My Knitting Life: 02

Welcome back for the next installment of "My Knitting Life". I am a wee bit late with this post as last Friday I left work thinking I had food poisoning, but as it turned out, I had the stomach flu. Ugh. Needless to say, I spent days in bed not feeling human at all. I went back to work on Tuesday, but in reality, I am still not 100%, but will get there.

So let's get on with my knitting update.

Finished Objects

Nope. Nada. None.

WIPs

#1: Saltwater Taffy Hermione's Everyday Socks
Started: February 25, 2017
Yarn: Three Irish Girls - Adorn Sock - Saltwater Taffy
Pattern: Hermione's Everyday Sock by Erica Lueder
Needles: HiyaHiya Sharps - Size 1 US

Last week I only had the beginning's of a sock. Just the cuff and a couple of rows into the leg. This week is a whole different story.

I have a HO and half of the second sock completed.

As soon as I finished the first sock, I weaved in the ends and immediately cast on for sock number two. No second sock syndrome here. I am pretty sure the next time you see this sock, it will be an FO!

#2: Goldfinch Shawl
Started: March 1, 2017
Yarn: O-Wool - Sport - Devil's Pool, Paw Paw and Watermill
Pattern: Goldfinch by Andrea Mowry
Needles: HiyaHiya Sharp Interchangeable - Size 6 US

One of my last purchases at Rhinebeck last year was this yarn from O-Wool:

In reality, both my sister and I purchased this yarn. As we walked by the O-Wool booth, we noticed a completed Goldfinch shawl on display. It was beautiful and was immediately decided we had to knit it in the exact same colors as the one on display. Luckily for us, they still had a few skeins of the colors we wanted. We both thought we would knit them together during the Christmas holidays, but that didn't happen and we didn't mention it to each other again.

Then on February 27 my sister posted a pic to her Instagram of the shawl she had just started. As soon as I saw it I said "You started WITHOUT me!" and immediately fell down and started to throw a temper tantrum. I kid, but I did pull out my yarn the next day and caked it up because I wanted to knit this baby with her and had some catching up to do.

This is as far as I had gotten before I got sick.

The setup and first two color sections were completed as of last Friday morning.

My goal is to have this shawl completed by the end of the month!

Stash Enhancement

#1: Orange Flower Yarn - Fingering BFL - Guava and Light Peach

I am planning on knitting "Find Your Fade" by Andrea Mowry and these two babies are the first I have selected for it. I am not sure what will be added to them to complete my fade. I love that the Guava contains these orange, red, brown specks. I will most likely pull in these colors more with my other yarn choices. Not sure.We shall see!

#2: Lamby Toes
Merino Moon Pie - Kitten's Choice

Sweet Pea Sport - Experiment 091

I am planning to knit the Sweet Pea Sport into "Hermione Hearts Ron" Hat by Christy Aylesworth for Inside Number 23's Harry Potter KAL.

So, this is where I leave my knitting with you for another week. While I am knitting away on these babies, I can't help letting my mind wander to all the other lovely things I want to knit. I also need to think about setting some knitting goals to deal with all my long standing WIPs and stash. Will share my thoughts over the next few weeks.

Until then, I hope you all have a lovely weekend! I'll be sitting here knitting all things warm in preparation for the snowstorm we are supposed to be getting on Tuesday. Winter is definitely trying to get it's last hurrah in for sure!

My Knitting Life: 01

I thought it would be fun to start a weekly post that talked all about my knitting during the previous week. I am thinking of it being like a knitting podcast, but in blog format instead of video. Maybe one day I will start a podcast as I love watching them and getting all excited over seeing that person's excitement for everything!

So here we go...

Finished Objects

This week I have three FO's to share, two of which have been long overdue in the sharing department.

#1: Men's Cashmere Scarf pattern from "Last-Minute Knitted Gifts" by Joelle Hoverson

The scarf was a special request from my nephew for Christmas. I was told the width/length desires and that it should be in a neutral color.

