Yarn in the Landscape

I was at Knitting in La Jolla earlier this week and picked up some beautiful fall yarn. It fits right in with the succulents adorning my courtyard.



This Cascade 220 Heather in color 9459 pictured at left is being turned into the February Baby Sweater I spoke of earlier. It's very soft, and I love the muted olive-y green. I've finally gotten a handle on the gull pattern and the sweater is coming along; I hope to have the body done in the next day or so and the sleeves shortly after that, and then I'll have to find some earthy buttons.

The best part is I'm knitting in the evenings while watching the Knitter's Workshop DVD I ordered. Even though I thought I'd skip straight to the more advanced parts, I've been watching the early episodes and learning plenty For example, I skipped EZ's way of starting a long-tail cast-on (with no slip knot - this might be it here) when looking at the book, but I happened to catch it on the video and was fascinated! What a great trick.

I also love how EZ describes herself as a slow knitter, and how absent-minded and awkward she can be. It's very endearing, and the homespun video makes you feel like she's there with you, having a conversation about knitting.


This Red Rocks Fiber Works superwash merino in a colorway aptly named Fall Back.

Which reminds me...if you're in the US, this is the weekend. What will you do with your extra hour?

Guilt is a Powerful Motivator

Some time ago, a friend gave us her children's old playhouse because her house was about to be remodeled and it was in the way. John went down and disassembled it, hauled it up here, planted the pieces in our side yard and we all went about our business, ignoring Mary's little comments: "I wonder when my playhouse will be finished....I wonder if I'll be able to play in it someday....I wonder if I'll be grown up, out of college, and working on an MBA when it's done...."

Okay, maybe it didn't go that far, but at this point my friend's remodel is done and the playhouse is still in pieces.

Since Snoop's arrival the playhouse has started to bug me.



Snoop goes potty on a little plot of grass that, if you stand there with him, makes it darn near impossible not to notice something like a disassembled playhouse.

So here we are this weekend, the weather's nice, there are myriad heinous tasks pressing in (laundry, taxes, work) but we've gotta get that playhouse built while Mary can still fit through the door. We're hoping to put the roof on tonight and maybe I'll be able to start painting next week.

Which leads me to other guilt sources: the taxes!! are probably the hugest thing hanging over my head and making me crazy, but there's also some KAG (knitting-associated guilt):




This is the cabled shawl with pockets from Knitpicks, more than half done and going nowhere.



This is half a shedir, strewn amidst the left over balls from other projects.




This is the shawl I needed the extra ball of Kersti for, which I thought would be done by now.

And then there are those as-yet-unstarted mittens to go with the little cabled hats.

To top it all off, we, and by this I mean probably most of you reading this, too - all woke up minus an hour this morning. Stupid spring forward.