I didn’t do any. I tried. I knit two sleeves for a beer sweater, but I never did get the rest of it knit - luckily for me daddy’s birthday is Jan. 9 so I have time to complete it before then. Guiness is a great gift for him, because he never splurges on the good beer - just gets the cheap stuff.

I also started a scarf for my brother, which I haven’t looke at in days. Sorry CJ! I should call him and really apologize. I suck. He lives in Ct. so it is cold enough to need the scarf.

OH and the TKD teacher (who we adore) got a starbucks card & knit sleeve for her SB cups. The it’s not rocket science one. LOVE the pattern, knits up in a movie. Didn’t get a photo but I will be knitting it again.

I got some knitty gifts. Some stuff from my amazon wishlist - DPNs from knit picks sizes 0 - 3, a skein of SWS in blue, plastic stitch markers. Also some gorgeous blue shiny handmade stitch markers from the lovely Marsha (were these an etsy purchase???) LOVE em. I’m excited about all the stitch markers because I’ve been using yarn tied in circles lately out of pure laziness to find or purchase new ones. hah.

I also got a check for $30 that I am strongly considering spending at the LYS after Christmas sale.

To go with my post from the other day, here are some photos of Aaralyn I happened to take while she was being cute. . .

Quick Edit in response to Jessica’s comment - Ms. A has been around yarn since she was newborn at knit nights. She will get knitting lessons as soon as she is old enough & is interested!

Touching the ball of yarn I just wound up …

 

Hmm, I like this one

 

Concentrating hard

 

Proud of her ball

 

and the Shawl I started

I still haven’t done the finishing work on the dragons & horse. I’m not the best when it comes to finishing. . .

Now starting, I can do. As long as I can start when it is quiet and no one is jumping on me   

I bought some yarn a few days ago, unfortunatly the purchase was made via a sale that I wish hadn’t had to happen. My favorite yarn store has closed, there is only one I like to visit now (well on our side of the metroplex, there was one I really liked on the other side of the metroplex too, but I can’t make it out there often). I got some mountain colors and touche for a Fourth Of July tank for the girlie and a couple of other things. I shared my purchases with my daughter when I got home, since she is already fiber-lovin’ I happened to notice the scent of the yarn and said "Oh it smells good" and ms. A says "I eat it?" and put the skein she was touching up to her mouth. ha ha ha.

Tonight I rolled one of the hanks into a ball to begin knitting with it. A came into the room right as I finished and said "OH it’s a ball! I touch?" Sweetness. I told her she could touch but she could not throw it (which was the first thing my now 5 yo did when he discovered the first ball of yarn I ever made myself from a hank a few ago). So she picked it up, and felt the yarn, and talked about all the pretty colors she saw. Then she set it down, pulled out the red Touche, and said "I’ll make a ball" and tried, fortunatly she didn’t quite get it right . . .

April is Script Frenzy month, I’m going to aim for 5 pages a day, the goal is 100 pages by the end of April.

Okay, so it is just one contest that I won, not plural, and I’ve only begun working on the first dragon, but hey. I like my title. Leave it alone! I have actually put off this post until I took the time to have photos ready for it, hooray.

So onto the story of the contest, a few weeks ago Bea posted in her blog about a contest over on Knit Me To The End Of Time for her blogiversary, and I thought why not? And entered. I was one of three winners. Hooray! So since she didn’t post the prize on her blog as some bloggers do, I got to wait until it arrived to even see WHAT I won. All I knew was it would be good, because after all it was going to be a knitting related prize. And it was even better than I could have hoped! Blue wool! Magic stripes! SMARTIES!! (oh I am SO pregnant getting excited over chocolate like that) and yummy smelling soap. Lovelovelove. Here is your obligatory photo:

Now, as for the dragons, did I mention the dragon knitting that is going on? I decided one item in each easter basket would be a handknit toy, because I don’t do enough of that. So the boys are getting dragons knit from scraps of cotton, not in the crayon (double knitting in crayon does not sound fun) & the girl is hopefully getting a felted horse, I am quite frustrated with the pattern & set it aside in favor of dragons until I am ready to tackle it again - the critter queen can expect an email or questions from me soon! I would love to tell you that the photo you are about to see is the most up-to-date dragon pieces photo, but that would be a lie as there was knitting during Survivor tonight and the belly is now finished, while the back has been started on. This is dragon one, he will be yellow & red.

I think I’ll end this with some sweetness, here is ms. A sitting in her new underbed storage box, the lid opens halfway so it is half under the bed, it contains her "dress up" stuff - plastic disney shoes & cinderella dress & playsilks & hats. That rainbow hat she is wearing is one of the first few I knit, I bound off too early and then went back and picked up stitches without knowing whattheheck I was doing, it ended up too tight. It looked funny on the boys. No one ever wore it but it hung around for years now. And here it is, in a dress up box. I like this.

So, it is a ’stash’ as long as there is more than you can knit with at one time right? Last night, I took photos of all the sock yarn I’ve got. Actually that isn’t true, but I already have one up of the other yarn so I can just pull that from before. So here it is, nothing compared to some sock yarn stashers, but hey i’m not even sure if I will like the socks or not yet, I won’t know until they are done. I have issues with how socks feel on my feet & in my shoes, so I’ve worried about comfort issues.

 

 

My Lorna’s Laces, I’ve wanted to knit with this for a long while

 

Not so sure if I like the KP essentials, it’ll be awhile before I try it again anyway…

 

My Jitterbug, from the Christmas SOWS swap

 

I am looking forward to working with this yarn - panda cotton

 

My newest, fell in love with the colors and had to have it, it likely won’t be socks. From Yarn Pig (I’ll get the link later, i’m lazy)

 

 

Toby’s yarn, dyed the day after I found out I was pregnant. He was heavily on my mind that day.

