Lake House Retreat 2016!

Hello everyone!  Boy do I have a lot to tell you and lots of pictures to share.

I will start with some cute grandkids.....it was Cataleya's birthday earlier in May and her mom had a party at a local park by the zoo.....I wanted to snap a picture of all the kiddos together...but that just did not happen...so I had to put them together.......I did not realize how much the sun was in their face when I snapped some of the pictures.

Now for a couple of stash enhancements......I got my Yarn Winnings from Primerose Yarn Co for my Citadel that I made (and Paige stole)!  I got 11 skeins of her Helix Base fingering weight yarn in the Grey Lady colorway!  I am not sure what I am going to make yet, but I am so excited I won this yarn!!!

Here is the sweater as a reminder:

And here is all the yarn I won!  <3

I also got some yarn from Darlene....she needs my help making a sweater for her DIL in Houston...it is an all black sweater (because Darlene is crazy that way), so she just gave me what she had......pics of the sweater later....here is the yarn....Knit Picks Chroma Worsted.

I also got my Miss Babs tour destination package....we are going to Iceland and I could not love this package any more.....the yarn is black, blueish grey and chartreuse green......it is GORGEOUS!

The pattern for the tour is called Rennandi (Picture copyright of Miss Babs):

This will be getting cast on.....Now, I know I have my Big 4 Retreat going on and I did not explicitly say that my Miss Babs tour was an exception and allowed to be cast on....but I look at it a couple of ways.....I was already a member of the tour before the retreat started and it is a big goal of mine for 2016 to knit from the clubs I join......plus, I have already finished 2 of my Big 4 Retreat items and it is only June 6th (I still have almost 3 months)......so, I am not sure when I am casting it on....but I am 99.9% sure it is not waiting till September 1 (because by then another package from the tour will be shipping out).


Well, I think that is it for Stash enhancements......what else has happened?  Well, Tour de Sock started.....and I am slower than everyone...but I am enjoying the pattern.  I think I am just so intimidated by a pattern that I almost come to a slow crawl when making patterned socks......

Then at the lake house I knit on mostly 3 things (even though I think I packed 20 things).....The sweater for Darlene's DIL (I had to get a close up because the black is hard to photograph):

My Spire which is one of my Big 4 items....and I just finished all the repeats of chart B!  Yahoo!  Now on to Chart C!

and my Smooth Move....the last of my Big 4 items....it is 60% done.....

Well, that is pretty much all I have....except some pictures of the knitting retreat at the Lake House....

Tami finished an entire pair of socks in like 2 days....she is crazy ninja fast!

Evelyn baked two pies....one big and a small gluten free pie....isn't it cute?

Darlene was spoiled with Strawberries and whipped cream for Friday morning Breakfast (yes, there are strawberries in there somewhere):

And we only got the tiniest amount of rain....it came down hard, but did not last more than 5 min and it was done.....so the weather was great!

This is a video that Tami took:

Our geese that come and see us every year got some bread (that is my hand tossing out some bread):

Have a great week everyone!!!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Happy April!

April is here....can you believe it?  I have a couple of KAL's starting in April, so I will jump right into the knitting.......

Most of the week, I worked on this weekend is my CITADEL!  I FINISHED!  I know....I cannot believe it!

Here it is fresh off the needles:

Blocking (I had no clue how to block this really):

Finished with buttons....I tried to get a picture of this on me, but I was failing miserably....so this is all I could do.  It is super cold in my office this morning, so I am wearing it (who would of thought I could wear a 100% wool sweater in April in Texas)....It is super comfy (and warm)!

And, I won a sweater's quantity of yarn!  I was the first one finished and won....There were only about 6 people (myself included) plus the owner of the yarn store....so not a whole lot of people to beat...but it gave me motivation to keep knitting on this.

With my yarn winnings...I want to make one of these.....which one do you guys like best?

 © Melissa Schaschwary

 © Jonna Jolkin

© Jonna Jolkin

I also got yarn ready for some projects....

I told you about the Hypercrazy I am going to make again (Yes, we have established that I am crazy!)...I have more on this later...but here is my yarn and project bag all ready!

My April socks will be done in colorway Laduree Macaroons.

Then, the 2nd Qtr KAL for both the Bags By Awesomegrannie group and the San Antonio SNB group got started on April 1.  I am making Agleam with a skein of Yowza in Masquerade.

So, let me start with my Hypercrazy story....I got started...and got all the way through chart C....

But everyday that we would knit during lunch, I would comment how much I loved Darlene's Wolves Den Colorway I showed you last week:

and everyday, Darlene would offer to trade me.....well, one day she said "This is my final offer, I won't ask again!".....so I took her up on it..she took my Masquerade doe through chart C and I took her Wolves Den that she was done with chart B...there was a column missing, so I had to tink a little and re-do it, but it was not much...and then when I was knitting with it...I actually missed those gorgeous pops of green in the masquerade I was using....I tell ya, I guess I am never happy, I just want to knit ALL the yarn and ALL the things!  It does not really matter...Darlene and I share everything so whenever I want to wear the masquerade one, I know she will let me.

Now, since I am no longer knitting with the masquerade on the Hypercrazy, I decided to use my skein of Masquerade on my Agleam....and I am loving these colors!

And, I started my April Socks....the ACM's were on last night and I cast on right before they started and this is what I got done while they were on...I think I did pretty good!!!

Here is just a picture of them so you can see the wonderful spring colors!  I love these colors!!

Lastlyt, I won another set of Hiya Hiya needles with "Knitphomaniac" lasered on them.  Thank you so much to Qianer for your generosity!

Well, that is all I have....I leave you with some fun pictures that other people shared with me and I found worthy to reshare with you..and one picture of Antonio...he came over on Wednesday!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!