My Sister's Knitter

Home...

Don't get me wrong I love vacations, but nothing feels as good as coming home and sleeping in your own bed. Now I have a full Sunday to get ready to go back to work. Believe it or not, I did not get much accomplished in the knitting or crochet department. Don't ask me why. Who doesn't dream of knitting by the pool?

 
I brought along a quick knit scarf, that was perfect for sitting outside and catching up on my reading.This of course was a must since the nephew was making sure that I was up to date on the latest rap videos, music and popular terms such as, "That's salty".

 
The time spent with my nephew was priceless.(I already miss him). I can't forget my constant four legged companions.

This is Riley and below is Sugar.

 
BTW-Although they looks very angelic in their pics, they were extremely naughty!!!! :)

Ah, and then there was food. My body is completely rebelling after matching the eating habits of a 16 year old for 7 days. We are talking about Wings, Cheese Steaks, Taquitos, Subs, and lots of chocolate. The nephew made brownies.

I must tell you I did drop by my casa to check my mail. I got an extremely lovely surprise package from my dearest friend Ruth. Inside a new knitting bag to replace my soup stained one.

As well as some Spring flowers to brighten up my book shelf. ( I need to remember to take this down when the sister visits, she will steal them)

 
Priorities today should be laundry, grocery shopping, and cleaning. Most likely I will be working on squares for my Raverly swap and visiting blogland. :) 

 
 
Since my priorities seem to be in place, I am off to clean knit/crochet. 

Enjoy a song (my mom's fav) and your Sunday!

 

XO

Andi

 

P.S. I completely failed on this Potholder Swap. Maybe next year- boo! :(
 

 
 

 

 

 

 

Soup days...

Here is Arizona is a soup kind of day and according to the news, everywhere else. Taking full advantage of this rare winter day, soup it on the stove. I just threw together a lot of veggies and voila' warm comfort in a bowl.

 
Working on some comfy socks for me.

Also sqeezing in a little reading.

 
Grannies are still in progress. Oh,the granny square lesson with the sister did not happen due to some things coming up. Hopefully we will be able to get together soon or i fear I will be making both blankets. :)

I hope you are all staying bundled and enjoying lots of hot soup!

XO

Andi  
 
 
 

 

The day after...

 
Whew. That was fun wasn't it? The Christmas holabaloo, that is. Is it sad that I am kind of glad it is over? I think that may have something to do with the unnecessary stress we place on ourselves. In my last post I was contemplating casting on one final project. With less than a week I cast on a project that the Ravelers who made it stated, took them forever. All I can say is after I finished it at 11:00 p.m. Christmas Eve. I thought about running outside yelling ," I am king of the world!!!" I will posting a picture soon. As you can guess it was a gift and since it was up till the last minute the receiver is going to take some photos for me. Hopefully very soon. (Hint Hint)

So on the day after Christmas I am lazily watching football, crocheting, and flipping through some knitting magazines. Check these out, my little mama found some older Vogue knitting magazines.

 
 

Excuse the the bottom one being so blurry, but I had to show you. What year does it look like? To me it looks like the 80's-nope it is 2007/2008. Weird how styles come back.

I am reworking my nephews blanket that I had wanted to finish by his birthday (November 2010-haha). The Ripple pattern just did not seem like him. So it took it all out and now I think I am on the right path. It is a little boring but I think it will be perfect for him.

I hope you all have had a day to recoup from the festivities.

Have a great Sunday!

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.

                                                                                                                                                   

 

What's your bag?

Part of my daily attire is my knitting bag. I take it to work even if I know that I won't get a chance to knit.I feel naked without it, I look at it kind of like my security blanket. I switch out my bags like most switch out their purses and I am constantly on a search for a new cute one.

The sister surprised me this week with her newest creation. She made this little tote out of a vintage pillow case and it fits the bill for my latest yarn carrier.

   
  

Isn't it adorable? I am now thinking I need one in pink. Hopefully she will be making some more and adding them to her new Etsy shop where she sells her wonderful vintage finds.

What do I carry in my bag? Um...everything. My knitting bag is prepared every morning with all things that I could possibly need in case of an emergency situation. Maybe on some level I am remembering a story about a 98-year-old woman buried in rubble from an earthquake in Italy, that spent the time knitting till she was rescued. You never know what your day can hold-so it pays to be prepared. :) There is always at least two projects, needles ( a couple different sizes), stitch holders, yarn needle, scissors,tape measure, patterns, and sometimes a good read. Please tell me there are others out there that carry around bags as loaded as mine?

Okay so along with my new bag and I also got a new book. This book is beautiful, I love all the wonderful images. My interest in knitting lace has been peaked recently since I started my lace leaf scarf. This book delivers all anyone could want in the lace department and more. I already have a few that have been added to my mental WIP bank.While it is way too big to carry in my knitting bag, it is the perfect coffee table book.

Hope this post finds others out there with emergency knitting bags and crossing my fingers that you may never need to use them. (Unless you want to)  Happy Wednesday!

XO

ANDI

Temptation Is Not My Friend!

I mentioned before that I wanted to finish all my WIPs before I started my Mystery Shawl KAL on Ravelry. I have approximately 17 days to accomplish this task. As each weekend comes and goes I am beginning to think this may be a mission impossible. I can't seem to keep my grubby little hands from wandering to new projects.

Yesterday, I needed to pick up some white yarn to help complete my Lucy Zig Zag blanket at my LYS. Next to the white was these two pretty colors of pink and somehow they spoke to me. I rationalized that these would be perfect for the Baker's Dozen Square swap that I have joined. That was the plan anyway. (Big sigh) Last night I was working away on my Lucy blanket and came across an issue. When stitching my squares together I suddenly realized something was going wrong. Maybe it was the long week I just had or maybe it was the pressure I was putting on myself to finish this blanket, either way I stitched my squares together all wonky!

Rather than taking a breath and just un-attaching the squares, I pushed the Lucy away and glanced at the white and pinks. Within minutes I was hooking away the grannies you see above. Since these pictures have been taken I am back on track and reattached the  squares properly and now I am on my way to finishing the ZigZag, all the while those pink and white squares are taunting me to work on them. :)

It is not only new yarn that is trying to tempt me away from my WIPs, it is also a new book. I know this book has been out for a while but I haven't been able to get one pattern out of my head since first seeing it.

I have promised myself I am not going to cast on the Barn Raising Quilttill I finish my Mystery KAL. Wish me luck!

Wait there is more temptations, my Knitting Guru brought in some new yarn from the Knitpick's Anklet Knit, and brought all us knitties our own yarn and a little charm to entice us to all knit Anklets together.

Give me strength!

Don't get me started about all the goodies on my favorite blogs, Flickr, and Ravelry. I am in complete and utter awe at all the talent that I have access to from my little laptop. Can you tell me that these two blankets don't make you want to hook?

Raining Sheep's blanket makes me want to snuggle immediately. Virginia Blue, who I just recently discovered, is all about colors. Insta-love!

It is obvious that my diligent (hehe) work on my WIPs has not kept me away from Blogland, here are a few that you should check out this weekend:

Sew Ritzy Titzy- Amazing hexagon grannies.    

Grumperina- Tiny Tea Leave Cardigans- oh my!   

Two and Six- a divine crocheted wrap  

Twisted Knitter- (aka Twisted Goddess) new site, even more incredible.

Now maybe you can see why my crafting brain is all a flutter. :) Okay for real now I am going to go kick some WIP booty! Enjoy your Saturday and your weekend.

XO

ANDI
 
 
 

 

Yarn Therapy

Every knitter/crocheter has one of those days-The need for Yarn Therapy day.

 
 
It doesn't necessarily have to be a bad day in order for me to need to make an appointment. Some days I just need to feel the relaxing rhythm of the clicking needles. Sometimes just taking out my favorite color of yarn and having it near will fills me with all kinds of  happy. Today was one of those days. Nothing bad happened. I just had a strong urge to knit. After the rush home, the making of dinner and cleaning up , the moment when I finally have my project in hand is priceless.

Adding to today's rush I stopped off at my mailbox and look what was in the mail. Something that for a moment caused me to rethink Yarn Therapy tonight.

 

I am going to save this baby for the weekend. I have been looking forward to this book since I heard about it from another blog. How wonderful that one of our fellow knitters wrote it.  

Well the clock is ticking...off I go. Sending you all some postive yarn thoughts tonight.

 

XO

Andi

Pamper yourself much?

They say it's important to be your own best friend...well if that's the case, I am my best friend ever!

Look what I surprised myself with today. I knew I wanted it for a while and I have been drooling at all the projects on Ravelry that people are creating. I thought it only right that I should get myself one. Ever the frugal friend I brought it on half.com, for almost nothing. :) If you don't normally buy your knitting books there, you should, the prices and selections are outstanding.  Okay so now I have this fabulous book, I need something cute to carry it in. Tah-Dah...best friend to the rescue!

Now this love bag I ordered from a great Etsy seller, trulysanctuary. It will be my new knitting bag. I love the thought of carrying around handmade items in a handmade bag. 

Alright enough about how spoiled I am, I finally finished my tidal wave socks and will be posting pictures soon. Since I finished a pair I immediately cast on another. That means I have three socks on the needles-I'm cool with that.The tidal wave socks were made for my mother I will have her wear them and I will snap some shots. Be warned the photos may be blurry, my mom hates photos of herself- I may have to hold her down.

Well off to tear into my new book and  hide my crochet hooks,so that I don't add to my now daunting WIPS

Hoping this post finds you treating yourself today!

XO

Andi