Lots of Pictures

The first part of my post will be about my YoP with pictures.  The second part of this post will be about my family and life.  So you can choose which part you want to read/skip.  If you want to read both then go for it.  I do have lots of pictures this time since I have been absent for the past 3 weeks.  So buckle up, sit back, and enjoy the show.

This is my new stitch that I have learned recently.  It is the coil stitch in crochet.  My DD asked me to please make her a vest to wear for the Christmas season.  The name of the vest is Rosario.  Of course we have changed up the colors but it is a pretty fast moving piece.  I have finished the back and almost done with the first of the 2 fronts.  

No, this was not on my YoP but that doesn't matter.  I love doing things for my family when they ask.  And DD seldom asks me to do something like this for her.

Here are the finished bedsocks I showed you the last time I posted.  The Panda Cotton is so soft I know the person receiving these will be very pleased.  My only complaint is that the yarn has a great tendency to split so you really have to keep an eye on the knitting.  I wish you could see the pattern better.  Oh Well.....................trust me, it is really nice.

The second wedding ring afghan is on hold until the vest is completed.  I am 3/4 of the way done with it and it will only take a few days to finish it so I still have plenty of time to get it done by Christmas.

The little girl's scarf has not grown much.  But I really do like the yarn.  I am not sure I like the pattern and may frog it and just do it in plain garter stitch so it can be reversible and extra cushy.

DD's scarf did get started.  It is called Wrap Stitch but I knew it as Drop Stitch.  It goes quite quickly so I don't have any fear of not getting it done yet this winter.

I have revised the YoP yet again....................Who knew that a woman could change her mind so many times in less than 6 months!  So  here is the new revised list ( yet again)

Wedding ring afghan (Christmas) Crochet (in process)
Log cabin lapghan (when ever) Knitted  (have the yarn!)
Hexipuff (one a day for as long as it takes) Crochet
Scarf and Mittens for Jenn (Christmas) Knitted (in process)
LaLas prayer shawl (when ever) Knitted ( in process)
Cancer Ribbon Shawl (when ever) Crochet ( in process)
Alpaca/Silk Prayer Shawl (whenever) Crochet (in process)
Scarf for Josie (Have Yarn)

Vest for Jenn (in process)

Lip Balm Cozies (Christmas) (have the yarn)

Stethescope Sweater  (Christmas) (have the yarn)

****Finished******
Hat and Scarf (November gift)  Knitted (finished July 2011)

Hat for Josie (Finished October 2011)

Scarf for Jadin (by October 10th) Knitted  (finished October 2011)
Wedding Ring Afghan (finished in October 2011)

Bedsocks (Christmas) (Finished November 2011)

Bedsocks (Christmas) Crochet or knitted, haven't decided (Finished October 2011!)                

 *****Cancelled*******

Spiderman Blanket (Christmas) Crochet 

SECOND HALF OF POSTING FOLLOWS HERE*****************************

So why have I not blogged in 3 weeks?  Because I do have a life and a very full one at that.  But one of the weeks is because our monitor on our computer died so we had to get another one.  By the time that happened it was too late in the week to post (according to me).  Another week we had a retreat at church all day Saturday and by Sunday we were totally exhausted and I could have cared less if I had even turned on the computer.

So those are the excuses I have.  But I am glad to be back today and I do have some lovely photos to show you of my life the past 3 weeks.

November 20th is the Feast of Christ the King in our Church.  That also happens to be the name of the Parish we belong to. (affectionately know as CTK too).  We were blessed to have the Bishop com and do Mass that day and our Grand Daughter got her picture taken with him.  She was so excited.  

This is Josie and our Pastor, Father Steve.  Notice the crowns they are both wearing?  That is because in the Sacrament of Baptism we are baptized "Priest, Prophet and King".  So on Christ the King Sunday all the children receive a crown to remind them of this.  (gosh my grand daughter is cute!!)

What a great looking bunch of people!  From left to right, Stacie ( my Daugher in law), Kristen (Stacie's sister), Mom (lovingly called GiGi).  This was Thanksgiving day at Josh and Stacie's house.  Notice the great perusal of the ads?  Yup, getting ready for black friday shopping.

