It’s not that I’ve finished many of the projects I have on my plate, but that doesn’t stop me from adding to the list.

Picovoli – I was wanting to make the Loop d Loop ballet top out of Rowan Felted Tweed. When I read that grumperina designed picovoli as a finer gauge ballet top with more shaping, I thought it would be perfect. I want to make this with long sleeves, or at least 3/4 depending on how far I can get my 5 balls of yarn to go.

Cardinal Joy Hoodie from Handknit Holidays – I’ve got navy blue yarn to make this for Honor. The trim will be light blue, I’ll skip the bird. I think this will be so cute on him, I can’t wait to get it done.

Over the Knee Stockings from Handknit Holidays – I think I’ve talked about these before, but I think they’re so beautiful and I think I need to go pick out some shoes to wear with them.

I’ve also got yarn for two more Linen Print shawls. One for me and one for my aunt. Ahhh, I wish there were more knitting hours in the day.

I started the Cabled Footies from One Skein on Sunday. And have subsequently ripped it out more times than I care to admit. I completely finished one sock and decided that the ankle was too short for my comfort. I’m not a big fan of ankle socks and I should have listened to my inner knitting voice when I started these socks and went ahead and made them longer.

My second try, I decided that I’d rather work a short row heel rather than a heel flap. I’m not too big a fan of a heel flap, I’ve decided. (This may be due to all the peer pressure I’ve received from my good friend, Joelene.) I’m determined to get the short row heel perfect. I’ve even had to call in some Emergency Sock Help from Joelene. Anyway, I think I’m on try 4? now. But I think I’ve got it figured out. I’m determined that I’m not going to let these socks get the best of me. They are going to be perfect!

Here they are in the book, pretty cute eh? I have a feeling that I’m making them harder than they should be.

I’m hoping that it was fixed so quickly that no one noticed that my website got hacked this morning. But if you did, don’t worry, I’m back and have worked out all the kinks (I think) with changing up all the passwords. Thankfully, nothing was lost.

Honor visited his Orthapedic doctor today. She was really happy with the way he walked in his brace and told us to keep up what we’re doing. It was good to know that it’s working, and he’s really at the point where he doesn’t even fight getting it put on anymore.

Yesterday I went back to the dentist. My tooth gave me a short reprieve over the weekend but then started hurting again on Sunday. My suspicion that it was still infected was confirmed by another x-ray. The dentist started me on another type of antibiotic in hopes that I can save the tooth. I’m trying very hard to remain positive about it, but it’s been pretty easy to be depressed about the whole thing. I can try to have surgery on it if the infection doesn’t go away, but that’s still no guarantee that the tooth will make it. Boo. But that’s right, I’m thinking positive, being negative won’t do any good. At least I’ve still got a stock of Vicodin… right?

I whipped up the second wristlet over the last couple of evenings. I’m teaching this on Saturday and just writing up the pattern today. The pattern is loosely inspired by a couple other wristlet patterns out there. I actually really ended up liking these. And what’s better than pima cotton and silk? Not much, I say.

I’m finally whittling away at my list of knitting projects. (Although I’ve got quite the list of new things piling up in my mind – partially thanks to the shipment of books we just got in the store.)

I finally finished this sweater I started in February for my friend Brooke, who is due next month.

The yarn is Rowan All Seasons Cotton and the pattern is a Knitting Pure and Simple pattern (#241) that is wonderfully easy.

I also finished a shawl I’ve been working on for my mom’s birthday… March 17. Oops. I’ve concluded that shawls are impossible to photograph, so here is a disappointing photo of it. Really it’s fresh and modern and has an amazing drape. I’ve got some yarn to make one for myself too.

The yarn is Rowan Linen Print – 7 balls
Pattern is from the store, it’s called the Purl Shawl. Yep, all purling baybee!

Next on my list is finalizing a pattern for a class I’m teaching on Saturday and finishing up a baby sweater pattern that I’m teaching in a few weeks. What a busy life I lead…

I’m feeling much better today, except that I just paid bills and that’s never makes anyone feel good… except, I guess, not being able to pay bills, which makes you feel worse… so I guess I’m feeling better today. My root canal is scheduled for 7am tomorrow, nothing like starting the day out great! I’m relieved that I at least got an appointment with my regular dentist rather than the rude and uncompassionate one I saw yesterday. If someone is going to spend an hour and a half hammering on my poor tooth, they had better be nice.

Even though I’ve been laid up, I haven’t got as much knitting done as I would have liked. I finished my Koigu sock, but I refuse to post a photo of it until the second one is done. That will give me some sort of motivation to finish the second. I’m working another purse, my own pattern, and it’s coming along, slowly. Also I’m almost finished with the Linen Print shawl for my mom, it’ll only be about a month late for her birthday, oops. All of my projects are in varying stages of completion, but all I can think about is this rug. I want to knit it so bad!

