Yes, it has been a looooong time since I posted on my poor sad neglected little blog.  My cousin, Charity, *waves hi Charity* is a newish knitter and she had a question about the pattern she was working on.  Well there is a slight problem because Charity lives in Ohio, and I live in Washington State.  Hmmmm what’s a knitter to do…make a video, of course!  The Webmaster, was more than willing to oblige me by filming and uploading the video.  With no further ado I present you with my youtube debut…How to do a centered double decrease aka S2WP or SL2tog K1 PSSO.

In this first video I knit Continental.

This second video I knit English style.

Luckily I did my nails this week;) I will sincerely try to update my blog once every couple of weeks…maybe I should say at least once a month!

I’ve been working on wee baby Nephew’s quilt, because I really need to have it finished in a week. So here you have a combination manicure and quilting update. For the manicure I used OPI’s Thanks A Windmillion for the base with Konad Princess stamping polish in green and Bundle Monster 06 stamping plate. I felt like the manicure needed a little something else so I taped off the top with a jagged edge and used OPI Navy shatter polish for the tip. I’m sort of meh on the color combination…the Navy Shatter looked more purple in the bottle but with a name like navy I should have figured.

The only thing the quilt needs now is a binding and then wee baby Nephew will be snuggled up tight. I’ve also been knitting like crazy to get my Camp Loopy Project 2 done by Friday. This is going to be a cardigan for JO in Malabrigo Arroyo, and it just needs a button band and some blocking. So much crafting to do so little time to do it in. Too many deadlines looming so I guess I better get to crafting;)

Now for the post you’ve been waiting for…ducklings!

We purchased this rare Heritage Poultry breed, the Ancona, from Boondockers Farm in Oregon.

We have 9 ducklings and they are growing like crazy. They are much larger than this right now, but I just had to show you the pictures of them looking tiny, fluffy, and oh so adorable!

And just so you don’t forget this is a knitting blog I’ll leave you with a  test knit I did for Jennifer Chase-Rappaport called the Huntress Shawl. Hmmm wolves and ducklings don’t play well together. Don’t worry I’m keeping my eye on those ducklings You can find this pattern in the Fall 2012 issue of Knitscene Magazine. FYI JO says I look like an angel in this photo…awww isn’t he sweet!

I know I promised a post about the baby duckies, but I wanted to do a quick manicure post today.  I call this manicure chocolate kisses.

The base coat is China Glaze Re-fresh Mint and I used Konad Princess Dark Brown Polish for stamping with Bundle Monster plate 02.

I love the way the combination of these colors reminds me of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

I promise the duckies will be next

Hope you all have a Happy and safe 4th of July holiday.  I saw tons of Independence day manicures on pinterest and  I just had to do one of my own.  I didn’t want something too over the top red, white and blue so this is what I came up with.

I used 3 coats of China Glaze Moonlight as the base. The pistol trigger accent I stamped with Bundle Monster 224 and Maybelline The Color Show Keep up the Flame, and the glitter coat was Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Ice Queen.

The other nails I did a diagonal tape off with Maybelline The Color Show in Navy Narcissist at the top with red striping tape in the middle.

Stay tuned for some adorable duckling pictures….seriously you might die from the cuteness of these little duckies!

I managed to finish my Camp Loopy project on in the nick of time.  The deadline for the first project was on Wednesday the 27th and I had the cardigan finished and blocking on the 26th with photos taken on the 27th.  Luckily the weather was having a good day and it was very summer like on Wednesday.

I picked up the boys and The Webmaster after work, we grabbed a pizza from Papa Johns and went to the beach. Unfortunately the pizza was eaten too fast to have any pictures taken of it, but we did get to draw on the sand before the tide came in. JY drew Sponge Bob.

JO had to one up his brother so he drew a bigger Sponge Bob.

I made a label for my Camp Loopy P (project)  1 in the sand. The pattern I chose was Shift of Focus, and the yarn was Madelinetosh Tosh Sport in Victorian Gothic. More yarny details found  here.

