My Own Granny Stripes Ta-Dah!!!!!!!

Hello,

I'm back from a lovely weekend of "getting-things-done" and spending a little quality time with my family.  I hope you all had a great weekend too and that your week is getting off to a good start.  Today was a jam-packed day filled with lots of fun and wonderful (even including some woolly) surprises - but more on that tomorrow as I have some pressing business to share with you all today. 

I finally finished the Granny Stripes Blanket!!!  Whaaaaa Whoooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I've fully (well mostly anyways) enjoyed my time working on this project and am so happy with how it turned out.....words cannot express how excited I am. 

So would you like to see a picture???
Are you excited too??
I sure hope so........
It's been a long time waiting hasn't it???? 
Feels like ages to me!! 
Here it is.........

My very own Ta-Dahhhhhhh Moment!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Now it's off to bed for me seeing as I have to work in the morning.

Thank you for sharing this thrilling moment with me!!

Good night, and see you again soon xx

Mid-Week Report

Hello Knitters,

I'm so sorry again for not keeping up with my regular posting!!  Things are so busy right now that I haven't had much time to get online.  I've been baking up a storm over the last few days and I've had a ton of appointments as well.  Tomorrow is another day in the city with two appointments and then I should be done with those for a bit. 

I haven't had much time to do any knitting so I thought that for the time being, I'm going to put WIP Wednesday and Finished Project Friday posts on hold - since I have only one major WIP (the granny blanket) and no finished projects at the moment. 

I've been working a bit on a little something special to add to my Easter swap pal's package, but it's going to be a surprise, so no peeks until later.  I'm also waiting for an order to arrive and have a little more shopping to do that I hope to get to tomorrow while in the city and then the package should be done!  I'd like to get it mailed out sometime next week if possible.  I'm very excited for my swap partner to get it!! 

I'm also working as fast as I can on the granny stripes blanket.  It's coming along great!!  I was going to do some sewing this evening, but I'm feeling a bit tired and the pattern I'm working on requires my full attention, so instead I'm going to granny cluster away.  Maybe I'll even make it to the border by the weekend!! 

Wow, just as I was writing this our power went out for no reason and now it is thundering, lightening and raining outside!  I sure hope the power comes back on soon since it's starting to get dark.  My Mom is already getting the candles out.....  Gotta love living in the rural country eh? 

I should end this post now and try to save the battery on the laptop.  I hope you all have a fantastic rest of the week!

Take care!!

A Little Catch Up

Happy Monday Knitters,

I have to start by apologizing to you all for not keeping up with my blogging.  Things have been super busy around here lately, and when all is said and done, at the end of the day I've been too emotionally and physically drained to do much of anything.  I am going to try and do better this week.

To catch you all up: my first day of work last Monday was great - it was nice to get back into the swing of things.  I had forgotten how much I enjoy waitressing!  I don't work again till next week - I'm just filling in when they need me - but in the meantime I'm doing my baking which is keeping me busy.   It's going great as well and I find it very fun. 

Another new thing is that I joined the newest Itty-Bitty Swap.  It's an Easter theme this time around - bunnies and chickens to be exact.  Like I've mentioned many, many times, Easter is my favourite holiday, so I'm very excited about this one.  I've already knit up a Dotted Chicken for my secret swap pal, which is the picture at the beginning of this post.  I thought I'd share it since she doesn't know I'm her partner.  I had so much fun knitting this for her!!  I've always been a huge fan of chickens and cows!  You can see more pictures and info on my Ravelry project page.

Speaking of chickens and cows, my copy of Spud and Chloe at the Farm arrived today!!  I'm SO EXCITED!!  Susan's patterns are always amazing and fun to knit!!  I'm making myself wait until I'm done all my baking for today before I look at it - sort of like a reward for all my hard work.  I would like to knit the entire set using the Spud and Chloe yarn, so I'm thinking I'll need to start collecting it bit by bit.  If I could chose right now, I think I'd like to make the Mother Hen first and then the Brown Cow. 

Well, that's it for my update for today.  I should get back to the baking....the cookies are about to beep.  Have a great day everyone!!

Happy Knitting!!

Itty-Bitty Knits Let's Start at the Beginning Swap Package

Hello Knitters,

Today I got the best surprise in the mail!  It was my swap package for the Itty-Bitty Knits Let's Start at the Beginning Swap.  I just have to say a huge THANK YOU! to the wonderful and amazingly talented Eliana (Elly). 

Everything came packaged up in this beautiful bag that Elly sewed special for me!  It's just gorgeous and is a nice, big size that I always like in a bag :)  She made it specifically for my WIPs!! 

