The Land of Wool and Honey

Big Plans

I hate to be the one to break the bad news (it's not all that bad, really,) but in just over a month, it'll be Time.  Time again to start up with the 12 Knits of Christmas.  (You can read all of our shop newsletters here--please know, though, that we are entirely sold out of every kit from 2011 and 2010.  The links might still be live, but we've technically taken them off the site.  Confused?  Me, too.  HTML is not my first language.  It's not even in the top five.)

Every year that goes by, I'm getting more and more efficient.  (Or am I...)   Not only do I have 11 of the 12 Knits determined, but I've got them strategically placed in grouped sections that I think will flow nicely. 

Please note that I said "determined".  I did not say "patterns written", nor "yarn ordered", nor "kits assembled"--I didn't even allude to the fact that there are "projects knit".  But this is a heck of an improvement from 2008, when at least one of the kits (Week 6, I'm looking at you!) was tearfully maniacally determined around noon that Friday.

And I know I say this every year (I say it because it's true), but this year really is going to be bonkers.  I can't wait to roll these bad boys out.  There are several that work really, really well together, especially if you're someone (ahem!) who prefers to keep said gifts to yourself.  (Who would do that?!?)

If you're as excited as I am for the gifty season ahead, drop me a line at woolandhoney AT gmail DOT com--I'll be happy to add you to the email list.  (You can safely unsubscribe any time you want to and of course, we never share your personal info with anyone.  Ever.)

* * * Also.  If you're interested in rounding out your fiber-based magazine collection, there's a good chance I might have an issue or two that will fill in the blank spots, including a very rare copy of the unfortunately defunct Craft: Magazine.  I'm doing that thing I do in the fall vs. what I should do in the spring: a serious deep clean.  Finally ready to pass on some of these well-loved mags to a better home.  Yours, maybe?  Check out my Etsy shop here.)

Penelope

Project: Penelope, the Empathetic Monster

Started: mid-July (?)

Finished: end of July (?).  July has been a blur.  Obvs.

Yarn: Be Sweet Cotton Candy.  One skein each in Lilac and Violet.  A few inches of embroidery floss for the belly button.  Safety eyes found here.  Stuffing can be had here.

Needles: US 2 dpns.

Mods: A few that I meant and one that I didn't.  I sewed her ears on wrong, so she's a bit more like Shrek. (I didn't have the pattern in front of me during assembly.)  Instead of working a three-needle bind-off at the top of the head, I bound off in normal knit fashion and seamed her up.  Less awkward and just as neat.  Each of the ears and the feet call for seams (in the original pattern photo, you can see them clearly) and I have to say, I think it looks amateurish.  So I left the stitches live and Kitchenered them together, which looks polished and neat.  (If I do say so myself.)

Notes: Very simple (knit-wise) and very good practice for the beginning stitcher.  It's a model project for those learning how to seam properly, but take note: it takes time.  The knitting probably only took me four (six?) hours to complete, but the seaming easily added another three.  I rarely mind in situations when the finished piece ends up coming out so well.  LOVE her.

And I can't decide--teeth or no teeth?

Summering

Well, shoot.  That's got to be a new record.  Longest Blog Absence EVER. 

Over the past five weeks, I've been:

 

: swimming every single day.  Still.  Even if sometimes that means it's 11:30 before I get wet.

: taking in a record number of spectacular sunsets.

 : adding to my growing rock collection.  Finding a ton of Leland blues!

: joining our friends on a private sunset cruise.

: eating, drinking and making merry with some of my very best friends.

: eating, drinking and making merry with my extended family for an entire week to celebrate my grandparents' 60th (!) wedding anniversary.  Wandawood has been a part of my life forever--it belongs to one of my aunts.  The cottage we rented sleeps 18.  That's a lot of sand inbetween the sheets, people.

: picking thousands (THOUSANDS) of ears of corn.

