Thinking Big (and Crazy?)

Guys, I have this crazy idea. I suspect it's crazy because two of my closest friends, who also happen to be knitters, responded with much less than their normal enthusiasm when I ran the idea by them. Katy said something like "I don't know, the combination might be a bit much" (which it could be) and Bridgit's comment was "That looks like the most boring knit ever" (which I really can't argue with)... and yet I think I still want to do it.

Copyright westknits

That is a photo of Stephen West's simple and free Garter Squish blanket pattern. It is, indeed, just a big ol' rectangle of garter stitch. However, there is beauty in its simplicity and as I sit shivering in front of my open window (it's spring already) refusing to put on a sweater (I said spring!!) I'm kind of wishing I had a big wool blanket to snuggle in right this very minute. What makes this blanket extra squishy is that it is knit with two strands of worsted weight wool held double on size US 15 (big!) needles. There are three things that are really drawing me towards making this project:

1. It's about as instant-gratification as a knitted blanket can get, and I do not have a knitted blanket, and that is a shame.
2. I'm intrigued by the opportunity for lots of fun color and texture effects by mixing up different kinds of yarn.
3. It'll eat up yarn like whoa. The pattern sample took 3200 yards combined. I might have a spare skein or two of yarn (hah!) that could use knitting up. Especially leftovers.

My mom accidentally bought 5 skeins of Malabrigo in a purple color (Uva) that she thought was brown online, which she gave to me that I'd like to use up:

Malabrigo Yarn Worsted, colorway Uva

That's about 1,000 yards right there, plus I have approximately another 600 yards of purple mystery wool that the Fiasco's mom gave me for Christmas last year, would would bring me up to the required 1600 yards of solid color yarn for the blanket:

Mystery wool

I think the two purples would match well enough. So I knit a swatch with some of the leftover bits and bobs I had handy:

Crazy, beautiful, or crazy beautiful?

That swatch is just about 20 sts cast on and I changed color every three garter ridges. The bottom stripe is some of that Zaftig Bugga I used for one of my three cowls. The next stripe is a deep olive green colorway of DK weight CY Traveller yarn and the teal is a bit of VG Mondegreen, both leftover from my Beribboned Hat samples. Next up is some more Traveller that I had used for my Beribboned Wrists. Then there's some bright green Malabrigo Rios from little Lyra's hat and a bit of variegated Zen Yarn Garden yarn I used in my aunt's Christmas cowl. They're all very different yarns but I think they all work when combined like this... what do you think?

How does it look?

The back of our dusky-teal-with-goldish-tan-accents couch is where I envision this blanket living, how does it look there? As I look around the room the primary colors I see are teal, sky blue, dark blue, bright green, hunter green, seafoam, brown, and a tan/mauve-ish carpet. I'm just not sure how a giant purple blanket will fit in. It certainly wouldn't match, but would the contrast be cool? I kind of think so but would love to hear your opinions. If I use purple as the base color, I would stick to blues, greens, and greys for all the scraps I used... maybe a natural offwhite every once in a while, we'll see. My stripes would also probably be a lot thinner than the ones in the project pages on Ravelry because I won't have full skeins for most of my colors, just partials, and I'm wondering if that will make the colors blend together better OR be too much of a crazy mix for the eyes. Decisions, decisions...

Had any crazy ideas yourself lately?

WIPWed #22: In A Quandary

Guys-- I don't know what to knit. Yeah. I said it. This is such a rare state for me, I hardly even know myself! All through the end of Malabrigo March I was dreaming of everything I wanted to make that was non-Malabrigo-related and now I don't know where to start. Here are my two (ONLY TWO, who am I?!) active WIPs... both still using Malabrigo.

Scarf of Spring:

Malabrigo Yarn Dos, colorway Lettuce

I love this scarf but it is a bittersweet love because I will not have enough yardage to continue/finish it at any decent length. As pictured, that's about 10 grams of yarn knit up into a 5.5" piece... and I only have 35 grams left. That means my little scarf will be only about 24" long before blocking, which no matter how you slice it is not much of a scarf. I've put out a desperate "in search of" on the Malabrigo board but I'm not holding my breath. If I don't hear anything soon I'll have to frog this and start anew. I like the stitch pattern a lot, though, so I'm hoping to incorporate it elsewhere.

