Overdue again!

Once again I'm here working on a blog post that is way overdue. Believe it or not I actually started this post on the 13th of Dec. It's been crazy here between Bree getting sick (her first ever stomach flu), then me, then getting ready for the holidays topped off with crappy weather that kept me from getting pictures taken. I know, I know excuses, excuses.

We've been going through the warm, cold, warm, freeze your snot cold, warm, colder then the North Pole, warm, cold that seems to be what they call winter around here. Either stay warm or stay cold dang it!

Let see, where in the world to start. There is so much to post about I'm not sure where to start. How bout the dishcloths I finished up?

I managed to knit all 24 cloths this year for the Monthly Dishcloth KAL. I now have plenty of dishcloths to use when we get to Germany. Truthfully I have way more then I really need. Note to self: must remember to call my Granny to see if she wants some.

I finished my Slip-Stitch Cable Socks (ravelry).

This is one of the patterns out of The Little Box of Socks. These were knit using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted yarn in the black purl colorway. They are super comfy and squishy. I think I might make another pair again in the future.

My Nutkin socks (Ravelry)(non Ravelry).

I knit these for the Sonny and Shear Nutkin KAL on Ravelry. The yarn is Hazel Knits Artisan sock in the Sailors Delight colorway. I did deviate from the pattern for the cuff, heel and toe. I worked a picot cuff, my favorite short row heel from the Sock Wizard software and a standard toe.

New pair of worsted weight socks for Kaity.

These are made with leftover Dream in Color Classy from the sweaters I made both of the girls. Her cheapo acrylic socks that I knit her like 3 years ago have finally died. They developed a huge hole in them and judging by the way Kaity acted you would have swore the world was ending.To stave off the end of the world I made her this pair of socks. They've been deemed worthy of wearing and of course request from more socks have ensued.

I finished my moms Whispering Pines shawl (Ravelry)(non Ravelry).

Now all I need to do is find the time to get it blocked out so I can send it on to my mom. I used 3 skeins of Knit Picks Gloss lace weight yarn. Once again I have to say that Anne Hanson is an absolute lace genius! I've yet to find a Knitspot pattern I haven't loved.

I finally got a picture of Kaity's finished Luna Trail Pullover (Ravelry)(non Ravelry).

The sleeves are a little long and I wished I would have knit another inch of two in the body of the sweater but she loves it.

I've received my a few goodies in the mail. The only thing I'm getting in now is stuff that I signed up for before we found out we were moving. I'll provide links so there isn't much of a possibility of someones surprise being spoiled. I've received Oriental Poppies which is part of a Woolgirl club and my final shipment from the first round of the Lord of the Rings sock club.

I've finally started destashing some of my yarn stash. It's listed on Ravelry and the Destash! blog too. I've had success there selling some stuff.

Right now I'm working on a test knit for Woolgirl and am trying to finish up some older projects (I'm down to two projects on the needles....gasp!). As soon as I finish up the current test knit I'm going to start working on Shawn's sweater. I really want to get that finished before his 80th birthday. ;~)

Happy Crafting!

Been Over A Month....Wow!

It's hard to believe it's been over a month since my last post. All I can say is things have been super busy here in the Luvs2knit household. We've been dealing with all the wonderful viruses that are floating around making everyone sick.

Then to make things even more fun, in the beginning of November I started having this pain that was shooting down the back of my leg to my knee. I went to the doctor who referred me to physical therapy here on the base who managed to make the problem even worse by causing the pain to work its way all the way down my leg, half my foot and calf to go numb and my leg go into spasms every time I sat down. I had to fight for several weeks before I finally got my referral to see another physical therapist. There was no way I was going back to see the crazy lady who tried to cripple me. Turns out that my back spasms have caused me a lot more then just a little bit of pain and have now managed to cause my muscles to start locking down and pushing on my sciatic nerve. I'm seeing a wonderful physical therapist in town who has really helped me out. I'm now having less pain and am finally starting to do a few things around the house.

