Happy Birthday Antonio!

It was Antonio's Birthday this past week.  We had his party at my house yesterday....so sorry for the picture overload in advance!  Thursday (his actual birthday) we went to my mom and dad's house for dinner:

Sunday we had his party at my house with a moon jump and complete ninja turtle decorations:

Look at these cute Ninja Turtle cupcakes that Paige made!

He got a ninja sword and turtle shell back from Grandpa:

and Uncle James helped put together his ninja turtle race track (with Paige's boyfriend, Christopher, peaking in a peace sign as he has pizza)

And when it was all over, I was pooped!  I did knit during the party here and there....Darlene has a sock head hat on the needles in all black that she finds very boring so I took it home for non thinking knitting and it is easy to put down and pick back up without loosing your place (because it is just all knit in the round).....so I worked on that a little:

I finished one sleeve of Paige's sweater....but still have a way to go.  I had to order 2 more skeins and they should be here today I hope.

Remember the gaptastic cowl I finished last week?  Well, I ordered 4 shades of green for Paige to pick from for a cowl....she said she wanted 'olive green' so to me that would be bottom left...but she said she "did not like the mustard under tones" in that one, so she picked bottom right.  I got some of the brava bulky from knit picks because I think that is also a great yarn for this cowl.....so now I just have a couple of stash enhancements (Darlene is going to use the yarn on the bottom left for a cowl):

I also found these cute little dishes that have a knitted printing on them.  The guy who makes these is a knitter (and a quite fabulous one too) but he also loves clay work....His etsy shop is here.  I put a dime in one of these so you can see they are small.  I am going to put one by my coffee maker for a spoon and a couple on my stove to hold a spoon and maybe one on my knitting table to hold stitch markers or something...I just thought they were so cute I had to get a set of 4.

Remember I told you guys I would be doing the Stephen West Knits KAL this year....well, I picked my yarn.  There is a discussion on ravelry in the SA SNB forum and if you want to join us, I am sure there will be some kind of prize at the end......Darlene is going to do it with me too....I am super excited.  The first clue comes out this Friday....Yahoo!

Here are my colors....I put them up to two of the shirts I wear to work and I think they match nicely!

I may have to call it my Ninja Turtles Shawl as it reminds me a lot of the decorations we had at the house this past weekend for the Ninja Turtles Birthday Party!

Here are Darlene's colors at last check.....she may change her mind....she has not 100% decided.

I also blocked my Tan House Brook Shawl.....well, that is a little lie...Darlene blocked it for me....thank you Darlene!

Then.......drum roll please.......I FINISHED THE SUSANNA IC MYSTERY SHAWL!!!!!!!!!!  It is not blocked yet, I just finished it today.  I still need to block it.  But it is a lot bigger than I thought it would be and I do love it!  Here is some detail of the bind off while I was binding off:

Here it is finished!

That is pretty much all I have.  I will be mailing my scarf swap scarf this weekend so maybe next week or the week after, I can share pictures of it with you.

Have a great week......

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Triple Play........FO's FO's FO's

Hi everyone!  I hope you all had a great week!  I had a triple play week.  I am not sure this has ever happened before or will ever happen again, so I gotta live it up!  I finished 3, YES THREE, items....okay, they are not HUGE items, but they are finished just the same.

Item 1 is the Fox Cowl I made for a friend's daughter.....I was babysitting Celeste yesterday, so I got her to model it for me.  There are supposed to be two buttons in the front, but I do not have any buttons....so I will have to look for some (Hey, I am still calling it finished!)

Then, I have a finished COWL where I have not even had a chance to tell you about the yarn being a stash enhancement.....my mother asked me to make a cowl (she called it an eternity scarf) for a friend of hers....I recommended the Gaptastic Cowl (because it has been on my list forever!) and she liked it.  She picked out some yarn, I ordered it...it came in on Wednesday and I finished on Sunday!  It was a great knit....I see more of these in my future...I am actually thinking of casting on one for me in black!  I played a little bit of Yarn Chicken...but I won!

Then....I finished my Scarf Swap Scarf.  I ordered a few extras for my scarf swap recipient and it came in last week....so I am all ready to mail off my scarf swap....I just need to wait till Nov 1 to mail it.....Come on November!  I do not want to ruin the surprise for my scarf swap recipient....so I had to fudge the picture a little....but I promise it is done and it is blocking!

