Friday and Finished!

It's finally Friday! I've been looking forward to Friday all week. You see it's the day my hubby comes home, the day I can stay up late knowing that I could possibly sleep in on Saturday. (Staying up late translates into getting things done and that is wonderful!)  

It's been a busy and tiring week. Feeling kinda drained but nothing helps revive me like finishing a little project or 2. Drum roll please.. here is what I finished this week!

'Citrouille' - Pumpkin

Mauve Flower Measuring Tape

Columbine tape measure cover.

I finished a that cute little shrug for Anaiah. I had taken the yarn with me to the US thinking I'd be making a different cardigan with it but after finishing nearly half of the other cardigan I realized that I was going to run out of yarn. So, I frogged the other one and cast on Artichaut. A delightfully cute little pattern that complimented the dress I had made for Anaiah really well. I love how it turned out! 

About a year ago we had a visiting Raveller named Carol here in Delhi. She was such a joy to talk to! She also generously brought little covered measuring tapes for all of us to enjoy. I was to taken with mine that I decided that would be a lovely little project someday. Just before coming back to India I stumbled upon a good deal for these little tape measures and picked up some.  It's been really fun and fast to cover these and I hope that the lovely ladies who receive them will be as happy as I was with the ones I received from Carol. I'm not totally sure yet who the perfect recipients are for mine but I have some ideas.. 

What did you finish this week?

W.I.P. Wednesday.

Here is my work in progress for the week. (and probably several weeks down the line.) I've just started a new project. It's the Avalon Cabled Cardigan by Heather Cabanas.   A very cute asymmetrical cardigan with a lovely cabled collar.  I'm not sure how in love I am with the asymmetrical part though.. might make it symmetrical, but I love the Celtic looking cables. I've never done a 'large' sweater with cables before and I am a slow knitter so we'll see how long it will take. 

I've done about 9 repeats of the cable pattern so far. (more than what is show in the pic) I'm loving the hunter green color but then I love most every shade of green. I've named this project Anaiah of Green Cables just for fun. :)  I'm using some yarn I bought because it was on clearance. Lustrous Lamb from Jo-Ann fabrics. It's 80% acrylic 20%wool and has a slight sheen to it. I hope it's a good match with this pattern. 

----

Another work in progress is the tiny garden Anaiah and I are growing. I by no means have a green thumb, in fact I'm not really fond of gardening but I keep having this feeling like being able to grow some of my own food is a skill I should have and something that Anaiah can learn a lot from too. While we were in the US we picked up some fun seeds. They had Veggietales' characters on them and so appealed to Anaiah right away.  

 

So we've planted a few seeds. The cucumbers I'm most excited about but we've also planted some Zinnias, some Bachelor buttons and a few red bell pepper seed from a bell pepper we bought at the store.  I had bough a little kit in the US that worked great for germinating the seeds. 

Our cucumbers!  It's been a challenge for me to get decent soil. When I asked for good soil at the nursery they handed me a bag and upon arriving home I found it was all clay soil. I finally did get some compost that was mixed with the clay soil. Hopefully the plants will not mind it too much. I worry that I will over water them. Any tips? 

Anaiah inspecting the growth. 

Hope you are having a great week!

Yarn shopping in Minnesota.

I told myself (and a group on Ravelry) that my goal  for 2012 was to knit from stash and that I was not going to buy any more yarn till I had used up some of my stash. 
EPIC FAIL!!  I was doing great till I went back to Minnesota this summer. If you've ever been to MN and love knitting you'd know that they are blessed with many cute little local yarn shops. Shops where you can find all kinds of pretty yarns that you'd never find in India.  So I threw my resolution out the window and decided to visit as many of these shops as possible! 

I visited: 
The Yarnery  and Borealis in St.Paul
Knit'N from the Heart in Woodbury
Needlework Unlimited, Linden Hills Yarn, (and one other one who's name escapes me) in Minneapolis
and Darn Knit Anyway in Stillwater

Had there been more time and space in my luggage I would have visited more and bought even more yarn! 

 Borealis Yarn in St.Paul. If I lived here this would probably be my LYS. I loved it, went there a few times. 

sock yarns at Borealis

Darn Knit Anyway in Stillwater. 

I did try to keep luggage space in mind when I shopped, so no sweater quantities of one yarn. My mom went with me to some of these shops and  bought me some lovely yarns also. Thank you mom. She does not knit but she has always been a creative person and so she loves enabling me. 

It was so refreshing to find yarn that was not 100% acrylic or 100% wool. I bought new yarns with fibers in them that I have never worked with before like Alpaca and Merino. I also bought some cotton blends for summer knits.  I broke my yarn resolution for this year but I don't regret it at all! 

I also got the meet some of the Twin Cities Ravelers! It was so much fun to meet them for the 2012 Ravellenic Games. I hope that I can stay in touch with these lovely ladies (and gentlemen) through Ravelry. I had a wonderful time talking to them about our common love for yarn.  Huge thanks also to Debbie for the nice yarn she passed on to me! 

Hopefully next year I will be able to keep to a yarn diet! (or not - we'll see)

Where has the summer gone?

It feels like the end of summer. I'm back from my long visit to the US to see my family. It was WONDERFUL! I don't think I can say that enough! It was really wonderful to see my dad and go out to the movies with him. It was lovely to see my brother John and his fiance Lindsey and spend time with them. It was amazing to see my older brother Erick and his Korean girlfriend Min Jeong and to hear about their lives in Japan. It was fun to see friends and relatives. But most of all it was wonderful to see my mom! She has always been one of my best friends and so seeing her is like a tall glass of ice water on a really hot day, it makes me feel good even on the inside. I miss her terribly already! 

It was also just wonderful to see Anaiah interact with them. She learned a lot from them and is already missing them too.  I could post hundreds of pictures I'm sure so here is just a sampling.  We really had a great time. 

Playing dress-up with Grandma while waiting for Uncle Erick to make some new belts. 

'Hiding' with Grandpa under a tree. 

With Auntie Lindsey and Uncle John and Snoeks the cat. 

Uncle Erick and Min Jeong.

'flying'