Going Dark

I don't want any of you to think I am not aware of the fact I have not posted for two weeks.  But I am going to go dark for a little while.  All of my YoP's that are being worked on right now are Christmas gifts.Therefore, I can not post any pictures of anything I am working on at this time.  The recipients of the gifts all have access to my blog.

So for the next couple of months this blog will not be a crafting blog but a personal life blog.  I am sorry to disappoint all my lovely fellow crafters.  But that is the only way I can insure surprised people in December.  I will take pictures of my projects, once finished, and post them after Christmas.  So expect a photo filled post around the end of the year.

On to other news.  

Hubby and I went to Vegas for our 38th wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago.  We had a wonderful time.  First up on the trip was lots of car knitting.  It is a 5 hour drive and I managed to knit for most of the way there.  Once there we found the yarn shop I was told to go and visit.

SIN CITY KNITS is a lovely shop.  The folks there were most warm and welcoming.  I found a great skein of yarn and it has 1200 yards of pure fun and loveliness.  I am hoping to turn it into a sweater in the near future.  They even wound it for me and let me tell you...............that was a bear of an operation.  This yarn loves to tangle so I was there to help with the winding of the skein.  Plus, it was so BIG that the winder could not hold all of it so we had to hand wind the last 20 or so yards onto the ball by hand.  It took about 15-20 minutes to get the whole thing completed.

After the yarn shop, we took hubby's mom out and about.  We went grocery shopping, gambling, out for meals, gambling, more shopping, visiting Hubby's dad's grave site, gambling, church, gambling...............well you get the picture.  The drive back was equalling productive for my knitting.

While there we also spent a day with some dear friends and had a most enjoyable time talking, watching football (American style), eating and crafting.  We see them a couple times a year and they are one of the best hosts ever.

Back home and getting back to normal.  It was a bit hectic the first few days back home.  

Our washing machine decided to break just before we left.  The last spin cycle stopped working.  So, hubby and I were standing out in the backyard at 10pm hand wringing out clothes so we could dry them for our trip.  Managed to get the washer fixed the day after we came back.  Then we had to get our swimming pool light repaired and that happened yesterday.  Last night as I sat down to start knitting, my daylight lamp bulb decided that it was done!  There is not a lot of light in our family room and all the items I am working on are of dark colored yarn.  So hubby is on a mission today to get another daylight bulb ordered.  This one only lasted about a year and they are suppose to last for YEARS.  My first bulb lasted at least 6-7 years.  So I was a bit upset that this one died.  Lucky for me we have another daylamp in that room so the switch was on last night, getting it moved to my crafting area.  It is not the same as MY lamp, so the bulbs are not interchangeable.  DRAT!  Plus the extra lamp does not have the craft tray on it that I use to store all my supplies in.  But it will do until the new bulb comes in.

Today is Halloween and we will be heading to my son's house to have a little family get together and watch our youngest grand daughter go through the neighborhood collecting her trick or treat sweets.

So that about sums up the last couple of weeks from sunny Arizona.

Happy Crafting!

Happy Post

I have no clue what week of YoP this is but that is ok.  I don't think many of us are really sure.  But if you know then please leave me a comment so I can get up to date.

I did manage to complete the birthday socks.

They are very soft and I think the recipient will be pleased with them.  Her birthday is tomorrow so they were done in plenty of time.  She loves color so these will be perfect for her.

I started on the mink socks.  It was hard to get a decent gauge though.  They have no stretch to the yarn but once knit they stretch a LOT!  I am on my third needle size and think I have found one I like now.  Doing toe up this time since I only have one skein (50 gr) of this yarn and that way I don't have to worry about running out before I am finished.  These are going to be short bed socks so I am not doing a long leg on them.  They are soft and squishy.  Even more so once knitted than just in the skein.

I told you last week that I had more yarn to show you that enhanced my stash.  Here we have 7 wonderful skeins of Wendy's Happy.  They no longer sell it here in the US so I was quite pleased when I found a company that had some still in stock.  I bought all but 2 skeins of their stock.  This makes some of the softest non-wool socks that I have knitted in years.  Once I finish the mink socks, happy is going to go on my needles.  I figure I will do a couple of more pairs of socks for Christmas gifts this year.  These will make someone smile.  I plan on using some of it for myself though.  I already have made myself one pair out of this yarn and LOVE them.  My mom has the other pair that I have made from it.  She also loves them.

The weather has finally cooled off here, so the Green Bay afghan will be coming out of hiding pretty soon so I can get that completed for Christmas too.  Since it is crocheted, it goes pretty quickly.  In fact, I might just pull it out today, since we are watching Football (American football) and that should inspire me.

We had a nice surprise this week.

