Weekending.

...also known as yikes! how can it be Monday (again) already?!

Here's a peek at a few of the highlights from my weekend:

• I started listening to the backlog of podcasts that had accumulated since I started Book Bingo reading in early June. So now I've heard the last of Ann and Michael (and yep, I cried).
• I also made a pretty decent start on cleaning out closets and cupboards. I have a big pile of books, clothing and other stuff to donate. (Now there's just one more room to go - my "yarn room" - which also has the biggest closet.)
• Katie and Charlie spent Friday night and much of Saturday with us (while Rob painted the boys' rooms and hung bead board in their bathroom). It was a treat to have them - even if Marc and I needed an extra night's sleep to recover (man, toddlers are exhausting)!
• Saturday morning, Katie, Charlie & I visited the Alpharetta Farmers Market. It's a regular weekend stop for them, but it was my first time there in years. It's a lot better than I remember and I hope to make it a regular stop for us, too.
• Because Marc and I both enjoyed Saturday night's dinner of fresh vegetables, cheeses, salami and crackers and a small pizza. (along with a little wine and a movie on Netflix whose title I can't even recall...yeah, we were tired!)
• A huge thunderstorm blew through early Saturday evening and left behind a gorgeous sky and sunset.
• and slightly cooler temperatures which made for a not-too-hot run to the lake on Sunday morning (and a lovely shot of blue sky blooms).
• I spent a few hours at the shop taking photos for their new website. The shop really looks great (it's hard to believe we've been in the space for almost six years). Theresa has added a lot of needlepoint threads and canvases and a few new yarns as well. I'm really excited about all the possibilities (and I might've even added a few new skeins to my stash :-) 

All that good stuff made it even harder to wrap my head around the news from Baton Rouge (following the news from Turkey). Sad, crazy times. (and that was even before the Republican convention kicked off this week ... ok, I'm done!)

Hoping your weekend was full of the good stuff, too.

A Tale from the Yellow Table.

...y'all know how much I love the yellow table at Cast-on Cottage. Hands down it's the best place to knit with friends. It's also where we have class - and a whole lot of fun - on Wednesday afternoons. Yesterday morning, one of my students texted that she had roofers at her house and would miss class. I texted back that we'd miss her, and she'd miss all the stories. She replied that I should take good notes. My quick answer back "what happens at the yellow table stays at the the yellow table." ha!

I guess she knew what was in store. The girls had a big surprise for me! and a delightful kickoff to this year's birthday week (we all have birthday weeks, right?)

This is the table just after class. Plenty of project bags, WIPs and potential projects is typical, along with the Starbucks cups. But that empty bottle of Prosecco, half-empty bag of parmesan crisps, still-nearly-full tray of White Chocolate Popcorn and half-eaten carrot cake ... not so much! We had a very fun time; and thankfully no knitting crises that kept me from fully enjoying all of it.

Denise even brought me a personal gallon-sized bag of the popcorn (I might've had a little bowl for breakfast...isn't that what birthdays are for?) It's a favorite treat for the care packages she sends her kids every quarter or so. She always makes extra for class. Needless to say, we love care packages! She shared the recipe a few years back and I'm sure she wouldn't mind me sharing it with y'all:

Denise's White Chocolate Popcorn

1 large bag (regular size not single serve) microwave popcorn, popped (remove the unpopped kernels)

2-3 C Honey Nut Chex or Rice Chex cereal or a mixture of both

A handful or two of broken up pretzels

12-oz pkg white chocolate chips

2 T vegetable oil

12-oz pkg M & Ms

A handful of raisins

1.  In large bowl mix popcorn, Chex cereals and pretzels

2.  In microwave bowl, mix oil and chocolate chips.  On 50% power melt chocolate chips stirring every 30 seconds until smooth.

3.  Pour chocolate over popcorn mix and stir to coat.

4.  Add in M & Ms and craisins, stir again to fully coat.

5.  Pour out on wax paper for chocolate to cool and set. Within about 30 minutes it should be set enough to break up into smaller pieces.  Done!

...and that pile of gray yarn, mid-table? happy birthday to me (again!) ... and a tale for another day!

WIP Week | Insouciant.

...the first of two sweaters and another project inspired by my "day job" for the shop. The pattern came out three years ago...at the height of my "I'm never going to sew another seam again" thing. And I didn't seriously consider knitting it until last month when we featured the pattern in a newsletter. Yep, fast forward three years and I've lost my fear of seams (some might say I'm loving them with all the fervor of the newly converted...but I digress)...and this simple silk tee stole my heart*.

