It's a weekend....Warning picture heavy

Well Saturday we spent the day visiting with family and meeting my new niece. Madelyn says "hi".



Her blanket is done I worked on it all while we drove and a little while we were visiting to get it done.





Even my mom's cat Gizmo liked the blanket - Mike had to pick him up hissing and all so I could get the top picture. And yes that is Gizmo's head in the left of the top picture. LOL

Then I super quick like made the bunny blanket buddy for my other niece, Madelyn's sister Keira, just so she wasn't left out. :) The animal cookie monster (Keira) at Ukai for dinner on Saturday. Which ended up causing us to miss the bowling part of Mike's 10 year reunion because they had changed the time and I missed it. But we had fun and Keira loves fried rice! If I had let her keep my fork I'm sure I would have been wearing more than I got to eat of my friend rice. LOL



Bunny Blanket Buddy from the Lion Brand website, made with Lion Brand Homespun in Lavender Sachet. This is pre-face, I haven't taken pics of that yet. :)



I planned to start the owl dishclothes on the way home Sunday, but I ended up driving home. Look at me traveling and bringing 3 projects to work on. LOL

Sunday was better for the reunion - sorta. There was a picnic set to start at noon but no one was there until 2 pm. Ok fine and then we only had about 5 other classmates showup. Mind you I was friends with 2.5 of them so I was ok with this. Let me explain this - I moved in 7th gade or else I would have graduated with my hubby and all my friends from elementary school. And the 2.5 - the .5 is someone who I was friendly with but she wasn't someone that I hung out with outside of school. Nothing against her, we just never seemed to be that kind of friends, but she was another one I'd known since like 1st grade. Then one I knew but only because we'd had a class or two together and in middle school only one year. The last one had only gone to high school with them so I didn't know her at all. But hey I thought it was worth it even if it started later than planned. :) Me. LaRae, Heather & Haley.

QOW # 8

Here is question 8! Enjoy!
What is your favorite supper for a hot summer evening? (For added "flavor", post a photo or recipe link)

Hmmm well the best supper is something I don't have to make. :D I guess that means things that are grilled -hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken and steak are all great on the grill. Add a side of broccoli with cheese and maybe some mashed potatoes or even baked potatoes and it's a meal! Although the best way I have had potatoes on the grill was when they were cut up, doused in butter some garlic & onion powder, wrapped in foil and cooked on the grill. YUM! They are sooooooooo good but not so good or you. :)

QOW # 7

We are all creatures of habit and when it comes to sitting down to knit, it's no different…

What is(are) your favorite place(s) to knit? and
What supplies (besides yarn & needles) make the setting perfect for knitting?

Favorite places to knit - My couch is comfy and I can knit while watching tv or movies. I've been knitting at my computer lately. Knit Night is held at a local coffee house and even though my knitting and I come home smelling of coffee it is a small price to pay to be with my new friends. And when it is not raining or too hot I've been known to sit on my deck in a camp chair and knit until it gets dark enough that I can't see unless I turn on the porch light - then I head inside.

Supplies that I try to always have with me - I have this old make-up bag that I decided to use to hold my crochet hooks instead of leaving the floating at the bottom of my basket of yarn. But also in there is a pair of scissors, a tape measure, my little tin of stitch markers, my row counter, bits of left over Noro because I love the color, and some needles to finish up a project when needed. I try to always keep the make-up bag with my current knitting project in my knitting bag. That way n matter where I am if I am done with a project I can finish it up and have it ready to block if needed or to give to the intended person if they are around and blocking is not needed.

Speaking of blocking - acrylic yarn baby blankets - should they be blocked to get them to lay flat/ make both end even if tension loosened as I went in knitting? I am almost through my second skein of yarn on Madelyn's blanket and keep thinking it needs to be blocked to get the ends to not curl up so much (it should wave but they are literally curling up probably because they were stitched on a smaller needle?). And really I only have until Friday to get it done if I am to block it the blanket would need to be dry and ready to go out the door on Saturday by 10 am. Guess this would be a good excuse to get some blocking pins soon. I've never blocked anything I have finished yet - mostly because the scarves didn't need it (or so I think) and because I wasn't sure on the first blanket which I still have (BAD me she had the baby in April!).

