Moving Pictures

Here's the pics I promised.  Today was even more busy then yesterday.  All the boxes are gone and on their way to Montana. 

The packers were really nice and a join to talk to but after we left there was a lot of stuff they didn't pack that was left for the driver to take care of which is not suppose to happen.  They also didn't stack the boxes to leave a walk way, they left them everywhere so Shawn had to stack them all up instead. 

Living Room Shot #1:




Living Room Shot #2:

Kaity's Room:

My Room #1:

My Room #2:

The movers were fabulous!  I'm hoping they will be able to deliver our stuff when we get our place in Montana.  Even though today was a tiring day it also fun.

TLF (Temporary Lodging Facility) isn't too bad.  For all of you who may not know, TLF is housing that is set aside for military families who are moving.  I'm not sure how TLF is set up everywhere but here they are houses.  We have a pretty nice set up here....wireless highspeed internet, cable, 2 bedrooms, a kitchen that is outfitted well enough that I can cook dinner for the next few days and a washer and dryer.  The last one makes me very happy.  I hate having to haul laundry to the laundromat.  The only thing that would make it better would be to have A/C.  Thankfully tonight a storm kicked up and we got a good amount of rain which got the swamp cooler wet and helped cool down the house better.

Oh and since this a knitting blog, here's my knitting content....I knit exactly 5 rows on the Melon Stripe blanket.     :~)

A Little Knitting, A Lotta Moving

Boy was today super crazy busy.  The packing company came in today to pack up our stuff.  We ended up with 3 fabulous packers, Ms. B and the Misters E & C.  Wonderful wonderful people.  The were great with Kaity and were more then happy to enlist her help in getting everything packed up.

I did manage to knit about 10 rows on the Melon Stripe blanket after the packers left.  We all sat down in the living room to take a break so of course I had to pull out the knitting.  The Melon Stripe blanket requires no pattern because it's being worked similar to the Grandma's Favorite dishcloth pattern.

I have pics of all the rooms but left the camera in Bree's room.  I'm not brave enough to sneak into her room while she's sleeping so I will post pics tomorrow of my all my "Box Mountains".

The moving truck will be here tomorrow to finish packing and to load up everything.  We'll be checking in to Billeting tomorrow afternoon.  I'm not looking forward to that because we are moving in to a two story house that is only cooled by a swap cooler....yuck!  So the next 5 days will be kinda yuck but at least I'll have highspeed internet.  :~)

Well I'm outta here.  I need sleep....lots of sleep!

No Clever Title

Today's one of those days.  I'm rushing around trying to get the few things taken care of before the movers get here tomorrow and trying really hard not to cry over my cat being gone.

She's still alive and well but we had to find her a new home.  We aren't allowed more then two pets in housing up in Montana.  We tried and tried to get them to budge but they said no.  I'm not sure if I can even begin to explain how much my heart is breaking right now nor can I express how "mad" I am at the housing office up there in Montana. 

We couldn't find her a home and we decided that we really didn't want a military family to take her.  I've seen to many pets dumped off at the pound with no cares when a set of order comes down and the military member doesn't want to deal with it.  Unfortunately not everyone views pets as family members.  We took her up to Emmett to a no kill animal shelter.  The ladies up there are great, they have a good vet and all the cats are well taken care of and happy.  Even if she never gets adopted she will have a home for the rest of her life.

So the agenda today is to stay as busy as possible. 

Here's the progress on my Twisted Flower Socks:




I decided to work a slip stitch heel instead of the patterned one.  I made this decision mostly to maintain my sanity and partly because I think the heel would irritate me in a pair of shoes.

I also joined in on Secret of the Stole which starts 5 Oct.  If I remember correctly they will be taking new members until 4 Oct then the group closes.  So if you want to join in on the fun, go sign up now.

I was trying to keep busy looking for the yarn for the stole.  I decided that I want to use Malabrigo's lace weight yarn, which has caused me to run into a brick wall.  The colors I want, I couldn't find online and of course there are no retailers listed in Idaho, Montana or Wyoming that sell Malabrigo, let alone their lace weight.  I found two colors at Kaleidoscope Yarns that will work.  I'm thinking of going with Cognac or Applewood.  After I get the yarn I'll need to hunt down some beeds.

