Walking

It's finally gotten nice enough this month that I can start walking to work more, and I'm really glad to be back in that rhythm. Soon it will be too hot to walk, so I'm appreciating being able to do so while I can. I usually cut through the park and take this dirt access path, which is a bit more forgiving on my feet and knees than pavement.

Tomorrow I leave to visit my best friends in the cities. It's been almost two years since I've seen them, and I'm really looking forward to it. I had hoped to get the front of this top sample finished before I leave, but given that I haven't started packing yet, that's not going to happen. I have a list of things I want to get cleaned in my apartment before I leave, so tonight's going to be pretty busy for me.

I also just put through a bunch of renewal requests on my stack of library books. I'm reading too many at the same time, again, and none of them are going to get finished this week—I know better than to think I'll sit down and read a book while I'm at my friends' house, it never happens!

Busyness

It's been a very busy week for me, and I feel like I barely have time to breathe before I'll need to start getting ready to go visit my friends later this week. Things that have been helping me relax are:

-knitting this top

-housesitting for my friend, who's new puppy is a whirlwind of energy

-coffee. so. much. coffee.

-watching my plants turn to reach toward the light

-romance novellas

I hope you all have had a good week, and are finding things to keep you grounded if you've also been crazy busy!



Linking up with Crafting On

Weekending and New Tops

I hope you all had a great weekend! Saturday was pretty much lazy for me—I went and picked up a new-to-me aquarium from a friend in the afternoon, but otherwise just napped and read all day. Yesterday, though, I did a bunch of cleaning, cooking, and pattern writing. I have two new hat patterns written up and ready to go to my tech editor as soon as I can finish the yardage measurements, so be sure to keep an eye out for those in the coming weeks (if you sign up for my newsletter you can find out right away when the patterns are available, plus get a shiny special discount code).

I seem to be over my hat kick for now, but I have a few more waiting in the wings in case I get bitten by the hat bug again. My sweater sample is still going well, but it's more suited to evening knitting than to being carted around in my purse, so I cast on a new, more portable, top. I love the tweedy pink of this yarn, and I've had this design idea floating around in my head and sketchbook since last summer. It's a really enjoyable knit so far, and I'm looking forward to adding it to my summer wardrobe.

Linking up with Crafting On

A Little Baby Sweater

My new second cousin arrived yesterday, and from the pictures I've seen, he's absolutely perfect. Clearly I didn't get his sweater mailed off before his arrival, but I'm letting that go. It took several days for me to actually make myself sew the buttons on this (There are only four buttons! It should not have taken me a week to sew them on!), but now it's blocked and buttoned and ready to go in the mail tomorrow.

I kind of had to wing big parts of this sweater (really, it's more of a vest, but it's going to be spring soon, so he doesn't really need sleeves), but that was all my fault. I didn't have the right needle size, so I used a larger one, and I had to fudge some repeats to avoid making the sweater too long or the armscyes too deep. I'm really pleased with how it came out, and I hope it'll get plenty of wear this year.

Ravelry Page: Little Baby Sweater

Pattern: Little Baby Sweater by Purl Soho

Yarn: mystery sock yarn from my stash

Finished: Filled With Secrets

I finally caught up on FO pics last night, and I'm so excited to finally be able to write about this sweater. I mean, look at it! It's adorable! I've had the idea of a cropped version of this sweater floating around in my head for a while, and back in December, I cast on.

I went back and forth a few times about extending the colorwork throughout the sweater body, but I'm glad I did. Not only does it look FANTASTIC, but I also ended up using all but a few yards of my main yarn, even with these mods.

The relevant details: I knit my exact bust size, repeated charts 2 and 1 after dividing the sleeves from the body, and did the bottom ribbing right after the repeat of chart 1. The body ended up being about nine inches from the underarm, which is just a smidge shorter than what I'd hoped, but it's definitely still wearable. I started decreasing for the sleeves right away, to keep them fitted, and I threw in a repeat of chart 1 on each one before the ribbing.

I'm so pleased with how this came out, and I'm really looking forward to we
aring it! I was worried that I'd put off photographing it for too long, and that it was going to be too warm for a wool pullover, but we're due for an April winter storm tonight, so I might just get to wear it yet this week!

Ravelry Page: Filled With Secrets

Pattern: Filled With Secrets by Leah Coccari-Swift

Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Galway Worsted, "107" and "660"

Lazy Weekends and Instant Gratification

I got into a bit of a funk over the weekend and needed some instant gratification, so now I appear to be on a bit of a hat kick. I already have one new hat finished, and I'm hoping to get the pattern sent to my tech editor tonight, and I'm almost finished the brim of this hat. It's taking a while, because I want a folded brim on this hat, for extra cozy factor, which means an extra three inches or so of knitting.

This weekend was pretty uneventful. Saturday ended up being a total lazy day—I managed to get two loads of laundry finished, but otherwise I was just napping and reading. Yesterday I tried making granola, but I burned it. I might try again tonight. I had a whole list of things I wanted to get done over the weekend, but apparently my brain just needed a couple days off.

Some New Friends

One of my hobbies is collecting and caring for houseplants, and this week I scored two new beauties. Wednesday afternoon I was running some errands and I had to swing by my property management company, and there were these two big rubber plants in the foyer. I've been wanting a rubber plant for a while, and these ones were looking really sad. One of the realtors popped her head out from her office and said that they were free, as the team was sick of taking care of them.

They were both droopy and bone dry, and I ended up pulling off quite a bit of dead material from them. One of them is already starting to perk up, but they're both going to need plenty of tlc for the next few weeks. I gave them each half a gallon of water on Wednesday and again yesterday, and the soil is still rock hard and dry after the first half inch or so. I'm also working on getting the humidity in the room they're in right now up to hopefully help as well.

I'm really excited to have these two plants in my collection. I love big plants, but most of mine are small to mid-size, so these rubber trees really make a statement. Right now they're in my studio, and I think I like them there, but we'll see how they do in that light.

Wednesdaying

I was so excited to cast on this shawl back in January, and then it got set aside while I worked on finishing up some other stuff. I picked it back up this week after binding off the baby sweater and I'm really loving working on it again. I love these colors so much, and I can't wait to get to the lace section.

Handbell Choir has started up again for the spring, so I'm back to long Wednesdays of back-to-back  rehearsals after work. We're working on some great music though, and I really enjoy being back with my group. 

My kitchen is kind of a mess right now—my sink wasn't draining this weekend, and there's still a pile of dishes I need to catch up on. It's not going to get done tonight, unfortunately, since I'll be out so late and have such a long day. I'm generally not too concerned with housekeeping, but I have pretty much no counter space left right now! 

Sweaters and Sweaters

Hiya, kittens! I hope you all had a good weekend. I finished the baby sweater for my cousin's new sprout—all it needs now is a blocking and buttons, and then it'll go right into the mail so it's ready for the little guy when he comes.

I also cranked out a bunch of work on my new sweater sample and made it though a quarter of the body. My mum came over yesterday and took this awesome picture of the sweater in progress, and I'm really hoping to hit the halfway point on the body this week. I don't know how realistic that goal is, though—it turns out fingering-weight sweaters take a while to knit.

On Saturday I tried a new recipe and made chickpea nuggets. They're good, but I don't know how often I'll make them going forward. They were a bit more labor-intensive than I'd like, and they made a bit of a mess. They're also made almost entirely in the food processor, so I can't really make a big batch all at once. It was fun to try something new, though, and I still have some nuggets left for a couple of dinners this week.