BIG 4 Retreat Failure?

I think I might just be a failure at my own Retreat.....I mean, I do not want to call myself a 'failure', but I think I may be a semi-failure.....Let me explain!

By the end of this post you will see that I have finished 3 of my 4 Big 4 Retreat items....I know that is not failing at all, but here is where the failure comes in....my last item is Spire and I am 38.28% done with it.  However, the last 61.72% is all lace pattern.....and I just cannot work on nothing but lace day in and day out...I need mindless things in my life (apparently, my brain does not like working)!

Now, I have made myself a chart and I only have to do 812 stitches per day to finish my Spire by September 1.....so, I am going to finish everything I wanted to for the Big 4 retreat (at least I think I will)...but my semi failure is that I apparently cannot do it without casting on something else for my non thinking knitting!

So, you all already know that I have cast on my Rennandi, and I have a poncho I want to make that is all stockinette and mindless that I will probably cast on soon....so I am a semi-failure!  Please do not hate me or give me too hard of a time....failure is hard to admit to....LOL!!!!

Now, on to what I have been up to:

Let me start with Stash Enhancements.....now, my first stash enhancement has a kinda medium to long story....

About a year and a half ago....I made Paige one of the greatest cardigans I think I have ever made and it is called Breezy Cardigan (blogged here):

Then, a little over a year ago she wanted me to knit her a cardigan called Reine.  She picked some beautiful Madeline Tosh Sock yarn for this project and I bought 4 skeins (the 7th picture in this post).

Here I am a year later and I have not made the Reine cardigan....but Paige informs me that she thinks she ruined the Breezy Cardigan.....she had washed it before and it was always fine, but this time it seemed worse...Here it is on Antonio:

Now, I think I may be able to re-block the sweater and it will be okay, but I am not 100% sure yet because Paige has not brought it to me....well, she wants another Breezy Cardigan.  So, I thought maybe I could make it with the Madeline Tosh she had picked for the Reine Cardigan.

Turns out that 4 skeins is not enough yardage, so I ordered another skein (which is my stash enhancement)....

Well, guess what?  Yup, you guessed it, Madeline Tosh does not have dye lots and I am buying the yarn a whole year later....so the new one does not exactly match and I am not sure if it will work with alternating skeins......

I showed it to Paige and she said she would really like a Breezy Cardigan in Black....UGGGG!  So, I think I will use my black yarn I was planning for my Hitofude to make her a Breezy Cardigan (I think I may have to order a couple more skeins) and then I may use this Madeline Tosh in the Antique Lace colorway for my Hitofude and alternate skeins and I should be fine!  So this is probably going to go to the frog pond:

I also bought some more Signature Straight Needles for my Memories Blanket....both Darlene and I purchased size 4 (3.5 mm) to make our blankets...well, Darlene liked her blanket better on size 2.5 (3.0 mm) so I got some too to restart my blanket and see which one I like best!

Then, I got my Loopy Academy Swag!  I am so glad that I crammed to finish everything because I love this cute little bags and notions!

I also got some yarn from Darlene!  She is so awesome to me.....she watches the Knit Girllls Podcast and saw Leslie's finished Inara....so even before we went to the lake house, she was scheming and she bought me the Cherries and Chocolates Gradient set so we can make the shawl.

I love this Gradient Set....Thank you Darlene!  I will probably start this wrap with my new Dyakcraft needles...I know I showed them to you last week...but I just love them in my Graces Case and have to show them to you again!

That is it for my knitting stash enhacements...I did buy some leggings recently...one pair is just circles, but it reminds me of yarn balls....I planned to wear these this past weekend to Hot Rod Night, but it was postponed to this coming weekend because of the rain.  I still wore them and they are soooo soft!  I just love them!

Now, I have an FO.....I finished my 3rd Big 4 Retreat item....Smooth Move!  I love it!  I have not blocked it yet, but it is still cuddly and large even without blocking!

