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!