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.