My Sister's Knitter

It's Monday, how about some love?

Happy Monday peeps! I know, I know...it's Monday, what is there to be happy about? How about some finished items?

My swap socks are finished. The pattern is Shur'tugal. A great pattern with enough detail to keep your attention. Now to pick up some goodies  for my swap partner.

My Hedgerow socks came off the needles are well. I mentioned earlier that the pattern was a bit boring, but they served as a nice change from the Shur'tugals. The yarn was a gift from my friend, and once it came in the mail I knew it would be perfect for this pattern. Socks are done!

What's next? Not sure yet, I am really trying hard not to cast on anything new and focus my attention on items that are currently on the needles. This has been difficult considering all the temptations in blog land.

• Helena's projects always seem to find their way on my list. Her Nuvem has me reeling!
• Oh Lori, what are you doing to me with this shawl? So many lovely blues being knit up lately.
• A new blogger to me, Jesse hooked up this wonderful blanket.
• Trying to stop myself from buying their entire stock of yarns. I may or may not have already purchased some. Ok I did! I will share with you soon.
• Check out these fantastic book ends. I have grabby-hands!  
• Thanks to Allison I have a new beverage for the summer (below).

In other news thank you all for you nice comments on my giveaway. Due to the amount of responses, I won't be replying to each comment, just know that I appreciate them! My fingers are crossed for you all. Remember you have till April 5th to enter!

I am outta here to enjoy some back episodes of this show. Do you remember this show? I love seeing Marilyn knitting at her desk. She makes me laugh. Happy yarning everyone.

XO

Andi  

Someone needs to get in gear...

That would be me!

  

If you remember at the beginning of this year, I thought a monogamous year was on the horizon. Reality kind of hit when I checked out my Ravelry project queue and realized I have 13 items on the needles.  You know what that means, I need to get it in gear.

So I have been picking up projects and trying to get them done. I have the Netflix streaming, MidSomer Murders ( I am one the fourth season-love it). Oh and guess what has started...Football! That means a lot of t.v time, therefore a lot of projects done?

Anyone else in over their heads in projects? Well if you are let me know, so that I don't feel so bad. :)

Enjoy a song and have a great Friday!

 

XO,

Andi

Getting It Done...

Whew, just made it. My April socks were finished last night with only about 2 hours to spare. I have no idea why they took so long. I started these in early March.

Pattern:Menehune Cobblestone Socks    Yarn: Pagewood Farm Alyeska-Bird of Paradise

 
I am still trying to get some of my WIPS done. I have been working on finishing up my Saroyan.As well as turning the heel on my May sock, It is a simple 3x1 rib pattern. The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill self-striping. I seem to have a thing for stripes as of late.

What else have I been up to?

• Discovering a fantastic blogger.
• Wanting one of these.
• Cheering on a friend who just finished her first pair of socks.
• Wish I were on this walk with my friend.
• Watching and wondering how much more devastation our world can handle.
• Was anticipating this.
• Caught a few highlights.

 
This felt like a very long week, now on to the next one. :) Enjoy a scene from my favorite movie ever. If you haven't seen the movie and want to don't watch this. It is a complete spoiler.

 

XO
ANDI

 

My time...

 

As of late my knitting and crochet time has become more important to me. If I could allow myself to do nothing but knit all day from morning till night, I probably would. Luckily there is the voice of guilt that tells me, that would not be healthy for me overall. I need to get outside and enjoy the weather, go to work, or sometimes go to bed. You know you have those times when you are so into a project and you keep looking at the clock, knowing that you are going to pay dearly at work for knitting till midnight?

On a side note- this is my favorite chair to knit in. It is from the sister and is very old.

 
Over the last year after the breakup of a very long relationship, I find that my knitting time has increased. Maybe because I am single now and the guilt of not making dinner for someone else is absent. The ex would often tell me he thought it was lazy to knit, in not so many words. Same guy who would paint in his studio for hours and hours. Hmm..one of the many reasons for the breakup. :) Anyhoo, I do think I jumped into the knitting full force now that my time is my own.

I do prefer to knit on the evenings. I use it as my time to wind down. Often when I knit/crochet I like to either listen to NPR or watch a T.V series on netflix. I am very enthralled with this show as of late.

Places I knit varies. I am not embarrassed to knit in a coffee shop solo or over a pint with the girls. How about you, do you have a favorite knitting spot in your home or elsewhere? Do you watch T.V or movies when you knit or crochet? Do you try to limit your yarn time?  Inquiring minds wants to know.

Have a great weekend everyone. Thank you all for you comments during my 7 day postings. It has been tough for me, since I tend to post at random. I am also not used to having to post on a particular subject. Your comments made this much easier.

