No, I didn’t disappear. I just finally have some free time, and a post actually related to crafting. This is my first FO in a long time, I’ve had a bad case of startitis for a few months, and thanks to this gem of a purse I seem to be on the road to recovery.
Pattern: Windmill Bag
Needles: US 7
Yarn: Lily Sugar n Cream
1 ball each, Guacamole, Terra Firma,
Sonoma Print, and Country Sage
Some things have been happening, and I’ve been neglecting the blog. I’ve also been neglecting Ravelry and other various internetty things. Of course, we’re super busy at work and all last week I never got home until about 9pm. And all I wanted to do was eat and go bed.
Nothing much happening on the knitting front, I’ve been working on washcloth gifts for various family members and some people at work. Its all I have the brain for right now.
On the reading front, my husband bought me a delightful book called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. You know you have a good relationship when your husband sees that in the bookstore and simply has to buy it for you. Its absolutely hilarious. I have read Pride and Prejudice and didn’t really like it, very sappy and femaley, and even the men were far too ladylike. But if you throw zombies in there its awesome. The five sisters have been trained by their father and various martial artists in the “killing arts”. And they are able to behead the “unmentionables” with much finesse. Mr. Darcy falls in love with Elizabeth because of her great skill at cutting a swath through thirty zombies armed with nothing but a dagger. The great debate among the sisters is whether or not to carry muskets, they make fighting zombies easier yet are so unladylike. I love this book, much better than the work it is based on. I’m also re-reading Dracula, just because I love it.
On the marriage front, we celebrated our fourth anniversary on April 23rd. We went to PF Changs for dinner and it was super yummy. Then we went to Best Buy and I bought Ricky Gervais’ HBO special. OMG SO funny! After that we did what married folks would normally do, and it was super fun.
Here lately we’ve been in homeowner mode. We’re trying to kind of update things a little. Nothing major, just a good spring clean, moving furniture around and some inexpensive things. We’ve decided to get rid of our big heavy coffee table. We bought it at Goodwill when we moved into the house, it was $20 and in four years its just gotten cumbersome. Its a good solid table, heavy oak or something similar. And it has beveled glass corners. Its a pain in the ass to clean, you can’t use anything wet to clean the wood and then you have to take the glass out to clean it. Plus, its rather large. An IKEA just opened up not too long ago here so we went there today to get some ideas. We bought one endtable today, and next week we’re going back for the other one and the coffee table we decided on. This weekend we moved the living room around and cleaned up half the kitchen. I say half the kitchen because I did all the dishes and cleaned the stove, microwave and counters. The other half is still a pigstye, but our garbage can is full and it doesn’t get picked up till Weds. Next weekend we’re going to tackle the bedroom. We’re getting rid of the massive entertainment center and the ugly ass video cabinet, which will give us lots more room in there. I also bought a new Bed In A Bag today to kind of help freshen things up.
I’ve given up on the scarf for Aunt Mad. I just can’t find something that I think she would like. I mean, this woman has been knitting for over 80 years, so there’s nothing I could knit that she hasn’t already knitted herself. Its very intimidating. I have another plan, an easier one, a knitted gift that everyone enjoys. Spa cloths. I’m going to make three sets of spa cloths, one for Aunt Mad, one for Myra, one for Ann. I’ll go to the Scent Shop that has these great handmade soaps and purchase some, tie the cloths and cute soaps up with a cute ribbon and voila! I shall have hand knitted giftery that won’t drive me insane trying to make it.
Really, it was making me crazy. I started with two projects on the needles and now I have four. I started and stopped countless other projects and my knitting area was a total wreck. I came to the realization that I don’t want to knit a big gift on a deadline, deadlines make me nuts, the closer the deadline comes the less work I do on whatever needs to be done. I want to knit my Cozy Shawl, I want to be able to start on Shawl That Jazz without a bunch of other WIP’s floating around. This is just me being neurotic, but still.
So this week and weekend I shall work on washcloths, then I will go back to my own projects.
So, I’ve been rather remiss in the blogging and the tweeting. I haven’t twittered since last weekend. I’ve been working late, and haven’t been doing much thats worth posting, I’ve also been pretty busy during the day at work, and haven’t had any random thoughts to post to Twitter. But I’m sure that once summer comes I’ll have lots more time for blathering on the net.
I’ve also decided to revise some of my knitting goals. I haven’t been excited about any of my projects. I’ve decided to put the Wavy scarf in hibernation for awhile. The Cosy shawl is on hold also. I’ve decided to make a Branching Out scarf for my Great Aunt Madelyne. I started it with one kind of yarn, but that yarn was too thick. I’m going out today to get some lighter weight yarn. This is going to be the main project for awhile, as it has a deadline. After that I’ll probably jump on the Yarn Harlot bandwagon and make Shawl That Jazz. I think its just the cutest shawl ever. And its all garter stitch, but also one big short row, so it should be easy enough to knit without boring me to tears. Then I might go back to the Cozy shawl, or I might decide to go ahead and start Adamas. Or I might decide to work on Cozy before I start Shawl That Jazz. I’m not sure. But the most important right now is definitely the scarf for Aunt Mad. I’d like to get it done quickly if I can, but we’ll see.
So, I’ve been in this funk lately. I didn’t want to work on any of my WIP’s, didn’t feel like a dishcloth, blah blah blah. Mom had this idea for me to knit something for Aunt Mad. At first she wanted me to knit a pair of socks, but socks as gifts can go horribly wrong. And Aunt Mad is 95 years old, so she probably has her own ideas about socks. So I decided that I would make her a lace scarf. Specifically, the Branching Out scarf. She lives in Boston, which gets cold, so I want to make it out of some substantial yarn. I bought some Naturally Caron Country, but its a tad too thick. I think a light DK weight or a heavy fingering weight would be very nice. I see either a Knit Picks purchase or a trip to the LYS in my near future.
