Another Good Christmas

Well Christmas is over, the presents have been unwrapped, the dinner has been cooked and we're not to far from finishing up another year. Where in the world did this year go? It seems to have gone by so quickly.

We had a great Christmas here in the Luvs2knit family.

The girls loved all their gifts and have been playing with them almost non stop since they were taken out of the package. Shawn is very happy with his Zelda game for the Wii and the dogs are enjoying the toys Santa left for them in their stockings. I'm also enjoying my gifts.

Shawn and the girls got me a Namaste Laguna in Peacock, a skein of Miss Babs Yummy sport weight sock yarn in Denim, 3 new knitting books, a coffee grinder (hubby gets bonus points for this one since it wasn't on my wishlist but I've been wanting a good grinder), and Kaity got me a mom coffee cup and a pretty little angel bell.

I think I even have a pattern picked out for the sock yarn and now that I have a bag big enough for everything I need, I can ditch the diaper bag for something a little more stylish. I've already queued up several patterns from my new books.

I'll be back at the end of next week with an end of the year wrap up. Hope everyone is enjoying their time off and got what they've been wishing for.

Happy Crafting!

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter (if you celebrate).



The girls had tons of fun and enjoyed their Easter goodies.



Bree also picked up really quick on how to hunt for eggs.



We stayed indoors so that Bree could walk easier plus it was kinda yucky out today.

Here's a shot of the eggs they dyed.



Bree took a turn at the egg spinner and dyed a few eggs.



Kaity loved dying eggs this way too.



Today was a fun day but I'm ready for the kiddos to go to bed. I'm exhausted.

Zeus says "Look at me, I can touch my nose with my tongue. I'm so talented!"

More on knitting progress at a later date.

Happy Valentines Day

Wishing you all a Happy Love Day.



Shawn ordered these for the girls and I. I was completely shocked when the delivery person brought them to my front door this morning. Bree kept saying "Wow" and pointing. Kaity's still at school but I can imagine she'll be excited to see all those balloons.

I finished the sample knit and it's winging it's way home as I type. I'll post about it when I can.

I also finished a few things for Kaity. She's been pestering me about these for days.

First up, her hat.



Norwegian Star Earflap hat, minus the earflaps and one full star repeat.



I did a provisional cast on so I could pick up the stitches easier and knit the hat to push inside the hat. The hat has been washed and blocked so both sides are the same size now.

I finished Kaity's Monkey socks.



I used a pink/white TOFUtsies. Knit at a slightly tighter gauge then the pattern states will give you a sock small enough for a 6 year olds foot without the need to modify the pattern. Ah, the powers of gauge.

I ordered my wheel this morning from The Woolery. I've heard they have great customer service. The guy I talked to this morning was really nice. I can't wait to get my wheel.....weeeeee! Now I need to start thinking about names.

I've decided to knit the Celtic Knot Stole but I need to enlarge the charts. If I tried to read them as is I'll go blind. I can't wait to get started. I'll probably be starting this by the weekend.

Busy Days!

It's been a busy time in the Luvs2Knit home. Between getting ready for Christmas, Christmas day itself, and knitting, we've all been busy. I'm sure most, if not all of you have probably been busy too.

We had a great Christmas here. Everyone loved their gifts and the girls had a lot of fun.

Here's one of their favorites.



This one was from my parents. There is still one more little house to connect but the tree is in the way. The tree is coming down today so the girls will have more room.

Bree loves crawling through all the tunnels.



Both girls played in it for almost two hours before dinner and neither really wanted to stop to eat dinner.

The girls got me sock yarn.



I got a skein of TOFUtsies and two skeins of Laines Du Nord Baby Star. The Baby Star is really soft. I may get some more later for the girls.

Shawn got me a pair of shearling boots!



Well, actually Shawn got me a gift card and I used part of it to buy my boots on sale at Overstock...I love Overstock.com. These boots are super warm and fuzzy....love them! When the boots came in I gave them to Shawn to wrap and put under the tree.

Now on to the knitting I've been doing.



Kaity's sweater is not far from being done. Just as I suspected, I ran out of variegated yarn so I had to start the hood in a solid purple. I think it's going to turn out fine. I'm planning on attaching a little pouch to the front of the sweater to bring it all together. I should have this done before the end of the weekend so this will probably be my last FO of 2007.

I started a pair of socks last night with some of the yarn the girls got me for Christmas.



There isn't much to the sock right now, just the completion of a 2x2 ribbed cuff. I'm going to use the Garter Rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks.

