Madelinetosh Sock, Samples, and Din Din

Today. I accomplished something.

I made dinner. All by myself ^_^ And it’s like.. a semi-fancy dinner. *is extremely proud of self* True, I should be doing that already. BUT I’m just now… working on that skill. :-P

So I made some awesome…kind of macaroni and cheese. It’s out of Martha Stewart’s Comfort Foods, which is a favorite cookbook of my family :-)

And before people say “Oh, you hate cheese.. that’s cheese… WAT??!?”

Yeah, I still do hate cheese. And that’s totally ok. It’s personal preference. But, some things with cheese I like… like pizza. I love pizza. And some macaroni and cheeses, I’m ok with. And for some reason, since I made it… it made it even more ok, haha.

It was uber easy.

It was a basic roux, with some spices and the cheese added in for the sauce. Thennnn you add the noodles and some either actual bread crumbs or some other kind of crumbs

and pop it in the oven for 30 minutes! Easy peasy!

Other important ingredients…

the Dr. Pepper is optional though :-P

So yep ^_^

On knitting news. BIG THINGS. Big big things.

1) I have completely gotten over Big Blue. So, I started a new store sample :-)

It’s uber easy. Just a little keyhole type scarf. Annnd that picture is not accurate as to my progress. I’ve gotten waaaay past that now, haha. But yeah ^_^ I’m excited :-)

and 2)

I. now have 3 skeins. Of my VERY OWN. Madelinetosh Sock. Yarntopia ordered their first shipment in.. annnnnd I’m kinda really really excited about having some now ^_^

In possibly one of the most beautiful colorways in the entire world. it’s called Logwood.

What am I going to do with 3 skeins of Madelinetosh sock, you ask?

I will be making Vitamin D by Heidi Kirrmaier (who is actually the same designer of my Snowbird/Blackbird :-P)

It’s taking all I have NOT to cast it on. *twitch*

I have finished almost 95% of the knitting on one project, it has some kind of lacy collar that is knit afterwards. But other than that, it’s ready to be blocked, which I’ll be doing later today, and put together!

BOOYAH, 3 things finished from my huge stash of UFOs/WIPs. Baby steps :-P

Day 6 – The Best Yarn Store Yet

So. Today. Was our first day in London.

And it was amazing. Fo serious.

Basically, in my…mind/opinion/whatever. London is exactly like New York. But a lot…nicer (no offense to any New Yorkers, New Yorkers at heart, or lovers…of New York. I love New York…but, I like London better. And it’s TOTALLY personal preference :-P)

So yeah! We have a week here, because my pater has some work that he has to do. So, today and tomorrow we’re going to be doing stuff that he wants to do and see stuff that he wants to see. Because he won’t be able to the rest of the week.

Plus, he comes here all the time…and he’s (and the rest of my family. Before Joey and I were born) lived here for a couple of years. So, it’s not like he hasn’t seen anything.

BUT. today. We saw Big Ben (SO COOL! It was from a distance. But sometime this week, my mom, Joey, and I will be going and taking a tour of it. So hopefully there’ll be more pictures :-)

Oh, and The Eye, we saw that from a distance too. My dad really wanted to see that :-P

(pictures of the eye and dad of the eye)

We…WENT TO ONE OF THE BEST YARN STORES SO FAR. HOLY COW. it was AMAZING.

It was called Loop

And. it was. SO COOL. The feel was kinda like the Purl Bee SoHo. But…cooler. And more…British (*loves stating the obvious*) and…it was SOOO COOL.

It was kinda funny actually, because they only had maybe…4, at the most, kinds of yarn that were actually made in the UK. Including Scotland and Ireland…which we had already been too…and seen the yarn there.

The rest of it? It was….American, haha. And Canadian as well. (my mom and I both ended up getting Canadian yarn. IT’S SOOOO PRETTY. mine reminds me of strawberry shortcake. ^_^ *rabbit trail*)

(haha, I’m thowwie thowwie if some of these pictures…aren’t what they’re supposed to be. Something is wacky with wordpress and the pictures I’m uploading. heh heh.

They also had some Madelinetosh yarn. and Wollmeise. Which…I have never seen either one *in person*

So, it was quite an experience to go and actually *touch* both, and…try *not* to drool over the softness of them. And the price, haha.

