Lake House Retreat 2016!

Hello everyone!  Boy do I have a lot to tell you and lots of pictures to share.

I will start with some cute grandkids.....it was Cataleya's birthday earlier in May and her mom had a party at a local park by the zoo.....I wanted to snap a picture of all the kiddos together...but that just did not happen...so I had to put them together.......I did not realize how much the sun was in their face when I snapped some of the pictures.

Now for a couple of stash enhancements......I got my Yarn Winnings from Primerose Yarn Co for my Citadel that I made (and Paige stole)!  I got 11 skeins of her Helix Base fingering weight yarn in the Grey Lady colorway!  I am not sure what I am going to make yet, but I am so excited I won this yarn!!!

Here is the sweater as a reminder:

And here is all the yarn I won!  <3

I also got some yarn from Darlene....she needs my help making a sweater for her DIL in Houston...it is an all black sweater (because Darlene is crazy that way), so she just gave me what she had......pics of the sweater later....here is the yarn....Knit Picks Chroma Worsted.

I also got my Miss Babs tour destination package....we are going to Iceland and I could not love this package any more.....the yarn is black, blueish grey and chartreuse green......it is GORGEOUS!

The pattern for the tour is called Rennandi (Picture copyright of Miss Babs):

This will be getting cast on.....Now, I know I have my Big 4 Retreat going on and I did not explicitly say that my Miss Babs tour was an exception and allowed to be cast on....but I look at it a couple of ways.....I was already a member of the tour before the retreat started and it is a big goal of mine for 2016 to knit from the clubs I join......plus, I have already finished 2 of my Big 4 Retreat items and it is only June 6th (I still have almost 3 months)......so, I am not sure when I am casting it on....but I am 99.9% sure it is not waiting till September 1 (because by then another package from the tour will be shipping out).


Well, I think that is it for Stash enhancements......what else has happened?  Well, Tour de Sock started.....and I am slower than everyone...but I am enjoying the pattern.  I think I am just so intimidated by a pattern that I almost come to a slow crawl when making patterned socks......

Then at the lake house I knit on mostly 3 things (even though I think I packed 20 things).....The sweater for Darlene's DIL (I had to get a close up because the black is hard to photograph):

My Spire which is one of my Big 4 items....and I just finished all the repeats of chart B!  Yahoo!  Now on to Chart C!

and my Smooth Move....the last of my Big 4 items....it is 60% done.....

Well, that is pretty much all I have....except some pictures of the knitting retreat at the Lake House....

Tami finished an entire pair of socks in like 2 days....she is crazy ninja fast!

Evelyn baked two pies....one big and a small gluten free pie....isn't it cute?

Darlene was spoiled with Strawberries and whipped cream for Friday morning Breakfast (yes, there are strawberries in there somewhere):

And we only got the tiniest amount of rain....it came down hard, but did not last more than 5 min and it was done.....so the weather was great!

This is a video that Tami took:

Our geese that come and see us every year got some bread (that is my hand tossing out some bread):

Have a great week everyone!!!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Happy Easter!

Did everyone have a fantastic Easter and/or Easter Weekend?  I did.  I had Friday off and watched Antonio....we had a good time.  I got lots of knitting done, but first I am going to start with a few things that came in the mail last week right after I did a blog update.

I won some prizes from the Down Cellar Studios PigSkin Party....I was so excited to hear that I won.  I won 2 bags from Suburban Stitcher.  One bag is HUGE!  The other is sock drawstring size.  I love them both and love the "Sporty" fabric!

I also won a dishcloth booklet and some stitch markers from a dishcloth a month group I am a member of:

I also got another skein of DVD yarn....Most of the time when I buy yarn, it is for the colors...but this time, it was because of the name.  Chicka Boom...this is from the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom....I used to read it to my kids all the time and now they read it to their kids.  I love this book and this yarn!

Lastly for stash enhancements, I got the rest of my "Rope" yarn from Poland:

I have put this project in my New Big Huge Bag!

I finished the last Mug Hug for my Aunt and Uncle:

I worked a little on my Miss Babs "Bump In The Road" project...the pattern is called Cercis:

I finished my March Socks...Yeah!  We went to Hot Rod Night this past Saturday evening and I finished them there.

I have my yarn ready for my April socks.....I was going to try to use the new sock sack that I just won...but I think this yarn looks much better with the Bags By Awesomegrannie bag....what do you think?

I worked a little on my 3 color cashmere shawl...I have 8 of the 10 stripes of each color done.  I am almost to the third color!

Lastly, I worked on my Citadel....the sleeves were getting really tight on my 16" cable so I went to magic loop, but I always wanted to try these 12" needles....so I just got a 12" needle in size 7 (today) and I will see how it works on the sleeves tonight....I will let you know next week :)  I already started to pick up stitches for the collar (since I was holding off on the sleeves till this needle came in)....and while picking up stitches, I found a mistake in my Citadel....it is so far back, it is not getting fixed....it will just have to be a design element, and the part that makes it unique!  I am a little bummed about it, but oh well, it is what it is and I think the collar will be able to hide most of it....anyway, here is my progress and new needle.

Now....for a new project....Yes, I am crazy, but I think we all know that.  You know I have finished one Hyper Nova aka Hyper Crazy....and I have frogged one too....well, I want to make another one and I have Darlene, Marla, Barbara and Evelyn all joining me...maybe even Carol from SNB will join in.   I will use stash yarn called Masquerade...it is Miss Babs Katahdin.  Darlene got me this yarn for my birthday in 2014.  Now, Darlene sold her Masquerade yarn to Marla, so she had to buy new yarn (I think that might have been her plan...LOL!) and she got the most awesome color called Wolves Den...I am in LOVE with it...it screams "Carrie".  Here is my yarn and her yarn...I think we are starting this coming Friday....April Fools Day :)

My Masquerade:

Darlene's Wolves Den:

Well, that is just about all I have.....I hope you all have a fabulous week....do not get fooled on April Fools Day!

Here are some fun pictures, a couple of Hot Rod Night Pictures, and of course, a couple of pics of Antonio with Cascarones!

Happy Happy Happy knitting everyone!