Another Day, Another Dollar

Well school's out and I wonder where the time has gone. It seems like in was yesterday that I was taking Bree to her first day of school. Now my baby is a first grader. She excelled too. I'm a bit worried that she going to be bored with first grade. Kindergarten here in Montana is a bit more advanced then they are in Idaho. Bree's already reading at a second grade level.

I just found out that Boise doesn't have a ban on having chickens in your backyard. My goal is to have 2-3 hens for egg laying so it's nice to know I'll be able to do that. Here in Great Falls it is strictly prohibited which I think is completely assinine. I can understand banning roosters within city limits and wouldn't want one anyways. You don't need a rooster for the hens to lay eggs and the damn things can be wicked noisy. 

It's been a long time since my last post. I'm trying to get back into a schedule for posting and home to post at least 2-3 times a week. 

I finished my It's A Wrap.

The yarn is Miss Babs Yowza. This will definitely be nice for winter time. I doubt I'll ever wear it around my shoulders but it's large enough to pull over my head to protect my ears from the cold which will be nice for running from the car to the store. This picture was taken before I blocked it. It got a bit longer after it's bath.

I finished my cousins baby blanket.

The pattern is a mix of a few different patterns and the yarn is Knit Picks Comfy worsted in the Macaw colorway which I think has been discountinued. She loved the blanket and I do believe it's going to get a lot of use.

I finished my "on the go" socks. 

They are my basic toe up pattern with a short row heel. The yarn is Opal 6ply and the colorway is 1715. I managed to match up the stripes fairly well. There's enough left to knit a pair for Bree and add a square to my sock yarn blanket. 

Right now my free time has gone to finishing Bree's crochet blanket. 

I'm cruising right along on this thing. I'm a few rows into the 16th stripe of 25. I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.

My container garden is doing well this year.

I have tomatoes on my Better Boy and Roma's. The cherry tomatoes are full of blooms so I'm figuring I should see some tomatoes soon.

My snap peas have produced a few peas so far.

I didn't realize I could have planted them a good month or two before I did. They love chilly weather and don't do well after it gets to hot so I might not see many off but these two were very yummy and I'm hoping for a few more. There are more blooms on the plant so I might get a yummy little snack out of this plant.

Hopefully Penny.

She's hoping that cute eyes will allow her into my lap. It's very difficult to crochet on a blanket with a 48 pound springer spaniel in your lap. 

I'll leave you with this picture of Georgie.

He's trying to decide the best course of action for getting to the rings on my fingers. 

Busy Busy Busy

I can't believe its been over a month since my last post. Ok ok so yes I have a horrible track record for posting. Ravelry sure hasn't made it better either. 

I have a temporary solution to the yarn winding situation.

It's not the best but it does get the job done. Ecxuse the mess. I'm a crappy house keeper and will find any excuse not to clean. This was taken during Tour de Fleece so spinning was much more important then cleaning. At least I fed the kids and did laundry. :)

Speaking of Tour de Fleece, this is what I accomplished.

Well there were a few more but I haven't gotten them skeined up and soaking in a nice bath yet. The one on the far right was spun before the start of Tour de Fleece and was waiting on a bobbin to be plyed.

Bree's skirty skirt is now done.

Pattern is Hip in Hemp (ravelry) and the yarn is Elann Camila. I really like this pattern. And now you know I use a Maytag Bravo washing machine. Best damn washing machine ever!! We opted not to get the matching dryer. They wanted $400 more just because it had a steam function. Ah, nope no thank you. Water going into an electric dryer just doesn't sound good to me.....more to go wrong and more costly to fix when it does. The guy actually tried to sell me the dryer purely because it would give me a matching set.....as if I give a flying fig about that. The washer and dryer are both Maytag and they're both white. Good enough for me. I wanted red but it would have taken several weeks longer and it would have cost me more. Why more for the red washer/dryer? Who knows.

I started and finished my 2nd Camp Loopy project.

