Introducing..........Hubbs

Greetings from England. Guess what, it rained almost the whole first week and was cold. I never thought I'd miss Florida, but.... Welcome back Disco!!! We are staying with my best friend Hubbs, her DH and two DSs.

First, it's RIP to my Lantern Moons, broken

in a wrestling match between my

Godsons. I should know better than to buy nice things for myself. I take consolation that they were purchased in the Knit Happens sale however, so I didn't pay full price, phew. We made a modern art display of them amongst the bamboo in Hubbs' garden. Pretty.

These beautiful stones reside by the bamboo. They were picked up by Hubbs in Lynmouth and Clovelley in North Devon. More pretty.

Hubbs is a knitter, but only of garter stitch scarves in 'novelty' yarns. I sent her some Alpaca for Christmas in an attempt to whet her appetite for luxury yarns. Here is the result. A garter stitch scarf. The gold adds a little sparkle. Even more pretty.

Anyone who knows me, knows I love the Alpaca Silk, so of course, I had to bring her some of that, and, in an attempt to expand on the garter stitch scarf, she made a spiral scarf. In less than a week she's completed it. Be still my beating heart though, she knotted the ends of the yarn!!!
And this afternoon she asked me to teach her the purl stitch. Someone pass me the smelling salts.

TOYS!

I've been playing with some new 'toys'. First some new needles. I'm using Addi Turbos for the first time - making a hairband for Hubbs to match her prairie tunic (which turned up in the mail 4 weeks later, phew!). I love them, they're so slidy and easy to use.
Also, making a pink baby cardigan with some beautiful Lantern Moon Rosewoods. Oh my, they are wonderful too. The yarn is Debbie Bliss' Cashmerino Astrakhan, edged with Cashmerino Aran. It is such a pretty combination.

And isn't this a sight for a knitter's sore eyes. We turned our kitchen table into a craft table this afternoon and I used my swift and winder for the first time. Teddy REALLY wanted to learn how to do it, so that's him 'helping'. We're winding the STR Watermelon Tourmaline that Carrieknits sent me and I'm going to make Monkey Socks from knitty.com with it.








And here we all are enjoying an early family birthday celebration for Matthew who'll be turning 2 next Sunday. Doesn't time fly, as they say.... He enjoyed his party very much and was a bit befuddled when we started handing him gifts at the end. He got over it though and was very happy tearing the wrapping off them all. This morning there was ALOT of lego on the floor. :-)

The small boys and I are flying to England on Wednesday night for a month of visiting family and friends there and in North Wales and Ireland too. We intend to make the trip into London a few times, going on the London Eye, visiting the Aquarium, taking on open top bus tour. Then when DH arrives we'll be off to North Wales to spend time with my Grandparents and Aunts, then getting the ferry over to Dublin and driving down to Kinsale to visit his cousin & family. It will be an exciting trip.

Bon Voyage.......

Overlapping Waves

Cute boy picture first. This is how we found them this morning. Teddy had climbed into Matt's crib, and they were both eating fruit sweeties.

Teddy had at least dressed himself first :-)

Now here's a better picture of the hairband I made last week.

And here is the scarf/wrap I made for my MIL. The stitch pattern is Overlapping Waves, 8 repeats across the row. Made with Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK. I completed 48 pattern repeats and it came out 8½" wide and 88" long. Blocking really separated the lace holes and made it look a lot better.

Florida stinks....

....quite literally. There are brush fires burning in S. Georgia and N. Florida and the smoke has reached us down here in SW Florida. It started getting hazy around 4pm here and is set to continue off and on through the weekend. If I go outside the house I can smell the burning. Ick.

Dreamswatch

Tis done. Here's my dreamswatch headband before and after blocking. It was pretty curled up before I blocked it, but looks great after. I love it very much and couldn't wait to post a picture (excuse the swimming pool hair). Maybe I'll take a pretty hair picture tomorrow, just for fun :-)

The yarn is SWTC Oasis 100% Soy Silk. Soft and wonderful to knit with. Thank you to Ms One-Skein-Wonder for the yarn and to Jupiter Jessica for the pattern.

The boys and I swam this afternoon. After a couple of 'cool' days here in FL the water was a lot colder than last week. But we braved it ;-) If only it would rain here. There have been a LOT of brush fires the last few days. Most of yesterday was foggy with the smoke from them. Scary.

A quick post, inspired again by Jupiter Jessica. Some pretty shots of my garden. Jessica - enjoy....

Happy Headband

Isn't she beautiful?

I cast on last night and worked on it while we were watching "Meet the Fockers". I LOVE that movie - Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro, what's not to love. And today I've been working on this 10 mins here and 5 mins there. I hope to wear it by the end of the week. It definitely needs blocking to just stretch and straighten it out. But I love everything about it. The yarn is so soft to work with, just beautiful.

It looks pretty wide, like a scarf, but this is a closeup picture.

It's been a while.....

....but I've been busy.

We had a fabulous week in Charlotte, NC with Trish, John, Ashton & Bailey. Of course, I didn't take any pics!!! What a wonderful, young and vibrant city that is. I LOVED it. Teddy loved Ashton and Matt loved Bailey. The doggy was glad to have a friend for the week.

Hardly any knitting, just working on the wips.

I got a couple of great packages in the mail the past few weeks. First from my knitster, Irishgirlie, who sent my first ever SOCKS THAT ROCK yarn. Look:

Gorgeous Watermelon Tourmaline colour. Yummy. She also sent chocolate (long gone) and a nifty little booklet to keep track of my knitting needles. I really do need to take stock, so that will come in handy. And she was really kind and sent books for the boys too. Thomas and Cars the Movie. Both favourites of the guys, so big thanks from them.

I'm saving this yarn to knit up while I'm in the UK. Gotta find the perfect sock pattern for it. And make them toe up so's not to make a sock length faux pas :-)

I received another awesome package yesterday from my fairy oddmother. Huge thanks to this truly angelic lady. Look at this tropical lot:

a lei, chocolate macadamias, lime & coconut lotion, flower ice-cube tray (for my tropical drink), flower candles, 3 balls of fabulous bamboo and a hank of kool-aid dyed merino. She told me she was cooking up a surprise for me in her kitchen. I never thought she was dying me something. Eek, isn't it beautiful? I just love the greens and blues. So bright. I'm such a lucky girl.

And my boys are lucky too. She sent them HUGE colouring pages with Cars the Movie characters on them. We immediately taped them to the floor and got to work on them:

And here's one more quick pic of the guys enjoying the pool on Friday. It was SO warm. Living the Florida lifestyle :-)

I'm casting on tonight with the yarn from the fairy oddmother's first package to make a headband just like Jupiter Jessica's. Go see it and leave a nice message on her blog - she just moved from Florida to Oregon and needs a bit of cheering up.