Chicago...

What a weekend! I left on Thursday for Chicago and it was a great weekend. My flight was supposed to leave at 7:00 pm. EST but with the storm coming in I decided to call to see if I could get on a different flight, and luckily I got on the 1:29 p.m. EST flight and made it into Chicago at 2:30 p.m. CST. I was so happy to get there and see the girls!

Ava was so sweet. I walked in, put my arms out for a hug, and she came right to me! It was very sweet :)

This is Lila Olive. She was having some sleeping problems, but as long as I was holding her, she fell asleep right away. It surprised me that she is 9 lbs. 2 oz already, but really skinny.

This is my niece dog, Bella. She is an Anatolian Shepherd and all White. She is beautiful but a little crazy. She isn't like most anatolian's because she isn't as fierce and stuff.

Close up of her face. She is just such a beautiful dog.

Ava loves to eat, even if just a little something, she loves it! When I would eat my cereal in the morning, she would want bites of it.

We went to the beach on Saturday for about an hour. It was fun while we were there, but the girls started getting a little cranky. Ava had on her bathing suit and was ready to go swimming!

She is always giving stuff to everyone, but then she takes it back. It just makes me laugh. When she gets older, they will teach her to share.

I wanted to get some good pictures for Drew and Kristine to have delvoped and put on the wall going up the staircase in their house. This one I will turn to Black and White and then have it frame for them. Along with a few others I took.

Ava has a BMW car that she likes to ride in the driveway. I was puching her around the drivway, then she wanted to push me...

Lila is almost 8 weeks old and she is so alert. She has the biggest and most beautiful eyes I have ever seen :)

I still can't get over how much I love these little girls! I really feel like an aunt now and it feels great! I can't wait to see them again soon. I will need to plan another trip to Chicago as soon as I can!

In other news, I finished a hat for my brother and it fits him perfectly! It's a hat with a theme... GO IRISH! It's a Notre Dame hat because we are all big ND fans! I also think I will be signing up for a photography class from here to work on my skills and really get to know my camera better. I would take the intermediate class. We will see...

I will be back soon :)

Flashing my stash...

I was organizing all my yarn last week because I got an ich to do so and it was just a mess in the "knitting corner' we have. In this big basket is mostly my worsted weight yarn, malabrigo, Berroco Comfort, and Dream in Color Classy (for THE sweater). Most of it has homes to go to, but a few skeins are still waiting to becoming something beautiful.

Here you can see more of the MMMMalabrigo. I still haven't gotten over how soft this yarn is.

Here is all my great sock yarn. I have counted up the skeins and I have enough for 12 pairs of socks.. not including the socks I showed in my last post.

There are such good yarns in this basket (which is from TJMaxx and its awesome!). I have lots of Jitterbug, STR, The Unique Sheep, Koigu, Shibui, Lorna's Laces and few others.

And in this chair.. We have most of my project bags, knitting needles and notions bags. This still needs some good organizing. I think I will be getting some more needle cases for my circs and straights.. and maybe another DPN case too. They are soo handy! Although, this is just ANOTHER reason I wish I knew how to sew... Maybe I will take lessons or something...

Off to Chicago tomorrow to FINALLY meet my new niece, Lila, and to see Ava. I can't wait and just know there will be LOTS of pictures taken! And hopefully a few FO's as well...

FO, WIPs, and YARN!!!!!

All kinds of good stuff to share with you all! I have an FO that I finished last week to share first. It's the Couvercle hat from Knitty. I love this hat and I know I will be making many more.

A little better lighting for the real color of the hat.

This is a hat that I started last week but frogged while at work on Saturday. I wasn't pleased out it was coming out. I restarted it the same day and finished it last night. But the BF took it before I got a picture... I also started a new hat in NOTRE DAME colors last night and it's almost finished already.. I think I will be making at least 2 more of these after I'm done. Brother, Dad and BF are getting hats for Christmas!

These are basic socks for my mom. I have been slowly working on these during some of my doctor's appointments I've been having.

These are my Sailor's Delight in Dream in Color Smooshy. I really like these socks, but after a whole summer of nothing but socks... I'm got a little bored.

Noro Sock KAL with my girls Wendy, Stacey, and Chan. We are all knitting the Anastasia pattern with noro sock yarn. It's a great pattern, easy after I figured out how to do toe up and fast with the Noro.

