Purple Princess Knits

I finally started to work on organizing my yarn & knitting books and supplies. Here is one shot of my yarn room. It is really bad and has gotten out of control recently. Keep in mind that this is not all of my knitting stuff. This is only one shot of the upstairs guest room. It is also the cleaned up version from when Katie (daughter-in-law) stayed with me and after I de-stashed some. See the doors on either side of the table? Well inside those doors are very large crawl spaces with several much larger bins of yarn. I have bags, baskets and books downstairs in almost every corner of the house. I also have a pile of knitting books and patterns downstairs in my walk-in closet. I have been known to purchase the same book more than once. It is time for me to take inventory, re-group, review and organize.

What a mess, I can't even really work in here or even find anything. I sometimes have to go through every plastic bin to find what I am looking for plus I so easily forget what I already have, causing me to buy more yarn and stuff! Yea that's it, really.

This mess will be organized into a great yarn room soon. I ordered a new Alvin Craftmaster Hobby Station in white from Joanne.com to replace the utility table and three multi-bin organizers from Brookstone.com. I also bought new three ring binder to store my patterns. Right now I have so many patterns in one huge binder (see it on the table) that I can't even get them out. They don't all fit in there which is why they are all over the table.

Stay tuned, this little mess will get cleaned up and you will be jealous!

How can I resist showing you this lovely picture. Katie our favorite Barista at Knit Knack is all dressed up with no where to go. Thank goodness! She has my red with turquoise beaded shawl on with a very lovely fair isle ski hat and a large green felted bag. What a beautiful model (just maybe not with everything on all at once, eh)

We love you Katie!

Which Princess Bride Character are You?
this quiz was made by mysti

Just a little something for fun after all I am a Princess and DH still says I am his bride.

Meanwhile, I am working away on my sockapalooza socks and am nearing the finish. I will show and tell after they have been totally completed. I put a lot of thought into the design of the socks based on my sock pal's measurements, comments and requests but as they near completion I get very nervous about whether my pal will like them or not. I may be a "Princess" but I am the Queen of ripping out and starting over so I am fighting every instinct to not rip these and create an even better pair of socks. Alas .... at this point I cannot start over so I will continue on so they can be mailed on time (between August 2nd and August 7th.) So far, everyone I ask loves them and will take them if my sock pal doesn't like them. Mmmmm ........ I only hope she will love them! Are my friends just telling me what I want to hear? You can be the judge of that upon completion.

I am the proud parent of a United States Navy Sailor.

He recently received a Navy Achievement Medal(NAM) from an Admiral. If you want to click on the picture save it to your computer, blow it up and read the award you will see that it is pretty cool and quite personal. This is his 5th NAM but this particular award is quite special because it comes from an Admiral instead of a Captain. The difference is that Captains can give out as many NAMs as they want but Admirals may only give out three per year and there are only 24 active duty Admirals so right now so that is only72 NAMs that may be given out this year. My son was one of 72 sailors in all of the US Navy to receive an Admirals NAM.

The other part that is crazy is that he now has the second most NAMs on board, the only one with more is a Chief with 22 years in who has 7. My son has almost 9 years in and has been awarded 4 NAMs from Captains and 1 from the Admiral.

I am so very proud of you my son.

These are the views from my office in downtown Denver ......






Too bad I can't enjoy it, I am stuck in my room with my back to the window view dealing with this ......





This week I was busy at work trying to research title on a well that has been in litigation for ten years, my home computer broke and my Internet connection sucks.


Things are now looking up, The lawsuit is over and my company won. I get to pay out over 5 million to over 130 happy people, I bought a new laptop for home and signed up for a new faster DSL through my phone line instead of the DSL I have now through an antenna. I have not had any time to get everything working yet (see above office) but I hope to play on it this weekend!

I am working on finishing up my Sockapalooza socks and will tell you about them later. I also have several new projects and acquisition to tell you about and am preparing to teach a beaded shawl class next weekend.

Happy Knitting.