We've heard back on our medical clearances for Germany. The girls and I are cleared to go so we're leaving for Mannheim Germany in March. Thankfully we were able to get the report date pushed back otherwise Shawn would have had to have left for Germany in Jan and the girls and I would have stayed here to get our house packed up and cleaned before heading over to meet up with him.

I'll be destashing yarn here in the next few weeks. I'm not looking
forward to weeding through my stash but I can't take it all so I'm
going to have to decide what to destash.

I have tons of knitting projects both finished and in progress to post about along with a few goodies that I've gotten in the mail. I'll try to post here soon. I have a lot of pictures to take and the weather isn't looking very promising for picture taking. We're getting ready to get hit with a winter storm tonight and could see up to 12 inches of snow.....yuck! Plus the temps are getting ready to plummet to the subzero range for the next few days. I'm planning to knit and stay here in the house where it's warm. Even Starbucks can't tempt me out when this storm hit.

A Little Progress

I'm up with a sick kiddo so I figured I might as well start a blog post. Might as well put my time to good use, right? Kaity is sick with the flu and Shawn's getting over his bout with it although he still has a cough that is driving him crazy. I'm have my fingers and toes crossed that Bree and I escape the crude but seeing as we're surrounded by it it'll be amazing if we don't catch it.

I have finished a few projects since my last knitting related post but that shouldn't be to surprising since my last knitting related post was almost a month ago.

The Raspberries & Chocolate Mallow socks (ravelry)(non ravelry).

I knit these with Frog Creek Fibers Ebullient sock yarn in the Raspberries and Chocolate colorway. The colors are gorgeous, the yarn was nice to work with and I really enjoy the fit of these socks. I will be trying some of their other base yarns.

I'm trekking right along on my moms Whispering Pines shawl (ravelry)(non ravelry).

I'm actually not far from starting the edging on the shawl. I do believe I have around 21 rows left before starting the edging.

I started Mara (ravelry)(non ravelry) for my trip to and back from Oregon.

I'm using Araucania Nature Wool which I picked up on sale at WEBS awhile back. I want to make this as big as possible so I have something warm to use when I'm sitting in my chair. The only time I worked on this was in the car with the exception of one evening at my granny's house where I knit maybe one row before swapping to a pair of socks.

I finished my stripey Regia socks.

Their just a basic toe up sock with a short row heel and a picot cuff. I used a Turkish cast on and knit until I was bored with them. The stripes aren't matched up with this pair. I thought I had it but they were off by several rows and I didn't feel like ripping them out to start again.

We got snow a few days before Halloween.

Friggin' crazy weather! It melted in about 2 days but all total I think we ended up with about 4 inches in town. I don't think we got quite as much on the base.

Thankfully Kaity didn't get sick until the day after Halloween so she was able to go out Trick or Treating for a little bit.

They both had a lot of fun. Kaity went as Mitchie from Camp Rock and Bree was a little bumble bee. I think Bree was just as excited to hand out candy to other kids as she was to get candy.

I did get some goodies since my last post. I'll just link to my Flickr account since some of these could possibly be spoilers for some people. My Woolgirl Emerald City Wizard of Oz sock club kit made it in. So did the 3rd installment from the Zen Yarn Garden Spin Art fiber club, Lord of the Rings sock club, and My Perfect Fall is Halloween Kit.

My first skein of Bugga! that I managed to snag from some one who was destashing on Ravelry.

I can see why people are going crazy about it but I'm not going to miss sleep or go crazy trying to get more when there are other cashmere base sock yarns out there that are beautifully dyed and easier to get. Yes, yes I know it has 20% cashmere but frankly I think ZYG's Serenity sock is just as squishy and soft and it's a whole lot easier to buy. That said, if I had some extra cash and I stumbled upon some in an update I would buy it if I liked the colors.

I'll leave you all with a pic of my little yarn hugger.

