A new member of the family

Isn't he adorable.






We welcomed him to our family last night. The kids were thrilled. They've asked for a dog for years, but we vetoed the idea because of my son's and my hubby's asthma.
We reevaluated that decision after visiting and staying with relatives that had a "hypoallergenic" breed. Neither my son or hubby were bothered by their dog.

This led to a lot of internet research on my part to find a breed with the same qualities and to Dash, he's a cavachon (bichon & cavalier mix), so far, no problems with either of the men in my life.

How much is too much?

How much is too much to pay for a pattern?

I bought this book this weekend just to get this pattern.

I want to knit a few of these for my girls in the next few weeks.

Unfortunately, I had to buy the whole book just to get the darn pattern. I couldn't resist, although, I've tried.

How many times has this happened to you?

Well this pattern cost $19.

I guess $19 was not too much.

Testing

I "upgraded" to beta blogger and I wanted to test a few of the features. Just ignore me for now.

Kicking and screaming

I've been dragged, kicking and screaming into the Christmas gift knitting trap. My wonderful hubby on two different occasions, has hinted that he would like to have a knitted scarf. His exact words, "it's a shame with all the knitting that you do, I don't have a nice warm scarf to wear".... said on our way out to our son's soccer game Saturday night in 40+ degree weather. The second comment came when he "fondled" my latest scarf project, knit with malibrigo and mohair, and said, "hmmm this must be my new scarf". NOT....

So, that led me to some stash enhancement where I picked up this beautiful cashmerino yarn, in a nice manly grey/blue This will be his new soft, warm scarf. Pattern from last minute knitted gifts, men's cashmere scarf.


My only problem is I will have to do the stealth knitting, early am, late night and on my lunch hour.

Oh well, he's worth it. I'm actually planning to knit some nice warm mittens to match.

Keep moving

Cause not much going on here. I'm swamped with work and the training of a new employee. As soon as this is done, I should have more time for knitting.
The only thing I've managed to do is knit up about another 4 inches on the cardi and I've done some minor stash enhancement. See not much going on.
Oh, BTW, I signed up for stitches west again this year. I'm taking classes everyday. I'm working on improving the skills. I'm gonna try not to buy much at the market, concentrating on things I can't usually get.

Thankfully, it's Thanksgiving week, which means I'll have 2 potential additional days to knit. This year we're going to my brother's for dinner. I'm debating if I can get away with taking my socks to knit.

More later in the week, maybe a finished cardi...

Toe ups

Not much knitting going on around here. I've been in a reading mood and that takes away from the knitting. The top down cardi and the forest canopy shawl have made minimal progress.
I've spent some time trying to improve my skills lately. I took a toe up sock and short row heels class a few weeks ago from one of the not so LYS's; just in time for the beautiful Sundara sock club package arrival. This month's pattern is a toe up one. Unfortunately, I'm not confident enough, and I don't want to ruin that gorgeous yarn, to cast on for that project. I'm using some hand dyed superwash, from one of the not so local yarn stores, that I bought last month instead for my first attempt. I'm been procrastinating starting these because of the provisional cast on. I found this tutorial and it seems the easiest of them all. Around 9 last night I decided to go for it and I cast on.

I love the colors, and it goes with my sock pouch. These are my lunchtime knitting. We'll see how fast I can knit them up if I knit them exclusively on my lunch hour.


No holiday knitting for me, instead I'm shooting for quite a few finished items off my ever growing list

New arrival

Beautiful!!

A finished object?

NOT, seems I forgot to put the thumb stitches on waste yarn. I kept knitting away, bound off the top, then... Oops. Oh well frogging to commence soon.

Instead of frogging right away, I started the next project on my list.

Avoidance.. Yea sometimes that's a good thing.

More purchases for potential avoidance moments.

A few Wip's

Just a little bit of what I'm working on.
My main project was the cardi, that is, until I went to my son's night soccer game last weekend. Let's just say brrr it was cold, and my fetching handwarmers, just weren't quite enough. So, I cast on for the mittens and a new scarf. This malibrigo, is very soft and warm. Perfect for our "cold", California evenings.

