Monday, April 25, 2016

May is right around the corner!

Yup, May is right around the corner....are you ready?  I am not!  I am not yet done with my April socks.....and I want to try to finish my test knit shawl before May....so I better get with it.

I hope you had a great week.....I had a fantastic week.  I hope you are ready for a blog packed with pictures!

First, I saw a video on my FB feed for a Steak Pinwheel Meal....I pretty much suck at cooking, but this looked delicious, I had to give it a try!

Mushrooms, onion, garlic.....CHECK



Lay it all out and roll.....
 Notice how my cutting board goes from a green color to a red color?  That is because rolling this up was a hot mess and I had to do a whole flip to a new cutting board...but I got it all pinned with toothpicks!




Now to eat.....
It was delicious....I loved it!  It was not cheap so I will not do it all the time, but I would like to make it again sometime!

Okay, this is a knitting blog so I will jump to the knitting.

I have a few stash enhancements....

First, some yarn from Wolle's Yarn Creations....this is a color changing cotton, this is like 4 pieces of colored sewing thread held together (no twist).  I am using this yarn for the test knit I am doing and it is a little hard to work with, but I saw a lot of people with this Cupid Colorway that is more like a terracotta and I had to have it.  She was so sweet to include some tea and a tape measure!


Next, I got my Miss Babs Knitting Tour first destination package...we are going to The Netherlands!  Yahoo.  The yarn is a gorgeous light blue...the pattern is called Metamorphose.  I want to do it, but it is pretty intimidating...I want to see someone's finished Infinity Cowl before I cast on.  Here is a link to the pattern and here is the gorgeous yarn.



I also got my Dishrag Tag Box.....remember I started a box back in March?  Well, the box has traveled around to many and now back to me.  My friend Vicki made me the cutest dishcloth....it is a ball of yarn!  Yes, a ball of yarn!  I love it!  She also sent me some yarn bras (we all need support), and the cutest scottie and cardinal stitch markers.  The card she gave me had knitting on the front picture...I love it all!  Thank you so much Vicki!


Right after I got my dishrag tag box from Vicki, Darlene let me know that our New Dyakcraft Rose colored needles were DELIVERED!  Okay everyone, you know how much I love orange (and I have the orange needles) but I am completely in love with these rose needles....I think I love them more than the orange ones!


And my last stash enhancement is a Bags By Awesomegrannie bag....she has soooooo many new bags in her shop, you should check them out....I got sheep...I mean, who does not love sheep?
Thank you Darlene!  You are too good to me!


Okay......I have an FO!  Man, it feels like forever since I have had an FO!  I finished my 3 color cashmere shawl and I love it!  But first, let me tell you about a bit of a dilemma at the end of this one.  I was 1/2 way done with the bind off and it was curling really bad


So I considered frogging and doing garter stitch to keep from curling...when I looked back at the pattern.....I realized I had done it wrong...her last 6 rows call for garter (not stockinette stitch) and then picot bind off....so I put my needle in all the stitches of the first row ( all 487 of them) and then I ripped......


I did 7 rows of garter (instead of 6) and then did a regular bind off with a size 10 needle.....I just LOVE IT!


Now for WIPS....I am still plugging away on the test knit for Susanna IC.  I only have about 15 more rows....I really hope to finish it this week:


I did a few rounds on my Eeyore socks



I worked on my April Socks.....Now getting to work on these socks has a story....Paige asked if I could pick up Antonio on Wednesday so she could go into work...I said sure.  I picked up Antonio and he said "Ga-Ma.....can we go to the park!?!"  and I said "Of course!"  so to the park we went....where I got knit a little and he got to play.




Then he got a little bored with the park (we were the only ones there) so he said "Ga-Ma, can we go to McDonalds and I can play there!?!"  and again, I said "Of Course!".

He made funny faces for his mother....

and I got to knit on my socks....I finished the 2nd heel while I was at McDonalds!