The Webmaster made me balance on this log…He wanted to make me look silly since I “force” him to take yarn pictures in public. Too bad this turned out to be my favorite picture.

I ordered some fancy buttons on etsy but they didn’t arrive on time so I got some temporary buttons from JoAnns

What a great way to kick off the summer…yeah I know some of you have had a month of summer already, but here in Western Washington the summer days have been few and far between.

I was given a gently used sewing machine by a friend who was getting a new one.  She is a quilter and I have been admiring her finished quilts and works in progress for a long time now.  She has been encouraging  me to take up quilting,  and I have a new nephew on the way so why not make him a quilt?!  I picked out some fabric to coordinate with his Lightening McQueen decor and jumped right in.  The process of quilting is very satisfying and I find it very cathartic to take different pieces of fabric and combine them to create a pattern that is agreeable.  Here is a peek…just to keep you interested, you know

Don’t worry, I’m still knitting like crazy! Little nephew to be will have a hat to warm his head and also some cute little socks. I knit the hat in Hazel Knits Piquant Lite Indigo. The socks were knit with Artisan Sock Rogue Gray with Piquant Lite stripes and vice versa.  This little set, by Irishgirlieknits, uses bits and pieces of yarn.  It would be great for all those leftover we all have laying around.

Never fear, .if the zombies were near,  I could defend you!

We used the regular round targets the first time, but had to break out the zombies for the second go around.

JO loaded the ammo for me since it hurts my hands and I have to use the wussie girl magazine loader. JO was super proud that he is better than me at loading ammo!

And of course JY had to get in on the action…while following all safety rules of course! Doesn’t he look super cute (errrr I mean fierce of course) in his safety goggles and hearing protection!  (and if you look closing you see the shell flying out of the handgun)

I was super happy that after a little lesson on sight alignment I even killed the zombie. Not bad if I do say so myself, seeing as this was only the 2nd time I’ve fired a gun!

I don’t know what is up with the half smile I have on my face…I must have been trying to look fierce too! So many new things I’m learning!  Don’t worry, there has been knitting on my Camp Loopy project, in addition to making my first quilt. A baby quilt for my new nephew to be…there shall be pictures coming, but I had to make a quick post lest you think I’ve abandoned the blog again

This blog is coming back to life like a zombie!  Yeah we are down with zombie craze around here.  I don’t know what happened but life just got crazy, and then my laptop kicked the bucket.  Never fear we are back in business just in time for Camp Loopy 2012 and the great garden escapade.  My FIL built us 3 raised beds for our garden and let me just say I’m in love! It’s just so much more fun then sitting in the dirt and let me say the lack of weeds… fabulous! We planted strawberries, tomatoes, and eggplant in one bed. Along with some asparagus which we have to move, but there’s a bit of a learning curve.

In the other bed we planted some various herbs, and this pretty purple sage next to some pineapple mint.

And after a long day of gardening we relax around a campfire

Please excuse the lack of makeup, but I couldn’t resist the photo evidence of some JO snuggles!

And knitting by the campfire is pure bliss! I am participating in Camp Loopy 2012…after the roaring success of last year’s Camp Loopy I couldn’t resist. For the first project I will be knitting Shift of Focus in some Madelinetosh sport in Victorian Gothic.

I will try my zombie hardest to make regular updates!

We had a huge winter storm last week which consisted of about 6 inches of snow with about 2 inches of ice on top. Needless to say it was a mess around here. We were without  power for 3 days, and JO’s school was cancelled all week. There were a quarter of a million people in Western Washington without power, and many roads had to be shut down because they were impassable. It made mailing my Christmas knits that much later. I mailed this box of goodies to my brothers family, but it goes along with the theme of the story Twas the Night Before Christmas.

The Stocking were hung by the chimney with care. (details on my project page)

And Ma in her kerchief.. (details on my project page)

And I in my Cap (details on my project page)

And one more cap…just because I couldn’t  resist.