Thanks

for all the warm birthday wishes. I really appreciate it. Some minor stash enhancement occurred...yea I know, but it's for specific projects that will commence as soon as I'm done with my current project. Pictures and a real knitting post later.

It's that day again

Happy birthday... to me, 43 years old today. I'm off for my yearly morning at the spa. Today I'm pampering myself with a salt and hot rocks massage. After, a mini yarn store crawl, then an early dinner out with the family. See ya all later!!

Books books books

So in my effort to control/limit indiscriminate purchasing of yarn (that I will never have time to knit up), I've been increasing my library. Here are a few of my most recent purchases.
I've followed the blog tour of Lisa Kartus, author of knit fix, and I couldn't resist adding it to my references. I've found the answers to many of my problems in this book. I love how she identifies the problem and gives you the fix in simple easy to follow steps. I've used it many times already.

I've decided to knit a few things for my co-worker's baby, starting with some bibs from MDK. I found this pretty baby blanket pattern in this baby book.
I want to make it for her using some of my cotton ease stash, however, although she isn't due until December, the baby shower is next Friday and there is no way I'll be finish in time. I may knit it and gift it on her last day of work, or when she delivers. One of the "perks" with working at a hospital is that you have absolutely no privacy when you deliver. Labor and delivery is just across the hall from my department and we always "visit" before, during and after everyone's birth.

I'm off work today due to a nasty head cold and my nyquil is kicking in now. Off to sleep for a while and later I'll dig out some cotton ease.
***ETA*** Lion brand is bringing cotton ease back with new colors!!

Tomorrow, another birthday for my youngest daughter.

Are you ready for some futbol?

It's that time again. Soccer season has commenced. Both my son and daughter are playing every Sat for the next two months. In preparation, I've started getting my gear ready. Ready for the freezing cold days, while I sit and watch, and hopefully knit. Exhibit number 1... Fetching from knitty. I added an extra cable repeat to cover more of the fingers and I couldn't wrap my brain around the picot bind off, so I did a regular one.

Next up.... maybe some mittens.

Mission accomplished

Happy 20th birthday!!


It was difficult to knit without my eldest daughter's knowledge. I had to do a lot of very late night and early morning knitting. I'd intended to knit during my lunch hour as well, but I had so many last minute lunch meetings that made that goal impossible. However, I did it, she was surprised and she loved it.

Gift knitting is very stressful, I don't know how you all do it. Although, I'm contemplating doing some baby gift knitting for a co-worker.

Birthday wishes

We've entered the family birthday season. It began yesterday with the first. We celebrated our daughter's 19th birthday. Now every 2 weeks for the next 6 there will be a birthday in the house. Here she is with her best buddies before we went out to dinner yesterday.

This has spurred me to finish long ago request. My other daughter requested a scarf last winter/spring. Unfortunately, I haven't got around to it. Well her birthday is next and I thought I'd surprise her with this.

I've been working on it when she's not around so she won't see it until she opens the gift. That has meant a lot of late night, early morning and knitting at work to complete it on time. Wish me luck.

Out of the mouths of babes

Why don't you stop reading about knitting and knit...Per my 13 year old daughter.
We spent the day Saturday reorganizing the stash. I've been thinking that my stash was getting a lil out of hand. I had various stash hiding places around the place. Some was in a bedroom dresser drawer, the garage, a hall closet and the patio room. I decided to take the time to go through it all and catalogue it. This is it all on the patio floor. Much more than I realized. Here are some of the highlights.

The whole enchilada:
Cottonease:

Koigu:
Lorna Laces:
Various Sock yarns:

I plan to post some of it at the destashing blog later in the week.
One of the things I realized is I have two various buying habits.
1. I buy for specific projects. Once I see a project that I like, I'm obsessed with the thought of buying the yarn/pattern etc until I buy it.
2. Impulse buying, if I hear of a yarn sale, of the perfect yarn that everyone is coveting, I have to buy some just in case. The first habit I can live with, the second I realized turns out to be most of the yarn I plan to sell.

So, what have I learned? No more impulse buying without a specific project in mind.
Now you didn't think I'd say that I was going on a yarn diet. That would be absurd. :)

Despite my best efforts.....

