SIP's!!!!

These are my socks in progress for sock wars 5. My target sent them out and I just got them in the mail today. I am soooo excited to work on them. Last sock wars I was taken out after one kill. I am hoping to possibly make two kills this time around. If not I'm going to get as far as I can with these socks. This is an accomplishment for me, living long enough to get SIP's. Yay! So I thought I would take a break from knitting for a minute to photograph them and update the blog.

This picture is my progress so far today. When I got the socks only the cuff was really done so I had to work from there and I am about 4" in. I have to make it to 7.5" by bedtime in order to start the heel flap tomorrow. :) You can kind of see in the edge of this picture the amount that was done on the sock when I received it.
Picture number two is of both skeins and my targets progress/my progress. She was probably doing two at a time on circulars but I don't know how to do that and I don't have size 1 circulars (shocking I know). So I am using my trusty dpns making one sock at a time.

The yarn is Regia Flusi Sock in colorway #1802. It's really pretty. The needles are brittany us1 dpns and the pattern is Jeckyll and Hyde.

I have updated so now I must return to my knitting. On to victory! :)

Updates and HOPEFULLY more posting

So I have been really bad about updating my blog. I want to try and update it more with knitting content and soon there will be baby content as well. I am about 6 months along now and can't wait for the baby to get here! :) I can wait I guess because we have stuff to finish up before it happens but I'm still excited for everything to unfold.

I don't have a new years resolution this year, not that I ever really set one. I like to try and better myself throughout the year rather than waiting for a magical time to start, Jan. 1st. I understand this works for people and gives them a jump start which is fine it just doesn't really work for me. Anyway I want to start using up my stash more instead of buying new yarn all the time. I have a bunch of idle projects sitting in my basket waiting to be finished and more yarn that fits in my basket. This is nice but it kind of drives me crazy because the organized side of my brain can't stand to see all the clutter. So I really want to work on that and maybe destash some yarns I am not using or that I don't think I will use.

As far as knitting goes. I am in Sock Wars 5. It's a sock knitting competition. You have a target and you are trying to knit them a pair of socks before your assassin knits you and pair and sends them out to you. I have managed to take out my target, yay, now I am just waiting for SIP's from her. I get her targets socks to finish and then send out. I feel a little bad taking her out because she was the youngest player in the competition, 9yrs old, and the usual age range is 20s and up. Her mom said she was ready to be done knitting the socks for her target though. So I sent her some yarn and her death socks so she could still knit socks but maybe in a pattern that was a little more interesting to her. Now I sit here waiting...please come soon SIP's I am so excited to work on a second pair. I only got to make 1 kill last year, I am shooting for 2 this time around. Ironically enough the woman I took out last year is my assassin this year, lol. Its an entertaining twist. She has known since the beginning of the war that I was her target but I just found out recently so we both had a good laugh about it. It was completely unintentional, pairing us up.

I am also doing ravelympics this year. So Feb 12th I get to cast on my baby surprise jacket and finish up a pair of socks during the Olympics. I hope I win a medal, lol! I might even work on a sweater I have OTN. My next major cast ons will probably be the sleeping monkeys blanket and vivian which is a gorgeous cabled cardigan that won't fit until the baby is out and I have lost some baby weight. Not looking forward to getting rid of baby weight but thats ok I'm sure if I keep up with yoga all will go back eventually, fingers crossed.

I am also hoping to make some progress on my spinning. I bought the book Respect the Spindle by Abby Franquemont. It's been really informative so far. So I am pretty excited to try and use the techniques to improve my spindle skills.

I'm off for now. I might come back and edit in some pictures of knitting content. The sun has come out, it has stopped raining and I might actually get to take the dog to the park. :)

I've been spoiled!

Ooo a package for me! I love mail!

The first picture is of all the knitted items. She made me a cute hat and fingerless mitts that everyone loves. She also made me a cup cozy and a stuffed elephant for the baby. The dog has already tried to steal the elephant...this does not bode well for future stuffed toys, lol.

This is the goodies section. Yummy chocolate which is all gone unfortunately.... A travel mug, hot chocolate and peppermint tea, yum!

This is my sock kit which I am sooo excited about. I love Cookie A patterns and Django is one that I have been wanting. Some pretty blue sock yarn, dpns, a tape measure with a pin on the back so I can never lose it (how did you know I always lose it?), a thimble and a needle point cover.

