Keeping it Real: beach, fireworks, and knitting

Keeping it Real - is a weekly meme from ink + chair where bloggers share the ups-downs, lows-highs, hits-misses, dark-light, peaks-valleys, plusses-minuses...of their week - acknowledging wholeness.

frogging -  lows
- still working on being patient and trying to focus on God's timing and not my own. 
- needing more time to organize my home, which always helps me organize my thoughts.
- struggling with getting out of my head and put thoughts into actions.
- CGR being too sleepy and not a fan of loud noises to actually enjoy fireworks this year...maybe next year.

 tail-wagging -  highs
- finishing another blanket square for CGR's barn raising quilt!   18 of 48(or 56) complete
- finishing some more hexipuffs, which are highly addictive and so fun! The first 14 completed pictured below.  2 more already done!  16 done and a million to go!

- spending time at the beach with sand in my toes and sun on my skin.
- having a midweek day off to enjoy the nice weather
- getting to spend time with my family 
- the "real" weekend is almost here!!!!!!!


Happy Friday!

What are your ups and downs of your week?
 

Progress on Barknknit Raising Quilt

When we first started thinking about trying to have a baby, I decided that I was going to knit a blanket with the intention of it being for my child.  I looked at all the sock yarn scraps I had in my stash and decided on the Barn Raising Quilt in the Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together book.  I bought the book because I just loved the concept and the patterns in it.  I started this blanket on Sept 23rd, 2009...yes that was awhile ago!  I just did a count of how many squares I've knit and I'm almost done with number 13!  That isn't very many in the time but I feel good that it's so many already!

My goal is to hopefully finish this by her 1st birthday!  That means Dec of this year.  I think it's a long shot because I think I want to make something like 42 of them!  So, I have to finish 29 more of them in 6 months when it took me almost 2 years to finish 13...umm...I'm probably crazy!  Ok...so I did the calculations and if I finish 1 a week then I will be done by Dec but then I still would need to sew it up so I hope I can knit them faster than that.  Anyway...if I don't it's ok...just hope to have it done sometime.  Poor Little Miss Carmen needs this quilt.

Ok...wish me luck!!  If you have some fun scraps of sock yarn that you don't know what to do with...let me know because I'll gladly take it off your hands!  I mainly want superwash yarn if possible.

Happy Knitting!!!  Hope you have a great night!

Casting on, a swatch, a WIP and some blocking.

Tonight, I dropped of Special K at the airport so he can fly up to Ohio and help his mother move. I'm going to miss him dearly but he'll be back on Sunday so he won't be gone too long. After I dropped him off, I stopped by the book store and actually bought a knitting book. I try not to use up too much stash money on books but sometimes I just can't resist. I bought the Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together by Larissa Brown and Martin John Brown. I picked it up because I was looking for one pattern but then started reading some of it and had to buy it! It looks like it's going to be a great read. I'll give it a proper review once I finish reading it.


I picked it up because I've been looking for something to do with all my left over bits of sock yarn. I have small feet so most the time I end up with a ton of left over after knitting my socks up. So, I figured the perfect way to use it would be to make a sock yarn blanket. I've seen others making the Barn Raising Quilt and love how it looks. I was also inspired by Mary Catharine's squares. I cast on tonight at knit group and honestly was NOT happy with the dpns at first but once I got a couple rows in...I was having fun!!
This is my first blanket of any major commitment...so I may need some encouragement in finish it.

For the sweater yarn I'm working on, I knit up a swatch of my hand processed, handspun yarn and let me tell you I LOVE the finished swatch! I really can't wait to finish cleaning the fiber so I can start carding it up and then spinning it...then I get to knit it up!! And after all that I get to WEAR IT! Such a wonderful process. Please remind me I'm so excited about this when I'm spinning 1500 yards of yarn and then knitting it. Ok? Anyway...look at my pretty swatch. :)
I had people pet it and some smelt this at the knit night. Everyone thinks it's very soft and most thought it smelled great...that is thanks to Soak in the Celebration scent. :)

I also have been really trying to finish this Table Runner which is supposed to be a gift so I need it done and blocked soon! So far it's coming out lovely!
Manda came to the knit group and she brought me some blocking boards so as soon as I got home I soaked the shawl and scarf and pinned it up. I've never blocked this way so I'm curious to see how it all comes out.Well...I hope you enjoyed my round up of projects in different stages of the knitting process. :) I definitely have become a non-monogamous knitter. I'm all over the place and never have been more inspired in my life! I'm really enjoying my crafting lately. My spinning mojo is back and I have finishitis and castonitis. :)

Good night everyone and I hope you all have a great Dogs on Thursday tomorrow. I'm off to get some rows in before sleepy time.