Bleh. Well breakfast time for me now. :)

Busy Busy Busy

This past week has flown by and it seems like I haven't done a thing. I've got Madelyn's blanket about half way done. So I need to keep working on that for when we get to meet her this Saturday. I have knit night tomorrow and am looking forward to it and seeing my new friends. That and getting out of the house away from the girls would be lovely. I love them but they are driving me nuts. Could be that they feel cooped up in the house. Maybe but if that was the case then why aren't they asking to go outside instead of watching movies. They could go jump in our pool (nothing special but it will cool them off). They have been bugging me to go to the big pool but we don't have passes for here and I don't want to because all the other kids will be there and it's not that big of a pool. They behave worse around their "friends" then when they are all by themselves - mostly. A friend of mine invited us to come over during the week to her plae and swim or to even meet us at the state park by us to go swimming. Which is something I want to do but the girls behavior has made it so that I haven't called her to set it up. Caught in the catch 22 loop - have to be good to go swimming, want to swim and/or be outside but misbehave because we can, etc. You get my point. Besides 2 of the girls can't find their bathing suits and I'm not buying new ones when the ones they have fit fine.

Bleh. Back to the baby blanket that I hope to finish before the weekend.

It's a girl!

My brother and his wife had their baby this morning. She was due on Sunday and had a doctor appt. yesterday as it looked like she hadn't even dropped yet. My brother told me that they went in yesterday around 7 pm because the contractions were about 12 minutes apart. She was measuring at 4 cm dialated. Then once they were there a while the contractions slowed down and the doctor sent them home at 11 pm. They went home and went to rest (sleep for Matt). Tammy woke him at 1:30 am and said they needed to go back. The contractions were so close there was no way to time them. They got there at 2 am and she was at 10 cm. My newest niece was born at 2:36 am weighing 8lbs. 12oz, 20 inches long. I can't wait to meet my little Madelyn Kate! Which makes 7 girl grandchildren on my dad's side between me (3), Matt (2) and my stepbrother (2) who also is having another but won't know what it is until it is here.

QOW #6

Since thinking about holidays/vacations is SO much fun, let's continue with the theme… Questions #6 What is your favorite type of project to take along on holiday/vacation?

Well since I haven't been on a vacation in forever and only started knitting this year, I'm digging into the past for this one. Projects I have taken with me before would be cross stitch projects that I was currently working on. Plus at least another depending on how far along I was on the current one. Oh no wait I thought of a "vacation" and craft! Women's retreat through my church last year I took my beads (some not all - I was good) and a plastic bead craft. I ended up making a bracelet while there in about 30 minutes. Well 5 really but it took that long to get the right length. Then with the plastic beads I was making little things and shared them (the beads and string) with the other ladies to make some too.

Now to comments :)
Thanks Bathooon for stopping by and voting on a button for Calorimetry! I did end up using the middle one. Which was the bigger dark green one. But I agree the lighter green would have worked as well with the colors. :)

My S.P. - thanks again. I've looked into this and most of the suggestions I'd seen were with a pencil. Which I thought would have made it even lighter than I'd need for starting. But I am pretty sure I have the right size hooks, I know I have cds and can get that size dowels for $1.99 USD.........which means I am breaking out the money in the next few days and will be making one of these to try. :D I'd still like to try to make one of the wagon wheel one eventually because they look really cool. This is my first Scout's Swag - I'm super exited because I want to make socks with it and I know you can use other weight yarns too but I wanted sock yarn for the first pair!

Well it's dinner time and the kids are BEGGING to be taken to the pool once we have eaten. Gotta dash!

Yay yarn!

I got my package the other day from adore1 on ravelry.com of the roving and yarn I purchased from her. I got two colorways of Spunky Eclectic roving in superwash corriedale (Party Dress from Dec. 2007 & Rosebud from May 2008) and one skein of Scout's Swag superwash BFL sock yarn in Lavender Mint. Pictures are below.




