La Oveja

OK, so I know very little Spanish and had to look up the word for "sheep," but I wanted to introduce you to Esperanza:

Isn't she a cutie? She is from Spain, hence her name and the title of this post. One of my co-workers at the yarn store took a trip with one of her friends to Barcelona, Spain. And of course, she had to visit a yarn store there. She found a little set of stitch markers/progress keepers that were different little sheep, and bought them because there were just enough in the set for each of us to choose one. Isn't that a nice idea?

I chose Esperanza because I loved her black face, and the fact that her "fleece" looked like random swirly writing. And her name is one of my most favorite Spanish names, and I thought she would give me HOPE that my projects would be successfully completed. (See what I did there?) 😊 

In the photo above, she is helping me work on my DRK Everyday Sweater, which is still in the early stages of the yoke. But I am enjoying the knit, and she is making me smile, so it's a win-win.

Are there any little things making you smile these days? Let me know.

Show-Off Saturday

Happy Saturday !  I'm waiting for The Tim to finish showering, and then he has offered to fix breakfast, so I figured I'd write this post while I was waiting.  I showed you the mystery packages of my Sweet Sparrow Yarns Advent Calendar a couple of weeks ago, and promised to share the contents with you.  Well, today marks eight days, and so I thought I would show you the first third of the contents. 

These colorways are, from left to right and top to bottom:  Creme de Cassis, Garland, Winter Wonderland, Red Ribbon Foxes, Tiptoe, Strega Nona, Turkish Delight, Starlight.  All are on different bases, so you also get a sampling of those as well.  

So much pretty, right???  And if I was better at photography, you'd be able to see that they are even lovelier - so far, solids, speckles, tonals, and some sparkle!  And every once in a while, an extra goody thrown in.  I am so glad I saved up to get this, I'm enjoying having a package to open every day, and even if I can't knit with it right now, just being able to do something "yarny" every day has been wonderful.

Dee asked me what I planned to make, and right now, I'm still deciding.  Since I can't knit right now, I have plenty of time to think about it ... 

But wait, there's more!  I had forgotten that I had also signed up for a stitch marker Advent Calendar from An Caitin Beag, so I have 24 tiny packages to open as well.  Here are the first eight days of those.

Again, I wish I could take better photographs, so you could see how lovely these are.  She is a jewelry maker/designer besides a knitwear designer, and some of these are just so pretty and intricate!  And being that I am always looking for stitch markers, I think I'll be glad to have all of these.

That's it for now.  Lots of things I want to do today, so after my breakfast, I'm gonna try to get moving for a fun and useful day.  I hope your Saturday is a good one as well.