I Nearly Spent the Night in my Car

We had horrible storms last night. A front came through with strong winds and rain. I got caught in it on my commute home. Apparently some power lines were down on the road, along with tress and signs and such. I was stuck on the highway for 3 hours and it took me another hour and a half winding through side streets. My 1 hour commute turned into a 5 hour trek. Luckily I brought my knitting! The picture on the left is where I was on this new sock when I left work yesterday. The right is where I am this morning. 3 hours of car knitting and listening to podcasts. It started out ok but was brutal at the end. When I got home I took a hot bath and went straight to bed!

I finished a couple things this last week. I got all of those baby sweaters finished and blocked this weekend. And I've gotten most of them delivered. I had them all laying out on my bed like in the picture below and they were ALMOST dry and of course my cat got involved. She just so happened to puke right on one of them! Of all the places! She's done this before to me with a quilt I was basting. So the washing started over.

I also finished my Zigzagular Socks. I wasn't sure that I would like this pattern, since I'm not a huge fan of cables. But I googled it and figured out how to do these without a cable needle so it went much faster. I was actually able to memorize the pattern too so they went pretty fast and I was able to finish them in September!

I got a beautiful skein of yarn a while back. As I've mentioned before I'm in Cannon Hand Dyes Gone with the Wind Club and this was the August skein and I just now got a picture of it. Each skein is inspired by a quote from the book and this one is Rhett through Scarlett's green eyes. "Arrogant devil, isn't he?"

Last is a card that I send out this week. I made it a LONG time ago and have always thought it was so pretty but didn't have a reason to use it. I finally got to send it out because of a Halloween/Fall Swap in the For the Love of Letters group on Ravery. It left on it's way to my swap partner earlier this week. I love this group. There are monthly post card and special delivery swaps. We are doing swaps for Christmas too. I've met so many lovely ladies through this group.

Books I've finished lately were The Splendour Falls and Guests on Earth. I loved both books. If you haven't noticed I like historical fiction! Right now I'm about to finish The Breath of Snow and Ashes, the 6th in the Outlander series.



Arrrggg...

I started this post last Friday on National Talk Like a Pirate Day, so hopefully that explains the title. But it well explains my mood this week. I think things are taking a turn for the better today but up until now I've been in a foul mood.

I started a new pair of socks a couple weeks ago and I've finished 1. But I've had to put them aside for baby sweaters this week. They are the Zigzagular Socks by PrairieGirlSusie and I'm using Poste Striping Yarn from Simply Socks Yarn Co. in the Ibiza colorway. They are a little Halloween-ish but ok for all year long. I really like them and the pattern is fun too.

I also finished a pair of mitts in Knit Picks Galileo. The yarn is yummy, I haven't used it before and I only had 1 ball from a sampler kit I bought last year. I would love to make a whole sweater in this stuff soon. It's very soft and a little shiny. An I'm really liking sport weight yarn right now. I think it will be a really good weight for our Texas winters which can be pretty cold but never for long.

Now for the baby sweaters. Everyone around me seems to be breeding lately. Some of these babies are already here but some are not yet born. I've finished up 3 this week!

I spent some time reorganizing my stash recently also. It's taking up 6 tubs! It was hard to bring everything out in the open but I like being able to see it all now. It's easier to remember all the wonderful things I have planned for it like this!

Holiday Knitting

We spent the holiday weekend at Lake Palestine again. It is quickly becoming our favorite place on earth. We got to sleep inside this time! Though both little guys ended up in our full size bed, so I actuall think I slept better in the tent last time. Bugs and all! We had jet skis this time, so the older kids were out on them all day and the little guys swam in the cove. My husband fished pretty much up until we left on Monday.

I knitted...not very exciting, but I worked on Dylan's florescent socks. I actually finished them last night and he was wearing them when I woke him up this morning. Mom scores!

In the last couple weeks I also finished up the Zuzu's Petals and blocked it last week. I love it. In fact I'm making another one. So I'll have one and my bestie can have one.

Last thing. I finished Project 3 for Camp Loopy!!! I was starting to think that I was going to have another sweater in my WIPs with no sleeves. But the last week of August I found my motiviation and finished the sleeves in a couple days each. I was off unexpectedly when one of my kiddos broke out in a weird rash. So that day knitting really helped. So I finished with a few days to spare. I haven't blocked it yet. In fact I haven't ever blocked anything this big so I'm a little intimidated. Have you seen that The Loopy Ewe is going to do a Loopy Academy?!?! So it's like Camp Loopy all year long. I am totally sucked in and I'm planning my projects. The time frame is a little easier. There is still 3 projects, but you have 4 months to finish them all.

Reading update: my summer reading bingo challenge ended on Labor Day. I am proud to say that I bingo'ed twice, almost 3 times and read a total of 19 books. Now the whole reason for this challenge was to get my son to read and he read 2 books. I'm not going to call this a fail but I was hoping for more. BUT it is 2 more books than he would have read normally. My husband compared it to having a challenge with Tiger Woods saying "Let's see who can hit more golf balls." I just wish that he enjoyed books more!

