She likes em....hey Mikey!

You super younguns wont get that one, but those of us over 30 understand. I'm not talking about Life cereal though, I am talking about Alex's socks. She loves them actually. I had to track her down to take a picture, because she didn't want to take them off.



Cute socks = Happy Alex!



That's a pic I took of her on the beach when we were camping last week. She's such a sweetie!

Last night we went over to my sweetheart of a mother-in-law's. I brought a little gift to her.



A couple of Mason Dixon dishcloths and a couple of potholders to match. I just tied em up with a tulle bow. She loved em! I love giving knitted gifts. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to show you the finished baby sweater and hat! They are super cute, but I need to finish trimming them first.

PS - Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Awww....you guys are all so sweet!

The odds are against me!

The odds of me getting a post to publish with pictures today are slim to none I think. I have been trying for about 2 hours to upload photos! Grrrr....I am getting really crabby! Blogger you are ruining my birthday!!!!!!!!!!! (stomp, sniff, pound....hehe mini tantrum....I feel a little better now) Hopefully I will be back later with a real post!

Home again!

Home again! Jiggity Jig! (I hope my kids don't read that! They already think I am such a loser!)

We had a great time camping. I love being at Lake Michigan! The water was really warm and we had a great time swimming and stuff. However, I am really glad to be home and sleeping in a bed without sand in it! I also like my showers with enough water pressure to actually rinse off, and ahhhhh...the peace and quiet of home. I had up to ten teenagers in the camper at once a lot of the time. Let me tell ya, that gets old real quick! Lack of space and too many loud and obnoxious people do not mix! It is not fun stripping naked to change into your suit and just hoping some teenager won't walk in on you. Not fun at all! Or craving a Diet Coke so bad and opening the fridge to find out that those teenagers have finished off all 7 12-packs of your pop! Don't they know how addicted I am? And how crabby I get without it? Apparently not!

I also missed my knitting! I had very little time to knit. Talk about withdrawals! We were always doing something with our group and the knitting just didn't get done. I cannot wait to cast on for a pair of new socks. I wish I could decide on a pattern and yarn though...that is the hard part for me. Any suggestions? Any pattern that you just loved making?

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to show you the 2 measly finished objects that I have. Right now I haven't the faintest idea where that camera could be......ahhh the joys of unpacking. Sigh....I hate this part of camping.

More great news!

My cousin had his brain surgery yesterday and the Dr. said it went great! It actually only took a couple of hours to get the tumor out and then another 1 1/2 hours to close. The tumor was actually bigger than they thought, more like softball size. HUGE! It was all contained with no "feelers" so they were able to get it all. The Dr. also said he is almost convinced it is not cancer. Needless to say, the family is rejoicing. He was sitting up talking, laughing, and joking with family members when he came out of recovery too. Praise the Lord!

I have a sleeve and a 1/2 to go on the baby sweater and I am about 1/2 way down the foot of Alex's socks. Between family stuff and packing for camping, my knitting time has been quite limited, so I am glad for any progress. I am taking several projects camping with me and hope to get some things done while I am gone.

The sweater and socks.


SOME of the camping projects!

We are going camping for a week. Usually we go for 2 weeks in a row but we decided not to this year. I'm a little bit glad. Sometimes 2 weeks can be a little too long. Plus, we won't be camping over my birthday this year. Believe me this is a good thing. Last year my friends um, "decorated" my trailer in honor of my birthday. It was not pretty!



There's me with my hideous, tacky, worse than a thrift store Christmas decorations all over my trailer. (and that is only part of it!) It took me like an hour to clean it all up. So yippee! I will celebrate my birthday at home this year with no embarassing stuff like this to deal with! Well off I go! We are leaving in a couple of hours. Back in a week! :)

Great news!

First of all, WE HAVE POWER AGAIN! Woo hoo! It finally came on about 12:30am this morning. We sure take things for granted until we don't have them anymore! I am so happy that life can get back to normal now.

Second, my cousin received good results from his body scan. They didn't detect anything suspicious anywhere else in his body. We were praying that this was the case, because it makes it much more likely that his tumor will not be cancerous. His surgery on Friday will still be very delicate and difficult to recover from, so we still need your prayers. I hope the surgeons are able to successfully remove it without damaging any part of his brain. Also, I hope that his brain does okay when it shifts back after removing such a large tumor. So many things can be affected, personality, motor function, speech, memory....yikes, none of which we would want to mess with. Thanks for all your emails, comments and prayers. I really appreciate every one!

I just received the Diamond Fantasy Shawl pattern as a gift from a friend. Wow is it gorgeous! I will be stash diving later to see if I have yarn for it. If you don't see me for a couple of days, will someone please come and pull me out?

