A Knitting Weekend

This has been a lovely, lazy knitting weekend.

First, I worked on my Yowza design. But... I had to frog the sleeve, because I realized that I want to see the body totally finished before figuring that out. Since my Edge books are at work, I swapped over to working on Aylin's Shawl.

It's amazing how much knitting went into what looks like such a small project! But hopefully blocking will fix that. And hopefully blocking will happen this week.

Next I gave in, and couldn't resist starting Gloriana in Yummy 3-ply, the slightly off variation of Firecracker that I adored when I first saw it. When I realized I could match the two... well, I brought a skein of Toes home this weekend to swatch with:

Then finished off the mini-skein by starting the sweater. Tomorrow I'll buy the rest of the yarn, and then it will be horribly tempting to just ignore everything else and make progress on this glorious sweater...

After that I thought to read a bit, so I worked on Courtney's Chris' socks, the William Street Socks in Coffee Beanz. (Blurry picture, sorry)

Now I'm happily knitting away on Mary's Rheingold. I do love a good Starmore...

So that's been my weekend. Tonight I'll continue knitting, then probably clean some, as that would be a good thing to do, though not nearly as fun.

(What about the kitties, you ask? Well, Gino spends most of his time when I'm home near me. He's currently in one of his favorite places, the couch behind me. Penny has taken to hiding under the dresser in the Stash Room, and I think that's where she is now, although she's become much more affectionate as well. The one bad thing is that they're now feeling pretty well at home, and are becoming more playful... including more interest in yarn. But at least only in moving yarn, so I can leave it scattered around when I'm not home without a problem. I just have to be careful when Gino is on my lap and I'm knitting that the yarn comes from the opposite side to his head.)

Kitties, at last.

Penny, napping and in her favorite spot.

Gino, napping and helping with work.

Comfortable Clutter

Well, this apartment is starting to feel more like home. I've been spending much time in the living room right now, and there are currently five stitch dictionaries and two books on edgings, as well as the new EZ book here (to remind me to take it to work tomorrow). I've got my knitting notebook and calculator, as well as the second-most-recent Woolgathering, some yarn, a needle, and a swatch to my left, my book on its stand in front of me on a chair (to make it the right hight for me sitting on the floor), Aylin's shawl and the Estonian lace book, a kitty brush, and the yarn for the sweater I'm designing with Yowza on my left. It's been a nice weekend, even if Penny has taken up residence in the cabinet under the bathroom sink and Gino spends most of his time under my bed.

Penny and Gino

Well, the cats (I got a second one yesterday) have spent almost all of their time with me under my bed. (Penny did come out a bit last night for a cuddle, though, which was nice.) I'll take pictures when I can.

In other news, today was my first day of work-- I'm going to love my job, I think.

Kitty, Apartment, &c.

My parents and wonderful younger sister helped move me into my apartment this weekend. With the four of us working, we were able to move all the stuff (read: furniture, books, and yarn) in fairly quickly, and unpack the multiple boxes and bags with startling efficiency. After helping me set up more things, my parents left on Sunday morning, but Annie stayed through this morning. Yesterday we did one of the most important things on my list: We started the process of adopting a cat. Her name is Penny, and she is fat and lazy and wonderful. I am very excited!

While I wait for the phone call saying she is on her way over, I thought I'd post some pictures of my apartment.

Here is the living room (I only show half because the other half is empty. This is the case with much of my apartment-- I need to collect some more furniture, and strew yarn about, to make it feel more like a real home. Mostly strew yarn about.)

The kitchen/dining room area (all paintings are waiting a week or so to be hung up, so that I know where to put them in places I'll see them most often. The Elizabeth Black painting on the dining room table is the only one I know exactly where to put.)

My wonderful Workroom area-- books, a desk, a dresser, my wheel and sewing machine cabinet, and so on. It's a great room-- especially because of the closet full of bins of yarn! This weekend perhaps Penny and I will sort the yarn properly-- right now it's just shoved into bins so that we could unpack everything else.

