BIG 4 Retreat Failure?

I think I might just be a failure at my own Retreat.....I mean, I do not want to call myself a 'failure', but I think I may be a semi-failure.....Let me explain!

By the end of this post you will see that I have finished 3 of my 4 Big 4 Retreat items....I know that is not failing at all, but here is where the failure comes in....my last item is Spire and I am 38.28% done with it.  However, the last 61.72% is all lace pattern.....and I just cannot work on nothing but lace day in and day out...I need mindless things in my life (apparently, my brain does not like working)!

Now, I have made myself a chart and I only have to do 812 stitches per day to finish my Spire by September 1.....so, I am going to finish everything I wanted to for the Big 4 retreat (at least I think I will)...but my semi failure is that I apparently cannot do it without casting on something else for my non thinking knitting!

So, you all already know that I have cast on my Rennandi, and I have a poncho I want to make that is all stockinette and mindless that I will probably cast on soon....so I am a semi-failure!  Please do not hate me or give me too hard of a time....failure is hard to admit to....LOL!!!!

Now, on to what I have been up to:

Let me start with Stash Enhancements.....now, my first stash enhancement has a kinda medium to long story....

About a year and a half ago....I made Paige one of the greatest cardigans I think I have ever made and it is called Breezy Cardigan (blogged here):

Then, a little over a year ago she wanted me to knit her a cardigan called Reine.  She picked some beautiful Madeline Tosh Sock yarn for this project and I bought 4 skeins (the 7th picture in this post).

Here I am a year later and I have not made the Reine cardigan....but Paige informs me that she thinks she ruined the Breezy Cardigan.....she had washed it before and it was always fine, but this time it seemed worse...Here it is on Antonio:

Now, I think I may be able to re-block the sweater and it will be okay, but I am not 100% sure yet because Paige has not brought it to me....well, she wants another Breezy Cardigan.  So, I thought maybe I could make it with the Madeline Tosh she had picked for the Reine Cardigan.

Turns out that 4 skeins is not enough yardage, so I ordered another skein (which is my stash enhancement)....

Well, guess what?  Yup, you guessed it, Madeline Tosh does not have dye lots and I am buying the yarn a whole year later....so the new one does not exactly match and I am not sure if it will work with alternating skeins......

I showed it to Paige and she said she would really like a Breezy Cardigan in Black....UGGGG!  So, I think I will use my black yarn I was planning for my Hitofude to make her a Breezy Cardigan (I think I may have to order a couple more skeins) and then I may use this Madeline Tosh in the Antique Lace colorway for my Hitofude and alternate skeins and I should be fine!  So this is probably going to go to the frog pond:

I also bought some more Signature Straight Needles for my Memories Blanket....both Darlene and I purchased size 4 (3.5 mm) to make our blankets...well, Darlene liked her blanket better on size 2.5 (3.0 mm) so I got some too to restart my blanket and see which one I like best!

Then, I got my Loopy Academy Swag!  I am so glad that I crammed to finish everything because I love this cute little bags and notions!

I also got some yarn from Darlene!  She is so awesome to me.....she watches the Knit Girllls Podcast and saw Leslie's finished Inara....so even before we went to the lake house, she was scheming and she bought me the Cherries and Chocolates Gradient set so we can make the shawl.

I love this Gradient Set....Thank you Darlene!  I will probably start this wrap with my new Dyakcraft needles...I know I showed them to you last week...but I just love them in my Graces Case and have to show them to you again!

That is it for my knitting stash enhacements...I did buy some leggings recently...one pair is just circles, but it reminds me of yarn balls....I planned to wear these this past weekend to Hot Rod Night, but it was postponed to this coming weekend because of the rain.  I still wore them and they are soooo soft!  I just love them!

Now, I have an FO.....I finished my 3rd Big 4 Retreat item....Smooth Move!  I love it!  I have not blocked it yet, but it is still cuddly and large even without blocking!

Then what else did I work on.....well, here is my Spire to show you how far I am (I really have made progress):

I told you (and I think may have shown you before) that I started my Rennandi for the Miss Babs tour....well, I was just dying to get to the green/chartreuse color.....and I needed that 'mindless' knitting....so I here is my progress on that.

Lastly was the sweater for Darlene's DIL....it is semi mindless knitting, but not always...and it is hard to tink, so I try to knit on this only when my mind is semi fresh (not tired)....LOL!  I am back to where I was before I frogged it.

One small thing I wanted to mention....I have a knnitting friend that has had a bit of a rough patch lately...her hubby passed last year, her car broke down several times, she hit her head on the clothes line and had to go to ER.....just one thing after antoher...well, Saturday night/early morning her house caught on fire.  She has 2 dogs and Red Cross said they could not really accomodate her with the dogs....so she and her dogs are stayign with me (I have no clue how long).....please keep her in your 'good thoughts' column or if you are religious then a prayer or two is welcomed!

Well, that is all I have!  I hope everyone has a fabulous week.....We have the 4th of July weekend coming up....so enjoy that!  I know I will enjoy my 3 day weekend!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Happy (Belated) Father's Day!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Father's Day, whether you are a Father, play the role of a Father, or spent it with your Father, I hope it was fabulous!

