Category: sweaters

  • settling in and catching up

    Whew. I think things are finally sort of settling down a bit, although I have loads of stuff to do for the apartment still – setting up another shelf, general organization (especially the yarn! and my office), plus the usual daily/weekly stuff like dishes and laundry. I’m hoping to have a bit of time to myself in the next week or two to get things the way I want them, but we’ll see! This weekend I’m getting a new stove – hooray for a good landlord – so that’ll be a bit disruptive, but awesome!

    How about a few apartment photos?

    living room/dining area

    (looking from the bedroom through the living/dining room, office is at the back)

    rainbow books

    Books! Knitting books and cookbooks.

    I’ve been knitting up the cover sweater from the fall Interweave for a store sample, in purple Manos Naturals. Colour’s a bit off here, it’s a cooler purple.

    clasica jacket

    I’m also hard at work on editing and doing finally proofing so I can release some patterns!

    macro lace cardigan, back

    I know some people have been waiting very patiently for a few patterns, and I apologize for the delay – who knew that moving was such a time suck? (Everyone, I’m pretty sure). So I’ve decided to release 3 patterns together as a collection, the Macro Lace cardigan above, the Hibiscus shawl, and the Honeybee cardigan which will be available in two lengths (cropped and full length).

    Hibiscus shawl

    Honeybee cardigan

    The patterns will be available separately as usual, or all together for a discount. Or at least, as soon as I figure out how to do that on Ravelry! Now, I need some help – I need a name for this little collection! The name chosen will receive a free copy of all three patterns.

    Any ideas? Much obliged!

  • productivity at last!

    The button question was very, very close – as of right now it’s 19 for the gray, 24 for the tortoiseshell. Tough, tough, and I must say the gray button advocates were pretty persuasive. What shall I pick? Well, I still haven’t sewn them on yet so you’ll have to hold tight!

    Today I did 3 loads of laundry, my dad bought my mattress and sofa to be delivered next week, I ordered my internet to be hooked up next week as well, packed my stereo, most of my important desk stuff, books, camera equipment, spinning wheel and graphics tablet (a few other things along the way too). Packed up some stuff for shipping and printed my comprehensive list of Stuff I Need.

    I’m very tempted to keep packing – I’ve got dishes and stuff to pack up, and of course I could be going through my clothes deciding what to keep. But I think I’m rather done for the day. I’m going to go eat something yummy and block this latest design:

    new mini-cardigan

  • empty shelves

    empty shelf

    Not nearly enough empty shelves yet, but I’m working on it – I’ve packed up my sewing stuff (1 bin), spinning fibre (1 bin), my coffee grinder and air filter, and pretty much all the books that I’m taking with me (8ish small boxes). By the by, if you’re in Toronto and have access to a Food Basics, it’s a great place for moving boxes – and they’re bigger than at the LCBO!

    boxes

    I’ve measured my new place, although I’ve got a few discrepancies in my own work to figure out, and I’ve been playing with floor plans in Illustrator. I’m thinking that I might get fancy and use Google Sketchup to do some 3D modeling of the place to virtually move furniture around, but who am I kidding? I don’t have time for that!

    I’ve been spending non-working days shopping for furniture, mainly a sofa and a new mattress. I think I’ve found a sofa and it’s on super sale! Even with delivery and tax it’s under $500, and it’s leather. Sadly there isn’t much to be found other than Ikea that isn’t super expensive or covered in microsuede or whatever (I hate the texture).

    Mattress is being narrowed down too, although I think that among the various ones I’ve liked I won’t be able to tell too much difference once it’s bought and done. I wanted to upgrade to a queen size, but I think the space might be too tight – with a full/double size I can keep my own bedframe and sheets (although I want new sheets too!).

    I’m getting a free nice smaller, wood dining table and some chairs from home, and I’m hoping to do some kind of bench seating for the other side of the table. I wanted to ikea hack a banquette together but I’m not totally sure I have the requisite know-how! Then there’s the shelves…oh shelves. Do I go with the classic inexpensive yet oh-so-cheap looking and cheaply made Billy bookcases or not? I’d really prefer to go with something solid wood, something a little nicer…but they might have to do for now.

    With so many decisions to be made floating around, it’s no wonder that I can’t decide on buttons for my Honeybee! I don’t want to buy any new ones, so it’s come down to these:

    button, button

    The top one is a pearly gray shell button, but it’s a little big. I’m leaning towards the bottom one, which is faux tortiseshell (read: plastic). But I’m not married to a decision! Help me out – what do you all think?