Catch up....it's about time!!

Wow...it's been 8 days since I last posted. I do believe this is the longest I've gone between posts. So you can only imagine I've been pretty busy and away from my computer. I am never very far from my computer and usually have time to play but with the holidays, my brother in town, and Special K off work(which is rare)...I have not had time to sit and blog. Don't get me wrong I missed it and thought about it but I just haven't sat down...until today. I'm sad I missed Wedding Wednesday and Dogs on Thursday this week.....I promise not to let this happen again...Oh and there will be another theme day starting next week....It's going to be a surprise!!!

A lot has been going on in the last week...we got off for Christmas break but I have been working "extra" care at school. This is always an interesting experience for me. I am not the biggest fan of watching a bunch of K-3rd graders, whose parents can barely handle but the kids always surprise me. I actually had 7 kids today drawing, which if you'd seen them 15 minutes before you would be surprised that I was able to accomplish this. They were enjoying themselves and seemed to not want to stop drawing for lunch. Score one point for gnat!!...but the kids sad to stay, still probably have 5 points. I'm much better with my middle schoolers than I am with the Kindergarteners. They love me but I am not as sensitive sometimes as I think I should be. I am working on this.

I do get time to knit while working so that's been good. Last Friday I spent probably the whole day working on a hat for my sister. :) She knows that I'm making it for her but not what it looks like so no pictures yet. It's part of her Christmas gift...I am her secret Santa. I knit her a couple things and bought her something small and she emailed me asking me to knit her a hat because she saw the one I'm knitting Surfer Girl, which by the way isn't done yet either. UGH!! Well...I spoiled the surprise and told her that I was her secret Santa and if she could handle the package being late I would knit her a hat. I picked an awesome pattern out and started knitting it last Friday. I got halfway done that day...my wrist hurt I was knitting so much. :) Then the weekend came and my brother...well, the holiday's didn't allow much knitting time for me...unfortunately.


So...I worked on it here and there but I was at the part of the pattern I need to give it a lot of attention. So...hence I finally finished it yesterday and lo and behold...it was TOO small. I about CRIED!! It would fit a 3rd grader but not my sister or my head. So...the final decision after some pouting and fussing was to rip it back and add more rounds. Holding back tears I ripped back about 20 rounds. I put it back on the needles and sat and stared at it. I need to pick it up and finish it today but it and I need space before I just take scissors to it. It will look great when I'm done though I will have to say that. :)


Between all the pouting and fussing over Cris' hat I did manage to knit myself a simple Ipod sock using some left over yarn from my Fawkes socks.



My dear Fiancee Special K, bought me a red Ipod Nano as one of my Christmas gifts. He spoiled me rotten this Christmas with the ipod, two gift certificates, two knitting books, two omelet pans, a knife, and his love. :) I did not knit him anything because he doesn't appreciate my hand knits like most people, but that's ok. I bought him a wallet and filled it with pictures of us and his family. I got him his favorite chocolate, a BBQ utensil set, a tee that says "morning people suck", and my brother went in with me on a tennis racket, tennis balls, and a headband. Special K just learned to play tennis so we figured he'd need some supplies. We actually have a date with my niece and nephew tonight to play. :)

Well...I could go on forever but I always feel I need more pictures if I'm going to ramble too long. :) Thank you for those who sent comments for sharimom. We missed her during the holidays but we did get an awesome package for Christmas from her. I need to take some pictures and I'll post when I can. Another holiday weekend is upon us so I doubt I will be by the computer much but I will try to take pictures and get a head start on some post to share.

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and plan on having a wonderful NEW YEAR!!

Happy Knitting!!!

Follow-up on DOT, on Friday...Saturday Yarn Store Crawl!!

Thank you all for your comments about Abigail's skin. :) We use Benadryl now to manage her itchiness and plan on saving up for the testing. The vet recommended us doubling her flea meds to make sure it's not a flea allergy. I'd love her skin to get better and for her to be as happy as she can be. :) I'll keep you posted on her progress when we get started.

It's also nice to get comments about my cute puppies. :) Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting.

Tomorrow, Fleas, Sammy and I are going on a LYS Crawl. We are heading as far North as Dunedin, FL and then hitting all the yarn stores on the way back to St. Petersburg, FL. We have 4 new ones and maybe stop in to the 2 we already frequent. I'll take tons of pictures of our little crawl. Stay tuned.

