Taking A Saturday Morning Off

The Tall Guy and Baby Boy B had some furniture to pick up on Saturday so it was decided (by me) that they didn't need me to pick it up, so I got the morning off (given to me by me).  I figured it was a good morning to go to the knit shop and hang out.  I already knew that I wanted a Madtosh for a sweater for Mona Lisa and with a wee bit of help, we decided this color way would be great.  D

Did you realize that Madtosh is super wash?  I sure didn't.  It makes all the more nicer to work with.  I cannot start on it, though until I get my camp show and tell done.

While at the shop, friend and knitter Becky came in.  We surprised each other at being there.  Last week when we were together, I told her I'd be busy on the old house until August and probably wouldn't be back to regular schedule knitting then.  And she generally doesn't show up on Saturdays if she doesn't know who is going to be there.

Becky and I have similar tastes and she is always a good one to bounce ideas off too.  Only problem, she can easily lead me astray.  Before you know it, I am ordering a mesh Walker bag and tool case in my fave colors.

Then, we start talking Liberty Wool.  You see, Becky is Liberty Wool collector.  She has hundreds of skeins of Liberty Wool, knows the name of every color way they make and carries a list of her inventory with her just in case,

Ok, so you think you know where this is leading don't you?!  Well, I did not succumb to any new Liberty Wool yarn, mainly because the shop did not have what I want AND Fiber Wild had it on sale for 20% off AND well, I am trying to be better about my yarn purchases.  But, I did pick up this book.  Maybe for Fall.

After I got home on Saturday, I really wanted to buy some Liberty Wool to start this sweater, but I remembered that I have a bit of Sonic Lavendar in my stash AND that I am trying not to buy yarn so willy nilly, so I set my mouse to searching and came up with something that would fit the bill for the Summer of Shawls AND use up stash.

But, the deal is I cannot cast on anything new until I finish my camp show and tell project, which has hit a bit of a snafu which I must sort out before going forward.

I had a wonderful Saturday morning off, it felt so good to have some normalcy back at least on the knitting side.

Note to Self

Do not buy without trying on things first.

Do not buy jeans that have decoration on the back pockets, even if they say slimming on the tag.

Look at a book in person before buying.

You can sew, go sew yourself some of those flippy little skirts if you want one.

Get your butt up, in your tennies and get walking or you will always have those hips!

Stop eating fries that are seasoned.  Your body does not like them.

Thats all for today.

Wednesday Website - A Day Late

Marly Bird and Amy Detjen

You have to listen to this podcast with Marly and Amy.  I am a fan of both of them and this podcast was so much fun to listen to.

The One Where I Go A Little Nuts

I hate to shop in stores.  I love to shop online and have it delivered to me.  I just wish that everything I buy online fit me.  You know where a size 14 is a size 14 is a size 14.

It has been a while since I have shopped for anything but paint and screws and lamps and stuff for the house.  It seemed as though it was time I did a bit of fun shopping. And so I did.  All from the comfort of my chair!

I cannot wait until the UPS guy/mailperson starts dropping them at my door.

From Jimmy Bean - I've been drooling over several sweaters from this magazine since it came out earlier this Spring.  After seeing yet another sweater out of it, I decided I had better get it before I couldn't get the magazine.

At the tea on Saturday, Vicki gave this book away a a door prize.  Almost sight unseen, I had to get it.  Knit Picks had their books 40% off.

Part of the conversation at my table on Saturday revolved around this book and since I could get it for 40% off, I figured I had better take advantage of it.  While I was at it, I bought a bottle of soak so I could free shipping. Yep, I hear you.

So as long as I was shopping, I tried again on Amazon to get a table to go with my rockers on the porch.  I have been to all of the local home improvement stores and our local Walmart looking for a table to put on the table that could hold my coffee.  Finally, in stock at Amazon and just what I was looking for.

 While there, I noticed they had stools to match to, so I added one to my cart.  I kind of have short legs and like to rock with them on a stool.  This will save me from bringing my one from the house all of the time.

My real purpose in booting up Amazon was to find some china storage containers.  My mom had hers in these.  What a smart idea, so now when I need to get them out of the cabinet in the basement, it will be a bit easier.

The madness continued today when I got an email from Christopher Banks that their Summer tees, shorts and pants were on sale.  Suffice it to say, I blindly bought some stuff.  They may have to go back, but with free shipping what can I say?  Funny thing is I bought some short skirts and a skort.  I'll blog when I get them if they are a winner.

And finally, I bought a pair of sandals from Zappos.  They should be here tomorrow.  Too bad the Tall Guy gets home before me.

