All Dressed Up

My Brother In Law got married right before my trip and I managed to snap a few pictures of the kids in their finery.

Insert this conversation into this picture.

Me: KD go stand by your sister. Get Closer! Noley come on get in the picture honey. Miss M smile. KD get closer to your sister!!
KD: I don't want to stand by her!
Me: OK Noley get in between them. I'll give you a sucker.
Miss M: (smiles nicely)
KD: I'm not standing by her!
Noley runs away.

These are the best of the pictures minus one I am using for Christmas cards.

Here is a picture of the Pimlico shrug. I thought it was way too big but it served its purpose for the wedding. I felted it just the other day, which would have been fine except there was a small issue with my timer not being set right and it got felted too much. It fits me but not as well as I would like. One of my sisters is going to get it I think.

Note the folded up sleeves and the fact that this "shrug" goes down to my butt. Yikes! I mean I knew it was big when I was knitting it but was in complete denial since I was in such a time crunch. I plan to make it again with smaller needles and possibly finer yarn.

I have a hat for KD and a scarf to show you next time, along with pictures of the felted Pimlico shrug. Talk to you all soon!

Home again, Home again...

Jiggity, Jig.

My trip in pictures, there just aren't the words to say how absolutely perfect this trip was. I really didn't want to come home.

Horseback riding on the beach.

We stopped here to rest our legs, it was like an oasis.

My favorite night out for dinner at Blu. Eating on the beach with my girls, I felt like I was in a movie. (My sister on the left, me on the right)

Cabarete, Dominican Republic

Common entertainment there (no chickens were hurt, they have spur covers)
A Street in Puerta Plata

Our balcony

Our boys Fabio and Alex, they are the activity guys at the resort.

We were sad to leave them, they were great guys and we got to know them pretty well. I hope they have the good lives they were striving for.

Lots of pictures to inspire new yarn colors too.





Knitting content will return next posting I promise. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

And Done.

I am officially out of time to pack for the trip. I leave to the Cities tomorrow for my BIL's wedding on Saturday. My shrug is still on the needles but I have less than 2 inches left of the ribbing around the collar so I think I can finish. There are 504 stitches in each round though. The potential to not finish is there but I plan on wearing it on Saturday and have no backup. It Will Be Done.



In the last two weeks I worked 24 hours, went to a class to get CEU's for my license, did a lot of laundry, ran kids to the dentist, bought a gift for the wedding, packed myself for the big trip and still have to pack my kiddo's. Yikes! I have a pedicure appt tonight and I think it is well deserved. Plus it is a gift certificate from the hubby for Valentines day. I know that is in February, I needed to find just the right time to go:)



Fall is here and our leaves have peaked already but it is my favorite season. I hope your Fall is going well. I'll leave you with a picture of my kidlets enjoying a fall hike since neither I or my house is fit to be seen right now.



The Pimlico shrug will have a photo shoot when I get back.

Pimlico Shrug

There is progress on the Pimlico Shrug which is good since I have to wear it on Oct 11th. I like this pattern, it is easy to memorize. We'll see how I feel when I get to the ribbing. There is a lot of ribbing. Here's a picture of Noley and Saunaknitters baby playing cars. It was too cute to not share. They love playing with each other.

I'm off to knit and pack and go to many, many appointments today. My yarns are now at Yarn Harbor if you're interested. Thanks for the tips on airline travel and knitting. I will pack accordingly.

Misc Things and An Award!

I have so many things to update you on and no pictures:(

School started right after Labor day and my kiddos went off to 3rd and 1st grade. Getting back into the routine of school wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. 3rd grade is more homework and less free time for me than I thought. KD isn't into telling me much about what goes on at school. So that means I have to hound him about homework and reading assignments and all kinds of of forms ect to fill out. Yikes!

I feel like I am in school again sometimes.

