Yoo-Hoo! Is there anyone out there?

I guess it's too much to hope that there's anyone out there reading my blog anymore. I have shamefully neglected posting. (However, according to Site Meter, there's still some people out there who haven't totally given up on me) There's no good excuse- I've been busy, but I'm usually busy! Well, this one will be one doozy of a long post. Maybe it will raise my standing in the knit blog community. Never fear, however, I've gotten lots of knitting done and taken lots of great pics.



I don't really know where to begin, since I' ve missed blogging on so many subjects. First of all, though-here's the meme that my good buddy Karen in NC sent me:


Four jobs I have had:
1. Sales Clerk at the old Units Stores (HeHe)
2. Secretary for Alpha Insurance Agent
3. Unit Secretary/ Nurse Tech while I was in nursing school
4. Manager/Supervisor for the Birth Place-- gack, don't miss it a bit!
Four places I have lived:
1. Forest Park, Ga (when I was born)
2. San Antonio, TX
3. Alamogordo, NM
4. McDonough, Ga
Four Favorite Foods:
1. Sushi
2. Steak & Shake Chili Mac
3. York Peppermint Patties
4. Yellow Cake with Chocolate Icing
Four Places I Would Rather Be:
1. Orange Beach, AL
2. Disney World
3. Snow mobiling in Montana, Wyoming, etc.
4. Truth be told, I'm at home right now, and it's really one of the best places to be!
So, Melissa, Brittany, Ramon, Karen, and Lily, tag you're it!


Secondly, Melissa and I got to go hear the Yarn Harlot at Knitch!!! She was great- I wish I could tape her talk and play it when other people look at me like I'm crazy for wanting to knit all the time! If you've ever seen her, you'll know what I'm talking about. It was amazing seeing 700+ people in one building who all love to knit. The whole evening rocked.

As far as knitting goes, I have started and finished one of my Hogwarts Sock Pal's socks and then ripped back the whole thing again. I just didn't like the look and should have went with my gut instinct at the beginning. Don't worry though, Lily, I'll be done by Halloween!! This is after starting 2 other different patterns and one other type of yarn. I finally decided on ArtYarns Ultra Merino. Isn't it funny that one of my pet peeves in life is when people are wishy washy, and yet with knittingI seem to be the worst!

Anywho, I've started working again on my horseshoe lace scarf, my classy slip up socks (using Claudia Hand Painted Yarn-delicious!), and another Hedgehog for a very important girl (more to come on this one) and a blanket for Nick using Crystal Palace's Bunny Hop yarn in the Faded Jeans colorway ( it was supposed to me for my nephew, but I ended up making him the Debbie Bliss Raglan sweater. There'll be pics of the blanket and the Hedgehog when there's more to photograph). Speaking of said baby sweater, it ended up being adorable, but I forgot to take a picture of it before I presented it to the baby's mommy. Never fear, my sister-in-law is supposed to email me the picture I took with their camera.



Here' s your Friday Eye Candy- the beach is from when Steve and I went to the condo back at the end of August (it was a great trip-like a second honeymoon), and the others are just neighborhoods around my house this morning. I really love the dirt road with the sun coming down through the trees.









We've got a busy weekend planned-a powderpuff football game tonight, Nick going to a friend's house, tennis lessons, golf in the morning.... on and on and on! Here I go jumping into it with both feet!
Happy Friday.

PS-Brittany-I finally posted!

6 degrees from Draco Malfoy

For those of you who aren't Harry Potter fans and read my blog, bear with me. For the sock swap I'm in, there's a contest that I have to pick 1 of 3 different characters in the book and link them to Draco Malfoy by 6 degrees (you know, the Muggle game "Six degrees from Kevin Bacon") and then post it on my blog. Here goes:
The Dursleys
1. Petunia is the sister of Lily
2. Lily married James Potter
3. James Potter is the best friend of Sirius Black
4. Sirius Black is the cousin of Nymphodora
5. Nymphodora is the niece of Narcissa Malfoy
6. Narcissa Malfoy is the mother of Draco Malfoy

I did it!!!!

