Knit picks <3

Oh Knit Picks, how I love thee~ hehe

So I am trying to plan out my secret swap gifts ahead of time, so I won't be 'omg deadline' in sending everything out~ xP

So I decided, hmmm I will check Knit picks site again at their books... since they have a 40% sale!! (super amazing! xD and $5 dollars shipping pshhh awesome site)

Then I remembered that I am wanting to pick up some dark green super wash yarn for my mom's socks... and I was like oooo Essentials has kettle dyed ooo pretty...

Then I add all the things I want (xD) and what I would want to get for the swap thing.... oi... let's just say it would total free shipping. xP

But oh my gosh.... The sale ends August, so I totally have time~ xD (for the books) But honestly~ These two are like *drool* for me... The Vogue knitting ultimate guide for socks, I've seen pop up again and again. I have pretty much mastered (I feel) the regular stokinette pattern sock (even though I adore knitting them too! xD, so easy so fun!) I am hoping to get into more 'pretty' patterns later on. This book seems like it has a lot of those.... so maybe~

But what I thought was realllllllyyyyy cool was something I had not seen really before. Knitting America !!!
So how cool is that right? It goes through the history of knitting here in the good ole' Us of a. I really liked the 'Book of yarn' thing I bought a few months ago because of all the information it has just about yarn~~ so to have this book be about ~ knitting! and how it has changed through out the years and what not... super cool. I am a fan. But alas eventually I will get these guys later on maybe.

Right now my main money focus is to conserve~~~ xP I have Anime Expo to go to this week!!!! 3 MORE DAY! Oh so amazing. I am going with Jimmy (which will be great just being the two of us, less stress that way too). So that will be a pretty penny spent, we got free press passes, which is great, so free ticket, now its just spending money at the con and food (but Iam so going to be pigging out at the continental breakfast they give... and pick up subway next to the hotel for lunch (hurray tuna! xD and for less then five bucks! xD yum). So I don't think I will get too shafted on spending tons of money on food. (also I heard last year press rooms had munchies in them, I am so going there too!) LA Downtown will be fun.

However, then soon after all of that, DISNEYLAND! Jimmy's family is coming from Virginia next month (July) to visit and stay awhile, and these Disney Junkies use to have season passes all year round when they lived here.... so every time they visit they have a Disneyland trip. Well after dating Jimmy for 3 years! (so crazy) I am finally am going to tag along on their invite. (I have been invited every year, it is just I never got the approval of my parents to go, which is fine, after 3 years, I think we know the family now well enough ;) <3)

So I am going to be spending a pretty penny this summer... but you know what~ I think I deserve it. (and yes I am stroking my ego in saying that. ;p lol)

Back to finishing my dad's last sock (for the pair)! Today's goals are to figure out how to use a French press for coffee (the instant is really bad, and I forgot my dad won a french press back in the day! hurray for the good ground coffee we have and not needing to make tons of cups of it with the coffee machine!). Watch/catch up on the Peach Girl Anime on the dvr, and FINISH~ my dad's socks!

So then I can start knitting up the pretty pretty pretty pretty~ sock yarn I got in this swap. I saw the hank and was like oooo fancy pretty... but then as I wound it into a skein... OMG BEAUTIFUL! The colors look amazing as it goes and changes so often! I adore the swatch I did. I already have the pattern for this sock by my bed (oh it is going to be pretty~) But then I will have two sets of dpns free to first start the pretty sock at home... but then have the easy sock (stockinette) to bring (and start) at Anime Expo!!! :D Long lines and waiting bother me no more! :D Tofutsies, is great. I love how it knits up so easily and does all the 'pretty' work on it's own! :D So fun

Time to stop rambling.

Oh and the photos of my loverly swap, that I received on Friday are on my Flickr account!

Knitting is going well.

Soooo~ Let's see...

There is a hugeee sale at my lys this saturday~ xD I am excited, I am totally going to go... it is from 10am to 5pm snacks, door prizes, raffles, yada yada... so I totally want to go! :D Now it is sale yarn by the bag... soooo I hope they have some good stuff there... I want to go at 10am... for the 'best selection' xD

However, I have to keep in mind too that I am going to Anime Expo (in LA) in two weeks! xD Which is another... oh... 200-300 total... including hotel, food, and buying stuff. So oi~ I am so expensive.

I really just want some sock yarn... even that noro sock yarn is kinda interesting. I am not doing any huge projects any time soon. Like I have to finish my Roam jacket... but that is just a few more skeins of Patons Grace yarn.... then the shawl for my mom is in Carron Simply Soft (gotta keep it easy for my mom to take care of).

