Down to the Last Inch

Phew, Baby Sophisticate all done! I used Cascade 128 from stash and the yardage ended up much tighter than expected. Also, I just validated all my yarn scrap hoarding impulses. I finished the sweater with 3 inches left of the white, and had to go fishing in my bin of random scraps to find enough odds and ends for the sleeves. This is definitely a one of a kind sweater! As much as playing yarn chicken can be stressful, working with constraints can really push us to come up with something completely unexpected.

Now to sew on the buttons and package it up!

Stash Diving

There's a very proud dad and a new 16 day old baby around here, so I did a little stash diving and need to quickly knit up a baby sweater with some creative striping. Time to whip up a little Baby Sophisticate! After that, maybe I'll have some time to play with these new beads. The bead store here in Salem is closing for good this week after a very sudden announcement, so I had to pay them a last visit. It's always sad to lose another small, creative business. I have no idea what I am going to do with acid green fish beads, but they just couldn't be left behind.

The last batches of limited edition Halloween yarn are going out this week, phew! Thank you everyone for the truly amazing response!

The Dying of the Light

By mid-November, it feels like the daylight shrinks exponentially and the night starts to take over. All of a sudden, there's a permanent chill in the air, and the darkness seems seep into every nook and cranny.

Stolen Moments

I've come to realize I am pretty terrible at taking care of myself. I am great at working hard and meeting deadlines - but I tend to pack my schedule so full I forget to factor in time for meals. I love my work, so I frequently forget that I should actually give myself time to do things that are not work-related. I am constantly working on a knitting project and have dye pots running almost all my waking hours. Last week, a couple of friends invited me to go out to lunch with them today. My stomach flipped a bit as I thought about my endless to-do lists, but I decided a break would probably be good. I packed the car with orders ready to go to the post office, so I could at least do that on the way back. After lunch, I dutifully went to the post office, driving past the bookstore. Few things tug on my heartstrings like bookstores, so I couldn't resist the temptation. After the post office, I ran back to the bookstore and allowed myself an hour.

As I browsed the shelves, I remembered how infrequently I do this, and how much I love it. I love going to bookstores with no shopping list, so I can wander the stacks and pick out things that catch my eye. I then find a quiet corner, sit with my pile of books, and spend some time with each book as I decide which ones I'll be bringing home. It's also one of the few places where I get to read (outside of my own home) where people don't take it as an invitation for a conversation. Not that I don't enjoy talking to people, but this introvert really loves her reading time.

By the time I left the bookstore with a bag of new goodies for my overflowing shelves, I caught myself smiling. My phone buzzed, with a list of "14 Two-Sentence Horror Stories Guaranteed to Terrify Introverts." Number 5 said, "She bought a strange book from an old bookstore. When she opened it up to read it strangers came up to her thinking it was a conversation starter." I chuckled to myself and hugged my books. Now back to those dye pots, the yarn isn't going to dye itself! As for those socks, finishing and publishing that pattern is definitely on the to-do list.