Bind Off Frustrations!

Hello everyone....how are you and how has your week been?  Mine has been great with the exception of some bind off frustrations that I will get into later.....but my cruise is in just 28 days....I am getting super excited!  Darlene and I have been making lists and getting things together....We are going to get our bags monogramed and I bought us some super cute hats....mine is black...Darlene's is Red:

We are super excited!

I have been working on my Portage....but ran into a huge snag, the bind off frustation....I was doing the tubular bind off and realized that somewhere along the way, I must have started doing the steps in the wrong order....it is hard to tell, but where the darning needle is shows where it starts to look different.....so I had to un-sew the tubular bind off on at least 10"...it was not easy and it was super frustrating....but it is now done.  After doing so much of this tubular bind off, I can see that it is just the Kitchener stitch if your work is a 1x1 ribbing and you have all your knits on the front needle and purls on the back needle.....I think it maybe have been easier to do it that way, but oh well, it is done!

Then I worked on the first sleeve....I am almost done with it, but not quite.

I also signed up for Sock Madness.....I know, I am crazy....Sock Madness is a sock knitting competition that is kind of like March Madness...the college basketball craze.....I am not planning on getting very far in the competition, right now I am just on the qualification round.  This is my first year of doing Sock Madness and there are so many wonderful knitters to chat with in the forums!

Heel Done!

Sock 1 done and Sock 2 started!  I never knit socks this way, so I hope I do not loose momentum!

I learned something else from Sock Madness......I learned about this little pastry/amazingness called Stroopwafels......and I am in love!  I should be loosing weight before the cruise, but I am pretty sure I am now gaining it with these amazing wafels!

Well, that is pretty much all I have......I did get a picture of a pretty cool looking full moon in my backyard, and Precious loves my new quilt....LOL!

Have a great week everyone!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Monogamous Knitting?

Hey everyone....how was your week?  Mine was great......I may have done some 'almost' Monogamous Knitting....can you believe it?

The main thing I worked on was my Portage!

I am already 1/2 way done with the body ribbing!

The only other thing I worked on were my socks....which I really only worked on for about an hour during the podcast this past Thursday!

I did celebrate my birthday yesterday and got some amazing gifts....I already told you that my parents got me some prescription sunglasses for the cruise.

Darlene got me way too much stuff as usual, but I love it.  She made me a Bags By Awesome Grannie Tote that I will use for the Cruise, Birkenstock sandals for the cruise, a cool French press mug we will use for the cruise and a 6 month subscription to the tea of the month from Plum Deluxe....amazing!!!

I also got my February Skein of Yarn from the Harry Potter Yarn club she bought me for Christmas....I love it!

A good friend from work got me sushi for my lunch during the week...it was delicious.  I even got Darlene to try a piece!

I got to watch Jaz on Saturday....she really thinks she is a lap dog.

Jaime took me out to dinner on Saturday night and there was a beautiful sunset.

On Sunday I had Dim Sum with my family.....My mom, Dad, Sister, brother in law, nephew, niece, niece's two friends, Jaime and myself.....Here is a high up shot of some of the food.

I got to see my sister and give her the cardigan I made her....just in time for her to go to Colorado for a week during spring break....I snapped a shot while we were in line for Dim Sum

My sister got me some beautiful flowers too!

The restaurant we went to has beautiful (and some large) Koi fish

My mommy gave me some of my favorite chocolates from Germany

Chris came over on Sunday to play with Antonio and he brought me beautiful roses!  This young man is amazing and we are lucky to have him in our life!

Lastly, I got a thank you present from Darlene's daughter, Shyla.....for making the shawls for her wedding....Shyla made me a Quilt...it is Flannel and I love it...it is super soft.  I cannot wait to get home and use it tonight!  Thank you Shyla (and Darlene as Darlene did the to pinning, quilting and binding)!!!!  The quilt even has an orange alien...I have named him Allen!

Have a great week everyone!!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Happy Birthday George Washington!!!

It is President's Day and George Washington would be 286 (or something like that) now.....he was born in the Gregorian calendar and I am not sure how it all works....but Happy Birthday!

I am thrilled because I have off today...and I love a day off.  I took Friday of last week off too so I could have a 4 day weekend.  I have enjoyed it, but unfortunately it is almost over....I have to go to work tomorrow.

So what have I been up to?  Well, believe it or not, this lazy lady did some organizing/cleaning.  I got some toy boxes for Antonio and some storage bins and did some rearranging and cleaning here and there....my feet were killing me yesterday but they are a bit better today....I will continue with some cleaning here and there.

Here is one of the new toy boxes

I finished my sister's ranger cardigan!  First, I had her try it on last Monday when I saw her...I was still working on the button bands.

I also finished my MKAL LoveFool socks....I did get the middle cables wrong, but I still love them

I worked on my temperature blanket and got caught up....I do not think I ever showed my color card that Darlene made us......here are the colors and temps:

Lastly, I worked on my Portage...I am loving this yarn!  It is so wonderful to work with.....I would love to have this done in time for the cruise.

Speaking of the cruise, I got my yarn kit with bag yesterday......I love it!!

And my mommy and daddy got me prescription sunglasses for the cruise for my birthday present

Well, that is all I have....Have a great week!!!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Cold, Cold....go away!

Man has it been cold lately....just when I thought we were out of the cold (and I got to put some 80 degree weather in my temperature blanket), Bam!  it gets cold again.  This morning was 29 degrees here.....I want some warmer weather.....but then again....I do knit for days like these :)

So what have all ya'll been up to?  Me....I have been knitting my fingers to the bone on my sister's sweater.

I worked on it all week and finally blocked it yesterday......Now it just needs the underarms seamed up, and the button band and the button hole band :)

While it was drying yesterday, I worked a little on my socks....clue 4.

And that is all I knitted on....I hope to finish the sweater and these socks this week.

As far as other shenanigans.....I had Celeste, Antonio and Jaz this past weekend.....Jaz is 6 months now....can you believe it?

 Chris stopped in for a visit too!

The only other think I have is that I got some new luggage last week for the cruise (the large one should be delivered this week).....it is getting real people....48 days to go!

 The weather has been grey and gloomy all week, but we did squeak out one nice sunrise :)

Have a great week everyone!!!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!