Anyways. It was soooo amazing. Like, holy cow. HOLLLLY COW. So amazing. Plus, the people were so nice. There were Americans shopping there as well at the time (now, every time I hear an American anywhere, there’s a feeling of familiarity and comfort, haha.) And yessss ^_^

I’m knutty for yarn. (teehee. *makes really bad knitting jokes.* teehee ^_^)

So anyways. I’m definitely switched over to the London time now. I’m…getting very sleepy. it’s 10:15 PM here right now…(so, that means..back in Houston, it would be 4:10 PM.)

But I wanted to get this up and posted for everyone who is in the middle of their day :-P

it’s so weird…knowing that everyone is up and about…living life while you go to bed. And are like “dude, it’s time for bedddd. I’m so tiredddd.” meanwhile, they’re all like “Hellooo, it’s the afternoon. Life is happy. Ready to finish the day with GUSTO!”

Haha, maybe not *quite* like that :-P But you get the idea.

Oh, and I’ve…been catching myself saying stuff on accident with an accent. Which…I’m finding…pretty cool. I hope it lasts, haha.

I’m on a Train goin’ to London. ^_^

Aaah, the powers of wifi. So that we can use it on a moving train.

So in the past two days…we’ve been in Edinburgh. Which was really stinking amazing…for different reasons from why Dublin is stinking amazing.

the old buildings in Edinburgh are seriously amazing. Like…there’s nothing really that can compare with them

It’s filled with history… with places like the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which we went to go see. (and actually, the current Queen of England still uses Holyroodhouse, and she was going to be staying there two weeks after we left Edinburgh. And like…she uses some of the rooms we were in. *major coolness*) The only really sad thing about seeing this…was this was at the end of day two, and my camera battery had…kinda died again (it’s a small battery :-/ and needs to be charged every other day, I guess, haha.) so I didn’t get any pictures of it :-( which is horribly depressing, because…of all the places we saw…I think *that* was the most beautiful. Poopy. Oh…well. Joey got lots of pictures, and hopefully he’ll be posting those soon :-)

Another place we went to go see was the Britannia. Which was also realllllly cool.

They had a baby grand piano in one of the sun rooms. Which people like Princess Diana, some granddaughters of the Queen…and some other famous people. But the piano was in uberly good condition…and was also bolted to the floor, haha. Which is a pretty brilliant idea for having a piano on a ship.

We also passed by (several times) the church in which Princess Anne’s daughter, Zara, is getting married in…in the near future. Or something like that. Which was pretty cool as well. The church had a head of a deer on the very top…which I think had to do with the dude who built the church hunted a deer that day, and something…important happened, haha. But…I forget exactly what, heh heh :-P

We went to two yarn stores in Edinburgh! One was kind of a disappointment, cause it didn’t have really any actually Scottish yarns. It was all just UK yarn and…stuff we can get in Houston. But the other one….now *that* was AMAZING. It was called k1 Yarns Knitting Boutique

It was so amazing, the owner was so nice, more than half the yarn was spun and dyed in the Isles by a small family. It’s like…*sooooooo awesome*

My mom and I both got yarn to make the same cardigan. Different colors though. Mine is bright pink (you all know this already, I love color. I love bright colors especially :-P) and my mom got this really awesome green. If you put our colors together and added some black, it’d look like a watermelon. Just to give you a visual :-P

It’s a simple bottom-up cardigan that the owner designed (and happened to be wearing hers, haha :-P). I’m knitting with size US 3s instead of US 4s…cause the smallest was bigger than what I wanted. I’m also making the sleeves short…or 3/4, I haven’t decided. And I’m making it longer. I love simple stuff like that that you can modify so easily :-P

We also ate at the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book! Which was really cool to see that :-P It was called The Elephant Cafe

We stopped there, had a cup of tea and some shortbread. Which happened to be shaped like an elephant, haha :-P And my pater had a latte. And…it was awesome :-P

We did so much more stuff…but that’s for a later post :-P

Now…I’m sitting on a train, on my way to London…where we’ll be for a week. Hopefully, since we’ll be there for a week…things will slow down and there’ll be more time for blogging and posting pictures on time :-P

We have 3 yarn stores lined up in London. Haha, and we agreed we’d spread them out through out the week. Most likely on Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

I see a lot of awesomeness in my future :-)

P.S. I think…I’ll be uploading all the pictures to my flickr at some point, so if you don’t have my facebook…you can see the pictures that way :-)

Day 1 – Dublin, Yarn Stores, and Green

We’re in Dublin!

