Sweatering and Weekending and Getting Busy

It feels like this week has dragged on forever, despite it being only a four-day week (thanks, long weekend!). I've been crazy busy for the past two weeks, and while I'd love to take my chance to relax tomorrow, I've let a bunch of stuff at my apartment go undone, and I really ought to catch up.

Rehearsals for Mama Mia start on Sunday, and with them comes the summer craziness. I don't know what my rehearsal schedule is going to be like, and I'm hoping for at least a couple days off each week to relax and regroup. It's all fun, though, and it's only six weeks, and I really do enjoy almost every minute of it.

Last week I started a new cardigan for myself. I'm totally winging it, and I'm not taking any notes as I go along. It's some old kitchen cotton from my stash, and the plan is for it to be an oversized cardigan with bracelet-length sleeves. It's a silhouette I've been wanting for a while, and I think the kitchen cotton will give it the structure it needs without being too hot, so it should be a great layer for work. I don't know how much I'm going to get to work on this in the immediate future, though—this year's TTTKAL and the OAL both start tomorrow, and I have plans aplenty for both of those! 

Hell Creek

Hell Creek is named for the Hell Creek Formation, which spans parts of Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The formation dates from the late Cretaceous period, and is a rich source of fossils from marine and land reptiles, fish, dinosaurs, mammals, amphibians, plants, and invertebrates.

Hell Creek is a slightly cropped, boxy top, intended to be worn with 0-4in/0-10cm of positive ease. The top is knit from the bottom up and seamed, then stitches are picked up for the collar, which is worked in the round.

Hell Creek is intended to be worn with 0-4in/0-10cm positive ease and is shown in size 48in/122cm on a model with a 43in/109cm bust.

Sizes: 30 (33, 36, 39, 42, 45, 48, 51, 54, 57, 60, 63)in/ 76.5 (84, 91.5, 99, 106.5, 114.5, 122, 129.5, 137, 145, 152.5, 160)cm at bust

Yarn: 425 (465, 610, 620, 665, 710, 750, 795, 840, 885, 1030, 1075)yds/389 (425, 558, 608, 650, 686, 727, 768, 810, 942, 983)m sport-weight yarn

Hell Creek is 15% off on Ravelry through Thursday, May 30th, with code BONES!

Sick Day

No photo today, because I spent yesterday home sick and got absolutely no knitting done. Instead I;

• took a nap
• took a bath and listened to a podcast
• ate a vegetable
• made some hot honey lemon water and read a book
• took another nap
• ate some pretzels
• read about the history of vaccines
• went to bed early

Apparently that was the perfect mix to get me back on my feet for today!

Getting There

Happy Monday! This weekend ended up being quite a bit busier than I planned, but I still got a nice big chunk of this top knit up. I've got two more repeats to go on the back, and then it just needs seams, a collar, and blocking. Each repeat takes around an hour to knit, so I'm feeling pretty good about getting this finished. The pattern is with my tech editor now, so look to see this pattern coming out sometime next week!

I also managed to read quite a bit this weekend, despite running around all the time. By the time I got home last night, I was too tired to turn on Netflix, so I finished a couple of library books that have been languishing in my TBR pile. I'm notorious for checking out lots of books and never returning them on time, so it felt really good to get a few finished and returned.

I don't have anything planned for tonight other than cooking up some freezer meals and hopefully getting another library book finished. It's supposed to be pretty cold and rainy the next couple of days, but it should clear up by the middle of the week, and I'm hoping to get over to my community garden plot to get some stuff planted before the weekend.

Patterns and Recitals and Gardens, Oh My!

This top is growing, and I'm hoping to get a big chunk of the rest knit up this weekend. I don't have anything scheduled for tonight, so my plan is to cozy up in my chair, throw on some Doctor Who, and whack out as many rows as possible. I've blocked off tomorrow as a pattern writing day, but if the writing and formatting goes quickly, I can get some more knitting done tomorrow afternoon.

The recital for the dance studio I help out with costuming for is tomorrow night, and I'm really looking forward to seeing some of the dances. Two of my favorite instructors are leaving this year, so I definitely want to help celebrate the work they've done with their classes this year.

Sunday I have my first meeting for the community garden, and I'll get assigned my plot space. I'm so excited to get started growing things—I always hated helping my mum in the garden when I was growing up, but I definitely see the appeal of cheap vegetables now, and after getting so interested in houseplants over the past year, I really love the rush of seeing something that I'm responsible for grow and flourish!

