Hot Fun in the Summertime

OH MY DoG it's actually hot in San Francisco. My goodness, where did all this sunshine come from? The blessing is it will probably be foggy tomorrow. I finished two socks, not a pair mind you. I finished one Duet sock and one Smooshy sock. I want to cast on my Zauberball socks for the family reunion trip so I am trying to get these two pair done. What ever happened to. . . (pick anything from the WIP list in the sidebar 8-} )? Well since the Sea Socks cruise, seeing Louise and Lee's socks I have wanted to knit some more of my own gorgeous yarn stash. So I have two pair on the go and will cast on a third pair as soon as these needles are free. Oh yeah and the baby socks I knit to go with the BSJ went so fast it was like a sock tease. I have also volunteered to knit another Forest Canopy Shawl for the annual Arkansas Picnic in San Jose Auction. They are trying to raise money to keep the picnic going, so Mom has graciously given me (the yarn I had already absconded) her Cruise Planner skein of yarn to knit a shawl. Neither of us like/wear pink so it was going to be a knitted gift for someone. Now it will be a contribution to a worthy cause. I love knitting the FCS it goes so quickly. I made flip cards of the 8 row repeat and I know how to block them with the perfect peaks now.

I need to finish the last 16 rows of the body of the Glenesk Cardigan so I can start the armholes. I don't want to take all of the colors with me to Minnesota, but it would be the perfect project for that trip. Hmmm, I will have to give that some thought.

Beautiful Yarns and Tools

I had stopped photographing and adding to my stash in Ravelry. But I have some yarns that must be seen to be appreciated. I also bought new tools that are interesting and pretty to look at too.
Yarns From Germany:
Wollmeise True Love


Wollmeise Orient

Wollmeise Okzident

Wollmeise Blue Bell

Crazy Zauberball U-Boat
Crazy Zauberball Tropical Fish


Yarn From Alaska:
Qiviuk in Natural

Yarn Spun in Taiwan:
Panda Silk in Butterscotch

Yarn Form Peru:
Swish Worsted Allspice
Swish Bulky Adobo
Merino Style Fedora
Swish DK Grain Heather

Tools:
Lang Yarns Circular Sock Needles
Signature Arts Spiral Tipped Needles
Kollage Circular Square Needles

Birthday Swag

Rock A Bye Baby

I finished the Baby Surprise Jacket in Bernat Softee Baby. The solid colorway is Mint the variegated colorway is Rock A Bye Baby. I tried desperately to crochet the Courtside Booties from Crochet Today! - NO JOY. So I whipped up some baby socks instead. I love this yarn, so soft.

Vacation

My birthday sucked since we had to spend all day traveling to Baltimore - because US Airways sold our reservation to United which changed our flight to 4 hours later than originally scheduled. I did not get to have a decent meal, only lousy overpriced airport food for my 50th birthday.

We did not get to see any of Baltimore, but I highly recommend the Country Inn. The breakfast was wonderful and shuttle drivers were superb. We are now RCCL Platinum Members so we got in the VERY short line for checking in on the ship. My poor Mother brought her expired passport. Thank goodness Arkansas issued her a credit card style birth certificate. The cruise line accepted that.

Our cabin was amazing. It had a 7 foot couch in it. Very spacious. There was a fruit tray and champagne from the travel agent. Our dinner table mates were really lovely people. They were knitters who were there for the sea socks cruise - Louise, Renee, Lee and Leo, and their traveling companions. The prolific lace designer MMario aka Leo was among them. He presented us with a one-of-a-kind exclusive lace shawl pattern called Grandeur of the Seas. I cannot wait to cast on.

The cruise was relaxing and the food was delicious. Our waiters Ricky and Jorge took good care of us. The ports of call are not any that I would want to revisit but it was nice seeing Baltimore, Halifax, St. John, Bar Harbor, and Boston at least once. Very old, historical and pretty. Not sure when our next cruise will be but we have selected a ship - The Oasis of the Seas.

