Today was a busy day, most of it sitting in traffic while getting to or from the places I was going. My first stop was the LYS so I could knit my new pair of socks, (see below), and skein up the STR Pink Granite yarn. Doing 300 some odd yarns by hand isn't my idea of a good Saturday night. I really need a yarn swift. Badly.

After that I stopped by the bead shop and bought some more supplies for my shop. I only have four items up for sale at the moment, but I have oodles and oodles of things being listed soon.

Then I stopped by the r/c shop for Shawn. He's temporarily blind. He has a sty of some sort on the inside of his eyelid, (I attribute it to the fact that he very rarely changes his contacts and though his Dr. said it's ok to wear them at night, he always wears them and doesn't let his eyes rest...This is the second time this has happened.) It's caused him to be extremely sensitive to the light, so he can't drive.

After getting home in the 103 degree heat, (and the pool still being shut down by the Health Department), I found a package of goodness waiting for me from my Hogwarts Sock Pal, Marie:

Here are my socks. I was in the Ravenclaw house and boy was I lucky with the colors! They are awesome!

But it doesn't stop there, Marie spoiled me even more with stitch markers, Crystal Palace size 0 DPN's, a little lamb candy dispenser, (that can also be a keychain), some Bertie's Botts Beans, some mints in a really cute container, a Ravenclaw keychain and a gray knitted bunny! I have been quite the lucky duck lately. I ♥ Marie! Thank you lady, you totally ROCK!

Tonight I spent some time working on my socks, but I also spent some time with these:

Chocolate Frosted Donettes. Right before dinner I was having a powerful chocolate craving. But not just any chocolate. I wanted chocolate donuts and chocolate ice cream. (I haven't had the ice cream. Yet.)

Every few rows I'd pop a donette and make progress with my new project. (I just had to, you understand.)

I'm a tease though. I'm not showing you, or telling you, what stitch I'm using for the instep. I will tell you though, that it looks great and I'm about 1/2 to the heel. These are going by quickly. I wish I could say the same for my pals Hogwarts socks. I guess that's what I get for not buying self striping yarn and knowing that I will hate myself once I get to the weaving. The deadline is coming up. I only have about 8 sets of 6 rows in changing colors. But the weaving. Oh the weaving.

I also started Wicked the other night, though I haven't done much more than 10 or 12 rows. I will say that I'm loving working with the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK. It's silky soft and I know this sweater will quickly become a favorite.

In other news...Dalton didn't come home yesterday. All day I went outside searching for him. I walked to all of his hiding spots. I called him. I yelled for him. Then finally I cried. Here's the thing about Dalton. I rescued him when he was about 7 weeks old when I still worked at the Vet. He had an upper respiratory infection and I nursed him back to health. He's been my best friend for the past 7 1/2 years. The other thing is that he's declawed. And while he can kick some serious cat ass, he can't defend himself from owls or coyotes. I don't see coyotes near here, though they are around, (they just don't come into our apartment complex). But I have seen owls and while Dalton is a good 20 lbs., and owl can easily carry 3x their own weight.

After hours of searching we heard some meowing in our neighbors storage. It turns out that they were out of town for the past week. They came home and their storage door was open, so they locked it. It wasn't until a few hours later that we realized that they locked Dalton inside.

So now he's home, safe and sound. And he got a good cuddling and lecture about not leaving for so long and hiding because I love him too much and could never replace him. That darn cat!

Nothing Better

Than yarn.

Yarn is great.

Yarn is better than great.

After a little birthday present shopping for Jem, (his 9th birthday is Friday, the 29th), I stopped over at the LYS and picked up some Koigu for my neighbors' daughters' Charlotte Web. I will start it once I finish the neck on the Rowan Flood sweater, (which I started tonight). And once I finish the Rusted Root, (which I predict I will finish Monday, maybe).

I have already shown her the yarn, to make sure she "approved", and she says she ♥ it. She doesn't know that I'm making her a shawl. But she knows I'm making her something and that I'm hoping to have it done by the time they move, (which is July 18th). I don't think I'll have it done by then. I have to finish my Hogwarts socks by then and get my SP10 gift off, and I'm thinking I might make her a little something. But I don't know. There's just so much to do.

Another thing that can't be topped:

No bake cheesecake with strawberries. Oh yes. I know you are jealous. I would be if I were you too.

Oh and by the way, Shawn's race series, (finally), ended tonight and he won 2nd place out of the series. He just brought home a trophy! Woo Hoo.

A good Saturday indeed.

A Couple of Things

I finished the first River sock.

Pretty, ain't she?

I had issues with the grafting. I tried about five or six times and opted out and did a three needle bind off. I am not really sure why it wasn't working, but when I'd get to the last two stitches, they were always too loose. This worked out fine.

And the best part? Remember how I had to go back to the LYS to grab their last skein of Koigu? Well, it turns out I didn't even need it. So I bought two of these:

More Koigu KPPM in blues, pinks and beiges. For socks. For more socks.

And Scout is a celebrity. While at the LYS two women, (I know for sure that one works there), were talking about the lady who works there's granddaughter, (who was born the same day as Scout), and how old she was. The one lady asked me how old Scout was and what her name was. When I said, "Scout", she asked if I had a blog. Well yes I do! Turns out she reads my blog. How cool is that!

I also found out that the second Friday of the month they have a special knitting night. So I'll be going to that next Friday.

So here's the boogie woogie:

And here's the boogie woogie with her daddy:

I See You, I Hear You and I Feel You

I see you.

I hear you.

I feel you.

Yesterday my Socks that Rock yarn came in the mail. It's a perfect match with Dalton. And he approves. The minute he sniffed it, he hugged it and almost wouldn't let me have it back.

I started the swatch on Thursday, (I think):

And started the ribbing yesterday.

I think the colors are beautiful. They remind me of a river. All the stones and mud and the water. Since my last pair were a bit big, I cast on 64 stitches this time. They actually fit better. I decided to do a simple two row pattern in garter rib: K2, P2 around for one row and then Knit around for the next.

And today, I got my Etsy buy. The colors are very vibrant. I'm glad that I grabbed a skein. They will make very cute and fun socks. :) I'm on a roll me thinks!