Some Sock Progress

I figured I better let you all know I'm still here.  I'm busy but I'm here.  I have some progress to report.

Sunday: Progress of Baby Cable Rib Socks




Monday: Baby Cable Rib Socks Complete

I dare someone to look at these socks and find a sane color repeat!  Both socks look completely different from each other but I like them.....hope my sis does too!

Yarn: Trekking XXL #110
Pattern: Baby Cable Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks
Needles: 32" 2.75mm Knit Picks Classic Circ.
Started socks on 13 Aug and finished on 27 Aug

Monday Night: Progress on Twisted Flower socks




I managed to make it from round 9 to round 26 on the cuff.  Remember I had to rip the sock out and restart because it was coming out too big.  I'm only about 7 rounds from being halfway done with the cuff. 

I have my projects ready for the move.  I have the Forest Canopy Shawl, Twisted Flower socks, Sheldon the Turtle, the Melon Stripe blanket, the other wrister (I'm going to finish it before the end of the year!), and a few skeins of sock yarn to start some simple socks to work on in the car.  I'll probably pick up a few skeins of dishcloth cotton from Wally World before we leave.  I packed all of mine and I'm not digging to the bottom of the big box to get it.  I'll spend $5 and pick up a few skeins.

Happy Knitting Everyone! 

Sock Progress

Yesterday was a complete bust for knitting.  I finished one of Sheldon's legs and started another but gave up to read more of the newest Harry Potter book.  To top it all off I stayed up way to late because I just had to finish the last 450 pages.  So I was super tired today, but hey I finished the book.  One of these days I may learn, nah probably not!

Today I did manage some knitting.  I put a few more inches on the Melon Stripes blanket and after I'd had a nap I started sock number 2 of the Baby Cable Rib Trekking socks. 

Here's a shot of the Trekking socks.




Well I'm off to bed.  Tomorrow's a fun filled day packed with laundry and more boxes to pack.  We need to get the fragile stuff packed up.  Fun, fun.  Not to mention all the fun we are having try to get Bree to sleep in her pack and play.  She finally gave in and took a nap in it today.  Hopefully she will tomorrow too.

The Stash

**Warning: This is a picture laden post.  Dial-up users beware!**

My helper:



She has a thing for boxes....goofy cat.

First:




Mostly acrylic.  Some are leftovers from various projects.

Second:




Wool!  My Lorna's Lace worsted, Manos, and Cascade.  I'm really hoping to buy some Malabrigo from Wool Girl after we are all settled in our new home.

Third:




Misc. mix of yarns, cotton and lace weight.  There's also a cone of Zephyr wool/silk lace that's missing from the picture.  I found it after the pic was taken.

Fourth:




Fun Fur....*shudder*.  I'm not a big fan of the stuff.  It's leftovers from the hats I made for Mini.  I'm keeping it because Kaity likes the stuff.

Fifth:




Various skeins of Knit Picks yarns.  I wanted to try each yarn line so when I'd order needles I get a few different skeins to try.

Sixth:




Some Hempathy and Bella Colour I found sitting in a box on top of my storage drawers.

Seventh:




Dishcloth cotton.  Most of it is leftovers from some of the dishcloths I've made. 

Eight:

Lots-O-Sock Yarn.  This all the yarn that comes in a ball, ie Trekking, Opal, Regia....you get the idea.  There are some skeins of Knit Picks that are hiding under the pile.  By this time I was getting tired of taking pictures so I wasn't going to split this one up plus it's going to be part of a contest I'll be having for my blogiversary but that isn't until December so you all will have to wait.  :~)

Ninth:

Big Pile-O-Sock Yarn.  12 pair of socks for me and 6 pair for the girls.  This is one of three photos of the biggest share of my stash.  I had to split it up in to three separate photos.  I keep all the hanks together in on drawer.

Tenth:




Medium Pile-O-Sock Yarn.  17 pair of socks for me and 1 pair of socks for the girls.