The pattern is Dawn Gnot (Ravelry) and the yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy. I ordered some Cascade 220 Heathers in Red Wine to make my 3rd Camp Loopy project which will be Bernhardt (ravelry)(non-ravelry). 30 days to knit a cardi. I'm pretty sure I can do it without a problem. 

I found these adorable stitch markers.

I was hunting for stitch markers for a swap I'm in and came across these. The cutest little s'mores stitch markers ever made by JL Yarnworks.

I also started Kaity's skirt.

I'm also using the Hip in Hemp pattern but the yarn is Knit Picks Cotlin which I think works up better then the Camila for this skirt. It has a better drape then the Camila. The best yarn is still Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy but I couldn't find it on sale so I had to use an affordable substitute. Kaity picked out the eye blinding bright colors. I much prefer the softer colors that Bree picked out for hers but Kaity's the one that will be wearing it so if she's happy then everythings all good.

The tomato plants are doing well although the big ones haven't produced any red tomatoes yet.

I did manage to get a handful of cherry tomatoes so far.

Till next time.....Happy Crafting!

Oh So Sunny!

The weather here has turned off nice although it's definitely getting a little to warm for me to hang around outside. We went through almost 2 weeks of thunderstorms and cloudy days so great to finally have some sunshine again. Thanks to this lovely weather my tomato plants are doing well and I now have tiny little green tomatoes.

Thankfully summer here in Montana is normally mild with low humidity. I can handle the higher temps but throw in the humidity and it makes you feel like you're melting. I spent 2 years in Biloxi, MS and the summers there are miserable but I sooooo miss the food!

As most of you probably remember, I've posted a few times on some of the things we've done as a family to be a little more "green". We're still chugging right along and sticking with the things we started. We were extremely happy to see that the plastic recycling has been started back up again here in town. My guilt level increased with each plastic bottle, container, and bowl I had to throw away in the trash.

I've also kept my eye out for new products to try. It's not that 7th Generations products aren't great but if I can find one that works just as good, is environmentally friendly, keeps the tons of chemicals off my kids, and saves me money then it's a great bonus. I noticed that Arm & Hammer makes a "green" line called Essentials which includes laundry soap. Now price wise for me (remember that I shop in a military commissary so prices are probably cheaper for me) the 7th Generations soap runs a little over $7 per 32 wash load bottle....kinda pricey I know but it worked, is environmentally friendly and the skin irritation we were experiencing with the other soaps have disappeared**. At 5-6 loads per week the bottle lasted me over a month so no to bad when you think about it. The Arm & Hammer is $5 per 78 load bottle. The only thing different is that Arm & Hammer doesn't say it's HE safe. Several years ago we replaced our dead top loading washer with an HE front loader. I didn't realize until after I washed 2 loads that the soap wasn't deemed HE safe. It suds a tiny amount which was the same amount of suds I've gotten with all the supposed HE safe soaps. The clothes came out clean and soap free. So even though it's not claiming to be HE safe I'm going to keep using it. Course these results could vary between the various brands of HE washers. I'm not an HE washer expert but it does work in my Kenmore HE machine.

** We've tried various regular laundry soaps to include different types of free and clear soap and the skin irritation was still there. We didn't notice the decrease until we swapped to the plant based soaps.

I've been up to a bit of knitting and spinning since my last post. You know me, just trying to stay busy so I don't go insane.

First up is the baby blanket I knit for my cousin who was due this month.

She had the baby several weeks ago. A healthy 8lb, 3oz (if I remember the ozs correctly I know he was 8lbs) baby boy. Very adorable I might add. So needless to say they haven't gotten the blanket yet. I have to wait till payday to send it off to them. I used the concept from the Grandma's Favorite cloth pattern. I knit until I thought the stripe was wide enough and then swapped colors. It took 1 ball of each color with the exception of the off white which took 2. I used Peaches & Creme worsted cotton but any yarn will work. The blanket is measuring in at 32"x32".

I've finally kicked it in to gear on Shawn's cabled hoodie (ravelry)(non ravelry).

