I'm here!

Almost two months???? It's hard to believe. I may not have been blogging, but I've definitely been knitting and keeping busy.

I finally got those darn sockret pal socks off the needles and sent to her. They were a little late, but I didn't want to just send her any pair of socks. These are Knitty Hedera's and I absolutely loved knitting them up.

Here's my completed scarf for ISE4 exchange. After many patterns and many yarns, I finally ended up with this scarf. I love the color, and I love the scarf. I sure hope my pal will too. I'm wrapping this up tonight and sending it to it's new owner tomorrow. What a wonderful exchange to be involved in. All the participants are so talented. There were some amazing scarfs being knitted up. I think this will be my last swap at least until fall now.













We also went to our first baseball game of the season. We lucked out this time and had perfect weather. They did end up losing that day, but we have tickets for two more games these summer, and we always enjoy taking the trip to New York anyway.












And here's an update on our newest addition. I'm not sure you can tell by the picture, but he's just gotten caught tearing up a kleenex. Well I think that about says it all. He's a devil, but we love him anyway.

This is a project we are STILL working on. It's almost done now. Just the plumbing for the sink needs to be hooked up and trim for the windows and we're finally done!! Yea!! I have discovered one thing about myself though. I like the picking out things for the bathroom, colors, fixtures, etc, but the work part, not so much. We have definitely learned a lot though. In old houses nothing ever goes as planned.

And look at this, our first attempt at tiling!! I think we did pretty good!

Well look at all these things I've got going!

After weeks of "filler knitting" I have finally got myself going again!! Unfortunately, nothing you see here is for me, they are all gifts. This is the baby blanket I've been working on for my cousin's daughter, due in June. Yea, I think I'll make the deadline. Unfortunately, Im not a great real photographer, none of these pictures do the actually item any justice, but this blanket is turning out wonderful, it is sooo soft! I found out midblanket that she is expecting a boy, but this blanket will work just fine for a boy.










Next is my Socket Pal sock. Yes, I have finally started!! I really should have done something a bit more simple, but I've been wanting to make Knitty's Hedera for a while. Im using Cherry Hill sock yarn. I'ts beautiful, but boy does it make my hands cramp. I've almost finished the decreases for the heel, so if I keep on track, I can have both done by the end of next week. You can kinda see the intricate detail in the close up, but again, the photographer is lacking!












And, last but certainly not least, Ive started my scarf for ISE4. I decided on Brooke's column of leaves, and Im using Anne Schaefer Lola. Now, my pal said she loved reds and purples, but was trying to expand her horizon. I hope I hit it with this yarn. I'm still trying to convince myself. It's got red, purple, brown, green. Now she said she wasn't a fan of green, but I'm hoping it's muted enough for her to like. I'm also wondering if I need to go down a needle size. Called for a size 8, but Im wondering if I should go down to a 7. I guess I will do a couple more repeats and then decide.

I have got some knitting done

Well, I haven't been able to show very many FO's lately, but I really have been knitting. Im still progressing with my baby blanket, and I'm halfway done with that. I also sat down last week and made this right angle dishcloth. It's been sooo long since I've knit a dishcloth. It was nice to sit down and finish something off in one night. Im loving the colors shades in this one. Im also awaiting yarn from Loopy Ewe to arrival in the mail soon. I've gone and joined the international scarf exchange 4, and I picked out some gorgeous Anne Schaefer yarn for her scarf. I also ordered some yarn for my sockret pal to get her socks knitted up. (Bad Tammy for waiting till the last minute).




Our bathroom is definitely making progress too. The drywall is all done now and ready to sand, so I'll be working on that the rest of the week, and hopefully this weekend I can get it all painted!!









If you want to know what I've really been up to, check out this. Once Christmas is over, I usually spend more time on this during the winter. I like to at least get 2 books done a year. If your into this, check out this site, they have so many ideas to give you inspiration. I've actually joined a few swaps here and I've been having such a good time with this. But once warm weather gets here, I usually pretty much put it away until cold weather.

