Favorite Thing Friday

If you don't have one of these you should. We just ordered this from Cabelas at the ridiculously low price of $29. We actually ordered 2 but only one (MINE!) is here. They are factory seconds which is why the price is so low, but soooo well worth it. Perfect for a warm spring day.

A little doggy love

Henry





Lily

Ahh....the Warmth

Spring/Summer is finally here. It's a lovely 82 right now and I just got back from my first flower buying of the season. I'm going to try hard this year to plant more perennials so my cost goes down year to year. I also bought my first rose bush. I've stayed away from them because I've always figured them to be a fussy plant. I'm not good with fussy. If it's meant to live in my yard then it better be able to fend for itself. I had to hold off on buying plants for pots. We are going to finally paint/stain our deck and there's no sense in filling pots so they can sit in the lawn. Now that the pollen is done dropping we can get to it. Now if I can just wrangle my husband away from his boat and onto the deck.

Well, off to treat myself to a iced caramel latte. First of many this summer.

Speaking of lattes...here is shot of "Latte" yarn made into a gift for someone for her birthday. Shhh...don't tell her.

Socks Anyone?

These two books showed up in the mail today and I'm in love. They are both wonderful. Cookie A's book is filled with information on how to design socks and with amazing and challenging sock patterns. Wendy's book obviously explains how to knit toe up, but also includes fabulous patterns that are simpler than Cookie's but look beautiful just the same.

I preordered these books and in anticipation of receiving them, I ordered these lovelies from Dream in Color.



I see lots of summer sock knitting in my future.

Ingenue

It's done and it feels so wonderful to wear. Lucky for me, I finished it while it's still a little cool here. I'm actually hoping for more cold weather so I can wear it again. The photo is before blocking, and I have read that it will grow a little which is what I planned for. Wouldn't it be great to have something actually turn out how you want?



Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted
Colorway: Cognac
Needles: 8 and 9
Pattern: Ingenue from Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard

Another FO for the week is....yes...another pair of socks. I actually like this yarn even though it's a bit splitty. For some reason I wanted to knit a pair of cream colored socks but now that they are done I think I will save them for a gift.



Yarn: Patons Kroy Sock
Colorway: Muslin
Needle: 2
Pattern: Waterfall Socks by Wendy D. Johnson

Recycling at its Best

Do you think RuPaul would approve of this?

All is Right

Well it's 80 here and all is right with the world. The blogging paused for a bit due to a personal illness, a lovely vacation in Jamaica, dog surgery recovery and me cleaning up messes in the house all day, Girl Scout cookie sales, and Junior volleyball.

February was hectic and ended with a much needed, very relaxing vacation. DH and I are celebrating 15 years of marriage this year and we spent it with our friends of 15 years who are celebrating their 15th anniversary as well. We don't live near them anymore but when we are together it's like we've never been apart. They are fabulous! There was lots of drinking, some eating, lots of drinking, lots of sun, lots of drinking, lots of beach volleyball, and lots of laughs. Did I say lots of drinking? Somehow you can go to Jamaica and drink all day long and not feel ill. I think that in the first 3 days there I wasn't without a drink if I was awake. I can't wait to go back.

Now because I was always drinking, I did very little knitting. I did bring socks to work on but I only worked on them during travel and first thing in morning before breakfast. It was nice to not knit. I can't believe I said that but I think I needed a knit break as well. I can see the knitting is going to slow a bit this spring. I have the desire again to work in my yard and do some planting. Last year I was in a funk and didn't do anything with the yard. No funk this year. Yeah!

If you aren't already hogging the bandwidth at Knitty then you should know the Spring Knitty is up. These will be my next socks on the needles. And I think they are destined to be made with Wollmeise. It's not surprising that these socks are from Cookie A's blogmate.