Happy Happy Wednesday to everyone.  I know last week I said I would try to post more, but time just got away from me and here I am a week later, finally getting to post.

I hope everyone had a fabulous Mother's Day.  My daughter got me a gift card, chocolate, gummy bears, and a dozen gorgeous roses....not only did she get me a dozen, but she got a dozen for my mom and my sister.....I am super proud of the young woman/mother she is becoming:

Before I get to everything I am knitting and everything I started.....There is a new really cool pattern out there called Merge....I know this is in my near future....now I just need to find the right colors to make it with!  I did not want to steal the picture from the designer...so please click the word "Merge" and it will take you to the pictures!

This past weekend I went to Jaime's niece's graduation....it was nice.  I took my Viajante to knit on.  The coliseum we were in was pretty cold and we had a vent right above us....so as I knit on Viajante, Jaime put the already knitted part on his legs (he was wearing shorts), so the knitting came in really handy!

I am a little behind on the Viajante.  I realized that today is the deadline for the Knit Purl Hunter KAL where we made Ridgely, so I needed to get my knitting needles a going on that to get it finished....which pushed off some of my Viajante knitting.  I would need to knit 19.5 grams tonight to get all caught up (which will probably not happen) but I am hoping to catch up this weekend....maybe even start the lace part).  Here it is so far.

Now to the Ridgley I neeeded to get done......well, I knit till 11:45 pm (which is SUPER LATE FOR ME) and I finished....I let it block over night.

I also started the fingerless mitts KAL that I am doing for my LYS (Inskein Yarns)......I changed up the cast on.  The pattern says to cast on, knit 4 rows, then do a row of k2tog, yo, then knit 4 more rows (same thing at the end of glove)...Once glove is done, you fold the knitting at the k2tog, yo row and seam it to form the picot edging. Well, for the start, I decided to do a provisional cast on (video here), knit 4 rows, knit the k2tog, yo row, knit 3 rows, and on the 4th row, I took one stitch from the 4th row, and one from the provisional cast on and did a k2tog all around so the picot edging is already done.  Now, for the bind off, I will do it the way the pattern states.  But this is just one less thing to seam up.

Here is the very start of each....not much, but at least started!

I also started one more new project....Yes, I know I am crazy, but I just could not help it.  One of my BFF's (Darlene) texted me on Saturday stating she wanted to knit a certain shawl.  It is Jared Flood's Leaves of Grass Shawl....it takes 1375 yards.  She did a lot of research on the pattern (sometimes she picks some doosey patterns that are really hard) and a lot of the notes said it was a pretty easy shawl except for the cast one.  It calls for a circular cast one.  I have never done one, but I think I did pretty good (I did have to re-start a couple of times).  Darlene had bought me some beautiful Wollmeise Lace yarn in colorway Wasabi last year and I have been dying to make something with it....well, now I have the perfect pattern for it.  Here is the start of it (it will sit on back burner till Viajante is done....but I had to get it started)....Darlene is also knitting this pattern in her Wollmeise Lace in colorway Lila Ludmilla.

Guess what else happened this week?  It is time for CAMP LOOPY 2013!  I am SUPER EXCITED!  This week is "Camp Loopy Store Week" so I got 20% off some Desert Vista DyeworksViso in Colorway Spumani.

This first project challenge is any pattern that uses one skein of yarn at least 375 yards.  I have been wanting to write my own pattern for a toe up socks with an afterthought heel.  I know there are some patterns out there but they are cuff down.  So I think I will just write one up, test knit it myself (along with Darlene) and then I will probably post the pattern here.  With an Afterthought Heel, I will be able to use up a lot of this awesome self striping yarn (very little going to stash left overs).  Camp Loopy Here I come!!!

I hope to get a lot of knitting done this weekend as Jaime will be going on his bi-annual motorcycle ride on his Harley to New Mexico with a bunch of his buddies.

This week has been crazy (and it is only Wednesday) and sometimes I wish I could just knit all day.  I do love my job, but sometimes this is how I feel........

Happy Happy Knitting, and Happy Happy Wednesday!  Have a great week!!

PS.....Go Spurs Go.....we won game 5 last night (remember, I was up late) and I hope we take game 6 tomorrow night, but I also hope I am not up late enough to watch it!

Happy Happy Friday....it has been too long since I have posted and I am sorry for that.  The time has gone so quickly I can hardly remember what has happened in the last 10 days!

There is a contest where you can win free yarn for life.....well, 20 years, but hey...who does not want free yarn?  You can enter here:

http://ck.upickem.net/r/A3hVb833cFA?r=46353

I have been knitting mainly on 4 things......even though I have about 30 things on the needles.  One of these 4 things is a new project.....Yes, I just could not help doing a cast on of something new.  It is a Sleep Sack o' Baby and it is designed by a good friend of mine, Danna (her blog is here), and I wanted to test knit it for her.  Her deadline was May, but she said she would be a bit easy on the deadline....which is a good think because I have a KAL due May 31 that will take everything in me to complete in time.

