January Draws to a Close

I'm preparing for another busy season, getting my younger kid potty trained, and looking forward to a dynamic year in helping people through an expected boom in divorce. Yes, it sounds strange, and I'll report that I wasn't the first one to say that. We'll see where the roller coaster takes us this year.

Aside from all the craziness, I found a very exciting pattern and crochet along for busy season. Not much crafting goes on during the tax season, but I like to have pattern to get me focused. Here is a big contender Dutch Rose. This is not my image and sadly my yarn won't have the same look, but I'm  excited to work on the lovely blooms and striping in Cascade Heritage 150. I intend to use six colors instead of 14, so you can image the look will be quite different.

I enjoyed seeing many of my buddies at the TiGo Knitting group last weekend. There was discussion of the Rose City Yarn Crawl, which is super fun. The timing doesn't work well (March 1 - 4), but maybe I can stop by a couple of shops to put my name in for some drawings. There are lovely baskets and gift certificates. If you stop by all the shops (11 for 2018) and get your passport stamped in each one, you can get entered into the big prizes. The thought of visiting all of the shops is amazing, yet dangerous. I received yarn for Christmas and then I bought some...where would I put more yarn? If I limited myself to one skein...maybe some pretty sock yarn...then it wouldn't be so bad...

On a yarny note, Holst Garn is having a January Sale. If you don't mind the wait for the shipping from Denmark, there are some lovely yarns. I ordered a few cakes for the anniversary celebration of the knitting group so others can try it out with minimal risk :).

I'm making progress on the test knit. I have over 280 rows completed and I need to keep up on it each night. Weekends pride much more time. I'm worried that I'll need to ask for a few more days to finish it past the deadline.

I love that blue so much. This is made with Holst Garn Supersoft in Tiffany (which was not on sale...no wonder, the color is lovely).

I hope you all have a great week and a great start to February. Happy crafting.

It feels like it's been one long year...

I remember thinking last year at the annual estate planning conference on this day that I needed to leave early to miss the inauguration protesting. In Portland, I-5 and bridges had been closed due to the protesting. Whatever side you fall on...it's been a wild year.

Hopefully, 2018 will be a great year. Numbers have lots of meanings in the superstitious part of my family. My favorite number is three and there will be lots of threes in ages this year in my household. Another critical number is eleven. It will be my eleventh wedding anniversary. Lastly, seven is another special number, which will be my knitting group's anniversary. I started it as a birthday present to myself in the hopes of spending time with other crafty people. It's been such a blessing to share time and ideas with these awesome people. Now that we're through the move and other weekend craziness, I plan to attend regularly...even during busy season.

For our crafting anniversary I plan to bring a few yarny door prizes and some treats. We will be at the groups original location, nostalgia here we come :).

Besides working and cleaning this week, I've been trying to add some of my old completed projects to Ravelry...it's crazy how much time flies by and I don't add something.

A new test knit caught my eye, so here is my start (100 rows in) for The Fibonacci Wrap.

I was looking at some patterns and thought it would be fun to work on a super chunky pattern. I saw a lovely, but my yarn is a bit too chunky. I grabbed my old Twinkle Knit books:  Twinkle Website. The first book came out in 2007 when I started to pick up crafting again. The patterns are a mix of simple to more extreme patterns. I'm working on a chunky, striped, lace sweater that will probably be ugly. I think I can finish it this weekend if I sit still and do it...we'll see how it turns out. It will take me probably another week to block and finish it.

The patterns and style don't appear to have aged well. Bulky doesn't work on most of us. I think the bulky look is primarily for models standing awkwardly ;).

So many neat patterns...knowing that busy season is around the corner...will there be time to craft?

Have an awesome week!

Kicking into Gear

It's been a wild crazy start to the year. Dealing with tax reform, plenty of new clients, settling into our new place...the list goes on. I'm happy that things are settling down (hopefully in time for busy season).

I started running again, which is so hard after months of not moving. Here is a picture of some of the 51 stairs on one small part of the trail I've started to frequent. It runs along I-5 in SW Portland. 

Here is another lovely view from part of my run. It doesn't look picturesque to many, but I find it to be very interesting visually. I like to run and see both nature and the infrastructure. There is a bridge run that I should check out :).

Here is a small attempt at decorating. I like the glow of this lamp and IKEA always has fun ideas at millennial prices. I might get the table lamp version...someday :).

I've been trying to get a start on a new brioche knitting pattern that is just gorgeous. Impulse knitting has set in. The patter was released this week and decided I needed it immediately. Getting a swatch going was critical to making sure I remembered how to brioche knit. When I saw the pattern...I was in love. I've started it so many times only to make a mistake. Maybe the 8th attempt is the charm. Here is a picture of the original sample by the designer of KnitGraffiti's Coffee at the Grand:

The contrast in the three colors works so well. Hopefully, I can make it happen.

I have some wonderful yarn for the sweaters I want to knit for the boys. The gauge swatch I made was buttery soft and a little bit off from the numbers. The plan is to have Jeffrey's as green, Ethan's as grey, and James' as yellow for the main color. There are several wonderful contrasting colors for the yoke.

I was very tempted to work, but decided to hold off until Monday. It's not busy season yet...it's not busy season yet...it's not busy season yet!

My dad was in town so I missed my knitting group today. I'm so hopeful that nothing will get in the way next weekend. I miss all my buddies and the gap between my last attendance is too great. It was very nice to see Dad and Lori, so no complaints there :).

Have a great week and happy crafting.

Getting into 2018 Cheer

I hope your 2018 is off to a great start. Taking a few days off from work has been a nice change of pace and I might get a few things done out our new place.

I'm happy to report that I've finished a cute little jacket for my nephew. I hope it fits :).