Also, Makenzie and I went to the Grand Opening of the American Girl store in Atlanta yesterday. Talk about a zoo!! We were lucky since we had reservations to the Bistro and could walk right in, but even still the wait in line to pay for your merchandise was about an hour and a half! The people who didn't have reservations had to wait in a huge, long line that stretched through the mall and out the door and around the building. I also heard some of the employees say that they were in no way prepared for the mass of people who showed up. HELLO!!! Do they not have a marketing department (which I know they do, because they send me mucho amounts of catalogs and flyers in the mail in an effort to spend all of the money we've earned or ever will earn!) to prepare them for this? It's the only freakin' AG store in the whole southeastern corner of the country! Anyway, I have to admit the food was great (we had the fresh fruit and the roasted vegetable quiche), the Bistro staff was stupendous and all the staff of the store itself were friendly and helpful even in the line of fire of the mass of humanity that surrounded them. But to AG corporate office: You could stand to do a little more research before opening your Dallas store!

Enough venting, too much makes me a bitter person! Hope ya'll have a great Sunday. Sorry no pictures, next time O.K. darlins? (can you tell I've been reading Paula Deen's new biography?)

Football, Anyone?

Why, you ask, is a picture of a vine at the beginning of this post? Well, it's the only flippin' thing outside that doesn't look dry and crunchy. (It's my Confederate Jasmine vine, and I guess being a vine, drought just can't kill it).

I'm so ready for this heat to cease and desist. I know that it's supposed to be hot in Georgia in August, but for the love of all things holy, does it have to be THIS hot? All I can say is that I'm glad I'm not 1. homeless 2. someone who has to work outdoors for a living. 3. any outdoor living creature (squirrels, bunnies, birds and the like) or 4. a roofer (I know I mentioned people who work outdoors, but to me roofers are in a category of their own, unless you count people who have to pour new asphalt roads).

I'm ready for college football-GO my beloved Tennessee Vols!, chili, fires in the fireplace or the outdoor chiminea (take your pick), and warm, cozy, hand knitted woolen sweaters and socks!! The one good thing about knitting in the summer is socks. They're not something that covers your lap and they're usually light weight. Which is good because I want to get my Hogwart's pal's socks finished. Well, I'd have to actually be finished with at least the first one to even contemplate being any where near finished, but it sounds impressive when I write it down. I had made pretty good progress, and was well down into the leg of the first one when I realized that I had made a BIG mistake in following the pattern, so it was off to frogging that I went. Pray for me, please.

Me and the dear husband are off the beach next weekend for a long weekend, so we'll see if I can make some major progress. Unless my toes in the sand and a drink in my hand prohibit me from some productive knitting (productive being the key word in that sentence).

Here's a pic of the uptown boot socks finished and on my feet( I couldn't leave them on long, cause they're a gift for a very, very special person. I really, really had intentions of making the socks for me, but since I like them so much, I want this special person to have them. I'll let you know how the recipient likes them once I can give them to her).

I really love that pattern and can't wait to try it again. I got some new Claudia's Handpainted sock yarn last week, and I may use that, or maybe not. I'm kind of ready for a plain vanilla sock, with no fancy pattern. More to come on that.

I'm off.... Steve became my personal trainer starting this past Monday, so I'd better get dinner ready before the sadistic, hateful, man comes home to torture me some more. Anyway, I felt that way about him last night and this morning when the soreness was at it's worst. Now, not so much.

Be productive knitters, or whatever you are.. crocheter, sewer, decorator, etc.

Ravelry, Socks, and School

It's been a busy week since I last posted. But a lot has happened. I finally got my Ravelry invite, I got my yarn in the mail for my Hogwarts sock swap and started on the socks, and the kids have started back to school. Oh, and I also made my stitch markers for my pal. I've also been pretty sick, but I'm feeling better this week. Plus on top of all that, Steve ended up working about 70 hours last week and I was pretty lonely. I know, I know, cry me a river.

