[FINISHED] Infinite Hope Shawl

It’s about that time where I need to knit on projects that are enjoyable, but easy to figure out and memorize. Work is insanely busy, people (in general) are frustrating, and I feel like I’m living in one of those zombie movies where we make fun of people who don’t listen to experts, except this is real life and we’re not listening to the experts.

Long story short: working full-time and moving in with your boyfriend during a pandemic is nothing short of stellar (more on that later).

The good news is that my friend, Erin, needed someone to test-knit her new crescent shawl pattern at the same time I needed a distraction from people not wearing masks and hanging out at bars like we’re ignoring the Spanish Influenza during Mardi Gras (I need you all to stop doing that for everyone’s sake).

She told me it would be easy and she wasn’t wrong. I grabbed some deep stash that’s been dying in my craft room for at least four years and headed to the lake, along with my latest thriller novel, and went to town. What you see here is the final result!

Details:

• Pattern: Infinite Hope by Erin Donahue

• Yarn: Teenybutton Studio

• Colorway: Conversation Hearts

Since finishing this up (and like I mentioned earlier), I’ve been busier at work than I have been in months. I think the ability to work from home has allowed people to hyper-focus on their oft-neglected marketing operations, so every day is a new adventure in hunting down processes and rebuilding boolean logic. I can’t complain because it helps make these monotonous days of venturing nowhere move quickly, but I miss the days where I could break up my working hours with brewery visits, library runs, and potluck parties.

It’s also that time of year where I’m prepping gifts that I’ll be making for the holidays, so there’s a solid chance I’ll be disappearing soon while I knit or cross-stitch my top-secret projects. Probably not, though, because I’m a selfish knitter and can always find time to sneak in a shawl for myself.

Let me know if you’ve starting your winter crafting and if you think your plans are actually attainable (because mine absolutely are not).

In the meantime, I’m also…

Watching: Little Fires Everywhere (finished) and The Umbrella Academy

Reading: Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot

Screaming: Into a paper bag

[PUBLISHED] Read My Tip on How to Showcase Your Textile Artwork in Your Home on Redfin

Hey, friends! I had a completely different post on deck for today, but then I got word that an article I wrote a tip for had been published over on Redfin.

I really wanted to participate in this because I struggle with how to display my finished objects (and there are many). It feels like something I spent 100 hours making with indie dyed yarn shouldn’t be thrown in a drawer.

It’s fun to read through everyone’s tips and see how they display their own textiles at home. Read the article and see my recommendation for how to store all those afghans and blankets you’ve been making with scraps.

[Beer Knits Podcast] So Squishy

Hi, friend! Thanks for joining me on yet another Beer Knits journey. It’s been a long pause since my last episode for a number of reasons, mainly that I had full body poison ivy for over three weeks so I refused to be on camera. I’m a jerk and still owe videos and write-ups to a few people as a result of that - I legit felt like I was melting.

This episode, I had quite a few ongoing projects to show you because we’re all mostly confined to our houses (or should be) and crafts and books are the only reason I’m not standing in my yard, screaming at the sky.

Here’s what I showed off:

Infinite Hope, a test knit I made for my friend, Erin.

Knitting Projects

• Infinite Hope

• Cozy Knitter Advent Socks

• Hue Shift Afghan

• Owl Christmas Stocking

Cross Stitch Projects

• Dimensions “Frosty Friends” Cross Stitch Kit

• Hop Cross Stitch

• Stormy Grey Sparkle Linen

• Ice Blue Belfast Linen

I’ve been playing around with new apps, plus a new editing style that I’m stealing from my favorite true crime/murder channels. I know, weird inspo. Point being: I’m not sure if I like the app I used to record because the sound doesn’t seem to line up correctly and it starts to skip toward the end when… I guess my phone started overheating? I’m not sure. Let me know what you think!

In the meantime, I’m…

Reading: Ghosts of Harvard

Watching: Stephanie Harlow’s Coffee + Crime Time. I recently caught up on her Harloween series from last year and I’m really looking forward to 2020’s (partially because there’s not much to look forward to in 2020).

[FINISHED] Cross Stitch Flowers for Mom

So, it’s summer now and it’s ungodly hot.

That’s it. That’s the post.

Oh, you came here for more. Cool cool. Okay, the elephant in the room is that it’s so hot, I can barely stand to knit anything. To add insult to injury, it’s not even just hot, but humid *cue needles squeaking whilst balking against hand sweat*. You’re welcome for the visual.

The view from my parents’ lake house, taken while I pondered test-knitting my friend’s pattern outside, rendering the finished product useless as it will have essentially been used as a hand towel for 40 hours.