Mom enjoyed her birthday onboard. Leo presented her with a rose at dinner. Our cabin steward Antonio made her two swans and set them face to face forming a heart. He sprinkled rose petals around them and a bottle of wine and Happy Birthday placard was on the bed.

I finished the Aguona bag, it just needs to be blocked. I added 82 more rows to the Wollmeise Candle Flame Scarf. There was a cute little shop in Bar Harbor called Bees. I bought red and gold Plymouth Encore yarn for a SF 49ers Baby Surprise Jacket, some light mint colored bamboo yarn for 1/2 price $3.00 per ball and some Peaches and Cream cotton for a washcloth. I bought a Reynolds pattern book full of patterns, and two lace shawl patterns. I don't have the names handy - more on those later.

I have 4 rows left to knit on the Bernat Softee Baby Surprise Jacket I am working on, so it will be ready for the shower next Tuesday. I still have to knit the Converse Booties. I am going to cast on the 49ers BSJ even though I don't think I will be able to finish it for Tuesday. I will give it to Jorge and Maria Renee after the baby comes. They are buying a house 7 minutes away from us in Antioch - YAY!!!!

FIRED

I am firing everybody. Before we even got home from the Cruise we found out that the doggy sitters had lost the pooch. Yes, my precious child ended up in the dog pound for several days. We received a letter that they were going to put him to sleep in a couple of weeks if we did not claim him. There were four messages on the machine about him. So without a doubt the dog sitters are fired.

The house sitter is fired too. If she was checking the house as promised she would have gotten the message about the missing child. Also, when I got to the front door when we got home the door was UNLOCKED. I have no idea how many days our house was left unprotected.

The mail man ignored our hold mail request and the mail box was crammed full. I figure with the state of the economy he'll be getting fired soon anyway so I'll skip him.

The Ship arrived into Baltimore late and we did not get to get off until almost 11 am. We missed our flight home. So they are also fired. US Airways had sold our reservation to United, who we had fired years ago - so US Airways is also being fired.

I guess that's everyone.

Miss Allaneous

EZ Baby Surprise Jacket for baby Aragon. precious




Third Sipalu Bag. I am extremely happy with how the plastic canvas lining worked out. The double knit strap works well also. I knit it lengthwise because knitting garter stitch across 20 or 30 stitches makes me itch - I dislike turning the work so often.




Duet Deep Blue Sea Socks. Dusted off the old 2x2 rib skills.


The Cruise Planner, very nice goodie bags and yarn. There was great water bottle too but I have taken it to work already. I need to bring it home for our trip.


Rayon Boucle, beautiful nasty yarn

BSJ, Socks and More

I cast on a pair of Duet Socks in the Deep Sea colorway and the yarn is so beautiful. I would love a hat in these colors. I swatched for the Baby Surprise Jacket in Bernat Softee Baby and got gauge, 6 stitches to the inch so I cast that on as well. I am looking forward to all of this straight knitting. I am rotating between the wash cloth, BSJ, socks and Glenesk. I am not going to cast on the 4th Sipalu bag until I get back from vacation.

Auf Wiedersehen

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye. I received my last Wollemeise sock club shipment yesterday. OMG the blue colorway is fabulous. Love it, Love it, Love it. I did not join any swaps, clubs or exchanges this year. I signed up for the Mystic Air KAL, but not to actually knit-along, just to make sure I have all of the Mystic patterns. I have signed up for the Henry VIII KAL which starts in September, so I will have company while knitting that kit.

I have more yarn than I can ever possibly crochet or knit and more patterns printed, saved, disced and queued than I will every possibly get around to. SO I said to myself - enough. Lets start working on some of these kits and things. Of course, obsessing over lace and fair isle knitting has slowed things down a bit. Since both of those methods are extremely time consuming, they make FOs few and far between. I don't even have a pair of socks on the needles. I do have some baby knitting to do, and since those items are small I may cast on a pair of socks also. I have one more Sipalu bag to do, the Warm alternate colorway charts.