First off, Ravelry rocks! It's so cool to be able to network with other knitters, organize your stash, among many other neat things that Ravelry can do. I haven't been able to really start using it much, but I have looked around and at least started my sign-on. I'm hoping this week will be a better one for getting up and running with it.

Warning-if your name is Lily and you're my sock pal-STOP READING!

I decided to use Lorna's Laces yarn in the color Pioneer for the HW's swap. Since my pal's in Ravenclaw, this yarn has all the colors (according to the book, the colors are blue and brown, and the movie shows it blue and silver). It's a variegated with blue, brown, bronze, and silver all together. I'm using the Waving Lace pattern from Interweave's Favorite Socks book and it's turning out really beautiful.

I absolutely love that book (Favorite Socks). The Uptown Boot socks from the book are turning out great-I wanted to have them finished last week, but with the health issues I had, it just wasn't happening. I have to say that the Artyarn's Ultramerino I'm using for them is the best sock yarn I've used so far. It is so easy to knit with and it feels so luxurious, too. The Raglan Baby Sweater is almost done as well, I just need to finish the second sleeve and sew it up. With the kids in school this week, I really hope to wrap up the sweater and the uptown socks. I want to start working on my pal's socks and nothing else so I can have them done early. The deadline is October 31st, but I don't want Lily to have to wait until the end and wonder if she's ever getting her goodies.

I absolutely can't stand to post without pictures, so here's the kids leaving for the 1st day of school this morning. Can you tell Nick's absolutely thrilled (sarcasm!)? He seemed fine none the less, when I left him and Mak. Makenzie, however, couldn't wait.

Here's a picture of the sunrise this morning. The haze is horrible and it's a code red smog alert day- I'm so glad I don't have respiratory problems!

The sun looked really pretty coming in the windows, though. I guess that's the silver lining for that smog cloud!

Better get busy, then I'm off to have me a cafe mocha, so-Ciao! Have a great knitting week!

Finally making some progress

Doesn't it seem like the mail takes forever when you're waiting for something you ordered? If it's bills, they come faster than you can say "all out of money". If you're waiting on some yummy yarn, well, it feels like I'm 5 years old again and waiting for Christmas when it's still only April. I'm waiting right now on my sock yarn to come for my Hogwarts Sock Swap 2 pal (Nick keeps checking the mail, too-his LL Bean book bag should arrive any day now.No mail for Makenzie, she wanted a Vera Bradley-so we hit the Phancy Pheasant yesterday. My dear husband was not thrilled when he saw the price tag!). I can't wait to get started. My pal's a Ravenclaw and from the emails we've exchanged, I've got a GREAT pal.

In the meantime, though, I'm almost done with my Debbie Bliss raglan sweater and the second uptown boot sock. We're going to the pool in just a few so I'll start on the sleeves of the raglan sweater while I'm there. I hope I can knock those out by tonight. I had set a deadline of August 1st for the completion of my socks and the sweater and as of today I don't think it's an unreasonable deadline. We'll see as the next week comes and goes however.

We're getting ready for back to school and I have to say I'm dreading it. This has been such a great summer with the kids. We've had such a fun, lazy two months; just going to the movies, the pool, playing games (our most recent favorite is Scene-It, the Harry Potter edition), and just hanging out. I'm going to miss them dreadfully. But they're excited and hopefully it will be a great year.

By the way, the Harry Potter book was great. I'm sad it's over, but I'm one of those people who read their favorite books over and over again-I'll be fine. I finished it Monday after we had gotten our out-of-town company on the road on Sunday. It was sooo hard not to be antisocial and curl up with my book and shut out the rest of the world. Don't worry, I managed to be a good little hostess and hold off until they left. Makenzie finished Monday too. That girl can read really fast for a ten-year-old!!! She loved it too.

Here's the eye candy for the week. It's a sunrise shot I took on the way to work Saturday. I happened to have my camera with me and managed to get a shot while driving and managed to not wreck as well!

We're off to the pool-have a great rest of the week.

