Squee Sunday post #5

IT came over the weekend - my WINNING SURPRISE from Kathleen!!!! You have to visit her blog to see the cutest little animals that she makes!!!

I got an adorable 3-D version of the witchyknits4ewe sheep complete with hand felted hat!! Here are two views for you:





And, how cute and sweet is this?! Not just a happy dumpling, but a GLUTEN FREE happy dumpling!!! I got the biggest kick out of seeing her label!!! Too cute!! Here he is:






Thank you so much Kathleen - this was so much fun!! Seriously, you all need to check out her blog! And speaking of blogs, don't forget to visit Calophi for some more Squee Sunday posts!!

FO Friday!

Taa Daa!!! The Self-Fringing Shawl is finished!! The ribbon yarn is very easy to work with - same as any other yarn. The only somewhat annoying part is that it does twist which creates that unique pattern - kind of like yarn that has the think/thick slubs to it, I guess... anyway, here it is. I apologize for the color distortion. We took the pic at night and the lamp seems to make it a bit more orange-y than it really is...





On another FO, I was feeling kind of down, and decided to get my nails done to make myself feel better. Aren't they pretty?





For more FO Friday posts, visit Tami!

WIPW number 11

I have two WIP's for this week. First is the self fringing shawl from last week, and then I am using the same yarn for a hat.

Here is the shawl:




Here is a closer pic of the stitches so you can see how the ribbon yarn twists itself to make an interesting pattern:




Here it is about 3/4 of the way done: (It looks more orange-y in this pic for some reason)




Here is a picture of the beginning of the hat done on size US 10 DPN's:



So, that's it for my WIP's. For more, visit Tami's blog!

L is for... Lace!

I've decided to dedicate this post to lace knitting. There are such mixed emotions with lace. Some people love it, others hate it. It can be an involved pattern that keeps you on your toes and requires your attention, or it can be a simple repeat that you can do while watching tv. Lace can be on socks, hats, shawls, scarves or mitts. It can be done anywhere in your knitting. It can add such a dramatic look or a delicate sweet style. Here are some of my lace projects:

The yo ho ho scarf:





The Ene Shawl:





The Eyelet Shawl:



The Diana ( which was both lace and entrelac):




The Purple Dream Mitts:





The Diamond Tail:



Hope you enjoyed my lace knitting pics! For more ABC posts, tune in to Charlotte's blog!!

Squee Sunday post #4

For my Squee Sunday post, I decided to squee about the Trenton Thunder/Reading Phills game, all of my animals from camp and the fact that I was interviewed by Charlotte on her blog!! Enjoy the crazy animal pics!!

Look how big my ducks got - here they are before when we were using a trash can lid for their little pond (just to give you an idea of how small they were):





And now, they are in a storage bin bucket and are quickly outgrowing that too! They've lost a lot of their baby fuzz and are getting feathers!!




We took our dog over one weekend to see how he would get along with them. They were all very curious. The alpaca was nose to nose with him and it was so cute but I couldn't snap the pic fast enough... here he is with a goat and one of the sheep:



This one's blurry but the goat was trying to head butt him!!



Then my parents came to visit. Patches was very friendly and entertaining while he tried to eat my mom's purse!!








To take a break from camp a bit, we went to the Reading Phills and Trenton Thunder game. Shane Victorino was doing his rehab there!! Here he is at bat:




And here he is on the board:





The Trenton Thunder Mascot was pretty funny running around all over:





Okay, getting back to camp, here are just some funny pics that I had to share. The horses where crazy with the heat and starting really playing and chasing each other. Most of the pics were blurry but these came out pretty good:




Doesn't it look like they're kissing???




This one is really funny - Yogi does this weird lip thing when you tickle his nose. Marie tickled long enough for me to get this pic! He just looks so funny to me when he does this!!!



Notice she is wearing the friendship bracelet I made her as part of our Health Pact!!

It was brutally hot on Friday and it really wiped everyone out; including poor Scooter who was just exhausted by it!




This last one I actually posted on Friday but it is so cool I thought I'd share it again. Drew was trying to get a face shot of the goat and since every time he bent down to him, the goat stuck his face too close or tried to eat the camera, he decided to go up high and look down on him. It just struck me as a really neat pic.




So, that's it for my Sunday Squee. I hope you enjoyed the interview and the pics!! For more squees, visit Calophi on her blog!

FO Friday!

I have lots to share today!! Some not quite knitting related but I wanted to share them anyway in case you don't get a chance to see my Squee Sunday post.

Here is the finished Corkscrew Scarf - I was so worried it wouldn't be long enough - I can't believe how long it came out!! For those who were interested in the pattern, I casted on 160 sts, knit three row and then began the increases. I did this by increasing in every stitch, purling back, increasing in every stitch again, purling back and repeating this until there were about 2500 - 3000 sts. Then I bound off with the fuzzy yarn. It was a pain in the butt to bind off and took two days but it was worth it. So, here it is:




My next pic is the friendship bracelet I made for Marie. For anyone who missed my explanation, the short version is we made a health pact to eat better and exercise and made each other bracelets as tangible reminders to do this and say NO to junk food.