That is Josh in the foreground.  Notice how uninterested he is in the ads?  Yup, football is a much higher priority.

Josie didn't care about ads.  She likes my new Vizio Tablet I got.  Had to load a few games on it for her.  Notice the short sleeves on this child?  It was almost 80 that day so plenty warm and with all the cooking that went on it was kind of toasty in the house too.

My DD Jenn spent the night Thanksgiving Eve so Josh and Stacie and Kristen could go out to celebrate J&S 9th wedding anniversary.  She also was there to help Stacie the next morning in the kitchen.  She is so nice like that.

I think we about cleaned out all the serving ware that Stacie owns.  She was crawling in cupboards looking for anything she could find by the time we were almost ready to eat.  Poor dear.  Good thing she is young and flexible.

Stacie sets a beautiful table, doesn't she?  The dinner was absolutely delicious.  None of us left there hungry.

When Stacie yells "dinner" you best come running.  Josie and Gigi have figured that out.  Josh is pretty hip to it too.

So now it is time to start getting our house ready Christmas.  Hubby is out of town this weekend but that will give me time to get stuff cleaned out so we can set up all the decorations.  Today my DD and I are going to my Mom's to get her decorations put up for her.  This has become a tradition for the two of us and it is kind of fun too.  For a reward, my mom has made a batch of chili to feed us.

I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving (for my USA friends).  Thanks again for commenting on my blog.  I truly do appreciate it and have used many of the ideas you have thrown my way.

Happy Crafting.

Update

 Happy November to all of you.  The weather here in the desert of Arizona has finally cooled off.  In fact I am actually wearing a sweatshirt today.  I love this time of year as it makes me want to play with all my fibery goodness daily.  I am not afraid of working on something that will be laying in my lap for days on end.  But before I get back to working on the wedding afghan I really need to get these finished.

I am working on the heel right now.  I almost have one done and then will do the other.  After both heels are done I will put them back on one circular.  Once again I am doing the sweet tomato heel by Cat Bordhi.  Love, Love, Love that technique.  Easy and almost fool proof.

I didn't get as much fiber time in this week as I would have wanted.  Seems like I had something going on every night this week and only one of my evening events was I able to knit during.  Once the socks are finished I will start back on the afghan and the two scarves that I have started.  Oh I truly love this weather.

So what have all of you been up to this past week?  I do want you to know how much I appreciate all of your comments.

Happy Crafting!

YoP update

Another Sunday has arrived.  Where is the time going?  It seems like I just posted my update a few hours ago.  Yet here I am again, posting later than I really wanted to.  But such is life.

I have been very busy this week.  I just went back to work after a wonderful weeks vacation.  So I was plenty busy at the office during the day.  When I came home in the evening I made sure that I had fiber in my hands each and every night except on Wednesday which is a church night for us.  After Church we normally have a nice evening with our friends and there is no fiber involved in that day at all.

So here is what I have been doing this week.

Another Wedding Ring Afghan.  I started this on last Sunday but am limited on when I can work on it since the recipients are at my house quite often.  I really would like to have this be a surprise for a change.

I started this on Monday evening and am really not working very hard on it.  It will be the scarf to match the hat that I finished last week.  But we are still very warm here and the mood to make cold weather items is just not shaking my tree yet.

Another pair of bed socks.  I started these yesterday.  They go so quickly and make me feel so good about my knitting.  Hopefully they will be finished by the coming weekend.  Once again I will do the Sweet Tomato Heel on these.  They are done with Panda Cotton.  It is a cotton/ bamboo blend and very soft and squishy.  I use the magic loop method for all my socks and love it.

Today was a great day for me.  Hubby and I taught RCIA (rite of christian initiation for adults) at church today.  We have been involved with that for the past 9 years. 

After we got home we had lunch and then my Mom and I went to JoAnns where I got a pattern and some flannel material to make night gowns for my grand daughter.  She prefers night gowns over pajamas and we just are not able to find the gowns this year.  They should be a quick sew too.  I have enough material to make 3 gowns.

After that I went to the grocery store to get the few items we will need this week for my lunches and also some fruit to snack on.  Normally hubby goes for me but I decided I wanted to go this time just to take a look around and see what specials they had going.  (the price of food is going up fast too)

Came home after all that to find the hubby cleaning our Traeger Grill and getting ready to throw some steaks on it for dinner.  YUM!!!!!!!