Harry Potter Sock Swap Two and other stuff

As I said in my last post, I'm joining the Harry Potter Sock Swap Two (notice the link and some shameless plugging I'm doing for the swap-if you're interested, visit the link. It's going to be a lot of fun for everyone! Sign ups started July 14th and it looks like they're filling up quickly, so hurry if you're interested.) Here's the questions that I have to answer in order to take part in the swap:

Hogwarts Sock Swap Questionnaire

1. What Hogwarts house have you been sorted into?

Gryffindor (YEA! Go,Go, Gryffindor!)

2. Shoe size?

5 1/2 to 6

3. Foot Length?

9 inches

4. Foot Circumference?

8 inches, let me know if you have any questions about the other diameters

5. List your three favorite double-point needle brands, including size and length.
a. Lantern Moon
b. Crystal Palace
c. Brittany

*all brands in size 3 or 4. I usually use a 7 inch, but sad to say, I have some delicious Lantern Moon sox stix in a 5 inch that I have yet to use. Any wood or bamboo brand works for me!

6. Would you like to try a new brand needle? If so, which brand? Size? Length?

Blue Sky Surina Wood Sock needles (they only come in 5 inches I think) and a size 4 would be great. Also would be interested in trying the Knit picks.

7. If you are a RAVENCLAW, do you prefer the colors in the film or the book? Do you have a strong preference?

N/A

8. Allergies? Do you have any? Will your knitting be exposed to smoke or animals?

I don't have any allergies unless you count penicillin. No one in the house smokes and we do have a kitty.

9. Are you an international participant (outside US)? Are you willing to have an international Hogwarts Sock Pal?

I live in the good ol' U S of A, but I definitely would not mind having an international sock pal.

Also, my camera has been more at the ready this week compared to last. The crepe myrtles are blooming great and the front porch ferns are doing so good I had to take a picture. Oh, and Nicholas wanted some Harry Potter glasses to go with his wand. Cute, huh?

P.S. I guess being that this is a knitting blog (or relatively so) I should mention that I'm finally working on my second uptown boot sock and making good progress on the Raglan sweater. Hope to see you all at Hogwarts soon!

I'm still here!

I'm still here folks. It's been a very busy previous two weeks. Week before last, Makenzie went to Camp H2O at the Georgia Aquarium and we also had 3 birthday parties . Two of them were in Fayetteville, about a 45 minute drive from our house (Happy Birthday Tammy and Brock!) and then the other was the Steve's (Happy Birthday, honey) party at our house. What with getting ready for his party, being gone every night that week, and then some serious yard work and redecorating the house, I only managed to work on my uptown boot socks and nothing else. Then this week I agreed to fill in for my manager at the hospital (I used to be the supervisor over L&D and mother-baby). Let's just say that when I stayed until 1:00 in the morning this a.m.(after getting there at 8:00 in the a.m.yesterday) I was beat down like a dog. And the rest of the week was no better-the new computer fetal monitoring system went down, the air conditioner broke for the whole hospital, and we were way out numbered in the nurse to patient ratio. I'm probably looking at about 50 hours of work this week, and it has throw my part-time self into a major tail spin. Anyone who's ever worked anywhere near a birth unit in July knows that there are better times of the year to be a nurse. So suffice it to say that there has been absolutely NO time for knitting. I 'm trying to tell myself, "suck it up cupcake, it could be worse", as the kids will tell you is our family motto. The one blessing was that my dad and step mom were able to keep the kids for a greater part of the week so that I didn't have to worry about them not having good care-what a blessing to have such great parents in my life. Still, Steve and I missed them both horribly and I don't think that we can go more than about a day or so without having them with us. It's nice to be home tonight, our happy little family in the nest. There's nothing like good Chinese food on a Friday night with some new knitting started. The new knitting is a sweater for my nephew. The Baby Albert coat just didn't feel right for me, I don't know if it was the yarn or what, so I started the Debbie Bliss Raglan baby sweater using Lion Brand's cotton ease. I love this yarn. I know that some knitters out there hate cotton, but I love the feel of it in every way, from how it is on the needles to the finished product. Hopefully I'll have some pictures of it to post next time.

