my secret Pal rocks

After Stamping yesterday I came home and went to the mail box and there was a box, and it said Secret Pal on it. I opened it and look what I got.

Inside it had, #13 Bamboo knitting needles, notecards, two snowman soaps, sock shaped needle protectors, a melon scented candle and 3 balls of Andean Silk in the color Lettuce. I think I allready know what it's going to be, I think I'll make a nice shrug out of it. It is so soft.
THANK YOU SECRET PAL!!!!!!

Other things:
I went for a walk with Zoe, so far everyday, we are working on "sit" now, and puppy classes are fun.
OTN: Pie square shawl is stalled for the moment, I had to knit two "Cunning Hats" and Zoe ate my needles again, I need to remember to put my knitting up.
Branching out, I got two repeats done last night.

Weigh in...

It is Saturday and I weighed in. I haven't lost any, but also haven't gained any. I am ok with that.
As for my last weeks goals. I walked everyday since monday, twice on Mo, Tue & Fri. Zoe is good for me, I take her with me and I feel guilty if I would not take her. Steve took her Wed & Thur night, cause I wasn't feeling well.
I have been drinking water just not enough. And I have been eating breakfast allmost everyday.
Goals for the coming week:

Keep walking
drinking my water
eat one fruit a day




As for Rita, we are good, it is windy here but nothing else. Thanks for everybodys concern and good thoughts.

Random Notes...

For right now, we still have blue skies, but they say, we should get some clouds and winds should pick up this afternoon. The good thing it won't be 101 degrees like it was yesterday. The weatherman says that we are going to feel the effects of Rita beginning next week and then we could have some severe flooding. I sure hope not.
Austin, has been hosting 8000 evacuees so far, and they are expecting a lot more. The grocery stores are madhouses. I couldn't get milk yesterday and there was allmost no bread left, peanutbutter was gone, soups were gone and Water was out. I am going to fill every Pitcher I have and some recycling bottles with water, just in case. Anika might get early dismissal if they are opening her school as a shelter. Everybody is in my thoughts and prayers.
Steve's company closed the office in Houston on Wednesday to make sure their employees will be save. I never experienced anything like this in Switzerland. Yes we have big thunderstorms, and flooding. But nothins like this. It scares me a bit.
Soccer games also have been cancelled. So I guess tomorrow, will be a fun day, I am getting some videos to watch tomorrow, and I am also planning to scrapbook with my friend.

OTN: Well Rogue is still waiting to be blocked, I hope I can get myself in gear and do it this weekend. I restarted Pies are square shawl, cause I didn't like the way it looked, and started to knit it with a #6 now instead of #8. It looks so much better. I am also still waiting on some orange yarn for more cunning hats which I need to make at least two of this weekend. I hope it comes in the mail today. Then of course Branching out.
This is it for now. I will post weight loss stuff tomorrow.

My 80's Heartthrob

Your 80s Heartthrob Is

Kirk Cameron

Who's Your 80's Heartthrob?

He is cute. LOL Got this cute Idea from Jane, thanks Jane.

Knitting front, I managed to knit about 8 rows on Pies are square shawl, the thing is, I have over 200 stitches on there, but in another 12rows that number will double. LOL I will take me a while to get it done. But I do like my new stitchmarkers to use with it.

Look what I made...

Yes I tried myself at making stitchmarkers. The picture sadly doesn't do them justice. The big bead is black and has pink, copper and green swirls in it. I used a 10mm jumpring, for the big ring and some colored glass beads. I also made some for my SP but not posting any pictures, dont' wanna give away the surprise.
Haven't knitted in two day, but hope that I can tonight. It is way to hot here in TX, the heat index is like over 100. So I got me some Club Soda and I'll be making me a white wine Spritzer in a bit. Hope it gets cooler soon.

Weigh in....

I weighed yesterday morning and was down a pound from 2 weeks ago.
My goals for this week are:

Eat Breakfast
Drink my water
and go walking more often.




On the knitting front, I started Pies are square shawl, had some beginning trouble, but now am in full mode.

Wow... & SP6

Is all I can say. I went and got the mail today and I found this in my mail box. Thank you so much Jane. What a great gift, I might actually have to get one for my friend and neighbor, I think she would like it.
Thanks again.

Also got my SP6 pal today, and also got a cute e-card from my secret Pal. I am excited to be involved in this exchange, I have done somethign similar before on a cross stitch board I belonged to. Had tons of fun with it.
I now just need to find some fun stuff to send to my pal.

Emergency Surgery...

Had to be done to Lars' lovey. It's a pillow that I made Ions ago for Anika and Lars took a love to it, and it's his pillow, it's purple with flowers on it, he loves it. It had some holes in it, and the stuffing is all lumpy but it's his pillow, well tonight I held Lars after his bath and he had pillow and Zoe jumped up grabbed it and RIIIIPPPP a huge gash. So now after surgery ( fixed the holes too), the pillow is shorter, and now I have two things to keep track of, cause Lars, took the piece I cut from the pillow and won't let go of it. Well at least he got to go to sleep with his lovey, it does look all patchy. I hope to take a picture in the morning and attach it to the blog.

Tuesday...

