Almost Ready

Only a few more days to go and then I'll be off to London and a 12 day cruise on Royal Caribbean's Jewel Of The Seas. Eileen, Winnie, Jen & I have been looking forward to this for months and now it's almost here. The ports we stop at are Oslo (Norway), Stockholm (Sweden), Helsinki (Finland), Copenhagen (Denmark), St Petersburg (Russia) and Estonia. My camera & camcorder are fully charged. Lots to do before I leave including squeezing Sunny & Beauty Baby to pieces!

Knitted bookmarks I made for my travel buddies

Hide 'n Seek

One of Sunny's favorite places to "hide" is behind the shade above the tub. He has all the window sills in the entire house to sit on as he pleases, but he has to squeeze himself behind this shade, bending the sides as he goes. Do you think I would chase him away from there? Of COURSE NOT!
Cats can do no wrong.

Such A Deal!

My delivery from Knit Picks just arrived. When I saw this 40% off sale on ALL of their books, well, you can see what happend. I bought. And bought. Who in their right mind could pass up an opportunity like this! Alas, some of the titles I wanted weren't available so I had to be happy with these:

Mosaic Knitting by Barbara Walker
Selbuvotter, Biography of a Knitting Tradition by Terri Shea
Wrapped in Comfort, Knitted Lace Shawls by Alison Jeppson Hyde
Vogue Knitting Stitchionary, Vol 2: Cables
Vogue Knitting Stitchionary, Vol 3: Color Knitting
Knitting Beyond The Edge by Nicky Epstein
Double Exposure: Knit it Basic, Knit it Bold by Bonnie A. Franz
Little Box of Scarves II
Two-Stitch Knits by Jane Crowfoot
Knitting with Beads by Jane Davis
Debbie Bliss Simply baby
Very Easy Circular Knits by Betty Barnden
Knitting Stitches

I may need to update my contact lense prescription to a stronger power but if I do, it'll be worth it.

Cat Pix

My beautiful Beauty Baby.
She only sleeps in her cat bed when it's filled with toys.

More Cat Pix

My beautiful Sunny.
Don't you love watching them while they sleep? (or yawn?)

Finished Blankie

Another finished project, this little baby blankie. It's sized to use in either a car seat or a stroller. I do emphasize FINISHED because I've been finishing more projects than I ever have. My thing use to be: buy yarn, start project, buy more yarn, start yet another project, and thus went the cycle. Now I actually have many finished objects instead of UFO's laying around the house, which makes me feel VERY GOOOOOOOD. In fact I feel SO good that I may just go out and buy more yarn. (hehehe) I actually have a good excuse this time. There are several birthdays coming up soon and since my knitting has gotten into what I consider the " decent" area of craftsmanship I'm going to knit some gifts for these unsuspecting friends & relatives.
More socks on the needles and I was very proud of myself until last night. I did the toe, foot, and 3/4 of the short row heel without a smidgen of a problem until something happened with only 3 wraps to go on the heel. I dropped a stitch and just can't figure out how to get it put back correctly. I have knitting tonight at Only Ewe And Cotton Too and hopefully someone there will show me how to fix it, and if not, there's always Claudia.


And, don't die friends, but I went to a Braves Game on Sunday. Yes, I actually went to a baseball game and had a great time. It was Stitch and Pitch Day at Turner Field and I went with a group of knitters from Knitch. A great time was had by all: knitting, chatting, meeting new knitters, snacking, and from what I've been told the Braves Won!

New Yarn Delivery

I have absolutely NO idea how all this arrived at the door yesterday. Maybe I lost my mind for a second and placed an online yarn order??

Hey, it was ON SALE!

Baby Stuff

This Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Baby will be perfect for a little sweater I'll be starting soon, as I don't have enough projects in the works already. (COUGH)

Yarn, Yarn, Yarn

I know what you're thinking but I really NEEDED this yarn. I really did. When I was in Only Ewe And Cotton Too I spotted a sample of a knitted baby blanket sitting up on a shelf. The minute my hands picked it up I knew I had to make this. I've never felt anything softer than this Oh My & Heaven yarn and since I know of several babies on the way I had no good reason NOT to get some.

The pattern is for a baby blanket to use with either a car seat or a stroller and is just adorable. I'm almost done with the body of the blanket already and tomorrow I'll get some help with the border. It involves picking up stitches along the edges which shouldn't be that big a deal but I don't want to mess it up!

I was in this shop for the first time the other day and am so glad I went. I also went to their knitting group that meets every Tues. & Sunday. What a great group of knitters! Among them I met Zina, who knits socks like the wind. She really does. Like, maybe 3 pair a week or so. No, I'm not kidding. Aside from the speed in which she knits her work is flawless. You probably are wondering what she DOES with all these socks. Yes, she sells them. THIS is also so cool. She showed me how she does her cast-on and toe for the toe up socks which is the only way she knits socks. Amazingly I "got it", did it, and it looks SO good. Her cast on method is actually called the Turkish Cast-on and for anyone interested you can view an excellent tutorial by clicking HERE. She also knits the most beautiful shawls out of sock yarn. Beautiful stuff.

My 1st Shawl In Progress

As you can see, I've started my first ever shawl. It's a very simple pattern from Knit Picks and when I say simple it's a great starter shawl project as it has a 4 row pattern with only 1 row that you really have to pay attention to. The yarn is Andrean Treasure, a baby alpaca sportweight in Lilac Heather. I've only had to rip it out 3 times but now I think I'm on the right track. Also, I hope you can see those handmade stitch markers that I'm using to keep me in the correct pattern sequence. Allison made them & I bought several sets from her at the Atlanta Knitting Guild meeting on Thursday night.

North Georgia Expedition

Susan called last Sunday morning and asked if I wanted to go exploring with her, Jane & John. Of course I said, " Of course", not even knowing where but when exploring new places it really doesn't matter now does it? Susan chauffeured in her NEW truck and drove up to the Sautee & Nacoochee Valley area. Ok, folks.....guess what we found......SHOPPING.......(now THAT'S a shocker, right?) First we went to The Gourd Place where I bought these small painted gourds along with this very cool handmade handpainted piece, which will hang next to the fireplace. Their shop is very interesting, showing the process of preparing the gourds from their natural state to the finished products.
We then found The Country Store which was SO SO cool! As you enter on the right they have this authentic player piano playing away, and you feel as if you just went back in time 100 years. My find was this yummy smelling Banana Nut Bread candle and a tube of Goat's Milk Hand Cream.

Bambi

Look who came a visiting to MY house this morning. These beautiful girls were just grazing away in my yard, as calm as can be. They were about 12 feet away from my back door and I held my breath as I ran for the camera. I was able to snap a few shots before Sunny & Beauty Baby jumped up on the window sill to see what I was looking at and that was the end of the deer viewing.