Well, I'm off to join the Hogwarts sock swap II that starts today. (Most of this was drafted on Friday night with this last paragraph started on Sat morning. I was too tired to finish) -As yet another example of how bad the week has been, I haven't even been able to see The Order of the Phoenix, and that is highly unlike me, but I digress. Hopefully today will be a good one-the kids are having a "Harry Potter Fan Club party" for a couple of their friends, I'm going to join the sock swap, and we're going to see OofTP tonight. All that and knitting too, what a lucky girl I am!!!

P.S. I never got to post my 4th of July pics-here's one I liked a lot

It's Gone!

For some reason, I haven't felt like knitting much lately. I don't know if it's the heat or what, but I'm not finishing near the amount of projects that I thought I would this summer. It's not that I haven't finished anything- the Miss Dashwood #2 is complete, as is the Operation Fuzzy Toes sock. It's just that it seems like it's taking me forever to finish my uptown boot socks (or anything else I work on). I'm not really sure why, because I love the pattern and I love the yarn. I just can't get up to my usual speed. I'll read about someone knitting, see someone knitting, or read about something having to do with knitting, and I can't wait to pick my stuff back up and start knitting away. But once I'm actually there, my mojo is gone. I guess I shouldn't be too worried that my love for knitting is gone (as shouldn't my dear husband after all the money I've spent on yarn, needles, etc)- I still love even the idea of knitting, but productivity and I don't seem to have a meeting of the minds now days. As Scarlett O'Hara said, tomorrow is another day, and maybe tomorrow will be my day.

I'm off to comfort my baby girl-the turtle just died-Dang the store at the beach-we buy the turtles, frogs, hermit crabs and the like, and they never make it more than a few weeks. Now, I have a crying girl on my hands who thinks that it's her fault the turtle died (this time she really did do a good job taking care of the turtle..we won't talk about the previous hermit crabs and frogs)- when it's really the fault of the those evil stores who sell children futility in a cage!

It's Christmas in June!

I just found out about the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair in October!!!! I dug this up when I was surfing the web. I had really given up being able to visit one of these without having to hop on a plane. But TADA! look what's in my neck of the woods this fall! (Or least just a few hours away by car). Is it just me, or are there not any (or very few) opportunities for knitters in the Georgia area? (I just wish that there was a local knitter's guild that didn't require a 1 hour commute) When I go on Lion Brand and check their listings for knitting, fiber, etc events in my area-nada. When I Google fiber fairs, etc in Georgia-nada. Maybe I haven't been checking hard enough, or maybe my Google skills just aren't what they could be, who knows? But I am definitely planning on attending this! Any takers????

Now that I've shouted my joyous news, I better go get baking. My step-dad's family are in town from Cali, and they're making homemade enchiladas for all of us for dinner. I'm talking everything-from-scratch, take- all-day, so-good-you'll-slap-your-mama enchiladas. Therefore, I'm making a hummingbird cake and some black-bean salsa (thanks Ramon for the recipe) just so that I'll feel like I'm even a little bit worthy for this great meal we're having.

But before that, I'm meeting my dad somewhere today so that he can give me the the chili rellenos he and my step mom picked up on their RV trip out west. YUM!! Do you see at least 5 extra pounds on my family's horizon?

Here's the family on father's day morning. I think they liked the waffles and pancakes, huh?

Click your heels together three times......

Whew! It's nice to be home. There's nothing like a good vacation, but there's also nothing like coming home. I changed my ring tone on my phone to Michael Buble's song "Home" just in anticipation. We did have a great time though. The beach was absolutely beautiful, the Gulf of Mexico looked just like the Caribbean. I have never seen so many shades of blue and green in the water. At the shore the water was so clear, you could see straight to the bottom. It was great for snorkeling. We also visited the local state park and I got some really

good eye candy. (The cutie pie in the top right is my niece- I thought it was a really cool picture, not that you can appreciate how cute she is, though!)

