Hello 2015!

Was the new year good to you?  So far it has been good to me!  For the last few days of 2014 I was knitting away at the cowl for my sister.  I had to finish by 12/31/14 for Loopy Academy.....and I did it!

This was the picture uploaded for Loopy Academy....it still needed blocking!

Blocking:

Done:

I will see my sister this Thursday, so I will give it to her then!

I ordered some Miss Babs Yarn with her graditude sale she does every year.  This is a skein of Yowza in the Volcanic Eruption Colorway......I really love it!

Speaking of Yowza....remember the Skein of Joan of Arc that Darlene got me for Christmas?  Well, we are doing a KAL in her Ravelry group for the Yowza Weigh It Shawl or the Yowza Weigh It Shawl 2!  Both patterns are by Susan B Anderson.  You should really come join us...You do not have to have Yowza....any yarn is fine!  First, I weighed my skein and it is a VERY GENEROUS skein.  It is supposed to be 8 ounces, but mine is 9.14...YOWZA!

Then I swatched (can you believe it?)!  I liked the look on size 10's (the bottom one..I think):

Then, I cast on with the girls at SNB on Saturday!

It is SUPER easy....it has ONE row you repeat over and over and over again....then one other row...then knit....then bind off.....Come and join us here!

I did get some other knitting done.....Jaime was hunting again this weekend....so I was at home all weekend to do nothing but knit!  To explain to you why I knit what I did....there is a small story behind it.....There was a contest on FB to win a free yarn bowl......so I shared this picture and liked the page in hopes to win.....well, a friend of mine commented on the photo that she could make me a yarn bowl.  I had no clue she did pottery.  She said she does not have a wheel, but she has a kiln.  So, I asked her how much a yarn bowl would cost.....she wanted to trade...she sent me a picture of a headband she wanted some more of.  She said some 'fuzzy' and some solids in black, grey and red.....I sent her pictures of my 'fuzzy' yarn and she picked some.....I got one pattern from an LSSK friend and one pattern from Ravelry.....then I started knitting......and made nine....yes, nine.....headbands!

I sent them out in the mail to her today.  I know she will not get to my yarn bowl for a few weeks...but I am glad I got these out of the way....they were fun to make, but now I am tired of making them....ha, ha!  The great news is that she did not need me to make any flowers for them, and she also said she has buttons, so there was no need for me to put buttons on them....double win!

I also finished a pair of socks from July....yup, these were some Tour de Sock socks.....and I really wanted to finish them in 2014...but I was a few days late.....but they are DONE!  My first big FO of 2015 (not counting the tiny headbands)!

I have a couple other 'enhancements' but they are not stash enhancements....but I have to share with you anyway....in the past, I usually do not wear my hand knit socks to work for a silly, silly reason....when I get home from work, I take off my work shoes and go straight into flip flops....so, if my hand knit socks were not flip flop socks.  Yes, I know that is silly!  So, I told my boyfriend, Jaime, that I wanted some slippers and I sent him the link to the ones I wanted.  Well, I got them Friday....and I LOVE THEM!!!!!!  Thank you Jaime!!!

Immediately after delivery:

Wearing them with my favorite Jammies!

Okay.....now to take you back to a post a few weeks ago about some knit cable wax warmers....Apparently, great minds think alike.....My sister got my mom a wax warmer set (this was from both of us, but my sister does the shopping and I just giver her money....correction, my sister's husband does the shopping, and I give the money)....well I loved this set and so did my daughter.  There was a pine garland and pomegranate champagne scent that were both heavenly......so I asked my BIL where he got them.....Lowes!  Yup, Lowes.....so I found some online and ordered them.  I gave my daughter both of the wax holders (because I have my cable ones) but, I did steal the 3 wax scents.  I also have several scentsy waxes that she took from me.....I wish this pine garland and pomegranate champagne were sold by themselves!

A few last (random) things to finish out my week.....

One of my hand knit socks came undone in the wash....has this happened to anyone else?  I usually wash my socks, but then take them out before they go in the dryer:

I bought a few new 'knitters' during the Miss Babs Sale:

Who knew that Harley Davidson was getting into the food business (it was not bad!).....

Jaime's oldest son, Jacob, shot a buck.....