For Belinda:

Malabrigo Rios, colorway Archangel

I have been seeing a physical therapist for the last couple of months for some hip/pelvic pain I've been having and she is amazing and fantastic and definitely deserving of some knitwear. She is so good at her job and her hands work so incredibly hard that I thought a bright and cheery pair of fingerless mitts would do the trick. I'm improvising as I go and that fun swirly stitch is a smaller version of the Estonian shell stitch that is featured in my Syrinx Shells cowl pattern.

So now, what to knit for myself? I'm debating so many different things, there are at least 2 different socks, 3 different shawls, a couple of scarves, a few designs, and TWENTY-EIGHT hibernating WIPs (oy!) all vying for attention, wanting to be knit next.

The knitter's quandary. It's a rough one. What do you do in these situations?

IS #16: Others' Malabrigo March

I thought it would be nice to round up a spattering of some particularly impressive, gorgeous, and inspiring Malabrigo March projects created by other knitters on Ravelry. These are all projects that were started and finished within the month of March. If you want to check out more, there are 935 projects tagged with 'malabrigomarch2013' available for your perusal (which is impressive in its own right)! Here are just a few that caught my eye.

himawari's Trenzado:

Copyright himawari

According to the project page, this sport-weight (knit in Arroyo), 1200-yard sweater was knit in 8 days. EIGHT DAYS! The speed is impressive, the knitting looks impeccably neat, and I love the style of the sweater, which is Trenzado by Kristen Hanley Cardozo.

sarahtomic's Martinmas Vert:

Copyright sarahtomic

This shawl is just lovely. I adore the spirng-crocus-like color combination and the knitter added beads to it, as well, which you can see if you look closely. This is knit in Malabrigo Sock, which is a really great base for lace shawls (less so for socks, in my humble opinion) with lots of yardage. The (free!) pattern is Martinmas Shawl by Sarag Burghardt.

orrmk's Rondelay:

Copyright orrmk

This project is another gorgeous little Malabrigo Sock shawlette/scarf. I love the slightly muted, neutral colorway it's knit in and how the colors highlight the curves in the piece. It's also a really lovely photo of the finished piece. The pattern, Rondelay, is a really interesting one by Jennifer Dassau. It involves garter stitch, short row shaping, and cast on tricks to join three little half-circles together. The more I look at it, the more I think I'll need to knit this one just to see how it was done!

What's been inspiring you, lately? Link along below or leave a comment and share!

FO Friday #15: The Homestretch

Well folks, we're coming into the last few days of March, which means I've been knitting as much as possible on my Malabrigo March projects... which means I have two more FOs to show you! Also, a final reminder that you can still receive 20% off any of my patterns on Ravelry with coupon code "YayMal13" for 2 more days.

Baby Huacaya:

Malabrigo Rios, colorway Lettuce (most accurate in this photo)

What is this vaguely jellyfish-or-hot-air-balloon-like object, you ask? It's a teeny tiny babysized version of my slouchy hat pattern, Huacaya, blocking over a conveniently-sized spherical candleholder.

Post-blocking

This hat is going to my friend's new baby, Lyra, whom I will finally get to meet tomorrow! It goes along with the coordinating cardi and booties I finished earlier this month. It is oddly satisfying to knit tiny baby versions of my adult hat patterns!

Aguas Shawlette:

Malabrigo Rios, colorway Aguas

I'm so glad I finally knit something out of this colorway! I've called it my favorite since I first saw it but never hadn't had the chance to knit with it until now. This design is the Impari Shawlette by Nina Machlin Dayton, a very profuse and knowledgeable designer who is a major Malabrigo Junkie. Nina is also very generous, she is a moderator in the 'Budding Designers' group on Ravelry and is always willing to answer questions and share what she's learned during her design career. I've admired many of her designs but this is the first one I've actually knit and I think it was great, especially for beginner knitters as the pattern is simple and well explained. I love the asymmetrical shape of the shawl and those tassels just slay me. Nina explains how to make the tassels very clearly but I thought it would be fun to show you some photos of the process, too:

Steps 2 & 3

I skipped pictures of step 1, which is to cut multiple lengths of yarn, fold them in half, and join them to the corner of the shawl as you would a normal shorter fringe. Then anchor the corner of the shawl with some heavy books. Step 2 is to split the yarn in two and twist each half in the direction of the twist of the yarn, so that it holds so much twist energy that it kinks up when relaxed like the strand on the right in the first photo. I recommend putting in more twist than you think you need. Step 3 is to hold both strands taut and make a big knot at the end.

