A Pinch of Knit and a Dash of Purl

Project Details: Noro Stripe Scarf (1x1 rib) Noro Kureyon (don't have the ball bands in front of me so no color #'s at this time) Size 7 needles Yay! It's done. I've needed 6 inches on this baby for quite awhile but put it on the back burner for other projects.  I'm trying to clear out my ravelry WIPS que cause I have so much more I want to knit.  Here's a close up of a few of my favorite stripes. 

  I also like this one.

I'm trying to crank out those FO's as fast as I possibly can. I have 2 bunny tail hats from Itty Bitty Hats blocking as we speak.  Those went too fast to blog about.  Those will be going to my niece and nephew but my chunky monkey like it so much she wants one too.  She even went to my yarn stash and picked out the yarn (based on color) for the hat.  I think I created a monster.  I love it. 

xoxo

nana

1 day, 2 hats

                        

    2 hats, 1 day.  That's all it took.  Of course 3 of those hours knitting was at the B&N Tuesday Knit Night. So that helped.

    Pattern was improvised on the fly.   
    Yarn Debbie Bliss Cashmerino SuperChunk (less than one skein for the smaller one and a little more than one skein for the larger one)
    Needles US 8 16in circular

Cast on 64 sts for the small hat and 72 for adult size hat 4x4 rib for 5 rounds, 6th round 2/2 left leaning cable decrease in pattern or what makes best sense for you. I was cabling without a cable needle that helped it go lot faster.  I have one more skein of this stuff so both hats will be getting a big fat pompom as soon as its blocked.

 

Now on to Monkey's

These have been done for over a month now. Just got around washing and blocking them.  These are gift socks #1.  Need to modify my on going list on the sidebar.  I'm hoping to have a few more FO's washed and blocked by the end of the week.

xoxo,
nana

Day 2

Day 2 of our chunky-monkey free weekend went a little like this.

We got up around 10am ( Yes, the impossible has happened, 2 day's in a row).  Went to yet another video game store brand new store just opened up not to far away from our house.  It's called Play N Trade, really nice folks.  Since Jason's Deli was in the same parking lot we decided to grab a quick bite.  We weren't in there very long but when we walked out it was wet and cold. Not my favorite combination.  But our next destination made me very happy. BlueBonnet Yarn Shoppe.  When I walked in I didn't have anything in mind to buy. So went looking at their patterns. Saw a really cute entrelac hat (I will be purchasing the pattern in the future. It was really cute). There was also The Surplice Lace Top by Nashua Hand Knits.  Wouldn't you know I finally want to make a top for myself and they're out of the pattern.  Oh well.  Somewhat disappointed I couldn't leave empty handed so when in doubt buy sock yarn (It's my new motto).  Claudia's Hand Painted Yarns.

Next we drove about an hour to Tow, TX (rhymes with cow) right off Lake Buchanan to visit Fall Creek Vineyard.  It was muddy and drizzly so we were unable to take a tour so we had a picnic on the veranda.  It was so pretty.  The wine was good and the chicken cesar salad was fresh.  That picture up there on my header is the mudway driveway up to the house.   Very pretty.   We saw the most beautiful cat I've ever seen.  Really nice and big and he reminded me of a lion, you know, king of the jungle. Substitute vineyard for jungle and you'd be spot on.  I was finally able to get a picture of him perched on his 'throne' as we were driving away.

 

  So as we were heading home we stopped in Burnet specifically for the yarn shop I missed the one and only time I was in Burnet.  Artisan-Yarn and Fiber Arts.  The owner was there with what seemed liked all the females of her family and extended family and a few males lingering here and there.  Everyone was laughing, talking while knitting or spinning with little one running underfoot.  It was really nice.  I can't say enough about how homey it felt.  There's a gigantic loom (does it come in any other size?) off to the side as you walk in.  Lots of knitted garments displayed.  Beautiful knits that had lots care put into them.  One whole column of shelves  was full of the nicest and softest baby alpaca. Really nice.  But I put it down when I saw the wall of Brown Sheep.  Then this caught my eye.
 