Here is my Dad and my Grandfather (his dad).  I never knew my grandfather because he died before I was born, but I still love him for giving me my daddy!!!!

My dad:

My grandfather:

Okay, on to the knitting!

I finished my Monthly DVD socks....the rainbow ones:

Now, these socks turned my fingers blue/purple while knitting them.....so, I wanted to soak these socks in water with citric acit in the water to see how well the citric acid worked....it worked like a charm....the socks did not bleed at all, and this is HOT water!

I forgot to mention that I knit these socks with some new sock needles...they are called Zings and they are by Knit Pro.  I really enjoyed these needles and they are very affordable.....so I am going to switch gears to some Stash enhancements:

I also got some new Dyakcraft needles...the Robins Egg Blue ones....these are sooooo pretty!  I LOVE THEM!

A friend of mine that came to SNB at my house got me the cutest serving tray...I just love it!

My last stash enhancement is not really knitting related (I guess neither was the serving tray), but relaxing related...Bath & Body works had a big sale and brought back some old scents....my favorite scent is Cucumber Melon and my daughters favorite is Sweat Pea....so I got some shower gel and lotions and fragrance sprays :)

Okay......sorry I got sidetracked....now back to the knitting.

I started some new socks for a Biscotte & Cie KAL here.  These socks have a provisional cast on and then you knit for a bit and join....it was quite challenging for me...but I got them both done.

Then I worked a little on Paige's gigantor blanket...I should have been done with this by now if  I had done my 2 rows a day...but I didn't so I am only like 1/2 way done :(

I have been working away at my smooth move (for my BIG 4 Retreat)...and I am about 84% done.....maybe, just maybe I can finish it this week:

Then, I was cruzin' along on the sweater for Darlene's DIL...but Darlene did not like the look of it....so I ripped back to the end of the ribbing and started over with the real pattern....it is hard to phototgraph it in black.

That is really all I have this week.  I had Antonio this past weekend for a little bit and I also got to see Celeste and Cataleya!  I hope everyone has a fabulous week!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Rough Week!

Hey everyone!  I hope you guys had a bettern week than I did.  It has been a rough week for me.  I have had some bad news and sad new and not enough glad news....the good news is, that I hope it can only get better from here on out!

I will jump straight to the knitting.....what have I done?   Socks mostly.

I worked some more on the tour de sock pattern....and missed the deadline...now I will probably just do a stockinette foot instead of the patterned foot since that is easier and faster for me....of course, I still need to finish the leg and do the heels.  I will not be doing stage 2 because the cabling on it is just too much for me!

Then, I cannot forget my June DVD socks....I cast them on at SNB this past Saturday and I got a lot done!  I had the help of Baby (on the left) and Precious (on the right)....I am surprised my butt fit in between these two.

I am doing Driftwood socks by Mina Philipp of the Expat Knitting Podcast...it is a very basic sock with a small pattern on front....she has a new sock collaboration called "Beyond Vanilla".

I also worked a little on my Smooth Move....but no need for a picture because you can barely tell I have even moved.

I did cast on for the Rennandi....I did a small gauge swatch to make sure I liked the drape witha 4.5 stitches per inch gauge and then cast on and did like one or two rows...just barely a start.....I know this is kind of like breaking my Big 4 retreat no cast on rule, but like I mentioned last week, I was a member of this club before the retreat started so it should be grandfathered in....plus, I have 2 of my 4 items done and it has only been 1.5 out of 4 months so far....but you know I can figure out a way to justify any cast on...LOL!

Speaking of being able to justify any cast on....I recently found out that my boss's wife is expecting.  He has 4 boys from a previous marriage and this will be her first child....and they are having a girl....so I will need to cast on some kind of blanket for his soon to be born daughter...but I will hold off till I finish something else.  I think I will use this yarn in my stash:

That is all I have for the knitting....I have some happy news to share....my grand daughter, Celeste, got awards for outstanding achievements in Math, Science, and Reading....plus Perfect Attendance!  Here she is with her award and her sister, Cataleya.

I also got to see Antonio this past week and he cooked himself some scrambled eggs with cheese (okay, so Ga-Ma helped a little)....he was really proud of himself....I find it hard to teach him sometimes because he is left handed....but he did great (that is my smooth move in the background)!

I also have some sad news....which is what made this a very rough week for me....

Jaime and I were not talking (we are okay now), so that made it harder....for a while there I really thought we were going to call it quits and it made for a depressing week....

While that was hard.....much harder was that my dog, Baby, got pretty sick...when I came home from the lakehouse she just was not herself...I took her to the vet, got her some meds and at first I was hopeful that she was getting better, but over the past weekend....she has become worse...now it is about her quality of life and I do not think it is very good, so I have an appointment to have her cross that Rainbow Bridge this afternoon.  I will miss her greatly, but she had a wonderful life and I got to spend about 12 years of it with her!  I will miss you terribly Baby (she is the Dachshund in the first pic)!!!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!