The flight was awesome, besides the fact that there were two babies who screamed almost the whole way…and I found how unpleasant it is to have sausage for feet. (seriously, what is with feet swelling. SO UNPLEASANT. >.<, haha.)

It was alllll good :-P I even got some pretty awesome pictures up in the air, if I do say so myself :-P

So the flights was 9 hours. Surprisingly…I didn’t actually…knit the entire time. In fact, I don’t think I knit even *half* the time. It was all kinda spread around with…watching one episode of Dr. Who, reading, eating, listening to awesome music, taking pictures, watching people around me, and trying to sleep.

I fail, and had no idea how to get my seat to recline. Soooo…for about the first 2 hours we were supposed to be sleeping, or trying to sleep…it was….rather painful. Well, not at the beginning. But by the end of that 2 hour period, my back was like “AAAAGH. PAIN. MOVE. YOU NEED TO MOVE. BEND. ANYTHING.”

Then my amazingly wonderful mom should me that all you have to do is press this little button on the side of the arm rest. And you’ll lay back. Once I did that…I conked right out, haha. And continued to sleep for the next 2 and half hours.

Sleeping hours = 3 and a half.

I read…I ate the dinner they gave me. (which was reallllly good, actually. Way better than I was expecting. But maybe that was because I was starving, haha.) I tried to “dance” to music in my seat without wiggling *too* much and disturbing the grumpy people around me. I took pictures. I ate the breakfast the gave me…which was also very good.

Oh, I also wiggled cause I listened to awesome songs…that cause wiggleage, haha. And yes, “wiggleage” is totally a word. Well…not it is :-P But this fact is not quite relevant to everyone :-P *wiggles eyebrows*

So in actual fact, I probably only got about…30 rows done on the shawl I’m designing (which…doesn’t sound like *that* much, but the rows are realllllly big now. So it takes me about 10-15 minutes to just do one row.)

So, we arrived in London….alive and intact. Happiness abounded! Then we had to run to get on the plane to Dublin. Our very first destination. Made it without a problem.

The only stinking problem about this flight?!???

THEY DIDN’T ALLOW KNITTING NEEDLES IN THE CARRY-ONS. It was so terrible.

Thankfully, I found this out before we actually got to security…(cause they were grumpy) and all of it got taken away. I saw a sign, and my mom and I stowed our needles in a suitcase before we checked them. So that flight, I read most of the time. And tried to sleep. With my AMAZINGLY AWESOME Texan…we call them “Bucky” pillows, lol. the ones that wrap around your neck, haha. (why we call them “bucky” I have no clue :-P)

That was only an hour, so we quickly got to Dublin. Got a taxi, had an extremely pleasant ride with our Russian taxi driver, and got to our bed and breakfast. (which is where I am…at the moment :-P)

We dropped our stuff off. And headed out for EUROPE ADVENTURE – DAY 1 – DUBLIN.

So already our feet were blown up (we won’t go into that again, haha)…then walked like for forever. Which, isn’t a bad thing at all. it was totallllly worth it. Plus, it’s an awesome form of…exercise :-P Definitely not a bad thing at all.

So we walked all over the place. Got lunch at this amazing place called Bewley’s, I think. It was this really uberly awesome cafe thing.

So awesome, that they decorate their lattes/coffee/whatever that was with fancy heart things. With a complicated process that I shall never understand nor pretend to, haha. (cause that’s totally relevant, haha. I am a person of relevance while I write this. Holy cow, I have no idea how long I’ve been up. Please pardon me if this post makes no sense whatsoever, haha)

We continued to….

THE FIRST YARN STOREEEEEE!!! *HAPPY DANCE*

That…was one of the best experiences with a new knitting store ever. The lady working was sooooooo nice, like realllllly nice. The yarn selection was amazing. Debbie Bliss, Malabrigo, NORO (if a place has it, it gets major brownie points in my world :-P), Louisa Harding, and then yarn that was spun and dyed in Ireland.

