Crazy Times

Due to unforeseen circumstances involving work, family, Mauricio, Rocky and internet usage I've not been able to blog much.

In the area concerning my knitting, I've not got much to show, or talk about for that matter. The only thing I've really worked on is my Rosalie Bay. It's coming along rather well. I'm in love with it. :) It's pretty mindless so I can work on it while I watch tv or am talking to someone or am so tired I can't really concentrate much.

I had to re-cast-on Titania. She was going to end up much much too small if I kept on the way that I was. I've not gotten past the ribbing yet on the new sock, but hopefully this on will fit.

For scarf travels (which is what I've been spending most of what free time I've had for knitting to work on) I've done 3 sections for each group, since I've last updated with any photos. I've also completed the entire round of sending and receiving for group 5. YAY!

Here are pictures of my newest knitted sections:

(Ones for group 3 are in the top row, ones for group 5 are in the bottom row0

For more information on whose is whose or patterns see: Group 3 Spoiler Photos and Group 5 Spoiler Photos

This is a mosaic of my scarf that has come back to me and all of the individual sections of it:

(For more see Scarf Travels - Group 5)

Here is a mosaic of all (minus on I didn't snap a picture of) the sections of scarves that I knit for group 5. (For more information see Group 5 Spoiler Photos)

I've also gotten some (more) new sock yarns. Claudine (black/teal/green/purple) and Pam (pinks) came for the August shipment of the VSC. I also bought some new handdyed yarn at Knit Las Vegas when I went there with Aynsley. I love how bright that one is! :) I need to get to the sock knitting!

In HSKS8 news:
Last week I received an awesome WWW! It really made me laugh, which was greatly appreciated in a stressful time. :) Thanks! Cassie C. :)
(See below, you can click on it to get a better look)
The day that it arrived in the mail Luke happened to be over. Mauricio came home and brought the mail with him and said, "Who's Fluer Sweeting?" And when I answered, "Me. That's my Harry Potter name." Both he and my brother cracked up. Apparently it's that funny. :) LOL I put on my new curse free ring on a certain finger and showed it to them both. ;)

(I almost think I'd rather have the diamond and 100 years of sleep, especially if I don't have to age in that sleep... and Maybe I'll just make Rocky sleep too, that way when i wake up I won't be lonely. LOL)

That's it for now. I should be blogging more regularly with any luck.

I finished my Monkeys... (and finally uploaded other photos)

I finished my Monkeys!I love them. They aren't perfect, but they are mine and I love them. :)

Feed the Monkey, Drown the Worm
PATTERN: Monkey
NEEDLES: US 2 / 2.75 mm
YARN: Yarn Pirate Merino/Tencel Sock (Jungle)

And for some old-ish scarf travels updates: These are my most recent finished sections. :)

GROUP 5
For ladydinc’s scarf
PATTERN: Scrunchable Scarf
NEEDLES: US 9/5.5 mm
YARN: Malabrigo Merino - emerald blue

GROUP 3
For knitwitty26’s scarf
PATTERN: Feather and Fan scarf (with mods)
YARN: Cascade 220 - 9476 (butter)
NEEDLES: Size US 8 / 5.0 mm

Project Updates and New Yarns (with Pictures!)

First of all we'll start with my projects and the very little progress that I have made on them... ;) Moving takes a lot of time so... yea, not much knitting has gotten done.

SCARF TRAVELS!

Here is a picture of my latest knitted section on the latest scarf that I had for group 5. I should say here's a a small picture of the section that I have knitted. Twin256 has a vertically knit scarf. it's turning out to be very beautiful.

For twin256’s scarf
PATTERN: lace pattern of my own,
only added 4 rows since the scarf is knit the long way.
NEEDLES: whatever was provided
YARN: Lion Brand Wool Ease - Peacock

Right now I am working on knitwitty26's yellow scarf. Since yellow doesn't rank in my top 10 favorite colors, I'm really happy that I had some buttery yellow Cascade 220 to use for this scarf. I will have that section in the mail on Friday so I'll get a picture up sometime near the end of this week. :)

I have finished my first Monkey!

I am so excited for these socks to be finished. I took pictures this morning and have done 2+ repeats since. I also frequently walk around with only one sock on just because it's so so so pretty. Even my mom said it was pretty, and she rarely compliments my knitting. She would rather I cross stitch or make hook rugs so that she could use them to decorate. Mostly she gives me a hard time, but she really liked my sock(s). :)

Feed the Monkey, Drown the Worm

RIP glynis
She's gone to the frog pond. :(

They weren't done for the KAL. That is actually as far as I ever got... Between Mom's birthday and moving and officiating and work and the millions of other things going on I never got very far. I am a little glad that I didn't though because they were too tight and too small for even my tiny feet... *SIGH*


The next sock project that I'm casting on for June is going to be Titania's Revenge with my diva yarn. I am insanely excited about this. I've been wanting to do these socks with this yarn for forever. I'll be casting on by tomorrow, and have more progress pictures at the end of the week. :) I should hopefully get these done this month. I signed up with them as a June project for the BSG group that I joined, I'm also doing the "June Jumble" with the cookie-a-long group, and kind of KAL-ing with Ronni... So those are a TON of motivational factors.