: revisiting some of my very favorite places around Leelanau County.  Playing tourist.  Stopping at scenic lookouts and taking a gagillion pictures.

Obviously, I've got to press and frame this bad boy.  But the stitching is completely done, including the tedium of weaving in every last end.  Whew!

: finishing a few languishing projects.  Man, does this feel good.

: prepping to start a few more.  New and improved living room, here I come!

: hosting a few trunk shows at Wool & Honey. 

: reading like a madwoman.  Currently in progress?  Dust to Dust: A Memoir, Swamplandia! and 11/22/63.  Last Friday, while delivering corn to the IGA, I stumbled upon the annual used book sale at the Glen Arbor town hall--everything you can fit in a paper grocery bag for five bucks.  FIVE BUCKS!  22 books later....

: designing, ordering and assembling very cute little kits for the shop.  Getting ridiculously excited for fall.

: loving every second of summer. 

The chill in the air is the one true sign that fall is upon us.  My fingers have been flying in anticipation of the long scarf/cowl/sweater season ahead.  Looking forward to sharing more of my FOs with you this week.  Thanks for reading, friends.  You'll be hearing from me again sooner than you think.

Vacationing

Is it just me or does it totally feel like Friday?  I'm thrilled to have a little retail reprieve this week--the shop will be closed tomorrow for the holiday, of course, but I'm also taking a rare personal day on Thursday to spend a little extra time with my sweetie. 

In my knitting bag, I've packed two new projects:

Penelope, the Empathetic Monster,

and a vest of my own creation--a custom job for a customer's wife's 90th birthday.  She is so cute!

I plan on spending plenty of time knitting over the next two days--as well as cooking, reorganizing my pantry, swimming and finishing that blasted sampler (!)--unless the frosty adult beverages festivities get the better of me, of course.

Happy 4th, all.  Grateful for so much. 

Knitting?

Back soon with real knitting content.  I've been too busy summering to do much else!

 

Scatterbrain

Well, hello there. 

I was having a conversation with a friend last week, one in which we were getting to The Real Meat of It All, she stopped me mid-sentence and said, "You do know there is a very real possibility you have A.D.D., don't you?" 

No, G, I didn't know.  Huh.

It got me thinking.  About why I get so many ideas but forget get distracted never follow through I don't always manage to flesh them out.  Why it's so hard for me to stop eating sugar call my grandparents  remember to send Christmas cards  keep up with some things and abandon others painting the living room blog regularly knit a pair of socks every week for a year. 

I don't know.  It might be real.  It might not.  It doesn't really matter.  What does matter is finding out how to re-train the brain.  That's definitely real.  Sheesh.  I've always been a list maniac (although I'm quite sure it doesn't count when you forget where you left the list) and I really am a hard worker, but I need to trick myself into developing a few more successful habits.   I'm trying out egg timers, rationing the Cruising of the Interwebs, cleaning up bits of my workspace one afternoon at a time, shooting for good sleep every night....it's a work in progress.  I'm a work in progress.

Hey, look!  Sailboats!

Ahem.

There are also some really big things going on in my life right now.  Nothing I can't handle (and nothing bad,) but lots of transition going on up in here.  And many of these things are making it extra difficult for me to concentrate.  It's hard not to beat myself up about falling behind or getting distracted, but every day it's a little easier.

So instead of forcing it ("it" being rigorous levels of efficiency and total world domination), I've been doing my best to entertain myself with really fun stuff while I'm not organizing and re-structuring my life.  That saying "work hard, play hard"?  My personal mantra.  I've been knitting a little, reading a lot, putting up food (pickled asparagus!), spending time with friends, jumping in the lake and doing the best that I can to Be Here Now.  I think it's working out splendidly.

I spent this weekend, as I do every first weekend in June, with my college roommates Meghan and Sara at a cottage on the lake in Northport.   It feels so good that, even after 12 years of friendship, we can flow into our relationship so well.  I mean, we're really different--from each other and the people we were when we moved away from Holland in May of 2002--but somehow, after this weekend, it doesn't feel like it.  Maybe it's because I feel like I really, really know myself.  Better than I ever have.   And they get me. 