I was able to get some knitting done, but definitely not as much as I thought I would. Usually, I would have completed the operation Fuzzy Toes sock, the Miss Dashwood hat, and at least started on my second Uptown Boot sock. I'm not usually a slow knitter, but it just seemed like I couldn't concentrate while sitting by the ocean. I guess the heat made it hard to keep my mind on my patterns. Also, my evil anal retentive side would not let the slightly sloppy picked up stitches along the heel flap on my uptown book sock remain, so I had to frog it and start my heel flap and heel turn over. As far as the hat and the sock, all I have to do on the baby hat is sew on the ties and the ear flaps and I just need to sew the toe together on the fuzzy toes sock. I'm ready to get both of these done so that I can really get to work on my Klaralund sweater. My friend Tammy also wants me to make her a booga bag when I get the time. So I'll guess I'll be making booga bag number 3.

Hope everyone has a great Father's Day. I'm going to make linguine with white clam sauce for the man of the house. I'll let you know how it turns out. (However, he shouldn't be hungry after the huge breakfast of bacon, chocolate chip pancakes and blueberry waffles that he had, though). Adios mis amigos que tejen. (translation: Goodbye my friends who knit.-my brother is bilingual and he spoke a lot of Spanish this week at the beach, can you tell?)

Vacation Here I Come!

Finally, school's out. You would think that it would be easier on the mom when the kids are in school, not out. NOPE. When school's in, there are at least 46 million things to remember-did you include the money for the field trip, make cookies for a class party, make 2 lunches EVERY SINGLE DAY before 7:00 am- I could go on and on lamenting my sad fate but I'll spare you the monotonous details. Anyway now that school's out, I can sleep late (at least on the days I'm not working, and I love sleep more than a good glass of wine), go to the pool, knit, knit some more, and just generally not get all stressed out with the details that type A people like me get freaked out about. And with school being out comes-VACATION!!! We're going to the Gulf for a little more than a week with my parents and my brother and his family. So, being the cliche queen that I am-Let the good times roll. Oh wait, that isn't a cliche, but a Cars song-I know, I know, I'm dating myself. I once heard somewhere that using cliches a lot is a sign of inferior intelligence. I prefer to think that I've read a lot of good books and remember quotes well, kind of like being good in English class?

Today's the first day that I can enjoy just being home with the little ones, since I had to work Monday and yesterday (that means getting to work at 6:45 in the morning and playing with the stork-I'm a L&D nurse and no it's not always a happy job-trust me, sometimes we have more whackjobs than a meth lab). So without the 48 million school details to attend to, that means more knitting. Hopefully the operation fuzzytoes sock will be finished today. I turned the heel last night and it's working up really quickly.

Also, my Miss Dashwood hat is going better than the first one. I really love the yarn I'm using. It's Crystal Palace's Bunnyhop. This is the first time I've used it and it feels great. I also got some recently to make my nephew a blanket. This stuff rocks!! It doesn't split and it feels heavenly.

Is there anyone out there who's making the uptown boot sock from Favorite Socks? I'm having the best time making these. The pattern really isn't hard, just enough knit stitch in the round to be easy, but cabling every fourth row to keep you interested. I've seen lots of people making the embossed leaves socks, but no uptown boot socks. Let me know.

Well, off to get ready for the beach and finish my sock. Here's some summer pics for you

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Happy Memorial Day

Welcome to Smoke-lanta!! We woke up yesterday and I thought that we had been transported to LA-Los Angeles, not Lower Alabama. All the smoke from the wildfires in south Georgia and Florida manages to take a journey north with the weather fronts and makes it hard to appreciate the beautiful spring weather we're having (if you don't include the drought). If it's like this where I am, I can only imagine how bad it is for those poor people in the southern area of the state and Florida. I hope that they, and us, can get the much needed rain soon.