Long Post

Might as well warn everyone now, this is a long post filled with pictures.

I've accomplished a bit of knitting since my last post...the post before the contest post, that is.

Lets show a little leg here.



I finished one of the knee socks I'm making and I love it. Very comfy and very soft. How could you go wrong with a yarn like Lorna's Lace worsted...Yum! 215 yards was more then enough to get a knee high sock out of. I'll probably be able to squeeze a pair of shorter socks out of one skein without a problem. I love knee socks but there is no way I'd make these for myself in fingering weight yarn. Watch, now that I've said that I'll end up starting a pair.

I finished my moms socks.



I'm going to wash them today and send them off to my mom here in the next few days. Thank goodness for USPS online shipping labels and carrier pickups. Printing shipping labels online + carrier pick up = happy Trish not waiting in crazy lines at the post office. This time of year is always crazy at the post office.

Now that my moms socks are finished I need to start a pair for Kaity. She's home from school today. She has sore stomach muscles and is extremely tired from coughing all night long. The cough meds only helped a little bit.

I received a pile of yarn in the mail the other day.



My mom used yarn as packing material to keep the Christmas ornaments, that she had bought the girls, from breaking. Don't you wish everyone used yarn for packing material? I'd much rather have a few skeins of yarn over a whole lot of bubble wrap. Although I still like the starch packing peanuts that some companies use. I love watching them melt away in hot water. Yes, I'm easily amused!

I also finished a dishcloth and started a tribble. I haven't made tribbles before but they look like fun. I'll post pics of those in another post.

I also placed an order from WEBS to use up the last of a gift card. There was a problem with the order but I called them up this morning and they fixed it right away. The lady I talked to was super friendly! WEBS scored high points on my Customer Service list.

JoAnn's on the other hand is at the bottom of the list and I will probably never order from them again. I placed an order 10 days ago for a few skeins of yarn, a kids craft kit and 1 yard of fabric. It still hasn't shipped. I called on Monday and was told by the lady I talked to that my box was going to ship on Monday. She was friendly but she lied....probably to get me off the phone. Guess what? The box didn't ship out on Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday. I called Wednesday afternoon and managed to get the rudest person on the face of the planet. She made snarky comments with each question she answered. I started to ask her one last question and the *fill in the blank with your favorite word* hung up on me. *sigh*, at least I'm not alone. There are a lot of people who have had problems with JoAnn's customer service....if you can call it that.

The tree is up, lit, and decorated.



Admittedly it's been up for several weeks now and the lights have been on it but we couldn't seem to find a good time to decorate it. We finally made time the other night. We went with simple this year and put up the ornaments but left off all the glass balls....simple, but nice.

I'll leave you with a pic of Bree.



She was trying to scare her Daddy. She would peek around me and say Boo. Shawn snapped a pic of her in mid-Boo.

Happy Halloween!

I know, I know....this post is a wee bit late. This evening was quite busy.

Kaity went as a witch.




I was rather surprised to see that she wanted to go as a witch. Normally she picks out something Princessy. Next year I'm going to make her costume. It's so much easier to customize to her size. I should have my sewing machine set up by that time.

Here's her pumpkin.




We used a glow stick because it was way to windy to try to keep a candle lit. When I asked why the pic was blurry I was told "Doesn't that look cool!" Who am I to argue.

I finished the Cabled Baby blankie tonight.




I kept it on the smaller side so it can be used in a car seat or stroller. I'll give it a bath tomorrow and probably ship it out here in the next week or so. The blanket unblocked is coming out about 25" wide x 28" long. I'll remeasure after it's been blocked tomorrow. I used almost 2 skeins of Cascade 220 superwash. I love this yarn and would use it again.

Well I'm outta here. I need to hop on over to Ravelry and try to find a dog sweater pattern for Zeus. I may just have to wing it since he's small and skinny.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

Hope everyones day is going great.  Just wanted to post a pic of my two favorite girls and show the progress I made on my Monkey Swap socks.  If I keep this up there will be no problem making my deadline of the box being out in the mail by 16 Apr 07.

Yesterday I also placed an order for some Louet Gems fingering weight yarn from The Loopy Ewe. I just couldn't hold out anymore....lol.  I have 6 skeins total coming, in 2 different colors.  I picked up Bright Red and Caribbean.  I think I'll do the Gothic Spire socks in the Bright Red and do a cabled sock from SKS in the Caribbean.  If I love this yarn as much as everyone says I will, you all know I'll be buying more.  :~)