Spring is here!!!

Well, spring has sprung in good 'ol Wisconsin! I'm so happy. We've been spending lots of time on our patio that is brand spanking new. We had a playgroup yesterday. Moms and kids had a great time so I know this will be a wonderful summer!

I will confess, I still haven't done anything with my Sock Club stuff. I just can't get into it. The February kit didn't contain yarn I got excited about. The April kit has GORGEOUS yarn, but the pattern doesn't float my boat. I'm looking at my wonderful binder with 2 of 6 fantastic patterns and yarn wondering if I screwed myself out of $210 since I haven't gotten into the knitting yet. Only time will tell. maybe I can do a piecemeal scarf in December to celebrate the 2007 Rockin' Sock club!!

I have been knitting, like a fool though! 3 projects on the needles at once!! Not at all like me.

First the wedding garter is finished. It didn't turn out exactly like I planned. I thought Fixation would be more stretchy. I'll have to basically sew her into the garter, so it doesn't slip. I have some wonderful blown glass beads to add this weekend and a charm I found that I think will really add to the whole thing!

Pattern: Ruffled Wedding Garter

Yarn: Cascade Fixation in White

Needles: Size 4 dpns

Other: glass beads, organza ribbon, jewelry charms

Next it's a Cotton Kimono for a new little addition to a friend's family. I can't put too much b/c she'll figure it out. It's a wonderful Lion Brand pattern and with some Patagonia Cotton from my stash it really took off. First, what a wonderful yarn to knit with. I'm in heaven using this yarn. I still have a tie and a sleeve to go, but it knitted up in a weekend. Not too much trouble at all. I did cotton since they live in hot weather, so anything except cotton would have made the baby sweat!! I should be finished this weekend! Seriously this yarn totally rocks!!!

Finally, another friend is having a baby and I'm doing a teddy bear!! It's from Simply Baby by Debbie Bliss. I'm using some Oatmeal Wool-Ease from stash too. I'm so proud. I need to make room for the STR yarn!!! It's my first attempt at toys so it's interesting. There are a few new techniques I'm learning because of the different shaping requirements. The pattern is easy, but I have to read things a few times to really get a good sense of it.

So far I have one side of the body done and I just started the head! I can't wait until it's done!!

Finally a FO!!!

WOOHOOO!!! I'm so excited to actually finish something for the first time in FOREVER!!!

Kelly's purse is finished and delivered! She really seems to like it and that gives me all the warm fuzzies in the world! I really do enjoy knitting for others. I like having it for myself, but the smile and the sparkle in someone's eyes really just makes knitting my "thing".

The bag is adorable. I highly recommend it for a quick gift. MIL is getting one. She loved Kelly's, but wants a black or dark brown. I think I'll do dark brown b/c it'll look great with the bamboo handles!

Pattern: Knitpicks Chunky Cable Purse

Needles: Size 13 16' circulars (Addi Turbos of course!!)

Yarn: Dale of Norway Hubro

Others: Silver snaps and handle hinges, 9x9x3 canvas bag for lining, bamboo handles

No changes to pattern!

I have been working and about 90% finished with the wedding garter. The bride is about my size and it's to freakin' big!! I must swatch differently than I knit. It the only want to explain why my swatches are to gauge and most of my knitting isn't. I'm having a HUGE problem with my sock o' the month from February for just that reason. It's driving me CRAZY!!

Speaking of Socks that Rock . . . it's SSSSSLLLLLOOOWWWW going for me. I've been working on it (not everyday, but enough) and I'm still only on the foot of the FIRST sock! I'll be knitting with my 2007 kits well into 2009!!!!

A sock on vacation!!

We're back from Key West! I have to highly recommend Sunset Key Cottages by Westin for your next family vacation!! Private island, family fun, full kitchen, 1-2-3 bedroom cottages. It was like heaven on earth. R took care of S the ENITRE time and I just had to sit back and enjoy knitting!!

I started my 1st Rockin' Sock Club sock, so I'm a bit out of the loop on our knitting rings! YIKES. Anyway, I got plenty of strange looks as I wrestled a porcupine at the pool everyday. No one asked about my knitting. I think they were scared of it all!! Luckily, I hadn't started the cabling yet! Can you imagine 6 needles going at warp speed?????

