Because it’s a new year, we make those resolutions to you know, lose weight, save money, give more, take less.. blahblahblah. Well no resolutions for me this year, well maybe one – to find a job. I haven’t worked for anyone else besides my kids in SO long, I hope I remember how. I do love to be out and social and meeting people..so I hope to find something here in this small town that lets me do all that and that and get paid for it. So..send good job vibes my way.

In the meantime .. I have been knitting! So here’s a few pics of what I’ve done in past 6 months or so..

First and this is by far my most favorite of projects.. I knit this for one of my nearest and dearest and her husband for their wedding gift. The Umaro Blanket by Jared Flood. It turned out So amazing.. pictures do not do it justice. The happy couple were SO touched and by dumb luck..it matched their house perfectly! Love those two to pieces! The wedding was amazing, I was lucky enough to stand up for her as her maid of honor and I had the best 5 days in Atlanta.

Then the girls and I did our annual swap. We nixed mittens this year because they are bad luck. Something bad has happened within our group every year since we did it.. so we stopped those damn things! I’d like to give you details, but .. that’s for my life story one day.

It’s all a super secret swap, and I got Heather this year.. and I was SO excited, since she knit me some amazing mittens last year!
So I made Gyre for her!

All the girls cowls turned out lovely and Kristin knitted this one for me…

I skyped with the girls as they had their party in MA and me in CO.. we all opened our stuff and thank god for webcams because it’s the next best thing to being in the room wtih them! THEN they sent me a HUGE box with all the cookies they made for the cookie exchange and a few extra goodies for me and the kids. How lucky can I get? Seriously!?

Then lastly.. I whipped these up for our family white elephant/yankeeswap whatever the hell you wanna call it. These were a lot of fun to knit, but I needed them to be perfect so I had to redo the left one a few times..but by the 4th or 5th frog, I got it!
and the recipient my 21 year old cousin got them & loved them!!!

I am missing my knitting group something fierce..but thankfully I have a couple of new knitters that I’ve been showing the way of the needles to and they caught on right away!

It’s good to be back to the old blog.. hope to be writing a lot more and knitting more too!

after a stormy day., originally uploaded by MrsKnitpho.

This was right out my back door in May after a rainstorm. I miss the green of late spring during these cold cold days.

In the mean time, I have been knitting other things. Like …..
I'm slowly working on Mia's sweater, but she's so freakin' long. The arms needed to be longer than what the pattern called for BY THREE INCHES and now the body of the sweater... may as well just make a blanket. So, that gets knit when I feel like it, not the most entertaining of projects, but when it's done - the oohs and aahhh are gonna be a plenty!

Did I show my sockhead hat? It’s GORGEOUS. I knit this with the yarn I bought at Rhinebeck two years ago. It’s yummy Socks that Rock: Jabberwocky. It was a lot of knitting on smaller needles and sockyarn. Round and Round and Round. But when it was finally finished, I am so happy that I had this yarn, because it was MEANT to be this.

I whipped up a Turn A Square hat for Mr Knitpho but have yet to take a photo of him looking so good in it. It turned out great and was such a fun knit! But.. now it’s back to the secret mittens. The big party and our exchange is December 11!! I better get on it!

I hope your ready !!

We had been searching for a blanket and this was perfect! We picked out some super comfy cozy yarn and amazing colors and we got to knitting… on the DL. This blanket pattern is designed for a group of friends to come together, each knits a strip in their designated colors and then we seam them all together. The amount of love that was stitched into this blanket is off the charts. We rallied together, and finished it for our sweet soul sister and gave it to her this past Saturday. She’s due in just a few weeks and we are all busting at the seams for this baby to arrive. But this “little” blanket is just to remind her how much we love her, her husband and this baby girl that’s on her way. Not that she needs reminding, but to have that presence in their home that we are here for the long haul. This is tight knit group (no pun intended, ok .. maybe a little) and amazing things can happen with the power that generates between us.

Something wonderful brought us all together and I thank my lucky stars for being a part of it.

My mother in law actually made these for my husband & sister in law ..these are def one of their favorites. So..I”ll give her all the credit

BULLCHIPS!

2 cups of sugar

5 tbls of unsweetened cocoa

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup chunky peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups quick cooking oats

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1 cup coconut (optional)

I omitted the nuts and added the coconut.. mm mm delicious.

Cover a baking sheet with wax paper.

Combine sugar with cocoa in a large saucepan. Stir in milk, butter & peanut butter. Cook, stirring continuously, over medium heat until butter melts and mixture is combined, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla Add oats and nuts; mix thoroughly.

Once mixture has cooled slightly, drop by large spoonfuls 2 inches apart onto baking sheet.

Refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes.

Because I am always in such a hurry… I suggest really letting mixture cool in saucepan.  I always drop the cookies too early and they don’t firmly set.     They are still delicious.. very gooey.

I hope you make them and enjoy them.. let me know if you do.

Instead of buttons.. I put in those little sew in snaps and will send them on their merry little way.

I hope the mother to be enjoys these little sweaters as much as I enjoyed knitting them for her new baby boys.

Half Marathon training has “officially begun.  I met up with others who are training to run their first half and I still can’t get the voices out of my head telling me I’m crazy and to give up.    But, it looks like I’m down with the chest wheezing and throat issues that my little one has, so running right now today.. just is not in my plan.   Perhaps a trip to the doctor and some tea though.

My yarn and hook are staring at me.   I guess I will give it a whirl and see what I can come up with that resembles crochet.

Have you decided what you’ll be doing for your event this go around? You are competing right?  I hemmed and I hawed, but I finally decided on the Mitten Mogul. I will competing in this event 4 times. I decided that it would be a fine time to cast for the knucks and make a pair for each one of us in our family!!! I’ve wanted some for myself for a long time, but I knew that my kids would love them and maybe even Mr. Knitpho would want his own pair once he sees how  badass they truly are!

In the meantime, I’ve casted on a Chevron Scarf with hand dyed yarn from one of our own. One is called pumpkin pie & the other is molten. Now, I LOVE purple and I LOVE orange.

So when Dan sat down and this yarn just gravitated toward me and I knew these two together would make the Chevron. I casted on last night, and I’m already in love. A nice little palette cleanser before knuck O rama starts!

I wanted to do something different for Holly, something I had knit yet.   She has scarves.  Dishcloths.  Fetchings.   But, I knew the weather had been cold in Denver, so I thought this girl needs a pair of thrums.   Then that would be a for sure for the weather to change and warm up so she’d never need to wear them.

Field trip to The Yarn Store in Uxbridge and picked me up some Berroco Vintage in a soft buttery yellow.   Now, for thrums you need roving.   fiber.   unspun yarn.   Hmmmm.  Did I know where I could get some of this?   (laugh track here)  Did I know anyone who could hook me up?   (laugh track again)    Yes, indeedy.   You see, more than half of us in our knitting crew are spinners, they all have wheels and spindles and delicious fibery goodness.    I have yet to jump on this bandwagon.     So, I beg borrowed and stole some fiber goodness from mah friend Steph and started thrumming.  I first watched this tutorial and then I started making my thrums.  I made a whole bowl full and casted on.

For me they went super quick and I was always so excited to get to the next round.   I finished them within a week and sent them to the birthday girl.   She loved them.  I loved making them for her.   Can you feel the love?

outside and the inside

So, now I’m finishing up a bigger project that I’ll have to wait to show you, and RavOlympics is right around the corner!!!  Do you have your event picked out?