And how could I not leave you without a cute pic of my doggies?? As you can see, they are definitely growing attached to each other. Josie might look like she's being inconvenienced, but she's starting to love the little guy. He is growing so fast. Next week he goes in for his neutering and he's also have a procedure done on his palate. Boston Terriers are known for having palates that are too long. Right now he snores like crazy and snorts like a pig!! But after the procedure, that should stop. Poor puppy, when he was born his nose was obstructed so he had to have an operation for that so that he could breathe. What we won't do for our dogs.

Has this ever happened to you? And bathroom update

Well, here I go trying again, hopefully blogger is more agreeable today.

First, my bathroom update. The bathroom is now gutted out down to the knotty board paneling that was behind all the layers of wall. We've decided to dry wall over that, and that is going to be done this week. We were able to get to Lowes last weekend and buy all this!!

I love the sink and vanity. I've never seen a sink that comes out like that. The faucet and all hardware are brushed nickel. I know the tile pictured below may look like cement, but in person it is really beautiful. It has a rough finish on it, and has hues of gray and beige in it. We also bought some simple sconces and an oval shaped mirror, but unfortunately, I can't get those loaded into my blog.

So have you ever had this happen to you? I bought this yarn last fall. It's Anne Schaefer and I'm absolutely in love with it. I was thinking about either socks or a lace scarf for it, and decided to wind it so that it would motivate me to pick out a pattern. Well, I decided I could wind without the help of my husband, who usually holds it for me. Big mistake!! I've now ended up with a hank full of knots. I really don't want to give up on this yarn just yet. So, I've been spending my nights in front of the t.v. with this yarn, slowly unknotting and winding. I guess I've learned my lesson.

And finally, here's a picture of my daughter and one of her teammates/friends. At the Spirit Festival held at Mohegan Sun two weeks ago, they placed first, winning national champions and the Jackpot winner in their division! They have made such an improvement from the their first competition. They even beat out the team they lost to in their first competition!

So you have to pardon the appearance of my blog today. I'm not sure if I loaded too many photos onto my blog or what, but I ended up losing half that I wanted to show off, and every time I try, my tags get messed up. So this is my Freaky Friday addition of my knitting space blog!!

Well

Well, I'd like to fill up this space with all the exciting things going on here. But Blogger isn't cooperating. I just spent and hour loading photos and typing away to my heart's content, only to lose it all when I tried to publish. All for one missing tag, it erased everything I had!!! Right now I'm so frustrated that Im just not in the mood to start over, but I promise I will soon. Lots of pictures to show you all!!

Where have I been?

Has it really been that long since I last blogged? I guess this puppy's keeping me busier than I thought! He's doing really well and fitting in nice with the family now. He loves to hide under things; cars, tables, beds. Here he is checking out the new socks I got from Suzy, my sockret pal. He definitely approves!! He's another picture of all the goodies she included with my new socks!


I started Knitty's potomatus socks and thought I was going all well, when somehow I managed to drop stitches, couldn't find out where I dropped them, and ended up frogging them. So I will be starting those over soon. I really is a fairly easy pattern, and it's my first reading from a chart which turned out to be fairly simple. I'm wondering now if I should switch yarns because I'm not sure the pattern is really showing up so well with this colorway. Maybe I should use this yarn for some more Monkey Socks.

Okay, I really do have an excuse for not posting. (My husband tells me I have an excuse for EVERYTHING!!). We have decided to tackle the upstairs bathroom. This is mostly used by the girls, but it was just so old. I think the fixtures were from the 60s!! Well why does nothing ever go easy??? The walls has wallpaper on the top half and some kind of paneling on the bottom. So we figured just take off the wallpaper, and paneling, and clean up the drywall and paint. Wrong!!! The walls in this bathroom consisted of three layers. First the paneling. Then sheetrock, which turned out only to be about a half inch think, and under that, wood paneling; not the cheap kind that goes up in sheets that we have all through the house already (yuck!), but thick, about an inch that goes up one by one with a ton a nails in it. We were also hoping that we wouldn't have to rip up the flooring that we could maybe tile over it, but by the toilet it had rotted, so we ended up having to rip up the flooring as well! Needless, to say, it's turning into a huge project, but I know in the end it will be beautiful! You can also see here what it looked before the demolition. Hmm, I'm not really sure which one is worse!!