Happy Knitting!!! or as I will be tomorrow Happy Yarning!!! heheheh

FO, Stitch 'n Pitch

The first Mandy's Candy bag is done. It was a fun knit. I didn't make it too long and I kind of messed up a bit with the bottom but it looks great and when I finished it I thought maybe it's a bit too big to make a bunch before next Friday. Sammy said she'd want this one . So I told her after I take a pic to put up here I'd fill it with Candy and give it to her on the first day of school. She's going into 6th grade and will have both my sister/her mom and I as teachers. :)We went to the Stitch 'n Pitch tonight and it was a lot of fun. I didn't take my camera because it's huge and I already had enough to carry. Fleas and I only sat for a little bit with all the stitcher. We had only gotten 4 tickets to the actual Stitch 'n Pitch and my sister CZbrats who's husband works at Tropicana had gotten the other 3 so we really didn't have enough room to sit with all of them. It was nice seeing those I knew from Needles and Knobs.

This is all the loot I got from the game. While at the game I worked on my second Candy Bag. I think it's coming along well. I modified the pattern so it will be smaller so I can try to make more of them before the end of our first week back. I guess I'm shooting for a great job at our first week present. :) "WE SURVIVED" I hope at least we survive this coming week.

Sammy and I also both bought this cute little bag from The Circular Solution in Lakeland, FL who were there. It's a small bag to keep a small project in. We both got the pick Breast Cancer one too. I think they are just so cute and I already put the Candy Bag that I'm working on in it.

Well, I'm off to bed. It's getting late and I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow. I was to finish this candy bag and hopefully get a bit into another one. I also want to try to put a coat of primer on the kitchen cabinets at the new place. Lots to do and only 24 hrs in a day. :) Have a great night.

Happy Knitting.

Stitch n Pitch!!

I picked up my tickets for this Saturday's Stitch 'n Pitch at Tropicana in St. Pete, FL. :) My niece Sammy wanted to come with me because she's started creating her own knitting pieces. Naturally if she's coming then my sister, and Simon Says are coming too. :) The four of us are heading to the game so I'm super excited to meet all the knitters and non-knitters attending.

I picked up some more Sugar 'n Cream yarn to knit up the Mandy's Candy bags for my fellow teachers. I'm going to try to make at least 10 but we'll see I'm hoping to just get 5 done for a start... I'm not sure how fast they'll knit up. I'm crazy ambitious with this idea but I just think it would be a great back to school present.

Hope everyone is having a great week. I feel like I've gotten so much done with getting back to school and packing up. I feel great. I'm now off to knit in 5 min. :) I'm going to get settled in my living room and knit as long as I can. The dogs are walked...I can just relax.

Happy Knitting.

Stitchworm!!!!

So...this morning I started my day at the dog park with the pups. They ran, played ball and had a great time. :) Here's a picture of us the other day at the grassy knoll by the water.
THEN!!!! As we were heading home I got a text from Fleas saying that her and Sammy would like to go with me to Stitchworm to learn how to knit.. YEAH!! So, we showed up and every one is so nice and they sat us down at the table and this nice woman Ricky showed us how to cast on and knit. Since I already knew how to she had me just work on my own and help Sammy a bit. Fleas and Sammy had a bit of trouble at first but then they slowly picked it up.

Fleas knitting.

Ricky and Sammy.

When they got going, Ricky started to show me how to purl...yes purl. I was excited. So..she had me cast on again and knit one row and purl a row and do the stockinette pattern. We continued to knit and purl as she showed Fleas and Sammy how to purl as well. While we were there Ricky also showed me how to bind off my first knitting project. ;)

My first piece...not sure what it is but hey it's knitted. :)

Me knitting.

Then when we were done Ricky showed us what kind of yarn to get... I did better with some help. :) Then they got some needles and we headed home. I couldn't even wait to get home to start and I started to try to find the center of my yarn and made a mess in the car so I had to start to wind it in a ball. :) The following pictures if of the yarn and needles we got. The pink is Sammy's, the blue is Fleas, and the maroon is mine. They got two sets of size 8 needles, one bamboo and one metal.


Our homework for next week is to make a scarf with any pattern of knit and purl rows we want. I wanted to blog here first but I'm off to start my new practice project. :)

Stitchworm

I found a local yarn store that guess what....has a free instructor there from 10am to 1pm on wed and sat. I haven't had time with my busy week to frequent any of the local yarn shops and was planning on it next week but with a free instructor there, I'll be there tomorrow...which happens to be saturday. YEAH!!!

She/he can hopefully help me with my stitches which I feel are too lose in some places and too tight in others. I'll take a picture of my pre-instruction piece I'm working on right now for reference for my later years. :)

(that may be my 3rd post today on this blog if I put a pic up) hehehehe

I emailed my sister's to see if anyone wants to join me. I asked my niece, Sammy, who showed interest last night but we'll see. I hope she joins in the fun.. :)