XO
ANDI

 

 

 
 

Wordless...

 

 
   
 
 
 
  
 
   

 XO

ANDI
 

For the love of yarn, jammies, and anything British!

I am quite in love with my Saturday, and why not when it includes my three favorite things?

The sister picked me up some new yarn. Baby Bee by Hobby Lobby, the color is Little Britches. The sister needed some little crocheted flowers. While she is very crafty in her own right, she does not know how to crochet, but does like to include these little yarnies in her crafts.

 
 So I am crocheting away on these little babies, all while in my favorite attire- jammies. I might add that it is now 4:00 in the afternoon. Bliss!

New yarn and jammies are great in themselves, let's add something to watch on the television. Here is my something British.

I am telling you I am addicted to anything and everything British on t.v. Just ask my Netflix queue, it does not lie. The weather today is accommodating nicely with my UK state of mind. It is slightly overcast and cool which makes pretending even better. I don't quite know when my love affair with the Brits started, but I think it may have to do with one of my favorite authors, Maeve Binchey. To add to the desire, I read blogs from Attic24  with her wonderful flowers and pictures of her part of the world. I have made a friend through blogs, and she came to visit Florida and was actually talking about living here. Maybe the grass always seem greener, all I know is that I want to share a pint with the lot! :)

I don't want you to worry that with all these fun things going on that I am not getting my nourishment. I have some very messy drop cookies waiting to fill that need. 

 
No Bake Fudge cookies-Life is good!

XO

ANDI
 
 *****Recipe for cookies being added for my British friend*****

No Bake Fudge Cookies

 

3 Cups of Rolls Oats

2/3 cup Peanut Butter

2 cups of Sugar

1/2 cup of butter

1/2 milk

1/3 cup of cocoa

2 tsp vanilla

 

Combine oats and peanut butter in a bowl and set aside.

Add butter, sugar, milk, and cocoa to a medium saucepan. Stirring constantly, heat till

the mixture comes to a rolling boil. Remove from heat immediately add vanilla, oats and

peanut butter.

Drop onto wax paper. Setting times vary depending on your climate. Mine usually set within

a 1/2 hour.

                                                                                                                                                   

 

Weekend...ahhhhh

 
Happy weekend everyone!

Thank you guys for the wonderful comments on the blue scarf that I made for a fellow bloggy friend. She has not received it yet, so I am waiting on the edge of my seat. While I waited, I kept myself busy with yarn. Yarn shopping, knitting, and crocheting. Yesterday I visited one of my favorite yarn stores to fill my need for big cushy blanket yarn. As I have stated before, I covet I Love This Yarn, at Hobby Lobby. Thankfully HB stores seem to be popping up all over the states. A friend in the UK doesn't have any HBs there, and unfortunately on her visit to the US did not get to visit one, so I picked her up a couple skeins. Those will be in the mail tomorrow. What did I buy for me? Well, the sister was with me and picked out some yarn for a blanket that she spotted on Flickr. After studying the photo (there was no pattern), I realized it looked a lot like Granny Stripes. Don't you think?

 
Couldn't you die over this living room? The photo is from GatheringSpriggs on Flickr.                                               

Here is my attempt.

 Here is some more yarn that I picked up. I am thinking of this pattern for it?

I know there is blue in there! :)  

You know me- I am by no means monogamous to crocheting or knitting, nor to any one project. 

 A Chevron Scarf. Yummy colors brought to you by,  The Unique Sheep Verve in Cherry Blossom.

Another scarfusing very precious Malabrigo sock yarn in Primavera

 
 

A new hat. Yarn is Blush from Dark Horse Yarns.  

Whew...a lot of yarny goodness I must say. Luckily my football is on today so I can dip into each project and be an extremely happy girl. Now If you care about me at all, you will wish my Denver Broncos luck today because I have a super obnoxious Jets fan for a step-father and they are playing each other.

XO

ANDI 
 

 

 

 

 

Finding joy....

Happy Hump Day to all! For the most part Wednesday's are nothing spectacular to me. No offense against Wednesday's, but they are kind of just there. This Hump Day is a tad fantastic. Maybe it is because I had some time today to check out amazing creations on Flickr. How can you look at any of these beautiful project and not want to pick up the needles or the hook?

 
1 )Blue Summer Scarf- Philistine Made  2) Golden Scarf- Twisted Knitter

3) Autumn squares- Roomotheleft  3) Cheery pillow- Sarah London

Now here are a couple places where I want to pull up a seat and knit.

1) My Nirvana- Upper Pond    2) Inspiring space- Raining Sheep

Yarn people are so fantastic! Why would you want to be friend's with anyone else?