Party Dress roving






Rosebud roving



Scout's Swag Lavender Mint



After getting roving and yarn in the mail I went to look at Michael's and JoAnn's for supplies to make a spindle. I was reading online on what would be needed. I could find the dowels no problem. But could not find big enough wooden toy wheels to make the spindles. Neither store carried the ones big enough. I did find the hooks and bought some as they were only $1 usd. I got home and looked online for the wheels and found the solid and the wagon wheels that I have seen in some spindles. Found here: http://kitkraft.biz/catalog/Wood_Wheel_2-p-2466.html and here: http://kitkraft.biz/catalog/Wagon_Wheel_Large-p-2460.html on Kit Kraft, Inc.'s website. The solid ones from what I have read should be at least 2" to work well. So I am biding (bideing? sp?) my time because in the long run I think it will be more fun to have made a spindle. Or at least a new challenge to see if it works. :D

I got a box!!!!

So my evil oldest daughter went to put the dog outside and came back in with a box.



When I went ..::squeeeeel::.. she hugged the darn thing to her and wouldn't let me have it! She instead asked me what was in it. LOL I told her I didn't know and wouldn't if she didn't give me the box. Then all three girls decided they needed to fight me over opening it and try to get their grubby little hands on my stuff before I could take pictures. I threatened them with boarding school in Siberia and they backed off. ;) hehe So with out further time wasting here are the pics of my funness or the day :D





I got some very pretty Filatura Di Crosa Dusk in Colorway 2, 2 soy candlesthat smell yummy, a cute card and some sugar-free green apple mints in the tin. :) Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!!

On the knitting front - Lily's scarf has been back burnered at the moment because I decided to be crazy and knit a baby blanket again. This time for my new niece or nephew due on Sunday. I figure since I won't be back up that way to spoil him/her yet until the 26th of this month - when we head that way for Mike's 10 year class reunion - that I have enough time to get it done. It's just a matter of learning how to read on my part. I've got the SSK and other confusion down that is in the pattern. But I had to tink back because I didn't read it right was was only repeating the last two lines of the repeat pattern portion. Oops! But here is what it looks like before the tinking had to happen.



The pattern is from Leisure Arts Baby Ripples to Knit #3159 By Melissa Leapman. Eyelet Ripple (pattern #3 in the book) is what it is called.

Oops......

I forgot to post the link to the Hurt Book Sale earlier so here it is. Sounds likebooks are going fast. http://www.hurtbooksale.com/

QOW # 5

Boy, time flies. Summer is when many of us head out on vacation/holiday. So, this week's question/s has us wondering:

1) Where is your favorite place to go for vacation/holiday?

2) Where is one place you'd like to go?

Ok #1 was already talked about in a previous post - Rice Lake in lake Linden, MI. But I think what made it so great was spending time away with not just my immediate family but my grandparents (dad's side) and aunts and uncles as well. Like for Thanksgiving we used to go to my Uncle Ted's in Indiana with my Nana (mom's side) and pick up my Aunt Paula in Ohio on the way. But even then I never had to go far away for that we almost always spent most of our summer vacation, spring break, etc. at one of my relatives houses.

#2 I've always wanted to go to Italy because my mom's family is from there. My Nana Simone (my mom's grandma/nana) was born there and moved here, got married raised kids - the whole nine yards. But that ha always been my dream vacation and to go to England at least once. And my hubby does not want to leave the country to travel - ugh.

On the knitting front.....I've been told a package will be on its way to me soon - yay! I've got another one almost ready for my pal. And I bought some roving and Scout's Swag from another ravelry person adore1. I got two Spunky Eclectic club rovings - yum! I have to wait for them to get here so I can post them for you to see - but I am super excited and now am thinking about that drop spindle even more. There is one Etsy store that had some at about the right weight for super prices - Ford4him.

Amy told me about this sale last night from Interweave Press called the Hurt Book Sale. Some of the books either have some minor damage or were a huge overstock and are all 50% - 75% off until July 18th. Yes, I ended up buying some books.......not all that I had in my cart because I didn't have $80 to spend. :-D But I got myself "Spin It" and "Getting Started Knitting Socks". I believe the sock book was the only one on my wishlist so I removed it from there.

