Happy 5 Year Blogiversary!

Hi everyone.....can you believe I have been doing this for 5 years!  Last Wednesday was the official 5 year mark.....WOW!  Thank you to all of you who follow me and take time out of your day to read my blog....whether from the beginning or not....thank you!

(ETA I noticed I called it a Podiversary, when it should have ben a Blogiversary....sorry!)

My week was as good as it could have been with Darlene gone....I miss her like crazy, but we text every day and I she has set it up somehow so I can track here from my phone...I love seeing where she, Bruce and Susie go.

Anyway, Tuesday was Arran's graduation.....Congrats Arran!  You did it!

 Jaime's sister AD, Jaime, Arran, Jacob

 

Same people as above, but on the far left is Robert, a wonderful honorary son that Jamie and I are lucky to have join us on many family adventures!

 

Oh.....and I worked on my socks like I said I would:

 

I am only about 1/2 way through each foot.

 

I worked on my Joji Wrap...and while clue 5 came out this past Thursday, I have not yet finished clue 4.  I have approx. 18 more rows to finish clue 4.....but I saw some finished ones on social media and they are beautiful...I cannot wait to finish! (this picture is the unfinished part lying on top of the other part where clue 4 is finished)

The bad news about working on my JoJi wrap...is that I have not worked on my Big 4 for June....and it is already the 12th...Oh well.

I had some stash enhancements....I got some Bugbear Woolens Gemstone Sock in the Like A Boss Colorway, Jennifer at Bugbear Woolens is a Tour De Sock sponsor and I signed up for Tour de Sock again so I am hoping to use this for a pair of socks.

I also got Leading Men Fiber Art's June colorway...it is called Independent Will

Then....remember how I got the Miss Babs 2nd destination package last week?  My friend Paula, who is also a Miss Babs Tour member, got the orange and teal colorways and was not 100% in love with them....she was considering buying the pink and blue.  So I offered to buy her orange and teal so she could turn around and buy blue and pink....I love the colors.  I put an ott light on these colors so you can see them better...the blue and teal are close to the same, but a little different.  I am not sure what I will make with the orange and teal....but I do love the colors :)

As you guys know....Darlene has left me for 2 weeks to travel the US on her motorcycle......but she did have some knitterly stuff going on.....she made it to Oregon this past weekend....and she met up with Leslie and Michelle from the Knotty Knit Wits....I am so jealous she got to meet them....but so happy she got to meet them too...and they had a great time!

Here she is with Dear Sweet Angelique of Black Sheep Yarn Shop, Laurie, Carie from The Creative Obsession, Leslie, Michelle (and then Darlene at the end) at Twisted Yarn Shop in Oregon:

And Michelle, Darlene, Leslie:

I think they all had a great time meeting each other (so wish I was there)!

A lady I knit with at work made a beautiful cardigan for one of her daughters, Nitza....I just had to share it because she did such a fabulous job!  WTG Suzi!

My last few random things.....Precious got a hair cut, Cataleya had a fabulous Dance Recital and came to see Precious in her beautiful outfit, Antonio's first attempt at slime did not work so well (so he played with it outside on a box) but the next attempt worked great....he and Paige made Slime with glue, food coloring, baking soda and contact solution.

That is all I have.....have a great week everyone....Paige, Chris, Antonio and Bizzle left to Port Aransas this morning and I leave to Big Bend on Thursday so I hope to have TONS of pictures for you next week.

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Happy Mother's Day and some exciting news

Hi everyone...to all the mothers out there.....I hope you had a fabulous Mother's Day!!!

Antonio, Chris and Paige got me some beautiful roses (Paige got some too)!!!  Thanks guys!

As for knitting.....well, my first item for the big 4 retreat is done.....I finished my Fade.....Yahoo!  a whopping 20 days early!  Yippee....Hurray!!

I started my Joji Wrap with actually doing a swatch (GASP)!  I like the bottom swatch best....so that is what I am going with.

Here is my start.....I have finished one triangle (for clue 1 we need to make two of them)....My cord is not long enough to show the whole thing....so I am showing  half of it scrunched up (aren't those hippo stitch markers the cutest?):

 

I worked on my socks (but the chickens were still slacking...LOL!)!

I had a few stash enhancements.....Leading Men Fiber Arts May color.....Rumor Has It

And a pack of mini skeins I ordered months ago in the Knotty Knit Wits Podcast Forum....it is Yarn Café Creations Yarn.

Then I got a fabulous surprise for Mother's Day from a fabulous friend....Michelle from the Knotty Knit Wits podcast sent me this beautiful sock yarn for socks along with a Knotty Knit Wits progress keeper and a card......I love it....Thank you Michelle!!!

 

For Mother's Day, my kiddos got me a glass head....strange gift you might say...but I asked for it.  So I can take pictures of any hats I knit (cuz you know I knit sooooo many hats....LOL).  I really do love this glass head.  Antonio says he wants it to be a boys head....but this boy is gonna have to model some girlish patterns every once in a while....like this one with a bow :)

 

 

That is pretty much all I have for knitting......some other things from this week:

 

Paige and Antonio had a water balloon fight (I think it was a tie).

 

My babysitter from Abensberg, Deutschlad came to the United States to see her first grandchild (her son lives in Charleston, SC)....her name is Burgle and her husband is Stephan.  They came to San Antonio to visit with my parents.  I have not seen her in 42 years (she came to New York when I lived there 42 years ago).  I do not remember her form childhood, but it was great to meet her and spend some time with them....they are fabulous.  Here they are with my parents.

I have some semi exciting news.......it has a bit of a back story.  I have been looking at cameras.  I have a very nice Cannon Rebel EOS xsi that Jaime bought me many years ago....Paige mostly uses this older camera of mine (I use my iPhone for pics for my blog).  Well, I started to think it is time to update this camera to one with wifi and one with a recorder....then I could do small vlogs here (short video entries) since I am about to hit my 5 year blogiversary, I thought I could take it to the next level with vlogs.  When I mentioned this to Darlene, she said she would do a podcast with me ....can you believe it?  We are going to start a podcast!  I am super excited. 

 

I bought a Nikon B500 and it came and I took some pics and a video but I could not get the darned thing to connect to the internet....I was so frustrated....so it is in a box and is being returned....I think I am going to go with the Cannon T6i camera....Paige has heard a lot of great things about it.  It is a bit pricier, but worth it if it really connects via wifi.  I also bought a big round light on a tripod and semi cleaned up my yarn room to get it ready to podcast....what do you think?

Here is the big round light pictured off and on (my iPhone could not get a good pic of it on, because it was super bright).

 

Here is the room semi ready:

 

 

 

So do you guys think we are crazy?  Would you watch our podcast?  It is kinda scary.....stay tuned.

 

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

 

 

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

 

 

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!