Then what else did I work on.....well, here is my Spire to show you how far I am (I really have made progress):

I told you (and I think may have shown you before) that I started my Rennandi for the Miss Babs tour....well, I was just dying to get to the green/chartreuse color.....and I needed that 'mindless' knitting....so I here is my progress on that.

Lastly was the sweater for Darlene's DIL....it is semi mindless knitting, but not always...and it is hard to tink, so I try to knit on this only when my mind is semi fresh (not tired)....LOL!  I am back to where I was before I frogged it.

One small thing I wanted to mention....I have a knnitting friend that has had a bit of a rough patch lately...her hubby passed last year, her car broke down several times, she hit her head on the clothes line and had to go to ER.....just one thing after antoher...well, Saturday night/early morning her house caught on fire.  She has 2 dogs and Red Cross said they could not really accomodate her with the dogs....so she and her dogs are stayign with me (I have no clue how long).....please keep her in your 'good thoughts' column or if you are religious then a prayer or two is welcomed!

Well, that is all I have!  I hope everyone has a fabulous week.....We have the 4th of July weekend coming up....so enjoy that!  I know I will enjoy my 3 day weekend!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Happy Memorial Day!

Hi everyone.....I hope you have had a fantastic week and are now enjoying a Happy Memorial Day!  I always feel a little weird when I type Happy in front of Memorial Day....it is a holiday and I want you to have a happy one....but I also remind myself never to forget those who gave the ultimate sacrifice and not really a "Happy" occasion.....So thanks to all of those who have sacrificed so much!!!

Okay, I hope that did not start off too gloomy....I am going to jump straight into stash enhancements....my first stash enhancement is tea.....from Plum Deluxe....I LOVE this tea.  There are so many awesome flavors I do not even know where to start....but if you like tea, you really should give them a try!!!!

Then, I was at Darlene's desk one day and she opened one of her desk drawers....being the nosey person that I am.....I saw yarn and said "Hey, what yarn did you buy?"  She had bought a bunch of DVD yarn and this yarn....Neeley's Knits.....it is BFL and Silk and the colorway is called Wildlings (a game of Thrones thing)....this is such a Carrie color!  Darlene gave it to me.....she is so awesome....I will probably make socks with it!!  Thank you Darlene!!!

Then, I got a package from Susan at DVD (Desert Vista Dyeworks).....it is my DVD swag for my instagram posts and participating in #thesecondannualdvdmonthlysockclub.

Okay.....now on to the knitting....I actually knit a ton...which I love!!!

I finished the Rye Worsted weight socks for Loopy Academy.

Then I knit like crazy on my Pure Joy...I was about 22% done with it....so I knitted....

And Knitted....

And knitted till I could bind off.......whew!  Here are pictures pre-blocking....the lighting is not that great.....sorry!

Here it is blocking!

The only other thing I knit on....was Paige's Hat....I started this hat in Nov of 2014....so while I was knitting away on my Pure joy.....I just needed something to give it a bit of a break and did a few repeats on this hat.....it is looking pretty good!

Well, that is really all I have this week.....next weekend is the great knitting retreat I have at my sister's lake house every year.......so be prepared for some awesome photos next week!  Oh, and Tour de Sock starts this week too......yeah!

Have a great week and knit like a maniac!  :)

Happy Happy Happy knitting!

Cramming for Finals.....Knitting style!

Hello everyone!  I hope you had a fantastic week!  My week was jam packed with knitting!  I am going to jump right into stash enhancements:


I got my yarn from the Maryland Sheep and wool show!  Thank you Sara for shopping for me and Peg for being my Yarn Mule and bringing it to SA for me!

I got the Miss Babs Exclusive Maryland Sheep and Wool Show 2016 colorway:

I also got my Verdant Gryphon Traveller Sport in the Downcast Donkey colorway......

Then, I saw this finished Nuvem in Ravelry where I really liked the edge....thankfully the knitter had some notes on her page and said she used the Peplum edge from "Knitting on the Edge" book....so I snagged a used one on Amazon!