Eleventh:

Small Pile-O-Sock Yarn.  8 pairs of socks for me, well actually 7 since the blue/yellow hank of Cider Moon is Kaity's, and 1 lace shawl.  The Schaefer Anne is being reserved for a lace shawl. after I've gotten settled in.

All this took 1 large box, 1 medium box and 2 small boxes and a grand total of 45 minutes to pack.  I'm tired.   :~)

New Dishcloth & Yarn

Since I finished the candy bag (see previous post) for Kaity I decided to start another dishcloth. 




This one is from the Aug mid-month Monthly Dishcloth KAL pattern.  It's called Shifting Sand.  The cables show better in person.  I need to work on my picture taking skills.

Next is the August installment of the Yarn Pirate Booty club. 




The yarn is BFL and the color is called Calamity.  I love it!  Pretty!

Candy Bag

I finished the Mandy's Candy Bag for NH Knitting Mama's contest.




I'll definitely be making more of these.  I knit mine Magic Loop instead of on DPNs.  It seems that I've pretty much been converted to ML, however you won't see me getting rid of my DPNs any time soon.  I made this one a little on the shorter side because it's for Kaity. 

There's sill time left to join in on the fun.  See details below:

There is a contest running at NH Knitting Mama and it goes like this:

1. Knit the candy bag

2. Post a pic of your candy bag on your blog and let Mandy know about it (with a link to the blog post!).


3. Your name will go into a drawing FIVE TIMES for some swag!

Don't want to knit Mandy's Candy Bag? That's okay! You can still participate, see how on Mandy's blog.

Deadline is Monday, September 3rd, 12:01am eastern standard time.

Toy Knitting

I gave the shawl a break and yesterday afternoon I started this:




This is Sheldon from the Winter 06 Knitty.  Well it's Sheldon without his legs and shell.....those will follow soon.  I have one leg on the needle right now.  I don't have the plastic eyes so I used some yarn for the eyes.  Lets just say I'm not very good at it.  I'll practice a little more before I make the next one. 
I don't want the plastic eyes because I want Bree to be able to play with it and small things like the plastic eyes are too much of a worry for choking on.  So I'll be sticking with the yarn eyes.

I need to go feed the kiddos some lunch.  For some reason they think they need food....I'm not sure who gave them that idea.   :~)

Time for a Change

I decided that it was time for an update.  Though I know some of you may read my posts through bloglines, google reader, etc I thought it was time for a change. 

I was getting a wee bit tired of all the pink.  I have no idea why I went with pink.  It's not my most favorite color.  I'm still not finished with the blog but more changes can wait for now.  For some reason the code went missing for several of my blog rings.  That's been fixed.  I'm thinking about taking out a few things too.   One of these days I'll upgrade so I can customize my theme anyway I want but for now this is good enough.

And since no post is complete without a photo here's a shot of my Forest Canopy Shawl.




The shawl and I had a few issues where I had to tink back a few rows....that was not fun.  I will not complain though because that's what I get for not putting in a lifeline.  This will probably be the last shot where I'll be able to spread it out.  Any other photos taken will be blob photos, though I may throw one in my posts from time to time...maybe, more then likely the next time you all will see this shawl is in the be before and after blocking shots....I don't think it's going to take long before I'm at that point.   

A Good Scare & Some Updates

Let me tell ya, nothing will get your heart pumping better then a good scare.  Which would be why I'm still up at almost 2am.

I damn near had a heart attack earlier when a spider the size of King Kong came flying across my living room floor at Sonic the Hedgehog speed.  Ok, ok, the spider (funnel weaver) was about the size of a silver dollar (counting his legs)....still really big and the boogers are super fast.  They are harmless unless you are a small child then you may have to worry about them carrying off with you....I really have to watch Bree and Zeus, though I think Bree is heavy enough and Zeus is the only one who has to worry!  Ok, so I'm maybe stretching the truth on that one too.  Well you all get the point, they're big and I hate them.

Since my heart was a pumpin' there was no way in the world I was heading to bed any time soon so I worked on a new project.  I started the Forest Canopy Shawl using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in the color Tuscany. 