 

Brown Sheep Hand Paint Originals   Color HP65 Peacock  70% mohair 30% wool  50gram  88 yards

I love it and wouldn't you know there was only 1 skein left. I hope there's enough for a hat. Or maybe a 2 colored entrelac hat?  Hmm.  I'll be looking into that.  They redeemed themselves by having this.

4 skeins of Brown Sheep Hand Painted Originals HP90 Stormy SKies  70% mohair 30% wool  50 grams 88 yards.  I'm thinking of making a Chevron scarf out of them.  Just need to find another yarn to compliment the rich jewel tones of this yarn.  I've sen a few Chevron scarves made from this stuff out there in blog land but can't quite remember where.  I'll ravel it later.  And if all these yummy skeins didn't whet your (knitting)appetite maybe this will: 

Yummy! What we ate while decorating our Christmas tree Monday night.  Layer upon layers upon layers of whipped cream sandwiched between gingerbread cookies ala Martha Stewart. Though I opted for dark chocolate shaving/crumbles instead of the blood oranges cause I didn't have any on hand.

xoxo
nana

Spoiled

I just couldn't resist. 

    what a weekend.  So on Thursday my mother picked up my chunky monkey and they drove 6 hours to the Rio Grande valley (south Texas).  Can you believe it? A chunky monkey-free weekend.  Well about 4 hours after they left I was moping around missing her something fierce. I knew she was going to have lots of fun wasn't worried about that but I kept imagining she would have so much fun she wouldn't want to come back.  Silly I know.  But this has been the longest I've been without her for over a year.  She had a birthday party to attend and a ton of cousins to play with.  My aunt and uncle from Idaho are visiting so I know she'd be spoiled rotten by the time she came home.  But I was still missing her.
     Luckily by that time Dragon came home from work so I was saved from going out of my mind.  We ordered some Chinese food (delivered) and played video games and watched Die Hard 4.  Friday morning  I did something I rarely do.  I slept in.  Till 10 am.  I could not believe it.  It was wonderful.  Though my day seemed so short we still managed to do a lot. We played some more video games till it was lunch time.  We went to P.F. Changs for lunch. 

 

 

Then we went to Gauge Knits one of my favorite LYS, were I bought some Malabrigo in black and some Noro Cash Iroha in green Color 100.  These are destined to become mittens for Dragon.  He wants The Green Lantern Corps. symbol on the back of the mittens.   So I sketched something up already.  I'm thinking of doing double stitch (swiss darning) since I don't know how to do intarsia in the round or any intarsia for that matter. We'll see. 

Also, I couldn't resist some Malabrigo Lace.

Soooo soft.  Computer Monitors should come with a 'show squishy" button just for us knitting bloggers.  I don't have a shawl in mind...yet.  But I hope to be swatching soon. All of this just for my anniversary.  A girl could get use to this.  The picture up top looks mint green but its not. This picture is truer in color:

Next stop: Fry's to pick Dragon's gift up.  Another video game. This time it was Call of Duty 4.  Which surprisingly is not set in WWII but in present day. It's a nice change.

We had dinner at The Driskill Grill. Super fancy-schmancy but oh so delicious.  Superb dining, it really is. The best meal ever.  The waitstaff were super nice ( I think they figured out we were like fish out of water).  They made recommendations and everything was really good. I especially loved the scallops with  truffle arugala salad.  I've never had truffles before but I'd order it again in a heartbeat. We also tried foi gras which I liked.  I had to convince Dragon to try it.  He liked it. By the time dessert came I was so full but they set down a plate of chocolate. I had to try it. So I had some of the chocolate mousse, a spoonful of the homemade ice cream, a small bite of the chocolate cake. Heaven. I was in chocolate heaven. All in all a great night.  Thank you so much, baby. May we have many more year together.  I Love you, Dragon.

xoxo
nana