Bree is my knitting helper. She loves helping me take pictures of
yarn and projects and sits in my lap to help me knit. Plus she loves to "fuzz" the yarn. For some reason Bree asks to fuzz instead of feel but only when it involves yarn. She always asks if she can "fuzz it" when I get a new skein of yarn. I've
even caught her sniffing it. The kid is a crack up in a yarn store. She treats the yarn as if it's super special (of course it is and I've taught her well). I think I have a yarn addict in the making. :~)

No Knitting but lots of Pictures

Stupid me, I took my camera on our trip to Oregon to visit family but didn't bring it out until the last day. I missed taking pictures of the girls with their grandparents (my mom and dad) and my aunt.

I did however remember to snap a few pics of the girls with their great granny Ruby.

I snapped a few photos along the way (mostly in the car going down the road). We were wanting to get home and didn't want to make many stops.

This first one cracked me up.

I took it when we stopped at Fairchild AFB, WA to stay the night on the way to Oregon. We stayed in a pet friendly TLF (temporary lodging facility) and they gave use sheets to put on the couch to keep the pet hair, drool etc off the couch. Apparently someone missed the n in friendly.

This is a picture of the tree farm that was along the road near Hermiston, Oregon.

As you can see in the photo the trees (on the right hand side of the photo) go on and on. We estimated that it runs along 5 miles of I-84 and it goes back away from the interstate as far as the eye can see. It's kind of neat to see where new trees have been planted and how small they are compared to the ones that are close to being cut down.

The girls got a kick out of going over the Pioneer Memorial "Blue" bridge that connects Kennewick, WA to Pasco WA.

You can see some better shots on this website.

The girls enjoying their Starbucks.

Well Bree is enjoying a small cup of whipped cream. I don't think she's quite ready to have her own Frapp. She was very proud of her Starbucks. We programmed our Tom-Tom GPS (which is now lovingly called Tom) unit to make a noise whenever we were near a Starbucks. Boy did that thing go crazy when we were in Spokane, WA. I'm beginning to wonder how in the world we have lived with out our Tom. There several places along the way that weren't marked very well and the only reason we stayed on course and didn't get lost was because Tom told us where we needed to go.

We passed a correctional facility in Connell, WA.

The thing that makes this place stick out in my mind was because of the signs posted on the side of the interstate telling you not to pick up hitchhikers. Well duh! Common sense dictates that you should never pick up hitchhikers, specially when they are near a prison. No hitchhikers were seen when we passed through. ;~)

Here's a shot of the girls playing with their goodies after a trip to Build-A-Bear Workshop (BABW) when we stopped to stay the night at Fairchild AFB, WA.

We actually made two trips to BABW. The first trip was with my parents and we went to the one in Eugene, OR where they built their bunnies....yes I forgot my damn camera. We stopped at the Spokane Valley Mall on the way back to let them pick out a few things since we made it to Spokane early. They were so excited about getting to go to BABW. Oh man to be able to shop in Spokane, WA. They have a real mall in Spokane....it's huge! The drawback is the state sales tax....ouch, it's over 8%. I've kinda gotten use to no sales tax here in Montana. The huge bonus at Fairchild is that the base has a Starbucks....Yup, I have my priorities straight.

This is the friggin' kitchen in the house we stayed at on Fairchild AFB.

Man I wished I had a kitchen this big. Mine is a lot smaller and has a bunch of cabinets that are completely worthless because you can't reach the shelves. Two people can actually stand in this kitchen without bumping in to each other constantly.

Welcome to Idaho!

Man I can't wait to see this sign when Shawn finally retires from the Air Force. We are actually adding Coeur d'Alene, ID as one of the spots to move back to when Shawn retires. It's only about 30 miles from Spokane so there is big city culture without having to live in the big city. Plus who wouldn't want to live near a lake and be surrounded by trees.

My obligatory Welcome to Montana shot.

We were happy to see this sign since it meant we were getting closer to our destination.

