Hi everyone.....how have you been?  I've been great......I wrote a couple of weeks ago that I was in a bit of a knitting funk, but I got lots of knitting done this past week, so I must have snapped out of my funk.....so on to it.

First stash enhancement....I got my first skein of yarn from the Home Spun House Harry Potter Yarn club....this is January.....Knight Bus!

Here is Harry with the Knight Bus

 

Here is the yarn!

 

When Paige found out there are Harry Potter Themed yarns she said she wanted Gryffindor socks.....I told her I was on a yarn diet and I could not buy yarn....but she said she would buy the yarn....so now it looks like I am going to put Paige in the poor house....lol.....this is what is on the way:

Speaking of Harry....I watch all the Harry Potter Movies from 1 to 8 this past weekend....it was fabulous and yes, my house is a disaster, I did not clean a thing!

Last Thursday I got a wild hair up my knitting needles that I wanted to do a mystery sock kal.....so I got some stash yarn....Evil Little Goat....(Thank you Dion!!)  and I started.

I was home all day Friday with a bit of a stomach bug so I worked on clue 1 all day....but 9 pm at night....I had finally finished clue 1 and was ready for clue 2

I almost finished clue 2 on Saturday, but I had 4 rounds I still had to do on Sunday, but I finished clue 2....now I have to wait till this Friday to get clue 3.....but I am enjoying them....which is surprising to me...I usually do not enjoy patterned socks....but the change feels good.

Now, I am not sure if you noticed, but I have a new yarn bowl.......it is from Turtle Made and it is amazing.  I am going to order a brown one to go with my red one.

During the week and on Sunday I worked on my sister's ranger....I finished both sleeves and started the body.  I only have about 6 inches on the body and still need 8 1/2 more before I start the short rows...but it is coming along

That is all I have knitting wise.....but I did have a great friend send me some chapstick from the Netherlands and it arrived.  I will probably put each one in a knitting bag....this is the best chapstick/lip balm ever! 

This Lip Balm is only available in Europe...and speaking of only available in Europe, this candy used to be only in Europe...it is my favorite and Paige got me a pack from our local grocery store...I love this stuff!

I also had Antonio this past weekend and he and I played with his legos...he loves creating things.

Lastly I leave you with 4 sunrises....sorry, they were all too good to pass up...these are each a different day, view from my desk in the morning....I just love sunrises and sunsets!

Have a great week!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!



Happy Birthday Darlene!!!!

So....today is Darlene's Birthday!  Yeah!  Happy Birthday to the Best Best Friend a girl could have!

Darlene and I podcasted this past Saturday and I gave her all her Birthday presents at the end of the podcast and I am tickled that she loved them all. 

I made her a decemberist shawl that is black and large like mine.....and a crocheted heart basket...these were two things I worked on but could not show them or the progress on the blog till now.

I also got her a cute card, PJ set, sheep PJ bottoms, yarn with a pig flying dish and a mug that has the podcast name and 'awesomegrannie' on it...but the 'awesomegrannie' one is not here yet these both say knitphomaniac, but one is a mistake and they are shipping a new one.

I worked a little on my sister's sleeves...not much, but I hope to have the 2nd sleeve done this week.

So Darlene and I got our yarn for the temperature blanket....and we started to try to calculate how big the blanket would be with 365 rows.....  I did a small swatch with 4 rows = 1.75 inches

Which I calculated to be a 13.3 foot blanket....so now to try to figure out how wide we want it....I thought we had 42 stitches per foot and Darlene made a chart (roles reversed):



I was a little off and we chained 350 stitches hoping to get an 8 foot wide blanket...but it was really more like 9.16 wide....it was 110 inches....so okay.....but this sucker is going to be HUGE and 350 stitches is a lot to do if you get behind.  I know the goal is to do one row per day...but lets be honest here...life will happen...and it will get hot in the summer and this big huge thing on your lap....so we thought of a different route.....how about if we chain about 230 (6 feet) and then do the number of stitches for the degree number (in Fahrenheit) and do both lows and highs....so for the first of January, the low was 26 (color black) and the high was 31 (color gray mist)....so we do 26 stitches in black and then 31 in gray mist...and so on and so on....we also decided to do the first row in black and the last row in black......it would give mixed up kind of look like this (charted to the 19th of January)....I know it is hard to see, buy you kinda get a visual with this.

Darlene is all caught up...I am only to the 17th.

Darlene's:

Mine:

We have not seen anyone else do this concept, so we think our will hopefully be unique and not so huge!

I also worked very briefly on my portage and my Boxy Cape.....

That is really all I have.....I do have to say that I tried to cook healthy this week....I made some stuffed chick breasts...Paige and Darlene liked them...but I thought they were just so so....

And my dad got Jazz a bone...and she loves it...she has already gotten to a bunch of the inside marrow....

She sure is sweet when she sleeps....LOL!

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

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!



I have succumed to the Temperature Blanket.....

Hi everyone.....I hope you have been keeping warm!  Paige still has no heat at her house....so she, Antonio and Jazz are staying with me and Precious.  Precious is less than thrilled to be around Jazz....poor girl!  Plus, Paige is not expected to have any heat till at least next week....so she is frustrated and I feel for her....but thrilled she and Antonio and Jazz are staying with me :)

Now, as far as Precious' frustrations, I know that Jazz can have quite a bit of energy, but she can also be very sweet and cuddly!  Here she is in a few cuddly or sleeping pics.....and there is a picture of her trying to cuddle up to Precious, but Precious just turns her face.

I decided to do a midweek post to let you know about the crazy I have succumbed to....Turns out the Thursday Night SNB group is doing a Temperature scarf.....there is a handful of us that are committed to a yarn diet....so when Tami (great friend and from the Thursday Group and committed to the yarn diet) texted about the temperature scarf, Darlene of course chimed in that she wanted to make a blanket (which she has been saying since the beginning of the year).....long story short....we decided that if we all buy yarn for just this project we are okay....we checked in with each other this is not cheating! 

Needless today, day 16 was the day I bought 13 skeins of yarn (an affordable $50) for a Temperature blanket.

Now, we are still in agreement that this is not cheating....so I am right back onto the yarn diet and no more buying yarn...but we will be very happy with a temperature blanket when all is said and done :)


We are using a Texas Temperature Chart (© CopyLeft - Becky’s Blog lots of fun schtuff )

These are the yarns we bought to match the above colors....starting in top left and going clockwise.....however....we put in an extra orange and took out the turquoise color and just shifted the colors down.....

With this cold snap we have been having I sent some socks to my mom....these are Fleece Lined Wool socks that I purchased from an online yarn store called Darn Good Yarn...and my mom loves them!  I am still going to make my mom some more hand knit wool socks...but these were just to hold her over with how cold we have been.

I have also been plugging away on my brioche blanket....I will try not to show this too often since it is such a slow slog of a knit...and I know it may not look like I have done a lot since Monday, but I have done 4 or 5 rows since then......

Well, that is all I have for a random mid week post!  Here is today's sunrise:

Have a great rest of the week!

Happy Happy Happy Knitting!