The ever-so-exciting bathroom (although it is very pretty-- we got a lovely curtain and rug set)

The washer/dryer set my wonderful neighbor Chris helped to haul up the steps and install-- today Penny and I will make banana muffins for him and his family in thanks.

And last but not least, my really empty looking bedroom.

There's a walk in closet which is also fairly empty at present. I have no doubt that none of this emptiness will last, knowing me.

Tomorrow I start work, and that should be fun, but today is all  about Penny! I'll post a photo of her later.

News!

Oh man. I've got so much going on...

This past few weeks I've been collecting furniture and other household items... I now have:

•  most of what I need for a kitchen, less the large devices that come with an apartment
•  a dining room/kitchen table and four chairs
•  a desk and chair
•  a bed frame and mattress (well, I'm taking the mattress I currently use, and leaving my current bed empty.)
• two dressers (one from my current room, one from an Uncle. Maybe one from an Aunt's attic if we can figure out how to get it down here, then down there)
• three large bookshelves
• possibly my sewing machine and table, depending on how large my apartment is
• several other bits and pieces
• over eight boxes of knitting books and magazines 
• YARN!! everywhere. In many bins, on the floor to be sorted, in boxes and bags-- this needs to be figured out soon!
• and much, much more waiting to be packed, sorted, &c.

So that's been my past few weeks. Today was my last day at Aylin's, which was sad. Last weekend was Maryland Sheep and Wool, where I bought one skein for a sweater for my Dad, which was needed to complete it (this I know, although it is as of yet unstarted...) and a sweaters worth of a lovely orange from Brooks Farm (rather like this, although I'm not positive that's it, as it seemed to be a prototype with no real name on it.) That's probably the most restrained I've ever been at Maryland, and I was mightily impressed with myself!

This coming week is busy as well. Packing, sorting, buying last minute things (I need more bins for yarn, and a toaster, that I can think of right now. I'm sure there will be more...), moving Annie home from college, and then on Friday going down to Abingdon to look for an apartment. Hopefully I'll find a nice one (and since I've been really lucky so far in this whole job-hunt-thing, I should probably be able to do so...), then the long drive back home on Sunday, to continue packing, sorting, &c. 

Next weekend I'll probably be moving. So, I really NEED to finish packing. But I'm not quite sure what to bring until I know how much space I'll have-- for instance, I for sure need to bring Marie's quilt to finish, along with my sewing machine, if not the table, so she'll stop carping at me about it. But can I also bring another quilt to finish piecing, along with the batting and backing for that? Do I even have batting and backing for that? Again, something I must investigate. (Luckily, Mountain City has a quilt shop, so if I don't I should be able to find something that works. However, as most of the fabrics are from the same line, I'm hoping I was smart enough to buy all I'll need.)

OK, enough typing. Time to go buy bins and sort more yarn.

Monster Kitten, Fish, and Owls

(NB- someday I'll do pictures of Scottish yarn. That day is not today)

We have a 1 year old cat named Bailey. He is NOT my friend. He likes yarn too much. Sometimes he hides... today his feet are mysteriously blue.

Oops, the onions are bubbling. Hang on.

Crisis averted.

I'm currently working on way too many projects-- the main two right now, though are Reef, by (guess who?) Alice Starmore, for someone who contacted work asking if we could finish it for her. Of course, I get to do it! So I've most of a sleeve, the button bands, and collar left to do. Then there's Courtney's wedding shawl-- Print 'O The Wave in black. Fun, fun, fun. But I offered, and she chose, so now I'm knitting it. Other than that, there are two more Starmore fair isles on the needles, as well as a Starmore textured project, some socks, and some other sweaters. Maybe someday soon I'll finish something?

Tonight I need to start an Owl Hat for Marie's birthday on Saturday. I don't think it will be a problem getting it done in time, although I could get totally distracted, and end up giving a half-finsihed gift, as usual. We'll see.

Opening Night

About a week ago, I got home from an amazing yarn trip to Scotland and England. I got to visit some family, as well as about 12 wonderful yarn shops.  I bought six (generous) sweaters worth of yarn, as well as some miscellaneous skeins that I couldn't pass up.

Tomorrow, when there's sunlight, I'll take photos of the yarn and write more.