Ignore the pink yarn on the bottom. It's just waist yarn. I used a provisional cast on so I could make sure the bottom of the hoodie was stretchy enough. I'm using Cascade 220 Heathers. I went with the XXL size since my gauge is slightly tighter because I'm using a thinner yarn then the pattern was written for. If Shawn I did my math right this should come out at about 50 inch finished chest size which would make it the same size as Shawn's favorite pullover hoodie. I want to finish this up so I can start a sweater for myself. I refuse to make something for myself until I finish this. If I don't, it will keep being thrown to the side and Shawn will never get his sweater. It ended up getting set aside awhile back to work on some test knits and I never picked it back up. I want to make sure he has it by this winter.

Another dishcloth. This one is from the 1 Jun Monthly Dishcloth KAL.

I used the dark blue cotton I originally had set aside for this cloth for baby E's baby blanket. I'm working on the mid June KAL cloth right now. I don't care for the way it's turning out in the variegated yarn so I'm going to swap to one of the striping yarns.

I finished a Jane Austen dress for Bree.

The pattern is in the second Mason Dixon Knitting book. Cute pattern but I needed to adjust it because the armhole depth was way to small. I don't know many toddlers who have toothpicks for arms. I used 2 skeins for Rowan Cotton Glace. Obviously the dress isn't finished since there is no fabric sewn on to make the skirt portion. This payday I'll pick out some fabric to match. I'm in the process of making several of these type of dresses for the kiddos. They are a lot faster then a dress that is all knit.

I received my Wizard of Oz Over the Rainbow sock club kit.

I only signed up for 4 of the kits. I wished I could have signed up for all of them but it just wasn't in the budget. Woolgirl puts together such wonderful kits. The yarn was dyed by Zenstring and is even more gorgeous in person.

I also received my Lord of the Strings sock club shipment.

This time it's the gradiance yarn and a cabled pattern. Once again, another great shipment from The Unique Sheep. I think I'm going to sign up for next years club when it rolls around. The stitch markers were an extra goody this time and I love them.

I've also been spinning.

I finished up the purple BFL and the superwash merino dyed by Yarn Pirate. The two skeins on the left are spun from the Yarn Pirate merino Pretty Pirate colorway and the two purple skeins are BFL.

Here's the 2ozs of superwash merino roving dyed by Yarn Love I've spun so far.

I'm going to (hopefully) spin the other 2 ozs at a similar consistency and then try my hand at plying the two together. I'm really starting to get the hang of it. Merino is a dream to spin. It's a tad slippery but I think I've gotten the hang of it now.

I can post this now since my swap pal has received her package.

This is progress shot of the scarf I knit for her. Stupid me, I forgot to take a picture before I sent her package off. The pattern is Boing! by Anne Hanson (ravelry)(non ravelry) and the yarn is Jade Sapphire Silk Cashmere in the color Hydrangea. It's a lovely yarn to work with....very soft! It knits up beautifully and it blocked out without a problem. I really wished I would have taken a picture of this in better light.

I also finished up a test knit for Woolgirl and hope to show it off here soon actually I have two to show off. It should be safe to post in a few weeks. The packages have gone out but not everyone has received their packages yet.

I think I've pretty much covered everything for now. I'll be back soon with updates on my current sock projects and most likely some spinning.

Happy Crafting!

Almost Summer!

I'm trying to get back in to a more normal posting schedule. I'm still not posting as much as I'd like but I'll get back to more regular posts eventually. I'd be happy with once or twice a week.

I do believe that we're finally on our way to summer. It's been warm and it looks like there will be no more snow *knock on wood* 

I received my Mother's Day contest winnings from Woolgirl.

It was stuffed full of wonderful yummy bits of leftover yarn, two different full skeins of sock yarn, stickers, dpns, chocolate (had to throw those in the fridge....they were all melty), sticky notepads, and the cutest handcrafted cards. I was having a bad day when this came in. I didn't sleep very well the night before so I was super tired and all worn down. I mugged Shawn as soon as he walked through the door holding the box.

