Just a thought

I have 'met' so many wonderful people in the blogging world.  My thought was.............If you know you are going to be traveling somewhere and there is one of your bloggers friends there, would you try and contact them to get to meet them in 'real life'?

I have often wondered about this.  I have people on my blog list from all over the world and not that I will be doing international travel in the next few weeks or anything.  But if I did, would they be receptive to meeting me?

I know I would love it if someone whose blog I followed and they followed mine would contact me if they were going to be in my area.

There is a blogger in the Washington State area that I would love to meet (Kim) and I do have family up there that I would really like to go and visit soon.  There are bloggers on the east coast that are close to areas that I love to visit and would love to meet up with them and get to know them better. (Marie, Evelyn)  Is that a kosher thing to do or not?

How do you feel about it?

And for Ruth in Ireland.......................that destination is on my bucket list and I would love to come there just to see your beautiful country sides and enjoy the fresh clean are of the country.  So would it be upsetting to you if I were to try and meet you and really get to know you a bit better?  Don't worry, it will not be for a few years yet.  LOL

Of course if I ever get my wish and go to Canada there is a whole bunch of bloggers up there that I would love to meet up with.  But then there are enough LYS there that I would probably run into about half of them there.

So let me know........................If you were coming to the Phoenix, Arizona area, would you contact me so we could meet up?  And if I were coming to your area would you want to know about it or have me keep it a secret?

Finishes

Well, it is that time when I can honestly say I have completed two projects off my YoP list.  I am so happy about it.  As you all know we took a trip last week and I was taking some of my YoP items to work on while on the 5.5 hour drive.  Turns out I did 90% of the driving so not much got done on the road.  However, after we returned from the trip Hubby and I managed to bring back a nasty bug with us so we were both under the weather for the past week.  That meant that we stayed home a lot and so lots of work got done on the YoP.  So here we go.

First up, the Color Affection Shawl.  This actually got done just before we left on the trip.  I am not really very fond of it so think I might give it away to our prayer shawl ministry at the church.

I do like the colors but don't like the way it fits.  I am a bit old fashioned when it comes to shawl and am not much into the thin ones that are super duper long.  But I am sure there is someone out there that is in need of some comfort from this really really soft shawl.

Next up is the Cancer Ribbon Shawl.  This has been sitting in my project bag for about 3 years and I finally got around to finishing it.  I did take this with me on the trip and did manage to get about an hour of crocheting done on it.  I worked on it continually since Monday and finally finished it Saturday night.

This one is going to the prayer shawl cancer ministry at our church.  They are always in need of shawls to give to people.  I am just glad to have it completed and out of my house.

So last night, after I finished the shawl I cast on the second sock with the Panda Cotton yarn.  I don't want to have second sock syndrome.  I only got about 1/2 inch done on it before I realized I really needed to get some sleep.

I have updated my YoP to reflect where I am at on my list.

Year Of Projects 2012-2013

Use up all cotton yarn for dishcloths 
Complete 3 project bags
Complete LaLa Shawl

Complete Summer Garden Tee

Frilly scarf
2 blooming pillows
Use up 1/2 of sock yarn

Finished items

1 project bag (September 2012)

2/3 of cotton yarn (August 2012)

Complete Comfort Cancer ribbon shawl (October 2012)

Complete Color Affection Shawl (October 2012)

I think the biggest challenge for me is using up 1/2 of the sock yarn.  I know making shawls is the easiest way to do that but they take a looooong time to complete when they are knitted and crocheting with fingering weight yarn is not something I treasure doing either.  I will persevere though and keep on keeping on.

Hubby and I are doing much better and I actually have a voice again today.  We both are still coughing a bit and blowing a bit but nothing like we were last week.  And as for our trip to Las Vegas.......................it was a great time and we enjoyed ourselves.  We visited family while there and gambled (just a bit) (Eyes rolling) and had good food and celebrated our 37 years of wedded bliss with lots of laughter and just being together and having fun.

I want to thank my hubby for taking the pictures of the shawls for me.  Everyone always tells me to take them in natural light.  Did you notice the bright blue skies?  I want you to know that we are hitting 88 degrees F today and will be that way for the rest of the week.  Winter does not come to the desert until around December and January.  And yes, it is still sunny and bright out even during our winters here.

I would like to ask all of you to please remember all those on the east coast who are being affected by Super Storm Sandy.  I have several family members over there and they are hunkering down for the storms to hit.  I pray they will remain safe.

Until later........................

Happy Crafting!

