YOP update 9.4.16

I will attempt to add pictures to this post but I'm having trouble with my phone right now.  

Well, this is a pretty sad update but I didn't knit much at all this week. I spent the first part of the week resting and recouping from cleaning during last weekend. That is what the Fibromyalgia does to me. If I do anything that requires very much activity (meaning more than sitting on the couch) I will be down for 1 to 3 days depending on what I was doing or what the weather was like. It was so worth it though. My bedroom looks so nice now! Oh! And I also found my very first pair of socks I knit back in 2007 I think? A friend helped me and when I knit the pair this July it felt like I was learning for the first time again since I'd totally forgotten everything! I even forgot how to do the SSK decrease and had to look it up on youtube. Anyway, those first socks have obviously been worn and washed several times but I'll have to take a picture anyway since I never took a picture of them finished to post to my Ravelry project page. They were knit on sport weight yarn using double pointed needles and I was knitting so tight I was breaking needles.

Thursday, Sept 1st was my 25th anniversary! Wow, I can't believe so much time has gone by. I don't even feel that old. We decided to just spend time here in town since it is so pretty here right now. It is finally not raining and it is so pretty and sunny but not too hot. You can just feel a bit of a nip in the air in the mornings and then it warms up to perfect. We usually like to go on drives to look at the fall leaves on our anniversary but we don't really have that much color yet. It seems like we usually have more by now. The forecast calls for beautiful weather all weekend but possible snow on Tuesday! I hope it doesn't happen like that because I really like fall and don't want it to end too quickly. One season at a time please!  

Anyway, my husband and I decided it would be better to travel during the winter after it starts to get depressing and go to see his mom in Cali and maybe visit the redwoods. I've never been and I would love to.  

Hedgehog fibers/Eel

We had a nice breakfast Thursday and then went to a movie (Suicide Squad) which I loved. We went to a bookstore and then a real LYS - well The only one here. I bought some yarn and caked it up there. Hopefully I will be able to get a swift and ball winder of my own soon. They only *just* added Hedgehog fibers to their store and I homed right in on that. I bought some sock yarn in the EEL colorway which reminds me of peacock feathers with some black. I also got a mini in Graphite to add black heels and toes to the Turtlepurl yarn I bought on Etsy in the colorway Dream room. I think my husband likes it better when I shop at Joanns. My new sock yarn isn't cheap. The one full skein of Hedgehog fiber cost me $32 and he said, "$32 for a pair of socks and you have to do the labor?"  I said, "No, I GET to do the labor!"  hehe I guess only a Knitter can understand. Oh, I also got a sock ruler. The Grocery Girls showed one on one of their podcasts and I've been wanting one ever since. So now I'm all set. All I have to do is figure out which sock pattern to use. I did buy the fish lips kiss heel pattern and kind of want to try that but I also feel super nervous and don't want to mess up my new pretty yarns.

Turtlepurl turtle toes in Dream room plus Hedgehog mini in Granite for heels and toes

After the yarn store I had my hubby drop me off to get my nails done. I haven't treated myself to a mani/pedi in so long and it felt so good. Of course my nails are purple since that is my currently favorite color. Saturday my husband and I decided to continue our celebrations and we went to breakfast again and did a little more shopping. I also got my hair done. I refreshed my purple highlights but went for a deeper purple this time. She added a toner to help it last longer this time and my hair is so soft and shiny. She curled it really pretty but then I crashed as soon as I got home and messed it up. I should have taken pictures before I left the salon! That was just too busy a day for me and I couldn't wait to get to my bed. Hopefully I can get a good picture to show the color but I'm not sure how well it will show in my lighting.  

Jo-Ann Sensations Cosetta in Cosetta purple

Here is the one thing I knit: A swatch. I found this discontinued yarn in my stash and I really want to make myself a hat with it. I have attempted to use this yarn before but never got very far since I have a hard time getting gauge with it. It says it is a bulky weight yarn but it seems it isn't as bulky as a lot of the yarns people use for patterns. I knit this swatch last night and blocked it, which I've never done before. I'm hoping that was part of the problem and I'll be able to get it to work for a pattern. It is really pretty and I'm loving the stripes of purples. It also has just a touch of silver here and there - not stellina but actual silver touches in the fibers. I really don't know how they did that but it is beautiful. I'm sad they discontinued it.