My finished books have been Eldest and Artemus Fowl. Both books that I bought for my son and he hasn't read. Eldest was ok but I really likes Artemus Fowl. I'm still plugging along slowly re-reading Gone with the Wind, one part per month along with the Cannon Hand Dyes group in Rav. Next up will be Guests on Earth or Splendour Falls. I haven't decided yet. I am catching up on podcasts right now. I got way behind with all the travel lately.

 

Motivation Wanted

I am lagging behind on my Camp Loopy Project #3. For some reason I have lost all of my motivation right here toward the end. I have to body and 1 sleeve done, 1 sleeve and the ribbed edging to do. My goal was to do the 2nd sleeve this week, but I haven't picked it up at all! I blame work. And the fact that I picked a project the requires a cable needed. I don't really enjoy cabeling. Love the look though and I think I am going to love this sweater. If I ever finish it.

So instead of finishing my Rocky Coast I cast on 2 new projects since we last spoke. I started and finished a project in a couple days. I did a Zuzu's Petals in Lorna's Laces Honor. Using one of Jimmy Beans Wool's limited edition colors Besties. I LOVE this yarn and I got a couple skeins back in February to make something for my Besties! Zuzu was the perfect pattern for this soft and yummy yarn. I've barely broken into the second skein and I've make a Measure in Love hat in this yarn too. I definatly will make another Zuzu for my other friend and perhaps another hat. These will be Christmas gifts. Sorry but I haven't blocked it yet so I don't have any pictures.

My second procrastaknitting project is a pair of socks for my oldest son. He picked out the Fluromania yarn himself and has been asking when I would make his socks. I am using the Family Socks pattern again in the Mens size. This kid has grown so much this summer. He is adult sized already but I don't think he's done growing yet. I have to wrap my head around making him man sized stuff now! I am loving working with this yarn. This is my first time using Regia and it seems like it is going to be very rugged. I kind of want to make myself some Fluromania socks in a different color, but I normally like softer socks. But it is going to be perfect for my kid/man. 

I blamed my procrastiknitting on work earlier. We have so much going on right now. In addition to just the normal stuff we have 2 extra curricular "voluntary" projects going on too. One of them finished up yesterday! Yay! And the 2nd is due next week. On top of that we had some higher ups visiting this week. My boss's boss's boss was in the office for several days this week. The first day I totally forgot and wore jeans. We are normally pretty casual but like to look spiffy when we have visitors. So I got to do some unexpected shopping Tuesday morning. I think I did pretty good for a break time run to Target!

Reading: I finished Fool Moon and The Quick this week. Both were good. I would like to go back and listen to them both a little more closely though. On our trip we started listening to Eldest in the car with my kids. I am finishing it up now.

 

 

Summer Vacation

I've been out of pocket for a bit and this is why. We spent an amazing week in South Padre Island, TX with a stop off at Sea World in San Antonio. I have never enjoyed my kids so much. We are now beach people. It was perfect. We would get up and have breakfast, get to the beach about 10 and play around until about 1, have a late lunch then go back to our awesome rent house and nap until dinner! Then we'd watch movies together. It was my kind of vacation. I'm sure my husband would have rather been "doing something" but that just isn't restful for me. BUT the beach kept him busy enough I think. We may have found the perfect balance of doing and not doing to make everyone happy!

I got a couple things in the mail right before we left. They are both new to me dyers that I have been wanting to try for quite a while. First was Cannon Hand Dyes. I joined her Gone With the Wind club and this was the first shipment. It represents the red earth of Tara. It was a perfect start. I got mine in her Charlotte

 base which is 100% sw merino. Don't you just love her tag!!!

Then I finally got my hands on some KirbyWirby. This was a pre-order I caught for the #RBF (Google it!) colorway. It's more self striping sock yarn! 

I didn't get as much knitting done as I thought I would. As I alluded to earlier, I did A LOT of napping. But I did finish a couple things. I finished some child size socks in my rainbow Lollipop yarn. These will go to a birthday girl at the end of the month. I also finished another Sockhead for Fibernymph's Head to Toe KAL. July was head obviously. This one was out of The Cyborg's Craft Room in her Softwear base. Which was really yummy, you would think it was MCN but it's not. Just super soft. The colorway was Impromptu Dance Party!

My last finish was after the trip and I finished it on the very last day for Stash Dash. I'm # 269. I ended up with ALMOST 3k yards. Pretty good I think because most of my projects were completely new. I didn't finish any real WIPs. I just couldn't make myself work on those projects for some reason. But I did finish my second Carson shawl. It's not blocked yet so it will grow a lot. I really liked knitting it, even though it was for the second time. I did the extended border this time
 which I thought was really fun. It went much faster this time because I looked up how to do the twisted stitches without a cable needle.

Speaking of cable needles, I started my Camp Loopy Project #3! I'm doing a Rocky Coast Cardigan in MadTosh Vintage in Tart!! It was a splurge but I think it will be totally worth it. So far it is gorgeous! This is actually an old picture. I'm really almost done with the body. I think I am going to use this one a lot.

My reading wasn't very productive either on the trip but I did finish The Fiery Cross. It was sooo good! I've moved on from The Quick. I'll go back to it later, when I can think more. And I've started Fool Moon. The second in the Dresden Files series. It'll be fun and quick. Which is where my brain is these days. School is starting soon and I can feel the craziness coming!