Dinner is over and I have completed my update for the week.  I am so enjoying this YoP.  I get to read other peoples blogs during all of this year.  It makes me so happy to realize there are so many out there working with fiber and loving it as much as I do.  I don't find that many fiber addicts here in the desert of Arizona.  Something about the temps getting over 110 kind of puts a damper on wanting to knit/crochet something warm.

Happy crafting!

YoP with pictures

 

I did not post last week as I was in Las Vegas with my hubby and our best friends.  We celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary there!  Had a great time and since we drove I managed to get quite a bit of fibery goodness taken care of.

Here are a couple of pictures for you.

 Here are the bedsocks I started the day before we left and finished while on the road.  This is using the Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Bordhi.  It is truly the easiest heel I have ever done.  I had the pattern memorized in about 3 rows!  I plan on doing many more socks with this heel.  I do my socks using the magic loop, two at a time, toe up method.  Although when I got to the heel I had to put the socks on separate needles and then put them back on one needle after the heel was done.

This is Josie's hat.  Also done on magic loop.  I don't like to do ribbing on a female hat.  I like the rolled brim.  This is actually the 2nd hat I made for her.  The first one did not cover her ears so gave that to one of my co-workers for her 2 yr old grandchild.  Now I have to do a scarf for Josie too, to complete the ensemble.  But since our temperatures are still in the mid 90's I don't think she is going to need it anytime soon.

Here is my updated list:

Spiderman Blanket (Christmas) Crochet (need the yarn)
wedding ring afghan (Christmas) Crochet (have the yarn)
Log cabin lapghan (when ever) Knitted  (have the yarn!)
Hexipuff (one a day for as long as it takes) Crochet
Scarf and Mittens for Jenn (Christmas) Knitted (in progress)
LaLas prayer shawl (when ever) Knitted ( in progress)
Cancer Ribbon Shawl (when ever) Crochet ( in progress)
Alpaca/Silk Prayer Shawl (hopefully by Christmas and if not oh well) Crochet (in Progress)
Scarf for Josie (Have Yarn)

Bedsocks (Christmas)  (Have Yarn)

****Finished******
Hat and Scarf (November gift)  Knitted (finished July 2011)

Scarf for Jadin (by October 10th) Knitted  (finished October 2011)
Wedding Ring Afghan (finished in October 2011)

Bedsocks (Christmas) Crochet or knitted, haven't decided (Finished October 2011!)                

 Hat for Josie (Finished October 2011)

This is the first time in a very long time I am not actively working on a project.  I think I will start the other Wedding Ring afghan today.  Then I will have most of my Christmas projects done.  I will need to do some more bedsocks but they really don't take that long now that I have the new heel process.

Just so you don't think all I do is knit/crochet:

This is Josie dressed in her Virgin Mary costume for all Saints day.  I made this for her on Friday.  It was a pretty quick sew.  Took about 2-3 hours total with alterations and all.  She was so happy with the outfit.  She can hardly wait to wear it.

Better go and get that afghan started along with the laundry.

Happy Crafting.

Lots of progress!

First off I would like to repost my YoP list.  So here it is.

Spiderman Blanket (Christmas) Crochet (need the yarn)
wedding ring afghan (Christmas) Crochet (need the yarn)
Log cabin lapghan (when ever) Knitted  (have the yarn!)
Bedsocks (Christmas) Crochet or knitted, haven't decided (Have the yarn!)
Hexipuff (one a day for as long as it takes) Crochet
Scarf and Mittens for Jenn (Christmas) Knitted (in progress)
LaLas prayer shawl (when ever) Knitted ( in progress)
Cancer Ribbon Shawl (when ever) Crochet ( in progress)
Alpaca/Silk Prayer Shawl (hopefully by Christmas and if not oh well) Crochet (in Progress)

Hat and Scarf for Josie (in progress)

****Finished******
Hat and Scarf (November gift)  Knitted (finished July 2011)

Scarf for Jadin (by October 10th) Knitted  (finished October 2011)
Wedding Ring Afghan (finished in October 2011)

Another finished project (the afghan) and added a new project to the list (hat and scarf for Josie)

Here are some pictures for you to see where I am at right now.

