A little behind...

I have so many things to tell you!

1. I had taken a step away from the computer for awhile to watch the Olympics and compete in the Ravellenics:

Sunberry Waffle Socks for the event Sockput

Pattern: Blueberry Waffle Socks by Sandy Turner
Yarn: Felici Sport in Sunny Day


2. Scott and I went camping at Diamond Lake:

A very roomy camp site! a small creek ran on the left and it was wonderful

our tent, without the rain fly on yet. My sleeping bag is the orange and white one, and I LOVE it! So squishy and warm. It's a Kelty Down 0 degrees.

gorgeous roads!

Driving to Three Lakes Peak, about 7500 feet elevation! We hiked to two of the lakes

One of the roads hadn't been cleared away for some time! We encountered several downed trees, and eventually had to turn around when a HUGE tree was in the road :)

3. I joined a stitch marker swap (on Ravelry) for the month of July, and received my package!

I was so spoiled!!!

the stitch marker theme for July was SUMMER!!

I couldn't resist taking a photo of the ice cream bowls my partner sent me, IN USE! I love them, they are fun, and I love ice cream! woo hoo!


And let's end this post with a suggestive tomato from the garden:

O.o !!!!

Happy Tuesday, friends!

Mystery KAL

Hi friends, I totally spaced writing about my mystery shawl Friday! The pattern is called Rockefeller and it's designed by Stephen West. Right now it's a mystery knit-a-long on Ravelry and the (four) clues are being released weekly, one at a time. It's my first mystery KAL and I am enjoying it immensely!

I chose some stash yarn, Regia in white, for the main color, and purchased this beautiful Mountain Colors hank for the second color. Its colorway is called Big Sky; how cool is that? (Montana is nicknamed Big Sky country)

isn't it gorgeous!? I love it :)

I started the KAL a little late so I had a lot of catching up to do. I did finish Clue 1 in time for the release of Clue 2 on Friday :)

Clue 1 almost finished

And Clue 2:

Almost three quarters finished :) It's so funny how large the first crescent seemed, and now that I've added to it, it seems so small! I am really excited to see how large this shawl will be, and of course, what it will look like finished!

I completely put Mrs. Grinch socks on hold to start this KAL, I literally stopped mid-heel turn :) hopefully I will finish Clue 2 in the next few days, and I can knit on socks while waiting for Clue 3's release.

Happy Sunday folks!

2nd BSCWC

The second Books Snacks Crafts Wine Club commenced last night. As usual, we had plenty to snack on:

I didn't photograph the wine selection... but believe me when I say there was plenty!
 

Madam Secretary doing a fabulous job keeping us organized

Miranda "un-crafting" Autumn's t-shirt rug (I think the plan is to add this t-shirt yarn to another rug in order to make it bigger!):

Margaret getting serious about hot glue:

hahahahahah!!!!

I worked on Stephen West's Mystery shawl! Details tomorrow. 

We finished our discussion on Tina Fey's Bossypants and the next scheduled book is Ellen DeGeneres's book Seriously I'm Kidding. I think both these books pretty much sum our little club up...we are bossy, and we take ourselves veeeeery seriously ;)

Sorry for the lack of craft photos but my camera died! I used my iPhone for some of the photos. Next club meeting is in one month, and I'll be sure to have my camera battery charged :)

A couple of gals were interested in the Cucumber Snack I brought. Here's the recipe:

got the recipe from my mom...don't know where she found it!

Cucumber Snack

• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 sour cream
• 8-16 ounces cream cheese (recipe calls for 16 oz but I only used 8 oz this last time, and it tasted great!)
• 2 heaping teaspoons of Knorr's Leek Soup
• a little pepper
• 1-2 cucumbers
• 1-2 baguettes 
• dill, for sprinkling

Mix all ingredients together (not cucumber, bread, or dill). Spread the mixture on thin baguette slices. Top with thin/medium slices of cucumber. Sprinkle dill over top. Enjoy!

Anyone else stoked that tomorrow is FRIDAY?!

Sock roundup

I finished two pairs of socks this weekend. If only all weekends were like this, right?

These are the worsted weight socks:

I substituted Judy's Magic Cast On instead of the Star Toe, mainly because I think JMCO is perfect. This is the first pattern I've used from this book, and I have to say I wasn't very impressed with it. I did not like the short row heel pattern, it gave me holes. I'll try another pattern from this book and see if I change my mind. I LOVE the photography and variety in socks pictured, so I don't want to completely give up :)

...and these are I am Happy, I am Elate socks! They really do make me very happy!

