Half a year gone!

Well, it is already July....so that means that 1/2 the year is already gone....wow!  One of my main goals this year was to knit more than last year.  Last year I knit 10.6 miles....so at the 1/2 way point, I should be at least at 5.3 ore more.  Well, I am currently at 5.2.  However, I have not counted any yardage from the your beautiful shawl, and I know that will take me the .1 I need to be meeting my goal!

Here it is...I am getting pretty tired of it....there are over 600 stitches on the needle right now.

The only other thing I worked on this week is my Rosen Bridge for Camp Loopy #2.  Now, I swatched before it started...and by swatched, I mean practially started....I wanted to cast on all the stitches so I can see how they felt on the circular needle, then I wanted to do the decreases to see how the smaller amount of stitches felt on the circular....I decided it was too big...adjusted for what I guessed is a little over 2 inches and recast on the real deal on July 1st....I do love the way it is coming out and glad I did the swatch.  I am 1/2 way through the 2nd skein (I have 4 skeins)

I am really happy with the size so far.  Can you believe that is all I knit on this week?  Well, I did get pretty far on both of them.....I did some crocheting, I tried my first pentagon for the Hippo....I do not think mine (on the left) looks squarish enough......

I also finished my HiyaHiya Grapes Shrug...I also wanted to let everyone know that we are doing another Shrug KAL on Facebook here (if you need to be a member, let me know, I can add you) or you can join on Ravelry here....Yup, we are doing it in both FB and Ravelry.  The new shrug is the Piano Princess Shrug I, and you have till end of September to finish.  Now, please excuse the picture....I had to have Jaime take it and it is a bit blurry from the back....(Yes, I am in my pajamas :))

Then, I have some stash enhancements.....I got 3 skeins of Madeline Tosh Vintage in the Sequoia colorway.  Darlene wants to to make Juneberry, so I am going to make it with her.

Then, I got some Wolle Gradient Cotton yarn....I saw somebodies project with this yarn....and then I had to get some...this appears to be one of those yarns where you have to stalk ravelry for an update, then you send an email to the creator with the colors you want....then she invoices you, and mails it.  I do love the colors (red and taupe), but this is like a three ply thread, thin cotton.....I kinda cannot wait to knit with it.....and see how I like it.

Then, I got another needle cover, but from a different seller, she sells these 'Poke me not' tubes and also 2 sizes of the 'Loose me not ' tubes....aren't they cute!

I filled my new needle holder with dpn needles.....and I really like it!

You know the Strickmich!Club I am a member of?  Well, I have a friend in that group and she is not going to use her bead....so she sent them to me....that was so sweet of her!  Thank you Paula!

Lastly, this is an OLD stash....I got this in mid April, but forgot to add to my blog and my stash.....it is Miss Babs Yowza in the Baton Twirl colorway...Darlene and I are splitting this to make another (larger) weigh it shawl.....we each get 1 1/2 skeins.

Well, I hope everyone had a fabulous 4th of July....Antonio came over on the 2nd and spent the night with me so I could watch him on the 3rd....I made him breakfast and bought him a small (very small) pool with some water toys to play in the backyard....he wanted Celeste to come over too, so I got her as well...but the funny thing is...when I have both of them, I have no time to take pictures...so I only have the pictures of Antonio....

Then Paige and her boyfriend took Antonio to Fiesta Texas....they waited forever to get into the water park....so she sent me some pictures of them waiting and also sent me one of Antonio with a sparkler on the evening of 4th of July....he sure seems to be having a great time with the sparkler!

Breakfast Friday Morning

He loves bacon as much as his grandma: 

Pool time: 

Waiting:

Waiting: 

I am tired of waiting: 

 Sparkler time!

Have a great week everyone!!!  I am sorry for the Antonio picture overload.  Maybe the blog should be renamed to Life of a Knitphomaniac with her grandson/grandchildren....LOL!

Happy 4th of July

I want to wish everyone a wonderful 4th of July this coming weekend! Happy Birthday America!

How has your week been?  Mine has been pretty good!  I have been plugging away at my "Your Beautiful" shawl.  It is really hard to see my progress because I really need to put it on a longer cord.

I also finished up the main part of my shrug.  Here it is blocking:

Then I seamed it up, and am adding the 2nd cuff right now....I should have the final picture for you next week.
I also finished my ardent and blocked it...it blocked out a little bit over 8 feet!

