Quietish

I arrived early to SitNStitch last night as usual and made my routine swoop around the magazine and New Release racks while I waited for my Jalepeno-Stuffed Pretzel to get done.

As you probably know, I have enough unread books on my bookshelf and/or on my to-read list and don’t particularly need to add anything to them at the moment. Nor am I one to buy a book I had never previously heard of on a whim. Not that I don’t enjoy a nice random book here and there; I just rarely have time to partake in such a way.

That said, I found this book yesterday, read the back, skimmed 1/2 way through, and took it home:

Journal
The Short Life and Mysterious Death of Amy Zoe Mason
Found by Kristine Atkinson and Joyce Atkinson

This book will appeal to many of my arty friends for the same reason it did me. The authors have chosen to tell this story in the format of an art journal. The pages inside are all scans of the pages from an altered book. The premise is that they found this altered book/journal inside of a desk that they picked up at a thrift store. They read the journal and then did some more research afterwards to find out what happened to the artist who created it.

As you can tell from the subtitle, Journal is a bit of a mystery. I really enjoyed reading it and, pushing the idea that something bad would happen to the back of my mind, simply focused on the story the actual scrapbook was telling me and tried not to let the foreknowledge spoil it. If you intend to read this book, I would recommend doing the same. Take in the artwork and the text, and let that do the storytelling. Then you can read more by looking at the authors’ website: Amy Zoe Mason

if one insists on calling it progress. Peacock Feathers Shawl has been a WIP for awhile, and I often am asked how far through it I am. I usually say something like “I don’t know,” as it is worked from the back of the neck down and it is somewhat hard to tell.

Recently though, I’ve been saying more like “I dunno, but it seems like I’m pretty far into it.” I’ve had to rumple it up to fit it onto my lap and knit it.

Yesterday I finally sat down and checked the progress more deliberately, borrowing a technique from Grumperina.

It seems I have a way to go, which is alright because I enjoy working on her but not alright because I have a bunch of other things I want to be doing. Like rereading the SOUE books, or many other things that I’ve been meaning to spend time on. I suppose the only thing there is to do is to employ my typical method of just doing what I feel like the most.

My kids are cute. This is my second post today. Can you tell I’m sitting in a hotel room? lol

Here is Cian eating his dinner last night. He don’t need no fork.

Here is Jamie at lunch a bit ago. We walked over and on the way she decided she was a duck. By the time we were seated, she was in full-blown Herbert Chorley mode.

I posted the other day about being happy that all I have to knit on now is my shawl? Right. Wanna see how I spent my afternoon yesterday and morning so far today?

1. new Pomatomus sock
2. new John Mayer album

I had to have a sock for a long-ish car ride! We’re in Ft. Smith again for a coupla days.

Callie is too.

I have done my scrapbooking!

Here are all the pages from between the last time I posted and now. My favorite one is the one that says “Someday I’m going to run out of finger to chew.”

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when you’ve had lots of finished objects over the weekend!

Letsee, what do we have to show first? Well I’ll start with this, the progress I made Saturday night at the GY knit-in.

If you see me often enough, you might recognize these as bits of the yarn I’ve used for the sweater for Jamie. You will also remember that I have complained for every single moment I’ve knit on this thing since I started the sleeves. And that I generally didn’t work on it if no one made me.

And then you might say “Wait, does that mean it’s done?!” Why, yes. Yes it is.

And it fits! I’m so happy! And Jamie is too, despite the odd look on her face.

Pattern: “Pullover” from Dale of Norway “Kids Designs for Sizes 2-14 Yrs.” NR 160
Yarn: Dalegarn Falk. I did some color substituting in this sweater; I used white instead of a pale pink that GY didn’t have in stock, and chose the blue to replace a gold color that I just didn’t particularly like with the other colors. Then I switched all the color symbols around a bit to make them work.
Comments: See above comments. Although I will have to say that I love the finished product and think this is a lovely project to try out fair isle on. I just should have picked something either a little quicker to finish or a little more challenging. But that’s me, personally.

So that was another tick off of my knitting to-do list. Then I started my scarf for the

And promptly finished it.

Yarn: Colinette Prism in “Blue Parrot” on US size 10 needles (big! Eesh!)
Comments: I alternated between blocks of garter stitch and blocks of yarn overs. And as you might be able to see near the bottoms and before the fringe, I added a buncha “Chips” by Trendsetter Yarns. I hope my pal will likey!

The most exciting thing is that this leaves me with just one lone project currently on the needles. I’ve looked forward to this moment for some months! I will now get to work on Peacock whenever I want to and feel absolutely free to work on The Fortunate Traveler in the evenings.

I’ve been meaning to get a picture of TFT up on the blog for awhile, and finally took a pic today. I just left it in the snaps since the places I’ve done any work on lately are showing. I will fill in the most of those parts of the dragon before moving down to the text again for awhile. And so on. I want to get tons done on this piece before the year’s end. But I might have mentioned that already, I can’t remember.

And lastly, since I skipped Self Portrait Sunday yesterday, a pic of my feet keeping Callie company while she waits for some Tuna:

P.S. I know, I know; More pictures from Shimelle’s class, soon.

*snort* The title sounds like a sentence. Heeee.

I finished this like last week, but apparently I’m lazy because I’m just now getting pics posted. I would have mailed it straight away (because I totally can’t keep a secret and waiting til Grandma’s birthday at the end of October would make me nuts) but I wanted to show my Norman knitting buddies first.

All wrapped up in a little handmade box.

Pattern: Branching Out on 2.75 (US 2) needles.
Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Heavenly
Comments: I knit this for my Grandma after she RAVED about a simple dishcloth I made. She declared she would never use it because it was so beautiful. (”Grandma, its a cotton washcloth. Go wash a dish.”) So I decided she needed something that she could love on. Grandma lives in (hot) sunny Florida so I made this light scarf just long enough to tuck in or tie once around her neck. Its incredibly light and airy, so is also completely appropriate for her part of the country.

I’ve been making some worsted weight toddler socks lately and decided I’d like something a little more engaging than stockinette. So I made up this sock and decided to share the pattern. I really enjoy the look of this pattern, because there is no abrupt change from ribbing to pattern. The cables themselves actually form part of what works just like a rib.

Click below for the pattern and notes.
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Well I look now and see it was only one day I skipped, but for a bit it felt like I had been neglecting the blog.

Anywho, what I did over the holiday (Labor Day in the US):

Slept in.
Stitched on Fortunate Traveler (progress pic coming soon!)
Worked on a pattern for some cute toddler socks (pattern coming soon!)
Stalked Callie and watched her closely.

Speaking of Callie, meet Meeper:

He insisted on some screen-time and I gave it to him because he’s put up with a lot between watching Callie get to eat special food and dealing with crazy puppies periodically running around his living room.

Today I have to catch up and do yesterday’s Learn Everything page before then doing today’s.
But most importantly, I need to run (run, run!) to Barnes and Noble and buy The Beatrice Letters.

Here’s my “Learn Something” page for the day:

And a Callie update: I’ve found something she’ll actually eat, and wholeheartedly… Tuna. She gets this as a reward for me ramming her pill down her throat. Here she is on the counter waiting for more of her beloved: