Best Thursday EVER!!!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I know I say this every day, but in all seriousness today was the BEST Thursday EVER!!!

Late last night early this morning I finished the socks that I will gift to my Grandma:

Just as I was wondering what I should start/finish for a knitting project the mail arrived.  It was Happy Mail Day!!!!

My August box from Sock Crush!

This yarn is one of my local faves☺ and 4 sample packs of my favourite wool wash Soak were included in the box!

Kiddo and I headed out and had lunch at Blaze Pizza.  Then it was off to The Bay for some back to school shopping for both kiddo and I 👚👟.

After dinner I spent a wee bit of time in my craft room and made another 2 flying geese blocks for my Flowers for My Wedding Ring quilt:

Only 4 more of these beauties to go!!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

SOCKS!!!!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

After dinner I spent almost 2 hours outside doing yard work.  Yard looks amazing now.

Unfortunately it looks like something ominous is going on out there cause the sun seems to be not as bright by 2100 hours.  So......I decided that although it was too dusky to knit on the patio I would knit anyways......just inside.

Almost finished these socks for Grandma.  Tomorrow the toes will be completed and I can get them to her when I go to visit.  I love gifting socks to my family because they all appreciate the gesture and realize that this is a very personal gift of my time and not mass production:

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Socks for Grandma...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Finally all better and back to living in fast forward again.  Even pulled another over time shift this weekend 😼

I am really trying to make a conscious effort to do something creative for at least a few minutes every evening.  Something that makes me happy.

I love knitting socks.  From a young age I have loved wool and creating with it.  My family all love and are deserving of my hand knit socks and the most current pair will be headed soon to a well deserving family member:

My Grandma.  

I know that she will love the delicate lace flower pattern to these as well as the gentle pastel colours that appear throughout the knit.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Knitting Along...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Earlier this winter I had a bit of a crafting burn out.  After two years of sewing to help someone out and no end in sight I just gave up.  DONE.  

"Sew" many of my own projects were put on hiatus, and my hobbies were no longer enjoyable.  I am now starting to get back into enjoying my hobbies.

One of the projects I really wanted to start on was my Sock Crush Subscription box.  As you likely know I love my Quebec yarns, and this sock blank by Studio de Laine Cactus Yarn Studio was in the box!!!  I was SO excited to see it.

Here is my slow progress on this sock:

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Time Out....

Good Evening Internet Friends!

For the first time in almost a month I decided that tonight rather than be responsible on a Friday evening after working another double shift at the start of the May long weekend; I would take a few minutes to myself.  

This is a sock blank that I received in my monthly subscription to Sock Crush a few months ago.

As you can see my progress has been limited while I work on being responsible.  Ughhhh.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Sock It Up!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

The weekend is over and I accomplished a few little things and managed to finish up these beauties:

These are my March 2017 Sock Crush subscription and one of my favourite yarns; Sweetgeorgia Yarns.  These socks are so soft and comfy and fit my feet amazingly.......almost like they were made for my feet ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

FUN Mail!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Busy day and busy evening so other than a little knitting after I got my son to bed not much creativity.

Arriving home this evening I did a wonderful surprise - okay - I knew it was coming, but it was still fun to get!!!

This is my April 2017 Sock Crush:

TAH DAH!!!!!!!!

I love the colours and the texture of this yarn and will try the lip balm later.

Now to knit a bit more on last month's sock so that I can get started on these pretties ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Sock Knitting!!!

Good Late Evening Internet Friends!

Well,  I finally did it!!!   I had a fellow knitter that I met in Vegas (yes, not everything stays in Vegas) over this evening to knit with me!  I have never knit with someone else.  Sure, I have knit in public and with the family at home, but never with another knitter.

It was a very productive session as I was able to finish one of my March 2017 Sock Crush socks!!!

I really love these socks because of their bright colours - you might be able to guess from this picture that I love bright colours [socks, tuffet, needles]☺

The yarn was a Sweetgerogia special dye for the subscription.  I thought that the pattern enclosed for this colour way was too busy and so I opted for a picot cuff and just plain stockinette stitch so that I could see the colours!  

I LOVE it.  Now to see if I can get the second one done before this month's subscription arrives later this week ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Resume....

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Very early this morning we arrived home.  By the time we unpacked the car to make sure nothing perished it was just before 0300 hours ☺

We had a wonderful vacation and over the next few days I will show you some of the things we saw and collected on our Road Trip.

This evening though I will show you what I managed to accomplish in 930 miles (1497 km) yesterday.

First off I finished the Team Canada Hat Trick Yarn socks for hubby:

As you may know hubby works in a remote fly in Campsite job and spends 12+ hours a day in safety shoes that are not known to be especially comfortable or that warm.  He LOVES the wool socks that I "custom" knit as he says for him. ☺

Once I finished these I started on March 2017 Sock Crush subscription socks:

I am not following the pattern that came with the yarn as I found the pattern very busy with the yarn colouring.  I have opted for a picot cuff sock and a smooth but reinforced heel for the sock so that the yarn colours are able to show.

The yarn is a Sweet Georgia colour way and since I love the feel of these yarns I decided to take it with me for the trip in case I had time to start ☺

Now it's time to head off to bed as the real world resumes tomorrow....

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Yak....yak.....Blah...blah...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

This evening I finished my November 2016 Sock Crush socks:

The wool was a Yak/Wool sock blend from Yarn Indulgences.  For this subscription I used the pattern that was included with this wool.  I do have to confess though that I have once again tried short row heels, and FINALLY decided that I really do not like these heels!!!!  It's not that they challenge me or that I give up on them....I just really do not like the way that they look ☺

One of the things that I love about Sock Crush is that it challenges me to try new things.  By trying new things though I also learn what I do and do not like, and this is one of those!

Now the fun begins as I get to start a new pair of socks with my brand new knitting needles!!

I shall show you these needles hopefully tomorrow as I am now off to wind my next skein of sock yarn......which shall it be??????

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Swimming Knitting

Good Evening Internet Friends!

As you likely know I love to knit.  I have always knit, and have knit to keep myself occupied since my son's extra curricular activities no longer require my direct support.  I have noticed over the past couple of years a few more moms doing similar things rather than just playing on their smart phones ☺

Today of course was swimming lessons.  I have taken to simply packing a sock yarn pack in all of  my son's extra curricular bags and that way I do not forget to take it with me when we depart home.

Right now in the swimming bag is one of my Yarn Crush subscription yarns.  I love this particular yarn because it is a wool and yak blend and really soft:

This is also the first time that I have attempted a Wrap and Turn Heel ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Done!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Yesterday our family cat named Hello Kitty passed away.  Not sure why or from what.  He had been acting strange the previous day but not suspicious enough for me to take him to the vet.  Yesterday was a hard day for all of us.  For now I am DONE with having a cat.  That may change in a while but it will again have to be a special kind of cat.

This afternoon I finished up knitting my August Sock Crush socks.  These socks are an Afterthought Heel sock and have taunted me for 4 months now.  Here they are completed and I am victorious over this process.  I do not think I will under take this style of sock again any time soon:

TAH DAH!!!!  I am DONE!!!!

For some reason over my hiatus from the real world I discovered a knitting phenomenon known as the Temperature Blanket.  It's basically a blanket that you knits according to the weather outside and a chosen set of colors.  I live in Alberta where temperatures will range in either the Celsius or Fahrenheit scales from below zero to ridiculously high in the summer months.  These are the colors I have chosen for my project:

Normally I do not knit with Acrylic yarns but since this is going to be a rather large project I did not want to spend a lot on a most likely goofy looking knitted blanket!  These are all skeins of yarn that I picked up in Spruce Grove the other day as part of my road trip and my latest soap box mission of not shopping in Edmonton or as little as possible (bus tickets for my son).  DONE!

