Dear Judgey Seattle Parents,

Please eff off. Seriously. The last thing I need when I take my kid to the playground is commentary on my wardrobe. My choice to wear a t-shirt with a zombie on it ( and a cardigan over it!) is not tantamount to wearing daisy dukes while smoking virginia slims and talking about how baby daddy just got back from prison. You probably wouldn't have even noticed it if I hadn't been fanning myself with one side of the cardigan. Take your crocs-with-socks wearing, North Face fleece clad, poorly chosen plaid Bermuda shorts and shove it. Hard. Just because I'm young and choose to wear Converse rather than sensibly ugly shoes does not mean I love my child any less than you do yours. Remember what Mom said about keeping your mouth shut unless you have something nice to say? Yeah, it still applies as an adult.

Sincerely,

Tired of Judgey Hippy Seattle Parents

Cece

I finished my mom's birthday sweater last week buuuut it's still sitting out waiting to be put in the mailbox. She's in Havasu basking in the desert warmth anyway so she'll have a nice surprise waiting for her when she gets home. The sweater is actually a lighter green but my camera really hates photographing green so this is as good as it gets.

Pattern: Cece from ChicKnits
Yarn: Vickie Howell Craft by SWTC in Cathie & Steve color
Needles: US #6 Harmony interchangeable
Mods: I lengthened the body by about 2 inches.

This & That

I realize I've been pretty quiet lately. Maybe that's because now that I'm done organizing our move I've been organizing a crap-ton of other stuff like Knit Night at the Rat City Rollergirls with some of my awesome knitting group. Yeah! I had soooo much fun and got a little over zealous reenacting jams with Stariel who was injured in my..um..excitement. Next up is my housewarming a la People's Pub which is in my new hood and a visit from my BFF at the end of the month. Now that Old Moldy is out of my life I've been doing quite a bit more knitting including my Mom's birthday sweater (Mom, pretend you didn't see this!). When I asked her what she wanted she sent me a picture of a big, woolly, cabley, collared sweater but with added text for something "summery". Ignoring the picture I immediately went to some organic cotton/milk fiber yarn that I've been wanting to try and hit up the ChicKnits patterns we have at the store. I should finish tonight with plenty of time for blocking, drying, and mailing before birthday time.

Louise Cardigan

I recently finished the Louise Cardigan from Vintage Baby Knits for a sometimes Purlygirl who is due...today! Wow! That went by quickly! It's a sweet little sweater and it was fun to knit.

Pattern: Louise Cardigan from Vintage Baby Knits
Yarn: Color Baby (Australian Merino is so soft!)
Needles: #3 Addi Turbo
Mods: None!
This sweater is knit bottom up and in the round. I had no problems except for trying to start the sleeves on my bamboo needles which totally hated the slip stitch pattern. I recommend something pointy and sharp like Addi Turbos for maneuvering those tiny little stitches.

Kira

Kira is done! I have a small adjustment to make with the button placement to keep it closed a bit more snug but I'm really happy with the finished sweater. I ran into a couple of problems - mainly that I ran out of yarn just short of finishing the dang thing but luckily we had the same dyelot at the shop. I found my ceramic buttons from Stitches and they're a perfect match. This sweater feels so light I think it will become my late Spring/Summer wardrobe staple. I can't say enough good things about the yarn either. In all 7+ balls of yarn I only found ONE knot. Excellent!

Pattern: Kira by Cecily Glowik MacDonald
Yarn: St Denis Nordique by Classic Elite Color #5820
Needles: US #6 Harmony & Addi Turbo
Mods: None!

I do suggest knitting this with a bit of positive ease (mine has about 1.5 inches) so that it can be worn with a lot of different things. Happy knitting!

The Cat Returns

Not the animated movie. Moving has been good but crazy. The actual moving day went very smoothly and we slept at the new place that same night. Since then we've made good headway into unpacking, organizing, and setting up the new household. The Little One barely skipped a beat with her sleep schedule and likes the new place. I think that it's because we have an open floor plan and she's not denied access to the kitchen. We had a small disaster when my feline stepdaughter ran away for a few days but she's now safe at home again and acting as if nothing happened. The new place is good and the old place is, well, saaad. Sad in a bad way. I spent six hours there today cleaning. Six! With all of the furniture moved out the mold and mildew in the bedroom is really really noticeable and it takes a long time to get things cleaned up. I'm happy to report that both bedrooms are completely and thoroughly scrubbed, the living room window (Miss Kitty's hang out) cleaned and sparkling, and all but two kitchen cabinets freshly cleaned and sanitized. I don't mess around with the move-out stuff. If they're going to try to withhold deposit money it won't be for the lack of cleanliness in that moldy little house.

Tired

Moving is in full swing and I am so tired! As of yesterday I am up to five carloads moved by myself. In total we have eight loads moved. The house looks sparse since there's almost nothing on the walls and most of the shelves are empty. The Man has the next two Mondays off of work for moving time so the plan is to stay at the new place on Monday night. I'm looking forward to living in Ballard but the move has me sore and smelling like wintergreen (icy hot for backaches). In what little free time I have I've been working on some knitting. Kira is almost up to the armpits and then I have to knit the sleeves. I really really like working with Nordique and the yardage is really good. This sweater only calls for seven skeins for my size.
We got a booklet in at the shop last week from Manos del Uruguay called Adirondack Accessories. The cover is of some lovely twisted cable mitts knit in a silky merino blend. I snatched up the book and pulled out my leftover partial skein of Sundara Aran Silky Merino. I knit this first mitt in just two days and it's loverly although it does turn my fingers red. There are a lot of great accessories in the book and they all look like fun to knit. I'm not given to wearing legwarmers but I just might knit the two pair in the book since they're sooo pretty. There's even a hat by Cecily (designer of my sweater, Kira) that is really cute. I'll just work my way through that bad boy and have hats and mitts and legwarmers ready for next Fall.