My mom and I decided before we left that we would NOT get stuff we can get in the US. Noooo way. So we got some fingering weight handspun, hand-dyed…PURELY IRELAND YARN.

We also got this other yarn…that is also made in Ireland…at the same place where the Debby Bliss yarn is made, actually. But this is like a special kind of yarn. And…I love the color I got. It reminds me of the fall, summer, love, and just general happiness.

I seriously love color. But we’ve already been over that, haha :-P I think I’m going to do the Crofter’s Cowl by Gudrun Johnson….which I’ve had my eye on for awhile :-P

Another reason why the lady who was working there was so incredibly nice, was that when I asked if I could take pictures, she was like…

“Oh, of course! I’d love it!” (and of course, she said it in the amazing Irish accent. Which, in my opinion, it like one of the most soothing sounds in the world…just sayin’ :-P)

And…I got some more pictures of yarn…that I didn’t get. But seeing the yarn makes me drool :-P

Malabrigo Sock Yarn, BE STILL MY BEATING HEART.

Then, we went and looked at the Book of Kells at Trinity College, which was uberly cool.

By this time…we were all pretty much dead. Our feet were screaming. Our minds were screaming “WHY DON’T I HAVE ENOUGH SLEEP?!?”…so we decided to head back to our place. We took a shortcut through this park that’s right next to our place, just for fun. And it was beautifullllll.

Places that made me think happy things ^_^. Some places that reminded me of Central Park…which then reminded me of even more happy things, haha.

Now…I’m sitting at this little desk thing. Hoping the internet starts working again. Cause I want to post this and the pictures to Facebook.

I think we’re headed out to dinner at some fun place right around the corner…that requires only a small amount of walking to get to :-P

Then…we head back here for an early bed.

*phew*

I’ve been up since 8:30 AM (Central American time) on Saturday. It is now…6:30 PM on Monday, June 13th.

I hope I can adjust to the time change without any problem. that’d be reallllly nice.

As for tomorrow…I have no idea what’s gonna happen ^_^

Haha, this post was loooooong. Thowwie about that :-P I started typing not really know how to start it out, and once it got going…everything just started pouring out :-P

Easter Dress, polka dots, and kitties…

Do pardon me, this will be more of a…fashion ish type post, rather than knitting. But Joey oh-so kindly took pictures of my Easter dress (which I adore) with Bertie.

I *had* to post some of them, haha.

This is Bertie’s “Parrot pose”. It makes it really easy to carry around his…heavy mass, haha.

But the dress is from ModCloth, which I am now a HUGE fan.

Polka dots, I mean…come on…can it get better than that? Too cute. Just too stinking cute. (My hair was extremely kind to me on Easter, and decided to cooperate. Yesssss :-P)

Another thing I love about this dress, is the ability to twirl and such, haha. I remember when I was younger, at church, my friends and I would always have a contest to see who’s dress would twirl the biggest. There was “saucer”, “teacup”, and…”vase”, I think, as the terms of judging, haha. If you had a saucer dress, you were cool. Really cool.

This dress may not be a saucer dress, but it’s at least a teacup. So yeah, the wind was blowing in the picture above, and caused the skirt to fill out. (*poof*)

Even though you can’t see my shoes…I was wearing my mom’s black Tom Wedges. Which are probably the most comfortable heel I’ve ever worn, haha. They’re adorable, comfortable…so awesome, haha.

As a side note, did I mention how much I love my cat? Bertie is the best. EVER. Just sayin’ :-P

Hope that wasn’t too tedious, haha. I had to post them :-P

Quotable Friday!! + Hellooooo Summertime

“Life without friendship is like the sky without the sun.” ~ Anonymous

You know that when friends come visiting…and you’re still thinking and laughing about the stuff that happened…almost a week later…that that trip was amazingly epic. And you have amazing friends.

So much fun…so much stinking fun. Haha, oh my goodness :-P

Anyways! Happy Good Friday, I hope your’s has been amazingly awesome :-P Because my dad had the day off, we slept in…cleaned windows…went out to lunch…and then went to a gardening place to get more flowers/mulch for our flower beds.

