Saving Peanut

My little Peanut

Last weekend we were in Tulsa to visit family and drop my puppy off at my parents house in preparation for our Colorado vacation next week. Saturday morning we found a baby squirrel who apparently fell out of his nest in one of the big trees in my parents yard. It broke my heart to see the poor thing shaking on the sidewalk. His eyes weren't even open yet!

So naturally we adopted him and took care of him. I named him Peanut. Hubby did some research on the Internet about caring for baby squirrels. We hydrated him and got some formula in him and he started to do better. He slept most of Saturday and Sunday. Sunday morning I woke up to feed him and his eyes were open! He's such a cute little critter! My little Peanut.


Sunday evening and Monday after work he was pretty lively. He'd make the cutest little noises and crawl around on my shoulders and lap. Even though I knew I couldn't keep him, I got WAY attached to him. I took several pictures and Hubby even recorded him crawling around on me out on our front porch.


Tuesday we contact an Animal Shelter to see what we could do for Peanut. We couldn't possibly take him to Colorado with us. We are going to be high up in the mountains camping, it would get WAY too cold for his little body up there. It broke my heart to give him up! (Yes I cried over a squirrel). He was my little Peanut. He would crawl up and rest his little head on my shoulder and fall asleep like a baby.


Giving him up was hard, but I know it is what's best for him. He would never survive the cold climate in Colorado. He got too cold in our apartment and we had to turn it so the AC wouldn't kick on. We turned him over to a volunteer group called Wild Care. They took our address and said that when Peanut was ready to be released they would release him in our neighborhood. So I may see my little Peanut again someday.


I really miss him. He was such a cute little squirrel. At least I know he is being cared for by good people.

More yarn and some finished projects

It's been a while since my last post. I've been doing lots of knitting! I finished a few projects. I've been in this knitting hats phase this month. I've completed 3 hats and am working on a 4th this month. I made yet another beret from the Hip Knit Hats book using the lionbrand homespun.

I finished up the knitted hat that I was making for my hubby. I used the Lionbrands Fishermans Wool. The hat turned out really good. I also knitted up a hat using the Suri Dream Hand Dyed yarn from Knit Picks. The yarn is listed as super bulky weight, but it really didn't look all that bulky to me. I was a little worried that it would not be good yarn for a hat. Well, I was wrong. The hat is real light weight, but real warm! And I love how soft it is! It turned out really good with the striping. The colorway is Falling Leaves. Granted the hat turned out a bit different that the pattern. It's more of a slouch hat than a normal hat. But I really like it!

The fourth hat I am working on is from the Hip Knit Hats book also. The pattern is called Ella. It has a band of Entrelac knitting around it. It's a beret-like hat. I'm using Wool of the Andes from Knit Picks in Blackberry. It's turning out great! I can't wait to finish it!

Also this month I placed another Knit Picks order. A girl always needs more yarn! I ordered four more lace hanks, 3 hanks of Swish Bulky, 4 balls of Telemark, 2 balls of Palette, 1 Suri Dream Hand Dyed, 1 Suri Dream, 2 hanks of Wool of the Andes, a hat pattern, a book, some stitch markers, and I wanted to try their circulars so I ordered size 4 tips and 40" cable for the Peacock shawl I am going to knit after my vacation next month.

Lace: 2 hanks Shimmer - Galaxy, 1 hank Gloss - Blue Bird, 1 hank Gloss - Basalt

Swish Bulky - Brindle Heather: This is going to be a mobius.Telemark - Persimmon Heather, this is going to be for a scarf.

2 balls Palette - Asphalt Heather and Marble Heather: I ordered the Tam O'Shanter pattern and am going to knit it up using these two yarns.

Suri Dream Handyed - Falling Leaves, this turned into a hat and the leftovers are being knit into a skinny scarf.