At Rhinebeck last year, I came across a sock gradient kit from Shelridge Farm and my sister thought it would be a good choice for the scarf.

The sticker on the kit said it contained six colors, but sadly it only had five. I didn't really discover this, or it didn't sink into my brain before I bought it or while I was caking it, until after I had already knitted the first four colors. It wouldn't of been bad except that I had already based my calculations for the finished length of the scarf for six colors.

There was nothing I could do at this point so I plunged ahead with it and hoped it would block out longer than what my finished measurement would be.

I finished knitting the scarf towards the end of January, but didn't get it off the needles and ends woven in until this past Monday. Sad, I know. Such a naughty aunt.

In the end I am happy how it turned out. The only thing I wish I did differently was fade from one color to the next, instead of an abrupt change in color. I haven't soaked/blocked it yet, so I don't know if I made it to my desired finished measurements.

#2: Blueberry Waffle Socks by Sandy Turner

Started: November 24, 2016
Finished: February 4, 2017

I had these sock finished for awhile, but didn't weave in the four measly ends until this past Monday. So therefore, I didn't feel I could share them as an FO until they were "officially" complete. Silly, I know.

The yarn was gifted to me from my mother a few Christmas's ago. It's from HauteKnitYarn in Bumble Rumble. I let it ferment in my stash for quite some time until I knew exactly what I wanted to knit with it.

I love how they turned out !

#3: Grinchmas Sock

Started: February 9, 2017
Finished: February 27, 2017
Yarn: NomadicYarns - Trusty Sock - Grinchmas
Pattern: My basic top-down vanilla sock pattern

You guys! I am so in love with my Grinchmas socks!!!!!

This yarn was a new-to-me yarn and OMG. It is so, so, SO wonderful to knit. The colors are a vibrant tonal and the feel of it is amazing. Slid so easily on my needles.

And, can I say just how shocked I am at how perfectly matched my stripes are between the two socks?

If you haven't knit with NomadicYarn's yet, I highly recommend it. The turn around time for dye-to-order is usually 4-5 weeks and totally worth the wait in my opinion.

These socks are also my first finished pair of socks for the BoxOSoxKAL2017 that Voolenvine Yarns is hosting in her Yarngasm Podcast Ravelry Group.

WIP's

I only have one current WIP to share this week.

Hermione's Everyday Socks by Erica Lueder 
Started: February 25

Since I had been knitting with some newly acquired sock yarn for my Grinchmas Socks, I decided I wanted to dig deep into my sock yarn stash vault for these. I came up with Three Irish Girls - Adorn Sock in Saltwater Taffy. I picked it because it reminded me of a beautiful sunrise/sunset at the beach!

The progress you see here was all I completed on Saturday into Sunday morning. I had cast on while meeting my dear friend Shameka (Mekamika Shop Podcast) for some lunch and afternoon knitting on Saturday. I only started them when I got to the heel flap on my Grinchmas Socks. I find when we get together, I need to only knit on items that don't need a ton of concentration because we are non-stop talkers when we get together.

Also, how adorable, and perfectly matched, is the owl progress keeper? Shameka also has an Etsy shop (MekaMika) where she makes/sells amazing stitch markers.

I'm also knitting these for the BoxOSoxKAL2017, but also for Inside Number 23's Harry Potter KAL she is hosting on her Ravelry group. I am totally blaming Shameka for getting me onto these KAL's. She is the queen of KAL participation and somehow I just got sucked into it! It's all good though, as it motivates me to knit more of my stash faster

Stash Enhancement

#1: Dragon Hoard Yarn - Superwash Sock Yarn in Japanese Cherry Blossoms

#2: Corda Bella Hand Dyed Yarns - Ultra Sock Yarn in Dancing Queen

#3 and #4: Feza - Gradient Baby Blanket Kits (Pink and Red)

I purchased these two kits from ImagiKnit after seeing Ellen's (The Ellen Report) gorgeous blanket being knit up on her Instagram and then again on her blog.

I have a close friend who is due with her second baby girl in May. I couldn't decide which color to knit for her, so I bought both colors. I figured I would knit the one I didn't choose for my friend down the road sometime.

