Onwards and Upwards

Bee blanket progress :-) I'd say that I'm about 30% finished at this point

Hello, Readers.

Wow. It's been quite the interesting week, full of ups and downs.

Luckily, for now, the ups are outnumbering the downs.

Last Friday, Mr. Orb Weaver and I got a phone call from our landlord. Long story short, he wants us to break our lease so he can sell the condo that we're living in.

The good news is that he is paying us a considerable amount of money to do so, and this is going to cover most (if not all) of our moving expenses. We attended an open house for a one bedroom apartment a few blocks away on Saturday and signed a lease, so for now, everything except the actual moving is in order.

The bad news is that we have to be out by the first of February. So, that leaves us eight days to pack up the apartment.

Lovely.

While I am currently dancing with joy and thanking the powers that be that we were able to get everything in order so quickly, I will say that I'm sad to leave our 1970's era love nest (textured walls, dark wood paneling and all!) The location was perfect, our neighbors are fantastic, and the view couldn't be beat.

The kitchen was pretty fantastic too. 

So, time for a new chapter in a new apartment. Onwards and Upwards!

Until next time <3

Eeek! Steek!

A good afternoon to you all, my lovely Readers!

I've decided to try a couple of new knitting techniques, so that I may create this glorious blanket. Such a beautiful and striking design!

While I absolutely love the finished projects that incorporate it, stranded color-work in knitting has always been a challenge for me. I taught myself the basics of the technique many moons ago when I made the Zelda Purse, and since the technique was self-taught, I often find myself struggling with knitting patterns that were written under the assumption that those following them know how to hold the yarn correctly.

So, I've made it a goal of mine to re-learn how to do stranded color work. The above blanket looks like a prime opportunity for me to do exactly that!

Not only does this blanket pattern call for a fancy-pants stranding technique, but it also calls for...

...a steek.

For those of you who are not familiar with knitting lingo, let me break it down:  A steek is when a garment is knit in the round, and then after some specific stitches are reinforced with either crochet stitches or with a sewing machine, is cut with a pair of scissors.

Yikes.

As of now, I'm feeling pretty confident in my (corrected) stranded knitting skills. The pattern I chose calls for a specific kind of color-work called Armenian Stranding, and I think I'm getting the hang of it.

I am MADLY in love with the fact that the back of the pattern is just as pretty as the front:

So far, so good, Readers! I'll keep posting pictures as this glorious beast progresses.

Until next time!

<3