Steps 4 & 5

Step 4 is to let go! The tassel will snarl and kink up on itself as the twist energy escapes and that is ok. Step 5 is to run your hand down the length of the tassel multiple times, smoothing it out and letting the twist energy settle into that lovely braided-looking shape. What's really interesting is that this process is essentially the same thing you do when you are spinning a cabled yarn. Cool, huh?

Lastly, there were some really great comments about what we all like and look for in patterns in response to my last post, I encourage you to check them out if you haven't already. And finally, don't forget to see some more FO's by clicking the photo below! Have a great Friday, everyone.

WIPWed #21: Learning Lessons

Well folks, I've returned from my dangerous journey with no dragons slain, exactly, but instead tamed and made less fearsome overall. It was an exhausting ordeal but one worth doing that will ultimately lead to better times ahead (here's hoping). In my absence, I enjoyed reading the Inspiration Saturday posts put up by Joanna at the knitlit twit and Erin at Knitting in Beantown. Thanks, guys, for keeping the inspiration flowing!

I've sadly only gotten a tiny bit of knitting done, which is not great for my Malabrigo March goals as March is swiftly coming to a close. For some reason, instead of working on some of WIPs, my stressed out brain decided it would be a good idea to start a completely new project... a lacy scarf without a pattern, based on a stitch from one of Barbara Walker's dictionaries. I'm not far yet but the yarn is such a bright, springy green that it's making me very happy indeed:

Proof of exhaustion: I pinned and photographed the scarf backwards. This is the reverse side. Oh well.

A generous Raveler was willing to trade a skein of the much-coveted-but-hard-to-obtain Malabrigo Dos with me, and a little bit of Dos is just the thing to make everything better.

Finally, the other day the Yarn Harlot posted some very interesting thoughts about how much guidance knitters need/want within patterns. It's something I've dithered over while writing my own patterns (write something out or point to a resource, specify a technique or assume it's known already, etc.) and I tend to lean towards the 'more detail is better' camp with the caveat that the detail has to be clear and concise, it shouldn't ramble on and prevent the knitter from seeing the forest for the trees. A specific pet peeve of mine as a knitter, is that I like to know how many repeats were knit to obtain the length shown in the sample for things like hats, scarves, cowls, shawls... yes I know these are all adjustable in size but I'm better able to judge which modifications I'd like to make if I know what I'm looking at on the model. Plus, I can make up my own hat design, but if I purchase a hat pattern it's because I want to make EXACTLY THAT HAT, so I'd like to know what was done. And last but not least, I learned most of my favorite knitting techniques from patterns that either described them or pointed to a resource for learning them. I've personally learned more from knitting a whole bunch of different designers' patterns than I have from books, videos, or in-person knitters, so I like to treat parts of my patterns as 'teachable moments'-- including some of these tips and tricks and keeping beginner knitters in mind. How do you prefer your patterns: detailed and all written out or concise and more choose-your-own-method?

Click below to see more WIPs!

Phase 3: Finishing and Frogging

The third phase of Malabrigo March is when reality starts to set in a little and you take a second look at your plans. Have you finished something? Great. Are you making progress on the rest? Yes. Are there still things you need/want to cast on? Sure thing. Did you knit on this one at all? Nope-- frog.

BUH-BYE.

See you later, Little Heaume hat! I still think the pattern is absolutely adorable but I was having difficulty visualizing/interpreting the next steps, which made me procrastinate working on it, and there's no time for procrastination here! So away it goes and in its stead will be a tiny, baby-sized version of my Huacaya hat pattern -- which I'm thinking will be equally adorable.

I did (mostly) finish something, though!

Malabrigo Rasta, colorway Plomo

I will do a proper FO post when the toggles I ordered arrive, but very briefly: I highly recommend this pattern (Ovate by Tori Gurbisz) -- I knit that whole thing in 2 evenings! Talk about a perfect Mal March project.

Unrelated to Malabrigo, I also finished a bit of spinning:

This is 100% Polwarth wool from Woolgatherings. It's about 4.4 oz and 214 yards of worsted-ish weight yarn spun on my Babe wheel and chain-plied to preserve color sequences. This fiber was slightly frustrating to spin, possibly a combination of short staple length and compression/stickiness from the dye job. My single kept breaking during plying, too, so the whole process felt a bit messier than usual. However, it made for a gorgeous, squishy soft finished skein that looks fairly even, so I'm happy with it, and I hope Katy is, too!