Suri Dream - Strawberry Heather, I'm thinking this is going to be either a beret or fingerless gloves. I'm leaning towards the fingerless gloves and then whatever I have left over will probably be another skinny scarf to make a set. Book: Hip Knit Hats - I just love this book! There are so many great hat patterns and they are all knitted on the larger needle sizes so they knit up real fast!
Wool of the Andes - Blackberry (Ella Hat) and Coal. Both are going to be hats.I don't have pictures of the stitch markers or the circular needle. I do however have some pictures for your viewing pleasure from my trip to the zoo last weekend! They had two new baby snow leopards! Oh yeah, and the Red Pandas! Gotta love the Red Pandas!!!!!

~HAPPY KNITTING~

Finised a project!

Over the weekend I finished another hat project. I'm really enjoying the "instant gratification" aspect of knitting small projects such as hats. I finished up the Lace Leaf Hat project on Sunday morning.I think it turned out pretty well. It was knit on size 5 16" circulars, using Knit Picks Palette in Lipstick. I really like how the leaf pattern turned out. They really do look like leaves! Here's a close up: I can't wait to wear this hat in Colorado in September! It turned out so good.



I also cast on another hat project this weekend. I'm working on a simple hat that for my hubby. It's a K2P2 ribbing through the whole thing, very easy, a good TV project. I'm knitting it up with Lion brands Fisherman's Wool in the Natural Brown color. I'm about half way through the body of the hat, I hope to either start on the crown decreases this weekend or have it finished before the weekend rolls around.

I'm desperately trying to finish up my mystery shawl. I already decided to opt-out of the knitted on boarder. I'm just going to do an extra knit round and then bind off with larger needles. I just want it to be done. I didn't realize how long the final chart section was going to take. I can only get about two, maybe three, rounds done before I have to put it down and switch to something else.

I also started on some mittens from my Selbuvotter book. I chose what I thought looked to be one of the easier patterns to knit up. I'm just on the ribbing of the cuff, but I hope to have these done by November. That might be pushing it, but I'm going to try.

I'm using Knit Picks Palette in Black and Fog. I think they will turn out good. They will be my third stranded knitting projects ever. I completed two hats earlier this year. I can't wait to get into the body of the mittens and the real color work! It's going to be a challenge, but I'm up for it.

Until next time!

~~HAPPY KNITTING~~

Yarn Winding Madness

So I finally got my yarn swift created. Well, actually hubby did most of the work, I watched. I did glue the peg holders on though. Anyway, the swift was completed last week. In good time too, I had several hanks of lace that needed to be wound. I spent all of Saturday morning working with the ball winder and the swift. My poor right arm and shoulder got quite the workout. It ached all weekend! It was worth it though, I was able to get all of my lace wound into nice neat center-pull skeins!

Don't they look pretty! The ball winder and the swift were definitely good investments. Also over the weekend I completed two more hats. I'm definitely going to have to order the Hip Knit Hats book from Knit Picks on my next yarn order! The hats are very easy to knit and can be completed in a matter of two days. I knitted a second beret using some leftover I Love This Yarn in peacock. I think it turned out fairly decent. I knitted the larger size to see if it would fit a little better than the first one I made. The top turned out a little weird, I tired the crocheted circular cast on where you can just pull the string to close up the hole. I think for future hats I'll stick with the normal cast on and join in the round.
I also knitted up the Nina Hat from Hip Knit Hats. This was an extremely easy knit. It took two days to knit, but that's only because I started on in later in the afternoon and then had to finish it up the next morning. I bet this could be knitted up in one day. I used a skein of Lion Brand Homespun, The tag was lost so I'm not sure about the colorway on it. But it did knit up pretty neat. You can see some wide subtle strips in the hat. It starts out sort of reddish, then blue, then a light blue-green. I'm thinking about knitting up a beret using the leftover yarn in the skein. I could probably get at least one more hat out of it, if not two.

I've also made some pretty decent progress on my Arctic Diamonds stole. It's still coming along pretty slow, but you can see the diamond pattern now.

