What A Fabulous Week!

Hi everyone.....How was your week?  Mine was Fabulous!  I LOVE my new car and I LOVE my new furniture and I am LOVING the weather lately.....Here are my chairs and rug:

 On Monday, there was some talk on my online knitting group of having made Beans over the weekend to have ready for the week.....well, it made me hungry.  One of Darlene's favorite meals is Beans, Cornbread, and Fried Potatoes.......so I went to HEB and bought the fixings.....and viola.....

 Now, I had to use my pressure cooker for the beans because you usually need to cook beans for hours....but it took about 41 min in the pressure cooker....and they were yummy!

Oh, and I cheated on my yarn diet a TINY bit.....well $1.70 worth.  Remember I told you about that Ruby Red yarn that I think would match my car....well, I had to know....so I had some store credit at The Loopy Ewe and I used it....I had to pay $1.70 out of my pocket for 2 skeins of Cascade 220 in the 893 Ruby colorway.....I think it matches pretty well, what do you think?

I also want to make myself one of the Mug Socks that I made for Darlene....and for that I went stash diving.....Now, it is really hard to photograph this yarn on my car....they are two different shades of red....the worsted weight in Ruby and then the fingering weight in 5607 Red.....

I may have to play with my stitch count a bit as my mug us a little shorter than Darlene's and a touch wider:

At certain angles, I think either one would match, even though they are two different colors....LOL!

This past weekend I had a weekend off from watching Antonio. so Jaime and I hopped into the new car and took a short weekend trip, just the two of us.....to Sisterdale (wine), then Fredericksburg (German Food), then Junction (R&R).  We were going to stay in Fredericksburg, but heck, the deer lease (with the RV) was just another hour away, so to Junction it was.....I got lots of knitting time....what did I work on?  My socks of course....I have to finish by tomorrow:

On the drive out:

Knitting in the RV with a small snack dinner since we had a big lunch in Fredericksburg:

On the drive home, I have about 9 stripes to catch up the 2nd sock:

Last night I finished the first one:

I should finish my 2nd one tonight!

That is pretty much it....I worked a little on my Fade and a little on Paige's sweater, but not enough to take more pictures.....so it really was just a sock week.

Oh, I have a secret project that is about to be on the needles.....for this secret project, I will be using the long gradient kauni yarn:

I did snap a couple of pictures from the weekend......my car was frozen with frost in Junction, and a quick pic of a scenic view in Junction up on a large hill.

This week also seems to be the week of more beautiful sunrises when I get to work....I am really sorry if you are sick and tired of these...but I love sunrises and sunsets :) (there is one sunset from Jaime's backyard...you can see his work van in the picture)

Well, that is all I have....kind of boring huh....but it was a fabulous week!  I have a bit of a cast on urge and want to knit a sweater....so some appropriate pics:

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Ruby Red Rapture!

Hi everyone.....I bought a new car!  I LOVE IT!

We all know how much I love Orange.....and I wanted to buy the "Canyon Ridge" colorway.....and this one was my loaner:

But it was a 2017 model and did not have all the incentives that a 2016 model has right now.....so at first I bought an "Ingot Silver" Ford Explorer.....but apparently that one got "sold out from under them".....and then they found a Ruby Red Metallic Tinted Clearcoat and asked what I thought about Red....I kinda mumbled that it was not my first pick, but not a deal breaker.

I never knew a Red color could make me so happy!  I LOVE this color...plus it has a lot more bells and whistles than the Canyon Ridge one did.....I cannot remember the last time I was this excited over a car.....LOL!  Here she is!

I love her so much!  The comfort in this car is also outstanding....just ask Antonio:

I love everything about it!  It also has seat warmers...which are hardly needed here in South Texas, but sure do make my tushy feel good on chilly mornings like today!

A few of my knitting sisters even said I should knit something to match it.....I had a couple of recommendations, but this one was my favorite....Cascade 220 in Ruby Red Color....I kinda want to buy 10 skeins of this and make a sweater....but I am on a yarn diet!!!!  Maybe I will be allowed to splurge for my birthday or give a hint to Paige for my Birthday Present....LOL!

Okay......as for knitting.....I really only worked on two things this week.

1.  Paige's sweater.....Here are her two sleeves...one is more than 1/2 way done and one is barely started:

2.  My Fade...4th color added:

I actually found a boo-boo on my spreadsheet for this...I left out 10 crucial rows...so I need to redo my spreadsheet and see how far behind I am.....

