Happy 4th of July

I want to wish everyone a wonderful 4th of July this coming weekend! Happy Birthday America!

How has your week been?  Mine has been pretty good!  I have been plugging away at my "Your Beautiful" shawl.  It is really hard to see my progress because I really need to put it on a longer cord.

I also finished up the main part of my shrug.  Here it is blocking:

Then I seamed it up, and am adding the 2nd cuff right now....I should have the final picture for you next week.
I also finished my ardent and blocked it...it blocked out a little bit over 8 feet!

I must have been a blocking fool, because I also blocked my Susanna IC Shawl.  I gave it to a very good friend for her 50th birthday!  She loved it (and I forgot to get a picture of her with it):

Do you remember a long time ago when Paige bought some yarn from a semi-local yarn store and wanted me to make her some 'Turkish Bed Slippers'?  Well, she kinda gave me a guilt trip, so I got them started.....I finished on and have barely started the second one.

Well, that is about all I have for the knitting...but I have quite a few stash enhancements.  I am going to start with some scissors.....yup, just some plain old scissors....or maybe they are like 'snips'.  Darlene and I are always missing a pair of scissors in our bags, so she found these awesome little snips....I ordered some from overseas before she left from vacation....and I just now got them.  She has already since ordered some and gave me 1/2 of her order....now I can give her 1/2 of these.  I should also note that they are Antonio approved, so they work left handed or right handed.

Then, Knit Picks had to go and bring back Felici Self Striping yarn for a limited time....so I got 5 different colorways....I do love them....and I cannot wait to start knitting on some socks!

I also got a new 6" DPN holder and the cutest needle gauge.....I am in love with these needle gauges!

Then...I have a small story behind my next stash enhancement......Darlene saw this Hippo in the Camp Loopy #1 finished items area......copyright to alphantango on ravelry...hold on to your hippos, this is so dang cute!

and Darlene is in love with this Happy Hippo.....but it is Crochet, and Darlene does not crochet....So I bought the pattern here, and I ran home to check my stash to see what I had....you all know I cannot match for nothing, so I wanted to use the same colors as alphantango.  Well, I found some Regia 6ply in a green and turquoise that I bought back in mid/late March....well, this yarn is categorized as DK but I think it is going to work for this Hippo....worse case scenario, I make a HUGE HIPPO.  So, I found more of this Regia 6ply in a pink and purple to go with my turquoise and green.....what do you think?

I am going to try to get the hippo started tonight....I am hoping....keep your fingers crossed for me!

Anyway.....that is all I have for this week!  Have a great 4th of July and I will see you next week.....Camp Loopy #2 starts on Wednesday of this week!  Yahoo!

 Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

My baby is growing up!

Hi everyone!  How has your week been?  Mine has been crazy.  My baby youngest child is Paige....so at the age of 19, she is my baby!  But she is growing up....she went out of town this past weekend...she came home late last night....she has never been on a plane....and she was going to CO to visit a friend and traveling all alone......so she is growing up alright!

Her flight left Austin at 6:20 am.....so we had to get up at 2:45 to leave the house by 3:45 to get here there early......She made it to her gate....and got a window seat.....and made it all the way to CO to see her friend, Tara (on the left)....when she came home, her flight was delayed 4 1/2 hours so I had to pick her up at the airport at 3:35 am.....

This made for a very busy week for me.....Early last week, Antonio was sick....he was better by Wednesday....on Thursday, Paige needed to bring me my car back so they stayed for dinner, then her and Antonio spent the night Friday (so we could get up so early on Saturday)....and I have had Antonio all weekend.  His uncle did come pick him up Saturday night to Sunday afternoon.....why do I mention all of this?  Because Me + Antonio = Very Little Knitting!  OK, on to the knitting!

First, I worked like a knitting ninja to finish Paige's hat for her to take to CO:

Other than that....all I really worked on is socks......  The Hiya Hiya Sail Lace II socks:

My Loopy Academy Socks:

And some new socks for a Hiya Hiya KAL.   The pattern is called Team Spirit and it is colorwork....I am using some funky colors, so the colorwork does not really 'stand out' but I think once I get a little farther, it will.

This is the yarn:

This is the first sock:

I did have some stash enhancements.....I love the bright colored yarn above so much, I got some more...there was a sale and I could not help but buy more of them....it is Regia:

While I was buying Regia, I saw they have a new yarn with Outlast....which is supposed to be temperature controlling....so I got some green and blue solid to make some socks with (some time in the distant future):

This past weekend was the Dallas/Ft. Worth Fiber Festival....and I have a few friends that went. They are so awesome they texted me pictures and bought some yarn for me (and I paid them back of course).....it is nice to have friends willing to spend your money.....Miss Babs has two new yarn bases.  One of them is called Killington.  It is a sportweight and it has 700 yards...85% merino and 15% silk!  It is heavenly!  I got two skeins of Bat Sh*t Crazy to make Toujours by Joji Locatelli and one skein of Mayhem because it looks like biker chick with purple...I just loved the colors!

I also had them snag me a couple of skeins of Kama Sutra from MustStash Yarn.  I love all of Stacie's self striping yarn!  I got two because one is for Darlene :)

My pink yarn that I ordered for the Miss Babs Tour came in too!

More turtle purl yarn to make burberry socks for my sister and niece.

And a friend of mine snagged some Lollipop yarn, so she let me trade yarn for this skein of Home Grown....reminds me of the Zac Brown Band song....Homegrown!

I participated in the DCS Podcast Pigskin Party and I won a skein of yarn from Lilliput....the blues and greens are not really my color....but it is beautiful!

This past weekend was the Dallas/Ft. Worth Fiber Festival....and I have a few friends that went.  They are so awesome they texted me pictures and bought some yarn for me (and I paid them back of course).....it is nice to have friends willing to spend your money.....I do not have the greatest pictures....so you will have to stay tuned for next week (or I may blog mid week) to see the goodies I got.

Oh, and I found some "Knitting Girl" socks that I just had to buy:

Lastly.....I have been in the mood for a new purse....I got my tax return and have been eyeing a few bags....a friend of mind suggested I go to the San Marcos Outlet Mall stores to see if I see anything I like....it is about an hour one way...but it was worth it.  I got this "Weekender Bag" that is meant to be used as a 'bag' but I will use it as a purse...the color is a beautiful periwinkle....but a little more towards the blue side than the purple side.....it is hard to describe....I also got a matching wallet!

Well, that is about all I have......I did finally get some pictures of Celeste modeling the sweater for me....and I am including the pictures of the puzzles that Antonio and I made about a hundred times this past weekend :)

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!