to the shop!!

 I finally got around to listing new items in my esty shop. It's TheHoboKnitShop if you didn't already know. Some lovely little fiber batts and fabric knot necklaces were added. Take a look. Run little hobo!! (^_^)

a fast update

 We have been having a bit of a cold spell down in sunny Florida. All that knitting paid off.. the grand kiddies are nice and cozy.

 A fast update on the holiday knitting. At this point everyone will be receiving smaller knit items.. hats, mittens, scarves and worsted socks. The hat is for Abby and since no one was interested in purchasing this pretty yarn from my etsy shop, I decided it would make a nice warm earflap hat for her. The above picture is a bramble cowl. Not sure if I like the tweed yarn. I have a solid color that I might use instead. I'm still deciding which to use. I think it's time for Santa's little helper.. The KNitting Machine!!

Time to get knitting

 Can you believe that I finally finished this sweater. I can't. I don't know what took me so long. Anyway it is finished and it fits him well. Now on to the next projects. Let me see ... my son wants socks.. the other one lost all his hats.. I need to crochet a sweater for Abby.. a vest for Cameron.. and some wee little socks for Micah. Can I do it!!.. I don't know but I'm going to start today. Good thing the weather here has turned cold. It was only in the 30's last night. That is really cold for Florida. I need to work on a big project to keep my lap warm. I like how knitting keeps my hands warm and as I knit my project is nice and warm from my hands. 


I whipped up this little crochet hook case as a door prize for my knitting group Christmas party. If there is time I will make a few to sell in my esty shop.
Time to get knitting.. see you again soon.. (o_~)

A new baby..

 I finally finished these slippers for my daughter last night and brought them to the hospital today so she could wear them. She became a mommy again yesterday morning. She gave birth to a little boy, Micah Eli, 8 lbs, 20" long. The new nursery is all ready and waiting his arrival. Both mom and baby are healthy and recovering quickly and will hopefully be home some time tomorrow.

 The proud Daddy with his 2 sons.. (^_^)

omy... it's Thanksgiving!!

 I know it has been so long since my last post. There are a few reasons. First is that I just haven't been doing that much knitting. As you can see from the picture of Jayden's sweater.. the knitting is finished and the zipper is pinned in ready for me to sew it in. It's been like that for  a few days now. I did start some slippers for my daughter a week ago and they are almost finished except for the edging and little straps. She will be having her second child this coming Tuesday and wanted me to make them for her to wear in the hospital. There will be time to work on these today.
As you know I work in retail and this is our busy season.. extra days of work = less days for knitting. I really like my job. I get to display all the accessories and handbags in the store. Here is a little sneak peek .. shhhh.. 
Happy Thanksgiving to all that read this blog. Thanks for looking and have a great holiday. (^_^)

craftings away...!!

 Today is a day of crafting. Trying to get stuff finished for the etsy shop and finish up that sweater.. It's name is now "that sweater". I'm on the last 4 rows of the sleeve and hope to add the front edging and baste in the zipper sometime today!

almost there!!

 Little by little I've been getting back into the swing of things. A while ago I had been working of some projects that will end up in my Esty shop and some how I haven't worked on them for a few weeks including my knitting. Today I finally made some progress on both and hopefully will finish them soon. I have all these wonderful creative ideas in my head and no time to produce them. Sometime I think I need to be 3 people to get everything done.. including blogging. This is like.. a minute to blog.. finish up projects and run to the store.. work on more projects later etc.  There are only 10 rows left of the last sleeve on Jayden's sweater. Man I hope I can finish this tonight. Friday I have to run to Joann's Fabric for the zipper and my goal is to have all the knitting completed before then. Goals are good. (^_^)

sleepy boy..

 Someone was really tired and fell asleep while watching a show. I couldn't resist taking a picture. At the same time I was working on finishing his sweater. For some reason I have been just inching my way through this sweater which should have been finished already. After my family visited it seems I haven't really sat down to knit. I guess I went on a little knitting vacation too. This is not the time of year that I should be going on a knitting vacation though... it's time to get the holiday knitting finished. I hopefully will get started after I finish this sweater because my list is rather ambitious. Anyway I'm on the last sleeve and all that is left is the 2 from edges and sewing in a zipper. Our Florida weather decided to change all at once from near 90 to the 60's and colder at night and Jayden could use this nice warm sweater. I have off today and plan to put some time into it.

 Maybe it was from all the excitement of going to the Harry Potter Theme park and Epcots food and wine festival.

 Or maybe from having all the little ones here.

 Or the change in seasons.. isn't Hagrids house awesome!! I love the change in seasons here... cooler weather is so welcome after all the months of hot sticky weather. Even the sky looks prettier. Time to do some serious knitting. Or maybe it's time to set up the knitting machine. 0.0

Fun times!!

 My daughter and her family have been visiting from NY and spending time with family, working and visiting the local parks have cut down on knitting and blogging time. I did get  a few rows in here and there. I have about an inch left to knit of the stripe pattern and then 2" of ribbing on the body and one more sleeve to knit. I plan to use a zipper for the closure. I was hoping for a loose fit so Jayden would maybe get 2 seasons out of it, but it fits like it should with about 2" ease so I think it will only be a one season sweater. They just grow too fast!!