The yarn is a mix of cotton and rayon and is totally scrumptious in person!

I ended up deciding to knit the pink blanket kit for my friend. It just called to me for her and of course this is the color Ellen is knitting so I've seen just how gorgeous it knits!

The theme of my stash enhancement this week seems to be pink! It's definitely one of my most favorite colors.

So, that's it for this past week of my knitting life. My goal going forward is to hopefully have this post up every Monday and it will cover all my knitting from the previous Monday to Sunday.

Hope you like it and please share with me all that you are working on in the comments. I always love hearing what everyone is up to in the crafty world!

Decisions, Decisions

With having finished my Blueberry Waffle Socks over the weekend (FO post to come), I am itching to cast on another pair. Mostly likely will be a plain vanilla sock.

A few nights ago, I decided to pull out some of my sock yarn stash (old and new stuff) to see if anything tickled me fancy.

Here's a look at it all pulled out together:

So many pretty yarns to choose from. Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe!

Let's take a closer look at these lovelies shall we?

Here is some (I say some because I already knit a skein that was in the original haul) of my sock yarn haul from Rhinebeck 2015:

Then I looked over some of my haul from Rhinebeck 2016:

Finally, I perused all the yarn I purchased during December:

Don't you love my little getting in on the action?

Her choice was the Molly Girl Yarn which she let me know by licking it! Unfortunately, it didn't make the final cut this time.

Finally, I narrowed my choices down to these three:

I chose one from each Rhinebeck year and one from my December purchases.

From left to right:

Socks That Rock Lightweight (Rhinebeck '15) - Gnome of the Range
Socks That Rock Lightweight (Rhinebeck '16) - Splendor in the Trees
Nomadic Yarns Trusty Sock - Grinchmas (self-striping)

Now, I am left with the decision of which one to cast on with next. Tough decision I tell ya!

Progress Made

Great progress has been made with my Blueberry Waffle socks!

In my last post about what was on my needles, I mentioned that I hoped to finish sock number one and cast on sock number two.

Well this is what they looked like at the end of January:

Yup, I indeed finished the first sock and as of January 31st, I was at the gusset decreases on the second sock.

I am now working my way down the foot and hope to have the sock completed by the end of this upcoming weekend.

After I get this baby off my needles, it will be time to peruse my sock stash and get another pair going. It is my hope that I can knit one pair of socks per month this year. I have so much loveliness in my stash that I really want to put a dent in it.

My little "helper" thinks some of my sock yarn stash is pretty awesome, especially when she started licking it!

January 2017 Reads

Now that I am feeling more like myself, I have fallen in love with reading all over again! If feels amazing to pull out my Kindle on the subway during my morning commute or before I go to bed at night and get completely lost in a book. I had truly missed this in my life.

Since I am participating in a self imposed reading challenge through Goodreads again this year, I thought I would share one post a month recapping what I've read the previous month.

I managed to complete two books in January. Not bad considering I only started reading again during the past couple of weeks.

The first book I finished was "Matched" by Ally Condie on January 19. I had this one on my "To Read" list for quite some time and thought this would be an easy and enjoyable book to get me back into reading again.

While a lot of reviews thought it was boring or not at all what they expected, I rather liked it. To me it's not award winning, and I am a 45 year old adult reading a Young Adult Dystopian book, but I enjoyed it enough to read the remaining two books in the trilogy.

The second book I finished was "The Poison Tree" by Erin Kelly on January 27. I had this one on my "To Read" list for a very short period of time and when I decided to read it next, I devoured it! This is a book that I couldn't wait to crawl into bed at night and read.

The only negative I will say about this book, is that as I got closer to the end, I knew the story was going to wrap up very quickly and it did. I felt the ending was rushed, but I still totally enjoyed the book. I would read another one of her books for sure.

As of right now, Goodreads informs me that I am still one book behind in my challenge, but that's ok. It's early in the year. I will continue to read at my leisure and enjoy every minute of it!