We were merrily driving down I-90 working our way to US Route 12 when we see this big green sign with a bull on it advertising for the Te$tic!e Festival (trying to avoid spam on this post.) I can honestly say I've never heard of this one. I bout spit my soda across the dashboard of the car. Shawn and I had a good laugh over this billboard. I'm still kicking myself in the butt for not getting a picture of that billboard. Seriously, there should be a sign saying "warning for all bloggers funny billboard or sign ahead". If you want to see the billboard they have it out on their website.

A wicked view coming down out of MacDonald Pass on US Route 12...yes that's snow on the ground.

There was still a little bit of snow up on the sides of the pass from the snow storm that came through after we left. MacDonald pass is like 6320 feet and the scenic view is definitely scenic. Wow that is high up. It was high enough that my happy little butt did not want to get out of the car to get a panoramic shot. Just sitting there in the car gave me the heebee jeebees. So I snapped a few shots in the car and told Shawn to keep driving. Yes, I know my fear of heights is irrational but aren't most fears and phobias?

Hope you guys liked my abbreviated tour of four states. I'll be back in a few days to post about my knitting and some goodies I received while I was gone. Sadly I never got to visit the local yarn shops which was a big disappointment but we were pretty busy the whole time we were gone.

A Little Knitting

Dear architects,

Could you please rethink the design of homes and take note that my coat closet size bathroom does not need a heater vent. Nor does my bathroom sized walk in closet for that matter. My clothes could care less if they are hot or cold and I really hate it when I'm taking a shower and the heater/AC kicks on and pushes the shower curtain in....very annoying! Isn't it sad that my walk in closet is almost 3 times bigger then the tiny little room they claim is a master bathroom?

Thanks,

Luvs2knit

I would love to know what the architect was smokin' when he designed this house? There is tons of storage space but the fool couldn't give an extra 2-3 feet in the bathroom? Seriously!

Still no news on what's going on with our orders. Some people are saying that my arthritis is going to stop us from going to Germany. Others are saying it's not going to be a problem. Gotta love it when you can't get a definitive answer. We did find out that if we go to Germany our car insurance is going to shoot through the roof. It's going to be alike $138 per month and that doesn't include renters insurance. I guess you have to have higher coverage over there. It'll be off set by some of the bills we wont have over there. It'll all work out in the end but the price did make choke on my coffee.

I've been making progress on the knitting front and have managed to start a few projects but haven't finished anything major. Although the way I'm going I'll be finished with Kaity's sweater in no time at all.

First up is Kaity's sweater.

The pattern is Luna Trail Pullover (ravelry)(non ravelry) and the yarn is Dream in Color Classy, Punky Fucshia. I absolutely love knitting with Classy but hate, hate, hate winding it up. The yarn is so squishy and springy that it doesn't wind very well....at least not for me. I've wound 4 skeins of this yarn so far and every single one of them has given me fits. That being said it won't stop me from using it again.

New socks for me, yippy!

Oh wait just about every pair of socks are knit for myself. Oh how selfish I am! These are the Mallow Sock pattern (ravelry)(non ravelry). The yarn is Frog Creek Fibers Ebullient in the Raspberries and Chocolate colorway. The yarn is soft and has a nice tight, twist. It's going on my list of yarns I'll buy again. I'd like to try some of their other base yarns.

New on the go socks.

My basic toe up sock pattern with a turkish cast one. I'll probably knit a short row heel and a stockinette leg and to change things up a little I think I'm going to knit a picot cuff. Easy socks, perfect for car knitting.

The 1 Sept Monthly Dishcloth KAL cloth.

Basic ABC cloth done in Red Peaches and Creme. I haven't found the link for this pattern so no link for this one.

Some yummy String Theory Caper sock now lives in my stash.

I placed an order from TLE a few weeks ago to order the Namaste small clutch to match my Laguna bag. I wanted something for quick trips to the store. Since I was ordering I decided to go for free shipping. I couldn't have my Namaste bag all alone in the box now could I. I ordered a skein of String Theory Caper sock in the Black Cherry colorway and a couple of sock patterns.

Look at what Shawn came home with for me.