Though, the time spent wearing them to take the photos was painfully hot!

Today I made some progress on these socks:

I think I'll call them, Mrs. Grinch socks

That's Red Heart's Heart and Sole yarn! I found it on clearance at JoAnns and really wanted to try it. I am very pleased with the colors and the yarn quality. For $3 a skein, you really can't complain :) Though, my stripes are about half an inch off...which sort of bothers me. But I had no idea what the pattern repeats would be like, and I think I would have had a mess had I tried to make them match! How do you make stripes match? Is there a secret? (I just got lucky with the Felici ones!)

Berny has been too cute the past week:

staring at her lover (a ball chain attached to a string)

If we don't put her lover to bed at night (i.e. on top of the coat rack) she will drag it around while we're sleeping. Sometimes she even drags it up on the bed! She is so silly.

And this expression cracks me up:

"Don't mess with me mama, I'm hot!"

I feel like this sometimes at work when a client has a ridiculous question or need, just dead pan.

In other news, I think I'm going to hop in on Stephen West's summer mystery shawl KAL! So many gals on Instagram are making me envious of their lovely shawl pictures...I think I just have to! I purchased the pattern, I just need to find the right yarn.

Check out Andi's fabulous striped socks! I love the colors and the narrow stripes! Also, her heel looks perfect... no weird one-row-of-one-color stripes along the instep that I always get...I think she's magical.

Also, Susan B. Anderson is having a giveaway for a beautiful hank of Dyeabolical Super Ego Yarn! It looks like it's still open, but I'm not sure for how long.

One last thing, an Instagram friend sent me some wonderful yarn, just because she is so nice and generous.

How beautiful are these?!

Her name is Lorri and we met through Instagram. She lives in the UK and the fiber for this yarn was collected over the course of several years, from specific sheep! Pretty neat. I think the colors are just beautiful too. Very subtle and simple, but lush. Thank you again, Lorri! I'll be sure to keep you all posted with what this yarn turns into.

I am reluctant to let go of this weekend, but I have to :) Hope everyone's week is awesome!
Jesse

Sewing and garden update!

I'm obsessed with making these bags!

Eep, I really did iron the fabric, really!

I followed this tutorial from Noodlehead for both, with minor modifications. The purple bag is about 7x7" and the large one (those are tree rings on the design!) is about 11x11".

I made this purple one yesterday and it turned out to be much smaller than I thought! It would make a great make up or notions bag. I used fusible interfacing and it worked pretty well. I think I will purchase a heavier fusible though.

So today I wanted to make a bag large enough to hold a knitting project, and this one does! It is super cute too; the fabric is really growing on me! 

I used a sew-in interfacing, and it's much thicker than the fusible. They both work really well so it's hard for me to choose which one I prefer! The fusible interfacing was slightly easier to use because I didn't have to worry about it when sewing (lining it up...).

(lucky you, I discovered the manual focus setting on my camera!! close ups, here I come)

I really do have a lot to learn about sewing still. I am enjoying sewing up these little bags and I know they will be used plenty. Next bag, I'd like to sew a little loop hole for my finger.

And now for the gardening...

The broccoli is growing! I am super pleased to say that all these plants pictured were grown from seeds by us! We had a minor occurrence with caterpillars eating holes in the leaves - but Scott pulled them off and we haven't seen them since.

California poppy... I was really pleased with this photo!

And the tomatoes... omg...




They are a little hard to distinguish, they just look like a big green mess. There are three little green tomatoes growing on this plant! When we first planted the tomatoes in the box, they were teeny and right in the middle. Now they are pushing out the zinnias and marigolds! The planter on the right has three jalapeno plants which are loving the heat!

Goodnight, I'm off to read!!*



*I came across a list of books on Pinterest (no link, sorry. I'm staying away from Pinterest for awhile because I clicked a link there that gave me a nasty computer virus! I'm sure you could google the list) that were suggested reads if you enjoyed the Hunger Games. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan and The Giver by Lois Lowry were two on the list, and I borrowed both from my library on the Kindle. So far about halfway through The Giver, pretty interesting but kind of a slow start. Goodnight!