So I swatched and got gauge (had to go down a needle size), cast on and made swift progress through the back and started the front ... before I took the project to Florida two weeks ago. I made it to the front neck decreases and stopped. Still not believing I'd actually be able to knit the whole sweater in just three cones, I wasn't prepared to deal with knitting with two strands of the silk when I had just a single cone (cone #3) and what appeared to be a very little bit of the second cone left.  I set the project aside and wondered how to tackle it.

I considered knitting a third Color Affection using whatever would be left of cone #4 - it would coordinate great with my sweater :-)  I should've trusted Julie (the designer) and wound cone #3 into two balls before I left.

today's photo prompt was a great inspiration!

Because this morning when I finally got back to it, it worked out fine. I finished that first side of the front with about a yard of cone #2 left. I split cone #3 into 2 balls (easy when you have a scale - I wound the cone into a ball and weighed it - 41 grams - and then wound 20 grams of that ball into another ball...you can see them in the photo below).

Then - with the wonderful company of Last Tango in Halifax - I finished the front and knit the first sleeve. I typically knit the sleeves together so I can be sure they match, but that would mean four tiny balls of yarn and really, that was too much! (it's also just 68 rows and I plan to knit sleeve #2 tomorrow...before I forget anything).

So... much pleased with today's progress. And feeling like this one is nearly finished!

*but not my wallet. Habu's Tsumugi Silk isn't expensive, and the smallest size takes just three cones. That means a hand-knit short sleeved silk tee for less than $55 - and most of the other sizes would be under $70. I think that's a bargain!

Friday Flashback and a Quick FO.

...five summers ago, Katie and I were headed to NYC to move her into her first post-college apartment. So many things about Sara's move are very different...but some are much the same.

Katie...   

and Sara.

I am very grateful that it seems both girls have inherited Marc's handyman skills. Goodness knows I have none to share!

And now for the FO part. This is my Linen Poncho. I've already written about it for the shop, but these two photos are new (it's nice having someone home who's comfortable using my camera!)

I am delighted with it. There is surely a third poncho in my knitting future for this fall/winter (assuming my love for stockinette continues!)

One more thing, did y'all know that I also write the newsletter for the shop? We recently moved to a new website that supports on-line shopping (yay!) and that means a new newsletter platform to learn. Yesterday's letter was my fourth and I can feel the learning curve starting to ease. It helps to have great projects and yarn to feature. If you'd like to share, I'd love to know what project/yarn you'd suggest for a future newsletter.

Happy Friday!

five things.

from instagram - 22. making me smile (colorful ruffles on my ella coat and holly #alwaysholly)

...inspired by today's fmsphotoaday prompt, five things that are making me smile. my response to the prompt (above) was really spur-of-the-moment (and likely much influenced by the gray 40 degree drizzle that has been most of our weather of late) but it got me thinking about the bigger picture. and yes, there are many things making me smile. here are my five favorites right now.

Katie's "bach" girls

1. much of my recent absence here is because I spent the long holiday weekend in the North Carolina mountains, tagging along (with a few of my own friends) with Katie's bachelorette party. that's a story I'm still figuring out how to tell. but for now, every time I think of any part of it (except the 2 4+ hours I spent mourning the end of downton abbey season 3)...I smile.  and if I'm being honest with myself, I'm almost able to smile about those 2 4+ hours too.

yesterday's run

2. running with Katie. we've done our last three "long" training runs together at the greenway that's about midway between us. running for me has always been a solitary thing. me and the road. only very recently even me and the road and some music. and only in the last three weeks has it been me and the road and ... another person. she's a pace-master for sure and she has the equipment that makes me believe I really did run 8 miles at a 9:08 pace yesterday. I wish I were a few years younger so I could keep up without all the panting, but then I wouldn't have the absolute joy of sharing it with my daughter. so I smile.  (I'm also smiling this week because we paid attention to the weather forecast and the weather forecast was right and we ran our run yesterday. this morning was cold.wet.rain.with wind.)

3. a new friend (the wife of one of Marc's golfing buddies...I met her just a few months ago) and I started a joint board on Pinterest today. Ireland. I've never been, but it's green. and not hot. and full of history. and books. and knitting. and...golf. it's still early, but I have good feelings that this could be the BIG trip.

4. I spent a few hours online looking at dresses. I know! dresses! mother-of-the-bride dresses no less! but what's making me smile is that I found a LOT I liked (and in multiple email exchanges with Katie she approves) and I have a "date" with Kathie for next week to look in person. Katie has done such a great job with all the wedding stuff - really, it's done except for the little details that are always left for the last 12 weeks - and I hated that she was getting nervous about MY dress. more to come. I hope I'm not being unrealistic to think I can walk into Nordstrom's at 10am and walk out with a few dresses a few hours later!

