Well, it has been almost 2 weeks since I posted.  Life has been busy, and I also noticed that nobody really reads my blog, so it is kind of hard to stay motivated....I hope one day, I have lots of readers....until then, I will keep posting.

So, I went to NY for a training class, and while I know that would have been a perfect time to veture out and see new things, I went to the conference during the day and to my hotel room at night to knit (and order room service).  I did see the Good Morning America show going on down in time square from my hotel room, that was pretty cool.  Here is a picture:

 

Then, guess who had a birthday?  Yup.....my grandson Antonio!  Paige wanted to make a homemade cake every year (from scratch), so she did a practice cake, and then another cake for her party.  Tonight, we are going to my parent's house for Anotnio's birthday dinner!

 

 

On the knitting side of things.....I had a friend that wanted to make a thick and bulky cabled blanket, so I wanted to surprise her with one....so I knit this up in 4 days.....I love it.  I think I will be making quite a few more.  This one is on size 19 needles, and my next one will be on size 50 needles.  This one is only 4 skeins, so I need to find more of this yarn and make this one longer.

 

 

This was a really quick knit, and I love the way it turned out.

 

Happy Thursday everyone!!!!

 

Happy I Love Yarn Day to everyone!!!

I wanted to say Happy I Love Yarn Day to everyone....  I also wanted to show you the finished Saroyan that I finished on Wednesday.  I started this the Saturday evening of the Yarn Crawl.  I really love the colors.  I have not blocked it yet.  I am going on a business trip to NY this Sunday and I think I will wear it to the big apple!  I just need to block it first.

 

 

 

 

Happy Friday everyone!!!!

Are you ready to hear about Yarn Crawl Fun?  I went with my crazy knitting friend Darlene.  Darlene and I knit almost every day at lunch....we always have so much fun together!!!

We left work a touch early on Friday and went to Yarnivore....this is where I bought a wonderful skein of Madeline Tosh sock in a BRIGHT PINK....no worries, this is not for me....it is for Paige's best friend (her name is Bizzle and she is the greatest best friend to my daughter ever!).  So, when you see pics of my haul, you will see the pink and I know it is completely out of character for me...that is why.  Here, Tammy gave us a tape measure and snips as our gift.

Saturday I was at Darlene's house to get her at 7:30 am.....off to the Lucky Ewe....there I got two skeins of the Rozetti ruffle yarn in gorgeous autumn colors and it was called Caravan (this yarn was later the gift at Nan's Needleworks).  There are dark burnt orange...pretty much brown with black and deep burgundy....these are gorgeous together!  Lucky Ewe had an abacus (sp?) for a gift....then off to The Knitting Nest...here is where Darlene spotted the Saroyan pattern all knitted up.  So what did we do?  we bought yarn for it and ended up casting on that evening for it.  My yarn is Malabrigo in Loro Barranquero...which is again a brown, burgundy, yellowish, rustish color combination...it is in the bottom right corner of the picture.....just gorgeous.  I also got a couple of cable needles, and saftey pins and stitch holders here.  Knitting Nest had a skein of yarn with a pattern to a jar cover as the gift.....I got dark green.  Now to HCW, where Darlene was pretty overwhelmed.  We spent over our budget from just the sock section.  I got two skeins of Dream in Color Smooshy in "Gold Experience"...it has a tint of a burnt orange in it...but more goldy brown (still in my color array).  Along with one skein of Jitterbug (Darlene's almost new favorite yarn) in "Pharaoh"...this is blues with greens with golds and reds and browns....but with the gold main color yarn and the pharaoh as the contrast, I am going to make the Lazy Girl shawl that a friend of mine made a while back and Darlene and I fell in love with....I cannot wait to make this.  HCW had a full skein of CoBaSi (by haiko) as their gift....Darlene and I got lime green, and I gave my skein to Darlene....later she gave me her skein of black yarn from Tinsmith's Wife).  Oh, I also got a cute orange polka dotted project bag here by Della Q that was calling my name.

