Egads!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
-Proverbial

Time flies when you're . . . having fun, working lots, knitting quite a bit, enjoying long summer San Diego days, and, oh, did I mention how much better it is to have my husband home? Much better.

I do have lots to blog about - a finished Bed and Breakfast, finished Lacy Kerchief scarf, finished socks, finished baby sweaters x2, and all sorts of in progress stuff. I've had a good amount of knitting time, but the camera battery isn't charged, the long days aren't quite long enough for sunlit shots . . . or maybe they're long enough so that I'm out and about and doing other things, and then I've gotten distracted. You see, I've been cooking a lot, like dinner on a pretty much nightly basis. It's so much more fun cooking for 2! And did you know there are all these cooking blogs out there . . .

So, the good news is that I'll be working nights starting June 1st. That means maybe I can take some daylit photos? But in the meantime, I've discovered that the bonus of leaving a post at the top for 10 days is that I get a lot of comments - Thanks!

A Summer in Silk

One swallow does not make a summer.
-Aristotle

I've long been an admirer of knitzalot's extensive collection of summer knits (love this Josephine!). After all, she lives in San Diego just like me. It's been 90 degrees here lately. It's a nice long sunny summer. But I've been intently sticking to my wool (and I just finished the Bed and Breakfast pullover - photos coming soon). But then I had some silk that I've been carting around for years and states, and it was the perfect amount for a nice summer top.

Let's all pause and ponder how perfect Ravelry is in this situation. I had my yarn, my yardage, my weight, and I found the perfect pattern.

Surplice Bodice Top
Pattern: From Knitting Lingerie Style - a much more versatile book than I had previously given it credit
Yarn: Anny Blatt Kanpur, a 100% silk DK weight that I got for the steal of the century at $2/ball at a sale back in 2001; 4.5 skeins, approx 600 yards
Needles: US 6 and US 5
Notes: Great pattern. I need a camisole for underneath that doesn't have as much contrast, though.
Best Thing About This Project: A night out on the town is coming.

Now, what should I do with the last 1.5 skeins? Because while I've used most of the yarn, I haven't used all of it . . .

Fun On the Side

If it's not fun, you're not doing it right.
-Proverbial

I've been knitting and knitting and knitting. All the big projects like we talked about. But everyone needs to have a little fun on the side, right? Conveniently enough, the May Loose Knit Group project is baby knits. And I was jonesing for some baby knits. And some stash busting. And I had a couple skeins each of a couple coordinating colors of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. A great baby yarn. And then I found this pattern. And then I cast on.But that's not all the fun around here. I got my May Day sock swap! Check out the gorgeous socks and great package I got! Coffee and a mug, two kinds of sock yarn, nice lotions and creams, jelly beans, and Nikki Epstein's Knitted Flowers book - which is super creative and cool. Go check out my swap partner's blog, too!

Sensing A Theme Here

Tomorrow never comes.
-Proverbial

For most of the last week I was planning on blogging "tomorrow," but somehow each and every day is a today. It's been a busy week working, getting back into cooking (it's so much more fun to cook for two of us!), and actually doing some knitting.

In fact, it was during a nice post-work relaxing night of knitting that I noticed there was a bit of a theme in my knitting. Don't we all love Interweave? These are the magazines for the Bed and Breakfast Pullover, the Lacy Kerchief Scarf, and my new project. Yes, I finally decided what to do with my alpaca. Thank to all the suggestions and reassurance, I went with the teddy bear. How cute is this? It's going to be so adorable, so fuzzy, and, well, just so classic. I am realizing however, that I will have quite a lot of yarn leftover. I'm leaning towards mittens. We shall see.

I also figured out what my May project was going to be. It's a good stash project from some Reynolds Saucy that I bought at the Webs tent sale with Rachel right before I moved to California. Now, I realize that the wisdom of buying lots of yarn right before moving cross-country can be questioned, and two years later I'm still trying to work my through most or all of it, but the stash does become it's own justification when I can just decide to cast on and I have a good yarn handy. That I got on supersale. But I digress. I'm making the oh-so-romantically-named "Long-Sleeved Cotton Jacket" from Sarah Dallas' Vintage Knits. I've had my eye on this for quite some time, and now is the time.

Speaking of stash, I finally updated my sidebar to reflect the progress I've been making on stash reduction. While it does come in handy to have yarn around, I'd like to have a little less yarn around so I'd feel a little freer buying yarn for specific projects. At any rate, in spite of some recent yarn gifts (May Day Swap photos coming soon!), I'm still far in the negative from my starting stash. By the end of May, I should be under 110,000 yards!

Spring Socks

The enemy of good is better.

-Proverbial

I'm still pondering what to do with the alpaca, and I really appreciate all your suggestions. For some reason the teddy bear idea is rising to the forefront as appropriate for the mood of the moment, but then I'm still torn about whether to just go with the mood, or hold out for something that is theoretically more perfect. Then again, see the quote above.

So, as I ponder, I have been knitting some socks for spring.

The March Yarn of the Month was a skein of Socks that Rock that made a lovely cushy sock.

Spring Socks
Pattern: Mad Color Weaves, available free on Ravelry downloads, the coolest one-stop shopping ever
Yarn: Socks That Rock Lightweight in, er, a pretty spring color
Needles: US 2, after experimentation to find a ratio that didn't pool
Notes: Great pattern. Cushy yarn. It was a little frustrating to find a needle size and cast-on number that didn't pool, though.
Best Thing About This Project: Wearing them at night, after my flipflops!

And, I knit a pair for the May Day Swap. Here's a teaser photo.

May Day Socks
Pattern: Charade, also a free Ravelry download
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock
Needles: US 1
Notes: Great pattern, great yarn
Best Thing About This Project: The modeled shot is here.

And, last but not least:

Thuja
Pattern: from Knitty
Yarn: KnitPicks Memories for a purple-loving friend
Needles: US 2 - love my new KnitPicks dpns!
Notes: Great fun pattern. No issues, no changes
Best Thing About This Project: The perfect gift for one of the readers in our wedding.