Lake House Retreat 2016!

Hello everyone!  Boy do I have a lot to tell you and lots of pictures to share.

I will start with some cute grandkids.....it was Cataleya's birthday earlier in May and her mom had a party at a local park by the zoo.....I wanted to snap a picture of all the kiddos together...but that just did not happen...so I had to put them together.......I did not realize how much the sun was in their face when I snapped some of the pictures.

Now for a couple of stash enhancements......I got my Yarn Winnings from Primerose Yarn Co for my Citadel that I made (and Paige stole)!  I got 11 skeins of her Helix Base fingering weight yarn in the Grey Lady colorway!  I am not sure what I am going to make yet, but I am so excited I won this yarn!!!

Here is the sweater as a reminder:

And here is all the yarn I won!  <3

I also got some yarn from Darlene....she needs my help making a sweater for her DIL in Houston...it is an all black sweater (because Darlene is crazy that way), so she just gave me what she had......pics of the sweater later....here is the yarn....Knit Picks Chroma Worsted.

I also got my Miss Babs tour destination package....we are going to Iceland and I could not love this package any more.....the yarn is black, blueish grey and chartreuse green......it is GORGEOUS!

The pattern for the tour is called Rennandi (Picture copyright of Miss Babs):

This will be getting cast on.....Now, I know I have my Big 4 Retreat going on and I did not explicitly say that my Miss Babs tour was an exception and allowed to be cast on....but I look at it a couple of ways.....I was already a member of the tour before the retreat started and it is a big goal of mine for 2016 to knit from the clubs I join......plus, I have already finished 2 of my Big 4 Retreat items and it is only June 6th (I still have almost 3 months)......so, I am not sure when I am casting it on....but I am 99.9% sure it is not waiting till September 1 (because by then another package from the tour will be shipping out).


Well, I think that is it for Stash enhancements......what else has happened?  Well, Tour de Sock started.....and I am slower than everyone...but I am enjoying the pattern.  I think I am just so intimidated by a pattern that I almost come to a slow crawl when making patterned socks......

Then at the lake house I knit on mostly 3 things (even though I think I packed 20 things).....The sweater for Darlene's DIL (I had to get a close up because the black is hard to photograph):

My Spire which is one of my Big 4 items....and I just finished all the repeats of chart B!  Yahoo!  Now on to Chart C!

and my Smooth Move....the last of my Big 4 items....it is 60% done.....

Well, that is pretty much all I have....except some pictures of the knitting retreat at the Lake House....

Tami finished an entire pair of socks in like 2 days....she is crazy ninja fast!

Evelyn baked two pies....one big and a small gluten free pie....isn't it cute?

Darlene was spoiled with Strawberries and whipped cream for Friday morning Breakfast (yes, there are strawberries in there somewhere):

And we only got the tiniest amount of rain....it came down hard, but did not last more than 5 min and it was done.....so the weather was great!

This is a video that Tami took:

Our geese that come and see us every year got some bread (that is my hand tossing out some bread):

Have a great week everyone!!!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

HYPERCRAZY ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's Done!  It's Done!  Did I mention it was done?

Yup....My Hypercrazy is off the needles and blocking.  The bind off took me over 2 hours.....I was texting it to show ppl I was almost done.  I am pretty proud of this shawl.  The lighting is not the greatest, but you can see how big it is.  I am also using my new blocking board made out of insulation board that a great friend, Anne, made me.  I love it!  When I soaked it, the water turned a little purple...but the yarn is just perfect for this pattern......look at the close ups....I have a picture of it as I started to bind off and then a close up as it is stretched out on the blocking board....I could have stretched it even more, but I was tired, and just wanted it blocking so I could take a picture.  I have about 82 grams left....so probably enough for a hat or pair of socks or mitts or something.

I will still finish my second Hypercrazy in the Biker Chick colorway, just not for a while.  This was for my SNB's 1st qtr KAL.....for the 2nd qtr, we are going to knit Hojas y Bayas shawlette.  It is a much smaller shawlette and uses about 260 yards (not 1400).  This Shawlette is designed by a friend of mine that I met at SNB many years ago.....her name is Dana and she has some wonderful designs.  Check out her blog too.  I ordered 4 skeins of chroma fingering weight for this shawlette from knit picks (paperback, prism, lollipop, watercolor)....I think I am going to use watercolor.....I am not sure yet.

I worked a little bit on my Miss Babs Knitting tour scarf....it is a very easy pattern to memorize.  I have made myself a calendar so I can be done with this by end of April...but I am already behind, but hope to catch up tonight.....

Paige starts her first day of work at a barber shop today, they will have her as a receptionist till she finishes her boards and is licensed.....I am sending her lots of great vibes, feel free to do the same!  Well, I wish I had more to report, but the Hypercrazy sucked up all of my time this week...but it was worth it.

Have a great week everyone!

Happy Happy Knitting!