Saturday, March 22, 2014

Spring Break Mini-cation and a Big Frog

I finally traveled down to the cities for a few days of friend time with no work attached, and it was much-needed and enjoyed!

I spent a day and night with my friend Val first, and we got to do some great lady stuff!  We climbed, ate ice cream, and even checked out a candlelight yoga session at a downtown Minneapolis yoga studio.  My last morning with her, we went for a nice walk around Minneapolis with coffee!  I haven't really aimlessly walked around Minneapolis much, so doing it with a friend was a nice change of pace.

After some quality Val time, I rocketed over to Woodbury to hang out with my brother and his girlfriend.  I finally got to see Frozen (AWESOME) with Kendra, and after my brother got home from work, we all went to Red Lobster for dinner!
Friday I had a climbing session with my old friend Jenelle, who I haven't seen in eons!

I've known Jenelle since my undergraduate years at UMD.  She actually got me my job at the dance studio I work at 4 years ago, which I am forever indebted to her for.  We got to catch up, climb a bit, and talk dance for awhile.  Since she currently has dance, grad school, and family obligations like crazy, I was really excited to have a little time with her in both of our busy schedules!  Overall, it was really nice to run off for a bit to see some of my friends and family, and it'll definitely sustain me for the next few days as school stuff picks up again.
While down in the cities, I worked a little bit on Taylor's Honey Cowl, and it's slowly but surely beginning to grow.  I'm hoping to finish this thing in the next week or so, as the "Things I need to knit NOW" list becomes bigger and bigger.

Knitting with pure white is also perhaps a little less than inspiring at the moment, as Duluth got another 6 inches of snow while I was gone, and I'm feeling the need for more bright things in my life!  Speaking of bright and happy things, I found a beautiful needle case on Etsy a week or two ago, and it was waiting for me when I returned from the cities!

Can you tell I perhaps still had the Sochi Winter Olympics still in my mind?  This was a treat for myself for finishing Scott's Dude Sweater (which I will blog soon, I promise!) and winning my gold medal in the Ravellenic Games.  It's beatifully made, huge,and for practicality sake, it's fantastic to be able to look at the pockets and know exactly what I have knitting-needle wise.

It also means that I no longer have to search for the needles that I need!  I used to put all my needles jumbled together in an old can, so finding five needles the same size turned in to at ten minute search every time I started a project.  Not okay, and finally solved!

Last but not least, I grudgingly took the step this morning that I needed to with the Narwhal mittens.  It was hard, but I wasn't happy with how they were turning out.  The gorgeous yarn I originally chose was much too springy for the fair isle without bunching up, and it wasn't the quality knit that I was going for.
So I pulled the needles out...

Took a deep breath...

And wound back the yarn.
It's okay though, because as you might notice in the pictures, replacement yarn is standing by!
When I was down in Woodbury, my brother's girlfriend Kendra and I visited a small but fantastic little local Woodbury yarn store, where I picked out some new Dalegarn Falk to use for the outside of the mittens.  I know that in the long run, I'll be much happier with the mittens with this yarn as the outside, despite the sadness of all that work going down the tubes.  Quality is important, right?  As for the original yarn, I plan on making a simple but pretty cowl with the pink yarn to give to Brit along with the mittens, so it's not going to sit around in my yarn drawer for very long.
That way, next Christmas, I can gift her a pretty set of bright pink knits that she can wear together. :)
Now I just have to cast on for the mittens... again.
Good thing I liked the picot trim...

2 comments:

nancy88 said...

You won't regret unravelling something that you know isn't just right. It's better than making something that won't get worn because of it's wonkiness. :) So glad you were able to get away and have some fun!

Katie said...

It's always hard to frog. I have a sweater that's 2/3 done and I hate it... but that's a whole different story... :)