On a Wednesday

I can't believe it's already Wednesday. Tonight I have my last choir rehearsal before the summer, and tomorrow night we're singing the national anthem at the opening ceremony for the Special Olympics. My dance class ended last week, and with choir ending it feels like I should be getting lots of free time now—alas, it's only for a couple weeks: summer theater rehearsals start at the beginning of June.

I'm making slow progress on my new top, but I haven't been able to knit during my lunch breaks the past couple of days. Hopefully I'll be able to get some good knitting time in tonight. I'm hoping to have the pattern ready to send to my tech editor this weekend, even if the sample's not quite done.

Last night I assembled the aquarium stand for my new fish tank, and I'm hoping to get the tank itself out of my car and cleaned up this weekend. I already have some aquarium plants sitting on my counter, waiting for their new home, and I'm really excited to get the system set up and ready for my goldfish in a couple more weeks! 

Weekending

As I expected, it was a pretty busy weekend, but I made it through. I actually made a surprising amount of progress on the back of this top, despite having practically no time to work on it. I brought it to my brother's graduation party just in case, but by the time we had everything set up, I just wanted to drink coffee and hide with Mystic, so that's what I did. By the time the parties and graduation were over, I was exhausted, so I drew a bath and watched The Mummy (Boris Karloff, not Brendan Fraser) (Side note: getting a portable dvd player for the bathroom was the best decision I ever made, and I heartily recommend it).

We still have tons of food left from the party, and every time I swing by Mum's house, she gives me more to take home with me. I made a quiche last night using leftover Canadian bacon, and lunches this week are going to be open turkey sandwiches with some of the two pounds of turkey we have leftover.

Yesterday I had Mum come over for coffee, and it was great to spend a couple of hours with her. I see her pretty much every day, but there's still something really special about just the two of us sitting down together. I'm so lucky to have the mother I do, and I'm so glad that we're this close. She's really the best mom I could imagine having, and I'm so glad she's mine.

Linking up with Crafting On

Moving On and Busy Weekends

If you're wondering if this is the newly-cast-on back for my new top, you are correct! I'm pleased with the progress I've made this week, and hopefully I'll be able to get into a regular knitting rhythm after this weekend.

We're having a brunch for my brother's graduation party, so tonight I'm going to be making a couple of coffee cakes to have on offer. I've also unfortunately let my housekeeping get away from me, and I should probably try to clean some tonight. There's a large sticky patch on one of my fridge shelves from I don't even know what, and that probably needs to get taken care of.

Tomorrow's going to be crazy busy, between my brother's graduation party and having to stop by some of my friends' kids' graduation parties, but I've managed to keep Sunday mostly open for rest and recovery.

Catching Up

Oh man, it feels like it's been forever since I've sat down to have a proper chat with you all! There's been so much going on—I went to visit my best friends in Minneapolis a couple weeks ago, I had auditions for the summer musical, I came down with staph, I had to get a filling this week, and my brother is graduating from high school this weekend! No wonder I've been feeling stretched a bit thin lately!

I actually haven't knit much the past couple of weeks. It feels a bit too convenient to blame my crazy schedule, but I think that's the reality. There's just been so much going on that when I have some time to just sit, I don't feel up to knitting. I'm hoping this feeling passes soon—I had my brother's last high school concert last night, and I managed to get a few sweater rows knit during that, so hopefully my knitting's going back on the uptick.

As you can see, I'm very close to finishing the front of this new top sample. I'd hoped to be further along by now, but like I said, life's been crazy. I just have this little bit left on the left upper front, and of course the neck decreases mean that every row is just a bit shorter. I'm still tickled pink by how this is knitting up, and it's almost making me ready for summer!

Mission Hill

My dream throughout most of high school was to move out and live in the Mission Hill neighborhood in Boston. It’s a small, historic neighborhood popular with students, and living there and going to college in Boston was the best future I could dream of for myself. Of course, life turned out a bit differently, but I still love the character of Mission Hill, and I visit there every time I’m back in Boston.

Mission Hill has a deep brim, perfect for warding off cold New England winds, and features a wide garter rib pattern.

Mission Hill is 20% off on Ravelry through Thursday, May 9th, with code BOSTON

Aust Cliff

Aust Cliff is a gorgeous fossil site in South Gloucestershire, England. It’s made up of layers of red and green mudstone, alabaster, limestone, and black shale, and is especially known for the numerous samples of Triassic-age insects found there.

The Aust Cliff hat is meant to work with hand-dyed yarns to evoke the color layers of its namesake, and the four-row stitch pattern is easy to memorize, making this a perfect choice for a portable project.

Aust Cliff is now available on Ravelry, and is 20% off through Friday with code CLIFFS.