A drying rack for my socks. He noticed that hanging up all the socks on hangers was a pain in the butt so one night while he was out at Wally World he found this and picked it up. The drying rack is huge. I'm around 5' 8" give or take a smidge and the rack is up to my shoulders. It has all but a few pair of socks on there and without Bree's sweater I could probably have fit ever pair of handknit socks that I have for Kaity and I.

We're on our way to Oregon to visit with my family. I started this post at home but am finishing it up here in Spokane, WA. We're staying the night at Fairchild AFB. TLF (military hotel for families) is a lot nicer here. Big rooms and just way nicer all around. Wished we would have had this much room when we were stuck in TLF in Montana for over a month. We're getting the visiting in now just in case we do go to Germany because chances are once I get over there we won't be able to visit with family. The plane tickets are just to much money. Not to mention passports and visas. As it is it looks like we're going to have to shell out over $400 on passports to be able to travel around while we are there. If we don't pay for the passports we won't be able to leave the country. Well if I'm going to be stuck over there I'm damn sure going to travel to other countries. The government pays for traveling passports for the girls and I to get to Germany but that is all they are good for. Sucks I know! If they're going to send us over there the least they could do is give us full fledged passports to travel with.

I'll be back for another post after we get home from our trip. Till then...Happy Crafting!

Some Knittin' Goin' On

Dear UPS,

Please, please, please don't fail me today. My daughter is counting on you to bring her a special package. In the past you have been untrustworthy to me. Telling me you were going to bring me my goods and then letting me know that the goods were delayed and I'd have to wait another day or too. This should not be done to a person when it's late at night and a person is feeling down because they didn't get their package fix. Please don't let me down today! I beg you because if you do I will be sending a very disappointed 8 year old to you so you can hear her cry.

Thank You,

Luvs2knit Family

Kaity is excited because UPS tracking is showing that her American Girl doll is here and out for delivery. Yes it was a splurge and a very special treat for Kaity. Yes yes yes I know that they are expensive and no we are not crazy for buying her the doll. I wouldn't scoff at you for buying a skein of Qiviut now would I.

For the past two weeks we've heard nothing but "is my doll here yet?", "I can't wait to see Chrissa!", "mom can you check the tracking to see if Chrissa is here yet?" "I can't wait till Chrissa is here so I can play at my friends house with her doll too! It's about to drive me insane. I swear on all that is holy if UPS changes the status to show that the package will be delivered on another day I'm going to scream so loud they will hear me in China!

The weather is still warmer then normal around here. I swear that it was only in the 60's and 70's Fahrenheit last year. I know it was a lot cooler in 2007 when we got here because we had to go buy warmer clothing because our stuff was still in storage. We've been hitting in to the 90's....that's just wrong, wrong, wrong. I'm getting back in a regular routine now that
Kaity is in school. I'm starting to adjust to the fact that we are moving to Germany though we are pushing for the date to be moved to May 2010. We still have to be medically cleared but that will take some time yet and according to a lot of people we've talked to my arthritis could cancel our orders. We should know more within the next month or so.

I
have managed to finish a few things and of course start up a few more.
I just finished up another test knit for Woolgirl and am working on one for Madelinetosh.Here's a little teaser of what I'm working on.

It's a smallish project so it'll probably be done fairly quickly.

This is a test knit for Woolgirl.

I think this was from one of the Peanuts kits. The yarn is Curious Creek Fibers Serengeti and the colorway is called Happiness is. I loved all the cables and twists in this pattern. I really liked working with the yarn too.

First up are the Rapunzel's Braid Socks (ravelry).

I love love love these socks. They fit beautifully and the yarn (Zen Yarn
Garden Serenity sock) is so soft and squishy. I think I have one more
skein of Serenity sock in my stash so it's time to go buy some more.

The rainbow stripe Opal socks are finished.

I knit these with some Opal Brasil, #5001 from my stash. This is my basic
toe up pattern that I know by heart. No need for a paper pattern which
makes for perfect on the go socks.

