I don’t want to talk about the election today – there’s nothing I could say that others haven’t already said, anyway, and there’s really no use in dwelling on things. So allow me to distract you (and myself) and tell you about my weekend. For 6 years now I have been blessed to have my best friends join me in a cabin in the middle of the woods for a knitting weekend together. It’s something that started off one year after I complained about how expensive knitting “retreats” are, and has since bloomed into this annual tradition that we all look forward to. We take turns cooking for each…

  Earlier this month I took a trip of “firsts” – first proper vacation in my adult life, first airplane trip, first visit to the beach, first time trying real lobster, first time trying an oyster (and there’s video of it to prove it on Facebook, but spoiler: they’re gross), first ocean sunset, first 2-piece bathing suit in public without giving a damn… It was a blissful 5 days of food, relaxation, knitting, reading, shopping, and all of it kid and husband-free! I finished a sock and a book on that trip, which might be the first time I’ve finished anything in that short of a period in who knows…

All it’s missing is a few buttons at the neck line on the side, but otherwise this little sweet sweater, aptly named Sweet William, is completed. It took me far longer to knit than it should have, but I’ve basically lost interest in knitting temporarily so it took forcing myself to knit on it to get it completed. Life is busy, and exhausting, and mostly at the end of the day I just want to sleep than knit. So I’ve turned my focus toward decluttering more, because much like AA a recovering hoarder is always workign to stay on the wagon. The busier life gets, the easier it gets to let…

This sweater is taking far longer than it should. All that stockinette should have gone like a breeze, and all in all it probably would have if I didn’t have to fight to keep a toddler out of my lap (or keep him from trying to “help”). For what it’s worth, my kid has his own knitting – a dishcloth project in progress that didn’t have much yarn left to tangle up – but what mama works on looks more fun, I guess? I not-so-secretly love that he wants to knit, though, and hope this keeps up as he gets older but I’m trying to keep my dreams in check…

A photo posted by @candiceknits on May 29, 2016 at 11:58am PDT Stitch by stitch I’ve muddled my way through the beginning of the pattern and am on the chart now for the sweet little rabbit yoke. And by “muddled” I mean that I read the directions, re-read the directions, looked up on Ravelry to see if there were any helpful notations on other projects, scoured for pictures to figure out WTF the button band at the neck was supposed to look like, read the directions for a third time, and then proceeded with caution because not only have I been brain-dead after work this week, I’m also a generally un-trusting person…

… because it isn’t like I don’t already have 5 other projects I should probably be working on/finishing. This is what happens, though, when you get your little minimalist dream in the form of a work uniform which then kills your desire to knit for yourself because you’ll only get to wear any sweater you make (at most) 2.7 days out of the week during winter and you already have a full sock drawer.

I think I discovered the key to minimizing your life… and that key is a toddler. For years and years I had glorious free time. And in that free time, I was free to do whatever I damn well pleased. Which is why half our back yard is taken up with garden, I have a pantry full of canning equipment, a spinning wheel, more yarn than I really need, fabric stash to nearly match, etc. Free time meant I needed to fill it with something… and fill it I did. Now that I have a toddler, I have less time for hobbies. Or cleaning. Or thinking, really. What I’d rather…

Green, on the left, dyed with a ratio of 4 drops yellow to 1 green, with some of the darker bits 4 yellow to 1 blue. The teal in the middle was 4 blue to 1 green. The rainbow on the end, or “unicorn fart” as my friend Stephanie named it, was dyed with kool-aid on just one small chunk.

For Christmas I made my knitting friends little knitting bags. I made enough to basically have the construction concept memorized, so when I decided to make a smaller version for a Ravelry swap I’m in I basically winged it. 4″x6″ pieces of fabric and fusible fleece, a zipper, notching 1″ squares out of the corners… piece of cake, right? I mean, I’ve made at least 5 of these already so sizing the pattern down is no big deal. Except it WAS a big deal. Let me tell you: making this bag was a little like childbirth. In the beginning it was fun and exciting. “Little itsy bitsy bag for postage…