Happy Star Wars Day!

I have finished what could possibly be the geekiest thing I have ever made.  Star Wars cross stitch!

I finished them last night.  Well, not quite finished.  I need to add some French knots in a few places, but other than that, they are finished.  A long time coming, too.  I started them two years ago.  To be fair, I didn't even work on them at all in this house until yesterday.  They had been "lost" when we moved and I just found them.  (This is a polite way of saying I'm still unpacking boxes nine months after moving.  Eh, what can you do?  We actually moved boxes from North Carolina to here that had never been unpacked from our last move.)

A closer look:

And the back (because I always like to see the back):

The patterns are from weelittlestitches on Etsy.  They have some really fun patterns.  I would love to do the Ferris Bueller or Breakfast Club patterns.  Now, off to watch a movie.  Episode V, perhaps?

May the Fourth be with you!

{this moment}

Joining Amanda in celebrating a single moment of the week, a moment to remember.

On my nightstand

Whoo hoo!  Finished with spring semester, 2014.  That was a hard slog.  Three classes, one of which was pathophysiology.  Ugh.

So what are my educational plans for the summer?  This:

Only recreational reading.  That's right, I'm not taking classes at all this summer!  Ohmygosh, I'm so very excited to not have to be on a deadline for the next four months.

Right now, I'm reading The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion on my Kindle.  Not great, but good.  On the stack are:  Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan (bought at a Barnes & Noble 3 for 2 table), Heads in Beds by Jacob Tomsky (insiders view of hotel service), Going Clear by Lawrence Wright (about Scientology), Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (this has been on my to-read list since it came out), and Eighteen Acres by Nicolle Wallace (given to me by my mother, and sounds kind of like the television program Scandal).

The books in the second stack have been hanging out quite a while.  There are a couple of feeding babies and toddlers, one one parenting, Cloud Atlas (which has been on the table for at least a year, and I refuse to watch the movie before reading the book, which means that I've been telling my DVR not to delete it for months now, too), Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (re-reading this one, so not in a hurry to finish), and The Winter Palace (ordered in a fit of Russian interest during the Winter Olymics, about Catherine the Great).

I'm also planning some knitting, of course, but no pictures of yarn yet.  And I'm starting a sampler.  The floss is wound.

And, of course, hanging out with these two.

Please note the dog (Charlie) photo bombing the picture.  Snouts everywhere, I tell you.

Another check in the box

Birthday gift finished, washed, and sent--check!  I suppose it doesn't really matter that said birthday was in October and the recipient has already seen the (mostly) completed item.  It is a gift!  Be glad!  [I say this with tongue in cheek.  The giftee loves these, loves me, and doesn't mind that they are late.]

These are the Hedgerow Mitts (Rav link).  The pattern is really easy to figure out and memorize, and looks really complicated, but isn't.

From a distance it almost looks like a cable pattern, but there isn't any cabling involved.

It is really just moving the knit and purl stitches around.  Which, if you think about it, is what most of knitting is about.  Just figuring out a new or fun or interesting way to do two different stitches.  Manipulating them until we like the effect.

I made them rather long.  They come up about two-thirds of the way to my elbow.  I'm from the UP, so I know from cold.  Gloves were never long enough.  Between your gloves and your coat there was always a little bit of skin exposed to the cold, especially when you reached for something.  There are few things colder than wind on the inside of your wrist.  However, I would probably wear them like this:

Gotta scrunch them down a bit.  But, like I mentioned, these were a gift, and they have been sent away to their recipient.  Down here, it was in the 80s today.  Up there, they got about eight inches of snow.  I think she'll wear these now, for a few weeks anyway.

It feels really good to get these off the Knitting To Do list.  These have been finished for a while now, and have only been needing a bath.  I kind of forgot about them for a bit, and then found them under a pile in my craft room.  That can happen.  I wish I wasn't like this--and trust me, I'm working on it-- but I am the type of knitter that starts off with my needles on fire with a new project, only to get to the final lap.  Then I lose steam.  My Tiny Tea Leaves sat for almost three months without sleeves.  Sleeves!  The easiest part of that pattern!  Must. Finish.  The.  Knits.

Last weekend we went to the Savannah Quilt Show.  I didn't take my camera, so all my pictures are on Mike's phone (which I think has a better camera [at least pixel-wise] than my point-and-shoot).  As soon as I figure out how to make that transfer happen, I'll post a few here.  Just gorgeous.

Of course, there was a Marketplace.  I've been wanting those lovely Ghana bolga baskets for a long time, and there was a vendor at the quilt show.

Did you know there was a baby basket?  I didn't!  I almost didn't get it, and now I think I should have bought at least two more.  I'm not sure if the big one is going to be yarn storage or the farmer's market basket (this thing is huge!), but the little one is perfect for a sock in progress.

How cute, right?  Oh my gosh, I'm loving that cute little basket!

I still think I need more baby baskets.  Right now I have four socks-in-progress.  So at lease three more baskets, right?  Can you imagine them all lined up on the table next to the davenport?  I would love it!

Tiny Tosh Tea Leaves

I've graduated from the Baby Tea Leave and made it into the Tiny Tea Leaves.  And oh, is it so sweet.  The color is Molly Ringwald by MadelineTosh.  I just love this yarn, and the color is so sweet and perfect for a darling five year old girl.

