mayflower

Diamonique is finished! Well, finished enough....there is some edge stitching left to be done on the neckband...but it's complete enough for a quick photo shoot!

Pattern: Diamonique by Sauniell
Yarn: Paton's Brilliant in Blue Shimmer, 3 1/2 ish balls
Needles: Addi 6s

This was an easy, mellow knit and I'm quite pleased with the finished product!  I changed most of the measurements/ shaping to fit me

It's rained all weekend and the temperature has hung out in the 60s and 70s....Fall is coming!! I immediately started something wonderful out of the Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool I've had sitting in my stash for a few months.

The accurate color is a mix between these two!

I love the texture and fabric created by this wool/ silk mix, and have decided to knit a very simple, classy bottom up raglan. It'll likely have a low(er) boat-like neck and belled sleeves (of course!)

Rows and rows of mindless stockinette! Perfect for lazy rainy days.... I spent my Sunday drinking hot chocolate, knitting away and watching Frida (must see!) Naked World (documentary on artist Spencer Kunick....image google his work!) and Love, Ludlow (a quirky, indie flick) I'm sure I'll start something less mindless soon!

And for something completely un-knitting bloggish and UTTERLY un-May.....

watch out!!

Yes, I'm a bad ass...

My friend James took me to an outdoor range in a small canyon a short drive outside the city to shoot his college graduation present, an AR-15 (yes, this is Texas!) If you haven't picked it up, I'm a very mellow, artsy-fartsy, non-violent sort of chick, and shooting an assault rifle is most definitely NOT my style! The first shot scared. the. hell. out of me. Even with ear protection is was SOO loud and it kicked pretty hard (notice the sandbag I have over my shoulder!). After the initial "OMG!!!" moment (or moments) I was on a roll and shot off about 50 rounds! yikes! It was definitely an experience :D

There were bullet shells of all different sizes, some of which were beautifully rusty from being there for years. I was MUCH more interested in shooting photos than the rifle! ;)

it made a wonderful clinky noise when you walked over them!

I'm off to work in the metals studio....Happy Labor Day!

I've been knitting in my absence! I started Diamonique by the lovely Saun while I was in Seattle. We were  lucky to have such beautiful weather while we were there! We had a scrumptious picnic of chocolate, cheese, bread, and wine (shhh) overlooking the Seattle skyline.....of course a little knitting action was squeezed in!

I'm actually about 90% finished with both Diamonique and the Katrina wrap, so a FO post is in store! Diamonique is a really simple pattern that features a repeated diamond motif. Once the stitch pattern 'clicks', it makes for pretty mindless (yet not boring!) knitting.

Seattle is such an awesome city! Cool neighborhoods, TONS of used bookstores and independent businesses, little coffee shops, microbreweries, block parties, art walks, farmer's markets, record shops....my kind of place! We were walking through my sister's Capitol Hill neighborhood and spotted a statue (ugh, can't remember his name!)  decked out in some knitty goodness! It reminded me of Nicole's foray into 'knit grafitti' so I snapped a pic...

Oh, and the fresh veggies and fruits!! I ate  POUNDS of plump deeelicious cherries while I was there! At a Farmer's market in Ballard....

mmmm yummy

We drove up to Mt. Rainier Nat'l Park. The hike was absolutely beautiful! My sisters and I are all shutterbugs, so plenty of photos were taken of each other taking pictures ;)

The plants seemed to captivate us more than the mountains!

aren't they cute with their little hairdos!

It's been almost three months since the big breakup, and four since the loss of my grandfather and Flame. I think things are FINALLY beginning to look up! There is still a residual (and stubborn!) sadness and sense of loss, but its intensity and frequency have definitely faded a little. Sunnier times ahead! :) I read this beautiful quote by Rilke in Letters to a young poet many many times, especially when EVERYTHING went wacko starting in early May.

“…And if we only arrange our life in accordance with the principle which tells us that we must always trust the difficult, then what now appears to us as the most alien will become our most intimate and trusted experience. How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races, the myths about dragons that at the last moment are transformed into princesses? Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence something helpless that wants our love. So you must not be frightened if a sadness rises in front of you, larger than any you have ever seen; if an anxiety, like light and cloud-shadows, moves over your hands and over everything you do. You must realize that something is happening to you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall…. The quieter we are, the more patient and open we are in our sadness, the more deeply and serenely the new presence can enter us, and the more we can make it our own, the more it becomes our fate.”

Now that the craziness has subsided a little, I'll definitely try to resume my semi-regular postings (and blog reading!)! :D

Happy Knitting!