Featured – Page 5

The state of things

April 21, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

I’m not getting enough progress done today to things I wanted to get done. My first vacation day since I switched jobs (I hit my 1 year anniversary on Monday, but wasn’t able to find time for a day off until today), and I spent the first half of my day cleaning and cleaning and cleaning before a contractor came over to look at a few things on the house. I might, just might be getting our icky bathroom redone… and a half bathroom put in on the 1st floor… and while here the contractor mentioned the possibility of an upstairs laundry, which would mean no longer needing to go all the way to the basement to do laundry. I’m so flipping excited I can hardly stand myself! I am sure, of course, that all of that is going to cost us a ridiculous amount of money and I’m absolutely certain that during all the construction I’ll wonder whether it’s worth it. But. BUT. We’ve been here 9 years and I’ve been cleaning a bathroom that we half-assed fixed up just enough to make it liveable until we got the money to redo it. It’s time. Past time, really.

Anyway, so this second half of my day has been centered on me time. Knitting a bit, spinning a bit, snacking on whatever I feel like (mostly Easter candy) and binge watching Girlboss on Netflix. Sure, I could be watching something more… refined. But after the last few weeks I’ve had, complete with screwing up BIG at work, something easy to consume that speaks to my rebellious/take-no-shit side was much needed. So this is the state of things right now – some fiber on the wheel, and a sweater in the works. I knit for a few hours here, and spun for a few hours there. Nothing particularly hard or exciting, but the perfect comfort projects for a much needed day off with no one home.

And, no, that little sweater isn’t for the Little Mr, nor am I pregnant – it’s for the now 4 month old grandkid that I still haven’t knit for. I feel terrible that I haven’t managed to make anything for him, but every time I’ve tried either the pattern is too much to follow with a toddler to care for or the yarn doesn’t work out for it. Or, in the case of the quilt I had started a while back… I sewed the whole thing together wrong and it was far too much work to sit and rip out all the thread and re-sew.

Spring

April 16, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

Easter is always pretty relaxed now as an adult. No church to rush off to, monster egg hunts, or driving out of town to see family. Easter, for me, is never religious. It is more about celebrating spring – the return of the birds and flowers. So this morning I sat on the patio in my PJs and knit while listening to the birds.

Later, we took a little walk around the neighborhood and looked at all the flowers and trees, just the two of us. The perfect little way to celebrate the day, if there ever was one.

Imperfect but still delicious

April 1, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

Lemon Souffle Cheesecake. I’ve never used a springform pan before, so there was a bit of a learning curve on how to line it with parchment paper. The cake didn’t come out as brown on top as the recipe showed, so I’m a tad worried it’s not done enough. But the middle wasn’t jiggly anymore and I feared that if I baked it too long the thing would burn. The edges pulled some of the parchment off as I tried to peel it off – I’m thinking maybe I should have buttered the parchment after I stuck it to the pan?

Regardless of how ugly it actually looks (to me), the bits I have tasted are dreamy, and will go lovely with the blueberry cardamom sauce I have in the fridge waiting to be drizzled over top of a slice. I might try to make this again later this week and do the parchment differently, line my pan better (it’s kind of stuck to the bottom of the springform base even though I have parchment on the bottom of THAT).

Now, off to relax a bit before the knitting group comes over for some much-needed time with my friends.

Knitting lately

March 30, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

I’m trapped, still, in this desire to want to knit everything for everyone… and having no time. So I’ve spent a lot of time bouncing between projects and not really finishing anything. I really should focus on finishing something, but the precious little knitting time I do get is just more enjoyable when I get to spend it knitting something that excites me at that given moment. Which means I’ve got a sock project or two lingering, some pussy hats I was asked to make (but told “no rush” which has guaranteed me to work on them when I need something mindless), this cardigan in progress, and I cast on a baby sweater for the latest addition to the family. And I’m still tempted to cast on for something like a lace shawl, even though I know that would be a total disaster trying to a. keep my pattern pages from getting thrown around the house by the kid and b. having enough focus in the first place to even read a complicated chart of lace.

I have 11 work days until my vacation time kicks in. 11 work days until I can take a much needed break when I need it to spend my day at home – alone – to knit and craft and focus on some essential self care. I think my very first day I take might just be spent watching Poldark and spinning on my wheel, which is much harder to spend time doing than knitting that can be picked up at any given moment for a row here and there. I have some gorgeous fiber I picked up from CreatedByElsieB that is calling my name (though, as usual, I have zero idea what I’ll make with the finished product – assuming I ever get around to knitting it in the first place).

Knitting notes: Pattern is “Elaine’s Blouse” but I’ve modified it to not include the weird ribbing around the waist – I liked it at first but the more I looked at it the more weird it seemed. Yarn is some Queensland Kathmandu I purchased a few years ago after a lovely knitting friend, Julie, passed away and the knitting group sold a lot of her very large stash to put money toward her kids’ college funds. I’m not 100% positive that I have enough yarn, but my hopes are at the very least I can get away with 3/4 sleeves to make it all work.

I’ve given up fighting it

March 26, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

This kid is so fascinated by my spinning wheel. No matter how many times you tell him to leave it alone, he’s always over there playing with it. You can watch his little brain work while he tries to figure out how it works to make all the pieces move and spin the yarn. It’s a battle I will never win, I’ve learned. So, instead, I’m trying to include him more in things I’m doing. Today he helped me wind yarn off the bobbin so I could free up room for the other half of the 2ply I’m working on and we talked about how he wants me to knit him a brown sweater like the old woman in his book (great book, btw – there’s not a brown sweater specifically, he’s just seen one at the end of it and decided he wants one, too), but first he wants a hat. Out of this exact handspun yarn. I don’t have plans for this yarn, but even if I did how can I possibly refuse him?! Especially when I’m certain at some point he will grow to not want me to make him things (though, of course, I hope that never turns out to be true and he always sees the things I make for him as extra special).

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