For the spinners out there: what are your thoughts on Polwarth wool?

FO Friday #13: Frantic Fracas

This week has been a bit hectic so I've only gotten a small bit of knitting done, but the knitting has been anything but frantic. It's been quite perfect, actually.

Malabrigo Yarn Dos, colorway Zinc

These are my modified version of Hunter Hammersen's Fracas Cuffs and my 2nd Malabrigo March FO. The yarn was positively dreamy to knit.

That, my friends, is what 2 plies of springy, soft, sport-weight heaven looks like. Revel in its glory, please.

The only thing fracas-like about these cuffs is how badly they've got me jonesin' to knit with more Dos. See, I get like this. I love a yarn, then need to knit everything I can think of with that yarn, and I'm pretty happy that way. Then sometimes a new yarn catches my eye and I destash some (remember, $3 off if you're a blog reader!) in order to justify frantically hoarding new yarn. But in this case, I'm at a loss because Dos is not readily available, it was a test yarn that may or may not ever really be produced, and I have a third of my skein left over and I MUST KNIT WITH MORE DOS. *ahem* So I had to beg and borrow, wheel and deal but finally one lovely soul is willing to trade her skein (of a different color, unfortunately) for some other yarn I had (see, who cares anymore?) and I suppose that will have to tide me over. Any good ideas for a cute cowl or scarf that uses 2 colorways of sport-weight yarn (~200 yards total)?

Enjoy some other FOs this week by clicking below!

Phase 2: Cast On All The Things

Phase 1 of Malabrigo March was when we Junkies planned and dreamt and hoped our little hearts out. Phase 2 is when we give in to all our worst startitis impulses and simply cast on everything at once.

Malabrigo Rios, colorway Aguas

Malabrigo Dos, colorway Zinc

Malabrigo Rios, colorway Lettuce

Malabrigo Rasta, colorway Plomo

Aren't they glorious, all in a row like that? Man, I love casting on new projects. (If only I finished them as quickly!) I'll talk about them more later on, but you can find more details about the patterns here on my project pages, if you're impatient.

One thought: Malabrigo Dos is amazing. AMAZING. It is a 50 gram/150 yard 2-ply sport weight yarn of the softest Merino wool I've ever felt. It was a test yarn so I'm not sure if you can find it for sale anywhere, but the off chance of possibly winning some of it in one of the Malabrigo March contests is enough to keep me motivated to finish my KAL projects, for sure.

An unrelated thought: if you have any Dos lying around that you don't want, TELL ME I WILL TAKE IT. * ahem.*

A final thought: I did a bit of spring cleaning of the stash and have a mix of different yarns that I'm destashing on Ravelry. Please take a look and let me know if anything interests you! There's a little bit of  Blue Moon STR, Bugga, Codex, KnitPicks, Madelintosh, and Malabrigo. If you'd like something, be sure to let me know that you read my blog and I'll take $3 off the price just because you're awesome. :)

Phase 1: The Grand Plans

Malabrigo March goes in phases. Phase 1 involves making the Grand Plans, which might be my favorite part. There's a ton of scheming, stashing, dreaming, thinking, browsing, wishing, and hoping that goes into a month dedicated to Knitting All The Malabrigo Things.There's a bunch of finishing up involved, as well. Here's a bit of Malabrigo knitting I hurried through in order to get to... more Malabrigo knitting.

Malabrigo Rios, colorways Archangel and Lettuce

This is a slightly modified version of the *One Baby Sweater* by Erika Flory. It was a simple, no-fuss pattern to which I added a contrasting garter stitch band and changed the closure from a button at the neck to an i-cord tie at the waist. I also lengthened it a bit so the little baby who will eventually wear this can hopefully wear it for a while. Before I can give it to her, though, there are two matching accessories I have planned. In fact, here are all of Malabrigo March plans:

The links don't work here, this is just a screenshot, but feel free to go to the Ravelry forum.

See where it says "BO 3/3"? I cast on and finished my first Mal March proeject over the weekend!

Can you tell what it is? Probably not.

It was the strangest baby bootie pattern I'd ever knit but they came together in the end.

Like magic!

These are the Little chausses pattern I wrote about in my last Inspiration Saturday post. They were quick and fairly simple, requiring just a bit of trust the pattern muttering and some haphazard seaming at the end. Like I said, they worked out just fine, and I have already cast on for the coordinating hat:

Malabrigo Rios, colorway Lettuce

What are your plans this March? Are you participating in any crazy KALs?

