The First Week

Week One of library school DOWN and I am TIRED. It's definitely just because this is a CHANGE and it is NEW and I do not cope well with change or new things. It'll get better. I have a stack of readings to do this weekend and I wanted to get a draft of my new sweater pattern finished and sent to my tech editor, but we'll see how the weekend goes.

I was very excited to start the sleeves for my sweater sample earlier this week only to discover (AFTER sewing the shoulder seams) that the back was twelve rows too short. This is what I get for not checking my notes. So the sweater back is back on the needles and I've been spending quality time with my latest hat project (this is hat number three of the current streak, but I haven't blocked the other two yet). 

I'm knitting my own pattern, which I don't do too frequently, but I thought that this rich blue tweed yarn would look super charming as Pilstam, and so far it's proving me right. I'm taking my time with this hat after banging the first two out, because, 1. cables, and 2. this yarn rips if I manhandle it too much, which means I have to be careful with my tension. I'm usually a pretty rough and tight knitter, so it's weird being forced to slow down and be gentle with this project. 

School and Sweaters

It's my first day of Library School!

I'm very excited, if you haven't picked up on that already. I took the second half of last week off to give myself a bit of a break before classes started and to have time to do my orientation sessions, and I feel pretty ready. 

I spent the weekend mostly relaxing—it's been super hot here, and it'll stay super hot through this week at least, so I've not really been going outside at all. Instead, I finished the front and banged out most of the back of this sweater sample, and I'm feeling pretty good about getting the pattern to my tech editor by the end of the month.

I also made a batch of cookies with the intention of freezing most of them so I'd have them handy throughout the semester when I needed a little something sweet, but to absolutely no one's surprise I have already eaten most of them. Whoops, guess I'll have to make more soon.

We're getting a bunch of new covid cases in my state, so please remember that there is still a pandemic going on! Wear a mask! Keep your distance! I know, I'm tired of it too, but we need to do our best to protect each other.

The First Hat

 

Longtime readers of this blog may know that occasionally I'll go on a hat kick. I love knitting hats—they're small, portable, endlessly customizable, and generally quick to knit—and generally when I have the hankering, just one hat isn't going to cut it. So on Friday afternoon, when I felt the start of a hat kick stirring in my brain, I grabbed some skeins from the stash, wound them up, and sorted  through some patterns.

This one is Beanie Lines, by Danielle Lewis, knit in some gorgeous hand painted sock yarn that's been in my stash for years. I'm holding it double, and I love how the colors are working up—it reminds me of kelp, or a magical secret grotto. It's very nearly finished, and I've already started the second hat of this kick (I don't know how long it will go for, but I pulled out yarn for five hats total).

This week is my LAST WEEK before my classes start! I have grad school orientation on Wednesday afternoon, and library school orientation on Saturday. All my textbooks have arrived, I have shiny new notepads, and my wall calendar is hung up and ready for me to start filling in due dates. I'm starting to get a little nervous about how I'll balance everything, but I've been planning for months, so hopefully I'm as prepared as possible! 

Cuddle Blanket!

 

Gosh, do I even blog anymore? I spent most of last weekend napping and couldn't think of anything interesting to share on Monday, BUT! I have great news today! 

I have finished my Cuddle Blanket!!

I started this back in 2015, and I'd had the yarn for it for at least a year or two before that. My best friend used to work at Walmart and sent me a whole big box of clearanced yarn and it took a while to figure out what to do with it all. Eventually I stumbled across the Garter Squish pattern, and after pulling a couple more yarns from my stash to make up the difference, I knew that this was destined to be a friendship cuddle blanket. 

This has been sitting in my closet for years, and it was about a quarter knit when I pulled it out for Stash Dash. It took a bit longer to finish than I initially thought it would, but it was still a super quick finish.

I did skip the i-cord edges that the pattern called for—I did them for the first couple of inches, but I had a hard time maintaining tension on them, and then I dropped one of the stitches, so I gave up and just slipped the first stitch of every row for the rest of the blanket. It looks fine.

I'm so pleased with how big this came out. It's probably a generous twin-size, but because it's almost all acrylic and it's not knit at a super dense gauge, it stretches really well, making it perfect for cuddling. 

Also, Lee Lee really loves it. (Side note: today is her twelfth birthday! We are celebrating with lots of ear scritches and cookies, and this afternoon we're gonna go catch up on her shots!)

Ravelry Page: Garter Squish Cuddle Blanket

Pattern: Garter Squish by Stephen West (Ravelry)

Yarn: Assorted 

Numbers on a Friday

 1. What is this, twenty-one weeks since I started staying home? I think?

2. I have done virtually no knitting this week. I did maybe ten rows on a shawl sample and that's it. Hoping for a knitting marathon this weekend.

3. My textbooks have started arriving for fall semester! Classes start two weeks from Monday, and I'm excited and nervous. The books are looking good, though, and I think they'll all fit on the handy little shelf on my desk.

4. I got a wireless keyboard and mouse this week and it has been REVELATORY. My laptop is now stacked on a pile of books and my workspace is almost ergonomic. I have a yoga ball coming in the mail (hopefully today) to use as an alternative to my chair, and I think that will help a lot too.

5. I ordered the batting for a vintage quilt top I got several years ago, and I'm hoping to sandwich and pin it this weekend. I'd always planned on hand-quilting it, and I want to get it set up in my big needlework frame before school starts so I can use it as a study break.

6. I think that's all I have for now? Drink water. Wear your mask. Donate to bail funds/protest medics (yeah, protests are still going on). Call your representatives. Take five minutes to breathe. 

Day 143

I'm really enjoying my last weeks of freedom before school starts. This weekend I made bread, because my fridge is full of pickles from my mum's garden, which means melted cheese and pickle sandwiches as often as I can eat them. I'm also getting ruthless with my to-read pile, determining which books I'm not going to read and what's realistic for me to finish in the next three weeks.

I have a new sweater sample on the needles and I'm really loving it. This is actually the second inception of this sweater—I'd originally planned it to be a cardigan, but after finishing the upper back and doing lots of planning for the upper front shaping, I decided I'd rather have it as a boxy cropped pullover. It's working out really well, I'm really enjoying knitting it, and I'm really looking forward to wearing it. I'm hoping for an early fall release for the pattern, but school could throw that off. I'm trying to go with the flow.

This week I'm hoping to do some more baking and read one or two of the romance novels on my list. I'm also very close to being finished with my cuddle blanket, but I don't know if I'll manage to bang the rest of that out this week or not. I'm also slowly but surely adding all my patterns to my new Payhip shop—it's taken me a bit longer than I'd hoped, but I'm over halfway done, and I'll definitely be all set up over there before school starts.