Some minor stashing occurred this week. I happened to drive by a not so local yarn store Wed and I couldn't resist the urge to stop. I picked up a few treats for a couple of patterns that I've had my eyes on. I love the colors in the Katia Jamaica. I'm very close to some finished objects, so now I'm at that point of trying to determine what to knit next.

**Update** My son and mother in law are doing great. There were no lasting side effects from the accident. Thanks for all of the kind words.

Mom........... Everyone's ok

Not exactly what you expect to hear when you receive a call on your cell phone from your 19 year old daughter. However, those were the words she said to me when she called to tell me that my mother in law and my son were in a car accident yesterday. After a deep sigh of relief and my heart rate calmed down, I proceeded to ask ok what happen. This is when it temporarily got worse. Apparently, my MIL car was hit by a car from out of nowhere ..... Her car proceeded to spin, a couple of times, deploying both air bags, finally stopped facing the wrong way on a major local street. Both were taken to the hospital via ambulance and observed for many hours. Thank God, both were only banged up and bruised, but essentially ok. My daughter, who was not with them at the time, happened to call my MIL just after the accident occurred. She immediately drove to the scene and made the call to let me know what happened.
It just so happens, I was nearby with another daughter, and was able to get to the hospital quickly.

Today I stayed home from work to keep a close eye on both of them, they are indeed fine. I've spent most of the morning counting my blessings and thanking God for airbags. Without them, the outcome would not have been good. Oh and the car.... It's totaled, but who cares it's replaceable. My family isn't.

All I want to do is knit.......

But, I don't. Actually there is a reason. I've been working my butt to the bone,if only that were true, but I have been working 12 + hrs 3-4 days a week. I can't seem to catch up since my vacation and I'm actually doing the job of 2. The good thing is that relief is in sight. My manager is hiring another case manager, ASAP. We hope to have good candidates so the job will be filled quickly. My thoughts are 1 month till hired, then I'll train her for 1 month, then my life will be mine again.
I've been working sporadically on the camisole but not on my socks at all. I also cast on for a longer term project, the bias wrap shawl from the new valley yarns co. I'm in no hurry to finish it, especially due to our warm weather.
Some minor.... ummm a little stash enhancement occurred recently. I couldn't resist some knit picks main line when it was on sale. The colors are very pretty. One day, month or year it will become a cardigan.
I getting the urge to do a major stash reorganization soon. There are some things I know I'll never use and I plan to get rid of it. I'm not sure if I'll sale it or swap. More on that to come in the next few weeks.

Before and after

Camisole top before:

After:

I've been slowly knitting this top this week, all the while thinking something wasn't right. I couldn't put my finger on it, my gauge was on, but I had too much length for where I was in the pattern. I kept reading the pattern trying to figure out what went wrong. Finally this morning, I read the increase instructions and realized I'd knit 2 additional rows between each increase row. No wonder I had so many inches. Once I tried it on my suspicions were confirmed. I also realized it was going to be a little larger than I'd hoped. This whole ease thing is still confusing to me. So I spent a few minutes ripping out my work and telling myself that knitting is not a race. I'm not in competition with all of the great knitters in blogland. The goal is to get a finished product that I'm proud of, proud to wear, not to be the first or the fastest. I think if I focus on this, I'll be more satisfied with my progress.
I'll cast on one size smaller later today. I'm off to see monster house with the kids.
Have a great weekend everyone!!

We're back

Safe and sound, after some scary moments, which included: a fire at 2 in the morning, a hurricane, and loss of power. Because of these events, we were only able to visit 2 of the 3 scheduled ports. It was a little disappointing, but overall we had a great time. This was the first cruise the hubby and I took our kids, so it was very different from our usual relaxed vacation.
Due to the additional time at sea, I was able to get some knitting done. One calla Lilly sock is almost done, and I'm to the armholes on the camisole.

I have another week of vacation so I plan to work on these exclusively.

Cruise by blogging

Ok!! Quick cruise update.
We are supposed to be in Cabo San Lucas right now, but...We are trying to outrun a Hurricane and our ship has just lost power!!!
yikes

More later.... where's my life jacket.

