Lake House Lounging!

Hi everyone!  This past weekend was my SNB group's 4th Annual Knitting retreat!  We had it at my sister's lake house and it was awesome to the max!

I got lots of knitting done and I will have picture overload at the end of this post.

First, prior to leaving, I got the Texas Dish Rag Tag box....I was the last person to get the box since I was the first to send it.  JoAn got me perfect orange and matching varigated yarn....the dishrag is awesome!  She also got me a book with different flower and leaves patterns, and some Ferrero Rocher Chocolate and a Texas Pecan Praline!  Yes, the chocolate and praline are already gone!

I also started some new socks.....bright orange with the BugBear Woolens I bought a few weeks ago...I love this fun color....it is not true color on the screen, but think a fun and happy orange that is tonal!

And remember that bag set with yarn I won?  Well, I got it...

I also finished my Loopy Academy Extra Credit before I left.  Now...this is a TERRIBLE picture, but I do not have a head mannequin but I may need to get one.  I used one of Antonio's balloons....this hat is WAY too big for anyone!  But it is cute.  I may just rip it and re-purpose the yarn, but I have not completely decided yet.

Okay.....now on to what I did at that the retreat......

I finished some socks for a HiyaHiya KAL (and I also entered them in an SKA giveaway).

I also converted my friend, Tami, into a sock knitter....she said she would never knit socks because it was a waste of her time....but she made the pinstripe socks with me in February and now she finished some more socks (she calls them Coffee Socks because she spilled coffee on them).....now she is at the end of the dock laying down with her feet in the sun to get a good picture of her socks!!!

I started the Toujours Sweater with Darlene....I am IN LOVE WITH THIS YARN!  It is Miss Babs Killington Base (that my friends got me at DWF Fiber Fest) in the Bat S**t Crazy Colorway.

I worked a little on my Hiya Hiya Grapes Shrug and I am loving the way it is looking!

Then, fast forward to today....Today is the start of Camp Loopy and the start of Tour De Sock.  The Tour De Sock #1 calls for sport weight yarn....well, Darlene had bought me some Sanguine Gryphon Bugga in Sport Weight like a year and a half ago?  Well, I frogged the socks I had started with that yarn and I am going to use that yarn for Tour De Sock.  The first pattern is called Virrat.  Please wish me luck!  Looks like lots of cables!

I also got to start Camp Loopy today at lunch...I am not far, but it is a start (ps, this yarn is also heaven...Madeline Tosh Pashmina in the Dachshund colorway (same as the socks above).

Then, after lunch was the greatest surprise....My DyakCraft Lavender 5" Northern Lights Interchangeable set came in....these are Heaven....the box sang a church music tone like 'Aaaaaaaaaa' as I opened it.

Darlene also got me some needle protectors for our wooden DyakCraft Darn Pretty needles.....so they do not break in our project bags.....great idea!  Thank you Darlene!

Okay....I think that is it for the knitting.....so I am going to go into Lake House Shenanigans!

When Darlene and I got there, she needed to wind some yarn...and let me tell you, this is the view you want when you are winding yarn....this is yarn winding in the bar area of the dock.

So Tami brought popcorn....and she says in her house, her family eats it with chopsticks....we were like "huh?" but it turns out that Tami is nothing but a genius.....for the rest of the retreat we ate almost everything with chop sticks...I had some cheetos with chopsticks and snap pea snacks and rice snacks, etc.....your fingers do not get dirty at all and then I can go right to knitting after eating orange cheetos .....Yum!

Here is Elizabeth and I eating with chop sticks!

Or Elizabeth just 'concentrating'!!

My friend, Melissa, was working on a cardigan and had two skeins going at the same time and was making a mess, so I let her borrow my Yarnit....and she is proof how much they work and how helpful they are:

We had a family of geese come visit us a few times to get bread....they also got garlic cheese bread (they did not care for) and pecan sandies...but bread was their favorite!

and of course just some great views!

That is all I have.....I am going back to the lake house this weekend...but I bet I barely get any knitting done because I am taking Antonio with me....stay tuned for Antonio Fun Next Week!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Memorial Day Weekend

How was your Memorial Day Weekend?  I hope everyone had a fantastic Memorial Day and I want to say 'Thanks' to all the men an women out there that server for our country!

Knitting.....do you remember last week when I said I 'almost' had a grand slam?  Well, I finished those black rainbow socks Monday evening.  I love them!

I got a lot of knitting done on my Hiya Hiya KAL socks...this is also in the Dachshund colorway and I friend of mine asked me if there is purple in the sock yarn too (like the purple in the pashmina I got for Camp Loopy)....and there is, it may just be a little hard to see.  My boyfriend says it looks like I spilled bleach on the sock on the left....MEN!  sheesh!

I also worked on my 'Your Beautiful' shawl....I am only about 7.21% done (yes, you know I have a spreadsheet on this)....and I am enjoying it.

