Happy, Happy, Happy!

Hello everyone!  How have you been for the last week?  I have been Great!  Paige's 21st birthday was this past Wednesday....so Happy Birthday Paige!  Labor Day was yesterday, so Happy Labor day to all, and Antonio got to go fishing for the first time this past weekend....so Happy Fishing!  Happy, Happy, Happy!

Let me jump right into stash enhancements!

I got a new Bags By Awesome Grannie Bag....it is a Halloween bag and has 2 witches!  One witch is knitting and one has a yarn ball for hair....I LOVE IT!

I already have my Celestarium in it ready to start.  I am going to make the North Star Bead larger than the other beads (thanks to Michelle on the Knotty Knit Wits Podcast for the idea) and my friend, Anne, gave me a few beads to choose for the North Star:

Somebody asked me how many Bags I have.....well, I do not know....but here is a picture of most of them (but not all of them):

Let's not forget.....

Somewhere in the middle of the week, I got a text from Paige this past week asking me to make her a sweater for Christmas:

So I got some yarn for the sweater....Here is the sweater that I have to try to make and the yarn I got for it.

My LSSK Knitting Sistah's have given me some great pattern ideas and I am going to try to mesh up a few different patterns to see what I can do.....wish me luck!

Well, that is for stash enhancements...Let's go to FO's!

I do have a better picture of my blocked spire....Thank you Darlene for blocking it for me!

I made a Spiderman Mask for Antonio! He really loved it (ps, that is my mom in the background of the first picture):

And, I finished my Scamper socks....they are a bit too big for me, but I think my mom will love them.

WIPS......well, I started a Harley Hat for Jaime....but I had one stitch that was off on the 'invisible' cast on and it was driving me crazy (it made the invisible cast on not so invisible)....so I frogged it.  I will try to restart it later this week (it takes quiet and conentration).  The DCS Pigskin Party Start this Thursday, so I think I am just going to wait till Thursday to start anything new....I was not going to do the DCS Pigskin Party this year, but I have done it for two years and I enjoyed it....so I am going to do it again!

Since I am waiting till Thursday to cast on anything else....I worked on 'The Black Sweater'....it is really hard to see (because it is black), but I have about 6" done on the back and one front panel....the other front panel is about 4".  I still have a long way to go, but I feel I got a lot of this done this past weekend.  :)

Well, that is all I have.....I leave you with some pictures from Paige's Birthday and from fishing this past weekend!

Yes, she is covering her face....

Jaime's finger was in the way, but it is still a pretty good picture....it is just blocking my face...LOL!

That is all I have...Happy, Happy, Happy Knitting everyone!

It's Almost Time to Pack up and Go Home.......

Well, it is almost time to pack our bags as our Big 4 Retreat comes to an end in 2 days.....How did you do?  Are you nice and relaxed and did you finish everything you wanted to?

I DID!  I finished my Spire yesterday!  Yahoo, Yippee, Yeah!

It is not blocked yet.  I was going to mail it to my friend, Beverly, to block (Thank you Beverly!)....but Darlene offered to block it on her big quilting wall (I wonder if it is a trick)!  I cannot wait to see it blocked and how much it grows!  Thank you Darlene....I think!

I want to thank everyone that either joined me on this retreat or followed along!  I think this Retreat could be an every year thing.....Maybe not 4 items every year, but I loved getting some old stuff done and I hope you did too!  Darlene and I have talked about maybe picking one old item each quarter to work on.....I have some other things I want to do in September, but I may be picking up something old for October-December! 

What else did I do?  I finished my DVD sock for August....These socks are a little shorter than I usually make, but I love the colors!

My September Socks will be Here comes the Zombride so I can double dip with #castonthedead.

I also worked on my Scamper Socks.  I am really loving these....this Biscotte BisSock yarn is soooooo soft, if you like soft yarn, you have got to try this yarn!

Ans speaking of Biscotte.....I got a skein of rainbow self striping from Louise.....Thank you Louise!  You are the greatest!