Making Some Progress

Yesterday, I took the day off from all things house.  It felt really good.  I went to a Summer Tea at friend Vicki's house.  Not only does she have a lovely home, but she is an extraordinary hostess/pastry chef/cook.  It was a super fantastic time eating, drinking and knitting.  Just a wonderful afternoon!

This morning, I actually slept in past 6 am, which really helped the attitude.  The Tall Guy got started on my list for the current house today by putting up my blinds in the spare room, installing the towel racks in the main bath and with the help of Baby Boy B, they got our microwave installed and functional.

While he was working on the list, I retreated into the basement to work on last week's pile of boxes that we brought over.  I brought out my Summer accessories aka my flipflop collection, for the basement dining area.

I, also, am getting my upstairs in shape for the coming 4th of July party we always have for my aunties and mother-in-law.  I'm taking advantage of the stairs as I lost the hutch they normally reside on to the basement dining area.

I, also started hanging a few pics here and there.  I have not completely figured out where I want everything will go or even if I want all of the things I had on my walls at the old house in the new house.  It is a work in progress.

Late this afternoon, the skies started clouding up and I kind of wished for a nice thunderstorm.  As it turns out we had several.  It was a nice evening, just sitting in my chair with the lights out and watching the rains come and go.

I worked a bit on my Birds Nest Shawl from the KAL we are doing on the Knitaway Ravelry Group.

 I have to admit I have not made a lot of progress on it this last week as I am working on my Show and Tell project for Knitting Camp.  Yesterday, I sat down and mapped out how many rows I need to knit on it in order to have it blocking by July 5th.  3 a day.  Thats doable.

It feels so good to be making some progress.

It Is Official

Summer is here.  

And it would seem that I am not prepared.  I can't find any comfortable, stylish sandals.  I haven't lost the weight that I wanted to.  I don't have any decent shorts or capris to wear. My skin is whiter than white.  I'm just not ready.  And I am just not happy with myself.  

But - there is still a lot of Summer left and so tomorrow morning when I get up, it is time to start doing something about it.  Time to stop poo pooing it and make some changes!  

I'm ready Summer, bring it on!

Double Duty

I was so pleased when June Hemmons Hiatt finally released the updated POK.  I had a chance to buy it in 1996  and chose the Readers Digest Knitting book instead.

This book has everything you would need should your internet go down.  And it doubles as a workout tool should you need to have something handy to use.

Knitters Almanac

If you could hold the book on the right, you would know that it was a fave.  It is well worn, not necessarily from knitting everything in it, but from reading it.

Several years in a row, I had the notion that I would follow along and knit everything in the book in a year.  Yep, that happened like not at all.

A few years ago, Schoolhouse Press re-did the book in color and re-released it.  But of course, I had to own it and I am not sad that I did.

It is just that I love my first edition more.  

Some of My Favorite Knitting Books

This week I am going to share some of my favorite knitting books.  A year ago, I might have blogged a whole different list than this year.

The first of my favorite this year is Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls.  

It has to be a fave, just by counting the number of shawls from it that I have on the needles - four of em:

Stora Dimun
Feather and Fan Triangle Shawl
Wool Peddler's Shawl
Bird's Nest Shawl

And yarn for one other from the book, the Spanish Christening Shawl.  What can I say, I am on a shawl kick and it is the Summer of Shawls.

The Big Tease

I cannot post pictures of what I am working on because I want it to be a surprise. So, I'll just tell you about it and then show you sometime in July.

It is really cool.   It is out of a really soft yarn.  I am knitting on it most of the time.  For me, that is unheard of because I flit from project to project.

It took me forever to decide what the yarn wanted to be.  It started out to be a sweater, but I was really afraid of two things.  One, that I wouldn't have enough.  Second, that I would have enough and knit a sweater out of it and then wouldn't like the way the sweater fit or, gasp, I would lose weight and couldn't wear it for the rest of my life.

When I finally decided on what it wanted to be, I was afraid that I wouldn't like my choice.  But, tonight, I am into the second skein and I can see the graduation of color in it.

I am really liking it.  Really!

Wish I could show it to you, but you will have to wait.

Wednesday Website

http://www.chicagoknitsmag.com

Spaces to Knit

It is coming together, but there is still quite a bit to be done.  Today, the Big Guy are kind of sort of taking the day off.  No major moves, just gearing up to getting back to work tomorrow, you know the kind of work that pays for a new house.

Today, I am going to show you around my spaces to knit in the new house.

The living room and my new chair (it rocks, it reclines, I love rocking as you will see.)  In the old house, I was surrounded by my knitting stuff, but in the new house, I'm keeping this area clean and simple and ready for little people.

