Pretty Doggies

Pretty doggies, just back from the vet and groomers!

Almost There...

I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping! One or two little things left to buy, mostly for my 17-year-old. I haven't wrapped anything yet though. I'll wait until I have everything and then wrap it all at once.

My mom will be here tomorrow! The boys have school through Thursday, and then have Friday off. The boys are very excited to have their Grandma here for Christmas! Since my dad lives with us, the boys get to have Christmas with both grandparents this year. We usually have a pretty quiet family Christmas, since the boys are usually busy playing with their new toys (hubby included).

Both doggies are at the vet today, Alex and I dropped them off this morning. Lilli and Copper both need a checkup and then they are getting groomed! I don't expect them to be happy about it, but at least they will look and smell good for Christmas. I'm going to try to get some pics of them before they get too messed up!

Harry Potter Swap

On Ravelry, there are many groups that do swaps. A swap is when you are given a partner, and you try to find out information about that person in order to put together a personalized swap package for them. The current swap that I'm taking part in is a Harry Potter themed swap, and it's been a lot of fun. I've had a great time getting to know my swap partner, Melissa, and stalking her on Ravelry trying to find out more information about her. So I put together a package that I hope she enjoys, and in turn, I received my swap package from Melissa earlier this week.
Wow! She is an amazing crafter and a generous swapper! Here's what I saw when I opened the box from Melissa:













Of course, I had a little help from Lillian. Everything was beautifully wrapped, except for a bag of my favorite chocolates, white chocolate truffles. I proceeded to slowly open the gifts, enjoying each one while oohing and aahing over the pretties.

Cute card!

Pretty project bag










ALL THE GOODIES! Some stationery, sock yarn, a magazine, pretty mug, some roving, a Christmas ornament, a project bag, and a couple of handmade items: a bracelet and a candle holder/picture frame.

First of all, the bracelet. It's in my favorite color combination of blue and silver. The charms signify the different magical schools in the Harry Potter books. Not only that, the charms are removable and can be used as stitch markers! How clever is that?








The next handmade item is a candle holder/picture frame combination. It's so pretty and sparkly! Again, in blue and silver, there's room for pictures of my family all around. I just love it! It's so unique.













I feel so lucky getting Melissa as a swap partner! I got to know a wonderful person, and got some great goodies! I hope Melissa enjoys her package as much as I enjoyed mine!

Happy Holidays

Christmas and New Year's are coming up fast! We had a nice Thanksgiving with my in-laws here. My mother-in-law and hubby did all the cooking, I didn't have to do a thing! It was kind of nice. My mom will be coming for Christmas weekend, so the boys are really looking forward to that.

Alex has finished his internship, which he really enjoyed. It will be hard for him to adjust to being a regular high school senior again. His graduation will be here in May, and it will be here before we know it! This is Tyler's last year of middle school, so he will be starting high school at the same time that Alex starts college.

The boys know what most of their Christmas presents are, but hubby and I have a couple of surprises for them this year. Tyler has also been waiting for 2 years for a certain new Star Wars video game to be released, and it comes out next week! He is extremely excited. He pre-ordered the game, so he will actually get it sooner than the release date.

I've been busy with my knitting. I've also started spinning, using a drop spindle. At first I wasn't sure I would be able to learn how to do it, but I've been practicing a little every day and I'm getting much better at being able to keep the yarn consistent. It's been a lot of fun building up a fiber stash to go with my yarn stash and fabric stash! After the New Year, I'm hoping to get some things ready for sale on Etsy.com. I plan on making some beaded jewelry and keychains as well as sewing some notions and project bags. Hopefully I can have my Etsy shop up and running in January!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Back to School

The boys are back to school! My oldest son, Alex, is a high school senior, and my youngest son, Tyler, is in 8th grade in middle school. Both of them have lots of exciting things going on this year.
Alex is in a magnet program, which is held in a regular high school, but he takes magnet as well as regular classes. This has given him a big advantage when it comes to college, he's already tested out of having to take several college classes. This fall, as part of a school class, he's doing an internship. He will be working at Georgia Tech Research Labs doing cybersecurity. I'm really excited for him and can't wait to see how much he learns!
Tyler also has some fun things going on this year. He has transferred to a different middle school, and he's really enjoying meeting lots of new people. He's taking first year Spanish, and he's still playing cello in the orchestra. The school orchestra will be playing at an Atlanta Braves baseball game, as well as at the Georgia State Capital, and even Disneyworld! He'll be doing a couple of fundraisers to help pay for the trip to Orlando to go to Disneyworld.
I've been even more busy than usual with my knitting and crocheting! I just finished a beautiful pink and rose toned shawl, and already have several more projects on the needles. One of my husband's co-workers has purchased some things from me, including the shawl, so I'm anxious to get her items done for her. Next up is a beaded hat and scarf set!

Finished!

It's done! My Harbor Light Road Trip Tote is completed. That means that I not only finished the knitting, but I added interfacing and a lining too. I also added pockets to the lining, one zippered pocket and one open pocket. I love how it turned out. It was a lot of work, but the end product is beautiful. I've already gotten lots of compliments on it. Most people can't believe that I made it, which is an awesome reaction to get! Here's a link to my Ravelry project page where I've got lots of notes about how I made the bag.

