Monday Numbers

 1. Lee Lee is recovering. We're both a little worse for wear. I wish she was doing better than she is—she's still quite uncomfortable and pretty stressed. I finally got a full night's sleep last night, for the first time since her dental.

2. Because watching your dog recover from getting all her teeth pulled out is super stressful, I got pretty much nothing done this weekend. Saturday I did my weekly grocery shop and then slept all afternoon. Yesterday I managed to get my homework done, but that's about it.

3. This week looks like it's going to be pretty school-heavy. I have one of my major assignments due this weekend, but we won't know how to do it until Tuesday, so it's going to be a busy few days towards the end of this week.

4. After some thought, I decided I'm not going to do NaKniSweMo this year. I always enjoy it, but I don't think I have time to knit a whole sweater this November, and I'd rather get some of my WIPs finished up. I will, however, be participating in NaKniMo, and setting a stitch goal, but mostly I'll be focused on trimming down my WIP pile.

5. I think that's it for now? Honestly, the past few days are just a blur of worrying about my dog and watching her be uncomfortable and wishing there was anything I could do about it. Hopefully I'll have a good update and some actual knitting content for y'all on Friday.

Vet Day

Yesterday was Vet Day for Lee Lee, who now has no teeth. I also brought Abby, who longtime readers might remember (she's a papillon and she lives with my mum) to cut down on trips out of town. I ended up waiting at the vet for six hours, and while I brought some knitting and a stack of readings for school, my focus was pretty shot. Fortunately, Lee Lee had her dental done first, and the vet let her come out to the waiting room to hang out with me while she came out of anesthesia. After both dogs were done, we all hung out at my mum's for a few hours.

Lee Lee is pretty miserable today. She had a lot of bleeding from her mouth through yesterday evening, and it was a rough night for both of us. I ended up opening the futon and covering it with an old stained blanket so she wouldn't have to be alone in the kitchen. She's still in a lot of pain, but I did manage to get a painkiller into her this morning (at least, I'm 90% sure I got it in her).

The plan for this weekend is lots of homework. Usually I get a bunch done on Thursday nights, but clearly I wasn't in any shape to do anything last night. I'm hoping that since I got that first pain pill in Lee Lee this morning that I'll be able to stay on top of it and keep her drugged up until she's not so sore anymore. It turns out it's really hard to focus when you know your best pal is hurting. She's getting spoiled with as many gentle pets as she wants, and eggs and rice for every meal, and hopefully by the end of the weekend she'll be feeling more like herself again.

Weekending

Kind of a weird weekend here. The vet called late on Thursday needing to reschedule Lee Lee's dental, which kind of threw off all my plans. Her appointment is now scheduled for this Thursday, and hopefully there's not another scheduling issue. I ended up spending most of Friday with my mum, which was the plan for after the dental anyway. We watched some Diagnosis Murder and I got two mum-cooked meals, so it was overall a good day. I had some homework to do this weekend too, and while it only took a few hours all together I had the hardest time actually sitting down and focusing long enough to do it. 

I'm finally coming to terms with the fact that I'm just not knitting a whole lot right now. I try to knit during class, but otherwise I'm not really touching it. I'm wondering if part of it is because most of my WIPs right now are samples and I don't really feel like working after doing my day job and classes, or if I'm just more tired in general from adding school into my regular schedule. Also, it's a weird year, and we're all really tired. The good news is that my knitting is here when I want it.

A Thursday Post

I don't usually post on Thursdays, but I really want to get back in the habit of posting twice a week, and tomorrow morning I'll be out bringing Lee Lee to the vet for her dental, so here we are. Her teeth really are in bad shape, and I think they'll be removing four or five of the eight or nine she has left (I think only her canines are safe, but we'll have to wait for the x-rays to be sure). 

Yesterday was ROUGH. I woke up several times during the night in pain and when I finally got up in the morning I was sore and achy all over. It took me a couple hours to remember that I'd gotten my flu shot on Tuesday, and that flu shots can cause some achiness for the next day or two. I brought my laptop out to my comfy chair to work, I loaded up on ibuprofen, and I took two epsom salt baths throughout the day and today I'm feeling much better. I've never reacted to a flu shot before, and while the aches yesterday sucked, they certainly sucked a lot less than the actual flu would. 

Knitting: today's photo is garter stitch, which I for some reason really disliked when I first started knitting but now it is one of my greatest loves. This is the start of what will eventually be one of the samples for a fingering-weight version of Easy A, which I am really looking forward to, but it's going to take months before they're finished and ready for publication. Right now, it's great class knitting, and I'll probably bring it to the vet tomorrow to work on while Lee Lee's under. 

Day 206

For the past several days I've had a string of stress dreams and nightmares, but last night I finally got a break, and I hope that whatever's going on in my brain at night is done with. It's not surprising: I'm closing in on seven months of being limited to my apartment, my mum's apartment, and weekly grocery shops. The only person I see a lot of is my mum, and while I love her to bits and am so glad I get her in my bubble, I'm missing a lot of the people that I usually see at least weekly.

I've broken my collection of candles back out and I'm really enjoying having one lit almost constantly. I cleared a little space on my desk so I can have one going while I work and attend class, and I put a couple candles in my bedroom as well. I've also been looking up new candles online (I have a particular weakness for ones incorporating tobacco scent) but I'm not buying any yet, because Lee Lee has a dental on Friday and I owe over a thousand dollars to my diabetic supply company, so we're not really buying anything that's not strictly necessary right now. 

