A Lovely Weekend

So far, this has been a lovely weekend.

I have finished both of my samples for work, Gratitude and Vitamarie.

Vitamarie is with Jen this weekend for blocking, but Gratitude is finished, blocked, and beautiful!! It was a fun knit.

My Vitamarie ate yarn!! Franklin said he only used 3 skeins (although he used ALL of the three.) Mine used about 4.75 skeins, and although I checked and re-checked the math against my knitting, I couldn't figure out why!! Jen and Babs will compare mine to Franklin's at Stitches Midwest to figure out where I was off... I'm very curious!!

Yesterday I did some errands, both necessary and unnecessary. I also finished Annie's birthday shawl, only a day late! I just need to block it, and then I'll send it along. This means I am *still* up to date with my gift knitting!!

I've also been quilting. I've just 3/4 of the border left to quilt on the top Mommy made me for high school graduation. Hopefully I'll finish the quilt by the end of August. Then it will have only been... um... 8 years since I started quilting it, a new record! And finished just in time, too, considering I got a queen bed a month ago, and the quilt is for a twin bed :) Time to get going on some new quilts, I guess, since all of mine are for a twin.

Luckily, whenever I quilt, I remember how much I enjoy it. Perhaps not having a proper quilt will inspire me to finish the next one in a shorter time...

I've also been enjoying working on my Butterfly. It took a few repeats, but I now see the butterflies!

I really like this one. (Which is such a change from my normal feelings about the Starmore's designs, I know... I always love them.) This is pretty easy; on most of the rows I just have to remind myself of the numbers, and then don't need to look at the chart for the rest of the round. Which means it will probably be knit pretty quickly. Lucky I've got about 8 more Starmores and 8 other stranded sweaters stashed!

And, as always, the kitties are excellent company. Life is good.

Gino

Penny

I think I have Borrowers

Recently, small things have gone missing from my house. A chapstick, some pens, things like that. The only explanation I can think of is Borrowers. I think, for the most part, I'd be a pretty good home for them--all sorts of bits and bobs, and mostly I wouldn't notice if one pin or something goes missing.

I suppose, however, that there could be an alternate explanation:

Although that would necessitate them getting up...

The overall state of my house is trending towards slightly cleaner. This is a good trend, and I'm hoping to keep it going. That way, someday the house might actually be tidy most of the time!

I've also mowed the lawn several times. The first time took about two hours. The second and third about one and three quarters. Yesterday only an hour and a half--I also like this trend!! I'm hoping to get it down to just over an hour, but I think 1.5 might be as short of a time as I can manage. Mowing is the only form of exercise I don't hate--not that I'm anxious to go out and find other lawns to mow, but it is at least productive, and gives me a feeling of accomplishment. So that's good, I guess. 

And Yarn! Mustn't forget yarn. I'm almost finished with Annie's 2013 Christmas sweater--I just have to sew the second sleeve to the body, and then knit the bands and block it. That will certainly be ready for next weekend. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the second front of Grandy's cardigan, and so that will almost certainly be finished by the weekend as well. Mommy's sweater lacks both sleeves (well, I started the first one yesterday, but I'm only about three inches in, so it doesn't count.) That will be a bit of a push to finish. And the socks for Father's Day will be a push as well, since I'm only about 3/4 done the first one. Those'll be good plane knitting, though... so it is still fairly possible I'll finish everything I was hoping to before the Cosgrove Beach Weekend! (No photos of these, though, because I've been focusing more on knitting than documenting recently...)

Want To See My House?

We're pretty well settled in, and I finally got around to taking photos of most of my house this morning! Want to see?

Entry Room

Library

Sewing Room

Kitchen

Living Room

Laundry Area

Back Guest Bedroom

And then upstairs:

Stash!!

Upstairs Guest Bedroom-To-Be

I'm thinking of re-painting the Upstairs Guest Bedroom To Be light green--we'll see.

My bedroom, of course, is too much of a mess to show. But the house is very nice!

In knitting news, I've been in a finishing mood recently. I finished the Sierra Nevada Set from the 2012 Knitting Tour:

Scarf, doubled a bit to fit on the bed while blocking. Franklin is a genius!

Mitts

And Marie's Robot mittens are finally done as well! 

Lowes comes through again in terms of blocking supplies--pipe-stuff makes perfect thumbs!