IS #12: Malabrigo March

Malabrigo Yarn was the first 'nice' yarn I ever bought and my first favorite yarn company. Likewise, the Malabrigo Junkies group was my first 'home' on Ravelry, the first discussion board in which I spent a lot of time and actively participated. They are also wonderful supporters of indie designers and often feature budding designers' work. As such firsts, I will always love Malabrigo (I have 67 finished projects using it!) and Malabrigo March will always be an exciting, knit-filled month.

Malabrigo Rios, colorway Aguas, purchased in anticipation of Malabrigo March!

So what is Malabrigo March? From the Junkies Info & Map thread:

"There will be around 20 KALs and CALs, 10 or so contests, and a whole lot of cast on craziness all month long. Big fun! Malabrigo Yarn company generously sends us prize yarn, which goes to contest winners and to some random winners (swatching, posting your WIPs and FOs, participating in -alongs… these are all good ways to up your chances of winning a prize!)."

If you like KALs, you'll love Malabrigo March. You can join as many as you'd like and cast on March 1st. Posting swatch photos, progress photos, and finished object photos in the appropriate thread and tagging your projects with the correct tag will up your chances of winning a prize. There are pattern-specific KALs (I like this, and this, and this) as well as general KALs, which I'll probably be participating in because most patterns I had queued for Malabrigo are not the specific KALs.

I love the entire atmosphere of Malabrigo March: the stash enhancing/stash busting, the racing to the finish line, the challenging oneself with new techniques, and mostly the uncontrollable adding of patterns to your queue/favorites. In a nutshell, it's a really great way to discover gorgeous patterns and knit them along with a bunch of fun people. Many designers provide discounts off their patterns for the month of March so it's also a good excuse to support indie designers if you've had your eye on something for a while.

All of my patterns are 20% off from now until the end of March with coupon code 'YayMal13'. Nearly all of my patterns would work well with many Mal yarns, but here are some samples I have made of my designs using Malabrigo yarns:

1. Syrinx Shells cowl in Rasta
2. Dissipative Cowl in Twist
3. Beribboned Wrists in Worsted
4. Giving Comfort in Chunky

And here are some projects I've been inspired to knit in the past solely due to Malabrigo March:

1. Susie's Reading Mitts in Silky
2. Speedy Cabled Beret in Rasta
3. Scrappy Mitts in Twist
4. Star Crossed Slouchy Beret in Twist
5. Saroyan shawl in Twist
6. Crooked Paths in Rios

I hope I've inspired you to join along in Mal March, it's a lot of fun! You'll be hearing much more about it as I get my projects together... What's been inspiring you lately?

 

Dissipative Release!

Drumroll please... here's my new design for the Malabrigo Quickie series: Dissipative!

The large size is a long cowl that can be wrapped twice around the neck or worn scarf-like. It uses less than 2 skeins of Malabrigo Twist and is designed to play nicely with variegated colorways.

Dissipative beaches are composed of fine sand with gentle slopes that cause high energy waves to break in a spilling, washing motion over the wide beach face. I tried to mimic this idea in this cowl, which begins with long, undulating waves of a contrast colorway that wash their way up onto the textured shoreline of the variegated main yarn. And get this: the reverse side of the textured section is even called 'sand stitch', is that perfect or what?

The pattern includes a small size for a more standard cowl as well as a little trick for knitting garter stitch in the round without purling, in case you're anything like me and love garter stitch but hate purling. It can be purchased for $5.00 through paypal by clicking the button below, or it can be found on Ravelry, Craftsy, and (soon) Patternfish.

BONUS! Since it's my birthday this week, I'm running a promotion on Ravelry for 28% off (not like that's my age or anything...) the price of any and all of my patterns when you enter the coupon code 'bdayweek' at checkout. The coupon is good through Monday 1/28/2013. I hope you enjoy!

IS #2: Chunky Lace

It's time for another Inspiration Saturday post! This week I'm all about chunky lace. Specifically, I've recently become enamored with the Cedar Grove Shawl design by Judy Marples over at Purl Bumps.

Photo from Ravelry pattern page.

