I can't believe...

I can't believe how long it has been since my last blog post. LOST is over for good, and I got plenty of use out of my hot water bottle cover, because it was a long and COLD winter. That's saying a lot, since I live in South Texas. Back in February, I signed up for the Twisted Toes Sock Club out of my favorite LYS Twisted Yarns. I've completed one pair of socks, I'm nearly finished with the second pair and picked up (and started) the third pair today. I will have to post pictures in a later blog, because I don't believe that I've taken any yet.

Since my last post, my hubby and I purchased, renovated and have moved into our first home. We're very excited! Though, I'm still trying to figure out where I'm going to keep my yarn stash.

Here's hoping a mid-year resolution sticks...

Until next time. :)

LOST with Hot Water Bottles

So, apparently my C drive is full on my computer, which is rather confusing to me, mainly because I actually have 2 hard drives, each of which is partitioned twice, which means that I have 3 other places that things should go... none of which is actually on my C drive. So, as things are moving I thought I'd do a little update...



I've mostly finished my little brother's birthday present. I will refer to it as such until his birthday (in May), so he is not tempted to find out what it is ahead of time by checking my blog. :) So, since that project is hovering at the moment, because I hit a minor snag, which Mom assures me IS fixable (thank God!) I have moved on to a cover for my hot water bottle. I've been meaning to knit myself a hot water bottle for some time, I just hadn't gotten around to it what with all the scarves I was busy knitting for half of the planet. So, over the weekend, after knitting the "class sock" from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks, I started working on a cover. It a Lion Brand pattern that's knit with 2 strands of Cotton-Ease. Unfortunately, I didn't have any Cotton-Ease on hand, but I did have some Cream & Sugar cotton yarn. I also didn't really want a solid color, so I'm using a strand of purple with a strand of white. Here's the picture I took last night while working on it, sort of a view from above:

I really love how it's turning out. I'm hoping to finish it while watching 3 hours worth of LOST tonight. I can't believe that it's finally to the last season. I remember when the show started! I cracked up this morning at a brief interview the local news station had done with Michael Emerson (who plays Ben). They asked him what the top 5 questions most LOST fans would have and he said, "Well, the number one would have to be, 'What the hell have I been watching for 5 years?!'" Oh, so true! If you haven't watched LOST, I highly suggest it, but you MUST start at the beginning, b/c otherwise you won't understand what is going on. I started in season 2, and had caught part of season 1 when it was on, but still had to go back and watch 1.

More next time...

Ok, so it's been a while...

Between my birthday, carpal tunnel, Thanksgiving and Christmas... things have been a little crazy, to say the least. After the Yarn Crawl, I started working secretly on DH's birthday present, a scarf. Needless to say, by the time his birthday ACTUALLY got here, it was no where close to being finished and I ended up wrapping it up with a needle still attached to it and told him I'd finish it after I finished all the Christmas knitting I was still tirelessly working on.

I still haven't actually counted the number of scarves that I knitted/crocheted over the course of 9+ months, but it's hovering somewhere around 20. My mom LOVED her crocheted scarf, which I'd finished in April and had been hiding for months on end. She later informed me that one of her co-workers also loved it and wanted to make off with it. I'm pretty sure she'd fight to the death to keep that scarf. :)

I also knitted or crocheted a scarf for my entire department at work, plus about 5 other select work friends. They all loved them, of course, which was great. :) I take that back, I did make the one guy in our department a tie, b/c he wears them every day, even though it's not in the dress code. I knew DC would get a real kick out of having a knitted tie.

I belatedly mailed my BFF and her husband (my other BFF) their ties last week, after our cold snap. Melissa text me and let me know that she was wearing her's around even though it was 74 degrees outside. :) She cracks me up!

More than anything, I'm happy that I finally get to work on some projects for myself. I finished up DH's scarf this morning, and I need to wash and block it, so he can wear it next winter. :) I finished up my yoga socks, though, one is longer than the other. I'd really like to learn the Two Socks on Two Circs method for sock knitting. I signed up for the Twisted Toes Sock Club at my fave LYS last week and I can't wait to get started next month.

I'm nearly finished with some fingerless mitts that I'm making myself, and I'm about to get started on my brother's birthday present, since his bday is in late May. DH and I are house hunting again and we hope to be moving sometime this summer so I'd like to have any gift knitting done well ahead of time. I'd hate to be packing/moving/gift knitting all at the same time. At least I can hope to have power for this move. Packing without electricity in September is not as fun as you might think. :)

Well, I think that's it for now. I need to upload picts from my phone and camera for my next post. Until next time...

Hill Country Yarn Crawl 2009

Mom and I had a fabulous time at the Hill Country Yarn Crawl over the weekend. Jon dropped me off at Mom's office in San Antonio on our way into town and Mom and I left her office to hit up The Yarn Barn and Yarnivore both in San Antonio. At Yarn Barn I picked up some Encore yarn for my SIL's husband's scarf, and I also got a free skein of yarn and a pattern. At Yarnivore, I picked up many skeins of Ella Rae for my SMIL's scarf and they gave us a "Yarn Requirement" laminated pamphlet which Mom and I will now use every time we walk into any yarn store. :) We went home with our many purchases, where Mom went digging through her stash for yarn for my MIL's scarf and found it... I LOVE free yarn! I also went through Mom's extra circular needles and DPNs and stocked up on those.


Saturday had a VERY early start. My BFF, Melissa and her husband live in Round Rock and Mel works at as a vet in Georgetown. We wanted to meet her for breakfast before she went to work. She had to be at work at 8, so we met her at 7am... we left my parent's house at 5 am to drive up there. It was REALLY early!