Since it’s so stinking beautiful today, I decided to go in to the garden place, and sit on a bench…and knit. Surprise, surprise :-P It’s like, in the 90′s today….so gorgeous!

I had thrown my camera into my bag, cause I didn’t know what we were going to be doing…and it never hurts to be prepared, haha :-P I got several really good pictures that I’m really happy with, but here are some of my favorites, haha.

(note: I have no idea what kind of flowers these are…except a couple. Haha :-P)

(the two pictures above this…those flowers remind me of Ponca City, haha. We always had Bleeding Hearts growing there…and it just reminds me of the summer in Oklahoma :-P Crazy weather and all, haha)

(above picture: I have no idea what kind of flower that is…but it’s adorable and amazing, haha)

Yay for lilies :-P Definitely one of the best flowers out there, haha. Smells. So. GOOD. :-P

After I took pictures and got multiple strange looks from people who thought I was taking pictures of them, I sat down with two important things. Knitting…and my phone, haha.

Now…I’m going to go read in the pool and work on my tan, haha. It’s just that time of year :-P

Spring…Spring…Spring!

it was 75 today…

So I went wandering again…

I’m so loving spring…

(*pretends not to notice the bad quality of the picture*) I thought the shape of the flower was cool :-)

“Every field wears a bonnet with some spring daisies on it…”

major brownie points if you can tell me where that song came from :-P

Photography Experiments…

So, for the next 4 weeks… (er, 3 weeks, I guess…because it’s already been a week) I’m going to be taking an online blogging class. Which I’m SO EXCITED about!! It’s going to cover (and has already covered) a lot of stuff that will be uberly helpful to me :-P And will hopefully make me a better blogger.

The classes are being done by decor8, and they are amazing!

On Friday, the lesson was about lighting in your pictures…and trying to figure out what was the best.

I fiddled around with it on Friday but didn’t get into great detail.

But on Sunday afternoon…I went outside with some yarn and started experimenting. Basically with the lighting and such. Because…I wanted to see how well it would work…and it was sooo gorgeous outside I HAD to do something outside.

And if you haven’t noticed already, I know practically nothing about photography. My knowledge is very minimal :-P So all the amazing photographers out there, bear with me :-P

Oh my goodness, something rare has happened! The colors are actually true to what they really are! OOOOH my goodness!

I love this yarn :-) It’s from Paca-Peds…I’m not really sure what I’m gonna do with it…but it’ll probably end up being a shawlette or something. But I haven’t decided yet :-P

More Paca-peds! I have all this sock yarn from the Socktoberfest….the thing that I said I was going to complete and make all these socks…

Yeah, that didn’t happen. SO, consequently, I have a bunch of sock/fingering weight yarn laying around…with no use.

Only a couple of days ago did I put two and two together…that all that sock/fingering yarn can work with my love for shawls and shawlettes (is there really a difference? Those two terms always confuse me….)

Here’s my Trillian :-P Moving along…still on those makeshift needles, haha.

(YAAAY. I’m so happy that all the colors are like…true to what they really are. Experimenting = amazing)

Random Knitting Knote:
I’ve been recently getting obsessed with knitting podcasts. Like, I’ve been just sitting, listening, and knitting for hours upon end (when those hours are free….sadly, that doesn’t happen that often.) Just listening to people talk about their knitting and other random things.

They…are very enabling, haha. One in particular, was about socks.

And so…I felt the need to finish the pairs of socks that I have going. There are only two (which is one thing I can be proud of…the small amount of socks that I have going on, haha) only two pairs…one pair isn’t even halfway. But the other pair…just needed the toe of the second sock.

Yes, I’m really that bad. Just one toe…just ONE. And I couldn’t finish it.

So, I did…in about 10 minutes.

Soooo amazing, I <3 them.

Basic sock pattern that fits my foot…40 stitches cast on. With about 8 rows of 1×1 ribbing before I divided for the heel.

The yarn is Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn…which I absolutely ADORE. (But then…I adore everything that Noro has)

Yarn is so photogenic…it’s amazing. Definitely one of the pluses to having a bunch of yarn laying around that isn’t being used, haha.

All in all….I think that my experiments turned out extremely well for the first try…and I can’t wait to experiment again :-P