Self Portrait (24/52)

This week my "Forever" bracelet - the geekiest, fangirliest thing I've bought - arrived in the mail. In case you're not a huge Christy Miller freak like me, it's a bracelet from a book. A boy gives her a bracelet similar to this, and you can buy this in the Robin Jones Gunn's online shop (she's the author). I ordered it when I preordered the newest Christy book and have been wearing it as much as I can since it arrived on Wednesday. We can't wear bracelets at work, but I have little sister put it on my practically every day after I get off. I love it.

Today I wore one of my favorite skirts. I mean, I only have two skirts to begin with, but I love this one. It's long, flowy, and colorful. It's epic. The only "downside" is that my super long hair + this skirt make me look super earthy, which I guess I kind of am with my knitting??

- rl

 (p.s. this is part of my 14 goals for 2014. You can view all my goals here.)

Commitment

165/365

Tonight I witnessed little sister, as well as ten or so other young teens, commit themselves to the Lord - heart, mind, and body. Love you, Bri.

- rl

 (p.s. this is part of my 14 goals for 2014. You can view all my goals here.)

Project 17/52: You Cowlin' Me Crazy?!

(photo by little sister) 

(photos by little sister) 

I am so in love with this project. It was the perfect, quick project to do after that large blanket. I finished it in three days, and tried it on immediately after casting off and weaving in the ends.

I really love the simplicity of the pattern. I read where a lot of knitters talk about how much they hate stockinette stitch, but I couldn't disagree more! I was able to get lots of reading done while knitting this up in the evenings. I'd never buy a cowl myself, but I love that I have a handknit one. I definitely plan on making more, in different weights and colors. I love the curl that this one has. It makes it feel like something I can wad up in my purse and it makes it easy to slip over my head. I just know that's really going to come in handy in the walks between classes when I get to school. In one of the pictures that I'm modeling the cowl you can see that I gave it a little twist before slipping it over my head. It's a tad looser than necessary, but that's probably because I cast on 65 stitches instead of 60 because I thought my head was bigger. Nope.

I really love the yarn. I mentioned it here. I knew I wanted to do a pattern with mostly stockinette because I wasn't sure how the "barber pole" effect would look on anything else. I love it, though. I would definitely buy more and knit 100 of these if the yarn wasn't way out of my (nonexistent) yarn budget. Sigh. I'm so glad I bought it, though. Nearly everyone I've showed it to has commented on the color, which is why I chose this particular color, so I'm glad my gut instinct turned out alright!

Now I'm onto slightly more complicated projects, but nothing as dull as that baby blanket...

- rl

 (p.s. this is part of my 14 goals for 2014. You can view all my goals here.)

Project 16/52: Diagonal Comfort Blanket

I finally finished this blanket!!!! Can you believe it?? I cast on May 4, and didn't cast off until June 10. The second half of the blanket went much faster than the first half, mainly because I was SO READY to move on. I believe the blanket is about 31"x31". A pretty good size!

Don't get me wrong - I like the pattern. It's very simple. It's cute. I would love to try it with a thicker yarn so I don't have to deal with two skeins. I definitely will use the pattern again, but just not for fun. It definitely needs to be blocked, but it won't be used for a long while, so I'm not worried about that any time soon. It will take someone very special to me to be pregnant with a boy for me to part with this blanket.

The yarn was fine. I did get insanely close to having to start another skein, but I knit tightly the last ten or so rows and used every bit of yarn (even cutting and adding the yarn from the cast on!) to make it work. When I knit it again I'll do better math about the yardage, and possibly only go to 159 rows instead of 160...

And, of course, thank you to little sister for changing out of comfy clothes to take these pictures tonight.

- rl

 (p.s. this is part of my 14 goals for 2014. You can view all my goals here.)

WIP Wednesday

THREE CHEERS FOR NEW PROJECTS!! This is seriously awesome. I'm actually about to cast on for a second knitting project that will put the blue cowl on hold, but only because I've got to finish two pairs of baby booties and two baby hats by Friday. Oi. I should be able to do it, though.

This is the first time something besides knitting has made it into a post! That's because I'm finally doing something besides knitting! I'm doing some cross stitching only when little sister & I watch White Collar. No knitting, only cross stitching. I like that style. It will be fun to see how much progress I'm able to make this next week! I'm really loving it so far. I had done a word or two too far over by just one square, so I had to undo it, but I'm so glad I did. You were right, mom.

- rl