Instead of knitting the second sock of the pair I started a couple of weeks ago, I decided I really needed to knit socks to match my new rainbow sweater, or at least pretty close.
The yarn is Mamma Mia! from Leon Alexander yarns and I added a solid purple for accents. Since it’s all stockinette, it’s a fast knit so the second one should be done soon!
Is there such a thing as too many handknit socks? Asking for a friend!
Oh sure, I could have saved this for next Friday, but I was too excited to share: I finished my rainbow sweater!! This is the Apogean sweater in Manos del Uruguay Alegria in the color Locura Fluo.
I’m so happy with how it turned out! The fit is perfect, I love the v-neck, and I love the wild and crazy colors! This is probably my best effort at sweater-knitting; it’s nice when you can see your experience making a difference. I really liked this pattern too. It was simple and easy to follow, and even though at first I wasn’t sure about how the neckline was done, now I think it’s fantastic. I do wish she’d given more guidance about how many stitches to pick up around the neckline instead of just “pick up the stitches around the neck and knit” but I’m gonna say I nailed it. I could definitely see myself making another version of this pattern.
Now I have a sweater, a scarf, and a cowl in this colorway, and I’ve got socks on my needles in a yarn that’s very close. But I have two skeins of this yarn left — what should I do with it?? Maybe a hat! And fingerless gloves!
Oh yeah, I also have something else new to share:
This is Bella. She’s a Dodge Challenger in a color called Hellraisin that’s prettier and more sparkly in person. She’s also zippy and super fun to drive, and has all kinds of modern features my older car didn’t have. I think this is what’s called making lemonade out of lemons.
Happy Sunday, friends.
So you know by now that the renovation project at our house is done (hooray!) and the floors have been refinished (hooray!) and that’s two big stressful things that I can cross of my list of things causing me stress. Last weekend the husband and I took off for a three-day weekend at Eureka Springs, Arkansas, to celebrate our anniversary, and wow did I need the getaway. The physical change was enormous — I felt so much lighter and relaxed. It really cemented a couple of things for me. One, that he and I need to get away more often, even if it’s just date nights most of the time with an overnight every so often.
And two, which is the bigger thing in my mind, is that I need to not be in charge of so much. We a big renovation project at our house, the floor project, getting our rental property ready to sell — and I was basically acting as the project manager for all of them, plus working. I’ll be the first to admit that this is mostly my fault. I tend to take control of things, to be in charge. That’s how it’s been for most of our married life, especially with two younger kids and when I wasn’t working. But now he and I are both working full time, we both have elements of our jobs that stress us out, and our kids are both adults now. I’m ready to let go, ready to let the husband step up, ready to let the boy step up. It’ll be a process, for sure, but even just talking to the husband about it was a big relief.
So, all good things, right? We stayed in a bed and breakfast where we could see deer right outside our room, plus white squirrels and hybrid gray and white squirrels. We did some shopping, ate some great food and some just okay food, took a hike around a lake, and just enjoyed each other’s company. It was a good way to celebrate 24 years married.
Coming home wasn’t too bad at first. I got back into the work routine, finished unpacking all the stuff from the floor project, had some good knitting time. I wasn’t as relaxed as during the trip but still wasn’t as stressed as before the trip. Then on Friday, this happened:
Yeah, that’s my car there, the Charger, my beloved Edward. He was parked on the street, minding his own business, when some idiot came blazing around the corner and plowed into him, then took off. I heard it but he was long gone by the time I made it outside. The impact pushed Edward into my husband’s car, which was parked on the street so the gutter guys could do their job. Thankfully, his car isn’t too badly damaged, since it’s only two years old. But Edward is crunched front and back, and he had to be towed to the body shop. I filed a police report but don’t expect any results from it, and I asked the neighbors if anyone had video footage, and no luck there. Basically, we’re screwed and our insurance will have to cover it, and we’ll pay the deductibles to get both cars repaired. ARGH. And given that Edward is almost ten years old, there is a good chance he will be totaled. Up side: yay, fun new car! Down side: I was hoping to wait until at least next spring to replace him, when it will be a little easier to fit a car payment into the budget. We are very lucky that it is manageable, and we’ll be fine; it’s just not what I had in mind. But that’s what they say, right? Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans, or something like that.
I’ve had a couple of days to process it and I’m still annoyed but have come to terms with it, at least logistically. If he is totaled, I’m likely to have an emotional response, since I bought this car right around the time my dad died and I quit my job and my life was changing so much. I bought Edward by myself, negotiated and everything, and he was kind of a symbol of me choosing a different path for my life. Anyway. Still just a car and I’m grateful no one was hurt and that we have the means to replace him if needed.
I really hope your week has been less eventful than mine! Happy Sunday, friends.
The upside to blogging so rarely is that by the time I have the motivation, I have plenty of things to share! I have so many finished things today, which is a relief after months of works in progress. Let’s start with the house: I’m calling it finished, even though we’re still waiting for the new gutter to be installed on the back of the house. It’s supposed to happen today and that’s close enough.
We got the downstairs floors and stairs refinished last week and they’re so gorgeous, better than I ever expected. I even bought new curtains for the music room to jazz up the “boring” gray walls, and new curtains and an area rug for the living room. This is the probably the fanciest we’ve ever been — I feel like we finally have a nice, grown-up house!
Yes, as many people have asked, it does make us think differently about the house. We’ve been saying for ages that we want to sell it and move on ASAP, but now that its potential is finally being realized, we’re starting to ponder. The house still has some issues we want to fix — upstairs bathroom renovation is a big one — and it has some issues we can’t easily/affordably fix — the downstairs bathroom is uncomfortably tiny, the street we’re on is noisy, the husband can’t build a workshop as big as he’d like. So we’re trying to figure things out. I’d like to figure it out soon, but I’m also a little more content staying here while we work on it.
I also have some finished knitting to share! My knitting time has slowly been coming back, thank goodness, though I’m still mostly focused on simple things like socks.
The completed pair used a skein of speckled purple from Mothy & the Squid and I LOVE her yarn. Wish she wasn’t overseas! The shawl is my Peacock’s Tail, a fun one-skein project that might have used a yarn from Blissful Knits. (Keeping track of yarns used is not a high priority at the moment, sorry.) The single sock was started last weekend as the husband and I took off for an anniversary weekend getaway (more on that another day). I got all but the toe done while we were gone, then it took me three more days to get around to the toe! I pulled a languishing skein of sock yarn from Colorful Eclectic Dyeworks from the stash for that one.
I’d really like to get back to my rainbow sweater project so that I have a new sweater to wear when fall arrives. Surely it won’t take too long to knit sleeves, right?
Happy Friday, friends!
bonnyknits 