I knit a little more over the weekend, but not enough to finish them...I really need to finish them this week!


I also frogged this week......remember the Doodler I was working on?  It was the Stephen West MKAL late last year....well, I never finished the cable section and then there was going to be the picking up of stitches.....I was knitting this with my friends, Darlene and Shawna.....well, Darlene never went past wedge one...and Shawna finished the cables section....but she was ready to frog so I guess I was ready to frog too....this was 497 yards frogged....let's have a moment of silence please:





I went ahead and started the blanket for Paige that she requested...she is in love with it already (which always feels good).  Now, these big stitches are hard to constantly get on the needle...these are size US 50, but they are a circular, so when I slide the stitches to put them back on the 1" thick needle, it is difficult, so I am going to get some straights in US 50....it will help this blanket to go so much faster...it will be awkward, but faster!




Now......what do you do when you get a new gorgeous project bag and new gorgeous needles?  You cast on something NEW!  I cast on Pure Joy.  This is another Joji Locatelli pattern and I saw some of the test knit ones and they are all gorgeous!  I am using my Knitted With yarn in the Autumn Rainbow colorway with Madeline tosh Sock in Onyx as the contrast....this is going to be a gorgeous shawl.....oh, and I convinced Darlene to start with me :)



The needles even match the new bag :)



I think that is all I have this week....I leave you with some pictures of Antonio as a ring bearer at his Great Uncle's wedding....Oh, and I also put him to work at my house vacuuming...he loved it!  But he wanted to vacuum the outside more than the inside.....Have a great week!


 Here he is with is Great Uncle David:

Here he is with his dad, Mikey:
Vacuuming:






Happy Happy Happy Knitting everyone!


Monday, April 18, 2016

Viva Fiesta San Antonio!!!!!!!!!

It is the 125th year of Fiesta here in San Antonio!  This is a wonderful days filled with tons of events!  You can check it out here.


How have you been!  I hope you have had a fabulous week filled with everything your heart desired!

I am going to jump right into stash enhancements....remember I told you I was waiting on some yarn from Knit Picks for a blanket for Paige?  Well, it arrived....but I have started the blanket yet (shhhhhh, don't tell her...LOL)!


I got the final part of my prize from the Down Cellar Studios Podcast Pigskin Party winnings....stitch markers!  Thank you IsnknitCharming!  The stitch markers are very pretty!


Darlene asked Jeanette from the Bookish Stitcher Podcast to pick us up some Must Stash yarn while she was at the DFW Fiber Fest....and the did....Eeyore's Rainbow.....I love it!



My last stash enhancement are some needles....these are the new ChiaoGoo Sock interchangeable needles....I did not buy the whole set (You guys know I love to do two at a time socks but on separate needles) so I got two pairs of the 2.5 mm (size US 1.5) plus some of the small accessories to go with them:


Now, what do you think should happen if one acquires new sock yarn and new sock needles?  Yup, you guessed it....Cast on some new socks!


I do like these needles....my Dyakcraft Heavy Metal Sock Interchangeable needles will probably always be my favorites...but these are a nice, affordable alternative.

So, as for the knitting....you a,ready know I started a pair of socks....and I continued to work on my April Socks....I am doing a new to me heel and I really like it...I have one heel done and one that I just started:


I also worked on my test knit...I need to get with it on this...I was hoping to finish by end of the month, but it is not looking good :(


The last thing I worked on is my 3 color cashmere shawl....these rows are crazy long (I think I am at 457 stitches for one row...and they are still increasing)...I am 1/2 way through the lace part...I kind of wanted to see if I could finish it this past weekend...but as you can see, that did not happen....I feel the 'need' to finish something!


That is pretty much all I have on the knitting front.....Antonio did come over this week and insisted on a selfie with Ga-Ma!


We also had a pretty bad hail storm...My area did not get it as bad as other areas...but I did get some golf balled sized hail:


That is all I have.....have a great week!




Happy Happy Happy Knitting!