On My Needles

It's been awhile since I've talked about my knitting. Towards the end of 2016 I regained some steam with my knitting and actually finished some stuff I had started earlier in the year and even started and finished a new item within 2 weeks!

Instead of talking about the past stuff I've knitted (and completed), I want to share what is currently on my needles.

After two years of knitting socks for my nephew for Christmas, this past year he had a new request. A scarf in neutral colors. My sister was visiting this past October when she delivered this information to me and since we were attending the NY Sheep and Wool Festival, I knew I needed to find the yarn to knit this for him.

I ended up purchasing a fingering weight gradient kit from Shelridge Farm. Living in a southern state, he didn't need anything worsted or heavier.

A few weeks later I cast on the scarf and dutifully knitted away on it. I made excellent progress, but due to a lack of proper brain function, I wasn't able to knit on it in December. Thus meaning I suck as an aunt and wasn't able to finish it in time for Christmas.

Alas, let's fast forward to this past week where I finally felt like a normal functioning human again and I finished adding the last two color changes to the scarf.

All that is left for me to do is bind off (so it's technically still on my needles) and weave in all the pesky little ends from the color changes. After that, it will get a little bath/blocking and will be on it's merry way to it's owner. I'm calling this a win because it's still winter so he should still get some use out of it!

I have another WIP on my needles and this time it's a pair of socks for me!

In November I was on a sock knitting roll and managed to finish two pairs. I wanted to keep the good sock knitting vibes rolling so I immediately picked out yarn from my stash (HauteKnitYarn Sparkle: Bumble Rumble) that had been fermenting for a couple of years and cast on the Blueberry Waffles Socks by Sandy Turner.

This is what the sock looked like on November 27th:

Compared to what it looks like today:

I am at the toe shaping and hope to get the second sock on my needles before the end of January. Totally doable!

Tell me what's on your knitting needles right now?

40 Book Challenge

It's a new year and that means a new reading challenge!

Ever since I joined Goodreads in 2011, I have participated in the yearly reading challenge. The goal has always been the same. Read 40 books in one year.

As someone who loves to read, 40 books isn't an unreasonable challenge. I've been known in the past to read a book in a matter of days.

Each year I set the challenge and at the end of the year I always fall short.

Here's a recap of the number of books I've read each year in the past:

2011: 37
2012: 37
2013: 36
2014: 32
2015: 24
2016: 37

Some would say,"Why don't you lower the number of books to read if you never make it?". Nope. That's not going to happen.

As you can see, I've come really close most years and honestly, I would of completed it last year if I hadn't spent the entire month of December with a lack of brain focus. I know that this goal is possible!

So here I am officially declaring my reading goal for 2017 will be to finish 40 books! I've already got one under my belt. Here's to the next 39 books!

Life Update - July Edition

Life Update bullet style!

Shana: 

• The night of July 12th, little one decided she was either extremely bored or extremely hungry because she ate a shoelace in the middle of the night. How do we know? She decided she must of been full after devouring 35" because we found 6" nicely chomped off by her bed and the rest was no where to be found. The other tell tell sign of her eating it was when she vomited 8" early Friday morning. To this day remaining 27" is still inside of her.
• If remaining shoelace doesn't appear by Friday, we have to schedule a sonogram with the vet as she may have a partial blockage. She will be given an additional 4 days to produce said shoelace or else she gets a belly shaving. I keep reminding her that!
• Last night, she played like she did before she ingested the shoelace. We are taking this as a positive sign that maybe said shoelace has vacated her small intestine and has now taken up residence in her large intestine just waiting for eviction.

Travel:

• I decided to take a little vacay to visit my family in Georgia this weekend. I will be doing laundry and packing like a madwoman tonight as I fly out tomorrow afternoon.
• Leaving hubby behind to look after our little one and assist with removal of shoelace if needed.
• I am hoping little one won't miss me too much or be mad at me when I return a week later. We shall see.
• Also looking forward to heading to Acadia National Park in Maine for a week in August.

