Future First Socks!

I'm so excited to get started on my first pair of socks!! I purchased the Pure and Simple pattern on the advice of my newest knitting friend Emily along with some Wildfoote luxury sock yarn, Master Grey color by Brown Sheep Company, Inc. Unfortunately the YS I bought the yarn from only had a few colors to choose from and none were colorful! I'm not up on the different yarns but will study up on this so I will know what options I have in the future!

DH and I have to work every night the rest of this week and this coming weekend as well so it may be Monday night before I can get started!! I don't know if I can stand to wait that long!! I have heard socks are VERY addictive....oh boy....just what I need.....another yarn addiction!!

Vest On Hold

I'm having to put my vest on hold for a bit. I discovered after I started the project that the entire pattern was not written out. The YS that wrote the pattern is not convenient to me and is only open a few hours a week. Hopefully I can get over next week one day and get the complete instructions.....excited to get this finished as it is my first clothing project!!

Max....The Yarn Guard Dog!

Vest Day Two

I was hoping to get a full two hours of knitting in last night but my DH kept interrupting me with questions and sending me on scavenger hunts for receipts, checks, etc. for income tax.....I KNOW it is almost April 15th and here we are just getting started.....BUT.....considering we are lifetime members of the procrastinators club we feel like we are doing pretty darn good....I mean it IS still March!! LOL!

In reading over my pattern last night I realized the pattern is only written for the BACK of the vest! This pattern was written for me by the YS owner that taught me to knit. (Remember the vest I put down in lieu of making scarves?).....looks like I'll have to make a trip back to get the rest of the pattern!! Unfortunately this particular YS is only open when the owner wants to open....pretty frustrating. Come to think of it.....in looking at what I have knitted it is looking MIGHTY small even if it is just the front (casted on 67 stitches). I'm not exactly plus size but I'm not tiny either!! Oh well.....if it ends up too small I can give it to my sister....she's the lucky one that got the "teeny tiny" gene!!! Ha! I'm the one that walks by food and gain s weight....but that's another issue!

Not sure how much knitting I'll get in this weekend. Going out with friends tonight for Mexican food (my excuse for Margarita on the rocks with extra salt please).....then working tomorrow...oh well.....I know I'll have at least 2 hours Sunday night....Desperate Houswives and Greys Anatomy....can't miss!!

Future Vest

Here it is!! My future vest....FIRST piece of clothing!! I'm so excited!! When I learned to knit a little over a year ago the owner of the YS made me buy enough yarn to make a vest and that is what she insisted I start out "practicing" on. I guess I'm a slow learner....I pretty much wore out the section of yarn I was working on, got frustrated because the yarn was WAY more than I wanted to spend for a first project and didn't want to end up with a $100 knitting reject!! INTO the yarn stash it went...matter of fact this is the yarn that started the yarn stash....but that's another story! When I took the knitting class I envisioned giving all my friends beautiful scarves for Christmas.....and while they may not have been anything other than just plain knit stitch I did manage to make and give scarves that first Christmas! Hopefully completing this project will give me the confident to move on to bigger and better things!!!

Last Scarf For Awhile.

O.K. Here it is....my last scarf for awhile! I spent time reading a GREAT knitting blog today...http://yarnmiracle.gweezlebur.com/ and I am SERIOUSLY embarrassed by what I have NOT managed to make since learning to knit a little over a year ago!! No more mindless knitting for me for awhile!!!

And here is the infamous "chenille" baby blanket that is now my cat blanket!! Doesn't look TOO bad in the picture but it looked like a bathmat I used to have way back! Will try to get the nerve up to make a picture of the second blanket...perhaps I could use a soft filter or paint shop pro to make it look really impressive!!! Hope to finish my current WIP.....another scarf with some multi textured yarn.

Well...I FINALLY finished the baby blanket I have been working on for the past two months!!! I would post a picture but it looks so bad I am embarrassed to say I made it. I have only made about a dozen scarves and dish cloths this past year and thought for sure a baby blanket was something I could make. The FIRST baby blanket was made with a fuzzy baby fleece which I thought would be so soft and warm but when I knitted it up it looked like a chenille rug I used to have and decided to donate it.....until I noticed that I somehow ended up with one end being WAY tighter stitched than the other end.....but the good news is my crazy cat Gracie doesn't mind at all sleeping on a blanket that isn't exactly square!! Fast forward to the SECOND baby blanket! I had a friend to help pick out the yarn and the yarn was so fine it showed my lack of continuity of stitch size in glaring detail!! I am so disappointed in the second blanket and hope perhaps running some white satin ribbon around the edges will somehow make up for the quality of work that went into it! I would start a third one but I'm afraid the baby will be in high school before I'm able to make something that I feel is worthy of giving! Wonder if the baby would like a scarf instead???? Back to working on another scarf....wonder what this says about me that I enjoy the projects that are short, sweet and don't require a long term commitment?

Oh well....can't be too hard on myself......all the scarves will be donated to charity next Fall and hopefully will bring someone a bit of warmth and know that they are cared about!

My next project is to finish the socks that I started.....got as far as turning the heel and I'm "stumped"......I'll study up on this soon......just as soon as I finish the scarf I just started.

No time to knit.....darn laundry and housework!!! Hate it when life gets in the way of knitting!!

Went to see Hairspray with my newest knitting buddy Leslie, GREAT play!!!

Plan to curl up with my knitting and watch Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy (my usual Sunday night routine and favorite programs)....which reminds me....about time for to schedule my Va-J-J check up. (Just had to use that term....next best one to the elderly lady asking me to refer her to a good vaginacologist!!!) Ha!

I know I'll get at least a couple of hours of knitting in for the night...YEA!!! I have GOT to finish a baby blanket I started but it isn't going well and I keep putting it down to pick up something "fun" to knit! Found a new yarn, mixture of fuzzy textures, ribbon yarn....a total of 4 different textures! Can't wait any longer to see how it knits up!

A Few of My Knitting Friends.

My Best Knitting Buddy Cindy and I got tired of never having any time at home to knit uninterupted. A coffee house opened conveniently located to us and Chicks With Sticks was formed! We meet twice a month for about 2 hours. Word spread and we are now up to about 20 members!!

Today is my first attempt at blogging...late bloomer! I have read a few blogs and thought it would be a wonderful (anonymous) way to "confess" all my knitting sins!

I am new to knitting, only a little over a year.....but I have a serious problem with yarn.....I can't stop buying it! I have yarn stashed EVERYWHERE.....my best friend has been instructed that in the event anything happens to me she is to remove all the yarn from my house ASAP.....otherwise I fear people will be calling me crazy... (well I am but that is beside the point).....you know.....you read about those people that save things.....like a zillion plastic bags, newspapers, etc. Don't want to be remembered as the woman that had a zillion skeins of yarn and 2 finished projects!!

I collect yarn....there I have said it and it wasn't so bad!! I'm sincerely hoping there are other Yarn Ho's out there like me. I find myself looking at the price of something and think about how much yarn I could buy if I didn't buy that item!! Pretty Sad!!

In case anyone is interested.....or not........I am almost old, LOVE to knit and even better, love to collect yarn, any kind, the better the quality the faster the heartbeat! I love to cook although I'm not very good. I can mess up opening a Twinkie! I am the queen of having all ingredients except ONE....and trying to substitute....sometimes it works, other times not so good. I always felt like I should write a cookbook.....How NOT To Cook!! Ha! Ha! But I do love to cook...unfortunately love to eat too!!!

I have only made a few dozen scarves and dishcloths. I felted one purse but not sure I could repeat without guidance.....took a sock class....the teacher over booked and the class ended right at turning the heel....so I guess you could say I have 1/2 of one sock and I am now working on a baby blanket but I am afraid the baby will be in college before I finish it. I told the mother that when I do get it finished to please tell anyone that asks it was made by a blind 90 year old woman so that hopefully they will be impressed! I had never undertaken anything this large before.....only know how to knit, purl and learning how to read patterns!! Needless to say my heart was in the right place but I am just not good enough yet to undertake something so ambitious as a blanket!!

I will try to make some pics and post later.