T Minus 4 Days and Counting.....

Hi everyone.....How have you been?  I've been great.....I have only 4 more days till my friends and I go to my sister's lakehouse for our 5th Annual (I can't believe it has been 5 years) Stitch N Bitch Retreat!  I am so excited, I can hardly wait.  I am sure I am going to take way too many projects to work on.....but I will be knitting all weekend with fabulous friends!  :)  I hope to have lots of pictures for you guys next week!

As for this past week.....well, I finally finished my briochevron cowl....I had about an inch of the lips blank left after I grafted the two ends together.

I started and finished a hat....it is called the Head Hug Chemo Cap and it Hugs your head.  The designer, Laura, reached out to me on Instagram to tell me about it when she saw I was knitting chemo caps for Darlene's niece and the pattern is FABULOUS!  Thank you Laura!

I forgot to get a picture of it blocking, so I had to take pictures of it on the podcast.  LOL!

I did a swatch for Paige's Bulky Sweater.....and then decided to cast on for the back.  This sweater should go fast...but I am probably going to put it away till September.  I want to knit it along with Darlene and she is busy with other projects right now (and so am I).

I worked on my Daddy's Ranger sweater

and my Boxy Cape....

You might get tired of seeing the Ranger and Boxy Cape...both of them are at a point where I just keep doing the same thing for many inches.

I participated in the Dishrag Tag with my online LSSK group and I got my package this past weekend.  Susie T made me two fabulous dishcloths and sent me lots of fun goodies.  Thank you Susie!

I also got a wrist ruler from Starlight Knitting in OR.  I got black, and it is a little hard to see the numbers, but I wear black every day and I really love this bracelet! 

I also got some new yarn for a cowl that Paige wants.  Paige found a guy that knits on Instagram and asked for a couple of things that he has knit.  She wants this cowl and this hat.

Here is the yarn for the cowl (I have 3 more skeins coming from ebay tomorrow...this yarn is discontinued).

I have some Madelinetosh Chunky yarn in the Paper colorway coming for the hat.

My last bit of news.....Paige has a contract on a house!

Keep your fingers crossed for her!

That is all I have....Have a great week!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Happy 4th of July

Hi everyone.....tomorrow is the 4th of July (Can you believe 1/2 the year is gone!)  Are you out of town with big celebratory plans?  At a Beach?  Having a BBQ?  Well, I hope you have a fabulous 4th of July!

I finally finished my Joji Mystery Wrap....this sucker is HUGE!

Darlene took it over the weekend to block for me.  She said if we put hers and mine together (hers is gorgeous!), we will have a nice blanket....oh, and her dog, Susie, had to check it out too!

The LSSK gals are doing Dish Rag tag again this year.....I made a dishcloth for a recipient.....and she got it already....yeah!  I hope she liked it!

 

 

Then, I finished my 2nd BIG 4 Retreat item.  I was a day late.  My goal is to finish one item per month, so I should have finished by Friday the 30th, but I finished on Saturday the 1st of July.  I blocked it yesterday.  My friend, Ruby, gave me this yarn and recommended making Convergent with it, but when this Snowmelt Mystery KAL came out....I think the yarn was meant to be this gorgeous shawl.  Thank You Ruby....from the bottom of my heart...this yarn said Carrie all the way!

 

 

 

 

 

I also worked on my Miss Babs 2nd Destination tour package...this is Llama Drama and the destination is Peru.

 

 

 

 

Then,  I got my July socks started.

 

 

I think all in all, it was a fairly productive week.

 

I did have a stash enhancement of some Must Stash yarn.....it is for Sock School 2017.  Stacie dyes this yarn here in SA, TX....but my package took a scenic tour through Virginia and finally made it to me...it was worth the wait!

 

 

Well, that is really all I have....one of my friends from LSSK got a Dr. Pepper soda with the most amazing wrapping/packaging.....Isn't it cute!  Pet paws and Yarn!

 

 

Have a great week!

 

I have lots of friends knitting knockers lately....it is a great cause!

 

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!



May is right around the corner!

Yup, May is right around the corner....are you ready?  I am not!  I am not yet done with my April socks.....and I want to try to finish my test knit shawl before May....so I better get with it.

I hope you had a great week.....I had a fantastic week.  I hope you are ready for a blog packed with pictures!

First, I saw a video on my FB feed for a Steak Pinwheel Meal....I pretty much suck at cooking, but this looked delicious, I had to give it a try!

Mushrooms, onion, garlic.....CHECK

Lay it all out and roll.....

 Notice how my cutting board goes from a green color to a red color?  That is because rolling this up was a hot mess and I had to do a whole flip to a new cutting board...but I got it all pinned with toothpicks!

Now to eat.....

It was delicious....I loved it!  It was not cheap so I will not do it all the time, but I would like to make it again sometime!