Also for the previoulsy mentioned BSG group I'd like to submit a lacy stole/scarf project for the Raider training (I signed up as a cylon, naturally). I'm torn between two of these at the moment and I really need to make up my damn mind. Which, is practically impossible on a good day, but there you go....

I either want to do the Three Sisters Scarves # Two with my seasilk that Ronni gave me or the Red Skies at Night scarf with my newly obtained volturi yarn. (I made screen shots for pictures for the visual aids.)

I really REALLY REALLY like both projects. The biggest pros for the seasilk scarf are that it's a pattern designed for 1 skein of EXACT yarn that I want to use. So I wouldn't have to worry about yardage or trouble in that area. Plus, I'd get to use my super super pretty soft seasilk... The pros for red skies are that I'd get to use some of my VSC yarn. I REALLY like this patteren, and I think that it would be beautiful with the volturi colorway. The problem with it is I will need to swatch and adjust the pattern to use all the yarn. The pattern as is only uses 200 yards of sock weight yarn, and I really have no use to have 240 yards left over. Plus I want the measurement to be both wider and longer. Either way it'll be a big undertaking and I'll have to make myself knit a certain amout every week so that I actually finish. I will probably ponder and mull this over for a couple more days and then make my decision. If anyone else wants to weigh in, I'd be more than happy for the opinions.

AND HERE ARE THE LATEST SHIPMENTS FOR MY YARN CLUBS!
(Which is my personal favorite part of the post.)

For this month's (May) nefarious:

Xenia Onatopp
on the Lyra (100% superwash merino) base
SWAG: wooden knitting needles from Russia, and a mini yarn skein (Also a piece of chocolate, but that was a melty gross mess that never got opened. What can I say it's 100 degrees outside here...)

The June VSC shipment...
Shipped out early because Jen is so awesome.
(Though this most likely means I have to wait over a month for my next shipment.)
I apologize for the ack of natural light in these pictures, the photos do the colors no justice at all. But the sun is down and I didn't want to wait until tomorrow.


This month I have Volturi and Jasper Hale on Silk Sock base.
(Listed as pictured from Left to Right.)
The pattern this time was "Volturi Sock" pattern, I've not gotten a good look at it yet. The shipment went to my mom's house and I barely got home from there. I also got swag this month, a little stitch marker from "bananamigraine," a horror movie soap with Bella and Edward from the twilight movie poster (I just wonder what Mauricio will say if I leave that in the shower. hahaha), and a pen that says "I <3>

Scarf Travels updates

Here are the pictures of the last two scarf sections that I knitted and sent off. I'm going to need to get to work on the next rounds.. but I haven't brought ALL of my yarns to the new place yet...

"WEST" GROUP (Group Number5)

For Kaloula’s Scarf 

PATTERN: Diagonal Knot Stitch Scarf 

YARN: Berrocco Peruvia Colors (7229) 

NEEDLES: Size 9 (US) - provided with scarf

INTERNATIONAL GROUP (Group Number 3)

For kimmikat’s scarf 
PATTERN: Provided by Kimmikat 
YARN: Malabrigo Merino (Cactus Flower) 
NEEDLES: Size US 8 / 5.0 mm

Today I'm going to go pack up the rest of my stuff and clean out my old room. Then I can get to knitting more. I did some work on both my Glynis and my Monkey socks this week, but not much and not enough to post about... PLUS, I do not have my camera yet, or if I do I don't know where it is. LOL Moving is a real pain in the ass. 

Scarf Travels updates, WIP progress, and yarn pr0n

I haven't posted about my scarf travels group in a while, so I'm going to do that first. Here's a picture of the latest on that I've added to and sent out. It's Tesso1's scarf for the "West" group. I used some of my Manos and the pattern was "the Prismatic Scarf." I REALLY like this pattern. I'm considering making a scarf using it and some malabrigo. I'm incredibly reluctant to though because I have sever finish-itis when it comes to scarves.

(All pattern links go to the ravelry page for that pattern.)

PATTERN: The Prismatic Scarf
NEEDLES: US 8 / 5.0 mm
YARN: Manos del Uruguay (Q or Calypso)

I've got the next round of scarves already. They both need to be sent off Friday May 15th so I'll be working on those. I already have yarn picked out for Kimmikat's it's just a matter of sitting down and doing the knitting. It'll go quick though. I think I've picked my yarn for the other one, but I'm looking for patterns to go with it still. I'll add pictures and update more when I have some progress.

I've been knitting on Cookie A socks like crazy. I've got monkeys and glyniss OTN. Monkeys are because I'd never done them and started them on my San Diego vacation, only to have to frog. And the Glynis are part of a KAL on Ravelry.

Here's my monkeys: (AKA "Feed the Monky, Drown the Worm")
I'm on the foot now, but this morning when I took the picture I was in the middle of the gusset. I really love the way these are turning out. They aren't perfect, but I think I love them more for that.