Miss M loves school and is super smart so it isn't hard for her, unlike her brother who struggles a bit more. She has a harder time with the social aspects of it being a sweet sensitive soul who has her feelings hurt easily. We have had one call from the teacher already just to talk about a bad day. She was hit in the mouth accidentally and someone was messing with her water bottle on the same day. Bummer.

Nolan enjoys not having the older kids around and having Momma to himself:)

On the knitting front the Pimlico Shrug (ravelry link) coming along. Luckily it is knit on size 8 needles and has a eyelet pattern which is easy to memorize. I only have until Oct 11th so I am starting to feel the crunch.

Did I mention that I leave for a week in the Dominican Republic right after the wedding? No kids, no hubby just my mom, sister, and cousin. The reality of this trip is starting to sink in. But I think it will not feel real until I get on the plane. I haven't taken an airplane since KD was a baby so around 7 years ago. Yikes! Any tips about what can and can't get through security?

The best news of all is my recent yarn order from the LYS in Duluth. I will officially have my dyed yarns in her shop this week or next, depending on how quickly I can get the rest of the stuff dyed. Local knitters check me out at Yarn Harbor in the Woodland area. Hopefully this is the start of a regular thing for me since the Etsy orders and few and far between. I am happy to have any orders though. I started this blog on a whim and the Etsy shop was the same. Just dove in head first and d#*^ the consequences.

Last but not least:

I was honored with the Arte y Pico award by Guinifer of Halfway Down the Stairs. I don't know what is nicer her comment on my dyeing or my cute kids. Thank you Guinifer!

Here are the rules that I pasted from Guinifer's blog.

1.) Show the award. Link back to the blog that gave you the award.

2) Pick 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award because of creativity, design, interesting material, and contributions to the blogger community, no matter of language, and link to them.

3) Leave comments on the blogs to let them know you've given them an award.

4) Show the link to the Arte y Pico blog , so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5) Show these rules.

I decided to chose some local gals who I follow since there are many, many blogs I like.

Too Much Yarn is Christine who is the queen of many socks and has a serious sock yarn obsession.

One Knitter's Notebook Wendy knits great stuff for her kids and hubby, plus she is my first bloggy friend I met in real life.

Vegan Craftastic Kala just got married and knits all vegan fibers. Love her knits.

HollyKnitlightly Holly is really close to me and a Finn! Who doesn't love that? Plus she knits cute sweaters for herself.

Nova Made Ok Nova isn't local but she inspires me to try whatever craft I want because she does and makes coool stuff for her little boy.

Later Dudes!

He Makes Me Proud

I taught KD how to knit yesterday. He woke me up this morning to ask if he could knit. Ummm... Yeah!
He is head over heels in love with it!

Knitting progress here, my dad's sweater is coming along, I fixed the problem and am almost ready to divide it for armholes and the neck edge. I am starting to be done with this so I better get moving on it. Hopefully by Christmas I can give this to him:)

What are you all up to? Knitting on as usual.

Last Summer Fling (spoiler alert Woolgirl sock club at the bottom)

Our last hurrah and we just got back. B had some work to do in Brainerd, MN so we packed up the kids and went to the water park at the hotel there. If you want a fun place to stay try The Lodge. Woodsy themed hotel a little hokey but has a fun water park. The kids loved it.

Miss M would not let me take her picture, KD had a blast there and went down the tube slide many times all by himself. He was wearing a life jacket but he was still super proud.

I am feeling guilty that there is little knitting content to show here, but I do have yarn. My Woolgirl sock club package came this week and this is by far my favorite of the installments. Great package and good color, plus 2 patterns for socks! I can chose my favorite, awesome. Here's a picture.

I am plugging along on my dad's sweater and it is finally getting somewhere but I have hit a snag. There is a mistake in the pattern and I should just rip back but I have tried to knit back a couple times.

It. Is. Not. Working.

I will get up the nerve to just rip it back soon but I can't face it. I will probably start another pair of socks first. Gotta take the edge off you know?

Later Dudes.

PS. Go to Fibreholic for a fun blog contest.