Here is the sock's vacation picture. It is on a pool lounge chair enjoy the sun:

I headed to Michael's today with S before his art class to get the supplies to finish Kelly's bag. It's been almost a month since it was completed on the knitting side of things, so I've just been lazy. I found everything but the canvas bag insert. Guess I'll hit JoAnn's tomorrow!! UGH! I just want to finish this thing!!

So on the needles I have a felted bag, Kelly's purse, the socks and waiting to be casted on is the wedding garter. I now have a month and 3 days to get that done! The Cascade Fixation is SO hard to get out of the center pull, I think I'll have to wind it on my own. The garter should only take a few days. I'll try to finish that at SnB this week!

Long time no post

It's been a LOOOONNNNGGGG time since I posted. Lots of stuff has been going on including trips, weddings, nice spring days and other things!!

I wanted to let you guys know that I'm still around!

I haven't picked up my sticks in a few weeks so the Felted Bucket Bag and the Cabled Bag are still sitting in my knitting bag. Kelly's birthday is Thursday so the Cabled Bag MUST get finished. I honestly have completed the knitting, it's the other stuff I don't want to do (sewing!!!)

My cousin-in-law's wedding is in 6 weeks, I MUST get her garter done. I've been bragging about doing it since she got engaged!!! So it's a little bit of a must!!

I haven't even begun my Rockin' Sock Club February socks yet. The yarn is still in a hank!! YIKES!!! I'm quite unmotivated lately. I'll take L's at Knots in a Row phrasing and I'll say I've lost my mojo!! Not a good thing when knitting is your peace of mind. Maybe I'm just going crazy!!!

Book Meme

Okay, got this from L at Knots in a Row . I normally don't do this stuff, but I figured at least once a year is okay right??

Look at the list of (100) books below.
Bold the ones you’ve read.
Italicize the ones you want to read.
Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.
Movies don’t count.
1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell
)5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien
)6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25 . Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie(Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand
)34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver) Got only 1/2 way and couldn't do any more!!!
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

I have to say that 99% of everything marked is the result of my high schooling!!! I went to an all-girl's Catholic high-school that really focused on summer reading and a bunch of books during the school year too!! Not many have been read after college though!!!

Rockin' Sock Club 2007

I'm SO excited to be a member of the Rockin' Sock Club for 2007. I just got my shipment on Wednesday and I couldn't be happier!!! It looks so like it's going to be so much fun. I can't wait to start. I have 2 bag projects that need to get finished prior to the socks so I need to speed things up. I can tell you that the socks will be on our Keys trip next month! They will be my project on the beach! I can't wait!!!!

Thanks to L at Knots in a Row for setting up the Blog Ring for Rockin' Sock Club members!! She's a rockin' lady!!! Of course, I know this b/c she is one of the bestest friends EVER!!!

Long time no post

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I posted!! Bad knitter!! To tell you the truth, I've just be down about the weather, had company, and dealing with a 2 year old who has given up naps!!! It's all just toooooo much !!!!! =)

Well, S is through with naps for good and doesn't like me on the computer. R thinks I'm a freak for having a blog about knitting so I don't ever blog when he's home. That leaves little time for my poor little blog. Today we have our housekeeper here and S is all over her. Nothing like a little cleaning and babysitting for $20 an hour!!!

The only new thing I've have been up to is the Felted Bucket Bag that I started a few weeks ago. L got me the yarn and pattern for my birthday and it's going really well so far. I even bought more yarn in the same purple family to increase the stripes on it!! I can't wait to see what it's like when I'm done. I'm using 13s on this one b/c the 11s the pattern calls for makes a tight fabric and I'm not sure it would felt right. The 13s look like it'll be a great size and just perfect for felting.

Other than that I started a blanket for a friend that is expecting. I won't give out too much info b/c I think she reads this blog. I'm use Bernat Baby Boucle and Baby Bubbles held together on 15s. I'm using a basic dishcloth pattern. I think it's turning out great! I hope she likes it.

If you remember my S'nB group was going to dye yarn for our February gathering. I volunteered my house so I had to test the yarn prior to having 3 other people dye at my house!! I used some sock yarn from knitpicks. I figured if I screwed anything up, I'd only be out a few $$$$!!!

Here are some pics of after the dye, the mircrowave cooking and the final product!!

Finally, we dyed the yarn. It was fun and easy. I think everyone's turned out beautifully. We even had a non-knitter who thinks we're all crazy here. She did admit finally that the yarn looked great! The Kool-Aid is so easy to use and the colors are SO vibrant!!!! Here are some pictures from that night!