In one of those photos you will see that the Twisted Knitter has come out with a new scarf pattern. For me this is a lot like Christmas. I received the pattern via email (FREE) as promised on her blog. I couldn't wait to get home and pick a yarn from my stash to start this immediately. Here is what I came up with.

The yarn is Fiesta Baby Boom in Cosmopolitan. I have way too many blues on the needles right now so this will be a nice treat for me to carry around in the knitting bag. Can you tell that I am super excited about Janet coming up with a new pattern? I have been trying to talk (email) her into doing a mystery scarf pattern. She is thinking about it- Whoohoo! Speaking of Mystery Shawl Kals. Do you remember that Mystery Kal I was doing? Well.....is it bad to say I didn't like it? I quit half way though. Nothing against the pattern or the designer but it so was not me. The Shawl has been unraveled and the nice yarn is now safely back home in one of my stash containers. :)

Now I have also been hooking on the side. I don't know what I am going to do with them yet or if I will ever do anything with them. I really hope the sister doesn't see this post-so that I don't have to commit to something. I am trying not to overwhelm myself with too many WIPs. (ha-ha) Plus I still have to finish the border on my Lucy Blanket. ( I am not oblivious to the fact it is still hanging out on the side bar as an UFO)

Can you see that I was inspired by Sarah London's pillow? It took everything I had not to order her pillow kit. My only saving grace was the fact that to ship it to the US was almost as much as the kit.

Okay so I am out of here to watch my weekday addiction. I know it is a little cheesy but I really love it. I think I will cast on the Peaks and Valleys Scarf while I cheer on my favorite dancer! Go Robert!

Happy Wednesday Yarnies

XO

ANDI
 
 

  

Refreshed...

It is Sunday and I feel refreshed! I love weekends where I have accomplished everything I need to and still able to get my knit on. :) Yesterday was all about housecleaning, laundry, and grocery shopping. I was able to have some downtime in the evening to squeeze in some knitting and visit blogland. New and fantastic projects in blogland always make my weekend. I also picked up this week's flowers. I like them, they remind me of wildflowers.

On to my Sunday. Is there any better way to start your day then with a cup of coffee with a dear friend? Add to that, your friend brings a brilliant new project. Let me preface this photo with a text message that I received yesterday morning from the dear friend (guru) exclaiming, "You are going to freak when you see my new scarf", she wasn't kidding...

Sorry I didn't get the pattern link, but as soon as I do I will post it. As she worked on this beauty I was thinking of ways to distract her and take off with it without her noticing. he-he. No, I was continuing work on my lace leaf scarf. Progress is going quickly, can't wait to get this baby blocked. In other knitting news, The Mystery KAL is still going on and since I can't show pictures till it is done, I will just tell you Clue #2 is done.

I am loving this summer of knitting! Who would have thought that 112 degrees would actually increase my need to knit? Knitting tonight will continue with this show on television, thanks to Netflix.

The weekend is drawing to a close. For once I am o.k. with that. It was a very long and trying week. I have a friend that left this world this week. I am not mentioning this to receive any condolences, quite the opposite actually. I am mentioning this because I learned a lot about the people I surround myself with daily and the importance of telling people how much they bring to my life. It will not always prevent them from leaving at least they know that they mattered. This year I have broadened my friendship horizon through my passion for yarn. Through emails, pics, and blog post I have made some truly amazing friends. So I want you all to know how much your friendships mean to me. I value each and every one of them and I am so grateful!  So, thank you. 

Have a happy and wonderful Sunday evening!

XO

ANDI

***** Link for scarf that the dear friend is working on-Norwegian Snowflake Scarf****

 

A Pajamas Kind of Day...

Three day weekends in my home require at least one day where the dress attire is pajamas. Other than a morning coffee shop trip which included a crochet lesson with my dear friend, it has been pajama day. Right after coffee I shed my grown-up clothes and threw on my comfies and whipped out my knitting.

Within minutes I was back in love. No not with the cute guy at the coffee shop (that was just a crush), but with this scarf pattern.

I am telling you if you haven't already knitted this love- go to Raverly and purchase it and knit it up immediately! I can't seem to put it down. As luck would have it my favorite T.V. show is being shown marathon style today.(Since it has been canceled this is a real treat) More reason not do a darn thing. Laundry needs to be done, I need a shower and food is going to be a requirement soon-but I don't care. I am really enjoying knitting this scarf. (In case I haven't made that clear)

There is plenty more lazy hours left in my Monday! So here are my weekend flowers. Bright little things aren't they?

 

Oh and this song has been in my head all day...

 

 

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend!

XO

ANDI