T Minus 4 Days and Counting.....

Hi everyone.....How have you been?  I've been great.....I have only 4 more days till my friends and I go to my sister's lakehouse for our 5th Annual (I can't believe it has been 5 years) Stitch N Bitch Retreat!  I am so excited, I can hardly wait.  I am sure I am going to take way too many projects to work on.....but I will be knitting all weekend with fabulous friends!  :)  I hope to have lots of pictures for you guys next week!

As for this past week.....well, I finally finished my briochevron cowl....I had about an inch of the lips blank left after I grafted the two ends together.

I started and finished a hat....it is called the Head Hug Chemo Cap and it Hugs your head.  The designer, Laura, reached out to me on Instagram to tell me about it when she saw I was knitting chemo caps for Darlene's niece and the pattern is FABULOUS!  Thank you Laura!

I forgot to get a picture of it blocking, so I had to take pictures of it on the podcast.  LOL!

I did a swatch for Paige's Bulky Sweater.....and then decided to cast on for the back.  This sweater should go fast...but I am probably going to put it away till September.  I want to knit it along with Darlene and she is busy with other projects right now (and so am I).

I worked on my Daddy's Ranger sweater

and my Boxy Cape....

You might get tired of seeing the Ranger and Boxy Cape...both of them are at a point where I just keep doing the same thing for many inches.

I participated in the Dishrag Tag with my online LSSK group and I got my package this past weekend.  Susie T made me two fabulous dishcloths and sent me lots of fun goodies.  Thank you Susie!

I also got a wrist ruler from Starlight Knitting in OR.  I got black, and it is a little hard to see the numbers, but I wear black every day and I really love this bracelet! 

I also got some new yarn for a cowl that Paige wants.  Paige found a guy that knits on Instagram and asked for a couple of things that he has knit.  She wants this cowl and this hat.

Here is the yarn for the cowl (I have 3 more skeins coming from ebay tomorrow...this yarn is discontinued).

I have some Madelinetosh Chunky yarn in the Paper colorway coming for the hat.

My last bit of news.....Paige has a contract on a house!

Keep your fingers crossed for her!

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

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

I must have spoke too soon!

Sad news.....my contract terminated last Thursday.  It seems that not everyone files their tax returns in a timely manner.  The buyer that we were in contract with was pre qualified....so after they made the offer it was time for the lender to get all the fun documentation....bank statements, pay stubs, tax returns, etc.....but the buyer did not have tax returns for the last few years because he was in the field (military, va loan) and when he came back stateside he did not file...I do not know how long the time frame is that you have to file, but I think now that he is filing, he has too many penalties, or they are trying to straighten things out.....either way, it will take too long (we were supposed to close April 22) and they had to terminate the contract......so it is back on the market since buyers lending fell through.  There were a few showings this past weekend and one person said "interior needs paint"....hello!  I just had about 75% of the interior painted and have the paint bill to prove it....oh well, I know the perfect buy is out there somewhere....I just wish they would look at that house and make an offer soon....ha, ha!

Knitting.....well it is pretty much the same as last week.  I do not think I worked on the scarf or socks at all last week...only my Hyper Crazy....it is coming along and I am one row away from my 10th repeat (there are only 11 repeats, so that is good).  According to my semi-accurate calculations, I am about 70% done with it.

I had a little stash enhancement....remember the Miss Babs Knitting tour I signed up for?  Well, we are going to New Zealand!  I was so excited to get my package this morning.  Darlene got her package last Friday so we got to take a look at hers first.  Mine made it to my desk this morning and it is just gorgeous.  Darlene is on vacation today and tomorrow (boo hoo, I won't see her till Wednesday) and I think we will cast on then (because we have nothing else on the needles).....it is a beautiful scarf.....

Darlene also made me a new bag for us to put this new project in.  She is making herself one too....it has the cutest dogs and cats on it, I love it!  and it will fit all 7 skeins of our yarn perfectly!  She rocks!!!

Now I have another idea for you....I do not come up with all these ideas but see others teach them or mention them, etc.....When I was at Darlene's a while back, she showed me this this awesome quilting board/wall.  I told her it would be awesome for blocking....she had never thought about it for blocking.  I have blocking mats which are great for blocking but some items would block even better if you could let them 'hang' from some blocking wires and then pin out....like a 1/2 pi shawl or something.  Well, a lady that goes to SNB did a class at Inskein Yarns on how to make a blocking board out of insulation board from Home Depot or Lowes.  A regular insulation board is 8 feet by 2 feet....you can have Lowes or Home Depot cut that board into 4 pcs....each one being 2 feet by 4 feet.....then you will tape them together but in a manner that they can be folded accordian style....then just cover and glue it with a 1 inch by 1 inch gingham pattern fabric (it helps with measuring).....here is one pre material....when I get mine, I will take another picture...it folds and stores in a 2 foot by 4 foot area like under bed or in closet.

Well, that is really all I have for this week.....I hope to have more next.....Happy Happy Happy knitting....I leave you with some of my favorite knitting pictures.

And we have a contract!!!!!