After a great breakfast with Melissa and Sean, we started our crawl through the Austin stores. We were stalking the first store, Bluebonnet Yarn Shoppe in Cedar Park, starting at 9. The store wasn't supposed to open until 10, but the shop owner got there early and opened at 9:30 for us! It was great! She had 60% off her sale yarns and Mom and I stocked up on eyelash and fur yarns. I saved over $70 off of the regular price! Next, we ran over to Gauge in Austin, where I picked up some Berroco yarn for my SILs hat (she's not in to scarves) and some wool for spinning. The wool is a very fun light turquoise/pink/purple color. The next stop was a surprise stop for Mom. I'd told her we didn't have time to stop by a needlepoint shop that she'd wanted to check out in Austin, but since I was navigating, I was able to con her into going. Pretty much we got to the parking lot and she was totally surprised. :)



After the needlepoint shop, we went over to Hill Country Weavers, where we got a free skein of yarn and 7 different patterns! Yay! They had a wonderful/overwhelming selection of yarns and many knitted/crocheted/ etc. projects throughout the store. I picked up some Rowan yarn for my SFIL's scarf and some super fun Jitterbug sock yarn for me. Next, Mom and I found an Arby's for lunch, and to the right is the picture that I took of my bag FULL of yarn that was behind my seat in the car. I sent it via text to my brother (who also has an iPhone) to show my husband whom he was golfing with at the time.


Our last stop in Austin was at The Knitting Nest. It was pretty cool. There wasn't a lot of selection, but they did have some guys in there who have made a business of recycling yarn. They hit up the Austin vintage stores and buy old sweaters which they unravel, re-skein and sell. They had some really great stuff. Our last stop of the day was Old Oaks Ranch in Wimberley. They are an active alpaca farm and I picked up the MOST WONDERFUL 100% alpaca yarn for my FIL's scarf. Luckily, there's 600 yards of it, so I'm hopefully to make a little something for myself out of it. Mom even bought some, b/c it was so wonderful and soft! After Old Oaks, we headed home. It had been a really, really long day.


On Sunday, Mom and I drove up to Stonehill Spinning in Fredricksburg. Since they didn't open until 10, we stopped by a little coffee shop in downtown Fredricksburg for a great breakfast. We didn't pick up anything (except our free gift) at Stonehill, but Mom was able to get some information on rug hooking classes that they offer. Our next stop was our yarn store in Comfort, The Tinsmith's Wife. This is one of my FAVORITE yarn stores in the area. They have a huge selection (and kitties roaming the store), and everyone there knows my mom. I was able to get some sock yarn for me, a cashmere scarf kit for Jon, and a gift for Mom. Of course, I had to banish her to another part of the store until my purchases were made. :)


Our last 2 stops were in Boerne. We went to Rosewood Yarns first. They have a pretty good selection of yarns, but they're really big on spinning and have a great selection of wool and other spinning supplies. Our last stop was at Ewe and Eye. They have an ok selection of yarn, but they are also a needlepoint shop and a high-end toy store. They seemed very disorganized and never gave us a gift. Sadly, this didn't surprise us, since its a store we have been to on a number of occasions.


Mom and I had a blast, but I'm still not caught up on my sleep! Many more projects to come from all my new yarns! :)

Many, Many New Things...

I've finished many a project in the past couple of months, and I'm going to strive to update my blog more often. One problem is that I'm just bad about taking pictures of my FOs (finished objects) in a reasonable amount of time. Here are many of my recently FOs:

Luz's Afghan

Waterfall Scarf (#7)

Magic Scarf (Checked)(#12)

Jake's Scarf (#6)

Scarf #8

Scarf #10

Here are many of my recently finished objects. The first is an afghan which I made for my mother-in-law's housekeeper. Luz is a wonderful member of the family. The Waterfall Scarf is from the book 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders. The Magic Scarf is from Crazy Aunt Purl's Drunk, Divorced & Covered in Cat Hair. Jake's Scarf is a free pattern from Lion Brand. I made it for my friend Jake who is currently serving in Iraq. He won't be able to use it over there, but he can when he gets back in Jan/Feb. Scarf #8 is the Ribbed-For-Her-Pleasure Scarf from Stitch 'N Bitch. Scarf #10 is the One-Skein Scarf from Stitch 'N Bitch: The Happy Hooker.

I'm definitely happy that my regular TV schedule is back in full swing. It means lots of time for knitting and crochet. I can tell that my yarn-stuffs production definitely had a down-swing during the summer months. Unfortunately, I have started finishing projects much faster than before. So, at the moment, I'm knitting dishcloths until I have new projects on my list. I still have plenty of Christmas knitting and crochet to do before the holidays, so I'll be plenty busy!

I'll be back again soon!

The Socks are FINISHED!

Hello all! It's been a while, but I have just completed my first pair of socks. Yes, both of them are finished! I'm so stinkin' excited! They were made using a 4 set of size 3 double-pointed needles (dpns) and a stretchy sock yarn I bought at Michael's. It's called Patons Stretchy Socks. I see many, many pairs of socks in my future, b/c they are super easy to tote around in your purse to a wide variety of places. Trust me, I've taken them almost everywhere! :)

My First Sock(s)

I'm so excited! I just completed my first sock of the pair! The pattern is from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders. They are the Picot Edge Socks. I'm using Patons Stretch Sock yarn in Licorice.

Yes, I am aware that they sell socks at places like Wal-Mart and Target, and that I don't have to make my own.

And, yes, these socks are for me! :)