I'm really liking it so far.  The shawl is a little less bright in really life....there goes my camera flash washing things out again.  The pattern is super easy and I think this is going to be warm, soft and cozy.  It's for me.  I've been wanting to start another lace project.  What better thing to work on during this move then this shawl.  If I don't finish it before the movers get here.

I finished the first Trekking Baby Cable Rib sock.




My sis is lucky I have another ball of this or she would sooooo not be getting these socks.  I'm loving this colorway.  These socks will not have matching stripes.  There is no way in the world I'm going to drive myself crazy trying to match these bad boys up.  I like my sanity just fine.  It would take an extremely calm, patient individual to match up these socks.

Lastly, we have the Mango stripe blanket. 




As you can see from the super boring picture, I've managed to put on another stripe.  I was way to engrossed with finishing the Trekking sock and starting my Forest Canopy Shawl. 

Well now that my heart is beating normal again I need to try to catch a few hours of sleep.  I need to finish the laundry tomorrow and who knows what else!

Happy Knitting All!

Blankie FO

I finished Blake's Blankie last night.




WooHoo!  Yippy! 




I used a pattern that I purchased from The Naked Sheep called Piggy Back Squares.  The blanket was suppose to be bigger, more like a throw, but I shortened it up a little bit.  I only knit 5 rows instead of the 9 rows called for in the pattern.  I used Plymouth Encore Colorspun #7117, also purchase from The Naked Sheep.

Truthfully I was beginning to wonder about the blanket.  With each square added it just looked ragged.  I was afraid that it was going to look horrible when it was finished but adding the border pulled everything together and it looks great.

Crazy me, after I finished this one I started another one. 




I'm making the diagonal blanket out on Bernat's website.  Bernat's has messed up their site so now there isn't a page for each pattern, they are all listed on the same page....thus no direct link to the pattern.  Go figure, gotta mess with something that was working just fine.  I'm using Bernat's Baby Coordinates Sweet Stripes in the color Melon Stripe (Orange/White).  I'm not making this for anyone in particular, though Kaity was trying to claim it for herself.

My Yarn Pirate Booty Club shipment came in this morning.  The colors are gorgeous!  I'll show you all later, I don't want to spoil it for anyone.

Well I'm off to get the kiddos in bed.  I'm ready for a little Mommy quiet time. 

I'm Still Here

**Warning: This post mostly contains ranting!  Some knitting content located at the bottom.  I've marked the end of the rant!

I finally decided on a baby blanket pattern for my cousins baby.  Now she's having a girl but doesn't want anything girly girly or frilly.  OK, cool beans I can do that.  Will be a nice change from the soft yellow/green of Blake's blankie.  Not to mention all the friggin' pink and purple that Kaity always wants.  :~)

So here's the pattern.  It has some nice simple cables, all in all a simple pattern and will make a wonderful blankie. 
Next up, I needed to find a yarn to go with the pattern.  I decided on Knit Picks Swish superwash yarn.  Cool, they have heather colors now.  I'm tossing between the Marine Heather and Lemongrass Heather.  Now me being the smart knitter that I am, I say "Hey why leave anything to chance, I'll order the color card and go from there."   W.R.O.N.G!  Knit Picks is out of stock of the color cards for the Swish and aren't getting any in until 27 Sept.   So now I have to order one of each ball of yarn or wait until 27~friggin'~Sept.  Does anyone else see a problem with them having the bloody flippin' yarn but it's going to take them well over a month to get more color cards in or am I just getting my socks in a wad for no reason?  Ack!  Please hold on while I smack my head against the key board.   n n jdudrfdhsoijodfg

