I’ve started my next Christmas knitting project! I wound the yarn into a cake yesterday morning when I got home from work and did a little test swatch. I had trouble sleeping at first because I was coming up with a pattern and I wanted to start it and see how it was going to look! I might publish this pattern when I’m done. It will most likely be free and on my blog. I’m using fingering weight super wash merino. It’s from Dicentra Designs and I purchased it at Tangled Purls here in Salem, OR. I’m using the citrus colorway and I have about 170 yards of this yarn. My initial thought was to make a scarf with ruffles and ribs so I could call it the ruffles and ribs scarf. I didn’t see a pattern on ravelry that had everything I wanted (which is typical for me). I wanted a reversible scarf that was narrow enough for colors in the yarn to be stripey more than pooled and I wanted it do have just a little bit of something without being too fancy. I ended up with no ribs but lots of garter stitch and I love how it looks with this yarn.

As for further stashdown cristmas knitting I’m planning on toys for the kids, hats for the dudes, and slippers for most of the chicks. I want to keep the pace of finishing something every week but it might take two weeks right now because I’m starting more things than I’m finishing. I have lots of stash diving and pattern browsing to do before I find the right combinations of things for gifts. I also have to work and keep up with school as well as move in a couple of weeks and I have a vacation planned as well… It’s going to be a busy fall!

For anyone who is curious, my pattern so far is:

CO 40

4 rows of garter stitch

K1, *YO, K2tog*, K1

Knit

K2, *YO, K2tog*

6 rows of garter stitch

K2tog across (20 stitches left)

Garter stitch forever until you are ready to do the ruffle on the other end

Increase to 40 stitches probably using the knit front and back increase but I’m not there yet so I might change my mind

6 rows of garter

K2, *YO, K2tog*

Knit

K1, *YO, K2tog*, K1

4 rows of garter

Bind off.

So here I am with my new Caffeine High coffee cup! I have been trying to do homework all morning and it is killing my brain. Listening to lectures and trying to start my papers is never anything I really want to do but since my shifts and work changed I really only have today to get it done. I made a cup of coffee in my new cup to help me get through it and I wanted to share. I'm in my craft room right now and it is mostly a disaster because I have time to create but no time to clean :)

I posted some new cotton yarn in my shop! It took me awhile but it’s not because there is some lack of items to list. It’s mostly because it takes a lot of time to prepare the yarn and it can take several tries to get some decent pictures. I’m a knitter who isn’t much of a photographer ;) I have more green cotton and lots of white cotton that I’m getting ready to list as well as some hand knit items. After all of the cashmere I've sold I need to start working on that as well. Follow me on twitter to find out when new items are listed!

I kept saying that I should walk to the post office when I’m only shipping one package but I kept finding reasons to drive there instead. Maybe it was other errands or it was too hot but today I had no excuses! I only had one package to ship, I woke up before it got too hot, and I did all of my errands yesterday. It felt really good to get a little exercise first thing in the morning. It also felt good to not be stuck in the line of people trying to turn left onto a really busy road. I’ve had two orders so far in the month of August (which is 2 more than I had in the whole month of July). I’m working on getting some cotton ready to post but it’s hard to find the time to prepare yarn, especially with my craft room in shambles from the last round of moving stuff in and out. My goal is to double the number of listings I have by September so that I have enough inventory for the holiday shopping season. It’s an ambitious goal though! Let’s see how I do. 

I picked my first jalapeños yesterday and I slice it up and cautiously took a tiny bite and… nothing! They have no spice to them at all. I quick internet search revealed that it may have been how I planted them, how I watered them, the weather, magic… They still taste like a pepper and I like peppers so it’s no all a loss but I wanted some spicy salsa. I’m picking more and more tomatoes so I might have to go buy some spicy peppers. 

On another topic I only have 5 chart repeats on my shawl before I can start the ruffle! I've been a slow knitter lately.