Travel Planning

I did manage to finish my Ex Nine socks last night, which I am incredibly thrilled about. I can't wait to get actual daylight pictures of them and tell you all about them, but I don't think that's going to happen until I'm back from my library conference. The blog's going dark next week (I mean, it'll still be here, and you can reread old favorites, if you have them, but I'm not going to be writing anything new) and I'm going to miss you all.

One of the things I was really worried about for this trip was my knitting. I needed something really simple, but that would last through the flights, the conference, and a six-hour layover on my way home. Fortunately, one of my planned sweater designs for this year fit the bill exactly. It's fingering weight, a buttload of garter stitch, and it's only just been cast on, and even I don't think I can knit an entire fingering-weight sweater in four days.

But, just in case, I'm bringing something for my cousin's impending baby, too. 

Pocketful of Posies

Hello, friends! I've had this shawl percolating in my head for over two years, and I'm so thrilled to finally be ready to put it out into the world.

Pocketful of Posies was directly inspired by The Dyeing Arts’ “Pansy Lane” colorway. I wanted a shawl that evoked woodland wanderings, flower-lined pathways, and small bunches of flowers stashed wherever you can fit them.

Pocketful of Posies is worked sideways on the bias. The generously-sized shawl features large lace sections and a picot bind off.

Lace pattern has both charted and written instructions.

Pocketful of Posies is 20% off with code POSY through Thursday, March 14th!

Socks and Prep

Well, after a sprint this weekend, I'm sitting with one finished sock and have the cuff and the start of the leg on the second. I'm feeling pretty good about being able to finish these this week, and I'm looking forward to having a new pair of socks for myself.

I feel like this week is going to be a lot of catching up and trying to get ahead on things. Next week I'm going to Florida for a library conference, and there's some stuff I want to get done before that so I can enjoy the trip. I want to get knitting projects for the flight started before I leave, and my return trip has a six-hour layover, so I want to be sure I bring plenty of stuff to keep me occupied during that time! 

Socking Along

Why, hello, socks! It's been a hot minute since I last worked on these guys, and it's really nice to be back to knitting on them. I finished my shawl sample yesterday, and my main goal for the next week is to crank out my Ex Nine Socks for the Juntos KAL. I usually let socks languish for a while and take my time to knit them, but I'm pretty confident that I can power through these by the time the KAL ends.

It's finally starting to warm up a little bit, but snow has come along with the milder weather. We're supposed to get freezing rain tomorrow, so I'm not planning on leaving my apartment under any circumstances. I'd been planning on spending the weekend doing some pattern writing, but I managed to get all caught up last night, so now my plans are limited to coffee and sock knitting and not too much else.

On a Monday

I can't believe it's already Monday. I spent a large part of Saturday just recovering from driving three and a half hours on Friday night after working all day, but I now have an aquarium and I'll be able to start looking for something to put it on. I also spent a big chunk of Saturday baking a cake, as Anemone visited this weekend and we celebrated her birthday early. The cake was well-received, and I still have a couple of pieces for myself in my fridge.

I finished the lace section of this shawl sample, and I'm on the final stretch of stockinette before the picot bind-off. I'm hoping I can finish the shawl this week, which might be a bit of a stretch, but I'd love to get the pattern sent to my tech editor this weekend.

It's spring break at the university, so campus is dead quiet right now. It's still going to be a bit of a busy week for me, but I'm definitely going to try and enjoy the quiet while it lasts. I still have a stack of dance costume alterations to tackle, and I have a meeting for a potential new project tomorrow night, so I'm definitely not going to get bored while all the students are gone!

**Also, I'm having a sale on all my Malabrigo patterns this week for Malabrigo March 2019. Everything in this bundle is 20% off through Saturday with code MALMARCH19.**

Linking up with Crafting On and Yarn Along

A Growing Shawl

Well, it is Friday, again, and it's snowing. Hopefully the snow will stop by noon; I have to drive out into the country to pick up an aquarium tonight, and I'd love to not have to reschedule due to bad roads.

I've been working steadily on this shawl this week, and I'm past the halfway point now. It's already huge, and I think this is going to be a great, versatile shawl—light enough for a little something extra on my shoulders, but big enough to squish into a super warm layer under my coat. I kind of feel like I'm in a bit of a knitting black hole right now, but I know I'm adding repeats and using up yarn, so hopefully it'll all come together soon.