This isn't the first time I've had problems with Knit Picks.  You all remember my gripe with the shawl pattern, that they knew there was a problem with and hadn't fixed and of course they made up for that by giving me free super slow shipping.....woo~friggin~hoo they saved me a whole $2.79!  Wow wasn't that ever so nice of them.  I shrugged it off and said no biggie.  Which of course we all know turned out to be a problem too because once again 2 more skeins wasn't enough I needed more.  No biggie, Sue helped me out.  The still claim you only need 4 hanks to complete the shawl but everyone that I've talked to so far has needed one more making it a grand total of 5 hanks needed to complete the shawl. 
Then there was what I'm now starting to think of as "The Great Cotlin Debacle of 2007".   I finally gave up on that one.   I decided I didn't need the stuff that bad.  It's in stock now but I've already subbed it with other yarn.
Then I needed the US2 needle to finish my sisters tank.  When I went to order it, it was going to be out of stock for like a month.  Thankfully I was able to find a needle at TLE....Sheri to the rescue.
So now I either have to go with another yarn or I have to fork out $3.29 per ball for the yarn I just wanted a damn color card for.  So instead of it costing me $1.99 plus shipping it's going to cost $6.58 plus shipping.  I know it isn't much money but it's the point.

***End of Rant***

I've been working mostly on Blake's Blankie.  I have 3 squares and the border left and I'm done.  I'm aiming to have this completed by the end of the weekend.  I'm not going to bore anyone with another progress pic.  Trust me the pictures would be mega boring.  I'll take a pic when I have the blanket completed.
I put a few more rows on my sisters Trekking socks but once again that would be an extremely boring picture.  I'll post again when I have a little more done on them.

Bree is doing much better on her new meds.  The prevacid is doing what it's suppose to an no nasty side affects have reared their ugly heads. 
Kaity now has a spot reserved in one of the 1st grade classes in Great Falls.  Shawn contacted the school looking for a shopping list so we could get it done and out of the way.  The lady Shawn talked to also put Kaity into a class to ensure that she will have a spot when we get there.  The last thing I want is for her to get shipped off to a different school then the other kids on base that she's going to end up playing with.

I'll leave you with this:




And for all of you who have an interest, the top drawer in the background is part of my sock yarn stash. (click on picture to enlarge).  If it comes in a hank it's stored in that drawer.  The second drawer holds all the sock yarn that comes in balls like Trekking and Opal.    :~)

A Nice Day Out

Oh I can't tell you how wonderful it was to get out of the house for the day.  I left Shawn and the kiddos on their own for a day out with my sis.

We went out to see Harry Potter and do a bit of shopping.

My lowly little yarn purchase.




Two skeins of Cascade 220 is a super hot pink for the Seed Stitch beret out of one of my Debbie Bliss books and a scarf.  Yes the yarn is really a bright pink.  She loves it!
I didn't spend much.  I figured I'd better be good after the box of diapers and toner cartridges bought at Sam's Club. 

I did get some yummy lotion from Bath & Body Works.




I got Japanese Cherry Blossom lotions and a small bottle of Irresistible Apple lotion.  Gotta love coupons, $24 in stuff for $11.  :~)

Here's a swatch for the scarf I'm making for Kaity. 




I'm just using one of the cable stitch patterns from my Barbara Walker stitch pattern book with a seed stitch border, which will match the seed stitch beret.  I'm going to block it out and do some math....yuck...to see how much yarn I'm going to need and all that wonderful stuff.  I'm quite sure that 220 plus yards will be more then enough to make Kaity her scarf. 

Socks, Yarn & Shopping!

Back on the needles again!  I ripped my sisters sock and started again.  So the pic below is the new sock progress.




I had to rip it out because it was going to be way to big for her foot.  It would have fit mine.  I forgot to subtract for negative easy when I was figuring out the cast on number from Sensational Knitted Socks.  72 sts was going to be way to big for my sisters skinny toes.  So I decided to go with the Baby Cable Rib because there are no YOs so the socks will be more solid and warm. 

I guess it's safe to show my Loopy Ewe Sock club shipment that I got in last week.

And the Yarn

I love the colors.....Yum! 

No I did not purchase any yarn from this latest sneak up from TLE.  I decided to save my credit and money.  I'm heading out for a day out with my sis tomorrow so I want some spending money.  Like I need anymore sock yarn anyway!  Now had the Yarn Pirate Loopy Groupie color been there my credit would have been quickly spent.   I can not pass up the Yarn Pirate.   

I'm planning on heading to one of the yarn shops so you all can bet I'll report in with any purchases I've made.  Not that I'm planning on spending massive amounts of money but I do have a few small projects I need yarn for. 

Kaity wants a seed stitch beret from this Debbie Bliss books and Shawn wants a scarf for this winter and a matching hat.  I'll need to make two sets, one in black for his uniform and one in some other non-blinding manly color.  Plus I need to get the yarn to make my cousins baby blankie.  I'm going even more easy then the pinwheel.  I'm going to do a simple diagonal blanket.  Nothing overly fancy that will knit up quick and will show off the variegated yarn I'm going to buy.  My cousins due during winter so I need to finish this one and get it to her before the baby is born unlike my summer procrastinating on Blake's Blankie.  :~)

I think the next Yarn Pirate Booty Club shipment will be shipping out soon.  So there's something to look forward too. 

Well I'm outta here.  I need to get some sleep so I won't be yawning all day tomorrow.

Making Boo-Boos Better

Thursday was a really bad day....nuf said!  Thursday night I bought this.




Now you can't tell me this doesn't fix boo-boos and bad days.  I bought this from Zen String's last shop update.  The yarn is called Bambewe which is a mix of superwash merino, bamboo, and nylon.  The color is called Living Light and it is gorgeous.

Socks & More Socks

This is the first post I've had in awhile that's going to be pretty much sock related.  Wow!

I finished the Silver Pine Campfire Socks this afternoon. 




Ain't they purty!  I love them and I love this sock yarn.  I'm getting all my knitting time in now because here in two weeks I'm going to start getting super busy so you all won't see a whole lot of knitting posted to the blog from about the last week of Aug till possibly 2-3 weeks into Sept.  I will try to post from time to time just to let you all know how everything is going....promise!

Since I finished the Silver Pine socks I decided to start a pair for my sis....ahhhhhh, aren't I a wonderful sis. 




I'm using Trekking #110 and the Elongated Corded Rib pattern out of Sensational Knitted Socks.  I'm totally in love with this color so I'm glad I have a ball for myself too.  Kaity is going to have to trample over my dead body to get my Trekking #100, she's already tried to claim it....no way it's mine. 

The pattern stands out a little better then what you see in the picture.  The flash washes it out a little bit.  It doesn't stand out as well as if I would have used a solid or semi-solid but I think I'll keep going with it.  It breaks up the monotony of stockinette stitch socks.  Plus you get the added snuggness and stretch of ribbed socks.  It's mostly k2, p2 ribbing with two rows that have YO's, Ssk, and K2tog.  Might as well stick with it.  Trekking is too thin a yarn for me to attempt stockinette socks on.  I'd go mad before I finished the first sock!  I think it would take me forever to finish them.  A little hard to believe, I know!

I also finished the Cables and Lace dishcloth yesterday I think it was....shoot my memory is going. 

The cable doesn't pop as well as it did in solid but I already knew that....duh!  It did show up well, I think partially because the yarn is light colored where as I think the cable would have been completely lost in a darker variegated yarn.

See this little turkey! (That's Shawn trying to hide behind her)

We think we've figured out what her problem is.  We don't think it has anything to do with her thyroid like the doc is thinking.  We think the little turkey has acid reflux.  The constant spitting up, which should have stopped months ago, the slow weight gain, constant burping with lots of hiccups, erratic sleep schedule, waking up in the middle of the night screaming.....well we started adding 2+2 and got 15.  All these symptoms when put together point to acid reflux, even the elevated thyroid levels.  Thyroid levels can become elevated due to stress, acute illness, etc.  Acid reflux is considered an acute illness. 
Shawn is going to make an appt with her doc first thing in the morning to see what the doc thinks.  My gut feeling tells me I'm right!

Well I'm off to snag a few hours of sleep.  I have to attack "Laundry Mountain" tomorrow since I'll be off shopping with my sis all day Tues.  We're going to catch Harry Potter and do a little shopping.  Yes I'm going to go browse me some yarn while I'm out.  I have a few projects that I need yarn for.  No I'm not going to be bringing any sock yarn home, Shawn would kill me!  The only way I'll bring sock yarn home is if my sis buys some for me to make her more socks.  I'll let you all know if I buy anything.