Knitting:

• Still knitting away on those little socks I talked about a few weeks ago, here.
• Need to bind off the toe on Sock #1 so I can use the needles to finish Sock #2.
• Mission tonight before going to bed is finishing off Sock #1.
• Need to finish this pair before I leave Georgia next week as the recipient lives there and I can save the postage from having to mail them.
• Already have my next sock yarn balled up and ready to go.

Scrapbooking:

• I've completed a few more pages since my last layout update, here, which is one of four parts. I've done three more for my backpack album and one from adopting our little fur ball.
• I haven't completed any pages for the past week and a half as my thoughts and time have been consumed with little one and the shoelace ingestion.
• Looking forward to going to an actual scrapbooking store with my sister during my visit in GA. The price she has to pay by me assisting her with her craft room purging/organization. Of course I didn't have to twist her arm and after seeing pictures of the room situation, I think my price will have to go up.

Reading:

• Still plugging away on my reading goals for the year and have now finished 21 books of 40.
• I shared all the books I've read so far this year here.
• Loving that Goodreads is emailing me "Goodreads Deals" for purchasing books in genres I elected to receive deals for and so far have purchased several through these emails at $2.99, $1.99, $0.99 or free.
• For some reason the first five or six books I purchased, I got for free. Amazon must of been having a promotion that day. 

Exercise:

• Started running more consistently lately. Gotten myself up to running 2.5 miles without stopping. Starting over sucks.
• Need to start incorporating weight workouts again and even HIIT workouts.
• Started a Midori Notebook to keep track of all this. My thinking is that by finding a crafty way to record all of this will keep me motivated as I am physically writing all of my accomplishments down in this notebook.
• I've been hitting at least 10,000 steps a day almost every day this month.

Nutrition:

• Need to start meal planning again.
• Bought two new cookbooks to assist with my planning - "Oh She Glows Cookbook: 100 Vegan Recipes to Glow from the Inside Out" and "Deliciously Ella: 100+ Easy, Healthy and Delicious Plant Based, Gluten Free Recipes". I have quickly looked through them and they look promising.

That's it! Now tell me what you've been up to!

Reading More

As a young girl, I always had a bookshelf in my room filled with tons of books. My mother is an avid reader and I think she felt it was truly important for her children to always have books on hand to read.

I have very fond memories of going to the public library and obtaining my first library card. I remember enjoying spending so much time perusing all the books that I could potentially bring home.

While I always had books, and enjoyed looking at them, I remember the younger me taking forever to finish a book. I also remember as a teenager and having to read books for school was something I struggled with, not sure if it's because I was being told I had to read these books or if the subject just wasn't for me.

Fast froward to my twenties and all of sudden I became an avid reader and as time went by I couldn't get enough. I have been known to stay up way past my bedtime because I couldn't put a book down or even devouring a 1,000 page book in just under a week.

Since 2013, I have participated in the Goodreads Reading Challenge. My goal has always been to read 40 books and I have yet to hit it. The closest I came was in 2013.

2013: 36 books read
2014: 32 books read
2015: 24 books read

This year; however, I think I just may hit my goal.

For the first time in years, I am 50% to meeting my goal halfway through the year!

If you were to look at my bookshelf, you would see a wide variety of genres. I like to pick books that suit my mood. Sometimes I want funny or an easy young adult book to read. However, by far my favorite is a mystery/thriller. As a young girl, I had Hardy Boys and Agatha Christie books on my shelf. Some things never change.

Here's a peek at what I've read so far this year:

There is definitely a variety in here. If you want a good paranormal book read "The Piper", couldn't put it down. A good tear jerker, "Me Before You". A funny feel good book, "Big Girl Panties". Pyschological suspense, "Black Eyed Susans". Need a vampire fix, "Lover Reborn".

I am always looking for my next great read. Let me know what you recommend.

2013 Europe Backpacking Album - Part 4

Today may be the last of the layouts I completed immediately after taking Shimelle's "The Scrapbook Process" class, but there will be many more layout shares to come in the future. If you missed Parts 1 through 3, you can check them out here, here and here.