I have some pattern writing to work on this weekend. I want to type up the written instructions for this shawl and another shawl, and I have a couple of swatches that I need to measure and work out some math for so I can get my next sweater sample cast on this month.

Weekending

Happy Monday, Kittens! I hope you all had a good weekend. My Saturday was pretty busy—I started out with a fitting at the dance studio, and then it was straight to the show choir competition for the rest of the day—but yesterday was pretty restful. I went to the university choir concert in the afternoon, and then caught up with a friend for a little bit, which was really nice.

It's been such a long time since I've touched these socks—and it's been even longer since I shared them with you—so I decided to share them today in the hopes of shaming myself into working on them some more. I'm knitting these for the Juntos KAL, which ends March 15th, so I'm not quite in the danger zone of not finishing on time yet, but I will be soon if I don't get a move on. Considering that I've abandoned all hope of finishing my second Old Harry anytime soon, it'd be nice to finish at least one KAL on time this year.

Linking up with Crafting On

Growing Lace

Look at all that lace! This has been my evening knitting project this week, and I've definitely made a lot of progress. There's still tons of shawl to go, but I'm really enjoying watching this grow, and I know it's going to be beautiful when it's finished. I'm really struggling to see the lace pattern now, but I know it'll block out and look great.

We're supposed to have a show choir competition here in town tomorrow, but we also might be getting a bunch of snow. I hope the competition isn't cancelled, but I also don't want a couple hundred high school students and all their families to get snowed in here in town, so we'll see how that plays out.

This week I got a stack of alterations done on dance costumes, and I have one more quick fitting at the studio scheduled for tomorrow morning. Right now everything in my studio is covered in glitter from some tutus that had to be taken in, which I know would frustrate plenty of people (I, however, love glitter, and I think it's fantastic). My studio was already a mess before I brought this pile of costumes home to work on, and I'm looking forward to getting them out so I can maybe tidy up a bit and make that room more functional again.

A Sweater and Snow

I figured out the trick to making progress on this sweater, and it turns out I just have to actually knit it. Wild, I know, but it's amazing how much more body I have since I've been actively working on this again. I'm about halfway through the lower body increases, and it's really starting to look like a functional garment. I don't think I'm going to finish this by the time the Wayward KAL ends on February 28th, since I still have both sleeves to go, but that's all right—there's still plenty of winter left to enjoy this once it's done!

It's been a pretty quiet week here. I went to my mum's last night for dinner—ranch chicken, baked potatoes, and spinach and mushrooms—and then overnight we got a bunch of snow. The snow is currently deeper than the tops of my boots, and my jeans are soaked right now.

I'm currently feeling a little bit overwhelmed by my current WIPs. I have a bunch of things on the needles that I'd like to finish, and I'm currently juggling three or four pattern samples, and it just all feels like a lot. I think I might take the next couple of weeks to just buckle down and get some things finished, but we'll see what happens.

Jeri

I love easy-to-wear cardigans in simple shapes, and Jeri fits the bill exactly. Featuring a boxy, textured body with fitted sleeves, Jeri is equal parts classic and modern and is easy to wear as well as enjoyable to knit.

Jeri is worked seamlessly from the top-down with long fitted drop sleeves. The texture pattern on the body is an easily-memorized two-row repeat.

Jeri is intended to be worn with 4-8in/10-20cm positive ease and is shown in size 50in/127cm on a model with a 43in/109cm bust.

Sizes: 30.25 (34.75, 40.75, 45.25, 46.75, 52.75, 54.25, 58.75, 64.75, 66.25, 70.75, 76.75)in/77 (88.5, 103.5, 115, 118.5, 134, 138, 140, 164.5, 168.5, 179.5, 195)cm at bust, to be worn with 4-8in/10-20cm of positive ease

Requires: 840 (925, 1010, 1095, 1180, 1260, 1345, 1430, 1515, 1600, 1765)yds/768 (846, 924, 1002, 1079, 1152, 1230, 1308, 1386, 1463, 1536, 1614)m worsted-weight yarn

Jeri is 20% off on Ravelry through Thursday, February 21st!