This evening we are headed out for dinner and the fireworks in Sherwood Park to bring in the New Year.!!!!

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and overall wonderful 2017 and hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Jammie Day

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Today was a jammie day.  We slept late.  Made poppy seed waffles with strawberry sauce for breakfast:

Read, watched some tele, and took a nap mid morning.

After my nap I finished one of the socks from my August 2016 Sock Crush subscription.  These socks have been taunting me since then.  I think I have finally got this sorted out though.  It took an email to find out there was a pattern revision that I was unaware of.  I love my Yarn Crush and Sock Crush subscriptions because they challenge me to do things that in 35+ years of knitting I have not done.  The other reason I love these subscriptions is that the lady who runs these has the BEST customer service.  When you email her you get a quick response, and she will take the time to explain a pattern to you if you do not understand ☺.

Here is sock one finished:

Sock two has been cast on and I am ready to do a few rows on it before going to sleep,

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Whirlwind Sunday....

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Well, my three day weekend is over and now back to work for 4 days, off for one and then evenings this weekend.  I can always account for my days yet always seem to wonder where the time goes.

This morning kiddo and I were up bright and early because we had to help his Boy Scouts group organize and inventory all of their equipment for the upcoming season.  I started a load of laundry before we left.

We returned home after lunch to carry on with the laundry (we were cold though cause it started to rain on us) and get ready for school and work this week.

First off because the weather seemed rather nasty outside I cut down all of my chive plant and chopped it up and put it in the oven at 170 F for two hours to dry:

All chopped and ready for the oven on top of a piece of brown paper.

Two hours later I have almost a cup of chopped dried chives.  These are now living in the freezer for use in cooking in the upcoming winter (which right now seems like tomorrow).

I decided that I better start working on some of the veggies from the haul last weekend so decided a quick way to get rid of lots in a hurry would be to make borscht:

We had some for dinner and will for lunch as well tomorrow.  The remainder has been packed into containers and is bound for the freezer as I really did not feel like starting the canning process late in the evening (today anyways).  

Nothing tastes better in my mind than soup with fresh bread so I made Oatmeal, Multi-grain, Whole Wheat bread:

YUM.  My favorite with butter!

For dessert I used the last of the fresh rhubarb from the refrigerator and made Rhubarb Crumble Pie:

I LOVE this dessert!!!  So Yummy!!!

Now of course in typical me fashion while all of this was going on laundry was not enough to keep me occupied so between loads and batches I also worked on:

Socks!  I wore my wool socks today and they were amazing as always; I was cold but my feet were not.   ☺

Thrum Mittens because it is getting cold out (as I have mentioned a few times....right?).

Both of these yarns are from my Yarn Crush/Sock Crush subscription boxes.  As I sat knitting these today I realized that part of what I love about these boxes is that the boxes only contain yarn from Indie Yarn Dyers!  As you likely know I love supporting small and local businesses and these boxes allow for me to expand my yarn intake more than I probably would on my own as right now I have 4 favorite Indie Dyers and pretty much always use these.

I will post more details later in the week about each of these, but for tonight I think I shall go to sleep.  It's been a long but very good day. ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

I've Got a Sock Crush...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Waking up late this morning I had big plans for the day but after decided to empty everything out of my bedroom and dust and wash and vacuum everything my mojo depleted rapidly.

After lunch kiddo and I headed out to see Ice Age Collision Course (somehow we still had not seen it).

Afterwards we had a dinner of left overs from the dinner party last night including pumpkin cake.

Since it was evening and I am on vacation I decided to sit down with my first ever box of Sock Crush.  I have subscribed to this for a three month duration just to see how I like it.  Most likely I can keep up with and use the sock yarn.

Here is what I got in my first subscription:

I love the colors of this yarn and the bonus nail polish was a nice surprise as it is a color that if I were to wear nail polish I would use.

Looking forward to next months subscription!

This evening I cast on and am currently 6 rows into this sock pattern ☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy