Amigurumi fun

Today this wonderful package arrived in the mail as part of my Amigurumi Swap through Ravelry. It came from Christelle in France. She included two Amigurumi that she made (and I believe designed) herself. Some yummy purple yarn that I cannot wait to use and some gummy candy that I have almost finished already. It was my first international package and quite special. I love participating in these yarn swaps and this lovely package from France was very special.

It's been awhile

Yeah, I know I haven't posted anything in a really long time, but I have been very productive in the knitting and crochet arena this past month. I am also gearing up for my next term at Hogwarts School and really looking forward to that. I will try and post photos of all my recent projects soon.

The Yarn Deli ROCKS!

I took a knitting class last week at the Yarn Deli in Redlands and knitted up this awesome beret. It's called the "Brick by Brick" hat and was designed by one of the shop owner's Becky Curran. I knitted it in Universal Yarns Cotton Supreme. My hubby thought is was cool and suggested I make a black and orange one for Halloween. I was also thinking red and green for Christmas. Lavender and variegated pastels for Easter. The possibilities are endless.

CHRISTMAS DURING THE SUMMER

Well as promised, I am posting pictures of packages I've received from the various swaps I am in. There is the Flat rate box swap that included a great hand thrown ceramic coffee mug that I absolutely love. There is the Starbucks Swap that included some homemade biscotti that the family and I of course nailed within a day and there is the Split Pea Green with Envy swap with several yummy green yarns that I can't wait to try out.

Swaps and More Swaps

Well as I posted before, I have been involved with several swaps on Ravelry. I recently sent two packages internationally. One of them to the UK and one to Holland. I can't wait till they get them to see if they like them.

This package went to Ann as part of my Hogwarts Summer Camp Swap. The point of this swap is that we all pick a workshop and the person who is assigned our name then sends us a kit to fit that workshop and anything else they want to throw in. Ann picked Herbology, which meant that I sent her a kit that involved some type of lace work pattern. I sent her the Dragon Lace pattern and green wool. Green is her favorite color and I added all kinds of other green stuff, Harry Potter and other sweets and a pattern book that I found at Walmart for $2.00.

Another swap I am involved in is the Pea Green With Envy Swap. This is for a group of people who love the color green. My person for this swap was Annina, from Holland and here is the package I sent her.

I made the tote bags for both kits. I kind of got on a roll with the tote bags and have about three done and set aside for other gifts.

Well I will post pictures of the packages I have received later.

Wow, it's gonna be a great Summer!

Well we finally did it. We finally bought an RV. If you go to my favorite links and click on our camping blog you can see pictures. It has a great chair that I will be doing all my knitting in. We can't pick it up until Friday, but it's going to be way fun this summer.

Hogwarts campers please use link

Okay, so I am finally figuring out the Blogging world and I have set up a separate blog for my Hogwarts crew. Please use link for my alter-ego for all Harry Potter related blogs.

Thanks and see you all around the campfire, bring lots of chocolate.

Patronus

So after much soul searching, I have decided that my Patronus is an otter, since the sea otter is my all-time favorite animal. They are such a playful and happy animal and like me, they love shrimp.

It hasn't been official, because summer camp is different from the school year, but I am going to assume that the sorting hat put me in Gryffindor, since that was my only choice.  I am a purist and can't imagine being anywhere else but with Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny.  And Gryffindor colors are my favorite.  Well I also like purples, but Red is my signature color.  I am a cool winter after all.

Week One Game

Okay, I think I have most of it done.

Part I-what I brought to camp

1. Chocolate!
2. Coffee
3. Cauldron
4. Cloak-invisibility
5. Cheeky-my pet rat
6. Camera
7. Common spells book-to use on other campers
8. Cards 
9. Chess set-the wizard kind
10. Chocolate! again, can't have too much

Part II WINGO

W-1 Winifred Wartbobble lives within 35 miles of me Covina-Corona

W-2 Wisteria Lovegood is in Ravenclaw

W-3 

W-4 Bevin Rae has done this swap before

W-5 Andromeda Finch-Fletchley spins her own yard

I-1  Hermione Bagnold has played Quiddich

I-2  Cassandra Grubblyplank has two siblings

I-3 Rowena Dragonsinger has been to Lexingtion KY castle

I-4 Bridget the Bloodthirsty has the same birth month as me, June

I-5 Antonio Dela Weasley is in Hufflepuff

N-1 Madame Ferula McGonogall likes chocolate and Starbucks like me

N-2 Salamnder Grindelwald is new to HSKS

N-3 

N-4 Winnifred Horswaggle plays the guitar

N-5 Violet LeVeek has taken the train from Sacramento to LA

G-1 Quietus Snape is in Slytherin

G-2 Lavendar Ollivander has more items in her queue then me (29)

G-3 Fleur Sweeting makes stitch markers

G-4 

G-5 Emma Gordok speaks German

O-1 Helga ze Horrid is from another Country-Denmark

O-2 Emma Widgeworthy dies her own yarn

O-3 Wisteria Lovegood collects Disney items

O-4 Phelicia Phoenix is in Gryffindor

O-5

Part III

My spoilee is Emma Widgeworthy. She makes her own designs and does some AWESOME fair isle knitting that I would be too intimidated to even try. My favorite is her Fleur tote.

