After a run of cloudy, gray days, this morning was stunningly beautiful. We had to drop my car off to get an oil change first thing this morning but after we got back, we had a cup of coffee and breakfast on the porch. Hubby was reading in the sunshine and I grabbed my crochet hook and some yarn to start yet another project that I’ve been thinking about. Castonitis is real!

At one point I looked up and the Canada Goose Family was passing by and the goslings have already gotten much bigger. We have some huge Snapping Turtles and Bald Eagles, all of whom would make a meal of a little goose. We always cross our fingers for the new babies around the lake.

AND yesterday I got so many little things checked off my list! My college roommate sent me some knits that needed repair. They’ve been sitting on the extra chair in my studio for a while now and I’ve managed to put them out of my mind but yesterday, I pulled a single crochet round off of her favorite (ugly) hat and added a new one and then blocked the hat. It’s drying as I type. She also sent me an Aran sweater that had some wear at the elbow and the folded neckline was coming apart. She’d said that she was ok with my using some visible mending and I did. The elbow will live for another few years and the neckline is repaired and the sweater has been washed and it’s drying with the hat.

I hadn’t been able to find my crochet hooks bag so I decided to clean out the cabinet that holds my “uncommitted” yarns. I emptied everything out because I also wanted to look at the collection of Jamieson & Smith 2-ply jumper weight yarn that I have for two different projects: a cowl that Goodrun Johnston is teaching in season 9 of Knits Stars AND I want to knit a clock face Yoke O’Clock. I was thinking I needed to buy a few colors of fingering weight Shetland wool but I have plenty already in my stash! I’ve now cleaned up and organized the cabinet again and put all of the like yarns in plastic bags to make finding it a wee bit easier. I hope.

I also have a sweater that I knitted for a young woman who I mentored when she was 10. She’s quite a bit older now and is about to have her third baby boy. I made her a Zip Up the Back baby sweater – pattern is Zip Up a Baby Sweater by Marge Webster. I knitted it in Cascade Pacific Prints in greens. This is a great pattern to knit and a wonderful baby sweater. What’s not so great is that I have to hand-sew a zipper into it which is not my favorite activity. But yesterday I got it done and the sweater is blocked, too. (I was shocked that a mass-manufactured yarn bled so much. The water was green!)

That’s three finished objects in one day! Yay, me! I feel lighter already. And that brings me back to the morning today – I cast on a Ruby the Mega Ray. It’s a crochet pattern that my daughter sent to me for my granddaughter and I made it relatively quickly. She suggested that I make another one for her sister and “how cool would it be if you could put one of those corn things inside” … corn things are the microwavable bags that are so wonderful on sore muscles. I’ve made a lot of them over the years. The last bunch for the kids was made after they all got sore muscles after a ski trip up here. So, I’m going to try to adapt a crochet pattern … try, I will. I have a sort-of-plan and if it doesn’t work out, I’ll go back and make the ray according to the pattern. Crossing my fingers my plan works because it sure would be cool!

I’m still making progress on my pink socks. The heel and gusset are finished and I’m working my way down the foot. And I’m also working away on the little pink cotton dress for Sylvie. It’s not a difficult pattern but it’s a lot of purling. If I were to make it again, I’d make it inside out so that there was a lot of knitting …

I’ve cast on another Emotional Support Chicken, too. I had a ball of wool that I found deep in my stash and started the tail in that and then changed to a ball of violet-ish wool that was given to me. I think she’ll have some more of the first yarn in her as stripes around her neck and that should leave me enough yarn to make yet another chicken. Ha! Ha! I’m hooked. They don’t take a ton of time or effort and I am enjoying the process of knitting them. We’ve decided that we’re going to have a chicken coop in the store window this summer and we’ve asked our customers to make Emotional Support Chickens and loan them to us for the window. We’re hearing that it’s a fun idea and hope participation will be strong.

Gone knitting!