My friend Katie gave me some Reynolds Cabana in a soft green. I don't typically knit with chunky yarn but this felt nice and went pretty quickly. I think inheriting a lot of yarn from Katie (who also taught me to knit) was fabulous because I tried new colors. I followed an online raglan calculator to figure out how many stitches to cast on and just made it up from there. It has a simple seed stitch collar which I kept for the cuffs. It is shorter than my other sweaters but it's a summer knit.

Thanks to Katie who gave me the yarn!

I still need to pick up the hex coat. But, let me tell you what happened. I wasn't feeling well today and ended up sitting on my bed with a stack of inherited Interweave Knits (and some purchased at Elly's) from 2004 to recently and came across the Waterlily Top knit in Colinette Giotto (Spring 2006). Well, I have a lot in Sunrise color (soft and shimmery pink) so I am leaning towards this project. Although, I don't wear tank tops, so I may add sleeves to the piece. And, the color may match my skin tone too much (that might be interesting).

Happy Easter!

The linen stitch baby blanket is done. It is 25" by 25" and is super soft. If you use linen stitch don't forget to go up several needles sizes. The stitch is very thick. The yarn is Fibre Company Babe which is super soft and is primarily Alpaca and then Merino wool. Now, all I need is the baby. I think the baby is due this Spring, so I just have to prepare the mailing.

On other news, I have been working on a top down cardigan in Reynolds Cabana. I will have pictures of that this weekend. It should be done shortly.

Netflix News: We still need to return Vicar of Dibley, Season 1. I love this show and I think it is fabulous. Dawn French is fabulous.

This is what we think the communist squirrels are doing in our backyard. Have I mentioned anything about the communist squirrels?

Well, short story. We have so many trees in our small backyard that there is a commune of squirrels that live in our yard. There's the super fat one (the size of cat) called Slim, there's the one without the tail called Stubby, there's the one who likes to look in our windows called Peeper, and the remaining twenty are called Oscar. My grandfather had a habit of calling every squirrel Oscar. When we moved in we saw a dozen of them from the back window twitching tails and communicating how they were going to steal the bird seed we left out.

Of course, this has nothing to do with St. Patrick's Day until I found the photo. Our squirrels have been MIA today, probably down at the pub, sipping Guinness.

Obviously, stress translates into retail therapy and startitis. Granted my hex coat is floating somewhere in lala land, a baby blanket is almost done, I started a pair of socks a week ago, and last night cast on for a completely different pair.

Oh-so my retail therapy included purchasing two skeins of Claudia Handpainted in Just Plum.

This was a temptation purchase. I have never knit with Claudia and I am enjoying the yarn. I think that I will be purchasing more in some brighter colors (Limeade, Sherbet, Jungle, to name a few).

This is where I am now.

Don't think I am a super fast knitter, today I had a day off. I zoned out to a Clean House marathon (I love Niecy Nash) and then spent an hour at sbux with a Grande Caramel Macchiato (damn I love that drink!).

Back to knitting and Shaun of the Dead (I love Simon Pegg), then onto Project Runway!

I have maybe knit a few rows in a week primarily because I am adjusting to a new schedule with a new part time job while I am working on finishing my internship this semester (two months to go!).

Somewhere in February, I finished the Socks That Rock in Hot Flash medium weight. These socks will be mailed to MIL in the UK for Mother's Day (which is in March).


Sometime in February, I started Cherry Tree Hill socks in potluck color (blues and purples) which I believe I picked in the Outer Banks.

One project I have been working diligently on (since I needed an extended break from the hex coat) is the linen stitch baby blanket.

Linen stitch is gorgeous. On one side it looks woven and the other side looks like seed stitch. I am on the fourth band out of five and it moves pretty quick besides which the stitch is easy to memorize.

I have a midterm paper due in a few days and then I have a case presentation in a week, other than that the work is subsiding for my program. Simultaneously, the urge to purge and organize the knitting room is increasing. Agh-spring cleaning!