Hola!! I'm still here......

You know, I meant to post before I left for Mexico, but time really got away from me. What with all the packing and worrying I had to do, there just wasn't enough time in the day.

Mexico was a blast....the kiddos has tons of fun playing with their cousins. We stayed at the Catalonia Riviera Maya.....very nice and fun for the whole family. Here's a few of the best photos. I can't wait for my April Scrap room kit....the papers will be fabulous with beach/vacation photos!















And last, but certainly not least.....the whole reason for the trip in the first place!! Congratulations Bob and Jennifer!!

And of course I got a little bit of knitting in!! I wasn't able to knit at the pool/beach, but that was mostly because I was paranoid my children would drown if I so much as glanced away from them. (Kinda puts a damper on the whole "fun in the sun" concept too.) But I did manage to finish the much maligned Monkey Socks. I did most of my knitting on the plane ride to and from Mexico, when the kiddos were pretty much contained. I found it to be a great way to help me cope with flying, since I really don't like to fly. I did make a few STOOOPID knitting errors, but nothing that anyone will really notice. So here are the socks, enjoying a bit of Mexico........not that you would actually wear socks in Mexico, but my balcony made a lovely backdrop!


Knit on!!

Needle Case = Stash Busting!!

Heidi and I both decided that this needle case from Lion Brand would be a great "stash busting" project. I used a bunch of left-over WOTA for mine (hence the crazy color pattern!). I made it to fit all of my current bamboo straights, but left room for a few more pairs. I'm not sure if I will ever purchase anything smaller than a size 4 or larger than a 10.5, but it's nice to know I have room for them if I do! The open slot in the middle is for my size 7's, which are currently in use for my Must Have Cardigan sleeve.

Now I need to come up with some sort of pattern for all of my DPN's. I like this pattern from Paton's, but it would need to have more individual pockets. It's a super simple pattern and would be easy to alter, so I think I'll pull out the rest of my WOTA stash and start it up.

I also finished the first of my Monkey socks!! And the best sock knitting advice I ever received was "As soon as you finish the first sock, cast on the second." So, following that advise, the second sock is on the needles! I hope to finish them soon.

Knit on!

Monkey Socks and a Hat

I have a tradition of knitting a hat/scarf for my niece and nephew for their birthday. This is the hat I made for my nephew Nate's 13th birthday. I have to admit that coming up with a hat that a 13 year old boy will like was harder than I thought! I finally chose the Little Cables pattern in a nice chocolate colored wool, I hope he likes it.

And I'm still working on the Monkey Socks. As much as I love this pattern, I'm getting pretty sick of it! I had to frog it back again this weekend. Since the whole 2.5mm needle vs. 2.75mm needle debate was never settled by me, I continued on and ended up running short of yarn. I was just about to the toe decrease when I determined that I just would not have enough. Hhrrrrmmmppphh. So back to the frog pond I went. I decided to decrease the number of lace repeats on the leg from 6 to 4. That should give me enough to complete the toe. And yes - I could have just gotten another ball of yarn - and I did consider that. But at $6.50 a ball, these would have been some darn expensive socks!

And try as I might, blogger will just not cooperate with uploading pictures right now. I promise I'll edit this post later and include the pictures of the hat and socks. (Heck I had a hard enough time just getting to type this post!)

ETA: Got the pictures up.....it's all hunky-dory now!

Knit on!

Grumble about socks....

So I am not usually a sock knitter, but I've recently come across some cool patterns that I just HAVE to knit. The problem lies in the gauge. Most of the patterns call for a needle size of US 2. What is annoying about this is that there are really 2 different size 2's - 2.75mm and 2.5 mm. Grrrrrr. For me to get the correct gauge, I need a 2.5mm. Also known as a "non-standard" US 2. And I dare you to try and find a non-standard US 2 at any store. I have one more LYS to try, then I'm going to have to go online. I know that I can get them, but I have to wait. Nothing worse than waiting.

So here's what I'm working on: Monkey Socks. I picked up some gorgeous yarn (Plymouth Happy Feet in color #4 I think) at my LYS last week when they had a Leap Day sale. I've got about 1/2 of the first sock done, but the gauge is just not working out. I'm afraid I need to frog the whole thing and start over with non-standard US 2's. *grumble*

Knit on!