Happy Mother's Day!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Mother's Day!  Paige, my daughter, surprised me with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers from her and my son (he lives out of town).  I love them!

My sister also got me a flower bouquet with sunflowers (which matches my current project bag....I love sunflowers!)  It is sooooo super pretty!!

So, we all went to my mom's for dinner....me, Paige, Antonio, my sister (Janice), her hubby (Jim), and my niece and nephew (Grace and Sean), plus my mom and dad of course....my mother made a delicious brisket and my dad made his famous red cabbage side dish.....I think most of you know that my mother is German....I mean full blood, German Citizen (not USA), her sister and her sister's family is all still in Germany.....my sister and I were both born in Germany......so, I mention this because my mother's father had a bakery in Germany and my mom can cook and she can bake like nobody's business!  Well, she used to make us a noodle dish when we were younger....it is called Spätzle and some people spell it Spaetzle (without the umlaut).  My mother does not make it much anymore because it is pretty labor intensive.....but with my sister traveling to Europe so much lately, she had a coworker that gave her a Spätzle maker.....it is pretty cool.  We made it yesterday and I have to say, the Spätzle was delicious!  Here are some pictures of it being made....it reminds me a little of a french press coffee maker...you put the ingredients in, then mix with the built in mixer, then the bottom comes off to put over the pot of boiling water and you churn the dough into the water.

and here it is boiling in the water!

It was delicious!  Anyway, a great Mother's Day was had by all!  I know this is not a cooking blog.....so I will get onto the knitting.  First.....stash enhancements and I have A LOT!  Remember my friend went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool show and got me some goodies?  well, they came in!  Yahoo!  She did such a great job of getting everything packaged up in ziplocks with air all sucked out of them!

I got a bat of fiber from Loop in the Abracadabra colorway....it is so awesome!

Two skeins of Miss Babs Yowza in the Mad Hatter Colorway!

Two skeins of Miss Babs new base called Hot Shot (wool and Nylon) in the Drunken Watermelon colorway!

Two skeins of Miss Babs Yummy 2 ply in the exclusive Maryland Sheep and Wool Show 2015 colorway!

and lastly, a ceramic cup from Jenny the Potter that says :YaRRrrn!

Oh, and did you know that Bags By Awesomegrannie just celebrated it's one year Anniversary?  Darlene is so awesome! She made me a sock material bag set with matching needle holders as a thank you to me for my help here and there (really, I do not do much!)  She never needs to thank me, but I love the set!  She also had some new material with Orange Sheep....who does not love Orange Sheep?  So I had to buy a set....both bag sets are so happy!  Thank you Darlene for being so Awesome!

Then......Yes, there is more.....guess what was announced this past week?  CAMP LOOPY 2015!  No, I am not done with all my Loopy Academy stuff...but I am super excited about Camp Loopy.  I got some Malabrigo Aroyo in the Chispas Colorway...the color looked to have more of alight mauve and a goldish color in it, but when I got it in person it is more purply-grey...but that is A-Okay...I still love it!  I think I am going to make a Lintilla with it, but I am not 100% sure yet...I still have time to look some more!  I got a couple of t-shirts and a Leonard the Lion along with my yarn!

Here was the picture from website:

As for knitting this week...I started a new shawl for a KAL with the Bags By Awesomegrannie Ravelry Group....I am also going to double dip in the Melanie Berg Any Shawl Kal...I am making You're Beautiful by Melanie Berg in a gorgeous yellow!

I worked on my Miss Babs Knitting Tour Ves shawl....I need to get caught up on this, I am a touch behind.

And, I finished my secret project.....just needs blocking...I have it folded on purpose, so the while surprise is not given away, but so you can see the gorgeous coloring of the yarn!

and I finished the Team Spirit socks for a Hiya Hiya KAL....they are so small, they do not even fit Darlene's 7 year old grand daughter...but I will find someone to wear them...LOL!

Well, I think that is just about it.......oh, I also got a Vitamix....I am pretty excited about it and I hope the healthy shakes help me to loose some weight and just be 'healthier' in general.....of course the first thing I made was a margarita (not so good for weight loss), but I had a healthy kale shake today and it was yummy!  I hope I can keep it up......wish me luck!