This is the whole kit in all of its glory. Thank you Pandora I love it. It was very sweet and you did a marvelous job following my wish list. Sorry it took me so long to post the pictures. Hopefully my kit is well received. I sent it out today. :)

Busy Busy Busy

Well our trip home was a lot of fun. We took both the dog and the cat back home with us. Eleven hours in the car with two animals is interesting to say the least. I almost killed the cat on the way home. He meowed for about an hour and a half straight at the beginning of the trip. Finally he calmed down and slept. The dog was in a similar boat and paced around the back seat of the car for about an hour. Thats how long it takes him to realize we are not going to the dogpark. The cat really enjoyed my in laws place, one small dog and no cats. He wasn't so thrilled about my moms house, six cats and one big dog. The dog he could handle but the other cats were another story. So I think this next trip we are leaving him at the vet instead of bringing him. There will be less stress on both sides.

Other than that I've been pretty busy since we got home. I have so many projects on my plate and things are getting interesting at work, lots of yoga classes not enough teachers. My house is sort of clean but not really so I need to work on that especially since there are fleas and we just can't seem to get rid of them. I was hoping they would all die while we were out of town. I had sprayed everything down, washed everything and vacuumed but it doesn't seem to have done the trick. So I think we are just going to have to vacuum everyday for at least a week and try it that way. Maybe it will help, fingers crossed. As far as projects go I have been knitting when I can to finish these socks for my spoilee. I am really hoping to have them done soon. I may even be able to send out by saturday. They are coming along but not as quickly as I would like. I also have a cross stitch stocking for my step dad that I have been working on for over a year, maybe even two now, that I would like to give to him this year. I am trying to finish my Diana Gabaldon book, An Echo in the Bone, before its due back to the library (tomorrow) but I know that is not even close to happening, oh well. I guess I will have to buy it and finish when I have time, which at this rate may be never. I would really like to start a new knitting project as well. I have the new interweave knits and I love the Icelandic Star cardigan. I bought some yarn from knit picks which has already arrived but I can't start it until I at least finish these socks. I might even have to put if off a little longer because the grey yarn I chose is not really the shade I wanted and they have a lighter shade coming out this month, so I may have to wait for that. Oh well. I still have another sweater OTNs which would be good to finish. Either way I'm not sure it will matter. By the time I finish said sweater and cardigan I will probably be too round to wear them, lol. Ah the joys of pregnancy. On the plus side people keep telling me how thin I look, I'm not sure if I care if they are lying at this point, its just nice to hear, lol. As far as work goes I already have my plate full with classes and I am loath to take on more because I know come May I will have to give up all of my classes for at least a month anyway and I won't be able to start teaching again until the baby is at least 6 weeks because that is the youngest they take in the daycare. It sucks because all of these classes are opening up and my boss wants to start more next year. Then next year one of the best teachers will be leaving because her husband is military so they will be relocating. This will leave two classes open, one of them being a more challenging class and I am probably the only one currently qualified to teach it after her...yikes. So much to think about, oh well what can you do. We also spend every major holiday out of state so that is just more classes to find subs for, yay. Oh well it will all work out some how. They are trying to hire on more subs, heres hoping.

Tomorrow J and I are going to buy our tree and decorate the house while listening to Christmas music. I am sooooo excited. I love all the glitz of the season. All of the warm happy family moments and and beauty of it. I really hope it snows this year. We can build a snowman then! We probably won't get any snow here and if we do it will most definitely not be enough or the type to make snowmen from but we are headed north for Christmas, fingers crossed. Now I just have to figure out what I want for Christmas, always a challenging task, and buy all the gifts. I'm so excited! :)

I'm a slacker

I slacked on posting to my blog. I'm a bad prideling.

I don't really know what to write about this week. My spoilee's package is pretty much complete except for the knitted item which is about 60% done and will hopefully fly off the needles. So I might be able to get it out next week. Fingers crossed.

I rented Super Mario Bros. Wii and its pretty awesome. Its also pretty challenging. I think we are going to buy it at some point or ask for it for christmas because its awesome.

Wednesday I have my next baby appointment, yay! I hope things are going well in there. :)

Next week we head back to Ohio to see the fam. I am soooo excited. We haven't been home since may so I am dying to see my family. All of my brothers and sisters are going to be in town and we get to see J's family too. Yay! Home cooked meals here we come!

Where is Winnie Round 3

Winnie went to Queerditch Marsh this week in search of the ghost of cyprian youdle. He was cursed during a quidditch match, very tragic. A wonderfully historic site, it is the birthplace of quidditch. :)

Winnie decided to visit Appleby Village next. I'm sure she managed to get a lot of knitting accomplished considering there is nothing to do there.

Winnie's Travels Part 2

It seems Winnie is off again exploring the world. Her first stop seems to be at Larnach Castle is Dunedin, New Zealand. What a beautiful looking place, I'm jealous. Her second stop was to montreal, quebec, canada. :) I hope she is having a lovely time on her travels.