Yarn P*rn Friday!

Below are some of the goodies that came in while I was away at the beach. We'll start with your favorite and mine . . . Wollmeise . . . I got these lovelies in trades and purchases on Ravelry. They are L to R - Pfefferminz Prinz, Wasabi, Fruhling, Vincent (my new boyfriend, I just love him, he's beautiful), Miss May (which I have been coveting for several months, but have been unable to get my hands on), and Poison Nr. 5.




BTW, all of the pics in this post were taken with my new camera. They came out very nice, but I still need practice.


This is also a favorite of mine - Pigged Out from Numma-Numma - it's a special edition colorway that was only available to those who purchased from her on the first day of her new online shop. It's gorgeous.





And this is Yarntini - all of my favorites are in this post - Pop stripe and Caipirinha, from the stripe sock club and the semi-solid sock club.

And this is a great kit from The Loopy Ewe in celebration of their third anniversary. The yarn is Lorna's Laces, and the colorway was taken from the rug in the Loopy Knitting Lounge at TLE. Also included is a great pattern called Poppycock Socks by Debbie O'Neill and a great little tape measure. Can never have too many of those.

And last, but not least, from Yarnissima, the Zur Lederhos'n kit. The yarn is Wollmeise and the pattern is from the Yarnissima herself, plenty of cables and twisty thingys of course. Beautiful, as usual.

I'll be posting some fun beach and family pictures soon. I had to download a cd for my camera to work on my computer, and it takes me awhile to figure those things out. I'm not very tech savvy. But I think I have the basics down at least.

I'm trying to get my knitting mojo back. I did some knitting today on my STR kit, but had very little free time. Had to take YS to rehab for his groin injury that won't go away, and Cubby to the vet. He's lost over a pound (Cubby, not YS), which is alot for an 8 lb dog. The vet said he has "a little stress colitis" from being left for almost 2 weeks. She gave him 2 meds and some can dog food. Hope he feels better soon. He's so pitiful.

Hope you have a happy evening.

Long Time No Post . . .

. . . But I have a good excuse. VACATION!!! AT THE BEACH!!! Or maybe I should say that I was "on holiday". I love to say that. Maybe I was European in my previous life. Anyway, the family has been on holiday for the past couple of weeks. We left home 2 weeks ago to go to a family friend's wedding in The Delta. (That's in Mississippi, ya know.) From there, we went to our favorite place on earth - Destin, Florida. And guess what else, we even bought a condo there a couple of weeks ago. So exciting!! It needs a lot of work and won't be ready for about 6-8 weeks, but that's ok. We won't be able to go back until around Thanksgiving anyway, because of YS and OS playing football.

So, I did spend a little time picking out furniture and tile and paint colors and bedding and . . . and then it was beach and sun and sand and family time.

We really had a great, relaxing time. And guess how much I knitted. Not. One. Freaking. Stitch. I know, can you believe it? I didn't knit a single stitch in 11 days. Me. Who can't go 1 day without knitting, went 11 days. I missed it, but wool and sand and rum just don't mix. I have some catching up to do.

I had a lot of pretties to open that came in the mail while I was away. Pics of those to follow soon, I promise. BTW, I gotta new camera right before vacation. I haven't totally figured it out yet, so you'll have to be patient. There's a setting for almost everything except yarn. YS suggested using the "food" or "flower" setting. I'll have to experiment.

Have a good evening.

A FO and A SPOILER

First we'll start with the FO . . . Koigu Hearts-a-Plenty by Monica Jines on 2.25 mm needles. I made these too large for me on purpose so I won't be tempted to keep them. They'll go in the to-be-gifted stack. Love 'em. Love Koigu.











Started these yesterday . . . They're The Purple Rose of Loopy by Wendy Johnson. The yarn is Handmaiden Casbah in a beautiful deep maroon color. This came as a kit from The Loopy Ewe. You know I'm usually not a toe-up girl, but the more I do it, the more I like it. And my toes are coming out so pretty the more I practice.











Finished the first Watermelon Stripe sock with the exception of kitchenering the toe. Actually I finished the toe while these pictures were uploading. I wanted to free my needle so I could start my STR kit that arrived today. The second watermelon sock is going to have to wait a little bit.






SPOILER!!!







SPOILER!!!







SPOILER!!!





The July Socks That Rock kit arrived today. It is gorgeous! Look away now if you don't want to be spoiled.







The yarn is a multicolored yarn titled Garden Daze. The pattern is by Melissa Morgan-Oakes titled In Season. I'm probably going to cast these on later today or tomorrow.

Just a little side note . . . YS and I went today and did all of the things that I had saved to do this summer. We went to the eye doctor, then the MD for a physical, then we went and got his high school uniforms and shoes. It's for real. He's going to high school.

Blackberry Farms

This is where we spent this past weekend. This is our cabin at Blackberry Farms just outside Knoxville, Tennessee. It was the most unbelievable place. The name of our cabin was Meadowlark. Quiet, peaceful, unbelievable beauty . . .

This is where I spent some time knitting on the front porch . . .

The view looking out from the front porch . . .

There were some really good friends to spend time with . . .

Delicious meals . . .

