Weekending

My weekend got started a little earlier than normal and by 1:00 on Thursday afternoon the weekend was on!  I stopped by the Buford Highway Farmer's Market to pick up some fresh veggies for the weekend, and I had extra time to peruse the isles.  Friday was a full day off, and we had the home inspection scheduled for the house we're hoping to purchase and it took the inspector 3 hours to finish!  The house we're buying is old, and I appreciate the inspector's thoroughness, and now the process begins with negotiating repairs. 

 Here's what I hope will be my new kitchen.  

We took lots of measurements while we were here so we could decide furniture placement.  By the time the inspection was done we were starving so we had lunch at a local Mexican restaurant before we went to visit my mother in law.  We were able to stay on one road the entire way.  The location of this house is another reason why we chose because it is close to our family and it doesn't require anyone having to get on the interstate.  Very important as we're not getting any younger!  When we got home I immediately headed out to a local Chick-fil-A and got to meet Alec Kann player for the Atlanta United, and you can tell he's just a "little" bit taller than me [my 5'1" to his 6'4"!].  Such a nice guy, and I hope to be able to meet more of the team at some point; they have been so much fun to watch.  The rest of my weekend was spent cleaning, doing laundry and cooking.

I did manage to finish an embroidery piece I started earlier this year.  I'll probably make this into a pillow, but for now it'll go in the WIP pile.

Saturday and Sunday also included an outdoor bike ride which were very invigorating. 

I thought I was making progress on my Puntilla, but Sunday afternoon would reveal I clearly don't know where the shoulders are on a sweater!  Luckily I frogged the sweater before I did more knitting. 

I took Monday off as I just needed some time to just "be".  There was coffee, reading and knitting on the balcony before it got to warm.  This is Arabella which is my lace-antisocial knitting.  When it was too warm to be outside there was more knitting and mindless TV.

Sophie and I took a ride to the library to return a book- we actually took the long way-just because- Monday afternoon found me back on track with Puntilla.   I think Sophie really enjoyed having someone at home all day especially when the afternoon thunder storms appeared.   I hope to make significant progress on the knitting this project as once we are officially on "go" with the house the next few weeks are going to be super busy.  I'm thankful for this downtime and tomorrow it's back to the old grind!

Sometimes Monday-Lunch and Knitting

Means getting to step away from your desk and enjoy your lunch AND knitting.  I haven't eaten away from my desk in several months, and I'm glad I'm finally at a point in the "work"year where this will be a regular occurrence.  I have bound off the body of Balise, and I hope to start a sleeve tonight.  Happy Monday.

Summer plans and expectations

Carole's prompt this week is about our summer bucket list.  I haven't really given it much thought, and with my luck [so far I've lost my cell phone, dealt with an in-ept contractor, and today-left my shoes at home-and that's just been in the last 6 days!] summer will slip away and I'll have done little to make it really enjoyable.  So, with my list it seems more like a to do list, and hope that when fall comes around it's not only much cooler [temps hit high 90s in Atlanta this week], but much less stressful!

10.  Sell our house-it would make a fantastic August 12th birthday gift-even if I had to spend my birthday at a closing!  Of course, I'd love for it to close sooner.
  9.  Finish packing my kitchen and craft area.
  8.  Finish my summer knits-I'm on the 3rd of 4 planned projects.  Above is Shibui Square-it's now ready for a FO photo. and Axis just needs to have the ends woven in and blocked.  Apex is about 40% complete, and I need to cast on Gretel.
  7.  Blog more-I certainly have the time in the evenings to do so.
  6.  Get better acquainted with technology-specifically using i-cloud, google drive, etc.
  5.  Books on the Night Stand Bingo-I wasn't going to participate, but have managed to make headway on the reading already, so I'm going to try to see this one through to the end.  Especially now that I've figured out how to put audio books onto my i-phone.
  4.  Clean up my computer-it has gotten soooooo slow, am sure there's lots of junk that needs to be deleted.
  3.  Visit with friends-would probably be an instant stress reducer.
  2.  Go for a bike ride-outside-we are so close now to the Silver Comet Trail it's a shame that I haven't ventured out yet.
  1.  Seek out a local farmers market and go there more than once this summer.

Am sure others have much more interesting bucket list-so I'll live vicariously through them!

A tisket a tasket guess what's in my knitting basket---

On Sunday afternoon I completed my Easy Folded Poncho and my Sommer Sleevless Top which meant I officially had empty needles! I'm not counting the Kaffe Fassett Alghan squares cause I'm not even finished with 1/2 of the 54 squares. That will be an ongoing project that I hope will be finished by the fall, but I'm not giving myself any deadlines at this point.  So after a visit to Cast on Cottage I got the yarn for 2 of the 3 Shibui spring/summer patterns that I'm planning to knit.  I had yarn leftover from another project that I'll use for one of the patterns.  I figured now is a good time to do my initial documentation.  I still need to set up the tripod so that I can get photos of my FOs, of which there are several-that'll be another blog post soon I hope!

After tiding my craft area I wound some yarn, gathered together project bags, patterns and needles and headed back out to the deck-where I pretty much spent the ENTIRE day after church-to begin the swatching process.

First up, Hayward shawlette which will be knit with Infinite Twist Helix- this is part of the prize pack from the 2 Knit Lit Chicks Podcast.  Everything I needed for this project was included even the 3 circular needles!  No plans to swatch unless I'm not happy with the fabric, but think it'll just be fine.

Next, Apex, a super cute tunic and I'll use Elsbeth Lavolds Hempathy that had previously been the aran necklace tunic.  I really liked that pattern, but for some reason the finished product was not up to snuff.  I'll definitely re-knit it at some point.  Swatching still to be completed .

Here is Lithos, yarn is Debbie Bliss donegal tweed-gifted to me by Mary yea free yarn! the photo does not show off the color very well-brown with bits of tan and blue-very pretty.  This is a heavy sweater that might not get much knitting once it starts getting really hot, but I wanted to at least get it going.  Have already done the swatch, and the gauge is spot on-whoot!

Square-another Shibui, I'm using pebble and linen in tar.  I had 2 skeins of linen leftover from Aperture I have NO idea how that happened!  I've done the swatch, just need to wash and block before starting the project.  So far needle size and fabric seem to be dead on with gauge.

A hat, so that I can stay on pace with the Stash and Burn 15 hats in 2015 challenge.  Yarn is Berroco Vintage DK and pattern is Beret de Printemps-sort of appropriate for spring knitting right? 

Last but not least Axis by Shibui, will be doing this in pebble and kavo- in the caffeine colorway.  I had 3 skeins of Kavo that I had tried to use in 2 other projects that just didn't work out.  I think it works much better being held with another yarn.  I've done the swatch-just need to wash and block.

I think these projects will keep me busy for a few months which is why I'm getting everything organized now.  This means I'll be on a bit of a yarn diet for a while, and I'm going to do my best to not get distracted until I have a couple of these items off the needles.  I feel like I'm in a good knitting place right now which is great since it's nice enough to enjoy the outdoors for a while when I get home from work.

So what's in your basket?