Isn't it gorgeous?! I love so many of Judy's designs but haven't had the chance to knit any of them yet. I plan to remedy that first with this shawl, followed by her Harmony shawl design at some point. This shawl will be my Selfish Birthday Shawl. At the end of January, after all the holiday knitting is over and my most pressing design deadlines have passed, I will be knitting this for me. And I will be using the fabulous BMFA DeVine yarn that I've been blabbing about because I must have an excuse to stash more of that stuff, ASAP! Judy uses Cascade Eco for her shawl, which I have yet to try, but it certainly looks lovely here. It is a bulky yarn but the shawl is knit at a gauge that I think would work well for heavy worsted or aran weights, too, like Malabrigo Twist or Cephalopod Yarns Beastie.

Another chunky lace shawl that's been on my radar for a while is Ovate by Tori Gurbisz of Lachesis and Co.

Photo from Ravelry pattern page.

This shawl is knit with either one or two skeins of Malabrigo Rasta, the same yarn I used for my Syrinx Shells cowl design. While you could theoretically use any super bulky merino wool for such designs, I think it truly is the yarn that makes them great. Rasta is fantastic and fairly unique in its awesomeness. I have two skeins in a lovely deep gray waiting to become this shawl someday... and the best part about chunky lace shawls, besides being cozy and beautiful? They're done in a flash. They make great projects if you haven't knit many shawls and are scared to commit to a finer gauge one, or if you're just plain impatient!

Do you have any favorite chunky lace patterns to share, shawl-like in nature or otherwise? Please share in the comments, or feel free to create your own Inspiration Saturday post and link it along below!

Work-In-Progress Wednesday #14

Is it just me, or did today feel more like Friday than Wednesday? Hello, 4-day-weekend, am I glad to see you! I'm totally not complaining. Wanna see some WIPs?

Ever More Ribbons:

Malabrigo Yarn Rios, colorway Azules

That is a terrible photo of the knitting but an adorable photo of Darwin, so I kept it. Thanks to an extra-long conference call today, I finished one of the pair of my Beribboned Wrists and started the second. These are my leave-at-work knit because they are simple and I can just knit a row here and there when I have a second without messing anything up. I anticipate having a pair of these on the needles continuously for a while, people have been chatting them up on facebook and I'm being convinced to open an Etsy shop and sell them... but probably not until after the new year. Too many deadlines!

Dragonfly Fibers Traveller, colorway Riptide

In addition to the secret knitting I 'showed' you last time, I have another secret design on the needles using yarn from Dragonfly Fibers. Kate uses similar yarn bases as The Verdant Gryphon and Cephalopod Yarns and is another Maryland-based indie dyer. I don't know what they put in the water down in Maryland but it sure makes for some talented and creative fiber artists with great color sense, and I'm grateful for it!

Mystery Cowl:
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SPOILER ALERT: If you are taking part in Star Athena's Mystery Cowl KAL and don't want to be spoiled, you should probably stop reading now. (Bye!)
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BMFA De-Vine, colorway Smokey Mountain Morn

This was a total impulse project. I saw the post about the mystery KAL, knew that I liked Star's sock design I'd recently knit, had been thinking about making myself a new cowl, and once I heard the word "discount" (10% off the yarn with purchase of the pattern) I jumped at the chance to justify trying this new-to-me bulky yarn: De-Vine from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. The yarn is crazy cool and different from anything I've knit with before.

Here's the website description:
    "Thirty six singles spun fine then 2 plied, then 4 plied, then take 8 of those sets of 4 ply and twist. DeVine!  Soft with a bounce and spring. DeVine takes color like our sock yarn, all bright and glorious."

How crazy is that, right? It has a dense, almost velvety texture. It's really nice. And the pattern is simple and fun so far. It involvs linen stitch and herringbone stitch, both of which are pretty rough on the hands (especially on size 15 needles!) but work so well with the variegated colorways of Blue Moon that it's worth it. You can read more about the KAL in Star's Ravelry group.

One more beauty shot...

That's most of the knitting I'm actively working on right now. I'm looking forward to some seriously focused knitting-and-blog-reading time this weekend, I feel so behind! I normally travel to Long Island for the holiday but the Fiasco and I are staying in CT this year. We'll spend Thanksgiving with his family and then spend the rest of the weekend packing our apartment up because we'll be moving to RI the following weekend! It's not a very far move but it is an exciting one because it means we 1) gain about 400 square feet of space (yaaaaaay) and 2) lose 45 minutes off my current commute (double yaaaaay). While I'll miss seeing my family very much, it will be good to get ahead on things around here. I hope you all have a good holiday!