I also started another lacy hat. The pattern is Lace Leaf Hat. I'm using a ball of my Knit Picks Palette yarn in Lipstick. I ordered 4 balls of this yarn for a shawl pattern, however after knitting a few repeats into the shawl, I found that I didn't really like the yarn for the pattern. The Palette isn't as soft as I would like a shawl to be. So the 4 balls are going to turn into a hat possibly two, and probably a set of Selbu mittens. Here's where I am on the hat: I'm on row 3 of the actual leaf pattern. The first ten rows of the hat were knit on size 4 needles. I moved to size 5 for the body of the hat. I think it is going to turn out pretty good.

Until next time!

~HAPPY KNITTING~

This week feels like Christmas!

The last two days have felt like Christmas. I received my Peacock Feathers kit on Tuesday. I cannot wait to knit up this shawl! It is so beautiful! The kit included the pattern and enough yarn to complete the project. The instructions seem pretty straight forward, and the charts are nice and big. The yarn is just wonderful! It's a zephyr silk/wool in Jade. It's really pretty! It's going to make a real nice shawl I think. I'm going to try to make myself wait until after I have completed one of the two other lace projects I have going right now.
Yesterday I received my Knit Picks order. Talk about ending a long day of work on a happy note! 3 hanks of Gloss Pinot. This is going to make a real pretty shawl!

3 hanks of Alpaca Cloud Bermuda Heather. This is going to become the Water Turtles shawl from my Wrapped in Comfort book.
4 Balls of Palette Lipstick. This is a fingering weight yarn and it is going to become an Argosy shawl that I found on Ravelry.
3 hanks of Shadow Aegean. It is so pretty! I'm not 100% sure yet what it wants to become, I'm pretty sure a shawl, just not sure which one yet.

2 hanks of Shadow Hot Rod Heather. This is going to become a Adamas shawl.


I had such a good time sorting through all my new yarn! I plan on using my ball winder this weekend and get everything into nice neat little yarn cakes.

Also yesterday, I finished knitting a black beret. I find it helps to have a smaller project that can be completed rather quickly when working with larger projects that take considerably longer to finish. I have some more hat patterns to work on, a few lacy that will count in the season of lace competition, and a few more that aren't lacy. I just like to feel the joy and satisfaction of completing a project.

Here's a picture of the beret. I got the pattern from the book Hip Knit Hats. I have two more patterns from the book to knit up. I plan on ordering the book with my August Knit Picks order. Well that's all the news for now. I also plan on making significant progress on my Arctic Diamonds stole over the weekend. So hopefully I'll have some better pictures of it to post next week.

Until next time,
~~Happy Knitting~~

Lots of progress

I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted! I have made significant progress on my projects that I started in June. My mystery shawl is really grown!
Here it is at clue 1:Here we are at the end of clue 2:Here's where I goofed with the lifeline at the end of clue 2! I totally threaded the lifeline through the stitch marker. Needless to say I took the lifeline out! LOL!
And here at the end of clue 3:I'm currently working on clue 4, I'm thinking that this one is going to take a while to complete! It's pretty big. After this clue I'll be working on the knitted lace border. Yet another new technique to tackle. I'm curious as to how it is going to turn out once all the knitting is finished and the shawl is blocked!

Although the mystery shawl has commanded most of my attention the past 5 weeks, I've managed to make some pretty good progress on my Arctic Diamonds stole that I started. I really like how the snorkel is knitting up. It's such a pretty color! The diamond pattern is starting to show too! I'm very pleased with it.
So much has taken place since my last post. I'm not even sure where to begin! I finally made it into my local yarn shop! I was excited to find some lace yarn that I have never knit with before. I picked up some JaggerSpun Zephyr Silk/Wool yarn! It is so soft and so pretty! I bought two skeins of Daffodil and one skein of Dianthas. I'm thinking the yellow will be a shawl, and the pink is going to be a scarf from my Ocean Breezes book! I can't wait to knit up a project with them.I have so many lace projects lined up that I want to knit. I don't know where I'll find the time to get them all done!
I also placed another knit picks order on the 3rd of July. I'm still anxiously waiting for it! I thought it might be in today, alas I was wrong, and very disappointed! I've ordered several more hanks of lace for more projects! I also ordered a new color (Lipstick) in the palette yarn for a shawl. In addition to my knit picks order I also ordered the Peacock Feathers Shawl kit from Fiddlesticks.com. The kit includes the shawl pattern and enough yarn in the color of your choice to complete the pattern! This pattern is just beautiful! I chose the new Jade color, fitting for a peacock I think. I've always loved peacocks and their vibrant feathers! I can't wait to make this shawl! I'll post pictures of these goodies once I get them in!