I'm sharing two layouts in the same post today, because while they are not a double page spread, I created them with each other in mind. I wanted to make sure they complimented each other as they will be facing pages in the album and of the same location.

For both layouts I used the My Mind's Eye "Hello World" collection and used a Bazzill cardstock for my background.

Layout #1 was based on this sketch.

I kept all my embellishing really simple. I'm loving that I have started using my roller stamps more in my layouts. I have a few that work really well with travel pages. As you can see I did some more floating embellishing and I felt adding the enamel dots to the stamping helped ground it towards my title. The floral chipboard is from the same collection as it the brad.

My journaling wouldn't show up on the floral background paper, so I added a journaling card. Even though it's a dark background, my writing is still legible. I added a couple of chipboard pieces on top of each other. Another brad, flair, geo tag and enamel dots bring it all together.

I turned to the 6x6 paper pad that I had for the collection and used both of the orange diagonal patterned paper pieces. After placing my photo on top of one piece, I randomly cut up the second piece and layered it all together until I liked it. Adding ink to all the edges helped make the layers stand out more.

After adding the orange paper layers to my photo, I felt it didn't stand out enough when I placed it on the background paper, so I added the mint patterned paper behind the photo/paper cluster and it helps your eye focus on the picture instead of it all blending in together.

Layout #2 is based on this sketch.

What can I say about this layout? I think I kinda love it. Even though I have quite a bit going on with my layering and embellishing, I think the photos still stand out.

I recently purchased the October Afternoon travel stamps and love, love, love how they look on the kraft cardstock. I think the stamping made perfect embellishments.

Even incorporated more of the roller stamping too!

Let's take a closer look at all the little details of this cluster.

I  can't get enough of the royal blue enamel pearls!

I used Kelly Purkey's grid rubber stamp on the same kraft cardstock as all my other stamping to give myself a place to journal. I didn't want to use a white pen on the background.

The Tim Holtz "Small Talk" phrase stickers didn't have a problem finding a home on this layout. 

So there you have it! I hope you have enjoyed taking a closer look with me at the 4 layouts I completed.

I can't wait to share additional layouts with you for this album. My hope is to have all of Barcelona completed by the end of August, if not sooner. I estimate I have about 12 more layouts to go in this section of the album.

As my husband said the other week, "For us only spending just over a day in Barcelona, there sure are a lot of layouts for it!" Why yes. Yes there are. And that's ok because stories are being told!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Happy 4th of July to all my American friends!

2013 Europe Backpacking Album - Part 3

Another day, another layout share! Today I'll be sharing the second layout I completed after finishing Shimelle's class "The Scrapbook Process". You can read Part 1 and Part 2 if you missed my previous posts.

The original inspiration for today's layout can be found here. Once again it's a scraplift, but this time I've embellished more than the original.

For this layout I used KaiserCraft's "Wanderlust" collection.

I used my Paper Smooches Pinked Circle Die cut set again. I just love how easily it adds texture to a layout, but also is a great base for building your embellishments.

I pulled out a couple of my Ali Edwards stamps sets.They are both from past Story Kits and I was thrilled to have finally used them. I made sure to stamp in each of the clusters.

The printed dictionary vellum I used is from DYI and even though the words have nothing to do with travel, I don't think it distracts you from the layout. In addition to the large matting piece, I made sure to include a little punched piece on top of each of the pinked circles.

I really love how the main cluster/journaling area turned out.

I incorporated wood veneer from My Mind's Eye "Hello World" collection. The "wood" geotags are from Studio Calico. The green washi tape from Kelly Purkey was the perfect color match.

I felt it was important to have arrows pointing back into the page since my journaling card had arrows pointing off the page. I managed to get my hands on the October Afternoon Daily Flash arrow chipboard the other week and I noticed how well the colors work with my travel layouts.

I'm not one who usually includes floating clustering, but since I did it in my last layout, it was quite easy to do on this one.

That's it. Another story has been told.

Please come back tomorrow where I will be sharing the last two layouts in this series of posts.