 As I type my daughter and family are on their way home. I really enjoyed their visit and spending time with her and her  and the children. She did some delicious baking while here, apple and peach pies. Very yummy..

 We visited the Harry Potter theme park and the Epcot food and wine fest. Had some game nights and just enjoyed the time together. I miss them already. I'm spending a quiet day off today and catching up on things. Hum there is still some of that yummy peach pie in the kitchen ..I hear it calling me.. no no no!!

the Shower!!

 Yesterday we had a small family baby shower at the house for my daughter. Brooke and her husband cooked a delicious autumn dinner of roast pork, squash, green beans and brussel spouts and cornbread stuffing. Brooke also made a the cutest little onesie cake that she decorated. The cake it self was rich chocolate with homemade cherry jam filling. I really didn't get a chance to take a lot pictures. I was busy helping with the food and cleaning up. The day was fun and my daughter received lots of presents for the new little one.

 The chair was a last minute thing I whipped up the night before. She kept telling us she didn't want a chair and her hubby came to me and asked if we could decorate a chair anyway. It was 8pm the night before the shower and I didn't think we could go to the store and get the chair and stuff to decorate. So I ran up the closet and remembered I had bought a bolt of light blue fabric a while ago for curtains but the color just didn't look right in the room. I grabbed a dinning room chair and started cutting. I made a loose cover by just measuring width and length and basically making sleeves. When I was finished there was a perfect size square of fabric from the scraps for a little pillow and then a long strip of fabric left over from the hem to make the bows. She really liked it because it was understated and she  didn't want to sit in a frilly ruffly chair. The total process took about 3 hours. I was really surprised at how fast it was to make and that there was no measuring except for the the back and seat of the chair.  (^_^)

the garage sale

 All set up for a garage sale. The weather was in the 80's so it was a perfect day.  Unfortunately not that many people showed up. The good thing is everything is organized so we can have it again with no problem. My daughter who is 8 months pregnant offered to help so we just hung out for the afternoon chatting. We had a few sales and called it a day. 
I started a new project a few days ago, but have been really busy cleaning out stuff and haven't had time to work on it. I also had the opportunity to work on it during the garage sale and got a little of one sleeve finished. This is going to be a raglan cardigan for Jayden. I started at the neck and am working my way down. The yarn I'm using is an acrylic Noro style yarn that I'm pretty pleased with.
Right now I have  a house full of family visiting and this coming weekend will be the baby shower for my daughter.  All the baby knitting is finished for now the presents are purchased and I just looks like a really nice week ahead of us of visiting and and enjoying the company.

wips on 9/30

 Autumn is in the air, yes even in sunny Florida. Our temps are finally going down a little. For some reason I get energized this time of year and dive head first into projects. In the above picture I dyed some blue face leisester with wilton icing colors and then mixed it with natural fleece at about 50% and then added lots of bamboo nibs which ended up to be a pretty lavender molted effect. Thinking to take a different path I tried to spin it as a thick single, maybe a medium thickness, which I did. I liked the result which was lavender and white with little bamboo nibs popping out here and there and then to finish it off I plied it with a comercial yarn. I ended up with a nice surprise.

 At the Florida Fiber in I purchased a bit of fiber and was saving it for a rainy day, but my daughter had to go to the store and I offered to watch Jayden for her. He is very attached to his mom right now and to distract him I asked him if he would like to make batts with me. Of course he did all tears dry up and we blended these 3 pretty batts. Stary Night, Camp Fire and Blue water. You will find these in my esty shop in a day or so along with a few other surprises. 
And finally.. yes.. I turned the square. This hat is the first of my holiday knitting to be finished. I better get going a little faster!!

getting there.. and finally!!

 Most of the baby knitting is finished. The baby block blanket, 2 diaper covers, matching hat, owlie sleep sack and matching hat and handspun angora baby booties. There is a sweater and baby socks on the list still to be knit and then it's on to holiday knitting.

 It has finally arrived!! Final Fantasy 14. If you didn't know I've been a beta tester for the game for a few months. Most of the time it was rather frustrating because the software was incomplete and laggy and just would disconnect at the worst times. Little by little it would be fixed as the beta testers would post there comments on the game play.. basically we would whine about everything that didn't work and ask for things that we would expect a game like this to have. It was fun. Well the game is released now and I would like to get past level 16 and see other parts of the game finally. I think it was a rushed release and they are still fixing stuff but all in all its a beautiful game with beautiful graphics and music. 

When I finished the baby booties the other night I hadn't picked out the baby sweater I wanted to knit yet so whipped up a Turn a Square hat for my son. I think he will like the colors and the fact that it's an over sized version. He likes big hats . This is such a fast knit I might make one for all the men in my life. (^_^)

SALE.. at the HoboKNitSHop...!!

I can't believe I caught another bug. Some yummy green tea helps. I think I've been run down from not sleeping as much as I need to. Well being home sick gave me time to work on my Esty Shop. I'm having a sale plus destashing some handspun yarns. These are just some of the items I have for sale. Take a look. I also finished all the baby items I was knitting so I have to take a look at my queue to see what I would like to knit next. That could take quite awhile. (^_^)