HAPPY 200th! HAPPY President's Day! HAPPY Valentine's Day!

So I have lots happy's today!  Happy 200th Post!!! Happy President's Day!! Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day and are now enjoying President's Day today.  Darlene's daughter and grand daughter made the cutest Valentine's....they melted crayons into heart shapes...I can really color with this crayon!  Thank you Shyla and Peyton!

I got beautiful flowers from Jaime and chocolates from Paige and Antonio.  Jaime and I were supposed to go to Fredericksburg, TX for Satruday and Sunday....but Paige called Friday night so we cancelled and I hung out with Antonio most of the weekend....Jaime grilled us some fajitas, chicken wings, and ribs on Sunday evening.  It was a great Valentine's Day!

I am gonna jump right into the knitting....because I have a small tutorial I want to do today at the end of the post.....the tutorial is on blocking!

I have been plugging away at my Citadel Cardigan...one day last week I had just finished a row where I was supposed to decrease for the waist and I realized I forgot to decrease.  So, I was thinking the row and I dropped a stitch in one of the cable patterns.....it took me forever to fix (maybe I should have just frogged and re-knit), but I FIXED IT!  I was so proud of myself!

Here is more of my progress:

I knit a little on my February Socks:

I also finished my Karee Shawl....I am going to use it as an example of how I block my shawls.  I had the sweetest lady named Inca contact me via email and told me she loved my blog and wondered if I had any blocking tutorials......I did not, so I told her I would try to make one.  Now, this is not the only way to block items....this is just how I do it.  I have not taken and special classes or read any books....I just kind of self taught myself by figuring out how I could best shape out my shawls.  In a previous post, I have already shared my blocking board that a friend made me.

Once my item is finished, I usually weave in all the ends (except the last one from the bind off).  Then I fill my sink with warm water and add some sort of soak to it.  Lately I have been using a soak called wrapture that I posted about here (I LOVE THIS SCENT)!

After approx 15-20 min I pull out my hand knit item and squeeze out as much water as I can.  I do not soak for too long because the item will bleed it's colors and sometimes if you have more than one color, the lighter colors can start to dye from the darker colors.

Once I squeeze out as much water as I can, I place the item on a towel.

Then I roll up the towel like a tootsie roll.

Once I have it as a tootsie roll in a towel, I stand and walk on the towel to get the towel to soak up more water in the shawl.

Now, I have a set of blocking wires I got from knit picks...these wires are old and some are even bent (Antonio loves to play with them).  You can get any 15 gauge wire (or somewhere around that size) and I am sure it will work.  I take this wire and I weave it in and out of the longest straight edge of my shawl.  There is no set scientific way I weave this wire in and out....I just weave it in and out of holes I see or holes that seem to be easy to make.....

Once I have the wires all across the straight part, I lay it out on my blocking mat and I start pining the wires down with T Pins....I stretch my hand knit item across this wire to stretch as much as I can.  Once I have all the wires (this shawl took 4 wires) blocked across the top, I pull down on the bottom of the shawl at the middle section and stretch as much as I can (sometimes the sides will pull in and I just adjust previously placed T Pins)...and shape the shawl the way it was meant to be shaped...I do all of this with my blocking board flat on the ground (as I crawl all over my blocking board)....once all pinned out, I stand up the blocking board so the item can dry (and my dogs do not walk all over the board).

The gingham checkers on my board are not perfect inches...but I do use the lines of the checkers to try to keep the edges straight.

That is it.....once dry, I un-pin it, and lay out the item to take a picture or put it on my wire body form to take a picture.

So, I know this is not the greatest tutorial...I tried to video some of it, but videoing on my own without a stand or anything (and not having more than two hands) was very difficult.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will answer as best as I can.

Inca, I do hope this helped you a little bit.

I leave you with a couple of pics of Antonio (since we hung out all weekend).

Here he is with his car track he made all by himself!

And here he is hanging out with Uncle Jacob (Jaime's oldest son)....they had a great time.

