Febreeze? Bleach? It's NOT the same!

Hello everyone....My week started off terribly....I was about to leave for work when I thought my room could use a little freshening up....so grabbed the febreeze bottle from under the bathroom sink...sprayed around....my laundry basket, the dogs bed pillow, all over my bed (partially sheets/partially duvet cover) when I realized that there was bleach in the febreeze bottle.....yup, it was nobody's fault but my own...I had put that bleach in that bottle MONTHS ago and wrote all over the front label to let me know it was bleach....but, I did not look at the label...the bottle was blue, I knew that meant it was a febreeze bottle and yikes!  The worst was my laundry basket....on top were two pairs of my favorite work pants....they were black and now sprayed with bits of white/red where the bleach hit it....I can live with the spots on my duvet cover and sheets....but my work pants....they were may favorite (I already looked, Macy's does not have them anymore).  Oh well.

Some good news is that I got lots of knitting done!  I finished the Hojas y Bayas shawl, and my Hiya Hiya Waves Scarf (I still need to block the scarf).....

Remember the whole Dr. Who scarf commission?  Well, I ordered a Dr Who Scarf kit from a LYS in Austin so I can make the scarf for my friend's son.  When I got the kit, I found out it was kind of a 1/2 kit...it makes a 12 foot scarf, but 1/2 the width...it says this kit is an 'Austin Friendly' kit that is lighter for the weather and to cast on 32 stitches but if you want the full scarf, cast on 64 and buy two kits....I was a little upset with the yarn shop for not being more forthcoming about this little bit of information, but after a little discussion here and there, she will let me return the kit and no harm no foul...I will order the yarn elsewhere, it will just take a little longer to get to me.  No rush.....I am still working on the Miss Babs Knitting Tour scarf called Silver Fern, I have some socks on the needles for a Hiya Hiya KAL and my second installment of the Strickmich!Club should be here this week or next....  I wanted to share a picture of a Dr. Who Scarves so in case you are clueless like me.....you can see how big they are.....this is actually my friend dressed as Twi'lek from Star Wars standing with a friend of hers...he is wearing the dr who scarf....this is the 4th cosplay Dr. Who Scarf.....

My socks and Miss Babs Scarf are pretty much at the same place as last week so I do not have any more pictures of them.....But I won something!  This past weekend at SNB, it was also Inskein Yarn's 1 year anniversary celebration....I bought some raffle tickets and WON!  Look at this yarn awesomeness!  Thank you Inskein Yarns for the fabulous prize and congrats on one year!!!!

I also have a small stash enhancement....I am a member of the Barking Dogs Yarn club and I get 6 surprise skeins of sock yarn every year....here is my April yarn...it is called Butter and it is awesome!!!

One blurb I wanted to put in to tease all is I will have big news soon...it has to do with my best friend Darlene!

Well, that is about all I have....It has been a crazy week and I am sure I have forgotten something, but hopefully I remember by next week.  I leave you with my favorite 'sign'....for those of you who know who Jeff Foxworthy is, he did this comedian line with "Here's your sign!"....after my day of spraying my room wtih bleach...a friend of mine sent me this via facebook....it is perfect....so, I say to you:

Here's your sign! (in perfect Jeff Foxworthy tone)

Happy Happy Happy knitting everyone!

Happy Happy Monday!  What a week!  How has everyone been?

I have been busy.  I think I mentioned how crazy I am with lots of projects going on....I finished 3 projects in the last week, and I think I have cast on about the same number (with more wanting to be cast on).

I finished my fingerless mitts for my Inskein Yarns KAL:

I mentioned camp loopy...here are my sock so far:

Then there it Tour de Sock...this is my first year doing this and I must be crazy.  So far it seems to be more than I can handle, but I am doing what I can.  The pattern called for size 8/0 beads....I have only worked with beads once before, and I did not finish that project.  These beads are smaller and the yarn is thicker...this is regular sock yarn (It is Barking Dogs Yarns in colorway Veronica) and the beads are tiny (1.0 mm opening) and my needle is a .8 mm.  Well, the beads are breaking on me, the hook is fraying my yarn, I dropped stitches trying to get the darn beads on the stitch, I put the beads on the wrong side and had to tink and redo, just one thing after another....but after all that whining....I am still enjoying it:

PS....I had to get the beads from a friend named Birdy....Thank you Birdy...I have some beads on order now.

I found the supply list, and there is an upcoming sock that calls for 500 beads....so for that one, I think I will use Wollmeise yarn in the lace weight.  I think Wollmeise Lace yarn is like a heavy lace or a light fingering, so I hope the beads will go on better with that yarn.  I will use Bussi color from one of the colour bag sets I have.