I am so excited that there is a contract on my house for sale.  I was very excited that it only took a little over 2 weeks.....every month I have to make that mortgage payment, I cringe!  I hope posting it here (and I already posted on FB) does not jinx me!

What has everyone been up to?  I have been plugging away on 3 main things....and they are all KAL's.  There is my Hiya Hiya Waves Scarf KAL.....my Hiya Hiya Diamondoid Socks KAL....and the HyperCrazy KAL for the San Antonio SNB.

We had a tiny party for the Ravellenics at SNB this past weekend.  I made out like a bandit....but I did all of the number generations in front of ppl so they could see it was not rigged......however, there was an awkward moment....before the party started, Shannon was admiring some gradient lace yarn....and I said how pretty it was and now if I could only rig it to where I win it.....then, when my number comes up on the random number generator.....Shannon was like "Weren't you just saying you were going to rig it where you won that?"  Suspicious awkward moment!  I left feeling a little guilty (like ppl really thought I did rig it somehow) but I know I did not and hey.....I have always said in the past that I never win anything....this time all the luck changed and I won a lot....maybe next year someone else will want to take over....I can only wish!

So, we had 9 categories....Cross Cowling, Short Track Shawls, Sock Hockey, WIP's dancing, cable cross country, Junior/Modular Relay, Lace Luge, Single Skein Speed Skate and Stash Skeleton.  Here are the winners names along with a picture of the prizes:

1.  Cross Cowling - Winner is Sara, SerineKat on Ravelry

2.  Short Track Shawls - Winner is Danna, danna217 on Ravelry

3. Sock Hockey - Winner is Steph from MustStash Podcast, SupaSteph on Ravelry

4.  WIP's Dancing - I won, knitphomaniac13 on Ravelry

5.  Cable Cross Country - I won by default, I was the only entrant, knitphomaniac13 on Ravelry

6.  Junior/Modular Relay - Winner is Erin, ceres18 on Ravelry (there are 5 skeins, 3 more in the bag)

7.  Lace Luge - I won, knitphomaniac13 on Ravelry

8. Single Skein Speed Skate - Winner is Steph from MustStash Podcast, SupaSteph on Ravelry

9. Stash Skeleton - I won, knitphomaniac13 on Ravelry

It was tons of fun!  I also want to Thank all the Raveletes, and also a big Thank You to Yarn Barn of SA, Yarnivore, and Inskein Yarns for all their awesome donations!!!!!

I have a couple of stash enhancements...back in February I signed up for the Expression Fiber Arts Insider's yarn Club for March...the yarn was going to be a mystery and based off of one of three possible pictures, there was a gorgeous orange in one of them so I ordered and crossed my fingers....well, I got a BRIGHT b pink and blueish/turquoise and purplish color...I am not sure about this yarn...it is super soft but possibly too bright for me.  It may be a KAL prize for SNB in the future...I'm just not sure.....

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago and a friend of mine got me a gift card to Miss Babs.....so I ordered some Yummy Yarn in Shining City colorway and two small skeins of the Lip Gloss colorway for socks.  I do love Miss Babs Yarn....the first packages of her arm chair tour should be mailing this week.  My bags are packed and I cannot wait to find out where we are going!

I have a couple more stash enhancements.....when I went to Inskein Yarns this past Friday night to pick up their donations...LeiLani from Heavenly Fibers was there....and on the floor was the most perfect colored yarn....I was drooling....turns out she dyed this yarn just for me.....Can you say, "I love you"?  Well, I love LeiLani....thank you so much.  I bought two skeins of the "Hook 'em" colorway, in a gradient!

Now the next enhancement is not really 'stash'.  You have all heard me talk about Darlene....well, she loves stitch markers from Vanessa, owner of Vintage Rose on Etsy...She told me Vanessa was going to start selling necklaces with a large lobster claw that we can use as lanyards (I have to wear my badge around work all day).  I special ordered one with two balls of yarn and no leaf charm and it came in....I love it! Thank you Vanessa for such great items!

Lastly, a friend of mine from SNB had this cute little tin with hand cream in it that she got from a yarn store in Florida.  I loved it so I started looking for it online....she said it was like $24.90 or $24.95 for this tiny tin...well, I found some for $2.49 so I assumed it was a little sample size...so I ordered a few, then my friend was ordering more so I asked her to order me a few more....they came in and they are FULL SIZE....for $2.49.   I really love them and now I have at least one for each project bag....Thank you Carol for turning me on to these awesome hand creams that smell like beautiful jasmine!

Now I have a tip for you.....how many of you out there use lifelines?  I admit I a not that good about using them and I usually regret it later...but you have to go find some thin yarn or thread somewhere and it is never handy and well, too much of a hassle....till now!  My friends Suzi and Evelyn came up with these cute crochet thread holders....you can put the little ziplock baggie in your notions bag and always have an array of colors to use as a lifeline, or pop one of the small individual ones into a project bag and go....now you will never be without yarn/thread for a lifeline!  Lifelines are like umbrellas, you will only need them when you don't have one.

Well, that is all I have.....I am not off to find my ruby red slippers, and tap them three times with my eyes closed........

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!