Catching Up

I've been MIA for awhile but just been way too busy to update the blog! Grin...So many friends doing it lately, that I thought I'd update mine. We had a wonderful 2 months in South Texas dancing every day. We were really into Round Dancing (aka choreographed ballroom dancing) this year & learned so much. We had a wonderful time! The weather was cold there but nothing like it was everywhere else so we felt lucky. We had ice one day & were without power for about 4 hours.  

Orange tree with icicles all over!

Surprisingly to me, they said the ice on the orange trees actually protected the trees from damage from the freezing temps.

On the knitting front, I managed to whip up a few things in between dancing. Like the fingerless mitts using some yummy soft Royal Fiber Spinnery 100% Baby Alpaca that I got from my Secret Santa MB. So soft & they sure were useful this winter!

Yummy soft mitts!

Another pattern that I love is the Openwork Shrug. I've made several of these now & they are so great for wearing at dances where it is chilly when you first walk in. Then, once you warm up a bit you can toss it aside. This one was made from an aran weight yarns so it's especially warm & cozy. Then I made another one using awesome Brook Farms Acero fingering weight yarn that I adore! It's the perfect weight for spring! I have modified the pattern a little bit because I found that the double yo's weren't to my liking. Instead I did k2, kf&b for the increase rows. It is much nicer, imho.

Love this!

Last but not least is the Knot Knot Vest. The "real" name for this pattern is Gilet noeud noeud. But being the dork that I am I wondered what it translated to in English. So, from Google & Reverso I found that Gilet translates to Vest & noeud is either node or knot. Anyway, this is my interpretation of her pattern. I'm also making a hat to go with it called Knot Knot Chapeau. I plan to donate the set to my square dance club for a silent auction on the 9th of April.  

Adorable little sweater

Well, that's it for today. If you stuck it out....you have my sympathies!

Party Time

The past few 10 days has just been crazy busy around our house! Our friends from Michigan, John & Diana, came through on their way back home from the Valley. We had a little party on the day they arrived, Sunday, March 30. Then we danced the next night, then another party for them the next night, the next day we spent all day long working our asses off at Rick & Cheryl's new "playhouse" helping them clean up and move furniture into it to get ready for....yes, another party on Friday night. But wait...let's don't forget there was another party on Thursday night with more food and even dancing. Friday night was an awesome dance from 6:30-8:30 and then the afterparty which went on until 1 am. There were about 40 people there.

Rick & Cheryl's "playhouse" is a 4 car garage with one bay for a motorhome. The top floor has a gorgeous kitchen with granite countertops and custom cabinetry and built in entertainment center. It also has two bathrooms upstairs and one downstairs. The key is the beautiful hardwood flooring upstairs. Everything in this place is top quality. But why wouldn't it be?? Their home is even more gorgeous!

Ok, so we're up to Saturday now. Saturday we spent much of the day preparing for the dance that night. And nursing a severe headache....couldn't have been caused by too much wine and not enough sleep could it? Saturday night the dance was just wonderful and there was another afterparty. This one at Evelyn's. Another beautiful home. I think there were about 50 people at that party.

Sunday, we rested!!

There was a little knitting content during this period. I worked on the VLT scarf and got to the point of starting the last border. I spent all my spare time over Friday and Saturday which wasn't much trying to figure out what was wrong with that blasted pattern because I kept ending up at row 1 in the chart but the shawl was on the WS. Finally on Sunday, I found the problem. ME!! I had failed to read one little sentence in the directions. PURL ONE ROW, YOU IDIOT! So, now I'm rolling on that. The really embarassing thing is that I posted on several sites all about my woes and then had to go back and basically say, "never mind. I'm an idiot."

In between all the partying and knitting there was also dentist appts, mom & dad needed computer help and massive amounts of laundry.

But it's all good.

What I've been doing the past 2 months.....

Ok, so there was some New Year's Eve partying.....with our friends John & Nancy.










And then there were the cookouts and potluck dinners and more partying.....









There was some birdwatching.....(yes those bright orange and yellow spots are birds). In fact they are beautiful Altamira Orioles. There are also Green Jays in the picture and Kiskadees.





And there was even a little knitting. This is the finished first border for the scarf from VLT pg. 100.

And a whole lot of dancing, although I didn't get any pictures of dancing because....well I was dancing.

So, Thursday we are off the Big Bend National Park for a week or so then we'll be back home in mid March.

Look what I got!

Isn't this bag just soooo cute? It's made of denim with drawstring straps. It's sort of like a backpack, but softer and denim.

I'm going to use it to carry my dance shoes!