I did join a (lightly competitive) team....we are team Roasted (we all like coffee).

Remember my Viajante (you thought I was finished talking about it)?  Well, the awesome lady that designed Viajante, also designed a new pattern called Brickless.....it went up for sale today.  I am soooooo excited.  I have a skein of Miss Babs Yowza yarn in colorway "Biker Chick".  I have not cast on, but I cannot wait to:

Then....there is a new KAL for my SNB group.  We all decided to do the Deep Purple Crescent Shawl.  We had a little cast on party:

Well, that was pretty much my crazy weekend.....this coming weekend is WWKIP day.....We will be getting together at a local mall and knitting in public!

Here is my cute grandson, Antonio, with a fresh haircut.....Paige buzzed off all the curls...he looks like a 'little boy' now.....but I know the curls will grow back!

Lastly.....remember that cute basket I got last week?  Well, I found it's parent:

You guys have a great week....Happy Happy Knitting and Happy Happy Monday!

Happy Happy Happy Wednesday!  I am SOOOOOOOO excited to be writing this post.  Why am I so excited you ask?

I FINISHED VIAJANTE!!!!!!!  This is by far the largest project I have done to date and I could not be more thrilled about it!  Now I am ready to tackle just about any project......well, maybe not, but I feel like I am!

Before Blocking:

During Blocking:

Modeled by my bff, Darlene:

Yup....what a relief to have that done (I am sure you guys are tired of reading about it too!).

What else have I been up to?  Well, I finished the reverse pinwheel blanket for Alexxis.....I was going to block it last night but my grandson, Antonio, wanted way too much of Ga-Ma's time.....so here it is unblocked:

Now I just need to get with it on my gloves for me Inskein Yarns KAL:

I hope to finish these tomorrow.....because I have lots in the works......

1.  There is a sweater KAL going on with the MustStashPostcast (Great Podcast by the way....I have meet both of the girls that do this podcast and they are super sweet...they also hostess an SNB in San Antonio in the North Central area), and I told myself I had too much going on...but I was reading thru the sweater KAL forum the other day and a cute sweater caught my attention, when I looked at the ravelry page for the cute sweater, I found another sweater KAL going on called Trappings and Trinkets sweater along.....and once there the words "Sock Monkey" jumped out at me and I decided I have to make this cute sweater for Antonio!  I will partake in both of the KAL's which means I need to have it done by end of June....yikes!

This sweater is just what the dr ordered to match Antonio's new Backpack:

2.  Camp Loopy Starts this Saturday....I will be writing my own sock pattern for this, so keep your eyes out for a new pattern soon.

3.  My SNB is doing a KAL for June, July, Aug....we try to do quarterly KAL's just to keep things fun.  We will be doing the Deep Purple Cresent Shawl.  This also starts Saturday...I have two different colorways I want to do this shawl in....Malabrigo's Piedras colorway

Or Madeline Tosh's Stephen Loves Tosh colorway

I have enough in these two yarns to make 4 shawls total (2 of each color)...so if I am digging the pattern, these just might be Christmas Presents for a select few people.

3.  Tour De Sock.....what is this you ask?  I had no clue till yesterday......people were talking about it in the camp loopy thread so I went here to read all about it....it seems like a fun thing to do and also raise some money for a great cause!  This also starts Saturday....so I have a lot starting this Saturday.  I am taking Friday off to get some things organized in my yarn room and to do some cleaning (I will not be able to do any cleaning once I start all these projects....LOL).


Do you remember when I went to WHIBSIB (the greatest knitting retreat in the world)?  I saw a fellow knit sister that had this cute basket that said "Yarn Addict"  I go the name of the lady that did the basket and I contacted her to see if she could make me a custom one....she said yes and I ordered it...well, I got it today and I LOVE IT!!!!  I will be ordering another one....just need to decide if I want another small one or if I want to splurge on a bigger one.  Isn't it the cutest ever?  Link to get one is below....and if you get one....Please, Please, Please tell her I (Carrie Ramirez) referred you!!!!

Here is her website if you are interested in a custom basket...I think it is the cutest ever!!!!  You can go to "Yarn Alley" and then "Totes and Bag Samples".....

Well whew.....that was a lot, but I have not written in over a week...I promise to try to be better (I just really wanted to get that Viajante finished and it consumed my time)!

Do you get buy with a little help from your friends?  What about your yarn?  Here is my cute pic for this post (besides the basket of course)!

I also hope everyone had a great Memorial Day....A great bit "Thank You" to all that serve our great country!!!