Here is the (barely) start of the sleep sack...I love my new ChiaoGoo needles, but the cord is not the best choice for Magic loop....but that is ok, I am making it work!

The Viajante is the KAL that is due May 31st.....I measured my skein of yarn this past Tuesday and I still had 257 grams....since this pattern is the kind of pattern that says "Knit till you have 20% of your yarn left, start this lace section, then bind off" I really do not have any way of seeing how far I am or how much I need to do except for weighing the yarn.  On Tuesday, there was 257 grams of yarn, and 46 days left (inlcuding Tuesday).....with doing the math, I figured I need to knit 5.6 grams per day in order to make May 31st deadline...there are approx 1740 yards per 300 grams on a Wollmeise Lace Skein, so that is 5.8 yards per gram and again with math that means I need to knit approx 32.48 yards per day.  I made myself a little calendar that says how many grams my ball should be at the end of each day:

Tuesday: 251.4g
Wednesday: 245.8g
Thursday: 240.2g
Friday: 234.6g
etc.....and so for (for 3 full days) I have been able to stay on track....wish me luck...I will need it.  Here is the ball and the viajante so far:

I did knit a little bit on the reverse pinwheel baby blanket (if you look close enough, you can see I am just starting my second stripe of green):

The 4th thing I have been working on is the KAL with Michelle Hunter. I was a bit behind on Clue 1....but I caught up all of clue 1, finished clue 2 (the black lace part in the middle) and now I am working on the decreases of clue 3......Here is my progress.  I have about 18 1/2 decreasing repeats left to go:

I will be out of town most of the weekend for a wedding, and spending the night at my sister's lake house (close to the wedding).  I have a brush collection on Monday, so I have yard work to do.....but I hope to get some knitting done while in the car on the way to and from the wedding (no, I am not driving).

Here is my cute picture for the week.....it is a small part of the definition of yarn.....Enjoy, Happy Friday and Happy Knitting!!!

Happy Tuesday everyone!  I hope everyone had a great weekend!

I got some bad news yesterday so today I am trying to shake it off and be cheerful.  I asked a friend if he had any words to help cheer me up.  (I am not trying to push religion on anyone, that is not what this blog is about, so please do not take offense!)  He sent me scripture from Psalm 118:24:

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

So.....there are my words to help me be positive and optimistic!!!

Now on to the good stuff.....KNITTING!  I had a crazy weekend so I did not get as much knitting done as I usually do.  I did have SNB this past weekend, but it was wild.  I had my grand daughter, Celeste, and another lady from SNB brought her grand daughter, Lexi.  Celeste and Lexi play well together and had a good time.  Antonio was also with me so I had more kid duty going on than knitting.

In addition, my stepson and daughter in law, Mario and Amanda, came over for dinner Saturday evening.  Amanda is expecting and is due May 4th.  Thankfully they also took some bulky baby things of Antonio's to use for their baby, soon to be Alexxis Maranda Ramirez.  Mario and Celeste had a great time playing with some blocks!

I worked a little on the reverse pinwheel blanket I am knitting for Alexxis and I was able to show it to Amanda.  She loves the colors.  I am glad because I was a little worried about the pink in this blanket.  When I ordered the yarn online, I thought it was more pink, but when I got it, it is really more mauve-ish.  But it is looking good:

I also got my April shipment of the Barking Dogs Sock Yarn Club.  It was originally called Celery, and they changed it to Rye....but I like Celery better....it is gorgeous!

The newest Michelle Hunter KAL started this past Thursday and it involves color work.  So this is a little slow going, but I think the shawlette is going to be beautiful when done!  It is called Ridgely.

I worked a little bit on Viajante early last week and I really need to get those needles clickin'!!  I am way behind if I want to finish in time for the two KALs I am in!  I am happy that I frogged the stockinette part and redid it...it is looking much better and I have a little over an inch done in the stockinette.

Now.....Last week I think I told you that I got the small interchangeable knitting needle set by ChiaoGoo.  Well, being that I have a serious addiction to yarn, bags, and needles....I bought the large set too.  I should have just bought the 'whole' set that comes as one but no.......I had to start to be reasonable and say to myself "You just need the small set" and then after purchasing the small set, all my reason flies out the window and I bought the second set:

Lastly.....I think the biggest news of the weekend is that a new yarn store opened very, very, very close to my house.  It is called Inskein Yarns.  They had their grand opening on Saturday and they had a knit together  (they call it "The Asylum") on Mondays.  I went to the grand opening just before SNB on Saturday and two skeins of yarn followed me home.  I knew everyone that was there except the owner, and that was a really great feeling!  I met the owner Shannon and she is super crafty...the store is great.  I went to "The Asylum" last night and I think I will be spending many more hours there....even if just to knit (and not spend money)!

Again, Happy Tuesday and Happy Knitting!