Pumpkin Sunrise

I've made some significant progress on my sister's cardigan .  The body decreases are completed and I'm half way finished with the body increases giving a slight curved fit at the waistline.  The miles of stockinette are soothing and calming this week.  I love to read or watch TV while working on the body of the sweater.  Today, I'm planning on reviewing my queue on Ravelry and see what I'd like to cast on next since I'm down to two projects on the needles.  Once I decide on a project, I'll be stash diving to see what I have.  More than likely, I'll find something in the yarn stash that will then have me revisiting Ravelry to find a pattern to match.  I love knitting. What are you crafting up this week?

Another weekend, this one was calm, slow and delightfully open for all my creative pursuits.  After the family visited last weekend for Easter, having a do-nothing weekend was perfect. Saturday, I finished a book   Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny.  I enjoyed this novel immensely because it redeemed the questionable ending from the previous book.  Louise Penny has hit her stride in her storytelling in this novel.  Ack, I'm still mulling over the events and endings and the teasers for the next book. While reading, I was working on my sister's sweater and completed all the waist shaping decreases.  My needles were on fire - I was knitting faster and faster as the plot twisted and turned. Saturday afternoon, we went out for a walk with Frodo and braced ourselves for some chilly winds.  Spring, where art thou? We attended Saturday evening Mass then picked up a pizza for dinner.  This has become a weekly ritual more often than...

So far, April is being fickle about the weather.  I gleefully wear a spring jacket only to be shivering and quickly changing into a winter coat.  This morning, tiny snowflakes floated in the air and I'm in disbelief.  Remember when it was 70 degrees in February?  Yeah, me too.  I'm keeping busy knowing full well that soon the weather will turn nice. I've reinstated my bullet pages, listing what I'd like to do daily.  My April goals are:  1.  READ MORE Yes I read, I read in the evening right before going to bed and most of the times I fall asleep.  I am carving out time during the day where I sit and read for one hour or more.  I have a book with me always whenever I go out and if I'm waiting I'll sneak in a page or two.  The best time for me to have this one hour is right before I start cooking dinner.  There is a perfect lull in the day to do it.  So instead of mindless wandering on social media, I'm reading...

I've made significant progress on my sister's sweater .  She is an awesome sister so she deserves a sweater, right?  Right.  I am one third of the way done.  How do I know?  Well the sweater uses three skeins of Madeline Tosh Sock and I've used up the first skein.  I love simple maths... I've made this sweater many times, my latest is this one .  My sister tried it on last summer and fell in love with the fit.  So, I decided to cast one on after she chose her yarn.  In other news, I cast on a hat from my own imagination and went with it.  I love a folded brim for a hat for some extra warmth and I created a simple knit two, purl two design broken by a purl row.  Easy peasy.  In reading news, I'm still involved with the sixth Gamache book by Louise Penny, Bury your Dead.   I could finish it today if I focused and didn't do anything else, like cook a dinner.  I have Beartown sitting and staring at...

How was your weekend?  We had a house full and I cooked Easter dinner after not cooking for that holiday for seven or so years.  I started directly after morning Mass.  Last night after the kids left mid afternoon, I crashed on the sofa and breathed a relaxing sigh of contentment. Saturday, my daughter and I attended a bridal shower of a dear friend of the family.  We had a good time seeing many people we knew and reconnecting with people we haven't seen in a while.  All wonderful.  Later our family went out for dinner and sadly, the meal was woefully late. Is it a thing to not update you as to why your meal is over an hour later after salads?  Grr.  What was frustrating is that other tables were getting their food in a timely manner.  I doubt we will go back and this was once a favorite restaurant.  quiche This morning I'm on the last load of laundry and I'm catching up on the internet after a long weekend break. ...

Are you ready for the weekend if you celebrate Easter?  Maybe I am as ready as I'll ever be.  I'm getting more lax the older I get on what HAS to get done.  I have my menu planned and the ingredients (at least I think I have the ingredients...).  I've had a blissful day off work doing all the things I would do on a Saturday.  Knitting, reading and more knitting.  I finished a pair of socks for me and they are delightfully speckled.  I knit my memorized vanilla sock pattern that is burned forever into the deep recesses of my brain.  Those are the patterns that I love most, the automatic ones. Today, I'm sore from two gym sessions this past week, I'm feeling muscles I didn't know existed.  Five months have passed since I started this gym-going journey and it's been overall one of the best decisions I've made in my life.  My back still gives me some aches once in a while but it's nothing like what I was experiencing pre-gym days....

What a fun hat pattern to knit up quickly with some super squishy wool.  The wool is from Andrea's shop -   tributary yarns .  This wool has a lovely hand and the twist is perfect, I highly recommend this worsted weight wool. Tin Can Knits have an array of patterns that are great for beginners and intermediate knitters.  This pattern incorporates easy cabling and knitting in the round.  The pattern has written and charted instructions. Ravelry notes are here