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!

Fa La La La La

La La La Laaaaaa! It is the season to be jolly, isn't it? I'd be a lot more jollier if it was a little warmer here. Guess I could go buy me a little Captain Morgan's and Coke to make things a lot more warmer and jollier and I do believe I'd forget all about the cold weather.  ;~)

Oh, wait you guys are in shock aren't you? I just did a post the other day and now I'm posting again. Scary, I know! I'll probably post again in a few more days since Christmas is less then 3 days away.

I was planning on a trip to the Bahamas (in my dreams) to warm up but seeing as the flight and hotel are going to run me around $3,000 (could be a little cheaper but I don't want to stay in the no tell motel so it's gonna cost more) not including food I guess I'll have to stay here and freeze my butt off. So what do you do when it's -8 outside?

Why you buy a Frappuccino from Starbucks! Nothing makes a cold day better then a cold Caramel Frapp from Starbucks. It's funny when people look at you as if you've gone crazy. Specially the ones who give you that look when they are standing there holding an ice cold soda. How is my cold frapp any worse then getting a cold soda on ice? Just in case you guys haven't figured it out, I enjoy being the odd duck in the group.

The lone package from TLE came in.

This poor package was shipped out on the 15th of Dec and came in today 22 Dec.....talk about slow moving mail. I had a first class package from Texas that beat this one by 5 days. Crazy holiday mail! The yarn is going to be used to make a hat for Shawn. He wants a hat with the pirate skull and crossbones on it. I think I have a pattern picked out but need to discuss it with Shawn first since he's the one who will be wearing it.

I have an FO to share with you.

I meant to put this in the last post but forgot about it. In my defense it was a big post full of stuff. I knit a helmet liner for Shawn. He needed something warm to wear while he's out in the cold shoveling snow. I used blue yarn (Valley Yarns Northampton) for this one since he'll only use it at home. He has a black one at work with his cold weather gear that was bought for him to wear when he's in uniform and has to work outside.

I've been chugging right along on my Bee Fields (Ravelry)(non Ravelry) shawl since I finished my Christmas knitting.

I've gotten quite a bit done in the last few days. I have about 30% of the shawl complete. I'm about 28 rows from completing the Bee Swarm section. This poor shawl has been put into time out way to many times. It's time to finish it up. Plus some time after the first of the year I need to get one started for my mom. I haven't figured out what I'm going to do with this one when it's complete. I'm not really a big lace shawl wearer. Maybe a decoration to hang on a wall?

I've also made good progress on my socks.

I only worked on these in the car. I have a few more inches until I'm done with these. I like longer cuffs on my socks. Since these are made out of worsted weight yarn they will most likely become boot socks. When I wear my shearling sheepskin boots I have to wear thick boot socks or they slide around on my feet. My favorite socks are some black cold weather boot socks I bought to wear with my military uniform. They cost me $8 a pair but they've lasted me 10 winters now. These boots are 500 times more comfortable then my snowboots and a lot warmer. The link I gave is to the boots I bought last year (yes I bought mine from Overstock their prices are great).  They have a lug sole so they have good traction. The parking lots around here are slick with snow and ice so shoes with good traction are a must. If you want a comfy pair but don't want to pay out the price for Uggs these are a great buy. Ugg brand boots similar to the Bear Paw boots I bought will run you around $160-$200 for a pair. I don't wear cheapo shoes but I'm also not into spending $$$ on shoes.

I am not into fashion at all. I'm all about the comfort. I'm a Levi's and Hanes T-shirts kind of gal. I have a total of 7 pair of shoes none of them cost me more then $100 and do not own one single suit or anything that someone would consider fashionable. I would probably shock Stacy and Clinton on What Not to Wear. I've only seen the show a few times but refuse to watch anymore because they get down right mean and nasty about what people wear. Insulting people with a smile on your face and a giggle in your voice does not make it any less mean or hurtful. Yes some people want to be on the show and know they are going to be criticized but there are plenty who have no idea they are going to be on the show because they were put in by meddling family who can't accept them for the way they are. On one show a woman was practically in tears after they tore her clothing choices apart. Not watching the show is a person preference for me, everyone is allowed to like what they want to like, so it doesn't bother me one bit if you like the show. To each their own I always say.

Oops, I got sidetracked, now back to knitting. Sometimes I'm so easy distracted.

I've also been working on my moms Errant socks.

I would like to get these finished up soon. Plus if I finish these then I can cast on another pair, maybe for myself. I have several yarns sitting in my "to be knit next" basket.

Kaity's A-line Coat is done.

Well almost done. I need to get some buttons for it. I have my eye on some ladybug buttons from an online website. I was going to see what JoAnns had but Bree was getting tired and fussy so we decided to come home. Plus the weather was cold and nasty. I'll just order from the online store so I can pick up some other buttons for a few projects I have on my list to do. I really want to start a button stash.

I think that just about covers it for now. Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Wonderful Kwanzaa, just another damn day, etc and an excellent New Year!

I'll leave you with Shadow.

It's been awhile since she's been in a post. I think she likes the new bed we bought her. I do believe that's what complete and total relaxation looks like.

Happy Crafting!

Still Freezin'

The weather here is still suckish. Since the weather here is hovering around subzero temps (when you factor in the wind chill it goes below zero) I'm contemplating a trip to The Bahamas. Check out their weather. I don't think you can get much better then that! Anyone else want to join me?

Today's post is a goodie post. I've received a few things in the mail since my last knitting post.

I wanted to see for myself what the Noro Kureyon sock is like.

I have some of the Silk Garden Sock and it's pretty nice but I wanted to see what the Noro Sock is like. Since the only way to find out if you are going to like a yarn is to buy some and try it I've been keeping an eye out on the Ravelry Destash board for some. This is colorway S185. It's definitely rougher then any sock yarn I've ever used but I'll give it a try. I can handle scratch specially if it softens up a little bit and is warm. Plus Noro's colors are gorgeous.

I bought the new Socks a la Carte sock book.



I have a half a bazillion bonus points with my book club so I used some to get this book and it cost me less then $10 with shipping. The book actually came in when it was still a pre-order from Amazon and SWTC. Guess the book club decided to get a head start on things.

It's a unique book and I only have two complaints. The first one is that they used a red yarn to knit the sample socks so some of the sock patterns don't show up as well. Hello, everyone knows that red is one of the most difficult colors to photograph. The second is that after you build up the sock the way you want it you have to go to three different pages for the instructions. This can be a little annoying. I generally make a copy of the pattern so I can make notes, changes, etc so it's not a deal breaker for me but I have a scanner/copier/printer so making a copy isn't a problem for me. All in all I think it's a pretty good book and the fact that it helps you customize your sock is awesome.

Two knit coffee mugs.

Shawn picked these up from me today. How can a knitter pass up knit coffee cups? They are fairly lightweight so they don't kill my hands to hold them when they are full of coffee.

Some yummy Twisted Fiber Art Kabam!

I got this from someone who was destashing on Ravelry. The colorway is Saucy. The colors are gorgeous and it's a self striping so I'm happy now. Although I still want to get my hands on some of the Warlock colorway. Kabam! is a merino/bamboo/nylon blend. I really like the merino/bamboo blends. I missed this last update but there's always hope that I'll catch the next one.

A sock project bag.

Don't you just love all the funky fun colors? During this time of year anything bright and cheering is welcomed. I picked this bag up from Annie Purl who was wonderful to deal with. She sent me a message to let me know that she'd dropped the package off at the PO. It's a great project bag and the perfect size to hold my current "to go" sock project. Plus if Santa is kind and brings me my new knitting bag I requested it will fit in there wonderfully.

Some very yummy holiday Madelinetosh sock yarn.

I picked this up when Madelinetosh did her holiday update on etsy. The colorway is Grinch. I love the colors and am looking forward to knitting with it.

Wollmeise, who can pass up Wollmeise!

I swapped with a Ravelry user for this color, Tiefer See which is gorgeous mix of blues and greens. She was looking for the Sultan colorway and I had fell out of love with it so we swapped and everyone's happy!

Christmas Sock Monkey (Ravelry)(non Ravelry).

It's now complete and ready to be loved by Kaity. I'm thinking about making it a hat and scarf. We wouldn't want the poor monkey to get cold now would we. Plus Kaity is going to ask for them anyway. It might get a little cardi too.

Christmas Bucket O' Balls (Ravelry)(non Ravelry).

This one is made for Bree. I was going to make her a monkey but decided she'd have more fun with these toy instead. I used several different colors of Red Heart Classic from my stash. It's not my most favorite yarn to knit with but I wanted something durable.

Now I leave you with cute toddler!

I had a doctors appointment the other day and since the wicked freezing cold weather is still here it calls for warm stuff. I found the hat/mitten set on sale at Kmart....isn't it so cute? It's a tad big but that's OK Bree didn't seem to mind.

Happy Crafting!

Gingerbread Livin'

What do you do when it's -12 and way to cold to play outside? Well too cold unless you want to risk frostbite. Why you make a gingerbread house of course! We've been having freakishly cold weather here. It's about 8am here and it's -22 F, -42 if you factor in the windchill. That's way to cold for any sane person to be outside. Needless to say Shawn took Kaity to school this morning. No way was she standing outside to wait for the bus when it's that cold out.