Also completed is the Done in Love shawl. The pattern will be out soon. I ran out of yarn towards the end so I added some gray. Blocking is needed, but I love how warm it is. One night when my 3 year old wouldn't go to sleep, I wrapped him in it and he seemed quite happy.

I started an interesting sweater from the recent Pom Pom winter issue. If I focus and don't jump to another pattern, I think I can complete the front this weekend and have it all done sometime next month. I know I'll be distracted, so things will be delayed. I'm using odds and ends for the modular pieces in the front and then I'm using some lovely indie dyed yarn that I posted about a couple weeks ago.

Sweater Girls IS lovely vintage sweater pattern collection. I had been eyeing the collection for some time and I particularly fell in love with the Hedy Tyrolean-Pattern Cardigan. Seeing how beautiful the pattern turned out for others really makes me want to knit it myself. This is a picture form the book. of the lovely cardigan. There are so many other fun patterns in the book. I'm curious to see with the onset of 90's fashion if the vintage or other looks will seem passe. I hope not.

Other than struggling with sleep because my boys won't sleep well in the same room, everything seems fine.

Happy 2018!

Wishing You a Happy 2018!

It's amazing that today is New Year's Eve. We spend it with my in-laws each year and we'll have a Roger Moore movie marathon. They pick a movie start who has passed away during the year to feature. I don't remember Roger Moore's James Bond movies, so it should be amusing.

Thanks to tax reform, it's been a wild ride through year end. I hope I was helpful to my boss while she was on vacation. I feel like I might have made some things more complicated. My desire for a vacation has kicked in and I'm glad to have a week or so off. There are still some work things to take care of and I'll need the time to get ready for busy season.

I didn't share that I received some lovely yarn for Christmas. My mother-in-law wanted to take my older son to a local alpaca farm and have them pick out some alpaca yarn together. She found out that tours are only done during a specific time of the year so she ordered yarn off of my wish list instead. I have enough yarn for a lovely sweater and some great accessories. There was an alpaca themed bag and magnet.

There is plenty to knit with, so without question...I ordered yarn this week.

There are two major patterns that I'd like to make for the boys this year and I have lots of yarn for the first design that I've started to knit. It's a great mindless pattern for most of it and ti will be scrap happy. The second is the a pattern from the special Heart on My Sleeve collection of sweaters. Here is a project image (not my own) of Crazyheart.

I ordered some cotton acrylic blend so that I could make some lovely sweaters for the boys that are not too warm or scratchy. If I have enough yarn left over, I'm hoping to make a coordinating sweaters for Gilly, my sister-in-law, and me. We'll see what time allows as well.

I'm excited to share 2018 with you and hope every day is a bit better than the last.

Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays!

We're in that interesting gap between Christmas and the New Year. I'll be working tomorrow through Friday, and will be happy to have a quieter office. If things refreeze tonight, I might work from home. My little car doesn't do well on icy roads.

I hope you all had a nice holiday weekend. I chose not to blog until more was settled after Christmas and with the cleaning at our old place. Part of me is still bummed about moving, but it could be worse to have to move during busy season.

Aside from the holidays, it was a busy week dealing with tax reform. I'm a tax accountant so I had to dig into the law right when it came out. Our clients asked so many questions and we needed to think about how best to communicate to clients.

Getting past the work part it was a frantic jump to Christmas. Thankfully, we live near my in-laws and my family has been very flexible. I didn't churn out much in the way of handcrafted gifts. The sweater I finished a couple of weeks ago definitely got in the way. It's completion felt like quite a triumph. There is a knit along for Aroha knits that I skipped last week, but I will contribute to it this week. I'm working on a shawl with some stash yarn. It's for the Giver issue, and the pattern hasn't been released. I love several of the patterns from the issue. It's a great reminder that a scarf or shawl can be a long distance hug.

As part of the knit-along, I won a free skein of yarn in the first week! Still can't believe it. Her shop is Yarnovernewyork and she is based of of Harlem. For my free skein I requested the "I <3 Snow in NY" and then temptation overtook me and I ordered two skeins of "My Favorite Drummer." The inspiration for the second yarn is Animal from the Muppets. Here is a lovely pic. I'm so excited to play with the yarn.

I think 2018 will be the year of sweater making. I'm really excited to make little semi-matching sweaters for my sons and my nephew. I'm also hoping to make a few for myself. That would be a great way to get through my stash. I found the cutest slipper pattern for the boys too...hoping to make some monster feet :).

I went through and put 20 items on my knit/crochet queue. I'm hoping that will help focus my efforts. As new patterns and other items pop up, I'm certain to be distracted.

If I'm lucky enough have the old apartment ready by the end of the week, here's hoping I'll be blogging before the start of 2018. Maybe a little shopping over the weekend too (I have some rewards stocked up).

Have a great rest of your week and I hope you enjoy the last few days of 2017.

Quick Update

I hope your holiday season is off to a great start. I don't  have much time and my use of Internet is limited this weekend.

Tomorrow is my little guy's third birthday. He isn't quite into it yet, but he does like birthday parties and birthday cake. We asked him who's birthday is tomorrow and he claimed it was mine. Thankfully, I have Ia couple of months before I'm considered another year older. I always like to look at this day in history for family birthdays. In 1903 on December 17, the Wright brothers made their first flight.

I've caught the nasty upper respiratory bug that my little guy had. It's knocked me out more than I had expected it to. Work and moving have been a bit tough. I'm glad we chose to hire a company to help us move the big stuff. Our new place has stairs and tight corners.

I'm so happy to have this lovely sweater done and I'm hoping to get some better pictures for the designer.

I hope everyone has a great week. Wishing you all the happiest of holidays.