May is right around the corner!

Yup, May is right around the corner....are you ready?  I am not!  I am not yet done with my April socks.....and I want to try to finish my test knit shawl before May....so I better get with it.

I hope you had a great week.....I had a fantastic week.  I hope you are ready for a blog packed with pictures!

First, I saw a video on my FB feed for a Steak Pinwheel Meal....I pretty much suck at cooking, but this looked delicious, I had to give it a try!

Mushrooms, onion, garlic.....CHECK

Lay it all out and roll.....

 Notice how my cutting board goes from a green color to a red color?  That is because rolling this up was a hot mess and I had to do a whole flip to a new cutting board...but I got it all pinned with toothpicks!

Now to eat.....

It was delicious....I loved it!  It was not cheap so I will not do it all the time, but I would like to make it again sometime!

Okay, this is a knitting blog so I will jump to the knitting.

I have a few stash enhancements....

First, some yarn from Wolle's Yarn Creations....this is a color changing cotton, this is like 4 pieces of colored sewing thread held together (no twist).  I am using this yarn for the test knit I am doing and it is a little hard to work with, but I saw a lot of people with this Cupid Colorway that is more like a terracotta and I had to have it.  She was so sweet to include some tea and a tape measure!

Next, I got my Miss Babs Knitting Tour first destination package...we are going to The Netherlands!  Yahoo.  The yarn is a gorgeous light blue...the pattern is called Metamorphose.  I want to do it, but it is pretty intimidating...I want to see someone's finished Infinity Cowl before I cast on.  Here is a link to the pattern and here is the gorgeous yarn.

I also got my Dishrag Tag Box.....remember I started a box back in March?  Well, the box has traveled around to many and now back to me.  My friend Vicki made me the cutest dishcloth....it is a ball of yarn!  Yes, a ball of yarn!  I love it!  She also sent me some yarn bras (we all need support), and the cutest scottie and cardinal stitch markers.  The card she gave me had knitting on the front picture...I love it all!  Thank you so much Vicki!

Right after I got my dishrag tag box from Vicki, Darlene let me know that our New Dyakcraft Rose colored needles were DELIVERED!  Okay everyone, you know how much I love orange (and I have the orange needles) but I am completely in love with these rose needles....I think I love them more than the orange ones!

And my last stash enhancement is a Bags By Awesomegrannie bag....she has soooooo many new bags in her shop, you should check them out....I got sheep...I mean, who does not love sheep?
Thank you Darlene!  You are too good to me!

Okay......I have an FO!  Man, it feels like forever since I have had an FO!  I finished my 3 color cashmere shawl and I love it!  But first, let me tell you about a bit of a dilemma at the end of this one.  I was 1/2 way done with the bind off and it was curling really bad

So I considered frogging and doing garter stitch to keep from curling...when I looked back at the pattern.....I realized I had done it wrong...her last 6 rows call for garter (not stockinette stitch) and then picot bind off....so I put my needle in all the stitches of the first row ( all 487 of them) and then I ripped......

I did 7 rows of garter (instead of 6) and then did a regular bind off with a size 10 needle.....I just LOVE IT!

Now for WIPS....I am still plugging away on the test knit for Susanna IC.  I only have about 15 more rows....I really hope to finish it this week:

I did a few rounds on my Eeyore socks

I worked on my April Socks.....Now getting to work on these socks has a story....Paige asked if I could pick up Antonio on Wednesday so she could go into work...I said sure.  I picked up Antonio and he said "Ga-Ma.....can we go to the park!?!"  and I said "Of course!"  so to the park we went....where I got knit a little and he got to play.

Then he got a little bored with the park (we were the only ones there) so he said "Ga-Ma, can we go to McDonalds and I can play there!?!"  and again, I said "Of Course!".

He made funny faces for his mother....

and I got to knit on my socks....I finished the 2nd heel while I was at McDonalds!

I knit a little more over the weekend, but not enough to finish them...I really need to finish them this week!

I also frogged this week......remember the Doodler I was working on?  It was the Stephen West MKAL late last year....well, I never finished the cable section and then there was going to be the picking up of stitches.....I was knitting this with my friends, Darlene and Shawna.....well, Darlene never went past wedge one...and Shawna finished the cables section....but she was ready to frog so I guess I was ready to frog too....this was 497 yards frogged....let's have a moment of silence please:

I went ahead and started the blanket for Paige that she requested...she is in love with it already (which always feels good).  Now, these big stitches are hard to constantly get on the needle...these are size US 50, but they are a circular, so when I slide the stitches to put them back on the 1" thick needle, it is difficult, so I am going to get some straights in US 50....it will help this blanket to go so much faster...it will be awkward, but faster!

