Winterfresh Cardigan

In the spirit of knocking another thing off my list, I'm going to post about one of my favourite knitting projects. I started writing the post on February 16th, so I guess it's time that I actually finish it!

I am so excited that I finally finished a project for myself. I've made a couple before (out of the 100+ projects that I've made), but this is my first sweater for me (at least, that actually fits me).

I ordered the yarn a long, long time ago from ..... They were having a big going-out-of business sale and so I placed a big order. I think I ordered about 20+ skeins of yarn. Opening the box felt like Christmas. Anyway, part of my order was 4 skeins of Cascade Venezia, in the colour way Winterfresh. Blue in almost any shade is by far my favourite colour and I especially love aqua. So, with great intention I ordered the yarn. And it sat, and sat, and sat.

I finally cast on for the cardigan at the end of last summer. I wanted a project that was fairly simple, and this project has an almost unending amount of stockinette knitting. It's a really easy top down project, and once you get past the divide for the sleeves, you just keep on going with stockinette. The most challenging thing was keeping up my motivation to with the long, long rows of knitting or purling.

I also got sidelined at one point because my cable connecting the two ends of my circular knitting needle broke. I bought a new one a few weeks later, but it took me a while before I picked up the project again. I finished it off with a bright red button, since my favourite colour combination is aqua and red. I actually wore the cardigan with a red tank top this past weekend. I'm so happy that I actually finished the project because it's one of my favourite things in my wardrobe and I made it! Crazy!

My ravelry project page is here. The pattern is called Lady Kina, and it's a free pattern (in both English and French) that you can find here. There's also a pattern for a mini version of this that I'm sorely tempted to make for M.

Eat Your Frog!

Why does my kitchen look like this?

It's been so long since I've been posting regularly, so there are  a lot of things that I want to write about. I decided today to stick with one of the big things that I'm doing in my life right now. The cute kid pictures and knitting adventures will have to wait for another post.

(OK, just one...)

I haven't had very much free time at all over the last two to three weeks. Family emergencies, busyness with work (including some big projects coming due), a toddler who is reaching new milestones daily (like figuring out how to open doors...I'm not a huge fan), financial stress, general exhaustion...the list continues. Generally I can manage to balance everything, but with my daily goal of having a cup of tea and knitting (even for two minutes), I can tell that time and energy is in short supply when I haven't knit in more than a week.

Anyway, I was reading a funny blog a couple weeks ago and followed a couple links that were on the page. I eventually got to this website: http://52bites.com/. I'm in love! Tsh Oxenreider has essentially taken all the things that I want to focus on and created an e-book about tackling each thing in a manageable way. Her blog is www.simplemom.net and she describes the goal of her blog is to help her readers live more simply. How lovely is that? The idea is very attractive.

So. Back to the e-book. Tsh sells an e-book on her website called One Bite at a Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler. The cost is even simple...$5.00 US for an instant download of the book.

The book is written in 52 sections, one for each of the 'bites' that you can tackle. The sections are short and sweet. Some are more intuitive than others, some are more complicated. The book is divided into different themes: living green, living well, money management, organizing your mind, organizing your space, relationships, taking care of yourself, and time stewardship. Many of the 52 sections fit into multiple categories. There isn't one single theme or section in the book that I don't want to tackle. I actually have had the book open in a minimized window since I bought it, so that I can open it up and read it when I have a chance. I've been so busy lately, but can easily find three minutes to read a new section and think about how to incorporate it into my life.

To start, I tackled a few sections that were similar to things I already did (drink more water, carve out intentional downtime). Some of the sections I'm currently tackling are things that have been on my to-do list for a while (declutter your wardrobe, streamline your email). My clean kitchen is the result of #39, which is 'make a daily to-do list'...again something that I've always done, but with some great ideas of how to make it more workable (and guilt-free). Also, I use #1 every day, which is 'eat your frog'...one of my favourites, based on the quote from Mark Twain, "Eat a live frog every morning, and nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day." I'm looking forward to the sections on making a debt-free plan, creating an essential papers file and dumping your brain.

Of course, in the interest of full disclosure, I'll end the post with a picture of what my living room currently looks like...always a work in progress:

Static!

Weekly Update

Oh, hello! Do you remember me? I can't believe it's so long since I've posted. I had such a good rhythm going but life seemed to get in the way. The funny thing is that the big reason I got derailed was because it was Spring Break and I had more family time. That's always the time that I plan to do more things that I really want to do, but in reality do less relaxing and have more organized outings.

So, my plans have been derailed for a little while but are now back on track. I think that as time passes and I'm not meeting a personal goal (about finances, exercise, sleep, etc., etc.) I feel that I need something big to jolt me back into the routine or as penance for not keeping up with my plan. To that, I say, screw it. I'm going to keep posting on my blog at least once a week and refuse to be sucked into guilt about not posting. For anyone who has known me over a long period of time, this shift from every-present guilt to acceptance and (dare I say?) compassion may be shocking.

Life has been pretty busy in the last five or six weeks. I'll post more about that in the next few days. I haven't been keeping up with my goal of knitting every day, only because I was sick and have been putting in a bigger effort to get more sleep. I have some ridiculous stories about keeping up with a two year old and almost-one year old (who said his first word today...Mama!...or more like MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA, while crying. But I'll take it!) and have had some photographic evidence of these travails, so keep posted for an update in a day or two. Or five weeks. Whatever, guilt be damned!

I've now started the tradition of colouring Easter eggs with my daughter, which is a tradition that I have previously (and, will again in the future) force my adult siblings and friends to participate in.