I finished a pair of socks.

The pattern is Gracious (ravelry)(non ravelry) and the yarn is Miss Babs Yummy Sock in the colorway Suede Rose. I really enjoyed this pattern and the yarn has a tight twist, is soft and was really nice to work with. This is my second pattern by Terry Ross. I really like her sock patterns. They're well written and nice to knit. The Tangled Faeries pattern I used to knit my last TLE swap pal was a Terry Ross pattern. I do have plans to knit another one of her patterns in the future.

I've cast on and frogged the baby blanket twice now. I was originally going to use some solid colored Plymouth Encore but have now decided to use Peaches & Creme. Here's the colors I'm going to use now:

I'm going for a simple garter stitch striped blanket. I'm not sure if I'm going to use the ombre colorway yet. I haven't made up my mind yet. Decisions decisions! I'll get that cast on some time today.

The tomato plants are doing great now that the weather warmed up.

They did unbelievably well for the two weeks they spent in the garage but they really took off after the weather warmed up and they've had a chance to be in the sun all day. We're seeing blooms on all three plants....some are opening up and others are still closed. Hopefully this year will be another good tomato year. This year we planted them in organic soil designed for container growing. It cost us a bit more but I think it's going to help.

We bought them during Home Depots Earth Day sale which happened shortly before we got the 25+ inches of snow. Boy did that snowfall make me really glad we container plant our veggies. Home Depot had a deal where you bought one plant got one free so we picked up 3 tomato plants, 1 spring onion plant, and 2 salad mix. I'll be going back this payday to pick up some strawberry plants. I don't know if we'll see any strawberries but the girls really want to plant some so who am I to argue. For now I'll keep buying the strawberries from the grocery store.

That pretty much sums up what I've been up to. I should have my first Wizard of Oz kit from Woolgirl next week and I'm going to be casting on some new socks in the next few days. I'm going with the Hearts & Flowers socks from the book Socks from the Toe Up and I need to pick out a new yarn for my "on the go" socks. I've decided that Noro silk garden sock does not make a very good sock yarn. I'll see if I can't use it for something else but it's definitely not going to be socks! Ugh! And to think, I have a second skein sitting in my stash. Sheesh!

I'm planning to place an order through TLE for some roving. I did a little spinning the other day and I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. I have a $25 credit so I might as well use it. I'll try to post about my spinning in the next few days.

Happy Crafting!

Coffee, Bikes, and Knitting...

sounds like a pretty good combo to me. It's no secret that I love Starbucks coffee. Hubby and I are both addicted and normally get a coffee several times a week. We have a gold rewards card and try very hard not to think about the obscene amounts of money we spend on coffee. I figure it's better then the pack a day smoking habit we both had and it's way cheaper. Cigarettes are getting friggin' pricey and the prices on base aren't much cheaper then in town....I think they're almost up to $6 per pack....ouch! Boy am I glad I quit! But I get sidetracked...back to what I was talking about. I generally get either an iced caramel mocha or a caramel frapp, both of them come in plastic cups which I was more then happy to recycle. The problem comes in is that the company that use to recycle plastics around here stopped because they were taking a loss so we no longer have a place to recycle plastics which of course made me feel guilty every time I bought a iced drink because I knew I was going to be throwing the plastic away in the trash when I was done.

Shawn the Wonder Hubby brought home this beauty! It's the new Venti reusable cold cup from Starbucks. From what I understand these babies flew off the shelves quickly. Thankfully there will be no need for me to feel guilty anymore! Plus I get 10 cents off for using a reusable cup. The cup is double wall insulated so it keeps the drink cold a lot longer and the cup doesn't sweat so no more wet hands from holding a sweating cup. So I have a Venti cup, hubby has a Grande cup and all is right in the land of Luvs2knit.

I also got a bike.