Not a ton of knitting progress. Plugging away on Alex's socks (resisting casting on any others), and I restarted the baby sweater. It looks really cute so far. Pics tomorrow I hope!

No news

So far we haven't found out anything definite about my cousin. He had his body scan yesterday and the tech said she didn't see anything alarming, but we are still waiting for the doctor to confirm that. Keep praying for good news.

My aunts platelets are very low again and we are not sure why. She is also very stressed (no kidding right?), and seems a little confused and not herself. Again, keep praying.

I finished one of Alex's socks. They are super cute and she loves them so far. It shouldn't take me too long to finish the second one.



Happy colors, aren't they?! I think Bitsy might get a sock out of this yarn.

I may rip the baby sweater and start over. I am just not happy with it. Thankfully it is a small project and won't take too long to do over. I might even use a different pattern. I better hurry up though, or the baby will outgrow it before it is finished. I have to get some cleaning done today too, but that will be limited because we are without power. I am currently blogging on generator power. Hopefully full power will be back soon.

Maybe my goal for the day should be to NOT read any blogs. That way I would get a lot more done! :)

Apologies...again

Well my blogging self esteem is sagging, badly. Here I am apologizing again. I truly am sorry that the blog has been suffering. It is a combination of things really. It is summer for one thing and my schedule is all screwed up. I am not used to having kids home ruining my knitting concentration. Haha, I love my kids, and enjoy having them home, they are just not very good for the knitting. Our family is also going through some very rough times right now. I have mentioned that my aunt has cancer. She is starting to feel a little better after her heart attack scare and her numbers are looking good. However....we also just found out that her son, my cousin, (38 yrs old) has a very large brain tumor. Right now they are not sure what it is, but it is super scary anyway. They are confident that it is operable but will require a long, difficult recovery. We are praying that it is not cancer. There are even more things than this going on, but I won't go on. I don't want to have to rename my blog "A Little Bit of Whine".

The much awaited knitting content...(hehe, yeah right, like anyone was holding their breath for it)



I have been knitting believe it or not. I am still working on the Jaywalkers (although I am hating the yarn and I am not excited about them anymore because of it). I am positive my skein is a 2nd or mill end. There are just way too many frayed spots for it to be first quality. (I won it, so I have no idea for sure.) I have also started a baby sweater for a gift and a pair of cotton socks for my daughter. I hate it that I have no finished objects to prove it.

Maybe I have caught the knitting funk that seems to be spreading around blogland. I sure hope there is a cure! I would even willingly get a shot for it. (you don't even know how much I hate to get shots lol)

Happy stuff!

Here are the pics I promised. First the Petticoat socks:



I simply love them!

Second, my BEAUTIFUL gift socks from my friend Ann! What a sweetie she is. She cooked up the surprise with DD Alex. I love them and they fit perfectly! I am choosing to call them my early birthday present.

THANKS ANN!!!!

Hubby and I are off for a two day mini road trip. I smell yarn hehe. He always lets me buy souvenir yarn when we go off on a jaunt. Yippee! I wonder what I will find and where we will end up. Anyhoo, I know it will be fun!

Oh, before I go, have you seen that the new Magknits is up? More temptations! I think at some point I will definitely make this. (probably in pink too hehe, I just can't resist the PINK!)

Better!

I had a much better day today. Not a ton of progress to report, but still better. We were having the ducts in our house cleaned today which made it hard to knit. Talk about noisy! I also had my neice over, had to run some errands (including getting new needles for the stole), worked a little more on that laundry pile, and did some much needed cleaning. My aunt was in the hospital again, (they thought she had a mild heart attack) so I was on the phone a lot with family too. I did get a couple of inches done on my jaywalkers though. What an easy pattern! Only a 2 row repeat. Even I can remember 2 rows. I will have some pics tomorrow. My camera batteries are dead...even way dead, but I am charging them right now. I have a finished object and a very special gift I received to show you. Yes, a much better day!

!@#$$%^&*

Okay, now I am just MAD! I had the worst knitting day ever! (If you don't like the excessive use of exclamation points, run for your life right now!)

First off, I woke up with a headache. Not good. Then I decided to cast on for the mystery stole today. Yeah well, the needles I thought were 4's were really 5's, which resulted in a really sloppy looking inch or so. RIP IT! If that wasn't bad enough, I was looking for different needles to use, and do you think I can find one suitable circular needle? HECK NO! Well I am just ticked now. I look at my size 2 and 3 Addi's, and I am convinced they are the SAME SIZE!!! Now what? One says 2 and the other says 3 and according to my needle sizers, they are the same! Well you can bet I will be taking them to the LYS tomorrow to see what they have to say about it. Rant over? I don't think so....yeah, it gets worse!

