Hot, Hot, Hot!

Hi everyone....I hope you have been staying nice and cool!  Here in South TX, we are HOT and for the next 5 days....we will hit 101 degrees with an even higher heat index!

Well, I am going to just jump into stash enhancements.....I am not sure if I showed you all my new Zing Needles....I got some 2.5 mm 32" circulars a while back (I used them for my rainbow socks) and I really like them, so I got some dpns in 2.5mm and some 2.75 mm in circular and dpn.

I also got some super cute, knitting themed leggings....

Darlene gave me the cutest needle sizer (there are sizes on the other side)...I love it!  Thank you Darlene!

Oh, and remember I said I was going to be casting on a Poncho soon?  Well, I had two skeins of  Wollmeise DK in the Feldmäuschen color at home and I thought I would get a 3rd skein of it from Rohrspatz & Wollmeise just hoping it would match.

Well, it did match!  Perfectly!

The Feldmäuschen is like a brown/purple/grey tone....and Darlene just LOVED the color.  I kind of talked her into getting some grey......so I swapped with her....Here are my three skeins (in the 12 mg colorway) and she took the above skeins.

So, I originally cast on with the Feldmäuschen and the cast on looked super loose....I messaged the designer and she said it did look pretty loose....

First Attempt:

I watched some You Tube videos....but to be honest....even their cast on's looked loose....look at this one from one video:

I wanted it to look nice, so I tried again with the new 12mg color and it looked MUCH better, but I wanted to try one more time....the third time was the charm.

I get gauge for the poncho with size US 8, so I used a size US 8 on my left needle (making the i-cord for the cast on) and a size US 6 on my right needle (holding the stitches that got loose)...it worked out much better....this cast on took me about 4+ hours each time I did it...but designer says that the cast on really makes the poncho and I love the way it looks so far so I am glad I did it (3 times so far).  Now I just have to do it for Darlene and then I will say bye-bye to a 275+ stitch i-cord cast on for a while....LOL!

Second Attempt:

Third Attempt:

 Second and Third Attempt Compared (third attempt on bottom):

 (third attempt on right):

Whew....it kind of seems that all I did was cast on all week...but I did do a few other things.....I frogged that Hitofude I said I would:

I also started my July Socks....the colorway is London in a Bag!  I am doing the Whiz Bang pattern and the toes have different slanting sides...this should be interesting!

This yarn really, really, really turned my fingers and nails a blue color......I sent an email to Susan at DVD and tell her she may want to rinse her blue a little more or use some citric acid....I was not trying to complain because I really, really, really love her yarn...but then I got to thinking...and if nobody tells her that her dye is bleeding off, she will not know!

I worked a touch on the black sweater for Darlene's DIL.....but not enough to shoot another picture.

I worked a little on Rennandi...even worked on it at Hot Rod Night this past Saturday with Jaime!

Then it was time to work on Spire....I had been putting it off all week (remember, I do not love working on lace...so this just kept getting ignored) and I was getting behind on my own calendar to do 812 stitches a day....well, I needed to do 7,504 stitches to catch up...and I knitted my little fingers away...but only got 6,384 stitches done...I was just one day behind (instead of a week behind).  So, tonight I will need to do 1,688 to catch up...and then try to keep up!

It is coming along and you can start to see a bit of the lace pattern....I really hope I can keep up with this!

Well....I think that is all I have....Oh, Dyakcraft put up some 'seconds' for purchase and Darlene snagged me a set of the plum.....we should have them this week!  I hope you all have a fabulous week!

Happy Happy Knitting everyone!

Happy (Belated) Father's Day!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Father's Day, whether you are a Father, play the role of a Father, or spent it with your Father, I hope it was fabulous!

Here is my Dad and my Grandfather (his dad).  I never knew my grandfather because he died before I was born, but I still love him for giving me my daddy!!!!

My dad:

My grandfather:

Okay, on to the knitting!

I finished my Monthly DVD socks....the rainbow ones:

Now, these socks turned my fingers blue/purple while knitting them.....so, I wanted to soak these socks in water with citric acit in the water to see how well the citric acid worked....it worked like a charm....the socks did not bleed at all, and this is HOT water!

I forgot to mention that I knit these socks with some new sock needles...they are called Zings and they are by Knit Pro.  I really enjoyed these needles and they are very affordable.....so I am going to switch gears to some Stash enhancements:

I also got some new Dyakcraft needles...the Robins Egg Blue ones....these are sooooo pretty!  I LOVE THEM!

A friend of mine that came to SNB at my house got me the cutest serving tray...I just love it!

My last stash enhancement is not really knitting related (I guess neither was the serving tray), but relaxing related...Bath & Body works had a big sale and brought back some old scents....my favorite scent is Cucumber Melon and my daughters favorite is Sweat Pea....so I got some shower gel and lotions and fragrance sprays :)

Okay......sorry I got sidetracked....now back to the knitting.

I started some new socks for a Biscotte & Cie KAL here.  These socks have a provisional cast on and then you knit for a bit and join....it was quite challenging for me...but I got them both done.

Then I worked a little on Paige's gigantor blanket...I should have been done with this by now if  I had done my 2 rows a day...but I didn't so I am only like 1/2 way done :(

I have been working away at my smooth move (for my BIG 4 Retreat)...and I am about 84% done.....maybe, just maybe I can finish it this week:

Then, I was cruzin' along on the sweater for Darlene's DIL...but Darlene did not like the look of it....so I ripped back to the end of the ribbing and started over with the real pattern....it is hard to phototgraph it in black.

That is really all I have this week.  I had Antonio this past weekend for a little bit and I also got to see Celeste and Cataleya!  I hope everyone has a fabulous week!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!