I bot some new leggings this past week....I really wanted them for the retreat coming up, but I could not wait that long and wore them yesterday while knitting at Jaimes.....they have little knitted stitches on them"

I am not sure if you guys saw my little post late last week with a free pattern for a mug sock....but I knitted this little sock for a mug for Darlene for her birthday....she loved it! (okay, so this is the 3rd thing I worked on this past week):

That is about all the knitting I have.....but I did do a ton of cleaning in my living room.....I have purchased some new recliners that will be delivered this week and I needed to get my living room ready for the delivery....I was going to throw out my old beat up couch, but Paige wants me to keep it till she buys a house (some time this year)....anyway, I lifted the couch and my current recliner and cleaned out a ka-jillion spiderwebs (it was pretty nasty) and scrubbed the floors and have it all ready....I have two yellow circles where the new recliners will go....it will be a bit crowded for a while, but homely!

Well, I think that is all I have......This past week has had some exceptional sunrises....so I snapped a few pics to share:

Have a great week everyone!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!

Photo Mug turned Knitted Sock Mug

So, I was watching Amber on the Yarn Hoarder Podcast a few weeks ago....and her friend, Megan Williams aka justrunknit (who is one of the podcasters on the Stockinette Zombies Podcast) knit Amber a sock mug/cup to match the socks Megan gifted to Amber....did you follow all that?

Well, I just had to steal the idea....but they deserve all the credit!!  Not me.

As you all may or may not know, but Darlene's birthday is this Sunday, the 22nd of January.....I have already given her the main present I wanted to give her.....but I also wanted to make her one of these mugs.

I got Darlene this mug here, but I also got this one, and a couple of these to see how high they are and to see if they will fit under my Keurig (of course I am planning on knitting myself some).  There are several different ones on Amazon to choose from.

This is my version of Photo Mug turned Knitted Sock Mug.

With any fingering yarn, and 2.75 mm needles, Cast on 44, join in round (my gauge is approx 7-8 stitches per inch)

Knit 10 rows of 2x2 ribbing

Knit in stockinette until 1" shy of mug length

Knit 10 rows of 2x2 ribbing

Bind off.

I bound off *one stitch with Jenny's suprisingly stretchy bind off, and one stitch regular*...repeat.

Here its is :)  She loved it!

2/1/17 - Update

I knitted a sock mug for the shorter mug.....This mug was a little harder to get the ribbing portion all the way to the top of the cup....there is not a lot of room between the clear cover and the small black lip immediately below the screw on top.

You could just make the sock mug shorter and have a little bit of a black lip showing.

Here is the pattern for this shorter mug:


With any fingering yarn, and 2.75 mm needles, Cast on 56, join in round (my gauge is approx 7-8 stitches per inch)

Knit 9 rows of 2x2 ribbing

Knit 4 1/2 inches of stockinette.

Knit 9 rows of 2x2 ribbing

Bind off.

I bound off *one stitch with Jenny's suprisingly stretchy bind off, and one stitch regular*...repeat.

Here are some snapshots

I love it...and it matches my New Car!  

Happy MLK Day!!!!!!

Hi everyone....did you have a good week?  My week seemed to be SUPER long, but it is done....and now a new one.

I had off today for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.....Antonio's daycare was closed, so we hung out (pics at the end).

As for knitting, I worked on my January socks.....I was at a car dealership for SEVEN hours on Tuesday.....I was ready to walk out at the end....but the good news is I got a ton of knitting done on my sock....see that blue line to the top....I did all those stripes (almost 18) while at the dealership:

Other than that.....I worked on the Southern Skies Shawl

and I worked on my Fade

Yup, that is all I worked on....it was a crazy week.

Paige came over on Thursday....she got herself a new apple watch and wanted me to help her set it up.

I watched football on Saturday and Sunday when I could....but Antonio and I pretty much just watched movies and played legos this past weekend.

Today, Antonio and I got up and we baked cakes......he wanted to add all sorts of stuff to his....sprinkles, food coloring, eyes, etc.....

Today, we went to my mom's house.....she gave me a tea advent calendar, and a fancy tea pot.  My Aunt Susanne gave her the calendar, but I had mentioned how much I have really been getting into tea lately, and she gave me what she had not already had....it's a really neat advent calendar and a super cute teapot (sitting by my knitted mug I got from Carol when she lived here)!

You know what.....what is all I have.....It feels like I have so little to show for a week that was SOOOO LONG!

I hope to have more to show this week...oh, and I should have a new car to show you next week!  Have a great week!!!.

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!