I have a couple of stash enhancements......I participated in a "SWAP" and got some of the new Hiya Hiya Point Protectors......aren't they cute?

I got a cool wine glass when I ordered that knit picks yarn above for my mom's friend's cowl.....this wine glass went on sale right after I bought it...but Knit Picks gave me on account credit and I ordered some more.....I love this wine glass!  Notice how full I had to fill it in order to be able to read what it says?

I started a new hat this past weekend too (Hey, I did finish 3 things!).....the Down Cellar Studio Podcast had a Rhinebeck Weekend Show the Love KAL start....so this will count towards that KAL and also for my Loopy Academy.....the pattern is called "Le bonnet d'Elsa" and I think it will be super cute!

I think that is all I have.....I leave you with a picture of Antonio (Happy Birthday on Thursday) that Paige sent me.....a beautiful picture of Celeste smiling...and a picture of me with my son.....I wore my hypercrazy to go see him this past weekend and he loved it.....Oh, I should give some credit on my FO's to Jaime my boyfriend.....as he drove the whole way to see Erich and back....which is probably why I finished 3 things....thanks Babe!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

I Love Yarn Day!

Did you know that last Friday (the 10th) was I Love Yarn Day?  I hope you were extra nice to your yarn that day!

I think I got lots of knitting done last week.  I was out sick with a stomach bug for a couple of days which makes for great knitting time.  I worked a lot on my scarf swap scarf.....I thought I was about 62.5% done, but once I did a full spreadsheet and added one more estimated repeat, I am about 56.59% done.....Yeah, I am over 50% and that is a big Yahoo!  I did have a little of frogging last week....but I cannot ruin the surprise for my swap sister, so I really cannot show you any pics of that till later....just know I am busy working on it!

I started a Monster Cowl for my sister....this is going to be for Loopy Academy....I think she will really like it.

It happens to also match Antonio's Pajamas as he is jumping on Grandma's bed

I got some stash enhancements.....my Barking Dogs Yarn Club...its hard to show the exact color but it is very pretty!

Some "Dark Side of the Moon" colorway yarn from Must Stash...Stephanie Pearl-McPhee knitted some socks with this yarn and I thought the socks were 'white', but when the yarn came it, it appears they are more 'grey'...I still think I will love knitting these socks!  Picture of finished socks, copyright of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

I got some Hiya Hiya needles and point protectors and cable stoppers....and look, Hiya Hiya has an adapter that can take my interchangeable needles and make them a straight needle.....I love the versatility!

I got some striping yarn from Germany.  The dyer's name is Nicole C Mendez.....and it seems so many indy dyers here in USA are charging an arm and a leg for their self striping yarn (Let's just say that Dark Side of the Moon yarn was a pretty penny.....just pennies shy of $40.00) and I know that dying self striping yarn is lots and lots of labor...but I wanted to see how some yarn from overseas compared.....really, this was Darlene's idea...and she ordered the first skein from Nicole...and the yarn feels really great...so I ordered some.  Even with international shipping rates, this yarn was WAY cheaper than USA prices and came out to $24.60...that is a pretty big savings!  And here it is:

I worked a little more on my Susanna IC MKAL shawl....It appears that this MKAL will end with just a little breathing room before Stephen West's 4th MKAL starts.....anyone else thinking of doing it?  #westknitsKAL2014 #westknits....second picture stolen from West Knits Kal Group on Ravelry

I pulled that Spire out again and in order for me to finish in time, I need to do close to 4,000 stitches a day.....I am pretty sure that will not happen....but I hope I keep knitting on it and try for the deadline because I am really loving the way it looks:

And I finished (yes, I said FINISHED...minus the weaving in ends and blocking) the Tan House Brook Shawl!  #DSCPigskinParty #TTSFallKal2014  I really enjoyed this pattern...I even add a few extra rows since I had a bit more yarn.

Remember last week how I said I could not believe it was October?  Well, this morning I could believe it....the news casts all had a different number, but it seemed to be about 53 degrees here in San Antonio...so finally cool enough for me to wear my clapotis I finished a couple of months ago......

Well, that is about all I have.....I hope you knit everything you want to this week and get all the items on your to-do list done!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!