Knitting Love

As the title of the blog suggests, I'd rather be knitting than doing most other things. Before my blogging hiatus, I may have mentioned that I have a slight problem with startitis. (In case you missed it, startitis refers to a rarely fatal affliction that often affects knitters and crocheters where they begin several projects all at one time but don't really make much progress on anything before starting another new project.) I can always come up with an excuse to start a new project.

I'm not sure what it is, maybe it's the cooling temperatures here in Northeast Ohio, but lately I've been seduced by thick, chunky, warm projects knit on big needles. For someone who is used to knitting with thinner yarn and smaller needles, these projects are working up very quickly. Am I insane to think I might finish two of them this week?

 

Well, here are some of the latest additions to my "on the needles" projects.

 

Wavy Lace Caplet

Easy Brioche Scarf

Arrow Yoke Cardigan

 

These are only the most recent, please don't judge.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Soft (Re)Opening

You know how stores have soft openings so they make sure that everything goes smoothly before throwing the doors wide open. This post is a little like that.

It's been a long time since I've updated the blog. Now, I know that blogging isn't for everyone. But I really did enjoy my short stint at it. So here goes. Round 2. (ding)

So much has happened in the last year that I can barely keep track. I also have some new tools that I hope will help me with my blogging goals. I've invested in an iPad, which I love! And I'm trying out the blogsy app. So if things go wonky, you know what happened.

So here is to new beginnings.

Posted with Blogsy

Week in Review (vol 3)

Not too much has been going on around here this week. I've mostly been playing catch-up; however, I did manage to dredge up a few things to bore you with. Enjoy!

1.
This week I attempted to make homemade vegan yogurt. It wasn't all that good. I'm not sure what went wrong, but it didn't have that yummy yogurt tang. And the consistency was a little odd. I think that I will give it one more try though. I really like the idea of making my own.

2.
For those of you who are knitters, crafters, sewers, scrapbookers, etc., you know that Jo-Ann Fabrics is having a sale. I know, Jo-Ann's runs sales all the time, but this is a SALE! This time they have McCall's patterns for $0.99. And I've had my eye on this pattern for a while:

Ever since my Knit Sib Michelle showed me her little fold-up bag, I knew I just had to steal hers make one of my own.

For those of you who are familiar with McCall's patterns, they are expensive. And they don't go on sale very often. So while I was there I had to take a look. I may have picked up one or two additional patterns. Please don't tell the Engineer.

The fabric was on sale too.

3.
I noticed somewhere around Tuesday that we were out of food. So I'm not sure how I made it through the rest of the week without going to the grocery store. I went this morning. I only bring this up because I really hate putting the groceries away!

Pickles!

This post actually starts with my attempt to make homemade vegan yogurt. I needed some mason jars to put the yogurt in while it was "yogurting". Now I knew that I had some laying around because I had dabbled in canning a LONG time ago. And since I always knew I'd get back to it, I just couldn't part with them.

After some searching, I found what I was looking for hiding in a dark corner of the basement:

So I opened it up, and instead of a boxed filled with clean empty jars, I was surprised to see...

PICKLES!

Now, I can't remember the last time I made pickles. It might have been before the Princess was born. (I didn't write a date on the pickle jar.) I did remember however, that the last batch of pickles was exceptionally good. So I did what any sane a rational person would do, I tired them!

OMG! It was FABULOUS! All that was left was some pickle juice.

There, on the plate, can you see it?



Catch Up

As I mentioned yesterday, a lot has been going on here in the last two months.

1.
I've finished some knitting projects, are you surprised?

The Princess's Cardigan

Morgan (I know this is a very bad picture)

The Bear's Happy Birthday Vest. I finished last night!!!!

(I still have to get some good pictures of him wearing it.)

A baby gift (vest and hat) for the Bear's teacher, she had a beautiful baby boy at the beginning of April.  I'm sorry to say that I don't have a picture. I was up against one of those pesky knitting deadlines (she left on maternity leave 2 weeks early) and I plum forgot!

2.
I found out that I'm going to be an Aunt, twice! Both my sister, and my sister-in-law are due in October. Needless to say there is much baby knitting going on around here. I have already finished knitting Part 1 of The Epic Baby Project!  Sorry no pictures at this time as this is a big surprise, and I don't want to give anything away.

3.
Other than my spare bedroom (which I think will be a separate post), I'm woefully behind on my house cleaning and decluttering. Fly Lady and I have become more of occasional acquaintances than everyday friends over the last two months. I really need to reconnect!

I think I'll leave it here for now.  I wouldn't want to overwhelm you with two full months all at one time. Besides, I have to stretch this catch up post out a bit. I don't really have any ideas right now for the rest of the week.

Time Allocation

Wow I can't believe that it's been over two months since I’ve written a blog post. As you can imagine a lot has been going on over here. I will try to get you all caught up in the next week or so, but for now let’s talk knitting.

Last Monday, my baby boy turned 9! I really can’t figure out where 9 years have gone. What does this have to do with knitting you may ask? Well, I decided that I was going to knit him a sweater vest for his birthday. And not just any sweater vest, this sweater vest…

 Pembroke Vest

I’ve been eyeing it for few years now. Considering that the pattern only goes up to a size 8 (not that this has ever stopped me before), I thought that this might be a good time to actually knit it!

Now, I’m normally a fairly good judge of how long it will take me to knit an item. The baby version (6 month size) took me under a week. So I thought no problem, I can knock this thing out in about 2 weeks. I made some progress, but…

I forgot that I had invited 30 people to my Passover Seder, and I started it late. This is a bad combination when it comes to knitting deadlines. Needless to say I’ve missed mine. I still have half a front, and some ribbing left to knit. What are the odds that I can finish it by tonight?

Has it really been two weeks?

Ok, I know that I haven't been around for a while. Two weeks to be exact. I'm not really sure how that happened. I had good intentions, don't we all?

You probably want to know what's been going on around here. (Even if you don't, you're here so I'll tell you.) I think I'll put this in list form:

1.
To start right after my last blog post, I caught a cold, which is still stubbornly hanging around.  That made things a little bit difficult.

2.
The Princess has a birthday coming up on Friday! We will talk more about that later in the week. Anyway, we had an early party for her so Bubbie and Zayde could make it in. Here are some (not fabulous) pictures:

Hoppy Birthday!

There was some opening of gifts.

And there was some silliness

3.
My friend Sheila had an amazing brunch. There was food everywhere, and a ton that I could eat!!! And there were good friends to go with the good food. I was having way too much fun to take pictures.

4.
I finished some knitting projects, and started a few more, but we'll talk about those later in the week also.

5.
I'm sure that a lot more has happened over the last two weeks. Or maybe not, I do live a very boring life. But that is all I can think of for now.