Wendy had this crazy sock yarn in her stash, Tofutsies. I knew she would never use it, so I was trying to make the Charade socks with it. I will need to rip and restart because the cables are all wonky and pulling the sock weird ways, but I might see if it looks okay on my sock blocker first...

OH MY GOODNESS. When I opened the package from my Secret Swap Pal from the Summer of Yarn Love swap, I SCREAMED!!!! SOCKS THAT ROCK! I have never even seen a skein of this in person and there it was in my hands, my very own skein. I was very lucky to have a great swap partner!!! :)

Here are the colors on the back... LOVE IT! It's called Chapman Springs.

I got this excellent sock yarn from Eat.Sleep.Knit and I love it! It's Unique Sheep in Cherry Blossom. I am kind of obsessed with cherry blossoms, so I knew I had to add this to the collection. I am still working on getting a tattoo of a cherry blossom branch on my foot... I can't wait.

Next I am flashing some of my stash.. Just because I finally got it all organized and it's so pretty... :) And at least 1 more hat! :)

Memorials and Malabrigo....

Last night I had my weekly dinner with my girls, aka the SHE (sisterhood of the epicurious) and when we were driving back from a fantastic greek dinner we noticed that they pentagon is light up with blue lights and a very large US Flag for the dedication of the Pentagon Memorial for 9/11.

We thought we might be able to get a good picture from the Air Force Memorial looking at the Pentagon... I tried a few different things.. The first is the Air Force Memorial, which is actually a really awesome memorial that I hadn't even visited yet...

My friend Sarah was with me so I took her picture with the memorial and the Washington Momument in the background...



These are the four guys that are standing next to the memorial...

I attempted a few different shots of the Pentagon with its blue and the flag, but I couldn't get my regular lense to get a good shot, so I did a longer exposure and got this cool shot with the bus lights...

Oh, I was so excited to get this package! I order some (13 skeins) of malabrigo from Eat.Sleep.Knit on Friday and got this package on Monday. She has the best shipping EVER!!!!! Most of this is for Christmas presents, because I'm actually starting early. I have been itching for the last few days to start a new hat, since I finished one on monday night, but I haven't been able to... Tonight there will be new hats started....

Just a few more pictures of all the mmmmmmalabrigo goodness in the box...

There are a few good neutral colors in there for my brother, Olive, Dark Earth, Marron Mscuro, Verde Esperanza, and Oceanos and they are all worsted weight. Then some fun girlie colors for me, my sil, maybe those cute little ones in the last post... Ava and Lila :) The colors for the girls are Velvet Grapes in worsted, Hollyhock in chunky, Pink Frost in chunky, Hummingbird in chunky, and finally Cuarzo in chunky. I can't wait to get to work with this yarn... It's going to be amazing.. not to mention it's going to feel amazing on the hats... MMMMMMalabrigo...

Next up, a finished hat and some socks that have yet to be seen...

Oh, and my AMAZING new CAMERA bag from CozyLiving on esty... She is amazing, the bag is amazing and it's just the best purchase I've made since my camera. I highly reccommend checking it out if you have a SLR camera...

Nieces...

Since I don't have any progess pictures, yet, I'll distract you with my two really cute nieces :) This is A and she is doing so well! She was born very early, but has now progressed so well that she is up to her age and development level..

eating ribs.. YUM!

Here she is after eating all the ribs with food ALL over the place..

I like being messy when I eat :)

A with L in the Vibrating chair.. She is sooo cute with her new little sister!

helping little sister in her chair.

Here is Miss L. She was born August 6th, at 8:02 a.m.! She is doing so well already..

such a cute face

I love this little girl and I haven't even met her yet....

I'm very excited to be going to visit these two little girls as well as my brother and sil at the end of September. They are so cute and it's been a long time since I saw my brother, sil and A... :)

Up next... a finished CLAPPEE!!!!!!! FINALLY :) And some other fun stuff too...

Just to let you know... Eat.Sleep.Knit is a GREAT online yarn store with lots of sock yarn, malabrigo, dream in color, etc... IT's AWESOME!!!! Go visit her :) She is have a yarnathon and I'm doing really well... You can help just by clicking on the links!