Of course, we have doughnuts.  Doughnuts will always be the tie that binds.

We spent our short time together talking and eating and laughing and browsing for used books and walking on piers and talking and eating and laughing some more.  So nice.

* * * * *

And, because I am a master of procrastination and well-versed in The Art of Shifting Priorities, last week I created a shiny new website to share with friends and family my summer bucket list: to swim in Lake Michigan every single day.  Every day for the 99 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day, I will seek out the Big Water and jump in it.  I'm eight days into the program and rockin' it.  

It's a simple concept, but I figured it was worthy of its own space here online.  A space that I am super, super proud of.  Funny thing about web design: the more websites you build, the easier they are to create.  This bad boy only took me about four days.  (I have to add that I would be nowhere without Instagram.)  You can also check out the Facebook fan page, if you're into that sort of thing.

It's kind of extreme, especially last week when it was in the 50s almost every day.  But you know me.  I'm kinda into weird rules.  As Sara said to me this weekend, "Of course you are.  You're either all in or not at all.  That's how you've always been, Wass." 

Funny.  I thought I was the only one who knew.

Gearing Up

Lake Leelanau, Sunday morning, about a mile from home. 

: So ready to for my first swim of the year.  (More on that later.)

My alphabet sampler, two days ago, just a few hours away from completion.  Still.  Not.  Finished.

: So anxious to hang this on my wall.  (Well, after I paint the living room, that is.)

Another shawl, this afternoon, about an hour in.  I know what I'll be working on this weekend.

: So excited for our very first order of Madelinetosh (40 [!] colors of Tosh Merino Light), which just left the Texas warehouse this afternoon.  Early next week, we'll be snapping photos like mad and loading them onto the website.  Whee!

 

 

WIP Wednesday: Baby Fever Edition

The newest project on my needles--a Lucille shop sample that I started on Sunday afternoon with Canopy Fingering.  LOVE.

Tiny needles, tiny yarn--the first of many wee samples in the shop's quickly expanding baby section. 

The Zealous Knitter

When I left work on Saturday night, I packed four projects to take home for the rest of the "weekend"--a shawl to finish, a pair of socks to start, a crewelwork project to wrap up and a cross stitch sampler to start, both a birthday present to myself and a reward once I've finished the crewelwork.

I'm always so blissed out by the idea of a day off, I invariably pack my schedule with an obscene amount of stitchwork.  Like I'm on vacation.  Like I don't have six loads of laundry, three weeks worth of dust buffalo to vacuum or a bathroom to deep clean have no other obligations in life.  Like there's a chance I'm going to run out of something to do.

It's obvious to me now that I am unequivocally delusional about the amount of stitching my two hands can manage over the course of 41 hours. 

But still.  I managed to cast on and knit about five inches on a new sock (a gift for someone I'm fairly certain does not read this blog) and I alllllllmost finished the X on my sampler last night while watching several episodes of Rome, Season 1.

(This is an older picture of the sampler.  With just three letters left, I've been at a standstill since mid-February.  What's wrong with me?!?)

At least no one can say I lack ambition.  But endurance, wherewithal, stick-to-itiveness? 

Perhaps.

Birthday Reading, Eating and Knitting

A long coveted gift--to myself.  (Go.  Buy this book from your nearest independent retailer.  Reading it alone will change your life.  I can only imagine what hiking the PCT would do.)

Shrimp + black beans + quinoa + pomegranate seeds + cilantro = one heck of a superfood salad.  Even grown up girls enjoy birthday sleepovers with friends that include cupcakes, pajamas and a variation on the classic Pin the Tail.  True story.

And of course, I spent a good portion of the weekend knitting my latest project, Ishbel by Ysolda.

Pretty much perfect.