It’s just so amazing! Someday, I will finish my huge list of projects I have to get finished and I will knit this rug. Someday…

Well, I’ve done it. After many loud demands (Scout!) I’ve made my cabled purse pattern available for sale. I even have it available for automatic download via PDF. So go check it out!!

I’ve just been cranking out the knitting projects. And I’m trying not to be distressed that my right wrist has really been bothering me. I’m typing right now with a brace on. Yikes! But I managed to get this baby bolero done. The pattern is from One Skein, and while I love the design, I’m not thrilled with the assembly. There’s just so many seams for such a teeny little thing. So this is what I did:

•For the shoulder seams, I did the 3 needle bind off.
•For the sleeves, rather than setting in the sleeves, I picked up stitches around the arm hole and worked the sleeve backwards down the arm.
•I also worked 3 rows of ribbing around the body to match the sleeves rather than 2 like the pattern says.
•I also used GGH Samoa – 2 balls.

That’s it! It’s still cute, if I do say so myself!

back detail

So here it is, a very big sock that sometimes people put gifts in around the end of December.

This was really my first experience with extensive chart reading and I’m quite proud of my efforts. (As if you couldn’t tell by the 50 million photos I’ve taken.)

The yarn is Cascade 109, I used 2 skeins of the main color and then just a little of one for the contrasting color. I love this yarn! It is so soft for 100% wool, and it’s not even merino.

the back

The pattern is from Hand Knit Holidays. I have to say, even though we don’t celebrate Christmas, I LOVE this book. There are so many patterns in the book that aren’t holiday oriented and there’s even a hanukkah pillow (that I would never use, but STILL.)

Now lets show some love for this heel. I have to say, this is a nice heel.

Knitting this was really fun for me. This is why I love knitting for the store, I want to knit everything, but I don’t necessarily like or would use everything. I’ve noticed that I’m starting to be more about the process than the product. When I was taking art classes in HS, my teacher would always give me a hard time that everything I made HAD to be functional. I couldn’t just sculpt a piece for the artistic value of it, it had to have a purpose. I still maybe knit for a purpose, but I am beginning to enjoy the artistic value of it more.

(And in very good, unrelated news, the scarf swap scarves are done and will be heading out tomorrow. Pics will come.)

Yesterday was a crazy day. I was all over the place, taking my mom to lunch and shopping for her birthday with my sister and visiting a friends new dog. Honor broke out in hives because of the dog’s saliva, so I had to rush to Rite Aid to get some Benadryl. (Can you believe that the liquid Benadryl didn’t come with a medicine cup? So I ran back into the store and asked the pharmacist for one of their medicine spoons – generally they are free. I ran out to the car, tore into the spoon and realized that it had a bar code on the back. I think I may have stole from Rite Aid. I was just worried about Honor having a severe reaction and wanted to get that medicine into him as quickly as possible.) I also faux worked at the office, mostly just catching up on some correspondence. Dropped Jim off at the church where he plays the guitar sometimes, went back to the office to work on the labels for my lip balm. Picked Jim up and drove to pick up our kids from a friends house, wonderful friends who fed us spaghetti.

In my crazy life of driving all over town, teaching knitting classes and preventing Honor from cutting his own avacado, I’ve managed to finish a few things:

Last week a woman I knew lost her 1 year old son. It still chokes me up to think about it. I am amazed at how strong she is. I can’t imagine the incredible pain of losing a child, something that, I’m sure, is inconsolable. But I wanted to do something for her, and the only thing I know how to do is knit. Several customers have come into the store to purchase materials to make a prayer shawl and it seemed like a beautiful idea for me to use.

This is the shawl I made.

It’s made from two different Hanah Silk hand-dyed ribbons, two different eyelash yarns and Trendsetter Dune. It’s really an amazing shawl. Probably the hardest part of making it was keeping all the different ribbons and yarns from getting tangled up as I carried them along the edge.

I’m also still working on some models for the store, one of which is blocking at the moment, but here’s a sneak peek.

And I’m sending this lip balm out today. One of my grandma’s friends orders 24 tubes from me at a time. I need to work on my labeling, but it will come along.

I keep thinking that maybe life will slow down, but, in reality, I think I like it this way. It’s good to be busy. It’s good for life to be full and active and sort of crazy. I just may need to hire a housekeeper.

Here’s one off my list of baby sweaters to make. I gave this to my friend Kari, Saturday at her baby shower.

detail

The pattern is from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, but if you plan to knit it, please check the website for corrections. Basically the whole pattern is wrong. It was totally silly of me not to check the corrections first, I knew that the book has lots of mistakes. So I pretty much knit this sweater twice.

The yarn is Rowan Cash Cotton, oh my is it soft! (35% cotton, 25% polyamide, 18% angora, 13% viscose, 9% cashmere) and most importantly machine washable. I made the 2nd biggest size, so it’s about 12 months.

I’m working on my knit list, wow is it long! I’ve still got 3 baby sweaters to go (although two are in various stages of completion.) The rest of my list can be found here. There needs to be more knitting time in the day.