Reducio Sock Swap

After the Wee Tiny Sock swap I still had the urge to make some tiny knitted things and I loved the idea of such a quick swap, so imagine how pleased I was to find the Reducio Sock swap on Ravelry. I signed up, made not one but two socks, got some goodies, sent my package on its way, and waited patiently for mine to arrive. Which it did yesterday, and here's the loot:

All this fun stuff was from Knitting Gnome who was not only my spoiler but also the host of the KAL--very cool! Go by her blog and check out her baby gnome--it's too cute :)

My pal was a Hufflepuff. Jenny is blogless but she is on Ravelry. I sent her a casual sock as well as a dress sock. Plus I sent her some other goodies which in my mailing excitement I forgot to photograph.


I had a great time and I'm hoping for a Harry Potter related mini swap of house sweaters, hats, or mittens in the near future.

HAED SAL Challenge(4/12)

So far I have only missed on month of the SAL Challenge. This weekend I did all my stitching on Monday night. And yes, I did get in 800 stitches. I was on a roll; I'm just trying to imagine how much I would have gotten done if I had stitched all weekend.

Here's the progress:
(after)

(before--so you can get an idea of what 800 stitches is in the grand scheme of HAED stitching)





**clickable thumbnails(if you want to see them bigger)

Our Mermaid now has an arm and I am about 1000 stitches away from finishing the page! Hopefully that will happen over the next month.

Weekends. . .they go so fast

This weekend seemed to go by especially fast.

Friday I was out the with the knitting crew. And there was a Pens game which I dvr'd because I was out and apparently Rage decided he wanted to watch something else(ie. Spongebob)and decided to turn the channel he guaranteed that I only got to watch the first period of the game by turning the dvr off early.

Saturday was just full of cleaning--inside and outside--it is amazing to me what the wind blows around here. I found a ton of stuff in the yard that came from God knows where. And my neighbors came back from Disney World and we just had to get the scoop on everything as the KiP household will be heading to the happiest place on earth in a matter of weeks--Tower of Terror, here I come! Then, of course, it was Robin Hood night on BBC America.

Sunday was a gorgeous day--way to nice to be inside. And it was Mother's Day. And the Penguins played last night. My DH, Rage, and Diva got me a Sidney Crosby jersey for Mother's Day. I haven't actually worn it yet because every time I wear a Pens jersey on game day, they lose and we can't have that.

I guess why I'm telling you all this is because there was very little crafty time this weekend. What little time I did have I spent work on. . .No, not Barn Raising squares--shocking, I know. . .it was Rage's STR Lapis sock. Here are the results of my stolen knitting moments this weekend:


I was supposed to be cross stitching this weekend, but honestly I need big blocks of time to cross stitch and I didn't have any of those this weekend. I do plan on cross stitching today though so I can fulfill my obligation to the HAED SAL Challenge. I'm shooting for 800 stitches today but I'll be thrilled if I can get 600 in.

Favorite Books

I was fishing around one of my bookshelves the other day and found this: So Many Books So Little Time A Year of Passionate Reading by Sara Nelson.

This book does what I think any book should do, it made me love reading even more than I already do. One of the things I tried to impart to my students when I was teaching was a love of reading. And I tried to make them reflect on what they had read in one or more of the following ways:
**how does the book relate to something in your life?
**how does the book relate to something in the world?
**how does the book relate to another book you have read?

I remember vividly when I bought this book. I was up to my armpits in toddler/baby stuff including parenting magazines. An excerpt from this book was in one of the magazines I would sit and read at night after the kiddos went to sleep. I loved her style and I just had to read the book, so off I went to Barnes and Noble dot com and ordered it. It did not disappoint and to this day it is one of my favorite nonfiction books.

April Wrap Up & May Goals

April Wrap up:
Knitting:
**rainbow socks for Diva--DONE!
**finish Clapotis--did I even touch the clapotis? Do I even know which knitting bag it's in? I think you get the idea.
**make headway on at least one other WIP--DONE! I got a bunch of Barn Raising Squares done.

Stitching:
**QS Swimming with Dolphins--SAL Challenge Weekend(11-14)--DONE!
**Provence Sampler--HAEDless Sampler SAL(18-21)--skipped--Diva was puking all weekend.
**I Love Thee and my unfinished biscournu in the interim--Nope.

I'm not too disappointed with my April goals. Is is just me or do months seem to be flying by? I don't even feel like it should be March yet and we're heading into May!

May Goals:
Knitting:
**at least 5 Barn Raising squares
**Rage's Lapis socks

Stitching:
**QS Swimming with Dolphins SAL weekend(9-12)
**Provence Sampler SAL weekend(16-19)

Reading:
**finish two books

This month will be challenging in that the kiddos get out of school over the course of the month. Then mommy has to go into summer mode which usually means less free time for me--not that I have an overabundance right now.

Barn Raisin'

I have not been able to pull myself away from my Barn Raising squares. I gave my first 10 a bath yesterday and pseudo blocked them.

Here's Barn Raising Quilt 1(aka. the primarily Socks that Rock quilt):

**clockwise from top left--Algae, Lucy, Nodding Violet, Fire on the Mountain, Tres Campy(a lone Hello Yarn square).

Barn Raising Quilt 2(aka. Diva's/communal family leftover quilt):


I am going to TRY and knit on something else as well--I've got socks and things to finish people!

Bella's Fingerless Gloves

Stitch-n-Snitch designed some fingerless gloves inspired by the Twilight Series of books. I've been wanting to make some since I saw the pattern and this weekend I took the plunge and managed to finish one while watching a movie Saturday night.

The yarn is Knit Picks Swish which I happened to get a couple of skeins of in this Merlot Heather colorway. First, the yarn is SOOOOOOO soft. I just kept petting it as I was knitting with it. Second, the colorway reminded me of the werewolf contingent in the books. The warm brown with just a hint of red--definitely more wolf-ish than vampire-ish. Plus, I'm pulling for Jacob in the whole love triangle thing--not that there isn't a lot to love about Edward.

Now, my model for the picture was little Diva. Stacey, you will appreciate that after she tried this on she said, "Mom, I REALLY want a pair of these--in pink." I'm thinking that maybe I should quit showing her what I'm working on.

Barn Raising Love/Possible Addiction

As my stash is not really loaded with bright colors(which Diva is all about) I had to get a few skeins of stuff to brighten up her Barn Raising Blanket which I'm thinking will actually turn into the TV room Barn Raising Blanket--meaning it's for her, DH, and Rage--we'll see how that one goes over later. Otherwise I'll need to make a couple more blankets at some point(and no they probably won't all be this pattern).


There are 4 skeins of ShiBuiKnits Sock and 1 skein of Pagewood Farm Hand Dyed Sock yarn(the cotton candy pink one).

Why I love the Barn Raising Quilt:
**I have been wanting something to do with my sock yarn leftovers and my substantial sock yarn stash.
**the squares are easy to knit--perfect for knitting group knitting and TV time.
**the squares are portable
**it's fun to see how sock yarn patterns when it's used this way
**it is something that will last longer than a sock does
**it's something everyone can see, whereas sometimes socks are under wraps(or pants as the case may be).
**it gave me a great place to showcase my STR stash which my DH greatly enhanced when he gave me a big old gift certificate last Christmas

Diva's Stabbing Socks are Fini

I finished Diva's "Stabbing" socks as I so lovingly refer to them.


As you can see they are fraternal. Diva doesn't care and it made them more interesting and less labor intensive to knit.

Stats:
Yarn: Opal
Pattern: Classic Beginnings Socks for the Family(Wyman)
Needles: size 2 dpns

Now I have some squares to knit and I need to work on my cross stitch sampler. I hope all of you have something fun to keep you busy this weekend :)

Challenged

This weekend was the HAED SAL Challenge Weekend and I pulled out Swimming with Dolphins. I aimed for about 200 stitches per day and I averaged just a touch over that for the weekend. I feel like I made significant progress; she has an upper body now and that's always a good thing ;)

**clickable thumbnail**

On the knitting front. I had rattled off a few more Barn Raising Squares last week. Now I have 5 out of about 84ish squares.


Represented here are STR Nodding Violet, STR Lucy, and some leftover stuff that I believe was a Regia Cotton.

Wee Tiny Package :)

I received my Wee Tiny Sock on Monday. It traveled here all the way from the Netherlands. Femke made me a sock out of Regia cotton--a very springy sock indeed.

It made my day. Thanks, Femke, I love it!

Still no word if my sock has finished its trek to the other side of the world, stay tuned :)