Some other ideas I have in the works right now. I'm planning on turning my side of our office into my knitting command center! I'm in the process of cleaning up and organizing my desk my bookshelf to better suit my knitting needs. I also am going to be organizing my desktop PC to file and store the electronic copies of all my patterns! I have big plans for this! I'll have to post a picture once I get everything moved around and situated!

One more idea before I end this post. I'm thinking about starting another blog that will be connected to this one, where I will write reviews. I'll be reviewing my knitting books that I currently have as well as books that I will buy in the future. I'll also write reviews of the books I am currently reading for pleasure. For example, I have recently discovered Debbie Macomber! She is a great author! I've already read the first three books in her A Good yarn series (The Shop on Blossom Street, A Good Yarn, and Back on Blossom Street). I've read these in a matter of about two months! I'll post an announcement once I get things up and running!
Until Next time!
~~Happy Knitting~~

It's Lace Time!

The Season of Lace competition began this past weekend. I got off to a rather rocky start too. I kept having issues with my Goddess Knits Mystery Shawl. Getting the round shawl was by far one of the most frustrating things I've done here recently.

On Saturday I had to just put it down and leave it alone, it about brought me to tears. I didn't like how it was originally turning out on my DPNs, so I decided to give magic loop a try. I found a great resource on the internet with videos for different knitting techniques. It appeared fairly easy, and I actually did get the first clue completed, however, I had some big holes in the yar where I joined in the round. So I decided to start over and try again. I ended up not even touching it on Sunday. I worked on another poject instead.

On Monday, I had a couple rounds of frustration with stitches twisting. I decided that the magic loop was best saved for another day. I returned to my trusty DPNs, and after explaining my side of the story with them they forgave me for abandoning them and decided to cooperate with me. We started again, going slowly and carefully. I completed the 14 rounds of the initial cast on, and it looked much better than my first attempt. I really like the nice neat stitches. I'm not really much of a neat freak as a rule, however I'm fairly OCD about my knitting and how the stitches look.

I decided it was best not to push my luck and put it down for the evening. I plan to insert a lifeline before I begin with my selected chart from clue 1. I hope to finish the first chart this evening after work, afterwhich I plan to insert another lifeline and then put it down until tomorrow. I hope to have the second chart completed tomorrow evening. Then I will be all caught up. I hate feeling like I am behind on something.

It probably can go without saying that all of my projects will be lace project from now until the Season of Lace Competition ends in September.

Since I won't be able to do any more with the mystery shawl, once I finish chart 2, until Saturday I have cast on another lace project to knit inbetween clues. I'm working the Arctic Diamonds Lace Stole from the Arctic Lace book. I believe it has a different name in the book. I actually got the pattern from one of the Interweave magazines. I'm using KnitPicks Shadow Snorkel. I absolutely love the color! It is so bold and deep coloring. I just know this stole is going to turn out amazing!

I finished with the beginning edge over the weekend. The main body of the stole is divided into three sections. The beginning section, the middle section that is repeated a certain number of times, and the ending section, and then you have the ending edge. I was able to get two rows into the beginning section. I'd like to have the beginning section completed Thursday night.

Another thing I really need to get done this coming weekend is building my homemade swift. Mom bought me a ballwinder, and I have a few hanks that need winding. I have everything I need to build the swift, I just need to make the time to do it. I'll probably get started on it Friday night and finish it Saturday morning before the third mystery shawl clue is posted. I also need to sit down and finalize my next Knit Picks order.

There are so many things to do and so little time to do them in! I really don't know where the time goes. Sometimes I loose a day and sometimes I gain one, it's weird!

Until next time!

~Happy Knitting~