Good-Fucking-Bye

In a few hours, 20-I-HATE-teen will be a mere memory. Lost forever to time.

THANK ALL THE BLESSED BLOODY STARS

So, let's pour the champagne, put on the comfy pants, and take a quick look back at all the projects I managed to finish over the last 12 months.

First, my octopus hat.

My first blanket.

The first Rios Lace Tam.

Quite a few dice bags.

Cute little soft friends.

 

Soft friends wearing soft things.

The second lace tam.

A few odds and ends.

And most importantly, a few shawls.

The fact that I got so much done despite the absolute bloody disaster this year stands as a giant, defiant middle-finger to it.

So, goodbye, so long, and fuck you, 2018.

2019, you better be better. I'm fucking watching you.

Alright, friends. We made it. Let's kick ass next year.

Love you all. <3

Outtakes and Extras

*Note: This was scheduled to be posted yesterday, but Blogger borked it up

What?! ANOTHER POST?! THE DAY AFTER ONE?!

MADNESS!

Really though, I just had a little bit of extras and funny moments from around here that I wanted to share in a quick little list post.

1. When we were taking pictures of Squish Squash yesterday, I was in a super bad mood. I was tired, frustrated, and sweating to death. I nearly gave up on even trying to take pics because of it all.

John also had a REALLY BAD HABIT of STANDING IN THE DAMN WAY when I was trying to take pictures myself.

2. I forgot to bring a hair tie with me on our picture taking journey, so I had to improvise. Turns out that a shawl stick is REALLY GOOD at keeping hair up.

3. My goodies from the latest Destination Yarn/Erin Lane Bag collab came in.

The yarn is called Adler(!) Planetarium and I'm so in love.

I may or may not be planning on buying three more skeins when I can to do a circular shawl with...

4. My friggin cactus bloomed AGAIN!

Lily has declared that it's name is now Orlando... Orlando Bloom.

I know, I know. I'm pissed, too.

Pissed that I didn't come up with that myself.

5. We celebrated Bethany's birthday Friday night with a ridiculously fun D&D session. And I, because I'm me, decided THREE HOURS before she was supposed to be here that I was going to make her a plushy of her dragon companion.

Yep. Done and done. No time for proper pictures, though, unfortunately. I *was* cutting it a little close.

6. The sky was VERY pretty Thursday evening after that giant storm.

Al took that last one.

7. We made a friend when we were taking pictures of my shawl. 

8. Yes, I realize that I should have put that further up, but I'm not about to renumber all of these.

9. I woke up with some strange facial hair yesterday morning.

10. Someone was SUPER not happy about another kitty getting pets.

11. This makeup look makes me RIDICULOUSLY happy.

12. And we'll tack on a little something here at the end just for John.

Can I Get a Thicc-ness?

Last year's Great Trail was marked by John and I shivering our arses off, huddling together under a dozen blankets, trying to pool what little body we had between us. As I sat there, contemplating offing a buffalo and crawling inside its carcass (hey, it worked for Mr. Skywalker), I vowed that this year, I WOULD NOT BE COLD.

No, we're not going to discuss the fact that it is currently 85°F out and will only be steadily rising for the rest of the weekend, okay? Just... just... just look at the damn shawl!

Meet Squish Squash, my third completely original shawl pattern. And the second one that was designed, knit, and finished in less than a week.

I had 400 yards of a bulky weight cotton/wool mix that I wanted to use for this shawl. The plan was to use as much of it as possible without running out because there wasn't really a way to get any more. And, well.... I ran out.

So I had to improvise a solution. I grabbed two random balls of browinsh-grey worsted weight from the scrap basket as well as a ball of Eco Duo that I've had for years, held them together and prayed to Henry that it would work.

Happy to report that it worked beautifully. And I absolutely love it now. Wasn't too keen on it at first, but after seeing the finished thing, I adore it.

It also came out to be the perfect size. Just enough to wrap around without any bits dangling down into "catch on fire" territory.

I also really enjoyed doing the cables on this one. And I may actually be craving doing some more???

Who the hell even am I?!

Someone who's goddamn warm as feck right now, that's who.