It looks hand-painted with metallic silver paint

Oh, Buddy the Beagle Baby got to go on a walk with me Saturday before I took my long nap. He is learning what it means to "go for a walk" and not a sniff. I've never had to teach a dog to heel before since the other's I've had already knew when I got them. He's my first puppy and he did a pretty good job this time. He does get to go for "sniffs" too though.  He did get really scared when a car drove by us. He had never seen a car except to get in ours so the poor guy shrank down to the pavement and didn't want to move. I'm sure he'll get used to that but I hope he keeps enough of that fear to not ever run in front of one. He's a hyper pup so we really have to keep close tabs on him. I hope he never gets loose!

YOP update 8.30.16

I'm late posting this because this weekend we were doing some serious cleaning. I wasn't feeling well Saturday so just my husband cleaned but I did a lot of work on Sunday. We pulled out boxes and bags of things that had been undisturbed for a very long time. I found clothes I used to love that look like they would fit a child now. I ended up having an asthma attack from all of the dust we stirred up and had to retreat from the room for fresh air and my inhaler. We pot a hepa filter in there and let that run for a while. Our vacuum also has a hepa filter too and that actually worked faster. I'm so glad to have more room now.  I really don't miss those boxes stacked up in my way all the time. We are planning to replace our carpet with hardwood floor sometime soon so we have to be ready for that. We will be going through one room at a time purging extra stuff and moving some to other areas. I was really wiped out after cleaning so much though and ended up sleeping for most of the last two days. Hopefully I'll start to feel better soon because Thursday (Sept 1st) is our 25th Anniversary. My husband has the day off and we are hoping to be able to spend the day together.

I am still working on my meandering rib scarf by Lion Brand Yarns and amazingly I've gotten somewhat comfortable with the pattern. I can even watch tv or podcasts while working on it now and only mess up every now and then and have to tink back a little. I started to use a counter on my phone called "Knit & Crochet counter" and it is so much easier to keep my place in the pattern. I was using a sticky note but if it fell off I would get mixed up.  That app is for ios phones but there are some others that work for Android on this page and they work with Ravelry.  This one is a free app.

I didn't take a picture of my scarf since it still looks the same as my last post but it is longer. The last time I measured it was about 30 inches long. You can see in the picture from the app above that I've done 9 repeats (24 rows) plus the 7 knit rows I started with. The big number 1 is showing that I'm now on row 1. The little 222 in the top right is the total number of rows worked although I think it is one row off. I can fix that. Someone asked what yarn I'm using and it is Wool-Ease by lion brand yarn. The color is Gray Heather. I get that yarn at my Joann's store. I really like that yarn and there is a nice range of colors. I don't think I'm going to make this scarf 130 inches long since I don't think my husband would want a scarf that long.  I'll probably just make it 5 or 6'. I just finished off the first ball of yarn so I think maybe 1.5 more balls should be all I'll need.

I did break the needles I was using somehow.  I have the boye interchangeable knitting needle set and they seem to break too easy. I'm not even sure how it happened. The cord just dropped off and I wan't torquing on it or anything. I'm just knitting back and forth on this scarf and the cable is 20 something inches so plenty of room. They always break off at the threaded area where it screws into the cable. That is the third time that has happened and it is getting really hard to find the replacements. I think I need to invest in a better set but just don't know which set to get. I have to get something that has no nickel plating since I'm allergic to nickel.  Dianamcheck recommended Knitters Pride Dreamz Deluxe IC set. Does anyone else have a set of interchangeables they like?  Or a set you've used that you didn't like for some reason?

Here is a cute picture of Buddy the Beagle Baby to make you smile.  He is sleeping with his head propped up on my Kindle and actually stayed like that for over an hour.  I often find him laying on a book like a pillow but this is a first.