Of course, no photo shoot would be complete without a little assistance.

My fault, really, for trying to put something on the floor.  If it is on the floor, it is fair game for a snouting.  And while I was taking these pictures, something else was happening on the floor behind me.

Oh, Frosty.  He's never very far from Camden.  He's been very protective right from the beginning.  Frosty is our first fluff, and he's getting old.  He's a little guy, so he hopefully has a bunch more years left in him, but we notice him getting slower.  He doesn't always go upstairs with us until he is pretty sure we are staying up there.  He sleeps a lot more now.  He's on some medicine (which we call "Frosty's Little Blue Pills"; no sense in not having a sense of humor about it).  Our F-er.  We love our sweet Doodlebug.  He loves Camden.  All is good.

Unexpected Free Moment

Mike had to go back to work for something tonight, so I have an unexpected evening to myself.  I'm watching Moonstruck on cable and knitting Terra.  And stopping in here to say hello.

Things have been pretty hectic this spring.  Without thinking too much about it, I enrolled in three classes.  None of these classes alone are too bad, but together I'm a bit overwhelmed.  If everything went nice and smooth, it would be no problem, but there are all these little hiccups that threaten my equilibrium.  Every assignment finished is a check in the box, though, and I'm slowly getting to the end.  There is a light at the end of this tunnel.

There has been knitting.  When I was looking for a picture of the Shelter yarn I am using for my current project (Terra shawl, Rav link), I found this picture of new yarn:

A LYS in Savannah was going out of business this last month, so all this was purchased on sale.  I have plans for some (the cadet blue Spud and Chloe Sweater is going to be a toddler sweater for Camden) and some was just too pretty to pass up (the burgundy Anzula in the bottom left).  Even though I only visited the store about three times before they announced their closing, I'm really going to miss them.  I had high hopes that they would become my favorite LYS.  (The first time I was there, the manager was telling me about their knit night.  "We have wine!" she said.  How could I not love them?)

But that isn't really knitting.  Some more non-knitting.  This:

is now this:

That is the Garter Stitch Kimono (Rav link).  I started this the day we got our pack-up at this house, in August.  I raced through the body, but it became really clear that I wouldn't have enough yarn for two long sleeves.  Since a cap sleeve baby kimono didn't interest me, it sat and sat.  Now it's frogged and no longer an unfinished sweater.  Now it is back to be potential.  Now I can ponder it and figure out what it really wants to be.  I'm thinking a little vest type thing, or possibly a striped cardigan.  Both for Camden, obviously, since one skein with even the most generous yardage would not make a garment to cover this body.  What color would stripe well with that blue-green?  Cream?  Orange?

But that is still not knitting to show.  It seems that most of my knitting progress photos have been taken with my phone and are on my Instagram account.

So how about cute baby pictures instead?

Look at that hair!  Yikes!  I'm not cutting it, though.  Not yet.  Maybe after his first birthday.  I'm sure that third picture down will be familiar to anyone with a pet (especially little fluffy dogs).  As soon as I get on the floor, the dogs think it is playtime.  There is a snout in the face, in the camera, in Camden's face.  Good thing we all love dogs here!  Camden laughs at them and has started to try and grab wagging tails.  So far he's slow and the dogs are quick.  They love him, and usually give him a few kisses to make up for it.

A new skill

Over the holidays, I decided I was going to learn how to crochet.  I had known how to crochet once upon a time (third grade maybe?) but as far as doing it now, no.  Well, I can crochet the little bit that is needed to knit--for a provisional cast on, to tighten up an edge--but not really Crochet with a capital C skill crochet.  I really want to make granny square blankets.  That is my only reason, honestly.  I've loved Granny Square blankets since I was in first grade.  My friend Andi had a Granny Square blanket in her living room.  I loved that blanket, with the multi-color flowers surrounded by black fronds.  I'm sure it was acrylic.  Everything was in the 80s.  I've wanted a Granny Square blanket ever since.

So I started with a booklet (possibly the one Andi's mom used--look at how dated that is!).

And I ended up with that little squiggle of blue yarn.  Believe it or not, that is a foundation chain of thirty stitches.  Clearly this booklet wasn't going to cut it for me, so I turned to the internet.  How did I learn anything before YouTube?

I had a few problems.  These weren't supposed to be bell-shaped, but for washcloths they will definitely work.  I have a whole bin of Peaches and Cream cotton to work through, and I need a whole bunch of dish cloths.  My sister has already put in a request for some, too.  I've got a good start.

I understand why people prefer crochet to knitting.  It is so much faster.  When you're in a desperate need of a finished object, crochet to the rescue!  I got a little addicted to making these cloths for a while.  Seriously, my wrist was starting to hurt.

Of course, I've also been hanging out with this little one.

Oh my gosh, I love that little face!  He's finally sitting up well enough to sit in one of those jumper toy things.  But he is still such a little nugget that his little feet don't touch the ground at all, even on the lowest setting.

See those feet just dangling?  A lot of times I've got a little pillow or blanket under there so he gets used to putting weight on his legs (it's something we are working on with him in PT), but sometimes I just let him stretch.  Either way he's happy.

Oh yes, classes started again.  I'm trying to figure out how to balance everything.  I think I've got all the assignments written on three different calendars--desk, phone, and wall.  I do love the act of checking things off a list!