Life Changes

So I promised a post about life changes, because I've had a lot of those recently. Most obvious is the move from my parent's house to my(our) own apartment. That has been amazing and wonderful.

The most important life change was actually that in July I quit my job. It just wasn't working out for me; I was pretty miserable. I spent part of July, August, and September unemployed, and thinking really hard about options and also relaxing. To jump to the end of the story, I am currently employed two days a week as a nanny to year-old twins who are wonderful. I love working as a nanny. I do need to figure out another part-time job, but for the first time in two years, I don't dread my morning commute, so this feels like the right thing for me at the moment.

I took a road trip to New Mexico with my sister, which was wonderful. We took two and a half days to drive to New Mexico together, including stops in Badlands National Park, Custer State Park, and Wind Cave National Park - which I'd never heard of before. In the photo below, we were pulled over to view the land, and she was checking the grille for the bird we thought we might have hit. There was no bird in the grille of trusty Elvira (my Subaru), so all was well!

Our final destination was Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, where my sister and I joined my parents on their camping trip. We took several hikes, but also took in some hot springs, and the Tesuque Flea Market (also known as the Santa Fe Flea Market). It was a great almost-family vacation (we were shy my brother, who was working.) On my last full day, we had an amazing storm system roll through, and you can see some of the drama of the lighting in the photo below. We watched the storm roll in over the mesas, and thought it would miss us, but that night, it just poured and poured. The storm was right over us, with thunder and lightening and wind. It was super cozy in my tent, listening to the rain pound down. It was a great end to the trip!

Of course, I still had the drive home, which I actually did solo. I love solo road trips almost as much as I love road trips with a buddy or two. I took a circuitous route home, hitting the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, and Wind Cave National Park and Custer State Park in South Dakota. I opted not to visit Badlands a second time because it was late at night, the campground was full, and I needed to press onward. But I did visit Pipestone National Monument in Minnesota, and drive back to the cities via back roads. 

The trip was exactly what I needed. I got to spend time with my family, but also by myself. Plus, visiting the Ranch was really important to me. I've been going there since I was a babe-in-arms, and have missed it as I've moved away from family vacations. This trip reminded me that I am certainly capable of heading out there myself! (Oh, and for all of you who are wondering about this, yes, I did bring my knitting, and yes, I did knit - with mohair! - in New Mexico in July).

(look for a part 2 on this coming up soon!)

After Photos

As promised: after pictures! I realized once I had uploaded these that it really would have been a good idea to look at what photos I had included last time and try to mimic them. I think just use your imaginations and you'll be fine!

My room, now purple, with Moxie on the bed.

Dining room, with art, and the avocado green table I made Britt move from UT to MN.

This is the heater that heats the whole apartment. We call it the fire breathing dragon.

View into the dining room. My desk to the right.

Britt's room, now blue, viewed from the shared closet.

view down the hall into the kitchen.

kitchen!

Kitchen, plus the new tea cabinet between the window and the door.

Bathroom, now blue and white (with purple trim on the door). 

Before Photos

Well it's been a while! I've not got really good excuses, except that I moved to a new apartment with Britt and we had a fair amount of cleaning and painting to do. We have finished (finally!) and are loving our new place. We're just outside downtown, and are having fun exploring the area. We have good freeway access, and easy access to other fun parts of the city. We do miss having grocery stores nearby (our last apartment, it was 4 blocks to the nearest grocery), although I should admit that Whole Paycheck is within a half mile. It's just not really useful for us!

Plus as I mentioned in my last post, months and months ago, I was working on some awesome life changes, which I will totally dedicate another post to, along with an "after" photos shoot of out apartment, since it now looks friendly and welcoming and like us.

Here's our before pictures:

Entry way, view straight through to the kitchen

My room - the first thing to go was the blanket/curtain.

Dining room view through to kitchen

Our friendly black wall - we think to cover graffiti?

Kitchen sink, with our water heater to the left

GAS STOVE. And a pot rack made of a footboard.

Bathroom painted in U of Minn colors, including the ceiling

Kitchen entry, with Britt's door open

Britt's room. Black with white trim, it was actually the best looking room.

Summer break?

On accident, maybe.

It is hard to knit anything, but especially wool, when it is in the 90's with 80% or more humidity. So knitting takes a back-burner in the summer. I garden. I road-trip. I camp. I bike. I run 5ks (omg, who even am I?)

Sometimes, though, it's August 4, and it never gets much above 76. Those days, it's a great day to pull out your knitting and pick up an old WIP - or maybe start a new one.

Granmom, knitting the afternoon away.

This is my granmom. (Yes, I know I missed the "d". That's how I know I'm talking about my mom's mom, not my dad's mom). She's a knitter from way back - she knit all the family Christmas stockings. She doesn't knit those anymore. I think that job has so far fallen to my cousin, but may come 'round my way soon. Granmom just bought that spindle-toy for color work, and is working on a pretty sweet shawl from StevenBee, a local yarn store. 

Trying to figure out where the missing place marker goes. Fittingly, I did the figuring on top of the puzzle.

One of the cool things about knitting with Granmom is the exchange of information. These days, it tends to flow from me to her, but I certainly have learned lots from her! Probably the most common thing I do for her is decipher patterns - turn the knitting language into plain English, and then teach her the newest stitch, or increase. In fact, I just finished "translating" a pattern for her, so that she can have every single row written out, double-spaced, in a bigger font. 

Rechecking the pattern. The page is too small!