Okay, this is a knitting blog so I will jump to the knitting.

I have a few stash enhancements....

First, some yarn from Wolle's Yarn Creations....this is a color changing cotton, this is like 4 pieces of colored sewing thread held together (no twist).  I am using this yarn for the test knit I am doing and it is a little hard to work with, but I saw a lot of people with this Cupid Colorway that is more like a terracotta and I had to have it.  She was so sweet to include some tea and a tape measure!

Next, I got my Miss Babs Knitting Tour first destination package...we are going to The Netherlands!  Yahoo.  The yarn is a gorgeous light blue...the pattern is called Metamorphose.  I want to do it, but it is pretty intimidating...I want to see someone's finished Infinity Cowl before I cast on.  Here is a link to the pattern and here is the gorgeous yarn.

I also got my Dishrag Tag Box.....remember I started a box back in March?  Well, the box has traveled around to many and now back to me.  My friend Vicki made me the cutest dishcloth....it is a ball of yarn!  Yes, a ball of yarn!  I love it!  She also sent me some yarn bras (we all need support), and the cutest scottie and cardinal stitch markers.  The card she gave me had knitting on the front picture...I love it all!  Thank you so much Vicki!

Right after I got my dishrag tag box from Vicki, Darlene let me know that our New Dyakcraft Rose colored needles were DELIVERED!  Okay everyone, you know how much I love orange (and I have the orange needles) but I am completely in love with these rose needles....I think I love them more than the orange ones!

And my last stash enhancement is a Bags By Awesomegrannie bag....she has soooooo many new bags in her shop, you should check them out....I got sheep...I mean, who does not love sheep?
Thank you Darlene!  You are too good to me!

Okay......I have an FO!  Man, it feels like forever since I have had an FO!  I finished my 3 color cashmere shawl and I love it!  But first, let me tell you about a bit of a dilemma at the end of this one.  I was 1/2 way done with the bind off and it was curling really bad

So I considered frogging and doing garter stitch to keep from curling...when I looked back at the pattern.....I realized I had done it wrong...her last 6 rows call for garter (not stockinette stitch) and then picot bind off....so I put my needle in all the stitches of the first row ( all 487 of them) and then I ripped......

I did 7 rows of garter (instead of 6) and then did a regular bind off with a size 10 needle.....I just LOVE IT!

Now for WIPS....I am still plugging away on the test knit for Susanna IC.  I only have about 15 more rows....I really hope to finish it this week:

I did a few rounds on my Eeyore socks

I worked on my April Socks.....Now getting to work on these socks has a story....Paige asked if I could pick up Antonio on Wednesday so she could go into work...I said sure.  I picked up Antonio and he said "Ga-Ma.....can we go to the park!?!"  and I said "Of course!"  so to the park we went....where I got knit a little and he got to play.

Then he got a little bored with the park (we were the only ones there) so he said "Ga-Ma, can we go to McDonalds and I can play there!?!"  and again, I said "Of Course!".

He made funny faces for his mother....

and I got to knit on my socks....I finished the 2nd heel while I was at McDonalds!

I knit a little more over the weekend, but not enough to finish them...I really need to finish them this week!

I also frogged this week......remember the Doodler I was working on?  It was the Stephen West MKAL late last year....well, I never finished the cable section and then there was going to be the picking up of stitches.....I was knitting this with my friends, Darlene and Shawna.....well, Darlene never went past wedge one...and Shawna finished the cables section....but she was ready to frog so I guess I was ready to frog too....this was 497 yards frogged....let's have a moment of silence please:

I went ahead and started the blanket for Paige that she requested...she is in love with it already (which always feels good).  Now, these big stitches are hard to constantly get on the needle...these are size US 50, but they are a circular, so when I slide the stitches to put them back on the 1" thick needle, it is difficult, so I am going to get some straights in US 50....it will help this blanket to go so much faster...it will be awkward, but faster!

Now......what do you do when you get a new gorgeous project bag and new gorgeous needles?  You cast on something NEW!  I cast on Pure Joy.  This is another Joji Locatelli pattern and I saw some of the test knit ones and they are all gorgeous!  I am using my Knitted With yarn in the Autumn Rainbow colorway with Madeline tosh Sock in Onyx as the contrast....this is going to be a gorgeous shawl.....oh, and I convinced Darlene to start with me :)

The needles even match the new bag :)

I think that is all I have this week....I leave you with some pictures of Antonio as a ring bearer at his Great Uncle's wedding....Oh, and I also put him to work at my house vacuuming...he loved it!  But he wanted to vacuum the outside more than the inside.....Have a great week!

 Here he is with is Great Uncle David:

Here he is with his dad, Mikey:

Vacuuming:

Happy Happy Happy Knitting everyone!