YoP

Here I am.  Back at the blogging and still dark.  But I do have news!

I finished one of the Christmas items yesterday!  I am so excited.  It turned out lovely and everyone that has seen it (other than the person that it is for) has loved it.

Tonight I have the second Christmas project that is over half done, sitting out and ready to be attacked when I get home from work/gym.  Hopefully that one will be done before the end of this week.  Then I have one more 'secret' item to complete for the 'big' day.  The last item will take a bit of time to complete but I still should be able to have it done in plenty of time before Christmas.

I am itching to start on sweaters and more socks but have promised myself that I will NOT cast on anything else until the last two projects are done and stored in a hiding place until 12/25/13.  I do have a sweater on the needles that I started a few months back and that just might be the next item I will complete.  

As for stash busting.........................................Not happening.  I purchased 5 more skeins of Cascade ultra pima this week and will turn those into a sweater for myself too.  So I have purchased over 10 skeins of yarn in the past two months.  I just hope I live long enough to use it all up.  LOL

As for news from the family front..  My mom had a stomach virus that knocked her off her feet for a couple of days, but she is much better now. 

My Daughter was laid off from her job on Friday.  She is searching for a new one that pays enough for her to meet her needs.  I am sure something will come along for her soon.  She has a very positive outlook right now so that is a big plus.  Nor to mention several leads from family and friends.  As long as she stays positive I think she will have a job in no time. 

Hubby and I are both doing well.  We had a busy week last week.  We were only home a couple nights out of the whole week.  On Friday night, we both were in bed by 9!  Had to kind of laugh because, that is the night we normally stay up until at least midnight.  It is the time where we watch all the shows we have DVR'd and I get a lot of crafting done.  Not so much this week. And the weekend was filled up too with me helping my mom on Saturday and on Sunday we taught our adult catechism class all morning.  After that it was time to eat lunch and then get some groceries.  THEN........................crafting time.

Happy Crafting!

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!

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!