Kaity and I started the gingerbread house after Bree laid down for her nap but Bree helped finish the house after she got up. I'll just post the pics so you all can see.

Told you it was lots of fun! We bought the gingerbread house kit at Sam's Club a few weeks back for less then $10. This thing is huge and actually smells and tastes like gingerbread. It's much bigger then any of the ones you can buy at Michaels, JoAnns, etc. for around the same price and those are super stale and don't have that lovely gingerbread smell....well at least the few I have bought haven't. The bonus was these came with 6 gingerbread snowman ornaments. Course there are only 5 in the picture because Kaity ate one.

The Wii has been a handy thing too since it's to cold to go outside and it doesn't look like there is any relief in sight. At least with the Wii you get some exercise while you play.

I'll be back in a few days with a knitting related post. I should have some FOs and most likely some goodies too.

Happy Crafting!

Yarn Goodies

** I'm changing the title because the other one keeps attracting tons of Spam.

Dear Great Falls Water Department,

Could you kindly do something about making the tap water taste a little better. It smells and tastes like I have a direct line pumping water from the Missouri River to my house. It tastes so bad that I'm willing to cut into my yarn stash money to fork out money to have more water delivered to my house. When water tastes this bad it makes a person wonder if it's really all that safe to drink. In all the places I've lived so far this has got to be the #1 nastiest tasting water.

Thank you for your time,
The Luvs2knit Household

Seriously the water here tastes nasty. I swear my water is pumped straight from the Missouri River with no filtration at all. We use to use the bottled water for drinking but now we use it for cooking and I've resorted to using it for my coffee. We have our water delivered in the 5 gallon reusable bottles and the company we go through delivers once a month. So all in all I think we are doing pretty good from the environmentally friendly standpoint.

I'm loving the new haircut but I'm definitely going to take it a wee bit shorter when I go in again. I have received some goodies in the mail since my last post.

First up is an order from TLE.

I needed some more knitters hand soap and of course to keep the soap from being lonely I picked up a sock pattern and another skein of Malabrigo Sock....the color is off in the photo. For a more accurate photo you can see it here on my Flickr page. In the month of December if you are a Loopy Groupie and place an order you'll get a 2009 Romney Ridge calendar. I love looking at all the sheepy photos.

Next up is a my very first order from Perfect Day Yarns.

This is the Ode to a Sea Sock which is a merino/seacell yarn. The color is Can't Catch Me! I fell in love with this color combo the minute I saw it.

Lastly is my Twisted Fiber Art Arial and the colorway is Flair.

It's a mutating variegated. I was hoping for one of the self striping but I love the colors and I think I have the perfect pattern picked out. Guess I will have to keep on looking for some self striping. I'd really love to get my hands on a skein of the Warlock color way.....drool. Although Warlock isn't the only colorway I want, check out their colorways....yum! I think the only base yarn I wouldn't care for is their Shiny which is a merino/tencel base. I'm not really big on tencel in sock yarn.

I have one monkey done, well almost done since it still needs to be stuffed and seamed. I've decided not to make a second monkey so this one will be for Kaity. Bree isn't really a big stuffed animal kid. I may make another one later on down the road but not right now. I have a toy picked out for Bree and have already started it. It's the Bucket O' Balls pattern (Ravelry)(non Ravelry). I'm using some girly colored acrylic from my stash.

Shawn has already finished my Christmas shopping and I know he placed one order to Woolgirl and another to Amazon. Of course he's been teasing me with it** since he already got a portion of his Christmas gift. We bought him a new pair of boots from Corral West which is going out of business. We didn't want to pass up the sale plus there is no way I could buy something like that for him without him trying it on. He offered to give me one of my gifts but I resisted the temptation and will wait for Christmas morning. Yup, I'm a fool!

** No he is not being mean to me. It's all in fun.

I think that just about sums it up for now. Hopefully I'll be back again soon with some knitting progress.

Anyone have a nice warm place for me to stay. I'm thinking the The Bahamas are sounding really good bout now. The temps are going to start plummeting tonight and are suppose to hit as low as -29 on Sunday night. Mondays high is suppose to be a balmy -12 degrees. This is friggin' insane. NOAA is stating that we could see 7-10 inches of snow by tomorrow night....Yikes!

****FYI, I'm in the US so all my temps are in Farenheit.

12 Days till Christmas!

Happy Crafting!

New Hair

You guys all remember the other day when I said I was getting my hair cut. Well I went through with it today. I know, I know you're saying come on Trish get on with it, we want to see the pictures. OK, so here we go.