Then it was off to Gauge....Here we did not buy anything, but I think it was because we really over did it at HCW...Gauge had stitch markers as a gift.  Now to Happy Ewe.  I had not been to this store before but a friend of mine has told me how wonderful it is....and she was not kidding!  Misty is the owner and just as nice as can be.  Here I prepaid for two skeins of pearl yarn....yes, you heard me right.  I heard that the pearl yarn I won a few months ago would have a second edition and Misty would be carrying it in her store (eta end of October).  It will be pearl on white (instead of all white like mine) and I pre-ordered two skeins to make a wedding shawl....no, nobody is getting married, but I want to get a head start ;).  Misty had a kit to make the cutest 'ewe' in white, brown or pink as the gift.....Darlene and I each picked pink....Misty had a bunch of these 'ewe's' all knitted up and around her store....they are very cute.

Now to Yarnorama.....Again, Darlene and I did not make any purchases, but we were winding down and getting tired.....Susan had a needle felting starter kit as the gift and there was a lady there giving demonstrations. While there I did see two skeins of jitterbug sock yarn in the most gorgeous 'Ginger Cinnabar' color that almost jumped in my bag, but I still had 3 stores to go to on Sunday and did not want to completely blow my budget.

Then it was off to our hotel room to knit for the night.  We hand wound our balls of malabrigo and started our Saroyan's (while I watched the longhorns loose....sniff, sniff).  Neither I nor Darlene slept very well, so we were up and out of the hotel around 7:00 am.  We went to Nan's Needleworks and got there about 15-20 before it opened, but thankfully, there were people there.  Darlene and I did not buy anything, but we really enjoyed the place....and as stated earlier....she had the skein of Rozetti Marina Mulit as a prize....Darlene and I picked black, white and silver colors.

Next we were off to Wimberly to Old Oaks Ranch (somehow we were always getting to a store when a bus was there, and this was no exception....we saw the bus at Happy Ewe, Yarnorama, and now Old Oaks Ranch).  This store has really changed since the last time I was there and she had lots more yarn than she normally does....it was great to see the increase in inventory.  Here the gift was a ziplock with a kit to make a Fiber Arts Necklace.....with wire and some fun furish type of yarn.

Next we went to the Leaning Pear (restaurant) to meet with some knitting sistah's!  This place was awesome!  I had a BBLT...that is a BLT on sourdough bread and the extra B is for Brie.....it was awesome!  Here is a pic of all of us (I am farthest left, and Darlene right next to me, then Caroline, Sue, and Judy).

Our last stop....The Tin Smith's wife.  Here I bought a skein of "Pumkin Apocolypse" yarn.  It is black and orange...it is so awesome.  I think Wendy (the owner) was trying to hide it so nobody would buy it.  It was sitting all alone and when I went to check out she was bummed that I was buying it....she teased that she wanted to keep it but her mother made her put it out and said "nobody will buy it"...but she was wrong....I know Wendy wishes I did not buy it, but I am so happy I did.  It is sock yarn and I cannot wait to make socks with it!  Here the gift was a skein of Debbie Bliss yarn and there is a pattern for it in the passport or on her blog.  Here is where Darlene and I both got Black and Darlene gave me her black.

Then I took Darlene home and I went to my mom's to help her watch Antonio until Paige got home.....I have so much more to say, and stories to tell, but this post is getting way too long.

Here are pics.  One pic of purchases, one pic of gifts.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Well, good afternoon.  I have not posted for about a week, and I really do not have too much to post now.  Tomorrow kicks off The 6th Annual Hill Country Yarn Crawl.  Read about it here.  I am soooooooo excited.  This year it is just me and my crazy friend Darlene.....we will both go to Yarnivore afterwork tomorrow to get our passports...then Up and Early Saturday morning to hit 6 shops....Yes, 6!

We are staying in a hotel on Saturday evening, then getting up early Sunday to hi the last 3 stores.  We will have lunch with some knitting sisters in Wimberly.....I am so excited.

Stay tuned for pictures of our adventures!

Happy Thursday everyone!