Time for a break?

My choice of knitting projects the past couple of weeks made me declare last night that maybe I needed to take a break. Last week it was the pirate scarf, this week was my attempt at double knitting. I thought to myself how great to be able to knit up a double sided knitted piece. It still sounds great but about 10 rows into a double sided hot pad I realized it wasn't looking quite like I wanted it to and rip it I did.
Hmm...Maybe I need a trip to the yarn shop for some inspiration.

Mailbox Happiness

My Ravelry t-shirt was waiting in my mailbox when I returned from my "black Friday" shopping adventure.



I love it!!

This is supposed to be my zen dang it.

I just can't get my latest knitting project to work out. For some reason I can't seem to figure out how to weave in as I go. I decided to tackle this project so I would force myself to learn this technique.
The skull on one side looks like a skull which is good.

But in between the front and back skulls I see this mess!

It's supposed to be only black here. I'm hoping one of my local knitsibs can help me figure out what the heck I'm doing wrong. I know I'm probably making this a lot harder than it is.

Midweek Update

I finished knitting up my husband's birthday gifts Monday afternoon. This was close seeing that his birthday was yesterday! I don't know how all of you holiday knitters stay sane trying to knit up gifts for Christmas and/or Hanukkah. I realized right after I took up knitting almost 2 years ago that the only people truly appreciative of hand knitted gifts are knitters. They realize the time involved in a hand knit project. Still, I manage to forget this fact especially when the weather turns colder.
In other "news", I was contacted this week by a local Illinois Yarn shop,Chix with Stix. They ordered some of my sock bags to carry in their store. This is very cool! I hope to head over in a couple of weeks to check out the shop. If you are on Ravelry-check out the ChixWithStix group over there too.

Wednesday Project update

Clearly I don't have any problem casting on projects. Today I've knit at least a row on all of these projects.


There's the second sock from my socktoberfest sock, my eldest son's felted clog, my chevron/jaywalker scarf, and Chance's bufanda verde(my so called scarf pattern). I also have 2 secret "birthday" knits for my husband's birthday(next Tuesday).

What are you working on today?

A short getaway.

We were off on another "business" trip this past week to an Illinois location that is beautiful. It's a small town nestled in rolling hills of Northwest Illinois. From our "lodge" I could sit out on the balcony and see Lake Galena...



This picture is from one of our hikes overlooking the Mississippi River.

It was so nice to be surrounded with rolling hills and farms everywhere we looked. We came across an alpaca farm that the kids had to see up close. Being city kids they absolutely loved being able to see them up close.

Downtown Galena is known for it's kitschy shops. If you love antiques and one of a kind items it's the place to go. Of course I checked out the local yarn store.

The owners,Sean and Amy were there and were so friendly I had to find something to buy. I ended up with Lornas Laces Shepherd Sport that may become a Chevron Scarf.


I could get used to tagging along wherever my husband's conferences may take him. I don't think the kids would mind too much either.