So many Happy "Fill in the Blank" events!

Happy Valentine's Day (a little late)!  Happy President's Day (again, a little late)!  Happy Chinese New Year!  Happy Retreat Weekend!

Yes....there are so many Happy Events that have just passed or are still coming!  Did you have a great Valentine's Day?  I did!  Jamie took me out for Sushi (My FAVORITE!) and brought me chocolates and beautiful orange roses!

How was your President's Day?  Mine was great!  I spent most of my day knitting!

Happy Chinese New Year!!  This happens on Thursday....do you know what it is the year of?  It is the Year of the SHEEP!  Yippee!!

Now, what is this about Happy Retreat Weekend?  Remember last year when I went on a knitting retreat about this time of the year?  Well, it is the 2nd annual San Antonio Fiber Retreat this coming weekend.....I am so excited....I cannot even decide which projects I want to take.

So, on to the knitting!  I have done a lot of it lately.  I decided to knit on a hat that I had promised Paige a long time ago...and I finished it!

I also worked on some socks....one heel done and one almost ready to go....I tried to find the perfect red/burgundy to do a contrast heel...but I could not find one that I just loved....so I went with black.

I finished blocking my 'A Day To Remember' shawl:

I started new socks for Loopy Academy....my friend said she would make socks with me if I made them mis-match....so I am pulling from inside and outside of cake to make the stripes go opposite!  I love them so far!

I also pulled out my Hitofude.  I saw a friend post her finished one on FB and I was jealous...so I pulled mine out.....

I also cast on for my boxy....I think I did that a week ago, but I am not sure I shared a picture....I think this project needs a different bag than the coffee bag....one of my Halloween ones has some lavender, so I think I need to switch project bags on this one.

I also worked a little on my 2nd Weigh it Shawl (I am loving these colors!)

I have a few stash enhancements.....remember my cute new little case for my Heavy Metal DyakCraft needles with the Sheep and Balloons?  Well, I got another Graces case with sheep on it for my 3.5" needles.  I love this case......Look at the old case on the right (it is kinda bulky even without needles in it) and look at the new case that holds all 8 sets of needles of the left!  How cute!

I also got some FABULOUS yarn from Darlene...she is sooooo good to me!  She heard some podcasters talking about this yarn and had to get some....so she got me some too....I cannot wait to cast on these socks!

Well, that is really all the knitting I have this week...but I am getting ready to go the the Knitting Retreat coming up this weekend....I am super excited about it!  I have a friend flying in from VA for this retreat...she used to live here in SA and her hubby got stationed in VA a couple of years ago...but thankfully she flies back here for this retreat every year!  She is supposed to fly in tomorrow and she is staying with me!  Yahoo!  So along with knitting, I have also been trying to get her bedroom ready.  Turned out to be perfect timing because Arran (Jaime's  youngest son) got a new Queen Size bed, so I took his old Full Size mattress and have it ready and waiting for her....new sheets should arrive tomorrow too (then I will hurry up and wash them before she lands I hope).

My valentine this year was Antonio....I picked him up from Daycare Friday and he spent the night Friday and hung out with me all day Saturday....I really hope you do not get tired of pictures of this boy...he just melts my heart!  All my grandkids do....I just see him more than the others......

Valentines Morning!

Paige texted me this one:

Oh, and I almost forgot that Paige went to Erich's last weekend and snapped a picture:

That is all I have!  I cannot wait to tell you all about my knitting retreat coming up.....here is a picture of a shirt that should be coming next week and a couple other inspirational sayings

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Happy Ground Hog Day....a week late.......

I am sorry that I completely forgot that last Monday was Ground Hog Day....time to see if we were going to get more knitting winter time or more knitting spring time......either way, I am knitting and so is punxsutawney phil!!!

I finished those pink, grey, black and white socks........

I love them!  I am also trucking along with my burberry socks

and......I finished my "A Day to Remember" shawl....it is blocking!

On Thursday, I decided at the last minute to make a Ninja Turtle Hat for Antonio.  I was not impressed with the way the pattern was written, but I expressed my concerns to the designer and she refunded my money paid, and I was very thankful......I know it would be better for me to have a picture of Antonio modeling this hat...but I will get one eventually....for now, you are going to have to make due with a picture of me wearing it.

Last week I told you that I started Chateau for me....well, I restarted with a smaller needle size and I am looking forward to getting it done.....all the Biggo that I ordered came in:

I also got some Dragonfly Fibers  Djinni Sock yarn....in a gorgeous Spooky Colorway:

I also got yarn for Loopy Academy Semester 2.....we need to make something with stripes (not self striping yarn), something felted, and something with slipped stitches in the pattern.....all items need to be at least 175 yards.  For the stripes, I am going to use Malabrigo Sock yarn in Black and Tiziano Red to make Foolproof (yarns to the far right in picture).....for the felted, I am going to make a Felted Circular Hot Pad with Cascade 220 in the Glamour colorway (the middle red skein).  Lastly, for the slipped stitch, I am going to make Pin Striped Socks (and my friend Tami is going to knit along with me) with the Tumbleweed Aurora self striping yarn in the Campfire colorway (the skein to the farthest right):

I also got started on a new KAL that a friend talked me into...the great thing about this KAL is that you only get one clue a month....so far I have had 2 clues....January clue and February clue.....now, I am not done with the February clue, but I am loving the way this yarn is knitting up....it is the skein I won from Camp Loopy last year....Mrs Crosby Hat Box in the Summer Bloom Colorway

I got some new project bags that I am in love with from AwesomeGrannie....I got the Frogs in a large bag and the Birds in a medium bag.....I love the matching insides so much....they are so happy!