Have a great day and happy knitting!

Campfire Socks Progress

I finished the first Silver Pine Campfire Sock last night.




It fits snug but one of the things I learned from my first pair of socks made using Glacier is to make them a tad snug because they will loosen up just a bit when you wash them.

I started the second sock shortly after finishing the first.




It would have been right away but I had to get the kiddos into bed first.  I have about 30 rounds to go before starting the heel. 

Finally I have the second Cables and Lace dishcloth. 




It works up pretty good in variegated too.  For some reason I really like this pattern.  I need to go digging through my book and find some stitch patterns to turn into cloths.

We received good news on Thursday.  We have a house waiting for us on base.  So we'll have a place to live when we get there.  The dogs will only be in a kennel for no more then 3-4 days.  We have 19 days to go till our pack date.  I can't wait to get out of here. 

Candy Bag Contest

I was out surfing the net and came across this post on Tricotine's blog.  Now it's my turn to pass it on to any of you who may want to join in on the fun.

NH Knitting Mama is having a contest.  I thought the pattern was cute so I'm joining in on the fun.

Here's the rules:


The "Candy Bag" contest goes like this:
1. Knit the candy bag
2. Post a pic of your candy bag on your blog and let me know about it (with a link to the blog post!). 
3. Your name will go into a drawing FIVE TIMES for some swag!

Don't want to knit Mandy's Candy Bag? That's okay! Put a link on your blog to see the pattern, let me know about your link, and I'll enter your name ONCE for the swag. (If you link it, then knit it and link it again, you'll get SIX chances! - just tell me know so I know you did it!)

Deadline: Monday, September 3rd, 12:01am eastern standard time.

Blankies for Dogs

Note: I had this all ready to go last night, hit save so it would post to the blog and wammo....no internet connection.  Ack, I had to retype this post a second time.  I typed it up last night in TextEdit and saved it so I could post it this morning.
So here it goes:

No knitting here last night.  I gave my sore finger a break and busted out the crochet hook to finish up Zeus' kennel blankie. 




I using scraps of Red Heart acrylic.  The first color (Banana Berry) you guys may recognize as yarn I used to make Kaity a pair of socks, which she still has by the way.  I threw in the dark blue when I ran out of the Banana Berry, got tired of the blue and used the Red Heart Pogo I had leftover from my very first big knitting project....yup you guessed it, a 2x2 ribbed scarf.  It's a nice scarf and after about 200 more washings it may be soft enough to wear!  I have some nice Manos that is destined to become my new scarf.  I also have some Lorna's Laces worsted that may become a scarf or some fingerless mitts for myself.  Anyway, the final color (yellow) was picked by Kaity.  She said his blankie needed something bright in it, though the bright yellow. 




Doesn't he look happy? 

I started one for Shadow. 




Shawn picked out her colors.  I'm using red and some leftover variegated in shades of reds, yellows and oranges.  I think I used this to make a hat that Kaity has hid somewhere in her room.  I believe it's been designated as her work hat which gets paired with a dark blue Hawaiian print shirt....it's what she wears when she's pretending to go to work.  It's NOT a good combo but it makes me laugh my butt off each time I see her in it....it's super tacky!

My dogs sleep in their kennels at night.  Never worry they are very comfy and have plenty of room.  Since they sleep in their kennels I want them to have something comfy of their very own.  Right now they are using old towels.  Now as much as I love my dogs they aren't getting wool blankies....acrylic is much more washer friendly.

OK, you all know I love shiny things.  All my needles are shiny and I have tons of stitch markers.  Well check this out.  The iMac is now Anodized Aluminum.....pretty, pretty, shiny, shiny!  Damn Apple and their emails!  Now I want one. 
Anyone want to donate to the Trish needs a new shiny computer?  Hey I had to try!  It's for a good cause, right?  Alright, I'll keeping using my trusty faithful eMac.  She's stuck by me through thick and thin.  I bought mine right before Apple stopped making them so I've had mine for about 4-5 years and have never had one single problem.....gotta love a Mac!