I leave you with some fun pics!  Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

May the 4th be with you!

Did you know it is Star Wars Day today?  I remember watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory when Penny asked what day is Star Wars Day:

Leonard: "Well, it's not May the fifth and it's not May the third...it's May the...fourth!"
Sheldon: "Get it?"
Raj: "May the fourth be with you!"

Anyway......today is May the fourth.....so, May the 4th be with you!

I am gonna jump into knitting.....I actually got a lot of knitting done this past weekend!  My boyfriend, Jaime, goes on two motorcycle rides a year with 'the guys'....and this past weekend was the first one this year....so I just hung out with my doggies!

I worked on my Ves Shawl for the Miss Babs Tour:

I worked on my secret test knit (some people know what it is...but I do not want to 'say' it just yet).  I am so close to hitting yellow/gold...I can almost taste it!

and I worked on some socks for a HiyaHiya KAL:

Those are really the only three things I worked on this week...but I think I got a nice amount done on each.

I have a few stash enhancements.....a couple of months ago I got some new stops for my heavy metal needles...well, they came unscrewed while I knit....now, I am sure this is a reflection of the way I knit....plus most people are not knitting on an item while they have stops on needles...but I use the stops for the cord I have where the afterthought heel is going to go....so I would knit...and the item would 'rock back and fourth' and the weight of the stops on the cords would cause them to slowly come unscrewed....the lady I got them from was so nice to let me exchange the stops for lighter ones...and the lighter ones do not come unscrewed while I knit....yeah!

I think I mentioned that I am planning on making my dad a golf club cover....well, a friend of mine sent me her general pattern for club covers for her hubby and said she was using the clover pom pom maker and really liked it....so I got one...I have not used it yet...but I am looking forward to using it.

A friend of mine tagged me on facebook with a certain wine glass.....so I got 4....one for me, one for Darlene, one for my mom and one for my sister....all for Mother's day this weekend.  I could not wait to give Darlene hers (plus, she saw the huge box on my desk)...so I gave hers to her early....it is hard to read but it says "It's not really drinking alone if the dog is home" and then a tiny paw print.

Package number 2 from Strickmich!Club came it!  It is called Baltic Summer.  I got the double yarn option and I am a little disappointed that my two skeins are pretty different.....I emailed the club about it and Martina gave me some suggestions how to merge them together...so now I am anxious to start.

I also stumbled across some Shaun the Sheep Cross Stitch Sets...I have not done cross stitch in a long time, but I bought 4 kits....I hope to make these soon....I think they will decorate my yarn room nicely!  Aren't they CUTE!

Do you remember back at the beginning of the year, a friend of mine asked me to make her some knitted headbands....and she was going to make me a yarn bowl?

Well, she started it!  Here it is....so far....no done of course!  I am super excited!

Lastly....I am sure many of you know that the Maryland Sheep and Wool show was this past weekend.  Well, one of my friends lives in VA and was going to the event.....she offered to get any items we wanted for us and ship them to us.  I asked for Miss Babs (of course) and she got me 2 skeins Mad Hatter colorway in Yowza, 2 of the exclusive "Maryland Sheep and Wool" colorway in yummy 2-ply and 2 Drunken Watermelon in the new base called Hot Shot (the pictures shown is one hot shot and one yummy 2 ply for comparison, but I got 2 hot shot).

She also got me some fiber from Loop...it is called Abracadabra (I guess I better get with it and start some real spindling spinning)

and a mug from Jenny the Potter...I do not know what color mine is...so it will be a surprise when the box comes!

I am soooooo excited and I cannot Thank Sara enough for doing this for us...there were several gals getting stuff.  Sara was messaging us all Saturday morning....the line to pay for Miss Babs was SUPER long....so she took some pics of peoples faces when they came out and saw how long the line was.

And there were some serious buyers who had been to this rodeo before:

Sara was in the line for one hour and here she is with her son, Hunter, and her Ikea bag full of yarn!

That's my week!  Happy Happy Happy knitting!