-of-thing, although I'm still processing the details of how I want to do it, and a book list to post as well.

Now, what would a thread be w/o me posting a few pictures? Below are:

a matt WIP with crochet sushi...

And something I call my 'grunge blanket' because it reminds me of grunge-music-era sweaters:
Despite my quantity of yarn, I realized about 3/4 of the way into it that I hadn't enough yarn to make the size throw I wanted, so it's in the process of being frogged and reknit into something else grunge-themed.

bland-esque Tuesday posting with uncreative blog title

Had no idea what to post today, but I figured, I better post something. So, I've knit up the illusion candy corn dishcloth from the swap package I got last week. Here are the pics:




On the right, here, is the straight-on view....





And to your left is the view of the dishcloth at an angle, and out pops the illusion of a candy corn! The only thing I changed from the pattern is I knit it across 30 sts instead of 36, just for the sake of making it narrower.