#threestitchtyfive

[threestitchtyfive]

It’s been five months since I picked up a knitting project. Five months of my brain feeling completely drained and over it.

Turns out a pandemic coupled with your partner getting Covid will really take the wind out of your sails. Even though I didn’t get sick. Even though we live in a place that feels relatively safe. Doing any extra projects still felt like too much.

I’ve missed it though. I missed having a break from staring at screens and thinking about work and the world. I missed the slow (sometimes painfully slow) process of making things by hand.

So I’m re-starting the project. Who said the 366 days had to be consecutive? Time is made up anyway.

[threestitchtyfive]

060/366

I finally got this done after planning it for a year. I’ve always felt a little kinship with Boh as this silly mouse, trying to knit and being completely overwhelmed by it. I’m pretty sure I’ve made that face at least once per project.

My new tattoo approach is “does this make me feel happy?” If the answer is yes, then I’m probably going to get it. I’ll typically wait a few months to a year, just to be sure, but 90% of the time I end up with it.

I don’t think every tattoo needs a strong emotional connection or deep meaning. Sometimes you just want to look at your shoulder and see a silly little face staring back at you.

And sometimes I break my own rules and impulsively get tiny totoros from a flash sheet.

[threestitchtyfive]

061/366

I took an intensive, week-long throwing class back in August. After several (dozen) false starts, I managed to make myself a yarn bowl.

It was challenging to let go of my expectations for what I could do — especially as a beginner (and as a, uh, control freak). I threw this tiny bowl on the third day of class. It was the first piece I didn’t want to toss out the window.

It’s quirky af and I love it.

[threestitchtyfive]

020/366 - finally finished. This purple kitty hat was great and weird and hard to do. It’s for my favorite 10 year old who adores purple and loves wearing cat ears. She also happens to have leukemia. If there’s a good kind, she has the good kind. It’s in remission, but she still has 2-3 years of chemo to make sure it doesn’t come back. Which means 2-3 more years of hats. So those hats may as well involve her favorite things. Kitty hats are great, but man, fuck cancer.

[threestitchtyfive]

021/366 - Living in Europe means when we have to travel to the US, I go a little overboard buying things. It’s true that everything (especially after VAT & shipping) is cheaper there. Plus yarns that don’t ship internationally.

One of my favorite things to do as a souvenir of places we’ve lived is to buy yarn from an LYS and make something as an homage to that place. Usually it’s a hat, since I wear those the most. When we left Portland, I bought Hawthorne yarn in Buckman & Ladd’s Addition colorways. I’ve already found some beautiful yarns in the Netherlands. But I didn’t have anything from Montana. So I had this Polkadot Sheep hand-dyed bulky shipped to Austin when we visited. And I can’t wait to start working on my Second Street hat.

[threestitchtyfive]

035/366 - it finally cleared for a bit.

I love the light in our apartment. It’s south-eastern facing, so we get this buttery light well into the afternoon. Sitting in the sun on the couch, knitting, and drinking coffee is just about my favorite thing to do in the morning.

Also I really need to clean those windows. Yikes.

[threestitchtyfive]

015/366 - knitting with kitties around is my favorite. Unfortunately, I’m allergic to cats, so I get to do it in an allergy pill haze. But it’s totally worth it for these little dummies.

016/366 - another side effect of knitting with kitties — I have to keep my knitting in sealed bags all the time or my WIP turns into their new cat toy. One day I’ll make a bag that’s better, but for now I’m just going to use this old zip bag till it disintegrates.

[threestitchtyfive]

017/366 - this huckleberry colorway from Polkadot Sheep in Whitefish, Montana might be my favorite color I’ve worked with. It’s hand dyed and such a lovely, variegated color.

018/366 - I don’t work on deadlines often, but when I do, it’s for very special people. This is after I bound it off, but before washing/blocking/adding the final details. I’ve made variations of this hat (the Alexis hat by Love Fibres on Ravelry) five times now, and it’s always such a satisfying knit.