Never Enough Knitting Time!

Hi everyone!  How has your week been?  Mine has been great....but there is never enough knitting time!  I actually feel like I have very, very, very little to show you this week....but, I will just straight to stash enhancements!

First, I got some DVD swag for posting stuff on Instagram for "The Second Annual DVD Monthly Sock Club".....5 mini skeins, yarn scissors, and a DVD canvas bag!

Then, I ordered some "Fringe Tape" yarn....this stuff is expensive (it is like $22 for 12 yards that is like $1.83 a yard!  WOW!).  It is for my Knit Swirl cardigan that I started in 2011.....more on that later.

Then, I got a non knitting related stash enhancement....a new belly ring.....I know what you are thinking...Why does an over weight middle aged woman have a belly piercing?  Because she got it when she was 32 and much thinner and I think it looks funny without a belly ring in it.  Anyway, my other curved belly ring was starting to bother me, so was just 'looking' and saw this circle kind and fell in love with it....it has a little 4 leaf clover for luck!

That is it for stash enhancements......so what did I actually knit on this week?  Not much!  Last week I said that I wanted to work on my Scamper Socks....so I pulled them out and realized that I had some trouble with my cast on, so I had to frog the cast on, and restarted one of them....I am enjoying the pattern!

I worked a little on my DVD socks....but I have to be honest, I am not digging working on these when the blue is always coming off on my hands....I just want to get them finished!

I also did a couple of stripes on Paige's big blanket but did not snap a picture....here is an old picture in case you forgot what it looks like.  I have about 10 stripes done....I will either be going to 15 or 17 stripes...I am not sure yet.

I pulled out my Knit Swirl project from 2011...no, that is not a typo....it is from 5 years ago....I started this Knit Swirl before I started this blog!  I still love the pattern as much as I did before and really want to finish it.  Darlene is going to make one too....in brown.  Anyway, this is the reason I wanted to buy the Fringe Tape Yarn above.  I just realized that I have not even put the Fringe Tape yarn up against the regular yarn...gosh, I hope it matches!  It was the only red they had.....Here is what the Knit Swirl Looks Like....

© sandramciver:

And here is my progress:

Lastly, I worked on my Spire.....I am really struggling through the lace portion of this...I am 5 rows behind on my personal little chart of how much I need to knit each day...each row is over 600 stitches....so while I knit almost all weekend on this, it really does not seem like I knit that much (at least not to me)...the top pictures shows me trying to stretch out the lace while knitting in the truck coming back from the lease (Jaime and I went to the deer lease this weekend...it was wonderfully peaceful)

This pictures shows it just laying without stretching....I have about  14 more rows in chart C and then I go to Chart D, the applied edging.  However, those 14 rows equal about 10,000 stitches.....Oh No!

Well, that is just about all I have as far as knitting this week.  I did get to see Antonio 2 nights this past week....I had not seen him for a while (and really missed him).  He had gone on a field trip to Clay Casa and got this tile made with his hand print on it....I think he may be the next Picasso....LOL....Paige let me have it (yeah!):

Have a fabulous week!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Half the Year GONE!

Where has the time gone?  It is already July which meant that halt the year is already gone!

How was your week?  Mine was fabulous!  I never get as much knitting done as I want to....but it is not like that knitting is going anywhere...it is very patient with me....LOL!

Stash enhancements....well last week I told you that Darlene was able to snag us each a set of 'Seconds' in the Dyakcraft Northern Lights Anodized Needles...these needles have slight imperfections and are sold for about 1/2 price....the only imperfection I can see is that the color is not exactly that of the Violet needles...but I am so happy to have gotten a set of these...I can feel the drag when I first start using them, but I know with use, they will slick up...I really love them!!!

Oh, and they look great with my lavender needles in the same section right above them!

A few weeks ago, Darlene and I sent a package to the Knotty Knit Wits Podcast...we just LOVE Leslie and Michelle and wanted to send them a package of 'goodies'....well, they sent us some Portland Love right back to us.  Everything is from Portland...Cards, Stitch markers, Bumper sticker, Candle, Hand Soap, Bag buttons.....the whole package was just fabulous...thank you Michelle and Leslie!

I also got in some DVD yarn that Darlene and I ordered back in May....

The Martian:

The Spy Who Loved Me:

Plus, I got 2 new Bags By Awesome Grannie Bags....You all know how much I love her bags!

I got the Dysfunctional Family!  This Bag is so awesome, it has the greatest comic book sayings on it!  I love it!

and the Neighborhood Bag...now this Neighborhood Bag is twenty times cuter than I thought it was....it has like little sewing notions all over it, and cats, and hedgehogs, etc....I think I may have to get me a large set of this one too....I really love it!

Now on to the knitting......hmmmmmmm, what did I knit on this week?

I worked on TBS....The Black Sweater....LOL!  I started both the front panels just for a change of pace...I did not want to finish the back panel and then have to cast on a front panel...it would feel like second sock syndrome or something...so I thought I would cast them on now.  The Black is super hard to photograph, but I am moving along!

I worked on my Rennandi.....I moved this to my new Dysfunctional Family Bag!  I am just about to add my grey for my second stripe of grey/volcanic ash!

I worked on my July Socks....I get discouraged working on these because they turn my hands blue...but I need to just get them done!  Plus, I want to work on my Scamper socks that I have not touched in weeks!

I also worked on my Spire, but I will not take a picture every week....I want to just try to keep caught up on it and I will show it to you every once in a while.

Lastly, I started a new shawl....It is called Salacious by Lisa Mutch.  Now, this cast on is not my fault......I went to Darlene's on Saturday to knit with her...her hubby was out of town so we had a PJ day of knitting!  Anyway, we were good the first 1/2 of the day and worked on our Rennandi's...but then that wine kicked in and we both talked each other into starting this....so it is all the wine's fault.  Darlene had enough yarn for each of us to start....I am loving it so far!  It is in my sheep bag for now, but I think I will be moving this to my Texas Boots Bag!  :)

I had a fabulous time just knitting at Darlene's on Saturday...she and I need to do that much more often!

Well everyone, that is really all I have....I hope you have a great week!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting everyone!

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!