Oh, and my  first package of yarn from the Strickmich!Club 2015 came in....it is Wollmeise Blend (an MCN blend) in the Tulpe colorway...the pattern is awesome too and I cannot wait to cast on.  I do want to join in on the KAL that Martina is doing with the club, so I will at least wait till the 14th of this month to cast on....the funny thing is that this past Monday, I was thinking how badly I wanted to try the new Wollmeise Blend yarn and I ordered a skein....in a dark red....so I guess I will just have more now when it finally comes in :)

Well,  think that is all I have for the knitting....I wanted to show you a picture of a non yarn related stash enhancement....my daughter went to Buck-ees and got me this coffee travel mug....I LOVE IT!!!!

Well, that is it for now.....during the week it did not feel like I was getting enough knitting in...but now that I have typed it all out and uploaded the photos...I feel pretty accomplished!

Here is some motivation for you!

HAPPY SUPER BOWL!!

Yes, I know that not a lot of knitters are also football fans...but you guys know me...I am a football fan and MY TEAM WON!  It is not that I am so much a Patriots fan, but I am an anti-sea hawks fan (sorry sea hawks fan)!

I knitted on my socks during the Super Bowl....I just need the ribbing on the cuffs on both of these and I am done.  I hope to finish today so I can post it as my last FO for Down Cellar Studios Podcast Pigskin Party.

Last week I told you that I had a small surgery scheduled.....everything went fine and I have had some extra knitting time....not as much as I would have liked to have...but I am knitting more and more each day it seems.  I was pretty far behind on my 'A Day to Remember' Shawl....so I redid the numbers and was till behind and I am almost caught up...I think I have 8 more rows to be completely caught up....I am at about 56.9% and need to be at 64.18% by the end of the day....we will see how that goes.

I worked just a little b it (maybe 30 min and 3 rows worth) on my 2nd weigh it shawl

I also cast on something new....but in order to defend myself (yes, sometimes I feel I need to defend myself), I want to tell you about a new knitter to our lunch group of knitters....I knit with 4 other ladies at lunch and sometimes we are asked if they can come and knit with us (most need to be taught how to knit).....yes, we vote them in (everyone has to agree).....so our newest member to be voted in is Marla....she is super sweet and has really picked up the knit stitch very well.  I started a hat for her since we were not ready to teach her to purl yet, so I cast on and did the ribbing (but no, this is not the item I am defending having cast on):

She has already knit 4-5 inches on this hat and is doing awesome....she saw that Darlene and I were knitting socks in self striping yarn, so she really wanted to try that....I did not want to throw her into Judy's magic cast on or kfb stitch...so I cast these on for her too (no, this is also not the item I am defending having cast on):

Marla and Darlene came to my house during lunch on Thursday of last week...they wanted to see how I was doing after surgery and Marla wanted to see my messy stash....well, she also went shopping in my stash....over $200 of shopping in my stash....I was fine with it...some of the yarns I will replace with the exact yarn and others I will not....Guess what happens after that?  Knit Picks has their Biggo yarn on sale......well, since I was on a yarn diet, I kind of thought up in my head that if I sold $200 worth of yarn, I could buy a little yarn since it was on sale...so I got 11 skeins of biggo in black (and broke my yarn diet after 29 days)....I have always wanted to make the Chateau Shrug with this yarn but did not want to pay $8.49 a skein for it....the shrug will take 8 skeins, and then I have 3 more to make another gaptastic cowl for me, and I already had 3 in my stash for a gaptastic cowl for Paige or Bizzle....now, I do not have the yarn I just ordered yet, but since I had 3 skeins in my stash....I cast on the Chateau....yes, this is the item I am defending for casting on....

Then, do you remember back in July when Darlene got me that Beaver Slide Mule Spun Yarn and we were going to make the INK cardigan?  Well, I did cast it on and I did like 3 or 4 rows.  Darlene had gotten much farther than me...but she was not feeling the yarn for the INK Cardigan, so she told me she was going to rip it and do the Hitofude Cardigan.  Well, I have one OTN in Black, but I love that cardigan so much, I want to do a second one and I will use the same yarn that Darlene is using...so I ripped out INK, did a tiny gauge swatch, and just barely did the cast on the other day and this yarn is awesome!

I also gave myself a new goal....now this is all Darlene's fault...she had to show me a picture of a sock drawer on Instagram of all hand knit socks and now I want to have a drawer like this for myself...so I think you will see a lot more sock knitting from me.

I have a few stash enhancements to show you....I got a new case for my new sock needles.  This case is from Graces Cases and it holds the 5" size 0-3 interchangeable set.....it is pretty cute.  I have some material like this with a sheep on a balloon.....super adorable!

I also got some magnetic board, a magnifying ruler, and a long piece of magnet I want to cut up for my Knitters Pride Pattern holders....

Well,  I think that is about all I have....I did make 3 dishes of Lasagna for Super Bowl and I have lots of left overs too.

I leave you with a few of pictures that have a theme that remind me of my few days past and I hope it is also what my future has in store for me....PJ's, my fur babies, and my darling grandson too!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!!