Another Pair

I finished another pair of socks. The Dream in Color Smooshy pair. I have so much yarn left over that I wish I had used this colorway for a larger project. I don't want another pair of socks, but I might be able to make a small bag out of the rest. For now it just goes back into the stash. I am really looking forward to the Zauerball socks, they are so pretty on the website. Crazy colors!!! I will be re-joining Glenesk this weekend. I bought 24 Season 7 DVD set to keep me company. Happy Knitting!!!

Knitting News

I finished my washcloth and the Duet socks. I went through all of my wips and found four or five swatches and kals that I had completely forgotten about. I frogged all but one of them. I reclaimed those needles and actually sorted and boxed up my circular needle collection. I put all the tips back where they belong and created a neat drawer for stitchmarkers. I highly recommend the book Pints and Purls: Portable Projects for the Sociable Knitter by Karida Collins and Libby Bruce - I want to knit almost everything in it. I got the Knit Picks Deep Sea lace sampler kits in Atoll and Riverstone with the Chinook shawl pattern. I cannot wait to knit those up. I watched Knitting Daily TV Sunday and found the best bag liner hookup www.bagsmith.com. I ordered a bunch of those and the straps. No more iCord for me, I am going to finish off my Sipalu bags at last. I am looking forward to trying the new Zephyr needles from Knit Picks. All I need are the tips, but I will take whatever comes in the set 8-}

I have not been on Ravelry forums in weeks, I have only been updating my projects. I am totally slacking on photos - again. So time consuming to take them, edit them, post them, yawn, and so on and so on. I need to be knitting. I have just a few more days of lollygagging on socks and such before I return to my Glenesk Cardigan. The plan is to finish it before starting Henry VII in September. That means being monogamous in August.

I think that just about catches me up, cheers.

I Love My Family

Wow I just attended the best family reunion ever!!!! It was our second one in St. Paul Minnesota. Exactly 10 years since we held one there before. It was wonderful. I shopped til' I dropped at the Mall of America. The meet and greet was unbelievable, the jazz quartet and my Cousin Libby did some music to die for. The food was yummy. Actually that can be a blanket statement - the food in the Embassy Suites breakfast buffet, Wollys Restaurant and the Bar was all delicious. The food at the picnic was oh so good!!! The kids had us doing Soul Train lines. I missed my cousin Carl and Carlton and Pat. I met tons of new Neals - hi Jessica. It was just FANTASTIC. My poor cousin Darin was mistaken for Justin Timberlake and snatched by some girls from a wedding reception across the hall - must have been the hat ;) I love my family - they make be feel apart of things, warm and loved. I miss them all so much this week. I miss their voices, their laughs, hugs, kisses and their stories. We have these reunions because we are spread all over the world, and I truly wish we were CLOSER geographically. Royce your mugs are on the way, Darryl don't hate me when you get hooked on the Samurai Sudoku puzzles I am sending you. Rest in peace Cousin Verna, we will miss you. I cannot wait to see you all again soon.

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.