Cruising!

We are off to cruise the Mexican Riviera. Be back in a week. Making the trip: petals, ballet camisole and peaches and cream cotton for MDK dishcloths.

See ya
Shar

Well, I couldn't resist, I casted on for the ballet camisole with my new knit pick needles.

First the needles, one word, sharp. I didn't realize how much I push the tip of the needles while I knit. Definitely the sharpest needles I've used. But, I love them. They feel just like Addis with a thinner, more flexible cord. The join is smooth and seamless. I'm sure they will be my number one needles. The only thing I'd change would be to be able to join the cords to expand the length when you want to try on your garments.

I'm preparing my knit bag for our cruise. I'm trying be realistic and limit what I bring. As of today I'll bring the camisole, petals sock and the shawl. We'll see what actually makes it into the suitcase.

Now off to work for me.

Enhancement

Major enhancement occurred this weekend, no not my boobs; yarn, needles and patterns. I think I'm out of my knitting blahs. I've noticed when I'm not into knitting, I'm not into stashing either. But the feelings, the love is back. I made a trip to my new favorite yarn store, Unraveled, and picked up this On-line clip mercerized cotton, grey cotton classic, and four skeins of Koigu.
The On-line is for the new ballet camisole from Magknits, cotton classic will become CeCe and the Koigu is for shawl.



I picked up these patterns and trekking sock yarn from my local yarn store. I have the yarn in my stash for the sweaters. I plan to knit these once the weather cools down.

I also received the knit pick needles on Saturday. I plan to test them out on the camisole. They look and feel great and the cord is very thin and flexible.

I'm off to work. I decided not to take today off because I'm off for a 2 week vacation as of Friday.

Ole' Soleil!!

She's done.
When I first began knitting last year and I discovered the wonderful world of knit blogs, one of the first garments that drew my eye was Soleil. Initially I was so intimidated by the thought of knitting a garment, a garment with lace, a garment that I hoped would fit. As I mentioned previously, this yarn was the first real yarn I bought from a real yarn store, when I had no idea what I was buying, how much to buy, or what I would use it for.
All I can say is I love it and I will make another one soon. I bought the yarn for it already. More online Egyptian mercerized cotton in a lovely green colorway. I loved knitting with it and I love how the blocked version feels and fits. So here's the crappy mirror shot.

Modifications: I added another row of lace. When I make it again,I'll decrease more on the straps. They are a little wider than I'd like but overall, I'm happy.

Mail call

Yesterday I arrived home to discover a package at my doorstep. I thought my new knit pick needles had arrived. But when I opened it, I was surprised and overwhelmed by the well put together items. This is the first month of Sundara's sock yarn club, the petals collection. This month I present calla Lilly. It's absolutely gorgeous. These are going with me on my vacation next week. We are going on a 7 day cruise in a week and I was struggling with what to take to knit.




Yes, in the background that is Soleil blocking. Finally finished.

There's a new needle in town

and I have to have them. While perusing blogs this morning, I stopped by Bron's blog. She mentions the new knit pick's options needles that have hit blogland. Of course I have to take a look. Now I must admit, I own just about every needle out there. I have my Denise's, Addi's in every size 24 length, boye's,clover bamboo's, and a couple of crystal palace bamboo. I don't have any inox or ebony needles, only because I haven't been able to find them. Basically, I don't need any more. But since when does need and knitting go together. After I write this post, I will order those needles and maybe some yarn while I'm at it.
On the knitting front, Soleil is progressing, I've divided the front and will finish the back this morning. If all goes well, I should have a finished object soon. Then off to the next big project. A cotton ease log cabin quilt

Happy birthday to ...

My son, he's 12 years old. He's definitely growing up. This is the first year that he did not ask for video games for his birthday. On this years list was clothes. Basically, Basketball shorts, jerseys and a pair of Jordon basketball shoes.
All to match his remoldeled bedroom.

Oh... what are his favorite colors... One guess.

And she's off

To high school
I had a long post that I'm too tired to recreate now, maybe tomorrow.

First dance

Dress $58.00
Nails(hands and feet) $40.00
Hair $75.00

The end result






PRICELESS