Next on the rant list.....my Jaywalkers. I decided to use my new STR in Highway 30 to make a pair of Jaywalkers. I saw them on a blog and they were gorgeous. So I started some. ICK!!!!!! MAJOR POOLING!!!!!!!!! I HATE POOLING!!!!!! Waaah....the other blogger's pair didn't pool in that yarn. Not fair! (Yes I know I sound like I am 3 yrs old right now.) Rats. Start over. So I pick up a mystery color of CTH and start over with that. 2 rows in and there is a break in the yarn (except for one little strand). Oh my goodness! I am ready to cry.....boo and hoo and one more hoo. Now I'm going to have to rip again. (And you simply don't know how much I hate casting on and knitting that first row on a sock!) Want to come to my pity party? Haha, I forgot, you are already here. Sorry to have forced you to attend.

Sniff....I'll get over it. Pass me a tissue.

Come back tomorrow for better news. Really.

Back!

We got back from camping yesterday. I spent most of the day emptying the trailer and starting on the enormous mountain of laundry we managed to come home with. I think it will take me at least 3 days to catch up. My house is a disaster area thanks to bringing in all that stuff from the trailer. I love camping, but the first few days when we get home are nothing but a pain in my butt. Hopefully I will be able to knit and blog a little tomorrow. Thankfully we had a really good time, or I don't know if all this work would be worth it. Just thinking ahead two weeks (when we leave for another week of camping), makes me tired! Sigh.....

A camping we will go.....

YAY, today we leave for a week of camping on the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan. It should be a great time! (Don't worry, I definitely have not forgotten to pack some major yarn!!!!!!) Haha, I am even taking my ballwinder. Silly knitter me. I have at least 5 different projects packed, do you think that will be enough? I should be back in a week, probably a few pounds heavier, a little tanner (yikes, is that necessary!), and hopefully with a finished object or two. Have a great week everyone and a great 4th of July!

Good news and bad news.....

First the good news.....

YARN!!! This is the other yarn I picked up at Convergence:


I have been wanting some Lisa Souza sock yarn for a while now, but I could never decide on a color. I was always worried that my monitor was wrong or the difference in batches would not be what I expected. So when I could see them in person, I bought 2 skeins. On the left is the SOCK! in Denim and on the right is SOCK! Merino in Wild Thing. (By the way, they look nothing alike in person!) The SOCK! is a 75/25 wool and nylon blend. The SOCK! Merino is 100% superwash merino and is more tightly twisted. (but not as tightly twisted as STR.)

And the bad news.....

Today I somehow contracted some kind of computer virus. I think it came through AOL IM. I heard more people were affected. I did get it removed with no damage (that I know of at least). But good grief, it took HOURS to run a complete virus and spy sweeper scan. Then I also downloaded a new virus program which found 5 more things that needed deleting. If that wasn't enough to really mess up my day, my favorite aunt was hospitalized this morning. She has cancer and unexpectedly needed some platelets today. Her counts were super low and she was having MAJOR nosebleeds. I really wanted to go to the hospital to see her, (she is such a sweetie and I love her like crazy!) so I went and spent a couple of hours there too. I didn't get any knitting or packing done! Tomorrow is gonna be CRAZY!!!!!!!

Yummmm.......

First, one yummy new sock:



I FINALLY got one of these finished. It is super cute though and worth the wait. I have the ribbing done on the second sock too, so I hope I don't end up with a bad case of Second Sock Syndrome. Thankfully I usually don't suffer from that.

Here's a close-up of the stitch pattern in case you wanted to see it:



I really do like the colors of this yarn. Happy, Happy, Happy!

And some yummy new yarn came home with me today.......

I went to Convergence today. It was fun. I saw Chris from Briar Rose Fibers. She is so nice! I bought some merino/tencel and some sock yarn from her. She does a beautiful job of dyeing yarn. I really like her colors. I also got a shawl pattern from her to use with the merino/tencel. Maybe I will take that project camping with me this weekend.



That's the tencel on the left and the sock yarn on the right. She just started dyeing some superwash sport-weight sock yarn and I really wanted to try it. I was just waiting until I could see the colorways in person. These two actually coordinate a lot better in real life than they seem to on this picture. So I will have some nice socks to match my beautiful shawl.

I will tell ya all a little more about it tomorrow. (I'm running short of time right now.)

Anyone going?