We had some snow last week, and here's a shot of TJ in his first interaction with snow! As you can see here, he's not to sure what to think of it, and doesn't much like to walk in it because he sinks too far down!

As far as my other knitting goes, I have now made it to the third repeat on my baby blanket. It's really looking nice and the yarn is just so soft. G-girl had asked what yarn I had used on the puppy's sweater; it was just Red Heart in a denim color. It seems to be holding up very well too!

One more UFO sock finished

This is how I found my new puppy the other night. He seems to have taken a liking to my favorite slippers my husband got me for Xmas. He also seems to like his crate too, when he is free to come and go as he pleases. I guess that's a good thing. My older Boston never would step foot in her crate, we eventually got rid of it, because she wouldn't go near it. When I see him like that, I almost forget about all the times I've been on the floor in the dining room cleaning up pee stains, almost. He is turning out to be a good dog, and his training is coming along pretty well I think. He has discovered the meaning of no, which is a good thing!! He is wearing the sweater I knit for him. I haven't gotten a good picture of him wearing it yet, but it fits perfect!! Im so happy about that!!
















Here finally are my finished off Dublin Bay socks. I think these are the most comfortable socks I have made for myself. They fit perfect. They are just snug enough so that the heel doesn't turn on my when I'm wearing them, and I just think they are so pretty. The yarn and the color work perfectly with this pattern. I think this would be a good pattern for someone just starting out with working with lace, since it's only worked on a small part of the sock. I will definitely be making more of these socks.















I got a wonderful package in the mail last week. I received my final package from my Sockret pal. This had to be the best package of all three!! She made me some beautiful socks in Koigu. I haven't taken pictures yet, but I will soon! I put the socks on my feet as soon as I opened up the package. She also sent me some other wonderful goodies; a knitting journal, which is exactly what I wanted, some wonderful smelling lotion, some stitch markers, needle protectors, and best of all, Socks that Rock!! It's in a really neat colorway called Jinglebell Rock. Another yarn I've been wanting to try out!! I was so lucky to get such a great secret pal. Turns out that my secret pal was Suzie of the purlygates She also hosted a tea swap earlier in the year that I joined and she did a great job with that also!! She's a really sweet person, go check out her blog. She knits some wonderful socks!! I actually cast on for Knitty's Pomatomus socks last night with the wonderful yarn!!

Busy, busy

Another competition weekend, and the team was in Hartford, Connecticut for the Spirit Cheer competition. This weekend they placed #1!!! They just keep getting better. They have a little break now before the big competition in March. Here's a picture of my daughter catching one of her teammates. She's on the right, (with the sneakers in front of her face).
















I was able to get a lot done this weekend. First the puppy. Well, what can I say, he's a puppy. He does go to the bathroom outside....but he also goes inside too. Still working on that. But it's a start. I don't think it will be too much longer. At least he's got Josie to show him what to do. I also started making him a sweater. It has finally gotten cold around here and he loves to be outside, but he does shiver. I'm just using Red Heart in a denim blue color. I figure this one won't last too long, so when he's full grown I'll make him and Josie matching sweaters that are nice and warm! This is a cable pattern I got from "Puppy Knits". I started this Saturday night, and I should finish it up tonight.
















Lastly, here's a gift I'm working on for my husband for Valentine's Day. We've been so busy it just kinda snuck up on me. It's just a small book made out of paper lunch bags. I've done some distressing on it, and inside I'm going to put in some pictures of vacations and our wedding and our family. The tricky part is trying to get it done without him catching on.














I also have a couple other projects going. My baby blanket is still going. Unfortunately, I got too sure of myself and decided to take the stitchmarkers out once I got through the first panel. Wrong thing to do! I ended up miscounting, and had to rip out a big section. I also worked on my Dublin Bay sock during the car ride and competition this weekend. This is one of my lonely socks that needed another to make a pair. After this, one more single sock left to complete!