My spoiler is Thistle Lovegood and she loves anything with mint and pretty glass jars. She doesn't have any projects posted so I can't make any comments at this time (I think her computer recently crashed)

Rah Rah Ravelry

Well in addition to my Facebook addiction, I am also addicted to Ravelry, an online forum for knitters and crocheters. I have recently entered the world of "swaps"  I am a member of several on-line groups. One of them is the Big Bang Theory group made up of fans of the T.V. sitcom. We just has a swap that was show related. One item had to be homemade so I made these home made stitch markers for my recipient to represent rock, paper, scissors, lizard, spock

I am now involved in three other swaps. The starbucks and yarn swap, the flat rate box swap and the Harry Potter summer camp swap.

As for Harry Potter, my camp name is Celestina Pettigrew, which I love, I am in the Billywigs cabin and I am TOTALLY lost.  But I do believe once I get the hang of things it is going to be awesome. I loved the books and actually bought them through Amazon, UK because I wanted the British version of the books. I liked that Harry went on summer holiday instead of summer vacation.  My favorite character is Professor Lupine, mainly because I really liked the actor who played him  Well stay posted as I muddle my way through all these swaps and what is sure to be a very fun summer.

Three Truths and 1 Lie

Can you spot the Lie.

1) I love Disneyland

2) I love my four kids

3) I love the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes

4) I love romance novels

New stuff

Well I haven't posted in a while and I thought I had better. As you can see I've been busy.  Hubby and son went camping this long weekend and I spent the weekend sewing felt covers for tape measures.  The sun with the glasses is my favorite.

In the second photo, our local Gottschalks is going out of business and I bought these mannequins for $40 bucks each. I thought they'd be cool to show off my sweater projects.

As for the heart. Well, Lorna Miser, the creator of Lorna's Lace was in my local yarn shop last month autographing her new knit book.  She also taught a class using a pattern from one of her books. The heart is a knitted sachet. It is filled with lovely home grown lavender that another knit customer brought in.

Well off to knit, I'm working on a blanket buddy for a co-worker right now.

No new projects

I know, I know, I haven't posted in a while. I haven't had any new projects to show off.  I am in the middle of about three different knitting projects.  I will be attending National Scrapbook Day on Saturday at Janet's house and I'll take pictures of some of my pages too post.

We had a great weekend at Holcomb Valley Scout Camp this weekend and that should make for some good pages. 

On Sunday, May 3rd, the girls (me, Wendy, Cecilia, Jana and Ashley) will be having another one of our monthly all day scraps.  Wendy and I have some craft projects to work on as well.  It's time to get a head start on Christmas projects.  I also bought a couple of handbag sewing patterns. The Viking has been getting some use these last few months.

Some suggestions for Christmas this year:

• home-made knitted slippers
• mini photo albums
• post-it note covers
• hand sewn tote bags with a matching book cover(and book)
• personalized tote bags from Disneyland (way cool new service provided by Disney)
• felted ornament

A new hobby

Well I used a 40% off coupon that I got from Borders books to buy a book and beading loom that I had my eye on for some time now.  I have posted a photo of a completed project and one in the works.

It's been a while

Hello all,

I haven't posted in a while. I have been busy though. I have knitted another baby sweater and an adult shrug. I took photos of several beannies that I have completed and two backpacks. I promise to post photos as soon as I figure out how. The family went down to Laguna Beach this weekend and browsed around one of my favorite stores "Arte for the Soul" which gave me a few ideas for some upcoming art projects of my own. So stay tuned and I will keep you all updated.

Sweaters, Sweaters and More

Well as promised, I am posting pictures of my baby sweater. I made this first sweater at the 5-hour baby sweater class that I took at the Knit Affair. I didn't get it done in five hours, but I did get it done in about 8 hours. It came out very cute and I only used 1 skein of yarn (200 yards per skein)  I bought a second skein because I wasn't sure if I could get it done with only 1 and I plan on making a baby beannie to match and maybe some booties too.  

Anyway, the class was so easy that the next day I made a second sweater.  Again using only 1 skein of yarn.  The first sweater was with size 8 needles and the second sweater I used size 7 so it came out just a bit smaller.  

My husband sent me a text message that a coworker's wife had a baby boy and since these sweaters are clearly for a girl, I whipped together this Blanket Buddy for him.  The Buddy also used one skein of yarn and is so easy I have now made several for various coworkers.

Knitting Stuff

Okay, so I plan on having a section on knitting stuff. I will be going to a knitting class today to knit a 5-hour baby sweater.  I am taking the class from Torey at the Knit Affair. 

A copy of the pattern can be found here. Please keep in mind I suggest places you can find patterns but I have no affiliation with any of these sites other than Googling the name of the item and finding the patterns.

I will post pictures after class.

Who Am I?

Well this is my first venture into the blogging world. My husband has his own blog, a way to express himself, so I wanted one too. I picked the name MexicanMarta because that is my nickname at work.  Why?  I knit, sew, cook, craft, scrapbook and on and on and on. So my peers call me Mexican Martha Stewart (minus the criminal record of course).  I prefer the term Chicana, but Chicana Marta didn't sound quite right. So anyway, MexicanMarta it is.  I hope to use this blog to post ideas for knit projects, scrapbook projects and all other kinds of home crafts and creative ideas.  So I hope you enjoy visiting my blog.