My secret project is being housed next to me in my table so I can knit on it while we are watching t.v.

The knitting room.  Originally, this was going to be the yarn room, but we decided to house the yarn upstairs, out of the way for the most part, and I am so pleased about that.  This room is a work in progress, but my old ratty chair is being housed in there for now, and it is a great place to work on my computer, listen to podcasts/videocasts when the Tall Guy has went to bed.  It has great light and I can put my stuff all around me if I want.

My project for this space is my Birds Nest Shawl from over at the Spring KAL on the Ravelry Knitaway group.

The porch space.  The Tall Guy surprised me with these two rockers.  I thought that I might get to sit out there when it rained and knit, but after last night, it appears that will not be the case.  But, this space will get a lot of knitting time this Summer.  I see it as a great space to knit when I take a day off and my knitting friends join me for a bit of knitting.  And we tend to spend a bit of time out every night drinking coffee or chai in the Summer time, just to cool off and decompress before bed.

My front porch project is some dishcloths for the kitchen.  Perfect project where it doesn't matter if you get a bit of outdoor matter in them.

And finally, the upstairs rocker.  I don't have a project for there yet, but there are plenty of project bags that are just waiting for me to open them up.  I won't spend a whole lot of time up there, but it is nice to have options.

What I like the most about my spaces, is that wherever I am knitting, there is going to be plenty of light to see what I am knitting.

I love my spaces to knit!

Stash Dash 2014

I've decided to participate in the Knit Girllls' Stash Dash 2014!  If you don't watch/listen to their knitting video cast you should.  The premise of Stash Dash is to knit from stash.  For more details, you can read about it over on their Ravelry group page, Stash Dash 2014 .

We all know that knitting from stash  is not a problem since moving said stash to the new house.  I did whittle it down a bit, by donating some of it and passing on bags to fellow knitters that would definitely use it more than I would in this lifetime.

A really cool thing I found through the group is the above ticker.  Heck, that is worth the price of admission!  Stay tuned in the coming weeks to see how my stash is dwindling.

Big Grin!

Happy Birthday Jo!

Tomorrow Is The Day

The movers are coming.  Tomorrow night we will sleep in the new house.  I will miss this little old house that we have live in for almost 37 years.  We have raised two fine boys here, watched them grow up and become young men we are quite proud of.  We have celebrated here, we have cried here, we have cramped family in every nook and cranny for celebrations, we have laughed a lot here and we certainly have had a lot of fun here.

But, I can hardly wait to see what the future brings in the new house.  I am so excited to get over there and get some normalcy back in our lives.

Of course, we still have to come back and give this old house some tender loving care before it goes on the market, but thats a couple of blogs away.

For now, I'll sign off and blog later this weekend when our internet is up at the new house.  Hopefully, from the front porch in my new rocking chairs with some knitting in my hand!

Summer of Shawls 2014

I realize that Summer really doesn't come until much later in the month, but the last couple of days have brought 90 degree weather to Central Illinois and we broke down today and turned the air on at the "old" house.

                                   

I have a couple of sweaters on needles for Summer, but really not all that wild about knitting on them right now.  My focus it would seem once again this Summer is to be shawls as is evident by the ones that I am currently knitting on.   

None of the shawls that I am knitting on really are shawls that I would call "Summer Shawls", unless I have them done by Knit Camp in July.  The room in the hotel can be quite cold and can definitely warrant a nice wooly shawl to wear.  

There are a few on my list for Summer that can be worn over a t-shirt and I'll leave those to blog about as we really get into Summer.  In the mean time - 

The Pi Shawl from Madlinetosh Pashmina resides in my purse for knitting when I might get a stolen chance to do so.  Today, after a long, hot weekend of packing, putting in the car and taking out at the new house, the Pi Shawl called to me tonight to just sit and knit mindlessly on it.  I still have it on the 16" needles and think I'll leave it there until the next go round of increases, 48 rows from now. 

 I have another shawl in my Silver Pumpkin project bag, but I am keeping it under wraps for now.  I'll bring it out to show off later this Summer.  Suffice it to say, it is a lovely feeling yarn and I cannot wait to see how this one develops.  Stay tuned for the reveal later this Summer.

I am seriously loving knitting on my Birds Nest Shawl.  This is a KAL over on the Knitaway group that I have blogged before about.  Funny thing is, normally, I am not a very monogamous
knitter, but I am finding that I am knitting on this one quite a bit.  It offers just a bit of lace and a chart that is fairly easy to keep tabs on coupled with a purl row every other row.

 What shawls are you knitting on this Summer?