WEEKEND GETAWAY & GRADUATION

We took a 3 hour drive down to Key West, FL on Saturday, Memorial Day weekend. It was so much fun, we rented scooters, had a dip in the ocean and ate Key Lime Pie from the Blond Giraffe Key Lime Factory as Rachel Ray would say "yumo".

Beautiful beach and white sand.

From left to right our friend, hubby and me. (gosh I need to loose #'s) you don't realize how you've spread until someone takes a picture. hehehehehe.

On the right is a two seater scooter it has two wheels in the front, one in the front and it drives with handle bars. Loads of fun!!

This is the southern most point in the USA only 90 miles to Cuba, my birth country. There is a line at this point that is at least 20 mins. long to take this one shot, if your Cuban is totally worth it, cause it's the closest you'll ever get to your parent's homeland.

In other news my daughter graduated from High School on Tuesday, although the school district picked a historical site, they must not have realized that it was under construction on the exterior and everyone's pictures would have fencing, scaffolding etc.. but, she was so happy and mom was emotional. Amazing how 18 yrs fly by before you realize the kids are growing up. On Friday my son will graduate and then we're done with the high school portion of their education, geez, I guess my paycheck and the two of them will go to college soon. 8o( **my wallet is wimpering** That's gonna put a kibosh on fiber art spending for a while, I guess I will need to stock up over the summer. LOL

Hubby gave me a graduation present that totally floored me, he said it was for being his kid's mom, and help him raise them, we've had his kids since we married in 95, they were only five and four at the time. He gave me a 1.75 tcw diamond bridal set WOW!!! I took a photo but it was really blurry so I couldn't show everyone, of course I loved it haven't taken it off since I received it.

The Happy Graduate!!

Ruana Progress

This is a close up of the weaving for the Ruana, and an updated pic on the progress I've passed the half way point and am starting to see the end of the one panel. No pattern yet, which of course, leads me to believe that I have made a mistake somewhere along the way, either or I will need to make another panel exactly the same so mistake or not it's a done deal.

Chunky Sweater, Baby Ghan and Prom

It's been a busy week and weekend, with my DD's Prom (that's her in the white and her BFF) I thought they looked gorgeous. They were so excited to go and have fun. I was really happy for them, they've been friends since 6th grade.

Mom's day was also wonderful, I got to go to my SIL home and spend time with my hubby's family, this was a real treat since they really don't get together that often.

On the looming, I have two new projects, along with the rest, although I have neglected my weaving and am getting ants in the pants about not working on it. But in my defense I have been working on the new "chunky sweater" that's the great yarn I got over at Joanns.com called beach. In my opinion, for what it's worth, I think they should have called it ocean, because the colors are true to the Atlantic Ocean from an areal view and since I live only 20 mins from Miami Beach, I really know what the colors look like up close and personal (it's almost beach season for the locals). I really like working with the yarn it's holding together nicely, specially since I frogged that sleeve (in the pic) eight (8) times already with the old adage running in my mind on rewind "If you do it right the first time you don't have to do it over".. even the DH had something to say on the fourth (4) rip out, but he wised up after threatening him with bodily harm with very pointy knitting needles, he's decided not to make any more comments on my frogging. **wicked smile** I can get into Prozac needing mode when I can't figure out what I need to do on a project. LOL. Yes I know what a pain in the a#$, but I really wanted it a certain way and since I'm writing the pattern as I go along I really can't accept it, if it isn't done correctly. (we're being a bit of stickler on this one eh? hehe).

On the baby ghan, this one is my relaxer knit, sooooo very easy and I only need to count to four (4), quite frankly at times that's the most I can count to without loosing the little bit of sanity I have left at the end of the day. So this one I knit when I'm watching tv, or listening to talk radio and the brain cells can just relax in the monotony of the stitch, funny I never thought monotony was something I would like, go figure...

There's a baby on the way

One of our friend's daughter is pregnant, so I started a new baby blanket, thanks to some help from a group member. I saw this stitch on her blog http://www.theresasknitting.blogspot.com/ and asked for the basics after some sample and frogging I think I've got it (Theresa's looks a lot better than mine but I like the chunkiness of it). I used a camera from work and of course the pics are awful, I must take a better shot. But the stitch is a rib and alternate rib something or other, really the names of these stitches are getting ridiculous, I've look through some knitting books to see if there is something compatible in them for a real name but I have found anything yet. At one point last year I thought I'd seen this stitch in another blog http://amoonsinger.blogspot.com/ which was a K2P2 in this stitch you wrap the K2P2 then reverse, it really is a pretty stitch once you get the hang of it. I'm using the KKII blue with two strands of ww 4 ply soft acrylic Wintuk, which was in the "yarn estate" we here at work inherited last year.

Florida is burning up this spring, there are eight brush fires in various counties, we are getting the smoke, ash and haze from the west coast and everyone I know is having difficulties with their allergies, your truly included. We need rain and it's no where to be found, I pray it comes soon because there are going to be a lot of sick people and damaged acreage. If you want to see what's going on this is a good report. http://cbs4.com/local/local_story_128183951.html

Almost done!!

This will be the new collar for the cable sweater, I've measured and re-calucalted and re-measured and I think its right now. WHEW!!! what an ordeal this one has been a true test of paitence, but I'm going to be happy to wear it this winter when we go house hunting in NC. I have been debating on the pattern for this one. I haven't started writing yet, but since I've had my difficulties I don't really know if a can. I guess I should have been writing as I was knitting and then I would not wind up with this dilema in the end. I cabled so much on this one that I've given up on cabling the new chunky sweater I figure I could use the break of twisting and pulling yarn , hehehe. The "beach" sweater is a simple K4P2 pattern that I'm doing on the KKII's I really like it and I can relax my mind as I knit. I 'll take a pic this weekend so you all can see. The ruana is coming along, although I thought I would finish the first panel last weekend of course that never happened so I'm hoping for some time this weekend. It's getting hard to work on yarn project when the sun is shining and it's beach season, although I have been known to take knitting to the beach and sit under the umbrella, much to my husband's caringe!!