Purling Ps

Hi. It’s me, PurlingPirate. Remember me? I remember you! Sorry, I’ve been gone for awhile. Life just kind of got tough and icky all of a sudden. And then my hard drive crashed. And I lost everything. Because I’m a dope and didn’t back up my ‘puter since May of last year. But I’m back now. Things aren’t less tough or even less icky, but I think I’m handling it better.

I don’t have any knitting to show you. I have been knitting. And doing a lot of frogging. And reknitting. And more frogging. Hopefully soon I will have something fiber related to show you.

I hate pictureless posts though, so here are some random good things in my life.

Here is the cake I decorated for The Squid’s party (Martha Stewart, I am not):

Here is a sweet drawing The Squid did just for Bot-gurl and Purse-ho:

Did you know that aloe vera plants bloomed? I didn’t, but mine did:

And here is one of my favorites! Gardenias! My gardenia bush exploded with blooms this year:

I’ll be back soon with some knitting, a chicken recipe, and an STR giveaway!!! As KnitterBoy would say, stay tuned…

I finished the Purless Monkeys on Thursday… but I am missing them.  I really liked this  pattern!  And, I really liked looking at that Tiffany Blue.  So pretty…

I would start another pair of Monkeys, but I don’t think I want to do that pattern for either of next two pair of socks on the needles.  These are going to be Christmas pressies, and really you just can’t start early enough for that, right?  It is July in Texas, and I think that is totally appropriate for wool socks!  One pair will be STR, color Alina, and I think I am going to do the Ampersand pattern.

The other pair will be out of this Cherry Tree Hill, color Peacock.

I don’t have a clue what pattern I am going to use for these. I want something simple, but interesting.  Yeah, that would be like EVERY sock pattern. HA!  I am keeping my eyes open… checking all my books, looking through ravelry, Knitty, all the usual places. I will let you know when I find the perfect pattern. 

Other than that, I am catching up on my list over there on the right.  It’s time for me to pick up something else from the ‘07 list, but all I want to do is start something NEW!!!  New and exciting… maybe something else blue.  I am diggin’ the blue right now.  Le sigh… I will work on a sock until I feel inspired by something else. 

And because it is summer, Hubby and I are going somewhere everyweekend!  This weekend we went out to Eagle Mountain Lake.  It isn’t one of the biggest around here, but it is less than an hour away and is a nice lake!  We really enjoyed our sandwiches and ice cold beer sitting in the boat and watching all the BIG boats zoom by.  We love the water and are either at one of the many lakes in Texas or we are in the pool and grilling outside. 

I do have finished a pair of socks, but no pictures yet.  And I am very close to being done with the Tiffany’s Box Purless Monkeys.  Here’s a quick pic!

I am at the heel flap of the second one, so this shouldn’t take too much longer. 

 I haven’t done any more motifs for the Nico Dress, but will get to those soon.  Maybe I will crank one out tonight!  I realized today that I don’t have a shawl on the needles.  I always have a shawl on the needles… have you seen Seascape?  So pretty!  What about this one from Moorehouse?  I was talking with the Purse-Ho and we think we can recreate this so I can use some of my stash yarn.  I have some blue and some pink Jaggar Spun Zephyr that could be fun in that two colored look… don’t you think?  Hmmm… what to start next? 

These first 3 years have been full of awesomeness!!! Mommy loves you!!

Crochet baby blanket y’all!  Come on!  I took it with me out of town to Siesta Key and worked on it on Turtle beach.  We had perfect weather and a long day.  We hit an outdoor arts market in St Petersburg, then the Salvador Dali Museum (very cool!) then grabbed lunch on the way to Siesta Key.  We stayed on the beach for about 3 hours, then cleaned up and stopped at John’s Pass on the way back to Tampa and got dinner at the Hut and Tiki bar watching the dolphins play around under the setting sun.  It was a GREAT day.   

The Starghan has been completed and is currently drying.  I thought I would steam block it once it’s done rather than laying it out and pinning it down. 

Because I am in the crocheting mood now (yes… because it is QUICK!), I started my Nico Dress from the Vintage Crochet book. There are so many things I want to do out of that dang book.  Cute, cute stuff.  Here is the first motif!

So far, I love this!  Question for the crocheters out there… I am making this out of cotton, not the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino or whatever it was that it called for.  My motif is supposed to be 7X7 and this is about 6.25 squared.  I like the material of this guage, and I am thinking because it’s cotton, it is going to stretch anyway.  What do you guys think?  Should I go up one needle size or keep going with this one?   Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me!