I must have been a blocking fool, because I also blocked my Susanna IC Shawl.  I gave it to a very good friend for her 50th birthday!  She loved it (and I forgot to get a picture of her with it):

Do you remember a long time ago when Paige bought some yarn from a semi-local yarn store and wanted me to make her some 'Turkish Bed Slippers'?  Well, she kinda gave me a guilt trip, so I got them started.....I finished on and have barely started the second one.

Well, that is about all I have for the knitting...but I have quite a few stash enhancements.  I am going to start with some scissors.....yup, just some plain old scissors....or maybe they are like 'snips'.  Darlene and I are always missing a pair of scissors in our bags, so she found these awesome little snips....I ordered some from overseas before she left from vacation....and I just now got them.  She has already since ordered some and gave me 1/2 of her order....now I can give her 1/2 of these.  I should also note that they are Antonio approved, so they work left handed or right handed.

Then, Knit Picks had to go and bring back Felici Self Striping yarn for a limited time....so I got 5 different colorways....I do love them....and I cannot wait to start knitting on some socks!

I also got a new 6" DPN holder and the cutest needle gauge.....I am in love with these needle gauges!

Then...I have a small story behind my next stash enhancement......Darlene saw this Hippo in the Camp Loopy #1 finished items area......copyright to alphantango on ravelry...hold on to your hippos, this is so dang cute!

and Darlene is in love with this Happy Hippo.....but it is Crochet, and Darlene does not crochet....So I bought the pattern here, and I ran home to check my stash to see what I had....you all know I cannot match for nothing, so I wanted to use the same colors as alphantango.  Well, I found some Regia 6ply in a green and turquoise that I bought back in mid/late March....well, this yarn is categorized as DK but I think it is going to work for this Hippo....worse case scenario, I make a HUGE HIPPO.  So, I found more of this Regia 6ply in a pink and purple to go with my turquoise and green.....what do you think?

I am going to try to get the hippo started tonight....I am hoping....keep your fingers crossed for me!

Anyway.....that is all I have for this week!  Have a great 4th of July and I will see you next week.....Camp Loopy #2 starts on Wednesday of this week!  Yahoo!

 Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Summer is HERE!

It is officially Summer!  It is hot an humid here in SA, but I know it will get worse....oh well.

I am going to jump right into some stash enhancements.....I got some Inversibles Yarn from Fibernymph Dye Works....I saw these socks being knit up on Instagram and I had to get some of this yarn.....but when will I ever find time to start them.....I think I really need to go on a yarn diet (gasp, did I just say that?)!

Okay....now I am going to take you back....way back....to the beginning of the year when I made some headbands for a friend (middle of the blog post).....well, she made me 2 yarn bowls!  I got them this week...and I love them.  The detail on them is awesome.  The green and blue one says "Have you any wool?"....I just could not get the full picture of it....I love these bowls....and I am a little scared to use them so I do not break them....but I am going to use them tonight!

Now for the knitting....I really have only knit on 2 things this past week.  My Ardent for Camp Loopy (I am making it bigger than original pattern):

And my Grapes Shrug for a FB KAL I am hostessing...I only have 3 more rows and a bind off...then I need to block it, seam it, and pick up stitches for sleeves.....I cannot wait to finish this!

Well, that is all I have for the knitting....but I have a couple more things to share.  Darlene is back from vacation....you guys all know how she, her hubby and her dog travel the world on their motorcycles for 2 weeks for vacation.....but did you notice I did not complain so much that she was gone?  Do not get me wrong, I missed her like crazy...but I had some vacation days with the ROT Rally and kept busy with other things (and we texted everyday) and I am sooooo glad she is back.  She got me the most awesome Harley shirt....I cannot wait to wear this as soon as I get home from work!  Now, Darlene is not a Harley gal, so I know it is not easy to get me Harley shirts, but I sure do appreciate them.....THANK YOU SO MUCH DARLENE!!!!

I also took Precious to the groomer...I had been procrastinating taking her, and now looking at the before and after pictures, I am mad at myself for taking so long to take her....here are here before and after pics (I promise, it is the same dog!)

Well, that is really all I have....I am going to leave you with a video of Antonio and Celeste playing at a Dairy Queen on our way to see my son this past weekend!  I hope it makes you smile!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!