Now......what do you do when you get a new gorgeous project bag and new gorgeous needles?  You cast on something NEW!  I cast on Pure Joy.  This is another Joji Locatelli pattern and I saw some of the test knit ones and they are all gorgeous!  I am using my Knitted With yarn in the Autumn Rainbow colorway with Madeline tosh Sock in Onyx as the contrast....this is going to be a gorgeous shawl.....oh, and I convinced Darlene to start with me :)

The needles even match the new bag :)

I think that is all I have this week....I leave you with some pictures of Antonio as a ring bearer at his Great Uncle's wedding....Oh, and I also put him to work at my house vacuuming...he loved it!  But he wanted to vacuum the outside more than the inside.....Have a great week!

 Here he is with is Great Uncle David:

Here he is with his dad, Mikey:

Vacuuming:

Happy Happy Happy Knitting everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Is everyone ready for Turkey Day?  I am NOT!  Thankfully I am going to my aunt's house so I do not have too much to do!  I only have to make 2 dishes, but I still need to go grocery shopping....Yikes!  I did want to say Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!  I hope you have a wonderful time!

I had a pretty busy week at work last week.....and it seriously affected my knitting time.  I moved from one building to another at work (right across a parking lot and driveway).  It was not far, but I was the "Move Coordinator" and that sucked up my time, and it make me super tired in the evenings (what's up with that?)!  In my old building I never saw daylight.....the building was made of concrete with very few windows.....well, the new building is made of lots of glass and look at my new view from my desk!  I am super excited!

I have some pretty exciting semi-stash enhancements....first, do you remember when I was going to try to crochet a hippo for Darlene?  Well, I failed miserably...but I met a wonderful lady on ravelry named Denise.....she made the hippo for Darlene and one for me (Can you guess mine is the longhorn color one?)

I gave Darlene hers this morning....I was going to wait till Christmas, but I just couldn't....she loved it.

Denise, I have no clue if you read my blog or not...but THANK YOU SO MUCH!  You ROCK!

I got my 4th and final shipment from Strickmich!Club 2015.  As I have said all along, I did not join for 2016, but the funny party was......I did not even get an invite to join again (usually current members get to sign up first)....so I am guessing they did not want me back!

I had a SNB a my house a few weeks ago and a good friend of mine showed up with a backpack that looked like cable knitted fabric......no, I did not NEED a backpack....but I got one!  LOL!  Isn't it cute?

I am also doing a New Products for Hiya Hiya.....so Qianer sent me 10 silk eye masks, 10 Octopus Snips, and 10 Sheep Needle Gauges.....I am keeping one set and swapping the other 9 sets....you can read all about it here.  Thank you Qianer!

The stash enhancement I am most excited about is a large bag that Darlene made for me.  Her hubby made her a large bag like this....it was meant to be a sweater bag for an awesome sweater that she was making her hubby (more on that later)...but it is so large, you can carry anything in it......well, this was pretty much a one of a kind and she is not selling it in her shop....but I found the cutest sheep material and I asked her if she would make me one if I paid her.....of course she said yes (because she is awesome) and I am soooooo thankful to her for everything she does for me.....This bag is so awesome....I just love it...and it has straps!!  I already have my stuff in it ready to go.  Thank you so much Darlene!

As for the knitting.....well, I finished the socks for Paige.....I know this seems kind of minor, but these socks are much  larger than any other socks I have knit....she wanted them 'baggy' and 'loose'.  These socks were about 350 yards of BLACK!

I also worked on my doodler.....I finally finished wedge 17 and I only had 6 grams of yarn left!  WOW!  Now I am onto clue 2.....seems I am staying a clue behind because clue 3 is already out and I am not even 1/2 done with clue 2.....but here it is...it is a little hard to see because clue 2 is all black (I must be crazy to knit with so much black)...but it is coming along!

Okay.....so remember I told you about the awesome sweater that Darlene was making her hubby?  Well, she finished it and it is just phenomenal!  It fits her hubby perfect and he loves it....Way to Go Darlene!

Well, that is it....sad, I know.  I had Antonio all weekend, and I have Celeste and Cat tonight, then Antonio again tomorrow...so I am not sure when I will ever be able to knit again!  Ha, Ha!

I leave you with some fun pics.....

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!