Everything else is smaller projects~ Like I want to figure out a cute fish or sushi related gift for my friend Sonya (she wasnt a big fan of the sushi wallets though, which I thought would be cute. Ah well)

Oh I did to go a yarn store in Santa Barbara! :D
I bought two skeins of tofutsies, one of a black/blue combo (to knit for my dad's socks) and a pink and white combo (for me of course) to knit socks! :D Then two skeins for my secret partner for the swap~ :D Which are rather pretty in my opinion. :D It was a cute store... but not that much excitement, I like my local yarn store much better, more options and stuff~ :D.

I am about to do the gusset decrease for the first sock for my dad.... and I still have the Knit Picks pallette second sock on the needles I have to pick up the stitches for the heel on that one. So progress is good.

Otherwise everything is going well. Other then the heat that is coming~ geez, high 80's and I am suffering~ I never want to leave southern coastal california.

I am still reading The Historian book with the Loopy Groupies group on ravelry~ :D I am half way though it, oi 600 pages is alot~ lol. The book kinda drags on in detail a lot... but it makes it that much more interesting. You win some or you lose some~ :D But I still like it~ next book I am going to pick up is probably The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs book... I bought it super cheap (at Sams Club oh yeah~ xD) and I had been eyeing it at Target like allll the time~ so now that I have it, I am eager to read it~ but not until I finish The Historian. lol otherwise, I will never finish it~ haha. I totally want to try some audio books later on... it would be great to listen to a book (I hope) and knit~ last time I tried to do that I was laying on my parents bed, listening to the book... and fell asleep... of course I was tired lol, and that was years ago.

Well I should get going~ I need to take more photos to put on here~ flicker made it so much easier!

Then my Jimmy

jimmya, originally uploaded by hsailormoon.

So of course I have to throw in a photo of my Jimmy~ I love him so much!

It is going to be a 3 year anniversary come June 24th! About a week away, I can't believe it, it's great.

After this photo a women offered to take a photo of us together, she 'thought' she took it, but didn't, so I didn't feel like asking her to do so again. Ah well. Oh this was taken at the Angels game, we walked around the entire stadium to see what was around and looked at this pretty fountain.

Angels Game knitting

lapsock, originally uploaded by hsailormoon.

This is how I carry my sock knitting. So I had my jacket on my lap and then my knitting on top of it~ :) <3

Angel game knitting

socknight, originally uploaded by hsailormoon.

My sock knitting at an Angels game! :D I had fun and only knitted for a bit, mostly because I would miss things in the game. But I had tons of fun

my room

roomphoto, originally uploaded by hsailormoon.

This is a photo I took after major-ly cleaning my room. It is still messy in reality, but a big improvement, so I am proud! :) I just threw the blanket over my bed and did not make it really.

2nd stash shelf and basket

stasharea 1, originally uploaded by hsailormoon.

This is by my desk where I keep a big basket of yarn and have stuffed some in a shelf also. :D

stash shelf

stash shelf, originally uploaded by hsailormoon.

A new shelf my dad got me for my room. He was thinking cds/dvds... I had another idea! :D

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

I need to do photos soon

I need to start utilizing this blog... honestly.

I created this blog, because I know most of the people on my livejournal (mostly my boyfriend's, friends)check it etc. Which is fine... but do they care what I knitted, or the lovely socks I am working on, or what I am doing with my stash yarn that I need to use up? No... probably not.

Like let's see... I finished Faye's cat bed... I am going to knit up mats for her to sleep on, on the couches... I have that much yarn left over... gotta love red-heard super saver size. Hehe, I get most of my 'stash' yarn (ie acrylic) from thrift stores my mom goes to and she picks them up for me. She enjoys it and I don't mind the extra stuff to work on.

Oh and my dad gave me this shelf thing that is mostly for cds/dvds.... I made it into a display shelf (its a pretty shelf really) for yarn and what not. I love it! I took a photo... Tomorrow will be uploading day I think... they are on my desktop... and then some are on the camera still.

I took photos of my sock knitting at the Angels game, hehe I had seen people do that on vacations and I thought it was cute. Socks on travel! ;D Talk about well rounded... haha... yeah cheesy I agree, but it's cute.

I went by work (best buy) with my parents and Alex.... we were going to upgrade the family to verizon.... but nooooo sprint is a pain the assmar... to get out of contract with... and yeah... Alex just got sick of the mess... and threw out the idea, why don't we just all stay with sprint. I am fine with that.