I hope everyone has a fabulous 2015!  Happy Happy New Year and Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Stephen and Steven Tour 2014

Are you ready for picture overload?  I have lots of pictures to share with you this week.  First let me give you a small update on my Tour de Sock socks.......I have been making progress but I have not worked on them since last Friday....I am really enjoying this pattern!!!

Now for the Stephen and Steven Tour 2014....they are fabulous....if you have a chance to go see them....you should.  We had a great time!  First, when we got to our hotel, one of our rooms was not ready so the hotel bought us all dinner......Yup!  It was yummy....I even have a picture of my desert because it was so cute.

At the even there was tour exclusive yarn:

Here is what I got......I got some of the tour exclusive yarn by Three Irish Girls in colorways "Luck be a Lady" and "Sin City":

That was all I was going to get....I swear....but then Tami had to go and find the new Dream in Color yarn in a new base called Jilly......Yup, you guessed it...they had the most beautiful burnt orange colorway called "chili" and I got another colorway called "brownie" to go with it (Tami, the enabler got the same thing, two of the Chili and one of the Brownie).....

While waiting to go to this tour.....Darlene aka AwesomeGrannie saw on Instagram the new Plucky Knitter's colorway called "ph" for Stephen West there was a pink colorway above called "v" for Steven Be).....so I had to get her some......I also got her some Madeline tosh light merino in the "Knitting is dead Sexy" colorway....it was tour exclusive and I think it will make a great Welty Pattern (by Stephen West) along with the ph........here is hers:

So.....my yarn was wound (in hotel room) and we had dinner....we all knitted (there was a group of 7 knitting gals total) in the lobby for a while and then it was time for a good night's rest.......and we were off.....

IT WAS FABULOUS!!!!

What did I learn?  Most importantly, I learned that Steven B has 42 WIPS which means that since my count is not that high, that I can cast on more projects (I have officially been given permission!)....Also, Stephen West said that it is OKAY to buy yarn to match your outfit and it is also OKAY to buy an outfit to match your yarn......these are the important things!

What can I say.....I had the time of my life......I want to thank Stephen and Steven for a great time and a great big thanks to Elizabeth for getting me in the class!!!  I do want to thank Hill Country Weavers or putting it on.....but I have to say I was not impressed with the organization at all.  At the last minute (Saturday)....HCW decided to open up more seats to the even and called the ppl on the waiting list......this meant that my great friend Ruby Cruze got to come.......

Now.....I am super excited they opened up a seat for Ruby (Yes I am being selective here)....but the bottom line is they opened up too many seats...there was not enough room...we were crammed like sardines into one tiny room.....then lunch came and it was pure chaos....it seems that if you were taking the Stephen West class in the afternoon, you were supposed to have lunch with Steven Be and vice versa....but they never 'announced' that to everyone...it seems that they announced it to new comers (ppl who were not in the morning classes) but not to everyone....it was just madness....my seat was taken (even though all my friends told the lady she could not sit there because I just went to go get my plate of food and I would be right back...my purse was there, my whole knitting bag, etc).....it was just a three ring circus....being crammed in the little room means that neither of the Steph/vens were able to get to the back corner or anywhere to their left side because the tables (and sardine people) were blocking them.  Also, there was very little tour yarn.  HCW sent an email telling us we can buy tour yarn on Saturday starting at 1 and we were there at about 1:03.....there was ONE skein of that 'ph' yarn for sale and one skein they were using to show everyone (so basically I got the only two skeins) and at first they said we could order some then they said we couldn't....but they must have been holding back skeins of yarn for friends because on Sunday, my friend asked if they had anymore of that yarn and they said 'No' but after my friend paid, they pulled out 3 skeins of the "ph" yarn for the next lady in line......okay.....rant over.....besides selling way too many seats and being unorganized.....I would not have traded it for the world....I had a fabulous time.....can you tell by the pictures?

 

Above is my friend Elizabeth (who got me the seat to the show) with Stephen and her Verticies Unite!

Below is our whole group wearing one of Stephen West's shawls!

Here is a picture in front of the yarn store....if you look close, you might be able to find me

I even got their signatures on my Tour Book and they each signed their own patterns!

I could not decide with yarn to use for Stephen West's Welty pattern....but in the end I decided to use the 'Tour Yarn'.  Here is my progress:

All in all, it was a fabulous weekend!!!!!!!!!!!  

And just in case you do not go into picture overload....here is my favorite:

Happy Happy Happy Knitting everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!