That is all I have....have a great week....and thank you for a great 200 posts.....I hope to have 200 more!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting

Super Bowl 50 Champs, Being sick, and lots of knitting

Happy Monday everyone....how was your weekend?  Did you watch the Super Bowl?  I think most of you know I am a big football fan and I did watch it and I was just tickled that Denver won.  I was rooting for them, though I knew that Carolina was favored.  I am really, really happy that Denver came out victorious!  Congrats Denver!

Now.....for the allergies....I have not been feeling well for a while with allergies kicking just about everyone and anyone in the San Antonio and surrounding areas...but last Wednesday I woke up with a sore throat and later had a POUNDING headache....so I have been home sick for a few days.  I would have bet $ that I had a sinus infection, but when I went to the doctor on Thursday, she said no....just a bad cold and allergies.  Yeah me.  However, my mommy did make me some Borscht (a Russian Soup).

It has sucked being sick.....but, I got LOTS of knitting done.  I cannot wait to tell you all about it.

First, my Citadel Cardigan....this cardigan has eleventy billion cables and lots and lots of stuff going on in just one row...but I got the back, right front, left front, neck increases and joining done:

I needed many breaks from this cardigan.  With so much going on, it requires a lot of thinking...and apparently my brain is not really accustomed to thinking for long periods of time :)

So, I also worked on my Karee Shawl....now I just need to pick up over 500 stitches and knit for 10 rows....then it will be done!

Oh, and being at home in the morning while I was sick....I was really cold...it dipped into the low 30's here (yes, that is super cold for me!) so I decided I needed to knit up that awesome large blanket with the Smooshy Yarn I got last month....so I did:

I also had to go to court for a ticket I got in September of last year....so I got a little bit of mindless court knitting done on my February Socks:

Lastly, I found out that a friend I met online (I meet lots of knitters online that are all dear friends to me) has an aunt that was diagnosed with cancer and has lost all her hair....so, I made a Rolled Brim Chemo Cap for her aunt.

Washed and Blocked:

Well, that is all the knitting I have....and I have just a couple of stash enhancements.  I did buy yarn for Loopy Academy....

I also got a gift of yarn.  I have been doing some moderating in the Biscotte Yarns group and Louise (the owner) wanted to send me some yarn as a thank you.  She is so generous...she sent me a Paintbox - Charivari kit along with her Traveling Zebra pattern.  Thank you Louise!

Well, that is it for me....I did get to see Antonio this week and he made a truck with Pam-Pa (my boyfriend, Jaime).....he was pretty proud of it.  Have a great week, stay warm and try not to get sick!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Swatches, Swatches, Swatches!

Good Morning!  Happy Monday!  I hope you all had a fabulous weekend!  I had a nice weekend.  I did a little car shopping....I really want the new Ford Explorer in the Bronze Fire color:

However, the dealerships (I only went to two) either did not have the car in that color or did not have it in the price range I wanted....so maybe some day in the future (fingers crossed).

So....what have I been up to?  SWATCHES!

A friend that I knit with at lunch recently took a class on how to weave in ends with a nice neat look/finish.  She said she would show us how to do it, but we had to make some swatches.  There are 3 swatches....Garter, Seed, and Stockinette.....I made swatches for both me and Darlene.

I finished the mitts for my cousin in Germany....and I found out that my sister is going to London this month and can take them with her....she usually meets up with the family there when on 'that side of the world' and will probably hop on over to Europe.

I did knit a lot on my Karee Shawl Shawl....and I love how it is turning out so far (I am not loving all the ends to weave in).

And I FINALLY got to start on my Citadel Cardigan.  The #primrosecitadelkal officially kicked off yesterday and I knit on this puppy almost all day!  This cardigan is going to take me forever to finish...there is a lot going on and I had to make a chart to help keep track of everything....but I know I will love this cardigan when it is done!  I changed the pattern a little in that I did a provisional cast on instead of a regular cast on and coming back to pick up stitches.....the waste yarn was starting to drive me crazy so I put in cords from my orange dyakcraft needles.

 I am not even to the armhole shaping yet....so yeah....this will take me a LONG TIME!

Today starts February so I am hoping to knit on my Desert Vista Dyeworks socks tonight that I also post in the Bags By Awesomegrannie Sock a Month KAL!  I will be doing Zombody's Driving the School Bus!

That is all I have.....Have a fantastic week!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!