The doctor wants me to exercise more and bike riding is definitely good exercise. The thing that sold me on this bike is the way the frame dips down making it a lot easier for me to get on and off the bike. We bought it from the House of Wall so the bike is getting a tune up at the local bike shop since frankly I don't trust the people who put the bikes together at Wally World. My luck is I'd get on the bike and break an arm because some moron forgot to put a bolt in where it should be.

I did receive some yummy goodies from Woolgirl the other day.

I picked up a Knit Kit, some Unique Sheep Pima Petite to make myself a tank top, and a skein of DIC Smooshy to round out the box and get free shipping. For some reason two of the skeins of cotton look different but all four skeins are the same color. Crappy weather = crappy pictures. Ah, spring in Montana! The Knit Kit is bigger then I was expecting but I love it. It's in my knitting bag now.

This is the yarn I'll be using to make my cousins baby blanket.

She's due next month so I really need to get my butt in gear and get started on this blanket. The yarn is Plymouth Encore worsted and its actually a lighter green the the picture. I picked this up from WEBS on sale for like $3.75 per skein. I'm going to be using the Angle Wings Baby Blanket pattern from the May 09 issue of Creative Knitting. I was going to start it the other day but I keep getting distracted by my Glynis socks. I can't help it....how can you put down cashmere laced sock yarn. The stuff is more addictive then crack....not that I've used crack....lol.

Speaking of my Glynis Socks (ravelry).

Here's my progress so far. I've finished on sock and have cast on the second one. It's a very easy pattern but the beginning of the round shifts so I opted to knit them one at a time instead of two at a time to make things easier on myself. I'm lazy, I can't help it!

I also finished the lacy cardi for Kaity and she loves it. The pattern is called Bounce Lace Cardigan (ravelry). I don't have a picture yet since she grabbed it as soon as it was washed and it's now sitting in the bottom of her dirty clothes basket. I'll catch a picture of her in it after laundry day. I'm sure it'll be one of the first things she'll grab when laundry is done.

I finished the test knit for Woolgirl but it's going to be awhile yet before I can show that one to you guys. I'm also working on my swap pals project which I need to spend a good afternoon or two on to get it finished up. I'm planning to send the box out next payday if everything goes well.

I'm making pretty good progress on my "on the go" socks.

They now have heels. I'll going with a plain stockinette leg for these and will put a couple inches of ribbing at the top before I bind off. I'll be done with these in the next few weeks.

I think that sums up everything that's been going on around here. Not overly exciting but at least I'm getting some knitting done. Even with all the crappy weather we've been having my tomato plants are doing great! They spent over a week in the garage thanks to the heavy amounts of snow we got. The final total on the three day storm was 25.4 inches of snow. The snow is gone and has been replaced with rain. Dear Mother Nature, could we please dry out just a tad before you hit us with more rain? All the snow and rain has the falls here in town flowing really well. Wonder what the falls look like at Ryan Dam?

Happy Crafting!

Fall, Finally!

It appears that Fall has finally made it to this part of Montana. The days are getting cooler and the nights are getting colder. They are forecasting that Friday and Sunday are days we could see some snow....burrrrr! The great news is that the winter woolies will soon be worn again and I'm feeling the urge to block and seam my Rogues sleeves. Yes, it's still in storage, no I haven't finished it yet.

Unfortunately with the return of Fall my tomato plants are not longer producing, so the 5 tomatoes sitting on my counter are the last of the yummy deliciousness until next year. It's almost enough to make me want to cry.

I've finally caught up on CSI Miami and am now watching the current season as it plays on CBS. Of course this means I need a new show to watch. In comes my mom talking about NCIS and a USA marathon of the show to get me hooked. So now my Netflix queue is full of NCIS disks and I now have 6 seasons to keep me busy. Season 7 is currently playing on CBS right now.

I've done a little knitting and have a bit to show you all this week. Some of it's test/sample knits that I can now show you and others are mine. I'll just apologize in advance for all the not so great pictures. Most of them were taken during cloudy, nasty days.

I can show you the big blue test knit that I was working on for Madelinetosh.