PATTERN: Monkey
NEEDLES: US 2 / 2.75 mm
YARN: Yarn Pirate Merino/Tencel Sock (Jungle)

They were named after a song by the Falcon, "Feed the Monky, Drown the Worm (or Goin' Home)" I picked this song because it mentioned "Money, and the "drown the worm" made me think of tequila which is defnitely something drank on the vacation for which these socks were started.

Here's Glynis (AKA "Queen of Pain")
I've not progressed uch on these. I tried to work on them last night but I was too tired to not mess up and of the lace or keep track of what I was doing. More than likely, they won't be finished in May. But I'm trying. :)

PATTERN: Glynis
NEEDLES: US 2 / 2.75 mm
YARN: Cosmic Fibers Yarn Andromeda (CoS)

Named "Queen of Pain" after the Alakline Trio song. Why?? Because sssk's and k3tog's are not only PITAs they hurt my hands.

And for my favorite part of the post. :)

I got quite a bit of yarn this week in the mail... It was a good week. :) (Yarn-wise anyways)

The first portion being the first shipment of the VSC 2009 from Fresh from the Cauldron:

I got 2 "weres" (Despite it being a vamp club LOL)
Jacob Black & Sam Merlotte
I also got a lovely pattern for a cowl.
I'm not sure that I'd ever actually use a cowl, but the pattern is absolutely gorgeous.


Then I did some ebay browsing/bidding/shopping and won 7 new skeins of sock yarn. WHOOO!
I love ebay sometimes. LOL

I got 2 skeins of STR lightweight in "henpecked" and "rose quartz"


1 skein of STR seduction in Covelite


AND 2 skeins each of Araucania Ranco Solid in 115 (Periwinkle) and 106 (Denim)

A Very Picture Heavy Post!!!

It was really nice outside this Sunday. And I was puppy-sitting. So I took the dogs outside and took some pictures.

These are pretty flowers. Technically they're desert weed flowers, but since I have a "black thumb" and would kill anything that I tried to grow, I appreciate what will grow on it's own. The orange ones are some of my favorites. :) When my Nana's garden is in full bloom in a couple of weeks I'll take pictures of it. It is gorgeous. :)

Here's the three boys playing outside.
(The pug is Rocky. The brown/grey lab is Bravo. The Black lab is Luke's dog Apollo, who should have been name Sirius.)

And here's what I have been up to lately with knitting:

Star Crossed Slouchy Beret in Berroco Peruvia Colors #7226
This was made for a swap package with a Freaks and Geeks theme. The package has been recieved so I feel safe posting the pictures now. This was fun to make, I think I might have to make myself one now. :)

The second section for my Scarf Travels group 5... Done with leftovers from the Beret.
It's the "holding hands feeding ducks" scarf pattern which is a star stitch.
I think it turned out really nice looking. :) I hope that Denise likes it too. :)

I'm working on the scarf section for group 3 still. I didn't get that one until right before my trip. I'm doing it in some red cascade 220. :)

This is what progress I've made on my Hedwig socks... Which I know isn't much, but this is my "in between projects project" and so it's going to move slowly. BUT they will get done eventually.

I'm also working on some Monkeys in my Yarn Pirate Merino/Tencel in the jungle colorway, but there isn't much of those to justify a picture yet... There was at one point, but I had to frog and so now I've only got a little of the cuff.

And some old-ish updates and pictures. :)

From Easter:

Sara was over at my house for Easter dinner. I came back home from San Diego literally just in time for dinner. Sara is wearing one of the dresses that I bought her for her 7th birthday. :) After dinner Sara wanted to play with me and she decided to try on pretty much every single pai of shoes that I owned, minus some of the flip flops. I have over 50 pairs of shoes so that kept her entertained for quit some time. Then she wanted me to teach her how to knit. So I let her pick some yarn and worked with her for a little while. These are pictures of her with her WIP. LOL She's a goofball and I love her. :)

A story about my VERY VERY best friend...

My very best friend Veronica (known as Rowena Bladvak at Hogwarts) send me goodies with her husband when he came for his interview. Among these goodies were HandMaiden sea silk in a colorway that I love and have found impossible to find. She also bought me a Beatles project bag and DPN roll. I love the Beatles. I'm a little crazed about them. I have every single one of their songs on my iTunes. (I even have multiple versions of a lot of their songs.) There was more to the gifts to. Some mix cds, some pattern marker magnets (or whatever their called), and some oreos (a favorite treat of mine). I really love her. I seriously think that she may be the greatest person in the world. I have the greatest best friend in the entire world. (And I have HSKS swaps and Ravelry to thank for that.) I admire her for her strength and her survival skills. And when she's having a rough time it kills me not to be able to just give her a hug and make her feel better. :(

In other news: I also got my HSKS7 swap package today! :) It's awesome! (I'm linking to the blog I use for HSKS, because, I'm done with uploading pictures now. LOL)