Time is precious and goes by ever so quickly, especially when you don't want it to. I had a great time during the last couple of weeks with my daughter-in-law Katie. She was visiting from Florida while my son is on deployment overseas. She had to go back to Florida yesterday and I miss her already. I am looking forward to September when I will get to go visit her, my son and grandson.

Meanwhile ..

Katie gave me a new hair color ...


and a new haircut ......

I taught her to knit and while she was here we worked on Amber from the Debbie Bliss pure cotton book together.

Katie almost has the back of her Amber completed.


So do I!

My friend Stacy took some very cool pictures of Katie on Saturday. Katie is so beautiful and photogenic. Stacy is an up an coming photographer who did a wonderful photo shoot with Katie.

While knitting at Knit Knack on Saturday Katie saw this pattern and fell in love with it so much so that we bought yarn to knit this one together too! I also love it! This is from the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK book. Katie loves knitting and is a very ambitious beginner and rightfully so, she knits like she has been knitting a lot longer than 2 weeks. I think we will start this one together in September when I go for a visit.


Green yarn for Katie!


Blue yarn for me! I was Knit Knacks best customer that day!

Katie looks great in the Roman Stripe Boatneck I made from the Ann McCauley book. It is an open lace pattern made with Tahki Cotton Classic so she can wear it in Florida at least for some of the cooler days anyway. It could even used as a swim suit cover up.


Knit Knack got these fun little necklaces in the store and we each picked one out. Katie's is the mud flap girl with the yarn and needles and mine is the knitting needles.

The Top Ten Reasons I am a "Princess"

10. I drive a Mazda RX8 with license plates "MY ZM ZM"
9. I don't have wash the car or fill it up with gas
8. I will never use an outhouse or porta thingy
7. Roughing it is a nice B & B (Taharra Mountain Lodge in Estes Park)
6. I don't have to cook or do housework
5. I don't eat leftovers, I don't knit leftovers
4. My husband never questions my yarn purchases
3. My friend Patty calls me Princess
2. My husband treats me like a Princess
1. I really think I am a Princess

Well it is nice to think so anyway. I have is a wonderful husband that spoils me, I am a proud Navy mom of a great son, I have the best grandson, a wonderful new daughter-in-law, a stepson and his wife, their 2 kids, a stepdaughter and her two kids (yes that makes 5 grandkids), I have the cutest best little dog in the whole world, a great job, a great boss, wonderful friends and wonderful knitting friends. How can I not think I am a "Princess?"

Okay okay before you throw up, what you don't see is how very hard I have to work at being a Princess, I did my time I earned my way and that is all I have to say.....

except my computer at home is having some issues so this is all I have time for!

My Son, Grandson and Daughter-in-law when they were here in January.

My Daughter-in-law, Katie is visiting from Florida and knitting with me at Lollicup. Katie just put new color in my hair. DH said it is very "contrasty." I love it! I am no longer blonde. I now have dark hair with bright blonde highlights so I guess DH is right about it being contrasty.

Nachaele took this picture of the two of us. Pretty good for holding the camera up herself! I think my darker hair makes my eyes look brighter and bluer. I really like it.

Tuesday night knitting at Lollicup was fun as always. I made a couple of acquisitions from Judy's stash sale. I am very pleased and will show you later... you know after I fix my home computer.

Happy knitting.

A typical Saturday afternoon at Knit Knack (the best little yarn shop in Arvada) involves lots of yarn, friendly chats, tons of laughter and of course knitting.

Cathy finished her Socks that Rock Fire on the Mountain socks.





Later, my mother modeled the Noro Shrug I made her. It is a little too warm to wear this right now but I am teaching this class at Knit Knack starting next Saturday. It is a class for those with beginning knitting skills who are ready to branch out and learn a basic cable, to knit in the round and do a crocheted edging. We are starting now to give the beginning knitter time to finish their shrug for Fall wearing. I used 10 skeins plus a little of Noro Kureyon. Today my mother refused to have me shoot her face in the photo. It actually looks great with her light reddish hair. She loves it.

Kathy, quit laughing I can still hear you.

This sure looks funny. Wonder what it could be?