Another Sunday and I am able to post another update.  Not a lot to show for this week but I did finish the first sock even done on DPN's.  I think it turned out really pretty good and I didn't even mind grafting the toe.  In fact it was kind of fun for me.

I have not cast on the second sock as of yet and am not sure I will do it before my road trip this week.  I have so many WIP's that really need to be done that are on my YOP list.  None of them are going to take a large amount of time.  I thought about taking them with me since we will be traveling by car and seeing how many I can get done on the trip up and back.

I have been working on my Color Affection shawl and was hoping to get that done before I left as it is the largest project that I have to finish up.  And by large, I mean in size not amount of work left on it.

I was going through my craft room the other day and discovered a sweater that I had started some time ago.  It is Spring Garden Tee and I took a class on it as I had never done a sweater of any kind before.  All I have left on it is the rest of the body of it and then I am going to do a lace edging on it that is the same as is on the sleeves.  It would be perfect to wear next spring but also right now with the temps in the morning in the 60's and the highs of the day in the upper 80's to lower 90's.  So I am going to add that to my YOP for the year too.

Other than that I have listed everything else that I truly want to accomplish this year.

So what do y'all think I should take on the road trip.  My several WIP's or cast on the socks and take them?

Happy Crafting!

I'm Back

 

I really have great reasons as to why it has been three weeks since my last post.  Want to hear them?

1.  I was in Las Vegas the 20-26 of September for a medical conference.  I did not have access to internet and by the time I got home I was so tired and since it was only a few days away from the next time to post I decided to wait until then.

2. The next Sunday had me going to a baseball game (we lost) with my friends and family and by the time we got home I was dog tired and went to bed.  I could have posted during that week but we put a new program in at work and we were in training for 4 days and I was working up to 10 hours a day learning it.  So by the time I got home I would eat and go to bed.

Both of these reasons will make you understand why my crafting time has been kind of nil for the past couple of weeks.  The only thing I have worked on is my sock since I can take it everywhere with me.

 So this is where I am at on the sock.  I had thought it was going to be really hard to do the heel but found this is much easier than when I do toe up socks.  I did the eye or partridge heel and really enjoyed it.  

Since that is all I have on my blog for this week I decided to comment on the comments I had last time on my post.  I do not know every ones 'real' name so I will use the blog name to answer and comment to all of you that posted.

SAM I AM........ The shawl is being worked on 60" circulars.  And it is still all scrunched up on that.  As for working on DPN for the socks...................I have been making magic loop socks for about 4 years now and this is my first attempt on the DPN.  I do miss having both socks done at the same time but have enjoyed the portability of the one sock at a time.

MIND MY OWN STITCHES........... Thanks for compliment on the shawl.  I really need to take it back out and finish it.  Just with all the traveling and long hours I have not had the desire to take it out.  It is so large now and very cumbersome to take in and out of the project bag.  I am planning in finishing it before the end of the year though.  It has just started to cool off here in the desert so having it lay on my lap is not as big of a deal as it was in July, August and September.

JEN..................Thank you.................I was not sure about the colors when I picked them out.  The dark red really makes it all tie together for me anyway.  I had a color expert tell me once that red is really a neutral color and you can throw it into any color scheme and it works.

NAUGET BUFF...................The sequined yarn is very easy to work with.  Have not had any problems with splitting or with the sequins not 'working' right in the knit.  I have not tried to crochet with it but I don't think there would be a problem there either.  As for your Magic Loop....I never use anything less than 40 and that is doing 2 at a time.  I like the 47 but in the beginning it seems a bit long but when you turn the heels it makes it the easiest length to work with.

KATE...................Thank you!  Knowing that others out there love DPN's is nice to know.  Now I know who to go to when I have an issue with the little buggers.

FAITH................You go girl.  If you really have the desire to do socks on magic loop you will succeed.  Don't be afraid of it.  I found it quite easy to learn and since I didn't have anyone around to show me how I used books and UTube videos to show me how.  The sequin yarn is not the least complicated to work with.  GO FOR IT!

CAROLINE GRANGER.......................A BIG THANK YOU!  You made me smile and made my day.

EMMA.....................Thank you.  I have tons of variegated/self striping/self patterning sock yarn.  I Really want to get it used up as I would rather go to solids so patterning will show up better.

I hope I covered every one's comments from the last post.  If not I apologize.

I will be working overtime again next week but hope to be able to finish up the first sock next week.  I want to start on the second one right away.  I will be leaving town again on the 18th of this month but it is a road trip so the sock will go with me and I can have some uninterrupted knitting time during the drive.

Happy Crafting!