It's Tribeca (Rav)(non Rav) knit using Tosh Worsted. Easy pattern with moss stitchy goodness (yes I'm crazy, I like Moss St) and soft, squishy yarn, what more you you ask for? If you want to see a better picture, head over to Amy's blog post for a peak. If you're interested in the pattern or the yarn you can find them at Woolgirl. The yarn is soft and has a nice twist and the colors are beautiful. I'll be getting some of this yarn in the near future.

A pair of Dimpled Socks (Rav)(non Rav) for Madelinetosh.

I knit these using Madelinetosh's sock yarn. The color is Oxblood and it's yummy but a little difficult to take pictures of when it's cloudy out. Follow one of the links above the pic to see what the sock pattern looks like. The pattern has been out for awhile but I worked them with a few tweaks in the pattern.

A sample knit for Woolgirl.

The yarn is Madelinetosh sock and the color is Fig. I do believe that this yarn is the September shipment for the Magnolia Society yarn club. The pattern is Interlocking Leaves (Rav)(non Rav) from Knitty. I really liked this sock pattern and will be making a pair for myself in the near future.

Kaity's A-Line Coat (Rav)(non Rav) in all it's "in pieces" glory.

I've been working on this in between sample knits. When my hands need a break from small needles I pick this coat up to work on. I need to get it finished since it's starting to cool off now. The big piece is the back and then I have one front piece finished and although it doesn't look like it, I'm about halfway through the other front piece. The pattern isn't bad but it could have been a little better written. I'm not big on patterns that leave out details like diagrams to save on space. I'm one of those people who think that diagrams with measurements on it are helpful. Maybe I'm just crazy and am expecting to much. The pattern is one page, front only. Why couldn't they have given just a tad more detail and used a second page?

A pair of socks for Kaity.

I knit these with the leftover Berroco Sox. They are plain jane socks knit toe up, two at a time, magic loop. I think I prefer making Kaity's socks two at a time, toe up. I always end up making one sock smaller then the other when I don't knit them at the same time which drives me crazy everytime I see them! There is still enough yarn left to knit a pair of socks for Bree. Note these socks do not come close to matching. I knit from the inside and outside of the ball so the striping is reversed.

I started another pair of socks for Kaity.

These are being knit with some Regia bamboo sock yarn my mom bought for Kaity quite some time ago. Look Ma, I'm finally knitting those socks.  ;~)

I'm one of those people that lets sock yarn marinate in the stash for awhile before knitting with it. They're the same as the last few I made, two at a time, toe up. Since I'm currently not in any need for new socks (I have like 16 pair) Kaity is the lucky recipient. As if she's sitting there complaining about new handknit socks. She does a happy dance each time I toss a new pair of socks at her. She's even happier now that it's getting cold enough to wear them.

Finally a teaser shot.

This is one of the projects I'm currently working on for Madelinetosh. I'll post more about it when I can.

The girls are all geared up for Halloween. We managed to catch both costumes on sale this year. There are some good things about them putting the stuff up early. It means that they start marking down the stuff earlier too. Shoot I even made out like a bandit buying the candy the other day at ShopKo. I picked up the big bags that are normally around $7 something each for the lovely price of 2 bags for $8. Can't argue with those kind of savings.

The other good news is that we've completed just about all of the Christmas shopping for both of the girls. Most of it's sitting on Layaway at K-Mart. It'll stay there until it has to be picked up in early Dec. We still have a few small things to get but for the most part we're done. Shawn's gift will most likely be a Palm. He really wants a new one.

I'll leave you with a shot of my little monkey.

Happy Crafting Everyone!

Crazy Weather

It's that time of year again! Time for hot one day, freezing the next. We had a few cold days but now we're back in the 80's again. Thankfully the weather doesn't seem to be bothering the tomatoes. I've gotten another 14 tomatoes since the last post with several more ripening on the vine.