Lunch time now and then cleaning before weight loss challenge's last night unless we continue again. Later :)

Geeks to squirrels......

Friday was fun. We were in DeWitt at this itty-bitty park right in the heart of downtown. We were celebrating the 4th as well as my Nana's 90 b-day (that was in March). Of course being the nice aunt that I am - I bought my niece a new toy. :-D Julia had to help he play it of course - cuz she has to be helpful to everyone..........just like her mommy was.



And she loved it even if she wouldn't let me hold her the stinker! I wouldn't expet anything different from my brother's kid.



I did have to laugh at my brother back at Easter time. He was complaining that he is fat. The boy is FINALLY packing pounds onto his 6'2" frame and has reached 190 lbs. He then stated "I have to weigh more than you do." To which I laughed because if I weighed 190 lbs I'd be dancing for joyas to how close to my goal weight I'd be. Then he said "Well then you're fat." Love you too brother, love you too.

The one thing I was bummed about was that I was close to a yarn store and it was of course closed for the holiday. :( Guess I'll see if they are open around Christmas time when we next travel that way.......well I doubt they will bopen on Christmas eve. Darn!

On the knitting front - I finished calorimetry - yeah again I know. But this time........it FITS!!!! And here are some pics of it and Lily's scarf - my go at seed stitch. :)



So the hubby is picking on me and saying that Amy and I are big dorks. Then he goes on to try to call us geeks and it comes out squirrels.......um no not quite dear. Hence the title - I thought it worked well.

Today we went out to dinner for Becca's b-day - she's seven now. I would have pics of it but the batteries ended up in my mouse from the camera........ So I am charging more for later use. But in the meanwhile here is a pic or two of her knitting the other day. :)

QOW # 4

Are.....1) What yarn (that you don’t have/haven’t used) would make your stash “complete”? 2) What yarn do you never want to be without?

Hmmmmmm tough question since I haven't used a lot of yarn yet.

#1 Oh had to change my answer after re-reading the question. Um I'm looking forward to getting some KnitPicks Gloss to make Knitty's Thermal with. SO many pretty colors. It's so hard to choose just one.....may have to make more than one Thermal. :)

#2 Any kind of soft baby yarn. You can do so many things with it. I have a ton that I bought to make my youngest (now almost 7 on Sunday!) sweaters and blankets and such......and never did. But they make great scarves, hats, headbands, dolly blankets and baby blankets. :)

**Edited to add link to Knitty's Thermal http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/PATTthermal.html

Bleh

Still no luck remembering my pin number for my debit card. I think I have it but don't have any reason to go out and buy something. And after going through all my junk in my house - could not find it anywhere. I know I have it but it's not where I looked which means it could be anywhere. So I broke down today and called my bank and got a new pin sent to me at a $5 fee. Ack! But I can use my debit card again in a week. Meanwhile most likely I will find it sometime before the new one comes in - that's my luck. I'm feeling super sleepy right now......has nothing to do with being up until almost 2 am reading Nora Robert's "The Hollow". Um nope nothing to do with that.

On the knitting front - I finished Calorimetry. Yes, again - but this time it fits and I have a button on it!!! :-D And then I started Lily's scarf because as she asked me yesterday "When are you gonna be done knitting stuff for yourself?" Mind you that sounds like I have knit a bazillion things since finishing Becca's scarf. Nope just two in the same pattern and one a few more times due to size issues. So I cast on a scarf for her in seed stitch just to try it. It's looking really pretty with the purple/blue yarn she finally picked from my stash. That was the other thing I would have started her scarf a long time ago but she didn't want any of the stash yarn I had. She wanted pink.......I have no pink other than what her sister picked for her scarf. Ugh. Will take pics and post them later. I was told by Amy I have to take a pic of me wearing Calorimetry. I will but I have to shower and clean up the mess I made first because it's weight loss challenge night tonight.