Busy August Already

Hi everyone....How have you been?  I have been busy....I had a nice relaxing weekend and got lots of knitting done.

First....Stash Enhancements.  Have you seen all the cool sock blanks by so many fabulous artists?  Well, last Monday I snagged one of those awesome sock blanks by AndreSueKnits, but then realized it was not really the one I wanted (hey, when you are just trying to 'get one' it gets a little crazy)...but that is okay because I have a friend that wanted this one.....so she bought it from me and I asked the dyer to send it straight to her.....it was a Hot Air Balloons Sock Blank and it went to my great friend, Melissa!

Then, I snagged another sock blank from AndreSueKnits yesterday....I do not have it yet, but it is the Lips Sock Blank:...I cannot wait to get it.  I was also able to score a second blank in these lips pattern this morning for my other great friend, Tami!  So excited!

I also got some beads......yes, I know beads can be boring...but not these beads.  See, Darlene has been wanting to make Celestarium for a long time....then, Michelle from the Knotty Knit Wits podcast decides to start one and then both Darlene and I have the itch to make this gorgeous shawl.  I will use yarn from stash...and Darlene will use some yarn from my stash plus an extra small skein more to get enough yardage, but it was only like $20.00.  Anyway, I wanted to try the 'silver lining' beads....so we got some from Knit Picks:

Then, early this morning I get tagged on Instagram....Michelle finished hers!  She is leaving on a cruise in a week and I had made her a spreadsheet to help her keep up with how much she needed to knit per day to get it done and she did it!  It is sooooooo gorgeous!  Congrats Michelle!

This just makes me want to cast on now....but I will be good and finish my spire first (I hope)!

Speaking of Spire....I finally started the applied border and I got one side done!  Now just 3 more sides to go!

I finished the blanket for my boss this week....I hope he and his wife like it.  The nursery is purple and white, but I had to add some pink in there....1,117 yards crocheted!  :)

I also worked on Teresa's sweater....I did 4 repeats on one of the front panels:

and I worked a little on my Rennandi.....

Jaime and I had another Hot Rot Night this past weekend.....so I started my socks with tiny cuffs and then worked on them at Hot Rod Night....sock are the easiest thing for me to work on while I am there:

Then we went to the Deer Lease yesterday....that is all knitting time for me....so I worked on them a little more (I was craving the pure stockinette after working on Spire so much):

That is all the knitting I have for this week.....I do have some pictures to share of me when I was a little girl....maybe 10ish....in Wakefield, Nebraska on my Aunt and Uncle's ranch next to the church he was a pastor at:

Lastly....possibly the cutest knitting picture ever.  I have lots of friends doing the spouse challenge on FB where they post a picture of them and their spouse 7 days in a row (or something like that)....well, Melissa (the same one above that got the Hot Air Balloons Blank) posted this picture on her day one.....I just love it!!!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting everyone!

The Big Retreat Update!

Hi Everyone!  How was your week?  Mine was fabulous!  I only knit on TWO things all week.  More on that later....First on to stash enhancements:

I got yarn to make Antonio a Lego Blanket.....I friend of mine is making one for her grandson....and I fell in love with the pattern....and Antonio LOVES Legos!  The pattern is in Crochet....but my friend converted it to knit.  I have not decided which way I will do it yet.  I think I will try making blocks in both ways and see which one I like better.  I got 3 skeins of each color and 6 skeins of black.

Here is the lego blanket (© Breejan):

Here is a pillow done with the pattern(© taraleigh)....which made me fall in love with the black around the blocks.  I do not think I will use any white in the blanket (I will have to see how it looks)

Here is the yarn I purchased:

Then, I got an extra skein of the lace for my Knit Swirl Cardigan.  I kind of like this one better and might start using it right away and alternating skeins.  Darlene ordered it for me because she needed to place an order too....so we got to split shipping.

Okay.....so on to the knitting....along with my Big 4 retreat.....you all know I am also doing my Sock a Month.....well, I took my socks to Hot Rod Night and worked on them there....  My friend snagged a picture of me, Jaime and her husband Bobby:

Jaime's Scamp

My Knitting:

Trying them on as it gets darker outside:

Finished :)

Now, for August, I am going to do my "Martian" socks....I love the oranges!