Summer is usually when I maybe knit on socks because those are portable and I like to escape to my parents’ lake house (or really anywhere with a breeze), but I usually end up binging beaucoup books from my TBR shelf with the false hope of reaching my annual Goodreads goal (RIP).

Shocking exactly no one, this year is no different. I’ve finished three books, a couple pairs of socks, and even started on some Christmas gifts, but I think my summer passion for 2020 will be cross stitch. It’s small, it’s colorful, it’s kind of portable (not like I’m working on a HAED any time soon), and it’s keeping me sane in a very discombobulated world.

Or maybe I’m just so annoyed by people who think it’s scientifically possible to re-breathe your own toxins while wearing a mask that I had to stab something 10,000 times. We’ll never know.

And because I can’t just make something without showing it off, I obviously took to making a wee ickle stitch for my mom as a belated Mother’s Day gift.

I’d tell you what pattern I used, but I really don’t know. It came in a kit and I’m not even sure if it’s one I bought myself or was gifted to me by my crafty friend Erin, who bestowed a few cross stitch kits on me a few years back when I first expressed interest in yet another craft.

Seriously, I needed this hobby like a hole in my head.

The funny thing is, Scott started making this one. He’d seen me working on a Van Gogh piece for him (more on that later) and wanted to stitch a beer hop to use as a pin display. I told him he should start with something small and beginner-level to make sure he even liked it, to which he scoffed, saying it looked fun and of course he’d enjoy it. Five minutes later, once this reached my hands again because he hated his life, it didn’t take long to put a bow on it - I even enjoyed the backstitching - and now my mom has lovely new artwork that’s slightly better than the macaroni art of my youth.

I’ve got a few knitting projects on my needles, including a test knit for my aforementioned crafty friend, but I can’t stop cross stitching, either, and I think I have a major case of Start-itis, to boot. More annoyingly, I can’t stop buying hand-dyed linen from Etsy, so there goes the money I’ve been saving to pay my $4k in federal taxes. You can’t see me, but I’m crying.

I’m also watching a lot of the new Unsolved Mysteries and made the mistake of stitching on something intricate during the French episode with subtitles because of course.

In the spirit of ending this latest update on a positive note, here are some cool things I’ve discovered/have done during lockdown since my last update:

• Profs and Pints has started to do online sessions, so I’ve learned about the witch trials, cats and feminism, and the women of Hamilton. Each session is $12 and the professors are compensated for their work, which I enjoy while knitting and drinking heavily because this world and the people in it are a waking nightmare right now.

• Watched almost every video true crime podcaster Stephanie Harlowe has ever published, including 2019’s inaugural Harloween series that covered spooky mysteries. I’ve consumed so much content that I felt like she should be compensated for how much I enjoyed it, so I also backed her Patreon and pretty much nobody hears from me now.

• Took Scott and the dog to my parents’ lake house in the Poconos and paddled a boat around for an hour, so long story short, Fritzy has an inflatable life vest now and that’s hilarious.

• Turned 37. Wait a minute, this isn’t supposed to be depressing.

And in conclusion, all parties are COVID parties, so stop doing that.

[FINISHED] C2C Mandala Blanket

It finally happened. As I binge-watched the third (and final - *whine*) season of “Anne with an E”, I finished off the last block of Scott’s C2C blanket. I literally heard the angels rejoice.

I started crocheting this blanket on New Year’s Eve when we saw a bunch of marked down Lion Brand Mandala at the now-defunct ACMoore (RIP). We picked up four of the only blue cakes left because I thought that would be enough to make a decent-sized blanket.

Hahaha.

We ended up having to buy more and more cakes until finally, this thing weighed in at 12.5 cakes, total.

It’s big enough to more than cover my queen bed, so you know this thing was a labor of love. It also weighs about eleventy pounds and is really warm, perfect for the global warming-induced snowfall we received for Mother’s Day weekend (when I actually finished it).

Scott, however, is super upset because Fritzy has claimed the blanket as his own:

Mowgli is also a big fan, using it for “making biscuits” every night at bedtime. All of which means I’m probably going to be making a few repairs on this thing until it eventually falls apart in five years.

Project Details

Pattern: I didn’t really use one. C2C is really just a technique that I learned back in college -mumble mumble- years ago, but you can find a lot of tutorials online. Here’s one from Moogly on the Lion Brand YouTube channel.

Yarn: Mostly Lion Brand Mandala, but I also worked in one Caron Cake I had sitting around hoping it would be the last cake needed, but no.