It has a sturdy bottom on it so it can stand up on it's own, which is great for when working on a project.

This is what I seen when I peeked inside!!  Squeeeeeeeeeeee!!  I see two gorgeous skeins of Tahki Cotton Classic and two balls of Regia sock yarn in lovely pinks and purples!!  (she added this for my sock knitting addiction! lol).  I'm so excited to knit with these yarns!! 

There was some yummy candies: two tins of coffee flavoured candies since I'm a big coffee fan :), a package of Now and Later apple candies, a box of Arizona Catus Candy, and a package of really good apple hard candies.

Close-up of the Cactus Candy

This swap had some required knitted projects: an apple hat, an apple finger puppet and an apple wash cloth.  These are the ones that Elly knit using really gorgeous yarns like Spud and Chloe Sweater and Fine, Mission Falls 1824 Wool, The SRK Collection Truffles, The Unique Sheep Sushi Socks, and the leaf on the hat is knit from her own hand dyed yarn!  They're all so beautiful!!

This is a skein of Elly's own hand dyed and handspun yarn that she made just for me!!  I'm so excited to find a special project for it!!  I'm amazed that someone would spin yarn for me!!  Isn't the colour fantastic?  It's so me!!  I'm so wowed by how gorgeous it is!!

She also made me some lovely shell stitch markers and a matching bracelet!  She also made a "message in a bottle" stitch marker that demonstrates yarn art: from fiber to yarn to knitted swatch - it's all in the bottle!!  Isn't that amazing?  It's so gorgeous!!  She also made me a little stitch marker pouch that matches the bag - you can see it in the first picture; for some reason I didn't get a close-up of it.  It's so cute!

Wow, I'm so overjoyed with everything!!  This package really brightened up my whole week!!  Again, thank you so much Elly for this amazing package!!  I feel totally blessed and spoiled!! 

Have a great week everyone :)

Granny Stripes Progress

Hello Knitters,

A couple of days ago in the comments, my friend Suzanne asked to see some close-up pictures of the Granny Stripes Blanket and the colours of yarn I'm using.  The weather is finally cooperating with me so I could take some "true-to-colour" photos, so here they are!

The yarn is a combination of Red Heart Super Saver, and Comfort, TLC Essentials and Bernat Super Value.  Nothing fancy, just your average acrylic.  These are the colours starting from left to right in the above photo: RRSS -0886 Blue, RRSS - 0381 Lt. Blue, Red Heart Comfort - 3231 Purple, TLC Essentials -2332 Linen, RHSS -0385 Royal, RHSS -0505 Aruba Sea, Bernat Super Value -53114 Denim Heather, RHSS -0885 Delft Blue, RHSS -0313 Aran, Bernat Super Value -00616 Peacock, TLC Essentials -2855 Navy, RHSS -0347 Lt. Periwinkle. 

I'm just random striping it while trying to keep the strong colours sort of equally separated, so there's no big math involved.  I wanted to make it as easy as possible :)

I know in my last post I talked about a sneak peek of what I'm currently working on, but I just haven't been able to get a good enough picture of it yet.  It's nice and sunny here today, so maybe I'll get one yet! 

Happy Knitting and Hooking!!

Something New on the Horizon

Hello Knitters,

Thank you everyone for all the Blanket love from yesterday's post!!  You all are so kind!  I got a good amount done on it yesterday and I hope to continue to do so over the next little bit.  However, I did purchase some yarn today for a project that I want to start over the weekend - that is if I don't start it later on tonight.  You all know how irresistible new yarn can be....  So I'm going to put the blanket on hold for a little while and make something that just might be for me :)  Yay!  I'm very excited about this one - and I might have a sneak peek to share with you all tomorrow since I have no Finished Projects to post about. 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

Happy Knitting and Hooking!! 

P.S. I've got Ravelry working again for those of you who were wondering.  There were so many posts I missed!  It's great to be back :D

WIP Wednesday - March 2

Hello Knitters,

I've only got one WIP this week - the Granny Stripe Blanket.  I've been spending all my time devoted to this lovely thing.  It's such a pleasure to crochet away on it.  I'm also really happy with how the colours are coming along.  I took the above picture today in the lovely sunshine we had this afternoon.  It's not quite big enough yet, but hopefully soon!! 

Sorry for the short post, but it's getting late and I need to get up early in the morning for a quick trip to the city so I should be getting to bed.  Have a great week everyone!

Happy Knitting and Hooking!!

P.S. Just to let you know, I'm not able to get on to Ravelry and reply to posts, upload pictures, or read or send messages for some reason.  So if you've sent me a message and I haven't replied, then that's why.  Hopefully things will be back to normal soon.