Still Intarsia!

So I've been consistently working on my Knit Picks Road Trip Kit Harbor Light tote bag. I'm not finished with the intarsia panel, but I am way ahead of schedule on it. I was hoping to be half done with both the sides and back, and the intarsia panel, by the middle of June, instead I'm more than ¾ of the way done at the beginning of June! I think the finishing-blocking, seaming the pieces together, lining using both fabric and interfacing, the handles; all of that is going to take quite a while. I'm weaving in the ends as I go along so that will save me some time at the end. I'm hoping to get it all done by the end of July, and I don't think that will be a problem, but I'm glad I will have plenty of time because seaming the pieces together is probably going to take a lot longer than I thought. The edge stitches of the intarsia panel are pretty wonky, so it's going to be very difficult to seam them together with the back/side piece. Can't wait to see the finished bag!

Intarsia is Fun!

As usual, I have several projects on the knitting needles, but by far the largest one I'm working on is the Road Trip Tote Harbor Light Kit by Knit Picks. It's beautiful, or at least I hope it will be. I've gotten up to row 10 of the front intarsia panel. Intarsia is a knitting technique that uses lots of little pieces of color. In this case, the intarsia makes a picture, so it's called picture knitting. Every time there is a new section of color, you add a new piece of yarn. At first I was using 4-5 yards of color, but as you can imagine, it got tangled up very quickly, so I've found that using 2-3 yard pieces of yarn works much better, since it's a lot easier to untangle. And there is a lot of untangling. Here is a picture of my progress so far, and believe it or not, this is after untangling. I'm a little bit surprised, but it's actually kind of fun! I like following the chart and watching the picture appear.

Return From Vacation

My boys had a week off of school, February 21-25th, so we decided to head on down to visit my mom in Key Largo, Florida. My oldest son Alex and I split the 13-hour drive, and we were there by Saturday night. We spent Sunday with my mom, and headed over to my sister's house to play with my sister, brother-in-law, and my 3 nieces and 1 nephew. It was a gorgeous day. My brother-in-law took the boys out on his boat to go fishing, and they all caught some fish and enjoyed peering into the water to see what animals they could find. They saw barracudas and even a man-o-war. Here are pics of me & Tyler and one of me & Alex.



Meanwhile, back on land, I played with my nieces, and had to show them my latest knitting gear along with my most recent projects. I showed them my newest Knit Kit in turquoise, which I absolutely love. If you don't have one, I highly recommend them. It has a row counter, double ended crochet hook, thread cutter, tape measure, and on the back is a little compartment with scissors, stitch markers, point protectors, and a darning needle. You can get them at Knit Picks, which is where I buy mine, or from their website, theknitkit.com. You could even make up your own kit, like my friend Cindy did!

My recent projects have been a pair of Cabled Lace Socks in black for my mom, a couple of washcloths for my nieces and one for my mom, and a Hot Water Bottle cover for myself. Just finished the socks for my mom, and they turned out great. My nieces loved their washcloths with a picture of their dog's breed on it, one with a Schnauzer and one with a Maltese, and I'm still working on the Hot Water Bottle cover. It's almost done though!

What a great week! ☺

February Heart Socks

I just had to post about these socks, because they are just so wonderful! The pattern is a Mystery Knit-a-Long from the Knitters Brewing Co. Sock-aholics group on Ravelry. The yarn I used is a pretty gray color, from the Knitters Brewing Co. store called Greyhound. I purchased a kit for this KAL in December, which gave me the yarn, a pair of heart-shaped beads, a stitch marker, and Clue #1 to get started on.

The Mystery is that we didn't know what the socks would look like, and the pattern was released in 5 weekly parts. I was able to follow along, completing each clue each week, and once Clue #5 was released, I excitedly hurried up the cuff to see what my socks would look like. And voila! A pair of finished socks! The pattern is just difficult enough to provide interest to the knitting without being frustrating. I love my finished socks, but the process was a blast! It really helps that the people in the Ravelry group are very helpful and encouraging. Even the back of these socks is interesting and unique! Here's a link to my project page on Ravelry with my notes and lots of pictures from along the way. Click on the pictures to see them better!

February Fun

Wow! I haven't posted since September! Time sure flies by, especially when you're busy. I've been knitting and crocheting up a storm, keeping my fingers flying. Right now I'm working on a pair of socks for a Knit-a-Long for a group on Ravelry called Knitters Brewing Co. Sock-Aholics. It's so much fun! The people on the group are so encouraging, and the pattern is a blast to knit. It's a really unique pattern with a lot of twists and turns. If you're a sock knitter, you really should try it!

Personal life has also been busy. I'm trying to keep up with my two boys, Alex and Tyler. Alex is a junior in high school, and is really into computers. He wants to study some type of computer science in college, he just hasn't narrowed it down to programming or something else. Tyler loves video games and is in the bridge-building club at school, where they are building a miniature bridge from toothpicks! He's really enjoying it. Hubby Dustin is staying busy with work, thank goodness he's got a wonderful job, and he recently built bed frames for both boys new beds. Now, if the boys would only learn to make their beds...