Okay....now for The Big 4 Retreat Update....I finished my Chart C on my Spire!!!!!  Yahoo!  One chart left....Chart D.  Chart D is the applied border.  I have cut the yarn and done 8 rows of a 12 row repeat.  I need to do 4-5 12 row repeats every day to finish by the end of August!  I made myself a new chart and I am ready to go!

So, that is it!  I am on track for my Big 4 retreat.....wish my luck!  Have a great week everyone!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Hi everyone....I hope you have been staying nice and cool!  Here in South TX, we are HOT and for the next 5 days....we will hit 101 degrees with an even higher heat index!

Well, I am going to just jump into stash enhancements.....I am not sure if I showed you all my new Zing Needles....I got some 2.5 mm 32" circulars a while back (I used them for my rainbow socks) and I really like them, so I got some dpns in 2.5mm and some 2.75 mm in circular and dpn.

I also got some super cute, knitting themed leggings....

Darlene gave me the cutest needle sizer (there are sizes on the other side)...I love it!  Thank you Darlene!

Oh, and remember I said I was going to be casting on a Poncho soon?  Well, I had two skeins of  Wollmeise DK in the Feldmäuschen color at home and I thought I would get a 3rd skein of it from Rohrspatz & Wollmeise just hoping it would match.

Well, it did match!  Perfectly!

The Feldmäuschen is like a brown/purple/grey tone....and Darlene just LOVED the color.  I kind of talked her into getting some grey......so I swapped with her....Here are my three skeins (in the 12 mg colorway) and she took the above skeins.

So, I originally cast on with the Feldmäuschen and the cast on looked super loose....I messaged the designer and she said it did look pretty loose....

First Attempt:

I watched some You Tube videos....but to be honest....even their cast on's looked loose....look at this one from one video:

I wanted it to look nice, so I tried again with the new 12mg color and it looked MUCH better, but I wanted to try one more time....the third time was the charm.

I get gauge for the poncho with size US 8, so I used a size US 8 on my left needle (making the i-cord for the cast on) and a size US 6 on my right needle (holding the stitches that got loose)...it worked out much better....this cast on took me about 4+ hours each time I did it...but designer says that the cast on really makes the poncho and I love the way it looks so far so I am glad I did it (3 times so far).  Now I just have to do it for Darlene and then I will say bye-bye to a 275+ stitch i-cord cast on for a while....LOL!

Second Attempt:

Third Attempt:

 Second and Third Attempt Compared (third attempt on bottom):

 (third attempt on right):

Whew....it kind of seems that all I did was cast on all week...but I did do a few other things.....I frogged that Hitofude I said I would:

I also started my July Socks....the colorway is London in a Bag!  I am doing the Whiz Bang pattern and the toes have different slanting sides...this should be interesting!

This yarn really, really, really turned my fingers and nails a blue color......I sent an email to Susan at DVD and tell her she may want to rinse her blue a little more or use some citric acid....I was not trying to complain because I really, really, really love her yarn...but then I got to thinking...and if nobody tells her that her dye is bleeding off, she will not know!

I worked a touch on the black sweater for Darlene's DIL.....but not enough to shoot another picture.

I worked a little on Rennandi...even worked on it at Hot Rod Night this past Saturday with Jaime!

Then it was time to work on Spire....I had been putting it off all week (remember, I do not love working on lace...so this just kept getting ignored) and I was getting behind on my own calendar to do 812 stitches a day....well, I needed to do 7,504 stitches to catch up...and I knitted my little fingers away...but only got 6,384 stitches done...I was just one day behind (instead of a week behind).  So, tonight I will need to do 1,688 to catch up...and then try to keep up!

It is coming along and you can start to see a bit of the lace pattern....I really hope I can keep up with this!

Well....I think that is all I have....Oh, Dyakcraft put up some 'seconds' for purchase and Darlene snagged me a set of the plum.....we should have them this week!  I hope you all have a fabulous week!

Happy Happy Knitting everyone!