Well, I think that is all I 'hand' knitted on.......but I do have a couple of knitting machines.  I have a large one that I have no clue how to use, and I have a small one like for children to use and make scarves and hats and stuff.

I pulled out one of them this weekend to knit a blank!

Why am I knitting a blank you ask?  Well, some of my SNB friends have been dyeing their own yarn...so a few ladies were getting together at one ladies house for us to dye yarn.  I wish I would have taken more pictures of 'the process', but I had gloves on my hands and microwaves to watch time on and niddy noddies to wind yarn on.......  I dyed 2 yarns....a blank and a 'cake' of yarn.  The blank I knit to be a gradient from black to silver to orange (of course you knew orange would be in there)....it was called tangelo!

There is the blank:

Here is the yarn after niddy noddy:

and here is the hank

Then, I died a cake of yarn....it was a loose cake and I wanted a chocolate brown on the outside and an orange on the inside....I did get some brown into my orange, but I am still in love with it.  I really wish I would have taken a picture of the cake when it was being dyed, but oh well......

Then, there was a lady there that had a knitted blank that she wanted to go from light color (almost all white) to a slowly darker 'rose' color....when this was wet and she was offering it to anyone, it looked a little orangeish...but I can see now it is mostly all dusty pinkish....but I still like it...she was unhappy with it, I thought it was pretty and I just traded her some bare yarn because I did not want it to just go to waste......ha, ha!

Hmmmmmmm, what else did I do this past week.....Oh, I tried to crochet a hat as extra credit for Loopy Academy.  This hat is way bigger than I thought it would be, but I just need to do one row of single crochets and make the bow and it is done.

A couple of weeks ago I showed you some cross stitch patterns I had bought (half way down).  They were of Shaun the Sheep.  Well, out of all 4 there was one on 6 ct white aida cloth (that means 6 stitches per inch).  So, since I have not cross stitched in forever, I thought I would start with something quick and easy.....I am not done, but I have gotten a lot done.  The other 3 cross stitch sets I got are 14 ct white aida cloth, so, smaller squares!  Here is the first one:

I had also been listening to some of the older Suburban Stitcher Podcasts.....I think Dianne used to be a pretty big cross stitcher before she started knitting....anyway, on an episode early this year she was showing a 'cross stitch holder' that her mom had made and she was going to try to make some and put them in her shop.  Well, I did not see any in her shop, but I contacted her and she had a prototype to sell me...it was with 'geek' fabric and it was orange.....I loved the fabric (reminds me of The Big Bang Theory).....and here it is....it will hold an 11x11 QSnap, and I only had sizes 6x6 and 8x8, so I ordered an 11x11.  I hope it is here soon.

Oh....I almost forgot....I won a project bag and yarn on Instagram!  Yahoo!  She is going to mail it till late next week because she knows I am about to go out of town for the retreat.  Her name is Jennifer and she has an etsy shop called The Ultimate Bag Lady and she paired up with Texas Dyed Wool....I cannot wait to get this......

Well, that is really all I have.....now.....this coming weekend is the Knitting Retreat at my sister's lake house.  Here are some pictures from last year...I really look forward to this weekend every year.  I cannot wait for Friday to get here!  My sister got a new dock/deck built and I cannot wait to see it.


Oh, and Darlene brought me a Turtle Made spindle.....so, I may be spinning at the lake this weekend too!  Thank you Darlene!!!

Have a great week!

Driver Golf Club Recipe

Now, my friend, AlwaysAlice, is the one who helped me with this pattern...this is not MY pattern, but I am going to list the generic 'recipe' here just in case you want to make your dad (or whomever) a 'driver' golf club cover.  I put 'driver' in there because I know Alice has been making her hubby other golf club covers and they are each a little different.  She also puts a different number of stripes in the stockinette part to mean something different.  You can stripe or not stripe or change up anyway you like.

Here is her recipe:

She used size US 6 and size US 8 and using smaller needle she cast on 56, joined in round and worked a 2x2 rib for 11-12 inches.  She recommend I try 52 stitches, so I did.  My gauge was about 22 stitches for 4" in stockinette.

Using smaller needle, I cast on 52 stitches, joined in the round, then knit in a 2x2 rib for about 11-12 inches.

Then, switching to larger needles:

If you cast on 52 do this:

Knit to 3 1/2"

decrease round:  (knit 11, k2tog) repeat () one entire round = 48 stitches

Now knit to 4" and do the same decreases as below, starting at the **.

If you cast on 56 do this:

Knit to 4 inches, then do the following decrease:

(knit 6, k2tog)  repeat () all around

knit one round

**(k5, k2tog) repeat () all around

knit one round

(k4, k2tog) repeat () all around

knit one round

(k3, k2tog) repeat () all around

knit one round

(k2, k2tog) repeat () all around

knit one round

(k2tog) repeat () all around

Cut long tail, run yarn thru last 6 stitches, weave in ends and add Pom Pom (I used this clover pom pom maker),

Thank You Alice, I think my dad will love it!