My last stash enhancement this week is an awesome bag set from....Yup, you guessed it...Bags By Awesomegrannie....I had to get a shot of the inside too....so clever!  I've been saving my pennies for this set!

That is it for the stash enhancements!  Now on to the knitting.....First, I finally blocked my Masquerade Agleam!

Then I worked on Loopy Academy.....I know, I know, I know....I should be working on my "Big 4" but I thought there was no way I was going to do my 2nd semester of Loopy Academy...but I started feeling guilty...I had already bought the yarn and it was just 3 semi small projects...so just like a college student cramming for finals, last Monday I thought, "Let me see how long it takes me to knit the socks....if I can knit them fairly quickly, then maybe I can do the other two projects."  Well, I knit them in 6 days....plus, I was able to enter them into the GGFancyFeet KAL and the Expat Knitting KAL:

Then...still cramming for finals, I thought....well, let me see if I can get this hat done (used twisted stitches in ribbing for requirement)......I finished it in 2 days (worsted weight always goes faster):

Now I just have one item left....so for my last cramming of finals....a pair of Rye socks....again, worsted weight so they should go quickly....I have been able to use my new bag set for all 3 projects...and the bag set has books....you know, for school/academy :) (ha, ha, I crack myself up!)

Well......that is all I have!  I should be finishing those socks this week and then also working on Smooth Move and Pure Joy!

I want to give an extra shout out today to my Mommy!  Happy 75th Birthday Mommy!  I Love you and I hope you have a great day!

Have a great week!

Super Bowl 50 Champs, Being sick, and lots of knitting

Happy Monday everyone....how was your weekend?  Did you watch the Super Bowl?  I think most of you know I am a big football fan and I did watch it and I was just tickled that Denver won.  I was rooting for them, though I knew that Carolina was favored.  I am really, really happy that Denver came out victorious!  Congrats Denver!

Now.....for the allergies....I have not been feeling well for a while with allergies kicking just about everyone and anyone in the San Antonio and surrounding areas...but last Wednesday I woke up with a sore throat and later had a POUNDING headache....so I have been home sick for a few days.  I would have bet $ that I had a sinus infection, but when I went to the doctor on Thursday, she said no....just a bad cold and allergies.  Yeah me.  However, my mommy did make me some Borscht (a Russian Soup).

It has sucked being sick.....but, I got LOTS of knitting done.  I cannot wait to tell you all about it.

First, my Citadel Cardigan....this cardigan has eleventy billion cables and lots and lots of stuff going on in just one row...but I got the back, right front, left front, neck increases and joining done:

I needed many breaks from this cardigan.  With so much going on, it requires a lot of thinking...and apparently my brain is not really accustomed to thinking for long periods of time :)

So, I also worked on my Karee Shawl....now I just need to pick up over 500 stitches and knit for 10 rows....then it will be done!

Oh, and being at home in the morning while I was sick....I was really cold...it dipped into the low 30's here (yes, that is super cold for me!) so I decided I needed to knit up that awesome large blanket with the Smooshy Yarn I got last month....so I did:

I also had to go to court for a ticket I got in September of last year....so I got a little bit of mindless court knitting done on my February Socks:

Lastly, I found out that a friend I met online (I meet lots of knitters online that are all dear friends to me) has an aunt that was diagnosed with cancer and has lost all her hair....so, I made a Rolled Brim Chemo Cap for her aunt.

Washed and Blocked:

Well, that is all the knitting I have....and I have just a couple of stash enhancements.  I did buy yarn for Loopy Academy....

I also got a gift of yarn.  I have been doing some moderating in the Biscotte Yarns group and Louise (the owner) wanted to send me some yarn as a thank you.  She is so generous...she sent me a Paintbox - Charivari kit along with her Traveling Zebra pattern.  Thank you Louise!

Well, that is it for me....I did get to see Antonio this week and he made a truck with Pam-Pa (my boyfriend, Jaime).....he was pretty proud of it.  Have a great week, stay warm and try not to get sick!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!