Tonight, Steve will be away at a work function. So that means no normal happy hour. Before you get too depressed for me, we had an “emergency happy hour” last night. Priorities, after all!
Speaking of Steve, sometimes he sends me the most hilarious things from work. Today’s gem involved the wonder of getting double monitors…
Really… I cannot make this stuff up.
Enough hilarity from outside sources! Today kicks off my “Home Alone” Day!
On my agenda:
Finish reading The Mountain in My Shoe – I only have a couple of chapters left!
Begin and finish The Lake – I have a due date of Monday! Yikes!
Knit!!! I have begun the crossed stitches in the shawl and I love how it is looking!
Are you in the non-spinner category, but would you like to knit with handspun yarn? My blog friend, Sarah, (who spins BEAUTIFULLY, btw) has opened an Etsy shop to sell her handspun yarn. You’re welcome.
There was a good bit of focus yesterday (although time ran out for stitching, but I will catch up this morning!) It is that time of the year when all the week “things” need to come to a close for the year (choir, meetings, etc.) I am so ready for a break and some time to spend at a less than fevered pitch! However, the end is in sight – choir is almost over for the year and after this weekend “active” resisting will settle down a bit…I hope!
In the horrible blogger category: I know I have been super lax at responding to comments – and I profusely apologize for that! All your comments are deeply appreciated and it is not my intention to not respond to you! Really!
In the Today’s the Day category: MDK’s Spring KAL starts NOW and it is not to late to join in! Really, Colorwash Shawl will be a fun knit! Join me! As you can see, my yarn is all ready to go…cast on will happen shortly!
And, finally… this showed up in my “Hot Right Now” list on Ravelry. Yeah. I love this so much. And, a billion years ago I taught some beginning knitting classes at a yarn shop in Holland. The shop owner was knitting it… just a few rows a day. She was knitting with Cotton Glace as well. However, it is worked flat, which is just crazy to me – all that color work and purling! Gah! I promise you I could not even begin to understand the significance of that back then (and really, I probably should not have been teaching beginning knitting, lol but that is another story!) Anyways, I still love that sweater but would only knit it if I could figure out how to knit it in the round like Mary Scott Huff did recently. (and her latest episode in the continuing saga of the sweater from flat to round is insane…really, go read) I think it is safe to say that my knitting skills are light years behind hers…see this post for proof positive of that!
And, with that – have a fantastic weekend! I am going to try for one more day of focus and I will see you all back here on Monday!
The latest issue of Taproot magazine is filled with good things. From homemade bitters to Wendell Berry to Tasha Tudor to these cute hens. If you have not had the chance to read Taproot – it is worth a look, and this month especially!
The latest installment from the Sheepspot Fiber Club is really quite stunning… and scary: Teeswater Top (Top or Roving, the difference between them) I simply love how the fiber took the dye and I am really quite nervous to spin up this incredible stuff! Yeah… this spin will be something that I focus on – no watching Netflix while spinning!
And, finally Tattoos! In the credit where credit is due category… a huge thanks to Mitch McConnell for making “nevertheless she persisted” the most popular tattoo of the year! Across the nation women have been gathering to tattoo this motto on their person, and April 23rd Pittsburgh (and the surrounding area) is joining in the fun! The event will be raising funds for Women & Girls Foundation’s GirlGov program designed to provide local girls with the opportunity to learn about civics, government, philanthropy, community involvement, women’s history, and leadership! It will be held at the Irma Freeman Center for Imagination on Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh! You can sign up for the event here – and Yinzer’s can you help me out by sharing this in your social media sphere – THANK YOU! I am going… and I hope you are too!
Oh, the snow… Yep, s-n-o-w. Crazy how that white contrasts so intensely with the new greens.
However, I immortalized my fragile lilac buds in my stitching yesterday because I fear after today they will be gone. It makes me so sad but I am hoping that it does not get as cold as they are predicting (or, frankly, that we get WAY MORE snow to insulate the tender buds so that they won’t just be a memory stitched into April.)
Stitching has become an obsession for me – I am stitching for my #The100DaysProject but, beyond that it is that thing that rattles most frequently around in my brain. I wake up at night with ideas and inspiration to stitch. It has expanded (??) or perhaps unleashed my creativity and I am eager to get to my stitching every day. With three months of work complete – it has gone from habit to passion. I also love the slowness of the process – a little bit each day and each day builds upon the last. I do not map out anything at all for the month. No drawing, planning, plotting, nothing – just pure inspiration. Somedays, I am really uncomfortable with that days stitiching, but I leave it and come back the next day and build on it. By the end of the month, I am surprised by this: that which made me most uncomfortable is what I like best about the piece. I am learning so much from this process which is always a very good thing!
Now, how about some links?
First up, PAKnitwit shared this gem with me and I simply had to share with you all. I had never heard Carole King sing this, but I love it!
Mary Lou Egan has a new baby sweater from sock yarn! (P.S. She writes excellent patterns!!)
Speaking of sweater – Tegan is the perfect weekend friend. (and more fingering… sorry about that!)
Finally, Calliopsis is Bonnie Sennott’s latest cowl – and she is having a sale on cowls through Sunday. (Who is up for a KAL with this one? It would be the perfect summer cowl!! I think Mary has already started….)
That is all I have for today! Have a great weekend and I will see you back here on Monday!!
Steve and I are, apparently, creatures of habit. On Tuesday, we began talking about Friday Happy Hour, which continued into Wednesday and Thursday with confessions of how much we were looking forward to it.
I am not sure we need an AA intervention, but one thing is certain – Friday night is one thing we both look forward tremendously. Meal planning (or rather un-meal planning?) discussion has been our dinner conversation all week.
I promise you there will be icy cold martini’s – and I think I might be able to convince Steve to use the Barrel Aged Gin from the Grand Traverse Distillery… (although he is messaging me asking if I think Margaritas sound good…lol)
On the knitting front – I have a special project that I will share with you all next week. Something different for me – but I am surprisingly happy with how it turned out. Stay tuned on Tuesday for all the details! All other knitting has been ignored. I know. It is a sad state of affairs!
I have been working on some spinning at night – which is very slow going. Why? It is a beautiful Rambouillet from Sheepspot Fiber Club and I am working on consistency and spinning fine. Yes… I am trying to channel Beth Smith for this one – I want a nice 2-ply actual lace weight yarn! I have a long way to go yet!
Now, how a few links to close out the week?
First up, did you know Brooke Gladstone of On the Media is a fiber artist? Yeah, me either – but my love for her has increased accordingly!