 

And finally what my socks look like as of last night

I couldn’t make it to the SOWs Christmas Party in December, but I did send off yarn so I could participate in the sock yarn swap. I went to get my yarn today, finally, and had two to choose from. It was a tough decision, since neither were something I would automatically purchase for myself. I am all about the blues and I had a green and a purple/yellow to choose from. I took about ten minutes to make up my mind and ended up with Jitterbug in the Velvet Leaf colorway

The other yarn, was from Spunky Eclectic yarns, was very pretty & named Iris. But I already have a couple of sock yarns with a little yellow, so I went for something different. Green. And not so much varigated as I typically grab. I wonder what sock it’ll grow up to be??? … someday

I received a birthday box today, and since it came from one of my very best friends I couldn’t resist opening it right away. My birthday is on Monday, so I get to celebrate all weekend long. Ta da.

So inside I found. Yarn. malabrigo kettle dyed pure merino wool. worsted. emerald blue. www.malabrigoyarn.com & obligatory photo :

It will be something for me but what I don’t yet know. It is 216 yards, approx 3.5 ounces. If you have any ideas let me know, since I have none right now I need suggestions ; )  I found 2 hats that are cute, but someone on ravelry attempted one of them with this very yarn-twice- & it didn’t come out well (it calls for a sport weight), so I’ll likely go with the other.

Along with the yarn was a *gorgeous* circular needle case handmade in Nepal (www.frabjousfibers.com) I use circs pretty much exclusively these days, my marsha knows this. Photo:

She also got me Dr Pepper lipsmackers & a jake-original homemade birthday card that brought me to tears. Lovelovelove I miss you guys like crazy.

OH One last thing, a photo of the finishing needed only hip skirt i’ve been working on

 

I’m having image issues, no access to my PSP since my Pc is dead. I’ll get em fixed when I can… For now click the thumbnails to see full sized images in a new window

Sorry for how long it has taken me to get to this one after the other, though really it hasnt been that long - and its not like anyone was holding their breath for it.

We’ll start with these ones. I kind of grouped as I photographed. Some are whole skeins, some are half - not all were used by me originally, I got them from others (always accept yarn, it’s nice to work with different ones even if it is just enough for a swatch). These are the suede type stuff.

Two skeins of simply soft bought to make something that didn’t. work out. maybe i’ll figure it out someday!

These all feel different/cool. I was thinking about doing a small blanket with squares of different textured yarns as a future baby gift. Has anyone ever done this? Tell me how it worked out. The green is leftover from my nephews sweater

A shot of a bunch of the yarn laid out before I started seperating/grouping it.

The woolease that is leftover from my mother-in-laws fingerless gloves.

My knit picks mainline, I believe it is going to be a baby/tod hat with earflaps. I also had pink and brown (1 skein of each) but gave them to a friend who recently learned to knit.

This is a cotton, khaki sh colorway. the third skein is actually in a project started, but i hate the needles (plastic 16" sz 7). Must replace them with clovers and start over. Soon, it’s a summer thing.

My fun furs. Some designated for something, some not.

This is a halfskein from someone at knitnight, she said she made a long skinny scarf with it and it came out nice.

More fun fur - this is for moms scarf to match her hat.

My pink yarn my motherinlaw brought back from France. It is a 50 wool/50 acrylic blend. She said she couldn’t find any 100% wool.

Patons grace, don’t know what it is going to be yet.

A hat for Ari! Must get to work on that.

This is being used for a poncho for Ari, but I am really bored with it. I don’t mind mindless knitting when it is in the round, but when it is back and forth I have a harder time with it.

My last knit picks order. Uhm. Christmas present. that I ordered myself, wrapped myself, and labeled from my husband

My cottons.

Okay, that is all for now.

Tonight I went to knit night without the baby for the first time since she was born. She will be ten months on Sunday. It was sooo nice to be able to just sit and knit, no getting up, no worrying about what she was doing. I think now that she is so mobile taking her to that particular starbucks isn’t going to be so easy, the other one is larger and I can let her on the floor in the center of our circle.

Tonight I knit on my nephews sweater, it is coming along. My plan is to have it done by next Tuesday to show off, and in the mail the next day. I said that last week though, so hey someone bug me about this ! Tommorow I’ll be spending time with a friend who also knits, and we always end up knitting together, so I’ll likely work on it then !

There is something new in my "projects to knit" bookmarks. It is the kiddie capelet on knittingforboozehags.com freebirds section. SO cute, and takes just 3 skeins of the S&C yarn (99 cents at hobby lobby this week!)

My latest fun knit for when I need a short break from whatever my next project is - this is what I was referring to that I attempted to start in the middle of the night last week, I ended up pulling that out and starting over the next day and it went MUCH better. It is a fun and easy knit. The red and white is for my kitchen, but I am wanting to do some for the boys bathroom next in different blues with matching towels (check out the knit-a-long if you haven’t seen the matching towels!)

I am just about done with the gift for my friend’s daughter, just waiting on her to be born now ! I have a bit of yarn left, and am considering doing one more thing to go with the rest of the gift. We’ll see if I have time and if I can figure out exactly how to do what i’m thinking.

And tonight I received yarn I bought with my birthday money! Yeah! It is Knit picks Main line in antique rose and blueberry. It was purchased with the thought of "this will make perfect hats for the kids!" in mind. That is something they ask for but I had not yet found just the right yarn. So i’ll have to get started on those, luckily this is TX and we likely won’t need them until, oh, December or maybe not even until January!

Obligatory photo of yarn -