Sunshine Rug

A little while ago, I finished this sunny rug.

The pattern was dreamt up along the way, using what I lovingly call my larger crochet hook (that's right guys, I now own two crochet hooks!).

The yarn is Cascade Yarns Sierra in gold (colorway: 443) and a green (unknown colorway), which is 80% cotton and 20% merino.  It is a nice blend to work with, although I think it is discontinued now.

I probably knit this yarn up into three garments (remember this one?), hating and frogging each one.  I generally have this issue with cotton or bamboo yarns even when blended with wool, it is just so difficult to get them to fit with most projects I try.

But the color made me so happy!  So I decided, why not crochet it into a pretty rug?  Now this seemingly doomed yarn sits in my stash no longer.

Surprise, surprise, kitty loves it too!

Work-In-Progress Wednesday - #17

Thank you all for your warm welcome back into the blogging world, I'm so excited to be joining you all again!

I have an embarrassingly long backlog of WIPs right now, but we've all been there, right?  So, I'll show you the three that I'm putting real time into right now.

knitting

Narragansett/ This sweater was a recent travel project, all I have to do after that trip is the other sleeve.  The yarn is a mystery wool that my mother uncovered recently on one of her adventures, I'll tell you that story in the near future.

Swirling Gauntlets/ I just needed more cables in my life, we all know that feeling right?  Also, this is some more super special yarn gifted to me by my best friend, Rebecca.

Rowan Felted Tweed dk

crochet

Sock Scrap Blanket/ I've been slowly working on this for about a year, it all started with me having a whole bunch of sock yarn scraps of the same yarn and wanting to do, something, anything, with them.  I'm still not sure what I'll end up stitching these into, any ideas?

Araucania Itata Multy

Anyone else suffering from an intense desire to knit all the sweaters?

Back to work

I've been away from my beloved blog for almost a year now and I've missed it!  I've missed my wonderful, supportive readers especially.  So sorry for the extended absence.

Just because this blog has been stagnant, does not mean that I have been!

I'm still working away on my graduate studies slowly, but surely:

One of my fellow students said something along the lines of "graduate school is all about endurance".  I'm starting to think that he is right!

I have been knitting sweaters:

Because you can never have too many sweaters right?

I have been obsessed with finding the perfect granola recipe:

Please share your favorite if you have one, I've been inspired by this Buzzfeed post.

I have been learning bookmaking:

Using recycled materials mostly as I practice and learn more.

Kitty is snoozing away as always:

It's hard work being a kitty.

Plus so much more I hope to share with you very soon!

Business trips are

It's been a little while since I've said hello, predictably life has become even more busy than I could ever imagine and I haven't been able to keep up with my favorite people!

I have been reading posts when I have a spare moment, and I'm obviously not the only person who has been busy.  I've been seeing so many inspirational finished projects and Audry has finished her book of patterns (which is even more amazing than I ever could have envisioned).

I'm currently on my way to Boston for a business trip.  It is a stressful time for a trip, I'm having to leave my experiments in the hands of someone else for a few days.  But it does give me some time to check in!

I've been knitting, spinning, and crocheting for at least a few moments every day, it's what keeps me sane after all.

My favorite project to work on is currently my scrap yarn granny blanket, I'm definitely getting better at crochet.

I've been knitting with some soft alpaca handspun.  This is going to be a warm hat for a friend. 

Mostly my life has been consumed with work.  My project is massive and I have a lot of responsibilities, but I'm constantly learning new skills and it is honestly a dream come true.  If you are at all interested in my work, we just had a press conference and reporters descended on the labs.  I was excited to get to show off my new microscope (which has lasers, I'll have you know) to several film crews. '

Fox News - Wake Forest teaming with feds to test for chemical warfare antidotes

I hope you are all well, I hope to be around more now that things have slowed down a little bit.