Now that Rogue is pretty much done, I have been working on Branching out, I love the Material, it's a lime green Alpaca wool, very yummy to work with.
I also started on the Pie Square Shawl for my mom, but had to send an e-mail to knitpicks to see if they can tell me what needles size they used with theirs. Since I got the yarn from them.
Also on the Cunning(ugly) hat front, I have orders for 3 of them so I need to get those knit before the movie Serenity hits the Theaters.
That's it from Texas for now.

a rainy day...

it was in Texas today. So I got some knitting in. I finished the second sleeve on Rogue, now I need to fix the hood, block, sew the sleeves in and weave the ends in too, that's it.
I also started "Branching Out" from Knitty.com yesterday and got some more on that done. All in all it was a productive Sunday.

my Questionnair for SP6

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you?
I am not a yarn snob, I like nice yarns, I knitted myself a nice poncho out of LionBrand wool Ease last year.

2. Do you spin? Crochet? I can crochet, but I prefer to knit.

3. Do you have any allergies? Nope no known allergies.

4. How long have you been knitting? I learned to knit in school when I was 8 in Switzerland, I remember my first project was a knitted kitty in bright yellow cotton yarn.

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Not yet, but hopefully will soon.

6. What's your favorite scent? I love watermelon, cucumber, fresh scents

7. Do you have a sweet tooth? What a question, I am from Switzerland, chocolate is my downfall.

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? I scrapbook, and sew when I have time.

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) I like any kind of music, Rockmusic, and yes my computer plays MP3

10. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand? I like oranges, pinks, peaches, greens, I like bright colors.

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? I am married, have two kids, Anika my 5yrs old girl and Lars is my 2.5yrs old boy, oh and there is Steve my hubby, our two cats Missy and Neo and our newest addition, Zoe our puppy.

12. What are your life dreams? Not so sure, cause I am pretty happy where I am at right now.

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? I like Wool of the Andes from knitpicks, or the Cascade yarns are nice too.

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? I kind of don't like the Redheart one.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s? To finish Rogue

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? I knit anything, socks are pretty easy for me to knit.

17. What are you knitting right now? I am working on Rogue right now, hope to finish that withing the next week and then start on the pie square shawl for my mom.

18. What do you think about ponchos? Made myself one and made Anika 2 of them.

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? It doesn't matter.

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? Ok, here I am a snob, I love Bamboo.

21. Are you a sock knitter? I do knit socks.

22. How did you learn to knit? I learned in school.

23. How old is your oldest UFO? 3months I think.

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird? I like Anima, Inuyasha, and my favorite Animal is the Lion. Oh I also like snowman.

25. What is your favorite holiday? Halloween and Christmas

26. Is there anything that you collect? Snowman

27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? None

28. Any books out there you are dying to get your hands on? The knitting handbook, and knitting into the mystery, I think it's what it's called.

29. Any patterns you have been coveting, but haven't bought for one reason or another?? Nope not yet.

ugggh...

The joys of a new puppy incluedes that I have to go to my LYS tomorrow and get me a new pair of bamboo circular knitting kneedles so I can finish Rogue. Yep you guessed Zoe decided that my knitting is her Chewtoy. Not, thank goodness nothing else got harmed.
I am also going to get the needels for pie square shawl and maybe some yummy lace yarn for branching out to do the knitalong.

finally...

I was able today and clean my house, uggh, for the past two weeks either me or someone else in my family was sick.
Zoe is doing great, she is such a joy.
The kids are great and loving school, I think Anika get her 10th sticker today, which means she gets to go in the price box at school and here at home she gets a new bearenstein bear book. She loves those books.
I had to frogg the whole pattern of the second sleeve of Rogue yesterday cause I realized that I forgot to pick up stitches, so off we start again today. LOL that sweater is costing me.
Anyways, I love the book "knitting arround" I read all about Elizabeth Zimmermann's story, it was so interessting. And I found a couple of things I like to knit from it.
For one the Mobeius scarf and the bog jacket for the kids. And of course the Pie scuare shawl for my mom.
I forgot to post pictures of first day of school so here they are.

Other than that not much going on here.

What a week...

Sunday we got a new puppy, her name is Zoe, after the firefly character. She is black and we don't know exactly what she is, but we know, her and 5 siblings got abandoned when they were only a week old. The shelter bottle fed her and she is as sweet as can be, I fell in love with her ears. The second one is trying really hard to stand up too. If Zoe grows into her ears she will be a pretty big dog. LOL

On the knitting front, since we have Zoe, haven't had time to knit, but hopefully this weekend I will be able to catch up a bit. I also got my Knitpicks order in yesterday, and got the knitting arround book and 4 hanks of turqoise shimmer, yummy is all I can say, can't wait to get started on my mom's shawl. There is also a really cool Jacket in there, that looks awesome to knit. Maybe gotta do that too.

Today, College Football starts which means there will be many saturdays, that I will be alone with the kids. Steve is so excited, he waits all year for this and finally UT (university of Texas) is playing. He has season tickets, 10yrs the same seats. LOL I hope it will be a good game tonight.
What else? Oh yeah got on the scale today and didn't like the results, gaines a 1lb and a half back. Uggh. I didn't walk this week, but hope to start again this coming week.