Well....that is all the knitting I have.....but I have a funny story for you.  I am not sure I have mentioned it here or not...but I have a friend whose house caught on fire in late June....she has been living with me along with her 2 dogs since then (because her house has no power...but thankfully not too much damage)....Here is a picture of one of her dogs....her name is Georgie and she is a Chocolate Lab Mix

I also had Antonio this past weekend so on Saturday we took a nap.....Carol was gone to SNB and I woke up to some noises in the living room (things falling, glass falling) and Georgie whining.....at first I just thought Carol was home and making something to eat and Georgie wanted some of the food....but Georgie kept whining so I got up.

There were some things knocked off my mantel and Georgie and Precious were pacing by the mantel trying to get something (Mostly Georgie)...but nothing was up there.......

I thought maybe some critter was hiding behind the picture so when I looked behind the picture (from the right of the mantel) I could barely see some parts of a squirrel's tail behind that crocheted hippo on the left.

I was freaking out!  A Squirrel in my house that I am pretty sure Georgie chased into the house via the doggie door.  Jaime was at the lease (at least 2 hours away) so what does a 44 year old grown woman do?  She calls her Daddy!  He said to open all the windows and doors to the outside and push it with a broom towards a door or window......well, I opened the window to the left of the mantel and the front door (directly in front of that window but down a hallway).....I finally got it to jump off the mantel and it hauled ass out the front door.....but it was funny (in hind sight of course...not at the time).

Some things have changed for Paige so I will pretty much be having Antonio on Fridays and Saturdays from now on....but this coming holiday weekend I will have him all weekend (Friday to Monday) so I am not sure how much knitting I will get done....but we will see!

I have also been trying to crochet a Spiderman Mask for Antonio (which I have started over 3 times because it is always too small).....and then I crocheted some flowers for Darlene....she made 5 hedgehogs for family members....look how cute these are!

Have a great week everyone!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!!!

Back From Vacation!

Hi everyone.....how was your week?  Mine was fabulous (except a little sad news later).  We went on a mini-Vacation this past weekend and I loved every second of it!  Ger ready for some picture overload!

We left on Thursday and went to Rockport, TX....as friend of Jaime's has an RV park and rents out a couple of the RV's.

First there was some on the road knitting!

Then we got to our RV....this was home for 4 days and 3 nights.....

Then time to take some pictures of the scenery

We walked out to the end of the pier for some terrible selfies

And some more scenery/sunset:

Then I knitted some on my Rennandi....

Then some more sky pictures:

 and the sunset...

The next morning I finished the main body, but still needed to pick up stitches and knit the sides:

I worked a little more on my socks......

We had some friends over and did a little too much drinking, but I got another sunset picture...

Jacob (Jaime's oldest son) caught a fish...he caught several fish, but this was probably the biggest....we could have kept it, but he let it go.

I finished the Rennandi a little bit before we left:

and then worked on the socks again on the drive back (I may have napped a little too...remember the 'little too much to drink" part above)....

On the way home we kept seeing the bails of cotton in trucks and I was jut fascinated by them....here is the only square one I saw (all others were round)...and it had orange wrap, as if it were calling my name!

When I got home, I got a better picture of my socks and rennandi.....and I forgot to mention that I also did 4 repeats on a front panel of the black sweater....I am trying to keep up with those 4 repeats per weekend!

Well, that is all I have knitting wise.....but it was back to school time for some of the kiddos here in SA.  My niece and nephew went to high school (Grace and Sean)....and Antonio started his first day of school....first day of Pre-K....

Last week I showed you a picture of Precious in her new dog bed and mentioned how now she and Star have their own pet beds....well, my Star passed away yesterday.  It was nice and peaceful and she was old (16)....and she will be missed.

On a happier/funny note, one of Carol's dogs (her name is Georgie) is a chocolate lab mix and she thinks she can fit in Precious' small bed.....she did not stay in it long, but she did fit!

Have a fabulous week everyone!  Happy Happy Happy knitting!