Our son, who is in the Navy, came by for a one day visit.  (that's my mom with him)  And he brought an even bigger surprise

Our next to oldest Grand Son.  We had not seen him in over a year.  He has grown into a wonderful young man.  And...........................he gives wonderful hugs too.  That is our youngest grand daughter next to them.  She is a photo hog.  LOL

We got the whole family together for dinner that night.  And for some reason this is the only picture I have of it.  But there are several more people at my house.  Trust me, there was not a seat left to sit on.  It was wonderful to have them here and to see the surprise on everyone's face when they came in to find the Grand Son here.  They knew Navy Boy was coming but not the other.  Our home was filled with Love and Laughter for several hours that evening.  It made my heart sing.

It was hard to see them leave on Friday morning but they needed to get home to the family.  We will see them again next month.  We are heading to their house for Thanksgiving this year.

I think that is all the news from Sunny Arizona.

Happy Crafting!

I love YARN!

I have so much to tell you about.  It has been a great two weeks and there are reasons I didn't post last week.

Hubby and I went to San Diego last weekend (well we went on Thursday the 26th of September) and came home on the 29th.  We went for a Catholic Conference and the conference was awesome.  But on the day we got in we did our sight seeing and had an absolute blast.

First up...........................A little visit to a yarn shop.

This place was amazing.  They were in the middle of their yarn crawl when we got there so the place was busy but the staff was so nice and helpful.  The owner was the one that helped me out.  I had found them on the internet and had a list of yarns that they carried that my LYS didn't. So I was well prepared when I went in.

I talked to the owner, Jane, and she looked at my list of yarns and unfortunately didn't have any of them in stock that were non-wool.  (darn allergies)  But after explaining the reason for the non-wool requests, she was most helpful in finding fiber that suited my needs.

First up.............................................................

This luscious LARGE skein of rayon/metallic fiber from Blue Heron.  The colorway is called Cactus.  It is 550 yards of pure wonder and beauty.  I am hoping to be able to make a mesh top out of it for ME.  I have been looking at patterns and I may have under estimated the amount of yarn I will need to make one.  I really don't want to buy another skein, as it is quite expensive so I may have to settle for something a little less 'large'.  Maybe a tank or something.  I am still looking though and refuse to even wind it until I find the perfect pattern to go with the fiber.  It is a worsted weight and really is soft and squishy.

Then she showed me this...............................................

It is a cotton acrylic blend and so soft I can hardly stand it.  I have enough here to make a sweater for me or anyone else I decide to make one for.

After we left the yarn shop, we went to a lovely little Mexican restaurant across the street from the yarn shop.  The ladies in there recommended it and it was wonderful food.

Next stop.....................................................................

This mission......................sorry about the picture but I have spent the past 30 minutes trying to get it upright.  Any who.....................this was a really neat place too.  It is the first mission in San Diego area.  They were doing excavation on the sight and we got to see some really interesting stuff.

Friday morning we had a few hours before the conference started so we decided to do a bit more sight seeing.  We went to this.............................................

USS Midway.  The last diesel aircraft carrier to be used.  Of course, it is no longer in use.  It was a great way to spend a couple of hours.  But in that time we didn't even cover 1/2 of the ship!  But it was well worth the time spent.  Gave me a new outlook as to how our military (navy/marines) live while out to sea.

This is the view from our hotel room's balcony.  It was so pretty and peaceful.  The weather was perfect the whole time we were there.  Loved the area and would go back again.  Still lots of things I would like to see there.

 See this skein of yarn?  This is very special yarn.  It is 100% mink!  It is a fingering weight yarn.  Guess what is it going to become........................yup, socks.  It is so soft.  I can hardly wait to start working with it.  I guess they harvest minks the same way they do sheep.  Poor little minks....................I have a visual  going on of naked little minks trying to keep warm.  LOL

Love the maker of this yarn...................................Mimi........................that's what my grand kids call me.  

But right now, I am being monogamous again, in my knitting.  I have a birthday that is coming up on the 14th of this month.  So I am busy at work getting her project finished before that day.  After I am done with that, I will be working on Christmas gifts for the next 2.5 months.  But I am still working with my YoP list and things are still being taken off of it as I continue with my crafting.

We have another trip coming up in a couple of weeks.  I have already scoped out a yarn store there too.  My goal is to buy at least one skein of yarn from each place we visit from now on.  Then I will make something for ME out of that yarn to remember my trip by.  Then we have one more trip in November to make and the yarn shop I want to go to there is a bit of a drive away, but I am sure I can convince SOMEONE to take me there.  We will see.

I have more yarn that came in the mail this week, but will save that for my next post.  Don't want to bore all of you too much with my stash.  (Hmmmmm, I was planning on decreasing that stash this year..............hasn't really happened yet)

That's it for this week........................back to my knitting.

Happy Crafting!