ETA:  Oops! I wrote The Ligtning Thief as being written by Percy Jackson. Real author is Rick Riordan! Percy is the character.... :)

Holy toledo, it's hot out. I really love summer, but I seem to always forget how much I dislike the steaming heat. It makes me irritable, you know?

I started these a few days ago:

Yarns: Patons Classic Wool in Dark Gray and Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Amethyst Heather
Needle: US 5
Pattern: Toe up Star Toe Worsted Weight Sock by Kathleen Taylor

Short row heel and mine has so many holes. I ripped it out many times and try to eliminate the holes, but nothing really worked. In the end, (to save my sanity) I kept the holes and sewed them closed.

It doesn't make too much sense to knit worsted weight socks in the summer. The nonsense really hit me when I went to Michaels today, and they already have Christmas things out. Yikes.

Hope you are all staying cool.

DIY Coasters

I found an awesome DIY coaster tutorial on Pinterest the other day and made my own today!

woo hoo!

They are incredibly simple to make; seriously the hardest part is choosing your paper and waiting for them to dry! You use scrapbook paper, Mod Podge, ceramic tiles, those little felt round sticky things, and a spray sealant. 

If you are interested in making your own, check out her blog (and scroll down a bit for the tutorial). Here is her pin on Pinterest:

                                                                             Source: wifeandlife.com via Jesse on Pinterest

And here is one of my coasters in action:

I think they will make great Christmas gifts as well. Yep, I'm already thinking about Christmas gifts :) I'm planning on knitting a bunch of them again this year so I should probably start soon.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing Sunday!

Wonderful Monday

Yes, I am still talking about Monday. This is because it was a LOVELY mail day yesterday!

The first package was from Allison at field wonderful. She had a giveaway the other week for Job's Tears, and she was so nice and ended up sending all of us a package!

I love handwritten notes so much <3

I just love that she made her own envelope!! I am definitely going to try and make my own too!

Job's Tears

Thank you so much, Allison, for the Job's Tears! They are so beautiful. I had never heard or seen Job's Tears before. I am so excited to make something with them! I am considering a necklace and maybe some nice, lightweight stitch markers.

And, Allison is having another giveaway right now! What a kind and generous lady. Visit her blog and enter to win a beautiful skein of Malabrigo Sock Yarn!

 
The second package is the cutest thing ever!!! It's from Casey at Tangerine Designs and as soon as I saw the photo of this bag, I wanted it:

The Lorax is KNITTING!!!!!!!

My socks fit perfectly, with plenty of room to spare. I really like the cinch closure at the top and it is so well crafted. With my socks and yarn in the bag, it sits perfectly up by itself :) It is the perfect knitting bag! I really am looking forward to a long and loving relationship with my new Lorax knitting bag!!

I also adored these pins so much, so I bought them too. Hehe... I think they are just so cute!

Thank you, Casey, for the most adorable knitting bag and pins ever! I think she had listed three Lorax bags on her Etsy, and they were all snatched up like that! Casey has a bunch of other cute knitting bags, like Star Wars and anatomical hearts with knitting needles, and notions on her Etsy, check it out! Also, help her celebrate her Etsy one year anniversary in the month of June!

Now I have to get back to knitting! Happy Tuesday!

WIP Monday

What's on the needles:

I pulled this faux cabled afghan out again because I really would like to finish it. I vowed to knit one twelve-row pattern repeat a day. So far, I have pretty much stuck to it, but it's only been three days since I made that vow! Right now it's 36" long! I started with six skeins and I'm on the fifth now. I think I will need to buy one or two more.

Happy/Elate socks are still going! This photo is showing my wrap and turn heel. I am becoming more comfortable with this technique. As far as progress on the socks, I am actually past the heel flap and am on the leg. I'm not really knitting this at full force, just when I need some easy knitting :)

Tina the Tap Dancing T-Rex is happening! This photo is a bit dated, she has arms, a tail, and a belly panel now! I have one of her legs almost finished, and will just need to knit a second. Legs and arms are the worst parts for me - I always dilly dally on them!

The card I made for my dad, for Father's Day. We celebrated last night since they were gone last weekend.

I had to sneak two photos of Berny in... the other day she was lying on the couch, halfway on this blanket. The rules are she can be on the couch as long as she's on a blanket. So I pulled the blanket up under her rump and she fell into this position (with her rump more elevated than her head)... and stayed in it! It was so cute.

Happy Monday everyone!