And the best part? I bought it at the thrift store for $3.50!!! And was like new. In fact, I think it'd never been used because once I got it home and checked inside it, the original price tag was in there. So, I washed it and dried it and it's just perfect.

Update on the zigzag lace top-I am nearing the finish line. I have about 20 rows to go and the second sleeve will be finished. Then attach sleeves and sew it up and it's done! I really, really want to finish it before we go to Canada (next week).

MS3 Update

So, I am finished with clue 1 on MS3 and up to row 105 on clue 2. I know that I'll fall behind from here on out because I really want to get back to the zigzag lace top. It is a summer top after all and I'd like to wear it at least once before summer ends. silly me! So, on the zigzag...I've finished the back and it's sitting all blocked and pretty. I've done one and a half repeats on the front. So....long way to go. But it goes pretty fast.

We square danced at Rick & cheryl's again on Saturday morning from 9-11. Then we had our round dance yesterday afternoon from 2-5 pm. Tonight is square dancing again. Wednesday night we go square dancing again in Georgetown. Saturday we will dance in Marble Falls for the Founder's Day. I'm not even sure what that is. But we'll be there as entertainment. And then next Sunday we'll be round dancing again. Geez, I gotta find time to knit somewhere in there!

I Love to Dance With You!

This is the name of a song that we round dance to. It's a cha and I absolutely love this song and can't get it out of my head! It's such a cute beat. I have googled for it and can't find it anywhere. Gary says it is from the 60's and is a Patty Paige song. WHO?? Anyway....if anyone knows where I can get a copy of this song, I'd love to have it. The words go something like: "I love to dance with you. Tell me you love it too. Da da dee da da da."

The round dance on Saturday was really wonderful. We had 19 couples and 2 singles so 40 dancers total. Very nice crowd. From 2-4 pm we had a workshop where Lucy & Jerry taught us a couple of dances. Sweet Petite (an easy phase II two step) and I Love to Lead (a hard phase IV foxtrot). Gary & I tried really hard on the foxtrot but we stumbled some. I think we can do it with a little more practice. There were pretzels, nuts, chex mix and other salty snacks as well as coffee, water and lemonade.

Then we all went to eat at the Country Club. Sounds really posh....but get real....it was in Kingsland. The food was good, the service was outstanding, and we got back to the hall before 6 pm ready for our evening dance. The Pate's did an outstanding job cueing the dance and I think everyone had a great time. They danced "I Love to Lead" for us and it was really beautiful! We had cookies and brownies available for the dancers to enjoy with their coffee and lemonade during the evening.

I think everyone was pleased with the day and I hope we can do it again in the fall.

Cash Crashed

Well, I was surfing this morning and thought I'd go look at Save Cash! Use Your Stash! Got this

Page Not FoundThe requested URL was not found on this server. Please visit the Blogger homepage or the Blogger Knowledge Base for further assistance.
Home About Buzz Help Discuss Language Developers Gear Terms of Service Privacy Content Policy Copyright © 1999 – 2007 Google

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So then I thought well, I must've screwed up the link. I'll google it. Got this-

Save Cash! Use Your Stash!
I'm sorry to announce that I will need to dissolve the Save Cash Use Your Stash-Along. Due to returning to school full-time and working, I will need to cut ...savecashuseyourstash.blogspot.com/ - 63k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

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I am seriously pissed off about this. Ok maybe not SERIOUSLY, but still. If you start a site and invite people to join don't you have a moral obligation to keep it up and running? I know that people volunteered to help her with it because she was hinting at shutting it down a week or so ago. Anyway, I guess I'll get over it. But what reason do I have now to use my stash instead of buying new yarn? Not that it was working real well anyway. I just bought this lovely soft laceweight yarn off ebay last week from yarntreehouse. Ya know another thing that pisses me off? I can't figure out how to put pictures where I want them in these posts. I can drag them around but when I do they won't open anymore in a larger window. What's up with that?

Round dance today from 1-8 pm. Maybe I'll take some pics and post them tomorrow. Like anyone cares! Ok, yes, I have an attitiude today.

Last Friday we went to some friends house on the lake for an impromptu square dance. What fun! We danced for an hour or so then ate lunch....everyone brought a dish....then danced for another hour or more. The house was absolutely amazing! I wish I had taken my camera. I've never been in a house so expensive. They have 5 bedrooms (ok that's not all that impressive) but listen to this...they have 9 bathrooms. I only managed to pee in 7 of them and never found the other two. But they said they have 9 bathrooms. They also have a gorgeous swimming pool and jacuzzi surrounded by limestone pavers all the way down to the lake edge. They have 4 boats and 2 jet ski's and every toy imaginable. It was a gorgeous home and even more important...they are terrific people.