Daily photo: Arnold Sunning Himself
Say it with me now: AWWWWWWWW!
So my tiny new apartment has a few giant positives over the old one. One of them is that I get direct sunlight in the mornings! Lots of people would think that was a negative but I get up so early in the morning that I actually like having an east-facing exposure. You know who else is liking it? Arnold! He finds the ray of light coming in the window and plops himself down in it, and slowly moves across the room with the sun. It is absolutely adorable.
As of yesterday my apartment is nearly finished and is finally habitable (after two trips to Ikea to buy a wardrobe and extra shelving!). I still don't have internet access at home though, so updates will be infrequent . . . the good news is I'm working on a new design I'm very excited about! Stay tuned for more on that.
Whoops, didn't mean to disappear !
I've been running around like crazy trying to get my life in order and somehow blogging fell off the must-do list. I've firmly added it right back in (and I mean that literally, it's in my daily To Do list which is managed on my iPhone with this app) and promise to take pictures of what I'm working on tomorrow to show you. I've been quite busy actually, but I haven't finished those potholders . . . if I don't crank them out tomorrow I'm going to miss the deadline so hopefully the mood will strike me tomorrow before it's too late.
Instead of working on the potholders I've been making a Seven Circles necklace/cowl (Ravelry link) with some Koigu Mori, I knit most of a new pullover design, and I nearly finished another Vimioso cowl, this one in winter white. Yes, it's the one I was knitting on while I recorded the "How to Knit a Wrapped Cable" video! It's knit with Karabella Aurora 8 that I had lying around in the stash and will come in handy as a nice neutral accessory . . . next winter. Not that I'm complaining about the change in the weather, I'm all for it!
Oh and just to keep this from being a picture-less post, here's a shot of Arnold giving me kisses:
A few days ago the light was hitting Arnold just right and he was just tired enough to hold almost still, so I spent a long time taking pictures of him. The above licking one is my favorite, but this one is a close second:
Or actually, maybe this one's my fave:
I enjoy photographing him so much and have gotten enough compliments on the shots that I've decided to start a side business photographing pets. In the interest of building myself a portfolio, I'm looking for people who want their pets photographed. You'll get free pet portraits and I'll get pictures for my portfolio. If you're in the NYC area and interested, email me!
Nevermind on that hat.
The just-started hat I showed you 2 days ago is no more. When I got to the end and tried it on, it was all wrong -- too narrow, too long, and the earflaps were too shallow. This is what happens sometimes when you just cast on and start knitting without any plans! Oh well, at least it was nice yarn to work with! I've reskeined it and put it back in the stash for later . . . I'm sure a better project will come up eventually for such gorgeous yarn!
Speaking of gorgeous, the weather's finally better today! It was so sunny when I woke up that I thought it would also be super-warm outside, so I wore flip-flops when I took the dog out this morning, but that turned out to be a mistake -- it was only 40 degrees outside! It's warmed up a bit since and it's still sunny outside, so my mood is better than it's been the last few days. Even the dog is in a better mood, I think he "inherited" my weather-dependent moods!
Speaking of Arnold, how cute is this picture I took of him the other day? It's my new favorite!
I'm really struggling to get the Leila pattern out to you all . . . it's turned out to be a much harder pattern to write than I expected based on how symmetrical and simple the lace pattern is. I'm still hoping to have it out sooner rather than later, but I don't know exactly when that will be at this point . . .
Oh, and you know what's for dinner tomorrow night? Baked wings! Yeah!
Ok, I lied.
I did rip out the scarf!
Last night, when I got to the last few yards of yarn, I tried the scarf on and immediately knew I absolutely could not wear it. It was MUCH too short, and at that short length, ridiculously too wide. I just couldn't deal with having such a terrible project on my hands after hours and hours of work; In the end the compulsive side of me won out. It turns out I'd rather spend twice as much time to get the project done right than just make due with a bad FO. Good to know!
As it happens, I was also wrong about the Kureyon not bothering me as long as I crochet it instead of knitting it. My entire arm was throbbing yesterday and I kept thinking it was due the crappy weather we were having. THEN I picked up the scarf again and immediately realized what was making my arm hurt from shoulder to fingers! Turns out I squish my right shoulder way up when crocheting, no wonder my arm was killing me. I spent yesterday's crochet time trying to concentrate on better crochet form and making smaller motions, and so far it seems to be working. Too bad I now have the same amount of work ahead of me as I do behind me on this scarf!
In the interest of not having a post with no photo, here's my favorite shot of Arnold to date:
Oh, and I'm making asparagus risotto tonight . . . stay tuned!
Quick project update
(please ignore the mess that is my desk in the background!)
Here's where the pullover stands after finishing the 3rd ball of yarn. I'm surprised at how far 3 balls went, actually! I may end up having enough to make full-length or maybe 3/4 length sleeves after all!
I should have realized that my funny neck wouldn't stand up like I imagined in such a soft yarn, it mostly just lays there. I'm actually OK with how it looks even though it's not what I intended, and I'm liking the style and fit of this pullover so far. I may have made the sleeves too wide and may end up doing some sort of a gathered-sleeve to take up some of the bulk, but I'm trying not to worry about it. For now it's just knit-knit-knit around and around until I have the desired length -- very soothing!
And because this picture kills me, here's Arnold passed out with his back paws sticking out:
How did he learn to be so damn cute?!?!?