Okay, the knitting—that's what you're all really here for, I know. This is a super soft, super cozy shawl sample I'm working up. It's about a quarter finished (it's gonna be BIG) and it's done with a strand of worsted weight held together with a laceweight mohair. I'm using Ecola Worsted and Pinnacle Lace from The Dye Project, so there's some silk in there too, making this just a joy to work up. I don't know when it will be finished or written up (I've given up on having knitting deadlines while I'm in school), but I'm hoping it's relatively soon. 

Numbers on a Friday

 1. The semester is starting to ramp up and this week I'm starting some of my bigger projects for this semester. I'm working really hard to stay ahead of my schedule so I don't end up completely buried and overwhelmed.

2. I've definitely noticed that I'm not knitting as much as I used to, which definitely makes sense, given all the school stuff I have going on. I try to knit during class, but I'm not knitting as much in the evenings and weekends because I can't really knit and do my homework at the same time. I am still knitting, though, and I'm hoping to get some projects finished up this semester.

3. Thank you all so much for the response to Rhys! We're having a tight couple of months right now—Lee Lee has a dental next week, and I have a fairly large diabetes supplies bill, so pattern sales are crucial right now, and the response to Rhys so far is really helping.

4. Speaking of Rhys, you can still get 20% off with code "Fall" on Ravelry and Payhip through tonight!

5. Take care of yourselves, kittens! Drink your water, wear your masks, and take some time off from screens!

Rhys

I love layering pieces, and Rhys is my idea of a perfect layering pullover. It’s loose, boxy silhouette is perfect with high waisted trousers or over dresses and skirts, and it also pairs well with leggings for a weekend afternoon on the couch.

Rhys features wide textured panels on the front and back and is knit flat. The front and back shoulders are seamed together before picking up for the sleeves, and the sweater is then finished with two long seams going up the sides and down the sleeves.

Rhys is now available in my Ravelry and Payhip stores, and is 20% off with code FALL through Friday, October 2nd. 

In Which I Make Good Choices

So. I have a lot of projects on the needles. It's always been a thing, since I started knitting: I cannot be a monogamous knitter. It's fine, I work on things as I want to, I usually have something I feel like knitting on the needles, and eventually everything either gets finished or sits around so long that my taste changes and I frog it. It's fine.

Anyway. I've mostly been focusing on a couple of shawl samples lately, and then on Tuesday I decided to cast on a big fingering weight sweater that is also a sample and also the pattern requires two samples, so it's actually gonna be a lot of knitting. And I thought, maybe I should, you know, finish the hat that I'm knitting, or the brioche shawl that I started back in July and never intended to be a longstanding WIP.

So instead of doing any of that I pulled out a sweater I started in 2018 and then put in the closet after a week. I'd lost the printout of the pattern, the two inches of twisted ribbing that I had so far wasn't even on the correct needles anymore, and I hadn't noted what size I was knitting anywhere, because I hadn't anticipated losing the pattern (listen, sometimes I am very foolish about what I am and am not capable of keeping track of).  

And instead of working on anything that didn't require tracking down a needle and re-downloading a pattern and counting stitches to figure out what size I was knitting, I decided that the best use of my time was to do exactly those things, and now I'm four inches into a sweater that is neither a sample nor a quick project and I have so many WIPs piled around my home workstation and MY GODS won't any of these things knit themselves?

Two Hats

I hope you all had a good weekend! Saturday I had a belated birthday lunch with my mum and siblings, and it was great to hang out for a couple hours. I also got my first paper for grad school finished and turned in, and now I just have to wait and see how I did. I did manage to get my apartment picked up some, too, which feels great.

I finally blocked the first two hats from my current hat kick (I'm still working on my blue Pilstam, but I think that might be it for this current streak). The one on the left is a Cloudburst Hat (Rav link) by my friend Cory—I used a heavier yarn than called for, so I knit the smallest size and hoped for the best, and I'm pretty pleased with how it came out.

The other hat is Beanie Lines (Rav link again), and I really let the yarn do all the work. I'm so pleased with it, and I have just enough yarn left over to squeeze out a quick pair of fingerless mitts. Now, I've been planning to knit myself some new fingerless mitts for...at least two years, probably, and I haven't done it yet. But the yarn is sitting on my desk so I don't forget about it (as opposed to the yarn for another pair of mitts that's been sitting on my bookshelf for over a year so I wouldn't forget about it...).

Numbers on a Friday

 1. Wednesday was my birthday!! I am now THIRTY, which is very exciting. (My BIRTHDAY SALE is still going on! You can use code HB30 on Ravelry and Payhip through September 15th to get 30% off all my patterns.)

2. I finished my sweater sample! I blocked it yesterday and it's still drying in my studio. I have the pattern maybe half written? I'm hoping to get it sent to my tech editor as soon as possible.

3. School is going well! I have my first paper due Sunday and a whole bunch of readings and summaries and analysis to do, but I really am enjoying it a lot.

4. It was cold this week! I always want it to be cold for my birthday but it almost never happens, so this was the greatest gift the universe could give me. It's sounding like we'll get back up into the 80s next week, though.

5. My apartment is lowkey a disaster because I haven't put away laundry in forever and I keep stacking empty boxes NEXT TO the trash instead of taking them out and really I ought to find like twenty minutes to deal with that because it's becoming A Problem.

6. Lee Lee had to start wearing her hoodies again this week, and also we got to make a nest on the bed with the fuzzy blanket, which she really loved.