Well, hopefully this will be a good day for some knitting, either at the movies or by the pool (it that dang smoke would cease and desist). I have several projects I HAVE to get done. One of course is the aforementioned operation fuzzytoes sock, the second is the "refuses to meet gauge once knitted" Miss Dashwood hat-it's still a really cute hat even though it makes me want to cuss a blue streak. Also, I need to get a Baby Albert sweater done for a friend at work who just had her baby-the said child was born two weeks ago, but heck, it's Atlanta and as long as I make the sweater in the 9-12 months size the said child won't need it until December anyway! (I know when my kiddies were small, there was nothing better than going through the closet to find something to wear for the continually growing child and finding some HUGE sweater, shirt, pants, etc. that someone had given me at a baby shower that I knew my sweet, small delicate baby child would NEVER be able to fit into- and realize it finally fits!!!!)



I guess that the newly purchased, delicious Rowan summer tweed yarn, in a color that exactly matches my green eyes, by the way, will not be able to be knit up for a while into a sweater for me. Does anyone know any KPA (knitter's projects anonymous) groups in my area?

On a more serious note-I hope we all remember the veterans and active troops today. It's because of them that we get to go to the pool, visit the LYS, go to the movies, go to the cookouts (or smokeouts) and all the other myriad daily pleasures that we take for granted in this free country in which we live. If you want to show your support, go to Operation Home Front. There are other sites out there, but I like this one best. There's a lot of knitting that can be done to support our guys and girls overseas!

Have a great Memorial Day.....

Operation Fuzzy Toes

How do you like the title? Me and my good buddy Melissa are going to knit a pair of socks for a girl at our work who's having a hard time in her personal life lately. And this girl has got the sweetest Christian spirit you could ever hope to have and the best disposition around so she definitely deserves some hand knit socks! We had both been wanting to do something for her. I was thinking prayer shawls and the like, but Melissa thought about knitting a pair of socks for her with each of us knitting a sock. I thought that was a great idea, as socks to me are the ultimate comfort gift. You have to treat hand knit socks with care, they are always the most comfortable of all socks, and are very close and intimate-- just like a good friendship. Besides the fact on a practical note, we won't end up with the dreaded second-sock-syndrome. I think the title of our undertaking is great, too. Don't hand knit socks just give you the warm fuzzies????? We're using some Moda-Dea cartwheel yarn. We both completed our swatches today and we're going to compare tomorrow. I can't wait to get started on this project!

On other notes, my wonderful husband and myself had a great day. We were both off for the day, so we decided to head over to Virginia Highlands and have a great early lunch-we went to a restaurant called Murphy's which is a local legend kind of place whose shrimp salad sandwich is to die for! Also, conveniently, my favorite yarn shop, Knitch, is right around the corner. I know that you're asking yourself, did have a hidden agenda when I suggested eating at Murphy's. YES. Can I help it if my darling husband was all for hopping over to Va. Highlands to eat? That's what I thought!!!!!-and Steve was able to get a new golf glove while we were out, so he benefited from the outing too. I was able to pick up the Debbie Bliss book "Junior Knits ", some new Lantern Moon needles, and the Lantern Moon Basket/bag with the drawstring top. I have been wanting that bag for a long time now, but every time I visited the yarn shop I ended buying so much yarn that I didn't feel like I should by the bag. Today, however, I didn't buy any yarn (no, I'm not high on crack-I just have so much great yarn waiting for me on all my projects I couldn't justify buying any more. However, a knitter can never do without some good Lantern Moons to replace the aluminum ones she has-I do however now regret not buying any yarn if it makes you feel better about me as a knitter), so it was a perfect time to buy the bag. And once I got home, Makenzie and Nick were both able to pick out sweater patterns in the Debbie Bliss book that they liked for me to knit for them this fall. Mak picked out the Cassie pattern and Nick picked out the Woody pattern. Maybe I'll get those done by December? We'll see!

Here's some eye candy for this post. It's the view from our condo in Orange Beach, AL. I took the picture last New Year's eve and it's one of my utmost favorites. Hope you enjoy.

May your knitting be memorable and your contributions great this week!

Miss Dashwood is getting the best of me!!!

Well, I'm making my second Miss Dashwood hat from Knitty and it seems yet again it's going to be too big for the intended recipient ( a 5 month old baby girl cousin with the hat made in the 3-6 mos size). I made the first one from some cheaper yarn I had got at Hobby Lobby just for a run through and hey, if it ended up looking great then it could be the actual hat I would give to said recipient. I even whipped out my hand-dandy WPI tool just to compare the Hobby Lobby yarn with my treasured Debbie Bliss. And yes, before everyone out there asks did I make a gauge swatch, yes I DID!!!! Anyway, because the pattern calls for P4 thru the back and some other such nonsense to make the bobbles I didn't want to use any of my sumptuous Debbie Bliss cashmerino just to mess up. I had never tried bobbles before and SURPRISE! SURPRISE! (can everyone out there hear Gomer Pyle?) the bobbles weren't my trouble... but the ever lovin', for all that's holy freakin' gauge. ( I even rechecked the gauge during the knitting it.) The hat ended up being big enough to fit my 7 year old son. Now, I know most of you are asking how did I get a pink, frilly hat on my super cool, Heely-wearing, total boyish boy? Well, I had to sneak up behind him and pop it on his head, just to make sure that I wasn't delusional in thinking that the thing would fit a wee 5 month old head. I wasn't delusional, sigh. And my Nick-knack will be probably be looking over his shoulder for his crazy, but not delusional, mom for awhile to come.
Anywho, I'm determined to make this hat for said infant. It is the cutest hat!!! But this time I'm using Crystal Palace's Bunny Hop yarn which is a smaller gauge yarn ( I guess I'm saving my Debbie Bliss yarn for all of posterity, when I probably should use it and shazam! the gauge would probably magically come full circle) I'm also using a smaller gauge needle as well. Has anyone out there had good luck with their Miss Dashwood? Let me know.

Well here's some eye candy I took with my favorite Christmas present ever. The DH got me a Canon Powershot S3 IS. I just love this picture. Hope you all enjoy and Happy Thursday!

A really great Mom's Day

Well, it was a great mother's day. There's nothing like waking up to breakfast in bed served by the hubby and kids. Also, my sweet baby girl went out to the yard and got honeysuckle blooms to spread across the tray that they brought the breakfast in on. That girl is sooo creative! Nick (my little one) was so sweet. Since he's seven, he's at the age where it's getting to be "not cool" to let your mom hug and kiss on you, but he came up at breakfast and gave me a big ol' smack and told me I was the world's coolest mom. You can't get any better than that, can you?

I also got 4 skeins of yarn and a gift card to B&N. You just can't get any gifts better than that unless it's a gift card to your LYS for more yarn.

It was really warm here in Hotlanta on Mother's day, so we trekked on over to my mom's pool for a little swimming and wishing mom a super mother's day. It was really too hot to lay out, but too cold in the water. However, I did got some cute pics of the kids.

I was able to finish my mom's Booga Bag yesterday and felt it just in time for mother's day. I made it in Noro Kureyon's color #183. She really loved it. I've made one for myself too, but I felted the crap out of it and it's wayyyyy tooo small. That's what I get for not being careful like I usually am and checking the felting every so often in the wash. I'll guess I'll have to pass it down to glamour girl (my daughter). It's just her size.

I just started making some socks using Artyarns Ultramerino in a beautiful blue color. I'd been looking (it seems like everywhere) for a good solid color in sock yarn to start the Uptown Boot socks in the Favorite Socks book by Interweave (is it just me or does all sock yarn have to be variegated these days?). Once I found it, I knew that it was the right color. The cables are coming along great and they're fun to make. It's my first time doing any cable work, except for just trying out a cable on a swatch, but there's really nothing too it.... says the knitter of only about a year. We'll see how happy I am when I start turning the heel, making the gussets, etc! Anyway, I guess I better go start dinner-bourbon marinated salmon, yum! We've got the kids choir program tonight at church and it's already been a long day after field day at the school!! Happy knitting everyone.....

I have a Blog!!!!

My blog is here!! After reading all the great knitting blogs out there, I finally broke down and created my own. I guess it's a Mother's Day gift to me.

Please visit and reply often, I can't wait to hear from you. Happy Mother's Day!