Happy Happy Knitting and Happy Happy Wednesday!!!

Happy Happy Monday!  I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend.  I had a very relaxing one, with lots of knitting.

Last week, I told you guys how I was a bit behind on my Viajante and hoped to get caught up this weekend.....well, I did!  I was at 108.5 grams last Wednesday, and today I am at 59.5 grams....that is 49 grams I was able to knit since then.  Yippee!!  I actually started the lace section!

I also got to Chart B of the Leaves of Grass shawl!  I am really enjoying this pattern:

Lastly, I got a little farther on one of the mitts for the Inskein KAL.  I am planning on going to the Asylum (knitting night) tonight, but not sure what I am going to work on.

For my picture today, I wanted to share something from one of my LSSK sisters.....it is a chart to decide whether or not you need to buy yarn.....Enjoy!!!!!

Happy Happy Knitting and Happy Happy Monday!

Happy Happy Monday....boy am I tired!  Mondays are always yuck, but this one is dragging!

This past weekend I went to a knitting retreat called WHIBSIB....I know I have mentioned it (a time or two) and it is my favorite weekend of the year!  Lots of knitting and gabbing with the greatest group of knitters from all around the great state of Texas!

One of the ladies (Shama) has been working on a Dr. Who blanket for her youngest son for over a year and she finished it and brought it to show everyone....it is much more stunning in person.

When we have WHIBSIB we all meet up in a conference room.  This year we had to pay some $ for that conference room and we decided to recoup that money by having a raffle.  We did not know what the prize was till early Saturday morning when Sue came with the donations from The Knitting Nest in Austin....there were two beautiful skeins of a perfect Burnt Orange color.....I was in charge of selling the tickets, so as I sold the tickets I told everyone, "It does not matter who wins the raffle, that perfect orange yarn is going home with me!".  As I was selling the tickets, I would give each lady their portion of the ticket with the number and I would write their name on the ticket part that went into the 'bag' for the drawing......right before the drawing I said, "I wrote names on all the tickets", and another lady teased, "But did you write your name on all the tickets or the name of the person buying the ticket?" and I of course teased that I wrote my name on all the tickets......can you guess who won the raffle?

Yup!  I won......and I did not put my name on all the tickets....I had my ticket number as proof (see the blue tickets in the background).....but it was so funny when my name was drawn.  Here is a better picture of the winnings....The turquoise bag was purchased by our leader (the head of the group) and is absolutely gorgeous and a perfect size for me, the burnt orange yarn is Abuelita Yarns, fingering, 3ply, 100% merino.  There is 420 yards per skein....I have already started looking for the perfect pattern this yarn wants to be! there is a Simply Baby book by Debbie Bliss, a hand sewn knitting bag...this was hand sewn by one of the ladies in our group....with a full set of size 14" straight knitting needles, and some fun yarn with fur and ribbon (also in an orange)......it is an awesome prize and I am so happy I won it!

Now, in the picture above where I won....do you see the knitting on my lap?  You guessed it, that is my Viajante that I feel like I have been knitting on forever!  Last Tuesday I was at 192 grams.....I am now at (drum roll please).....137 grams!  Yahoo!  I am back on target to finish by May 31st!

But (there is always a but).....I just got a text from Amanda (my DIL) during lunch that she will be induced tomorrow at 4:30 am and Alexxis Maranda Ramirez will be born tomorrow.  I am making 2 blankets for Alexxis and I would like to take the pom pom one to the hospital with me....preferably, finished!  So tonight will be pom pom blanket knitting time!

Speaking of pom pom blankets and babies.....Celeste's sister was born last Thursday and the pom pom blanket was done just in the nick of time.  Here is Celeste with her new sister, Cataleya, and a picture of the finished pom pom blanket.

I almost forgot.....I start a new KAL this coming Saturday.  This is a fingerless mitts KAL I am doing for a new local yarn store by my house.  It is called Inskein Yarns.  I told the owner and manager there that I would be a moderator on their ravelry group and hold KAL's from time to time....I am really looking forward to it.  We will be making Susie Rogers' Fingerless Gloves and the ladies got to pick their yarn from Kollage Milky Whey or Debbie Bliss Bella.  We will need size 5 DPN needles, so I ordered some new ones that are really cute...They are in support of Stitch Red which is "Sticking it to Heart Disease"!...they are red, and they are Kollage Square needles......

Here is my cute picture of the week....being that I was just blessed with another grand daughter last week (Cataleya) and I will be blessed with another one tomorrow (Alexxis), I this this picture is fitting:

Happy Happy Knitting and Happy Happy Monday!