Lake House Lounging!

Hi everyone!  This past weekend was my SNB group's 4th Annual Knitting retreat!  We had it at my sister's lake house and it was awesome to the max!

I got lots of knitting done and I will have picture overload at the end of this post.

First, prior to leaving, I got the Texas Dish Rag Tag box....I was the last person to get the box since I was the first to send it.  JoAn got me perfect orange and matching varigated yarn....the dishrag is awesome!  She also got me a book with different flower and leaves patterns, and some Ferrero Rocher Chocolate and a Texas Pecan Praline!  Yes, the chocolate and praline are already gone!

I also started some new socks.....bright orange with the BugBear Woolens I bought a few weeks ago...I love this fun color....it is not true color on the screen, but think a fun and happy orange that is tonal!

And remember that bag set with yarn I won?  Well, I got it...

I also finished my Loopy Academy Extra Credit before I left.  Now...this is a TERRIBLE picture, but I do not have a head mannequin but I may need to get one.  I used one of Antonio's balloons....this hat is WAY too big for anyone!  But it is cute.  I may just rip it and re-purpose the yarn, but I have not completely decided yet.

Okay.....now on to what I did at that the retreat......

I finished some socks for a HiyaHiya KAL (and I also entered them in an SKA giveaway).

I also converted my friend, Tami, into a sock knitter....she said she would never knit socks because it was a waste of her time....but she made the pinstripe socks with me in February and now she finished some more socks (she calls them Coffee Socks because she spilled coffee on them).....now she is at the end of the dock laying down with her feet in the sun to get a good picture of her socks!!!

I started the Toujours Sweater with Darlene....I am IN LOVE WITH THIS YARN!  It is Miss Babs Killington Base (that my friends got me at DWF Fiber Fest) in the Bat S**t Crazy Colorway.

I worked a little on my Hiya Hiya Grapes Shrug and I am loving the way it is looking!

Then, fast forward to today....Today is the start of Camp Loopy and the start of Tour De Sock.  The Tour De Sock #1 calls for sport weight yarn....well, Darlene had bought me some Sanguine Gryphon Bugga in Sport Weight like a year and a half ago?  Well, I frogged the socks I had started with that yarn and I am going to use that yarn for Tour De Sock.  The first pattern is called Virrat.  Please wish me luck!  Looks like lots of cables!

I also got to start Camp Loopy today at lunch...I am not far, but it is a start (ps, this yarn is also heaven...Madeline Tosh Pashmina in the Dachshund colorway (same as the socks above).

Then, after lunch was the greatest surprise....My DyakCraft Lavender 5" Northern Lights Interchangeable set came in....these are Heaven....the box sang a church music tone like 'Aaaaaaaaaa' as I opened it.

Darlene also got me some needle protectors for our wooden DyakCraft Darn Pretty needles.....so they do not break in our project bags.....great idea!  Thank you Darlene!

Okay....I think that is it for the knitting.....so I am going to go into Lake House Shenanigans!

When Darlene and I got there, she needed to wind some yarn...and let me tell you, this is the view you want when you are winding yarn....this is yarn winding in the bar area of the dock.

So Tami brought popcorn....and she says in her house, her family eats it with chopsticks....we were like "huh?" but it turns out that Tami is nothing but a genius.....for the rest of the retreat we ate almost everything with chop sticks...I had some cheetos with chopsticks and snap pea snacks and rice snacks, etc.....your fingers do not get dirty at all and then I can go right to knitting after eating orange cheetos .....Yum!

Here is Elizabeth and I eating with chop sticks!

Or Elizabeth just 'concentrating'!!

My friend, Melissa, was working on a cardigan and had two skeins going at the same time and was making a mess, so I let her borrow my Yarnit....and she is proof how much they work and how helpful they are:

We had a family of geese come visit us a few times to get bread....they also got garlic cheese bread (they did not care for) and pecan sandies...but bread was their favorite!

and of course just some great views!

That is all I have.....I am going back to the lake house this weekend...but I bet I barely get any knitting done because I am taking Antonio with me....stay tuned for Antonio Fun Next Week!

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!