Last is just a really cool picture that I wanted to share. Drew (my Assistant Counselor) was trying to take pictures of our camp goat Patches. Somehow, he ended up on the tree looking down on Patches. My timing with my phone camera was perfect - he gave me permission to share this and wants to know what you all think of it!





My final FO to leave you with is my Interview on Charlotte's blog - I hope you enjoy it! For more FO Friday posts, please visit Tami!!

WIPW number 10

I have a lot of Works in Progress to share today!!! First of all, I did finish the corkscrew shawl from last week but not in time for FO Friday, so here is another peak at it and I'll show you the finished one project on Friday.




Next, I started a Self Fringing shawl which is a design by Lisa Triebwasser from Knit One Crochet Too featured here. This will be another for the Craft Show.



Here is a close up of the yarn - it's from Plymouth:




Next , is a pic a friendship bracelet that I am making for Marie. However, there is a story behind it. A bunch of us from camp all decided that we need to really stick to eating healthier and get exercising so we are forming our own "Healthy Support Group!" We are making each other friendship bracelets to help be physical reminders to lead us out of temptation when we are faced with snacks or other unhealthy choices. Also, we are walking a very hilly mile and a half every afternoon. Because of this week's heat wave, we are encouraging each other to work out at home. I have been doing 11 minutes on the rebounder in the morning and am trying to do another 11 in the evenings!! Here is one of bracelets:




Last of all, I wanted to share that I am being interviewed tomorrow by Charlotte on her blog so please check in to see how it was!

For more WIPW posts, visit Tami here!!

K is for... Karate & Knitting!!

Karate or Knitting... I couldn't decide which one I should write about so I'm doing both!! My family has been involved in karate for 9 years now!! We are a Black Belt Family as well. My sons are both on our karate school's demo team and my husband and I coach the Jr and Sr Demo teams. My older son has been a part of team Straight Up which is an international team and is ranked 9th in the United States. Here are you tube videos of our teams, both of which won first place in the Tournament!! I couldn't figure out how to embed them so here is the link for Junior Demo. Here is Senior Demo. Those of you who know my kids will recognize them, but Jarett is on Junior Demo (he actually just moved up to the Sr Team but is still on Jr in this video) and is kind of in the middle, but he's the one doing the back handspring towards the middle of the video. Matt is in the center of the three boys on the Sr Team video and does tons of flips and all of the weapons. Can you tell how proud I am??

On to knitting now! My blog, witchyknits4ewe is now officially an LLC!!! It is now witchyknits4ewe, LLC. Mary, who is listed as a contributor but has been more of a silent partner, and I have been working away to make this into a real business and write a book. We have lots of patterns and are very excited about all of this. I would love to be able to retire from my day job and do nothing but knitting related things.... ahhhh, such would be the life, right?! So, for some samples of my designs feel free to browse the free pattern page and let me know what you do or do not like so that our book will meet all of your needs. Mind you, the patterns listed are fairly easy and some of what will be in the book will be more advanced, but we are trying to have something for everyone. With that, I have to put in a plug that I am being interviewed by our very own Charlotte who started this whole ABC meme to begin with!!! The interview will take place on her blog on Thursday, July 21st!! I hope you all tune in to read it!!

So, that's my ABC post for this week! I hope you enjoyed it and for more ABC posts, visit Charlotte!!

Squee Sunday post #3

I have an exciting post to talk about!!! I won a surprise giveaway!!! No, I don't know what it is - all I know is that it's something crazy and wacky! Kathleen sent me an email that I won!! How crazy is that?! Now I'm all in suspense waiting to see what it is.... will it be one of her silly monsters? I have no idea!!! So, when I find out, I will surely let you know!!

The other "squee" is I got to hold a three week old baby Pot Belly Pig!!! I can't keep her at camp yet because she needs to be fed through the night still (she's on a bottle to make her more people friendly) and my husband drew the line at letting me take her home each night. Hopefully the last couple of weeks of camp she'll be able to make it through the night with no feeding and I can take her. Isn't she adorable though???



For more Squee Sunday posts, visit Calophi!!!

FO Friday!

I'm really late posting, but it's short so I guess that's okay... I finished another scarf for the Craft Show and almost had the pink one ready to show but I've only bound off half of it so it will have to wait until next week. So, here is another crazy novelty yarn scarf!




For more FO's, visit Tami!

WIPW number 9

It's another Wednesday already and I am on another scarf for the craft show. This one is going to be a corkscrew scarf. I'm using a plain acrylic pink and a novelty fuzzy pink as the trim. I'm not 100% sure of what size it will end up, as I started it at camp and didn't have a pattern. So, if it turns out to be short, I'll sell it as a kid's scarf! I also didn't think about the project I was going to make and had no stitch markers on me so I improvised with blue masking tape that I looped together to make a ring. Craft-si-ness is alive and well here!! Hahaha!! So, without further ado, here is my work in progress for this week!





For more WIP's check out Tami's blog!