After an intense few months of working on a manuscript revision in my spare moments (which I finally finished!), I had an entire Sunday to spend with the Fiasco doing whatever we pleased. This meant that I woke up slowly and watched my Three Bags Full DVD and caught up on my knitting– entirely guilt-free! I literally cannot remember the last time I had such leisure time and man, it felt good. Here are a few of the results of my relaxing morning.
First up is a chunky, waffle knit slouch hat that I absolutely adore. It’s a design of my own knit in Malabrigo Chunky in the colorway Pearl. I very badly want to keep it for myself but it’s destined to be gifted. Have no fear, though, I have another skein waiting to become one for a final design sample… and maybe even another skein to become one for me. Good thing chunky hats are quick!
Also quick is pretty much anything knit with Malabrigo Rasta. I freakin’ love this yarn, truly. This cowl (False Creek by Tin Can Knits) took me exactly one day to make. The pattern is perfect and lovely, I knit it exactly as written. This is also the prettiest skein of this colorway (Zarzamora) I’ve ever seen and if I find another I will be snatching it up in a heartbeat. I have a real weakness for multicolored-overdyed-with-neutral type colorways.
It felt good to get a few quick projects finished up with only a few days left for Malabrigo October Stockpile. I’ve completed 4 hats and 2 cowls so far and still have a hat, a mitt, and a new cowl on the needles.
This cowl is a modified version of Millwater, designed by Beth King and knit in Malabrigo Twist (colorway Damask Rose). It is a simple design that produces a really dramatic look with that big, poofy cable placed off-center. I modified the pattern since I’m using thicker yarn and larger needles and the recipient is quite small so I wanted it a bit thinner overall. I started this thing three times before I got the proportions down but I think they’re good now. If you’re wondering, that greyish bit near the bottom is my lazy-knitter’s way of doing a provisional cast on (which always seemed unnecessarily fiddly to me). I learned it from the TECHknitting blog, which is an amazing resource for really useful tips and tricks with great illustrations.
To counteract all that indulgent sitting-around-and-knitting, the Fiasco and I went for walk in the woods later in the afternoon.
Hello, outdoors! Hello, world! I’m excited to be back. Keep your fingers crossed that my paper is accepted so I never have to write those particular pages about horseshoe crab spawning again. I’ve been writing and re-writing the same material since 2009, essentially. Siiiiigh…science! It’s certainly rigorous.
Hope you all had relaxing and recharging weekends of your own!
Woolen Diversions 
Wow, what a great day! I am so glad you were able to be guilt free and enjoy yourself. All of those FO’s look lovely, I really do like that hat!
LikeLike
Thanks, Lisa!
LikeLike
Holy moley. Horseshoe crab spawning? What exactly is the paper about?
LikeLike
haha! It’s an analysis predicting which habitats along the Connecticut coast would most likely be used by spawning horseshoe crabs. They come up onto beaches every spring to spawn, at which time they are vulnerable to harvesting (we use them for bait in other fisheries and collect them for their blood which is used in the biomedical industry) and their numbers have been on the decline. They are most numerous in Delaware and the eggs they lay are very important to a variety of shorebird species that migrate from the southern hemisphere to the arctic and stopover there to refuel. Connecticut’s coastline is very different from Delaware’s, with sandy beaches broken up by rocky headlands, marshes, and developed areas. My analysis will help managers decide which areas might see the most use by crabs and therefore might be best to close for harvesting to protect the population or good to monitor from year-to-year to track changes in the population..
LikeLike