18 days left.....are you ready?

Hello everyone...there are only 18 days left till Christmas.....are you ready?

I AM NOT!

But I am trying......I am just going to jump into what I have been working on......

I started some socks for a Christmas present for my niece, Grace!  Now, I have had a lot of people ask me how I make socks....so I put up a new free pattern on my blog here....it is not really a step by step pattern, but more of a recipe....it is how I almost always do my plain vanilla socks...I hope you enjoy the pattern as much as I do.....Here are the socks for Grace.

I worked on my mitts (so close to being done!)

and I mostly worked on the fingerless mitts for Darlene's daughter, Shyla.....

Now, I still need to start Paige's boyfriend a pair of baggy socks...but I was waiting on the yarn....and it came in!  Louise from Biscotte Yarns always does such a lovely job of packaging the yarn!  This yarn is soooooooo soft, I highly recommend it!

I also got a couple more Hiya Hiya Swap packages

The first is from Stacie aka knittingchic on ravelry.....Her package was so wonderful....she made me stitch markers and a bag for me...thank you so much Stacie....I can see the extra time you put into the package to give it just the right touch....thank you!!!

The second was from Jennifer at BugBear Woolens....she picked out the perfect color (Hook em Horns!) for me and look at the darling sweater ornament and some lovely tea....thank you Jennifer!  I love your yarn so much!

I also got Destination 4 of the Miss Babs Knitting Tour....it is Sydney Australia....800 yards of Katahdin in the Sydney Colorway, with beads, and a fleegle beader.....wow....great package!

I got my newest set of Northern Light needles from Dyakcraft...these were the Silver Northern light Needles, that they had dipped in nickel and polished like Nickel needles....you can see at the bottom that the line from the screw in tip is gone...these are going to be awesome to knit with!

I also got my secret santa package.....JoAn in Austin was my secret sister and she got me all kinds of goodies....A burlap Longhorn bag, Caron Simply soft yarn in a burnt orange colorway, two knitting books...one called Wire Knits and one called 60 Quick Knits, there is some Ghiradelli Chocolate, finishing needles, some split lock stitch markers and some Bernat Boa Yarn in beautiful Pink.  Thank you JoAn!

Last on my stash enhancement list......I am sure you all know that I knit at work during lunch every work day...there is a group of about 6 of  us....and we had a new one join us last week....her name is Amy....she did some practicing and then was ready to go....so Darlene and I started her on a weigh it shawl...Darlene brought in some Miss Babs Yowza for her to pick from and so did I....she liked my Mad Hatter colorway so she took that..but I loved Darlene's Deep Sea Jellyfish.....so we kind of did a swap....I no longer have the Mad Hatter, but I have this beauty!

Oh, and here is the start to Amy's shawl....she picked it up super quick (even if she was too hard on herself).

Well....that is really all I have.  I have lots of knitting to do this week so hopefully I have more pictures to show you next week....I leave you with a Genius Minion request to Santa! I am so in love with Self Striping socks...that I never thought of a Self Cleaning House!!!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!!!

Bitten Off More Than I Can Chew?

Hi everyone!  I am sorry I am a day late in posting.....It has been a crazy week.  This past weekend we went to Rockport and I did not take my laptop and very rarely checked my phones!  It was great!

I have quite a few stash enhancements.  After Finishing Celeste's sweater last week, I decided I wanted to make her and Cataleya matching coats/jackets.....I want to make it look like Elsa's Coronation dress (from the movie Frozen).  I picked the Three Tier Coat/Jacket pattern.....I want to do it 3 colors like this one:

Photo inspiration

My Colors (that pink has a bit more purple in it)

I also got in some yarn for the Reine Cardigan for Paige:

I ordered some fiber to practice spinning:

And, I had a friend on Ravelry contact me that she has some Miss Babs in an orange that is like a Texas Orange.....and she was right.....It is perfect Longhorn Orange!  Thank you Debbie for the yarn and the cute little Eiffel Tower Keychain!  You are the greatest!

My Miss Babs Destination 1 yarn came in....we are going to Sri Lanka.....I forgot to take a picture of my extras (candy, elephant stitch marker, tea)....but I do love this yarn.  The pattern (called Ves) shows two colors....I really liked the red/pink better (and I got the blueish/turquoise)....so I ordered the red pink and I think Darlene will want to buy my blue/teal/turquoise one!

I finally got the District 12 colorway of yarn from Brazen Stitchery....one is mine and one is Darlene's

I also got some yarn to make a hat for Paige...it is Blue Sky Alpaca Suri Merino.