I think YS had some really good times too . . .

There was folklore and storytelling at the Yallarhammar one evening . . .

Beautiful horses for riding . . .

Fly fishing . . .

YS caught 2 big fish . . .

I had a wonderful, relaxing day at the spa with a massage and a facial (and a new spa robe). I got quite a bit of knitting done - pictures of that to follow on another day.







The HWWTM even took the time to get his toes done . . .

And look what was waiting for me on the doorstep when I arrived home - Numma Numma The Special in some beautiful colorways. This yarn is 100% supewash merino put up in 700 yard skeins/125 g. I guess you can call it a laceweight, but you can use it for socks on size US 0 needles. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with mine yet. I can't decide which is my favorite color or which one I want to use first. L to R are Cupcakes!, The House Red, Pie Please, Cherry on Top, and Extra Olives.

Have a great week!

Bad Dog!!

This is what I looked up to find PuppyMonster chewing away on this evening. I was fixing dinner, and I heard him chewing on something and assumed it was one of his 50 million chew toys scattered everywhere. No such luck.

I started the front of my tank and got about 3 inches completed this afternoon.

It was not repairable. To the frog pond it went. My precious Wollmeise.

It's a good thing he's cute . . .

It's an even better thing that OS will be here to get him tomorrow . . .

I can't believe I'm even saying this, but I sure will miss him when he leaves . . .

I'm going to knit on some socks.

Monday Goodies!!!

Guess what arrived in the mail today . . .





SPOILER!!!





SPOILER!!!





SPOILER!!!





It's Loopy Sock Club time again!!!





Don't look any further if you don't want to see!!!





Such nice goodies . . .











A Namaste Buddy case in Loopy Red . . .

An adorable little sheep "place marker" (that's what TD calls stitch markers), from Funky Glass . . .

A gorgeous sock pattern, Phoebus Apollo Socks, from the infamous Wendy D. Johnson . . .

And last, but not least, a beautiful skein of yarn, Bugga! from The Sanguine Gryphon in Rusty Willow Sawfly colorway . . .

Isn't it great?

This certainly perked up my day. I was a little depressed after Andy's fiasco yesterday. He almost did it. He was so close. There's always hard court season, I guess.

Happy Knitting!!!

Sunday Mornings

So, what in the heck do you do when you're awake on a Sunday morning at 6 am and can't go back to sleep? I don't mean that I can't go back to sleep in that I'm not sleepy. No, I mean that someone, or something, won't allow me to go back to sleep because I have to watch that someone, or something, every waking moment that it is moving around.

I guess I should explain. I'm babysitting the PuppyMonster this weekend while OS is out of town on a bachelor party. And, btw, since when did bachelor parties turn into vacations? No, they don't just go out for one night of drinking and debachery, they now make an entire weekend out of it, and they have to leave town to do it. I'm getting off track here. Like I said, I'm babysitting, or is it puppysitting, the PM for the weekend. Well, one thing OS forgot to teach the PM is to sleep in on weekends. At 6 am sharp, I heard him. I thought "you've gotta be kidding me." So I lay there thinking he'll shut up and go back to sleep. But, no, he persisted, so I got up, took him outside, he did his business, we came back in, I fed him, he gobbled up his food in about 10 seconds flat and looked around for more as if to say "is this all I'm getting?" (OS did give me strict instructions about 1 full cup 3 times per day). Then we played for awhile, and when I saw that he was not going to tire anytime soon, I put on a pot of coffee. I was really hoping that he just wanted to pee, eat and then go back to bed, but that was wishful thinking. We went back outside where he peed and pooped again, came back in, played some more. I considered giving him a half a Benadryl, but didn't.

Fast forward an hour and a half later, and he just laid back down (in the corner behind the chair), but not after he played with everything in sight, every toy OS sent for him (he packed a little goody bag for him full of toys), my slipper, the tie to my robe, and the fake rocks in the fireplace. He even ate a few of those. I think he has puppy ADD. The funniest thing was that he kept going back and forth from the kitchen to the laundry room to get toys out of his bag. He'd play with one then get tired of it and go get another. Sometimes he'd come back with a dirty sock, but that was ok.

He's zonked out now, but I've had a cup of coffee and been awake too long to fall back asleep anyway. Oh, well, Wimbledon will be on in 30 minutes, and Andy needs me today.

Lovin' Some Koigu

Koigu haul acquired from Woolgirl recently . . .

I'd almost forgotten how much I love Koigu. I've never used it for socks before, usually baby blankets (Big Bad Baby Blanket), baby hats, etc. But, man, am I hooked! These are knitting up so quickly and easily. They are Hearts-a-Plenty by Monica Jines on my usual, 2.25 mm. Lovin' 'em. Look at those little hearts, how cute.

Formal FO shots of my Cookie A Summer Sox in Zen Yarn Garden, Woolgirl colorway, on 2.25 mm needles, natch.

And a progress shot of the Watermelon Stripes . . . These don't get much work because they stay in the car and just get a row done on them here and there while I'm waiting to pick up YS from one activity or another. They are really fun to work on though.

Hope you're getting some knitting done this week. I'll be pulling Andy in today.