Addicted to the Needles

Computer Woes and a Bandwagon

What a man
What a man
What a man
What a mighty fine man

 My computer crashed on Tuesday.  Of course I had not backed-up my thousands of pictures of my new grandbaby, Bella.  If you out in blogland take one thing away from this post, let it be for you to go right now and back-up your pictures!  But, I am sure you are all much smarter than me!!  I just had a new hard-drive put in, who knew it would crash already.  I called my friend Evett sobbing and her wonderful husband Vinnie came over and fixed it.  Dave calls Vinnie the "Don" of computers and he is right.  He fixed it with no memory loss and I backed-up my pictures immediately!!  Thank you, Vince!!!! You are the MAN!!
     I jumped on the Chevron scarf bandwagon.  I mixed my Sakura with some Lorna's Laces.  I have posted before about the ugliness that happens when I knit up the Sakura, so hopefully the Lorna's will tone it down.

No sooner had I CO for it that I discovered this Sakura shawl from Smokin Hot Needles.

    I am going to CO for it and then decide which one I like better.  I can always find a different coordinating yarn to go with the Lorna's.  Here is my soap all wrapped up and ready to give.

  One of the wonderful pictures I would have lost.  Kelly took this and called it Bella Blue Eyes.

Soap

I spent most of Saturday making soap for Mothers Day and my treatee in the Knitters Treat Exchange.

This was the first time I made a real effort to mold some soap and use the proper materials.  I had dabbled in it a little bit before.  It went pretty well, other than having a hard time getting them out of the molds.  I learned a few things like-don't buy sea kelp to put in the soap, because it literally smelled like dead fish rotting on a hot beach!!  I had to throw 5 bars away. Also, it takes alot of fragrance to really make the soap have a good scent.  Here are some packed up and ready to go to Kelly as a peace offering for cracking one of the molds she let me use( I told you I had a hard time)!!  We are going there for a barbecue today.  YUM!!!

Neck Hug

      The weather has been so miserably cold here I feel the need to knit something to keep me warm.  Hence, the Neck Hug from dogged.  At least the color is spring-like.  The pattern is quite simple and it knitted up really fast. 

 

The yarn is Louisa Harding Kashmir DK in peach.  I got it in a clearance bin for $4 a ball in Ann Arbor.  I have cast on several things with it but this is the first thing I thought did it justice.  It makes a beautifully soft fabric. The yarn is held doubled and I used size 9 needles.  It took almost exactly 2 balls.

I got the buttons at The Black Swamp Art Fair Kelly and I went to in Sept.  They are from Three Feathers Pewter.   We both picked up two cards and shawl  broach from them.  They have beautiful buttons.  I have been dying to use them and glad I finally had a chance! 

Rip, rip, rip!!

  I spent a good part of the day trying to organize what I have been knitting lately and ripping what I don't like.  I really liked what Crafty Brainwave had to say about ripping things you have started or even finished.  I think that is one of the nice things about knitting, there is no cutting, gluing or generally modifying the yarn to make something.  You can rip it out and start all over and still have the original material intact.
I ripped this....

even though I am in the Kidsilk-Along.  The jury is still out on lace knitting, probably due to not having the proper needles.  I think I need something with much sharper points or run mine through the pencil sharpener :D  I will have to come up with something else to do for that. 

I also ripped these....

which I am going to restart, I also had a needle issue with these.  I was using Knitpicks new DPNs and while they are very sharp and nice and long, they are very slippery!!  I was losing more stitches than I was knitting!  Oh darn, I guess I will have to go to the yarn store!  I ripped more but will talk about it later.
     I started another pair of socks (even though I have yet to finish my other pair), it is my first self-striping yarn.  I love it.  So cute.  I am also torn about sock knitting.  Alot of work especially if you are using 0's or 1's.  I am doing these on 2's so they go pretty quick.

   We had Bella's pictures taken again.  Here is one of her in the Modella Giuditta I had made.

Look at her in this little chair!  HEHE

Bella says Happy Easter!!

Please dont think there has been such a lack of knitting that I have to show you pictures of my deviled eggs!!  They are actually molded chocolate candy.  Arent they cute?  Kelly and I were in the local candy shop and they had them in the display case so we had to make some.  So far they have been a big hit and everyone thinks they are deviled eggs til they pick them up.

My husband came home from work and looked at me like I was losing my mind for taking pictures of my candy...he doesnt understand. *sigh*

The whole stash!

And finally the good looking one in the family.  My son Nick and Katie decided to play dork.  Katie is Kelly's daughter and they never want for crazy ways to make each other laugh obnoxiously the whole time they are together.  The sad thing is the earrings, boa, and glasses are all from my jewelry box...hmmm.

Fake zits and glasses and the sweater he wore when he was 5!