5. the shop KAL's. not just the knitting time (we regularly meet on Friday afternoons and yes, part of this blog's happy attitude is that I finalized this list of 5 on my way home today), but the quality - and, being honest here, the quantity - of the projects. I was amazed this morning when I figured out we've done TWENTY ONE projects together. it's certainly not all because of me, but I've been the driver to keep it moving and I am.simply.astonished. at the breadth and depth of what we've done. Every single one of those KALs was a project that inspired multiple knitters to buy yarn, cast-on, and - hopefully - create something wonderful. and maybe learn a new skill. and likely make a new friend. I've completed 14 of the 21 and those projects are some of my most-favorite FO's. knitting with others is one of my favorite things about knitting. and being so proud of what we've accomplished makes me smile.

...yep, begging the question! what's making you smile right now? (if nothing else, I hope it's a weekend, looking forward to something FUN!)

working knit night.

...a few of the girls who work at the shop are taking time off this week. so I filled in at knit night last night. that's a 5 to 9 pm shift. in the two plus years I've worked at the shop, I think this is the first time I've been there that late. my alarm goes off at 4:30 am. I am not a night person by any stretch of the imagination!

but I popped over to starbucks around 6:30 for my tall bold with a splash of non-fat. that helped.

in between customers, diane and I worked on our shop samples. mine is the charcoal and melon array cowl (the yarn is fibre company's canopy fingering in obsidian and guava). I'm using one skein of each color instead of the pattern suggested two, so I only cast on half the stitches. the stitch pattern is very clever and results in columns of seed stitch in alternating colors. diane is working on a seed stitch cowl with the gold-orange bulky yarn. we thought we'd have time to browse the new pattern books...but of course we didn't!

the shop was full of knitters and stitchers. they kept us busy in a good way. like the two women who came in looking for a special skein of yarn for a knitting friend who just lost her son (they were going to the wake later in the evening). I showed them the dream in color september color club, juniper moon farm's  marlowe, claudia handpaints silk lace and the swan's island (all of which I blogged about earlier in the week). they chose the claudia in a beautiful deep purple for their friend and the dream in color and swan's island lace for themselves. thoughtful. lovely. perfect.

and entertained. diane's tuesday morning class showed up to keep her/us company and sat close by. so fun to get to know them better. hilarious family stories (one woman has twin girls in the first grade - funny stories abound!). east cobb restaurant recommendations and - of course! - cocktail recipes. knitter conversation at its best.

lydia and I have plans to attend knit night next week. can't wait!

teaching.

...my first section of beginner classes* ended last night. it was a relatively small class - just three ladies (although we did pick up a student from sunday's class - she's working on extra credit! - and the eleven month old son of one student audited last night's class). but really, the perfect size to start. I was able to spend time with everyone individually. and we got to know each other pretty well. and even though two of the students were mother and daughter (so knowing each other "pretty well" to start), I think you learn new things about yourself - and others - when you learn something new.

me included. I had planned all along to teach classes - the february lady sweater, liesl (and after that socks, another sweater, and hopefully even a skirt) - but these classes aren't for beginners. I wasn't sure I wanted to teach anyone to knit - from scratch. I've done it before, but only with friends. I was, honestly, a little afraid of beginners. like what if they just. don't. get. it. or hate it. or (worse!) hate me.

but - as with so many of the best things in our lives - it just happened. the original monday class was overbooked and theresa asked me if I'd be willing to take the overflow. I agreed. then brushed up on the basics and that, as they say, was it. after that first night I was completely hooked.

turns out I LOVE the beginners. I'm sure some of this is because this first group of students, they "got it". All three graduated to real projects by the third week. A baby sweater, a cowl and an ascot (pattern shown here). wow!

I've been trying to figure out just what it is that changed my mind. and I think maybe, it's simply the opportunity to share my passion for this craft. creating new knitters. one at a time.

one of those new knitters gave me this thank you card last night. yep, it's pretty awesome.

*cast-on cottage runs beginner classes a month at a time, four classes each month. my "section" is monday evenings, from 6-8pm.

and another blog.

...yep, this makes three (and I'm hoping I can keep my blogger dashboard in order and not mess up what gets posted where!)

today, we launched the new blog at cast-on cottage. I am really excited about the opportunity to create more of an "on-line community" there. theresa and I have been brainstorming about this for a few months (meaning I've been cluttering her email in-box at all hours with ideas and inspirations) and now that I'm "retired" (or as I like to say "knitting professionally"), it's time to make it happen.

...and in the spirit of that "no blog post without a photo" thing, here's a bit more yarn p*rn to brighten your day!

this is the koigu kpppm - it's a fingering weight (aka "sock yarn") and has the prettiest colors. ever. really.