Merletto Mitts (ravelry) for my mom.

I finally finished them. They are a quick knit (when I actually work on
them). It took me less then two days of knitting to make both mitts. It
took me so long because I kept getting side tracked by other projects.

I've started & finished a sweater for Bree.

The pattern is Cookie Sweater (ravelry) from Miss Bea's Rainy
Day and the yarn is Dream in Color Classy, Visual Purple. Bree loves it
and is very proud of her new sweater.

Now to wait for it to cool down enough for her to wear it.

The Pearl-barred Scallop Scarf (ravelry)(non ravelry) is finished.

Well I'm done knitting it but lazy me I have yet to block it. That's on the
agenda for tomorrow. I hope to have it in the mail to the new owner by
the beginning of next week. I want to find some goodies to put in the
box. I have an idea of what I want so I'll pick it up this weekend.

New socks for Kaity.

She's worn these sock for the last 2 nights and I suspect she'll wear them again tonight. Worsted weight socks are such a quick knit. Kaity requested some new worsted
weight socks to wear to bed so I dug out the scraps of Cascade 220 and started knitting. These are a basic toe up sock with a heel flap. Nothing fancy and a fairly quick knit since I used worsted weight wool. I planning on knitting her several pair out of whatever worsted weight yarn I can dig out of my stash. I really should knit these with some superwash yarn to make it easier on me when they need to be washed. Guess I'd better go digging through my stash.

I'm moving right along on moms Whispering Pines Shawl (ravelry)(non ravelry).

I can't wait to get this blocked out. I'm just about through with Section G.

The most absolute gorgeous color of sock yarn from Madelinetosh.

I picked this up from Woolgirl. The colorway is called Tart and I'd love
love love to have this dyed up in Tosh Worsted for a sweater. Might have to save up some money and see if Amy will custom dye the yarn for me.

JulieSpins MCN sock yarn.

I picked this up from a Ravelry destasher. The color is Dark Peony and the yarn is completely petable. Now to find the perfect pattern for this yarn.

Self striping sock yarn from Fireweed Dyeworks.

I'm still on my self striping sock yarn kick. I'll probably wind this up and knit it for my next "on the go" sock project. The dyer was great to deal with and shipped the yarn out quickly. She even dropped me an email to let me know that she had shipped it.

I picked up a couple of skeins of Tosh Merino to try.

I picked these up from Madelinetosh's etsy shop. I'm planning a cowl and hat, maybe some fingerless mitts too. The colorway
is called Ophelia and this yarn is so delightfully soft. I could totally imagine a cardigan made out of this yarn.

I pre-ordered a skein of yarn from Frog Creek Fibers awhile back....I think it was right before Sock Summit.

I received it in the mail last week and absolutely fell in love. The color is even prettier in person. The colorway is called Raspberries and chocolate.

A Spin-It Kit from Yarn Pirates etsy shop.

This kit has 4 ozs of Shetland wool dyed in 4 different colors, 1oz of each color. I have no idea how or what I'm going to spin this for but I thought it was a cool idea and isn't roving like sock yarn...you can never have enough?

My Sept shipment from the Artwalk Fiber Club came in last week. You can see it here. The fiber is so soft.

I received my Angel package from a swap that had gone wrong.

My TLE swap partner flaked out on me at the last moment but my wonderful angels more then made up for the flaking. They spoiled me rotten and even threw in some goodies for the girls. The cool thing is the skein of Trekking I received is the same color and dyelot as the skein I bought a long time ago. What are the odds of that happening? So now I have two matching skeins. I do believe this yarn is destined to become knee highs for me.

I did cave on the no more buying yarn before we move rule I had started. In my defense I only purchase one skein of yarn and it was to help meet the free shipping from The Loopy Ewe. I picked up the small clutch that matches my peacock Laguna bag that Shawn and the girls got me for Christmas. I picked up a few patterns I've been wanting and a skein of String Theory Caper. It should be here tomorrow.

Well that sums up my post for now.

Happy Crafting!