This is the wedding ring afghan I have finished.  I wish you could see the edging better as it is a cream color with gold metal strands through it.  This will be sent to Texas in the near future.  I have yarn left over and am contemplating making  some pillows to go with it too.  Haven't decided if I want to do that or not yet.  We made pillows when I was down this a couple of months ago and I don't want them to think I don't like the pillows we made because I do.  So will think on that for a while.

This was a pretty quick crochet!  You use 2 strands of worsted weight yarn throughout the whole blanket.  I could have finished it in about a week if I had worked on it only after I got home from work.  But I had other things to finished.  Actually I had it half finished in a weekend so that lets you know how easy it is.  I didn't like the edging that was on the pattern so only did one row of it.  The next one I do I will make up my own edging.

Josie asked me to make her a hat and scarf (ugh).  She picked out some yarn from my stash but it was sock yarn.  As much as I love the child I will not make a scarf out of sock yarn if I want to maintain my sanity.  I am not a lover of scarf making as you all well know.  So I was at Hobby Lobby and they had this baby yarn in the clearance area.  This is what I chose for her and I am really liking the way it patterns itself.  I am in the decreasing part of the hat and will probably have it done by this evening.

Today I am going to be out and about with my mom.  We are going shopping and out to lunch.  So there won't be any knitting/crocheting until later this afternoon/evening.  But that should still give me time to finish the hat and cast on for the scarf.  Seeing that Josie is only 6 the scarf won't have to be all that wide.  I have not chosen a pattern yet but will contemplate that today while I am out and about.

Happy Crafting!

YoP update

Ok, This is unusual for me.  But had I had to do a second update this week.  I looked at my list and updated it a bit.  For one thing........................I did finish the scarf last night and was so excited to get it done and out of my house I didn't take a picture of the finished product!  It was only a bit longer than 4 feet.  I am allergic to wool and this was a wool fiber.  My eyes, nose, throat and hands were driving me nuts by mid afternoon yesterday.  I decided I could not tolerate it anymore and saw that I had 4 feet of scarf and decided the child could cope with that!  So I did the edging and bound off and got it out of my house!

I did look at my YoP list again to decide what I wanted to do next...........Anything that is acrylic yarn at this point!  I am working hard on the wedding ring afghan and am over half way done with that.  So here is what the list looks like now.

Spiderman Blanket (Christmas) Crochet (need the yarn)
2 wedding ring afghans (Christmas) Crochet (one in progress)
Log cabin lapghan (when ever) Knitted  (have the yarn!)
Bedsocks (Christmas) Crochet or knitted, haven't decided (Have the yarn!)
Hexipuff (one a day for as long as it takes) Crochet
Scarf and Mittens for Jenn (Christmas) Knitted (in progress)
LaLas prayer shawl (when ever) Knitted ( in progress)
Cancer Ribbon Shawl (when ever) Crochet ( in progress)
Alpaca/Silk Prayer Shawl (hopefully by Christmas and if not oh well) Crochet (in Progress)

****Finished******
Hat and Scarf (November gift)  Knitted (finished July 2011)

Scarf for Jadin (by October 10th) Knitted  (finished October 2011)

Hopefully I will have the afghan done before too long and then will go hard at something else.

Happy Crafting!

Progress but still going

I have been knitting my fingers off this week trying to get the scarf done.

This is the photo from last week as I have not had time to take a new photo.  But I can tell you that the scarf is now three feet, eight inches long.  I have got to go to at least four feet before I can even start to think about binding off.  I have four days left to work on it.

I timed myself yesterday and I only get two inches per hour done!  That's because the pattern requires a lot of cable work on every four rows.  Also I am using a DK weight yarn so it takes a while for inches to measure out.

So what am I going to do?  I am going to continue working on this during every spare moment I have from today until Wednesday night and what length it is by then is the length it is going to be when I hand if off to my son and his family to take to Texas for its recipient. 

I did not work on anything else this week so there is nothing else to show you.  I know that I will be very pleased when this scarf is done and out of my house.  I have way too many other things on my YoP list that I need to get to and done before Christmas arrives.

Happy Crafting!