So Alex was the only one able to really upgrade and not deal with the contract length... and he got the palm centro!!!! xDDD I want that phone so much~ but the pink one! Alex got the black one... and he likes it. He said it best in saying that I am probably more excited about it then he is. All I know is that he better treat this phone better then he did the last one... brat. (granted that my brother is going to be 25 this year... yeah seriously.) However, this is a better phone for him, once he graduates this next semester with his mechanical engineering degree it will be a good phone for him/pda as a 'grown up phone' So that is good for him.

Hmm, ok Jon has called... time to stop rambling for now.

Oh I hit level 70 in World of Warcraft!!!! :D Fantastic, I love my holy paladin so much~ I love that game.

Swap oh noes~

So last time I did a swap, was for this college group thing on ravelry. Well to put it lightly, I got a flake. The Moderators were bummed that I got a flake of a partner (which I thought was lame myself)... but I did receive a package from her (and a very poor quality one at that oi ><:) and honestly threw away half of the items. *I know sounds rude huh, but it's not* The scarf was a complete mess and acrylic... I thought of ripping it out for the yarn, but decided not to, I have lots of pretty acrylic yarn to use up myself. I ate the starbursts (which was honestly the best part), tossed the poor less then dollar store quality kid sun glasses away, they had old glue from a glue gun on it. Then I have this 'utterly smooth' utter cream (lotion).... eh... that's a good thing I guess... it was designed orginally for a cows utter.... but they turned it into a hand body lotion... ok odd but works. Then I have this 'Unidentified yarn' in a pink soft type... yeah... I may knit with it... I dunno, or it may go to the good will eventually with my other (omg what am I going to do with this mess) yarns.

Honestly, I sent her a greatttttt gift package. Hopefully the link works, its on the ravelry forums:
http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/college-knitters/51148/51-75
So she was the first to get the package (in the whole group) on page 3, and I posted photos on page 4. Because I sent it out on time... I didn't get any type of response from her about when I should be expecting my package for TWO MONTHS! Oi ><: Then I get this mess of a package... also the letter she sent me was typed... with tonssss of errors and spelling mistakes. Kinda ruined my excitement on a swap really.

But!!!! There is a brighter side~ :D This new summer swap!

Turns out people are all ready getting items! How exciting! I am sooo excited for this swap, it seems like a great deal. I am already looking at items for my swap partner (who I have yet to email, I need to do that, and just do a bit of chit chat~)
The great thing is that my partner has an amazon wishlist... so I have a good idea what she wants from there. My reason for this whole post... is that I forgot~~~~ to put a link to my loopyewe wishlist on here! xD Opps. Also since people are getting the packages, I feel rushed now to put it on here, (Time seriously goes by wayyyy too quickly.) So I guess I should put the link up and stop rambling eh?! xD

http://hsailormoon.livejournal.com/290257.html

It's a link to my livejournal, which has the true link to the wishlist~ xP If anything, just look at the gorgeous colorways! xDDDD I am so excited~ ^^* I want to be a loopy groupie sooner or later~ ^^*

I need to get going, my friend Sonya asked me to tag along with her as she goes for an interview in Santa Barbara. I need to get ready (and bring my sock knitting of course with me! <3) and let my parents know. (she orginally called me at 11pm last night... and I texted her at 5am (I woke up at 5am) and she just called me at 6:30am) Yep early birds. ^^*

Yum poptart :D

So I am going to an Angels game with Jimmy, Matt, and Matt's family. :D

Yay~ I enjoy watching baseball at the park.

However... now what am I to do about what to bring with me to knit?!??! xD I was thinking, oh I can work on my sleeves for my Roam jacket... but then I realized... I will probably run out of yarn... >.>; since I double thread it, I already used up my pile of yarn for this... Oi. I thought I had bought more at the beginning of this year. So now I will be having to go to Micheals each week to pick up more yarn. ><; It is such a small compacted ball of yarn... I feel lame when I spend like 3-4 dollars... but thats really cheap honestly. I am into sock knitting... a 50 gram skein isn't new to me! :P Why am I complaining~ lol

So~ I decided I will bring the sleeves... but will work on it mostly in the car... especially since I am working on both sleeves on one circ... and that I have two balls of yarn to deal with. Then I will bring my second red wool sock with me in its cute little holder and knit that at the game. Hopefully I can do well~ its plain stockinete... I am just thinking of I dont want to mess up on it here or there... or put tooooooo much attention to the details. Like picking up the sts for the heel its a bit of a focus thing. I will be fine~ :D This is like my 5th or 6th sock I've done, I can do this~ :D I have yet to get into any complicated patterns yet hehe. I <3 it~