Just curious if anyone is going to Convergence in Grand Rapids this week? I just heard about it. I guess it is a big shindig put on the by the Handweavers Guild of America. I have never been there before, but it is only about 20 min from my house. Oooh, how tempting!



There is a massive list of vendors for this thing. I think I might have to check it out! I wish I could take some classes, but I don't have the time this week.

I am trying to get ready for camping. We leave Saturday for a week. I have to pack the trailer, bake, get ALL the laundry caught up, plan meals ahead so I can buy an unheard-of amount of groceries, and of course plan which projects will be coming along with me. Hopefully I will have a little more time to knit when I am on vacation. (IF I feel like knitting on the beach or at the pool that is....hmmm....I will have to see) Haha, I am so pale I will probably scare all the other people away! Yikes, it ain't a pretty sight people.

Ahhh....summer

First the summer socks:



These are progressing slow but sure. I should make better progress now that I am on the foot. I have only half of the twisted stitches to do. Yay!

I love summer at our house. The yard is so beautiful! I thought I would share a few shots with you.












The clematis is beautiful right now.







And up close...

And some daisies:



I love flowers! I heart you summer!!!!

Pick just one?

My sister and I were talking about favorite candy bars today, and if we could pick just one, which one would we choose. Oh the horror of that question. Narrow it down to just one? You have got to be kidding me! Impossible!

Do I pick the creamy, chewy, carmelicious Milky Way? Or the gooey Carmello? Or the crispy but chewy Whatchamacalit? Or the more sophisticated Godiva dark chocolate bar? Or one of those imported Swiss chocolate bars? I could go on and on! So many choices. All great in their own way. Can you tell I love candy bars?

Do you know what I finally settled on? No, not a Snickers or a Pay Day bar, or even a Dove. It is the not-so-popular Mallo Cup! Can you believe it? It's not even good chocolate! But I chose it anyway....



I'm telling you, these things are highly under appreciated! They are just wonderful. Simple marshmallowy, chocolatey, coconutty goodness. I especially love them right out of the fridge. I like most candy bars cold, unless they are pure chocolate bars. Those are best at room temperature and just melting in your mouth. Anyone else hungry?

I think this would be a great mini-meme! So what's your favorite candy bar and why? Cold or not? Eaten slowly and savored or snarfed right down?

My stomach is growling.

P.S. Don't get any chocolate on your yarn!

She wore....

An itsy Bitsy teeny weenie
sexy hand-dyed yarn bikini.



Bitsy decided to catch some sun out on the deck today. She was feeling a little pale. Haha, doesn't her new bikini look great?

Now the real knitting:



I am doing a broad spiral rib on the Opal Petticoat socks. I really like how this pattern is turning out. Alex is in love with the colors of this yarn. She keeps telling me to hurry up so she can wear them! I do have one small mistake but I am choosing to call it a design element. Sometimes ripping just isn't worth it!

Aptly named....

I've decided there was a reason I named my blog A Little Bit of Knit. My subconscious must have known there would be times where that's all the knitting that would be going on......a little bit. This week proves it.

It has been all about soccer, busyness and the heat.


On Saturday Alex and I went to the state championship girls soccer game. Unity, our home team won the championship. We know several girls on the team and it was fun to see them win it. They are undefeated and play a mean game of soccer. It was so hot there though. The temps were in the mid 90's with the sun blazing down on us. I developed quite the headache. Then Saturday night we went to the beach to visit some friends that were camping. Sunday was Father's Day and a family get together. Today was shopping with Alex, (the girl has outgrown EVERYTHING!), and tonight was soccer tryouts from 6-9. Whew....I am tired. Ramble over...but the point is, not much knitting time, or even the desire to, because of the heat.

I did manage to knit another sockie for my keychain, who I have now named Bitsy. Haha, she is so cute. I knit another pink sock because the first one was way too small. This one fits fine.



Those little socks are just way too much fun! I have been sporting around town with Bitsy and she is turning some heads. Nevermind that people are sometimes laughing. Come on, I'm only a little bit sock obsessed. Pics of my new full-sized sock tomorrow.

Productivity!

I have been busy the last 2 days. I am so excited to be getting things done! Last night while not feeling well, I finished Alex's bag. We both love it!



Fat Bottom Bag from the Stitch'nBitch Crochet book.
Sugar and Cream cotton in hot pink and yellow.
Embellished with a flower experiment.
This is really a one day project. It took me two, because I didn't have the handles. I will definitely be making more of these. Lauren wants a white one and I want a pink and green one!

In knitting......my poor nekkid little keychain now has a sockie!



Awww, isn't it cute? Not nearly as cute as Jeanie's though. Sigh, I think my key chain is jealous....