And, I got some new pajama pants....I love these (I got Darlene a pair too)....I love them so much, I ordered myself a second pair because I know I am going to wear these out.  I saw them posted on Instagram and had to buy them!

Lastly, I got a YarnIt....I have not started using it yet, but I am anxious to try it.

I think that might be it for the enhancements.....well, I may have one or two more...but will save them till next week.

Now....what did I knit on?  Well, do you remember that Weigh It Shawl where I ran out of yarn and used black?  I super sweet person on Ravelry had some left over Volcanic Eruption and sent it to me...so I tinked the picot bind off (yes, it was a pain) and re-bound off with the correct yarn and I am soooooo happy with it!

 I started a "secret" project....I will show you a picture of the yarn I am using and the beginning....I cannot wait to show you the whole thing...but it will be a few weeks.

You know that yarn I posted above to make a hat for Paige.....well, I finished it!  It was a complete surprise for her and she was not wild about the color....so I am making a 2nd one in red....she went to Tinsmith's wife to get the red yarn for me (Blue Sky Alpaca) and I need to finish it by Friday because she leaves for Colorado on Saturday...and she wants the hat for Colorado.....the picture of the hat on my head shows the color the best.

While Paige was at Tinsmith's Wife, she found some bed socks she wants me to make her and she picked up Madeline Tosh Dandelion Yarn for me to make them for her.

I worked on my rainbow socks a little

And, I started some new socks with Dragonfly Fibers Djinni Sock yarn.....these are for a Hiya Hiya KAL

That about does it......Yes, I know....I got lots of yarn this week....that is why I feel like I have bitten off more than I can chew with everything I want to make....and I want to make it NOW!

Anyway, my little Antonio has been sick, so I wanted to share a couple of pictures of him yesterday with the new legos Ga-Ma got him...I know he does not look 'sick', but it is a stomach bug...

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Happy Happy Spring Break!!

Can you believe it is Spring Break already?  It sure has not felt like Spring Break lately....but I think this week is supposed to show me some mid 70's temperatures....Yahoo!!!

On to the knitting!  What have I done....what have you done?  I did not get too much knitting in this weekend.

I finished that Aviator hat for my friend.....I tried to crochet on the goggles, but it did not look good....so I got some felt from Hobby Lobby, cut out the eyes, made 2 crochet chains, and glued them on the felt, and sewed down the eyes....what do ya think?

I mailed it last week and the recipient should get it today!

I pulled out something pretty old this past week.  A friend of mine is working on her Vitamin D sweater....so I pulled mine out....I thought I had put it away because it was so big, but I put it away because that dog I had years ago (I called him Little Shit, but his name was Tito) had chewed my yarn......now, I must have thought I was thinner in 2012....because this is size Lg, and I always make size XL, so I think I will cast on a new one in a bigger size and then frog this one (for some reason, it always makes me feel better to have the new one to the same place as the old one before frogging....yes, I am weird)!

In pulling out old things......I pulled out a sweater I started for Celeste in 2010 (pattern is Pink Orchard).  I had her try it on (and of course Antonio had to try it on too), and I was able to finish it late last night.....I still need to wash it as you can see where my needles hung out for a very long time. (In my defense, I gave this to a lady in 2013 to seam the button bands, but she never got to it and she just mailed it back to me this past December....I hate seaming!!!) I seamed the button bands, added buttons, made the picot edging in bottom of body, did one sleeve, and did the ribbing around the neck this past weekend...that is all it needed.

I had Antonio and Paige over on Tuesday, then on Thursday we went to my parents house for Paige to cut our family member's hair (my dad, nephew, BIL)....then on Friday I had Celeste, Antonio and Cataleya.....Cateleya and Celeste went home Friday night, but Celeste came right back to play all day Saturday.  I had Antonio from Friday to Sunday and I pick him up again today....Paige has been working a bunch of hours......so, the only other knitting I really got done was a little bit on my socks, a few rows on my thousand tulips....and.....I started another Yowza Shawl!  What can I say.....I love this pattern!  I started it with some new yarn....so I will just post pics of my stash enhancements as well.

Okay, so as I stated earlier....I had lots of grand kids this past weekend....well, I took them to Walmart and I got myself a new pair of PJ's......I also got them a ton of toys, but the PJ's are so cute!

Well, I think that might be all I have....I will now kill you with pics and a video of the grand kids.

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!