Before Shot (this is how long my hair is, not that you'd ever see me walking around with my hair down.

This is what I would look like if you seen me on the street.

OK, well I'd most likely have a smile on my face but I hate trying to smile for the camera. My smiles tend to look like someone is driving a bamboo shoot under my fingernails and I'm trying not to cry out. You get the picture, my smiles tend to look not so great. I do smile, I swear.

After Shot (keep in mind it's windy today so hair is a little windblown:

I went with a length that's just above my shoulders this time but I think when I go back in Feb I may take it a little shorter. You can't see it but the back is all different lengths so it a lot lighter. Over all I'm pretty happy with the cut and am glad to be rid of my long hair.

I'll be back here in a day or two with a post about my latest acquisitions. The sun is out and I want to see if I can get some better pictures.

Happy Blogiversary To Me

Wow. It's hard to believe that it's been 2 years since I started this blog. I know I've been kind of erratic with my posting lately. Thanks to all of you who have hung on through the blog blahs. I'm not going to do a contest right now but will be holding one after the first of the year.

Today is the anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor. A date in history that is more significant then my blogiversary. Please remember our veteran old and young during this holiday season or better yet year round. Visit a VA hospital, give to the USO, make a scarf, hat, helmet liner, sock, etc. for our troops. Contact your local VA hospital about donating knit or crocheted gifts to patients. There are many in the armed services who are going to be thousands of miles away from their loved ones....even the most tiniest things from home can help. Lets also not forget the veterans in hospitals who may not have family to be with this year. Everyone needs a little cheer. I highly recommend checking out some of the groups on Ravelry that are dedicated to supporting our troops. The America Supports You site is also full of info. Any one else have any good links? Please feel free to leave them in with your comments.

I do have lots to show you guys. I've finished 4 projects since my last post and have finally gotten photos, although not very good ones. We've finally hit winter like weather here which anyone in this area knows that that means colder temps, horrible winds, and lack of sunshine. The lack of sunshine is the worst part.

I finished the baby blanket.



It's ready to go to my cousin M. I really hope she likes it and gets a lot of use out of it. It's on the smaller side but should be big enough to tuck around wee one when he's in his carseat or stroller. The pattern is Baby Cable Blanket (Ravelry) and the yarn is Cascade 220 Superwash. I'd have to say it's my most favorite superwash yarn. Regular Cascade 220 kicks butt too.

I knit a square dishcloth.



The chart was sent to me by KnitTech to see if the instructions worked for me. They did and I now have a square cloth.....very cool. The only thing I'd do differently next time would be to use a provisional cast on so I could graft the stitches together or do a three needle bind off for a smoother finish.

I finished the Circles Cloth (Ravelry)(non Ravelry).



Well actually it was suppose to be another one or two pattern repeats longer but I deemed it long enough and bound off. I was getting tired of working on it and wanted to move on. It's a knitter right to do as she pleases.

I knit a pair of fingerless mitts for my mom.



She requested another pair when we were on the phone the other day and being the good kid I am I started a pair immediately. The pattern used was Irish Hiking Scarf Armwarmers (Ravelry)(non Ravelry). I really like this pattern but I need to make a few adjustments for the next pair. These mitts are knit flat and then seamed which makes it a faster knit for me. I knit these in a few hours. I used some Noro Silk Garden from my stash. I only had one ball so the stripes don't match. Hopefully mom won't mind. I had 1-2 yards leftover from the skein. If you want matchy stripes with this pattern you need to use two skeins.

I'll make mom
another pair after the first of the year. I have 17 days to get my
Christmas knitting finished. I have one Monkey that's just about
finished and one more to go. I'll make it if I work on only those
whenever I can.

I have a great start on my CPY Merino 5 socks.



These are for myself using a generic toe up pattern I generated using Sock Wizard for Mac. I used a turkish cast on, k3, p2 ribbing and will be using a short row heel. The yarn was acquired from a fellow Ravelry user. It's Crystal Palace Yarns Merino 5 Print, colorway Mocha Chai. I really like this yarn. It's making very squishy socks.

Typepad in all it's awesomeness has fixed my commenting issues. My problems all started when my blog was moved to the beta system. I sent them an email letting them know about my problem and they fixed it. So I'm back to normal again....woot!

Tomorrow evening I'm going in to have my hair cut off. I'm sick of the long hair and it's always in a bun so I might as well chop it off. If there's enough I'll be donating my hair to Locks of Love. I'll see about taking before and after pics to post.

I should be back here in the next few days for a post with some goodies in the mail. I finally got my first skein of Twisted Fiber Arts sock yarn. I found some one on Ravelry who was destashing a skein. I've been wanting to try their yarn forever!

Happy Crafting!