Knitting is kind of a community thing in my house. When I started taking photo's today, she'd stepped into the kitchen to make tea (remember, mid 70s in August), but Britt was knitting with us too. She's working on a hat, using a viscose and linen yarn. It's working up lovely, but complaints about needle size - too tiny! - are flying fast and furious. 

The hat, abandoned for tea making. 

And, of course, we are currently a household of 5 cats. All of whom want to be in the room with us as we work. Very helpful, I can assure you!

A fuzzy photo of Monster, the youngest. I've just pulled my yarn out of her mouth and she is NOT happy about it. 

I have some pretty cool life changes that have happened/are happening/will happen, but I'll save those for another post, so I actually have incentive to post again this month!

The 'truth' comes out

Sometimes I think "I should grab my knitting." But this is happening:

so I don't. In this case, "this" is my notoriously uncuddle-y cat cuddle-ing.

Now you know who to blame when I don't have FOs. Its ok, Olive! I love you anyway! Or blog posts. For over a month.

Or actually, instead of blaming my cat, you could blame the crazy that has been my life. My BFFL moved here May 10 (by here I am referring to "my house," otherwise known as the place where I live) and due to work conflicts/crazy, I did not actually spend any appreciable time with her until May 28.

Britt, knitting. IN MY KITCHEN!

So as you might imagine, I haven't spent super a lot of time knitting. I am still working on the Liesl Cowl, not too much farther from where I was when last I wrote. I am still in love with everything about that pattern and that yarn. I have also started a new project (oops!) from Churchmouse, which I will write about another time.

But yes. Life. It is crazy. My parents have just finished hiking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, which sounds like it's been amazing and wonderful and I can't wait to hear all about it. Two cousins and an uncle have come to visit, and that's been wonderful - I love family! My sister just got back from a long trip to LA (check out her blog here). I am starting a few personal projects to work on improving my quality of life; one of those projects is already helping a lot, and I'm sure I'll talk about it at some-point, but at the moment all I can say about is that making that decision has been almost as amazing for me as enacting the decision will be.

Liesl Cowl Part Two

So it's been a while. This blogging thing is hard. Life is very full, which is most definitely not terrible, but does mean I knit less, and have even less time to blog than I have to knit. That said: Oh man. I am in love with everything about the Liesl Cowl. ALL THE THINGS!

One pattern repeat in - can you see my provisional cast on?

But really. The yarn. The color. The pattern. The needles. Getting to use my ball winder and yarn swift.

I have started the 4th ball of yarn, and theoretically, I should hit the designated length when I finish this ball (if only I were paying anything even resembling attention to gauge). I do have a 5th ball in case, and also because I like long scarves. Also because I don't think I'll be tired of this pattern repeat by the time I finish the fourth ball. This might be my favorite pattern ever. I mean, I already knew I loved me some cables, but these cable braids just win. It's a simple pattern that works up quickly, but looks absolutely amazing.

The cowl stretched out on my work table (it's kinda a mess)

And since it snowed last night, and is supposed to snow tonight, maybe April isn't too late in the year to be knitting an all wool scarf? (maybe. Wool is pretty heavy even for Minnesota in April). 

But seriously. Get a load of those cables. Don't they look cozy? And lush? They are, by the way. They feel soft and have some give and I really can't wait until this is finished and I can wear it! 

Quince & co., I hereby vote your yarn and this pattern a win.

Bird Cage Mittens

So I am halfway done with the knitting on my birdcage mittens, meaning I have one mitten complete. I set my knitting down for about two weeks in the middle of it, and you can definitely tell right where I picked it back up again because the gauge changes so drastically. Also, my bind-off on the top is ugly. And the thumb. I do not like the way the thumb worked up. BUT! It turned out, and I'm pretty pleased with it for that reason alone - you can tell what the image is. That counts as a win in my book. Even if my technique does need some help.

In progress - you can see the bottom of the cage. 

I think the other reason for dissatisfaction is this: the sense that if my gauge hadn't gotten looser, I wouldn't be able to wear the mitten at all. I went down two needle sizes, and maybe only needed to go down one. But to be honest, it was more about which needles in my collection were available than the swatching I didn't do, and I had 3s and 4s, not 4s and 5s. So we'll see how the second one goes - I really like the look and feel of the tighter first half of work on the mitten. I've definitely got enough yarn to frog the first and knit a new left hand mitten with the leftovers from the skein if I need to. I think the skeins would almost make two sets of mittens, if I was careful with it.

A peek at the inside of the mitten. Eventually the floats will mat down on
each other to form a second layer of yarn to keep my hands extra warm. 

 These photos were taken probably a day before I set the project down for a few weeks, so the mittens look neat and tight up to about this point, and then they get a little raggedy. Okay, not even really raggedy. Just less tight. And I suppose that knitting looser meant that I stopped pulling my stitches too tight at the "corners" where my dpns met. Blocking should fix some of that, but blocking is not a cure for crappy knitting technique, even if it might hide some of my lesser failings!

Corrugated rib. I love it. 

I think I want to knit corrugated rib forever and ever. I love it. The way it looks, the way it knit up, the way it feels, the tautness of the fabric. I love me some lace, but this was an amazing thing to work up. Plus I love the sturdy-ness of it. Some mother somewhere created this stitch in the hope that it would keep up with her adventurous, curious children. Or maybe to put a cuff on a sleeve for a sweater with loose sleeves she'd created for herself. It seems so utilitarian and useful, but it's also really pretty. Form and function, hand in hand!