YoP again.

Over the next three months, hubby and I are going to be doing some traveling.  I love to travel but always have an issue with how to take my personal items and my knitting on board the plane with me.  Or how to keep both of them together in a car trip without taking up too much room.

Enter a new found shop on Etsy that I am so glad my Facebook knitting group recommended to me.  It is called "Pinkamingo".  This crafty crafter takes old/used suit coats and makes the best bags in the world out of them.  She herself is a knitter and knows just what we want in a bag.  POCKETS!!!!!!!!!!!  This thing is loaded with them, both inside and out.

And spacious?  Just take a look..................................................

That is two skeins of sock yarn in the bottom of the bag.  As you can see, I would have plenty of room to put an entire sweater in there.  There is even an extra large pocket on the side that you can put your pattern, iPad/tablet, a notebook or any other large item.  I have my knitting box in one of the inside pockets and you can not even see it.  It has all my needs for knitting on the go. She has a site on FaceBook called "Pinkamingo" where she has several of her suit bags showing.  If you are interested in any of them all you need to do it go to her etsy shop and let her know that you would like to purchase one and she will put it on etsy for you to buy.  She is so nice and answers her emails promptly.......................like within 15 minutes.  Gotta love that kind of service.

As for projects for my YoP

After my test knit was finished I decided that I was still in a sock mood but didn't want to do the same pattern again so soon.  And since we are getting ready to leave for a trip in the next week I needed a mindless knit to do.  So enter Car Socks.  By Beverly Johnson.  This is not the first pair of these that I have made and it won't be my last.  They are my 'plain vanilla' sock that I go to when I just want to knit and not worry too much about reading a pattern.

The yarn for this is Maizy by Crystal Palace.  I love the feel of it.  It is a corn yarn and when knitted up has a little velvety feel to it.  I wish I had bought more of this when I got the ones I did.  I looked for it online this past week and found out it is discontinued.  Figures.  Always seems to happen to something I fall in love with.  Oh Well, I am sure I will find another non wool sock yarn that I will love soon.

Next on the crafting front........................................................

Another new pattern for me.  This one is Side Button Dog Sweater by Alisha Hansen.  I am using up some old acrylic worsted weight yarn for this one.  I have one little girl dog that LOVES to wear sweaters in the winter time.  Our boy dog HATES them.  So she will get a new sweater this year and she will love this one since it does not have to go over her head.  

Other than that I have not started any new projects.  With the travels coming up I have a feeling socks are going to be my main knitting companion for a while.  But they make GREAT Christmas gifts and I have never had anyone give a pair back.  No matter how badly they were made.

Happy Crafting!

Test knit

I didn't post last week because the only thing I had to blog about was a test knit that I am doing. I am happy to report that we have been given permission from the designer to post about it this week.  So here you go.

The pattern is "Ladder to the Sky Socks".  The designer is one of our YoP participants and is on Ravelry as econnerd.  I have totally enjoyed doing the test knit.  The sock came out a bit smaller than I thought it would so my Grand Daughter has her first pair of hand made socks and she couldn't be more thrilled.

Here she is modeling the first sock.  The second sock is almost done.  I managed to get it to the toe last night and will finish it yet today.

We have all been laughing about these socks going to Josie.  This will be the first non-pink item in her wardrobe.  So we told her she had to go shopping for clothes to match the socks.  

Once the pattern becomes available, I would suggest you take a look at it and seriously consider buying it.  It was a very easy pattern to memorize and I did all of it while watching TV or traveling around to Doctor's offices.

Once these are done I will be starting another pair of them but will increase my needle size by at least one size. I got gauge on these socks but like I said they were way too small for me.  I had wanted them for my DD but that was not to be.

Now, the nicest part of this pattern is.................you could easily make this into a knee sock and not have to worry about making increases and decreases for the calf.

See how nicely ribbed that is all the way?  It has LOTS of stretch so it would do well as a knee sock pattern.

Anyway.................that is all in the crafting area.

On the family front.....................................hubby's Mom and Son came down this past week for a quick visit.  My MIL had not been to our house in about 8-9 years so I was totally stoked about her being here.   It was good to see both of them and we had a very nice (but short) visit.

Hubby went back to his Surgeon this week for his 3 month check up.  He is doing well and has had his lifting restrictions removed and is not able to start working out at the gym again.  He was getting pretty tired of just doing the treadmill.  

My mom and I are going to head out to some outlet stores this afternoon.  I need to find a couple of pair of shoes where the insoles come out.  I have been fitted for orthodics and need shoes to accommodate them.  

Have a great week

Happy Crafting!

Shhhhhhhh

Another week has passed and I really don't have a lot to show for that week.  I will show you that I managed to get 3 dish cloths finished.

These will be given away at Christmas time with a nice bottle of soap to go with them.  It felt good to do a 'quick' project.  But please don't tell anyone that I am doing these for gifts.  It's a secret.  HEEHEE

Then I asked to do a test knit for one of our fellow YoP bloggers.  So I started immediately on that.

This is all I can show you until the test is over.  But I will say that it will go along with my YoP list and I am totally enjoying it.

This is my first test knit.  I have always wanted to try and do one but have been kind of nervous about it.  I keep thinking things like:  What if I can't make the deadline, what if my knitting is not advanced enough, what if I totally mess up the test knit,  What if I........................well you get the picture.  But this time the deadline is set but is not set in stone.  The designer is so sweet and nice and is there to answer any questions and is very concerned with any issues you may be having.  I am blessed to have picked this for my first test knit.

In the family area..........................I am still in a 'boot' for my foot.  I see the Doctor on Tuesday and hopefully I can go back to normal shoes and get back to the gym.  

We have our grand daughter coming over today to have a sleep over since there is not school tomorrow.  She loves having sleepovers at MiMi and Pop Pop's house.  We will treasure these moments as long as we can.  There will come a time when she will not be wanting to spend any time with us old people.  She will be too busy with her friends and social life.  But until that times comes...................................we have SLEEPOVERS!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Crafting!