And for today's public safety announcement: Recall Information. If you're living here in the US, I highly recommend that you subscribe to US Consumer Product Safety Commissions Recall RSS feed. The link to their RSS feed is located in the left hand column. That's right folks, bloglines and google reader aren't just for knitting blogs....just kidding I know some of you subscribe to other types of feeds. I have several news feeds in my bloglines blogroll too. This feed is very valuable for getting information on the latest product recalls. For other recalls go to the Recalls website. They have email subscriptions for FDA, USDA, & NHTSA. Plus you can check out the latest recalls or search through all the recalls. I believe in being informed.

Now on to knitting, well at least what I can show you.

Yes folks it seems that I'm still on a dishcloth kick. The pattern used was the Multidirectional Diagonal Dishcloth (Rav)(non Rav). Yes, mine is upside down. I liked the wrong side of the dishcloth better.

And here's proof that I'm still on a dishcloth kick....more cotton!

Sugar 'n Cream was on sale at my local JoAnn's. We went in looking for iron on patches to fix the holes on Kaity's old jeans and I managed to walk away with 7 skeins of the super size Sugar 'n Cream....Yes I got the patches too! So Kaity has colorful jeans to play in after school and I have more dishcloth cotton to make dishcloths....as if there was ever a fear of me running out of cotton yarn.

My TLE sock club shipment came in the other day and boy did it not disappoint. I love the yarn, and I'm in mad love with the pattern and the goody we received was super cool. You can go check it out here in my flickr photos.

Bree has found a new fascination in playing dress up. Right now it seems to be scarves.

Bree has been playing with a fun fur scarf that my aunt made Kaity awhile back. Unfortunately the scarf is way to long for her and she trips on it at least a half dozen times a day. I decided to suck it up and knit her a Bree sized scarf. Anyone who knows me, knows that I detest knitting with fun fur. It's just one huge pain in the butt. The last time I knit with fun fur was to make some hats for kids going through chemo. It sheds, it's hard to see the stitches and it's just generally annoying to knit with but when you see a face like the one above it makes it all worthwhile.

I started another pair of socks for Kaity. She keeps begging me for socks so I figure the next few pair I knit should be for her.

These are toe up, two at a time using the rest of the Berroco Sox I had leftover from another pair I knit her awhile back. These will probably be plain stockinette socks. The toes look odd. I think I may have knit two increase rows in the socks. I didn't feel like ripping them out in the car so the messed up row stayed.

Here's a teaser shot of the project I'm working on for Madelinetosh.

I'll post the details when I can. I'm over halfway through with this so it shouldn't be long before you get an update.

I bought a Nostepinne from an etsy dealer, Ghstworks.

There are times when I just don't feel like dragging out the ball winder so having the Nostepinne will come in handy. How geeky is it that when I opened it up and was holding it the first thing I thought of was "hey I bought myself a wand." Yup, that's what I though, my Harry Potter geekiness is showing.

I had some gift certificates, so naturally I spent them on books.

I'd say that 80% of my knitting library has been paid for by gift certificates I've earned. The only book I'm not so hot about is the Knitting Circles Around Socks. I wasn't overly thrilled with it. If you want my copy of the book let me know in the comments. It'll be yours for $12 plus the cost of whatever shipping method you pick. First to ask for it, gets it.

Once again I've managed to write another long post. I've falling into the blog blahs. I'm far behind on blog reading. There is no way I'm getting caught up on all that reading so I've wiped the slate clean and will start with new posts....sorry everyone.

I'll return next time with pictures from another 7 Deadly S(p)ins shipment. I'm hoping to see it some time this week. I've been faithfully ignoring the spoilers but am not sure how much longer I can hold out. Maybe I'll get lucky and it will be waiting for me when I get back from the dentist.

Yup, I'm going to the dentist again. The good news is I'm almost done with all the work. I have to get a crown put on a back tooth but my dentist is waiting for my insurance to rollover in Feb of next year so I won't have to pay as much. So right now that tooth is a wee bit sensitive to the cold. The good news is that most of my tooth sensitivity went away when I started using a Philips Sonicare toothbrush. They are a little pricey but soooo worth the money.

Happy Crafting!