Hi friends!!

Just wanted to say a quick hello! I will hopefully be back this weekend for a regular knitting post :)



Thanks for reading xx

Germinate WIP

Hi friends!

I'm sorry for missing last weekend's post. It was Valentine's Day (Happy Valentine's Day!!) and the weekend passed way too quickly! Scott and I went out to a movie, the first one in a long time, so that was kind of special. We saw Kingsman and it was highly entertaining. I recommend it if you like spy movies, Colin Firth, and a little cheese :) We also had frozen yogurt ♥ and made dinner.

Scott's gift to me was a gift certificate to a day spa and salon! He thought I might like to try a gel manicure, because I've mentioned it before. Well, I had them done this week, and I absolutely love them!! My biggest problems with nail polish are that it takes forever to dry, it chips much too easily, and it only looks good for a few days. That's too much effort for me! The gel manicure took about one hour from start to finish, and that included cleaning up my cuticles and shaping my nails...which took some time because I don't do much for my hands beside moisturize. My nails were instantly dry thanks to light curing, and they're so shiny!! (seriously, I still can't get over how shiny they are!) It's been three days since the mani and they still look perfect. This is going to be a bad obsession :)

Ok, knitting. I cast on a new shawl:

The pattern is Germinate by Kristen Kapur. It was originally a mystery KAL in 2013 and I fell in love as more Germinates popped up in my Instagram feed. I love the lace and stripes, and the zillions of possible color combos. My sweet friend Denica gifted me the pattern and it's taken me a long to decide on my color scheme. I really wanted to use stash yarn, but most of my fingering weight is heavily variegated or self-striping. In the end I only purchased one skein (orange) and used two from stash :) Green and purple are both Knit Picks Stroll Tonals and orange is Ella Rae Lace Merino.

When I was at the LYS I saw some beautiful sport weight (Frog Tree Pediboo), which would have made the ultimate squooshy shawl, but it would have cost over $80 for all the yardage. I almost justified it because my birthday is coming up, but I think in the end, I would have felt crummy for breaking my self-imposed-not-strictly-enforced yarn diet. And you know what? I feel great with my colors and am really glad I didn't splurge on yarn :)


I also cast on a new pair of socks:

The yarn is Crazy Zauberball from my dear friend, Dag! I love this purple colorway! This is my third pair of socks on the needles.... I just needed a vanilla one to take on errands! And it's shown me that I really do knit a lot while on the go, because I'm already on the heel (and I knit a seven inch leg). I tried knitting and reading a "real" book...it was hard! No matter what I do, the book won't stay open. If you're interested, I'm reading The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. It is really kooky. Which is just up my alley :) The book jumps in time from current day, back to periods in the main character's life. It builds his character, but really, I think a lot of it should have been edited out. I think the present day storyline is funny enough to have held the book. We'll see how it evolves, I'm about halfway through.

If you've seen my Rav page for these socks, you'll see that I've named them All About that Space socks. That came from a really funny parody of Megan Trainor's song, All About that Bass.





hehe :)

That's about it from me. This kitten cracks me up:

He is so content laying in sun rays. But he totally zones out when he lays there!


I hope everybody has a fabulous weekend! Stay warm!!
Jesse

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays, my friends!! I hope you are all well.

What a busy month! I am very pleased to say that I managed to finish everything that I planned on making and baking. And I say these two things every year too: 1. I'm not going to make gifts anymore and 2. I'm going to start making them earlier. haha! The gifts were all well received and that made me feel very good. Makes all that knitting worth it! The two major items I knit:

Mom and Antarktis
Yarn: Knit Picks Hawthorne in Alameda (the pattern calls for just one skein, but since Hawthorne  has 357 yards per skein, I dipped into a second skein...but overall used 418 yards)

This pattern was gifted to me by the so sweet Andi. I really enjoyed knitting this shawl, and would love to knit myself one!  I really love the garter sections paired with lace. And after blocking, the shawl grew and has such a lovely drape!

Aunt Karla and Nurmilintu 
Yarn: Madelinetosh Merino Light in Black Velvet (used about 377 yards)

This is another shawl I would love to knit myself! The lace sections tripped me up at first. This also has garter + lace ...hmm, I see a theme! I really like this shawl!! very pretty



I have been very busy at work. My co-worker has been on vacation since last Monday, until this coming Tuesday, so I have been working full days to cover her. Today was the first day I was able to pleasure knit!! Dani of Little Bobbins blog and podcast started a Christmas Eve Socks KAL and I've been so eager to cast on!! I decided to use Cakewalk Yarns in Peppermint Bark to knit Madeline Gannon's Evergreen Socks. (The designer is also going to have an Evergreen Socks KAL on Instagram if you're interested!)

oh! I finished this little guy:

little cutie :) he went to live with a friend in Canada :)

I also finished the Sugarplum Fairies socks, but I'll post about them next time! My sock total for the year is 24 pairs! Pretty happy about that!


Are you curious about how Berny and Bruce have been doing?? ;) It seemed like after that horrible week of thinking Bruce had feline leukemia and then hearing the good news, everything would be ok. And it is, sort of. Bruce has since met Berny. They are still adjusting to one another, Berny more so than Bruce. When we first met Bruce, he was so quiet and timid, we thought he would get along with Berny perfectly. As he's grown, his personality has emerged and he's one wild kitten! Very extroverted, LOVES stimulation of all kinds, and is incredibly food motivated (he actually gained too much weight and the vet said he was fat!! oh the horror!! We've been feeding him by dispersing his food in a muffin tin and it slows him down. Has worked wonders!). Berny is basically the complete opposite. She's also gotten accustomed to sleeping all day...

I was able to take this picture one day:

If I don't have a chance to write again before 2015, Happy New Year!! Thank you all so very much for reading my blog, it means an incredible amount to me. May the new year bring you happiness, health, and many good times. 

Love,

Jesse