Apartment Hunting.... Witch Place Should We Live?

Yikes! It's been a little while, but life has been so eventful the past week or so. Let me skip to the most exciting news though... My fiance Michael and I went to visit Salem, MA on Sunday to start our apartment hunt, and it turns out we found a place already! I am so relieved that we found a place we really like AND that the apartment search is over. As anyone who lives in Boston can attest, apartment hunting, especially for a September 1 move-in, is an awful, stressful, and all-consuming process. Turns out Michael and I will be moving on May 1, so we will no longer be on the September cycle. That also means we will be moving pretty soon!

Michael and I on the commuter rail out to salem. I'm sporting my new Broken Ribbed Cowl.

So unfortunately I don't have any pictures, but we may try to see the place again soon. The place has two bedrooms with a big dining room and even bigger living room. The living room was so bright when we toured the unit. The house used to belong to our realtor's grandmother, so there are some aspects of the house that are old and grandma-like. I'm thinking particularly of the shower door which has swans etched into the glass and the old stove. BUT there is a brand new washer and dryer, with more options than just hot and cold water.

Downtown Salem is just so quaint and full of history.

We are extremely excited for our new place. Neither of us have much furniture, so it will be really nice to be able to decorate the place together. Luckily we have similar taste and its not halloween-themed thank god. We want the place to have traditional New England maritime look. Not quite sure what that means exactly, but I'm thinking navy and neutral colors and a whale plaque. I'm also hoping to commission a handmade coffee table and end tables from my talented brother Paul.

Coffee table handmade by my brother.

Before the excitement of moving turns into stress from packing, I'm making it a point to find some pretty house-related projects for our new home. I can start to look for new projects now because....

[FO] - Gloucester Baby Blanket

Finished Gloucester Baby Blanket! On to the pattern!

.... I finished the Gloucester Baby Blanket! This was a fun project for me, all the way from the design to finishing it. The design was not too complicated to develop. As I was looking through an old knitting book of fishermen sweaters, I found a herringbone motif that I really liked. I adjusted it slightly, then added a cable, and filled in with moss stitch, and Voile! The pattern was conceived.

Close up of the motif. It is so hard to photograph this lemon yarn color correctly.
The picture above is much truer to the actual color.

But now I have to actually write it up. Thankfully I was very good in taking notes, but I am experimenting with how to write and chart the pattern to make it easily understandable. You can expect this free pattern to be available soon... hopefully within the week.

I would love to get around to it this weekend, but I will be busy at the 2015 Fiber Camp here in Cambridge. This is an annual get together hosted by the Common Cod Fiber Guild. It is my first time going to one of their events, and I can't wait. I'm particularly anticipating getting my hands on a new book called From Folly Cove by Julia Clay-Farwell, as she will be there to sell/sign her book.  I've been wanting to start her sweater Natti Turtleneck, but I've been waiting until I can buy the book.

Our first trip to Folly Cove (plus another picture-taking tourist who refused to move).

Folly Cove was one of the first places Michael and I discovered on our frequent trips to Cape Ann. On our first trip to the north shore, we spent all day walking around Rockport, and the last stop on our long journey was Folly Cove. This was right after we finished eating lobsters at the famous Lobster Pool.

Michael and I on our first trip to Rockport. 

So more to come next week... a new pattern, a new sweater to cast-on, and a review of the cool new things I learned at Fiber Camp! Also, I'll be volunteering at the registration table both days 10:30am-12pm, so stop by and say hi!

Here's a bonus picture of Rockport, MA at sunset. The view is breath-taking.

Down To The Wire

Since moving to Boston four years ago, I've met a lot of great friends, and now two of these friends are having a baby! This has been a big year for everyone. Heck a big semester more like it! When I was in Germany this past fall, two couples got engaged AND married while I was gone. Plus, in one month we will welcome what will probably be one of the smartest little boys in Cambridge, if he's anything like his parents.

Before I moved to Boston, I lived in Dallas for two years, which despite the heat, was a great experience. In Dallas, it took me about a year before I started making close friends. Then when I finally got to the point where I had really strong friendships, I had to up and leave. While I don't regret living Dallas to move to Boston, I do wish I could have stayed just a little longer.

But again, I'm so happy to be in Boston, and I am enjoying being in one place for a while. It's amazing to look back over the past four years and see just how much we've all grown. I know eventually we'll all go our separate ways. In fact, many of us are already starting to move farther out of Boston. I'm just glad that we get to celebrate some big milestones this year!

[FO] - Baby Genius Burp Cloths

Plus with big celebration comes big knitting projects, so I'm excited about that too.  The Gloucester Baby Blanket went on hiatus this weekend as I wanted to make some burping pads for the new baby. We had a big dinner last night as a baby shower, and I wanted to give the expecting couple something hand knitted. This dinner was planned only a few days ahead of time, so I needed to knit something fast.

Three Baby Genius Burp Cloths

I've had this Lily Sugar'n Cream Stripes around forever, but never knew what to make with it. I like the idea of the striped colors, but when I did a swatch, I just didn't like how abrupt the color change was. In an attempt to go cold sheep and eliminate most of my yarn stash, I perused projects on ravelry made with the same yarn. That's when I found this project. She used two colorways of the striped yarn, denim and lime, and I loved the finished look. Using the two colors really broke up the striping, making the color changes more gradual and less harsh.

I only had the lime colorway, but I did also have solid white. So with these colors in hand, I casted on some Baby Genius Burp Cloths on Friday night. Now, the only bummer about this pattern is that it's not available online. Luckily, the Brookline Public Library has a vast collection of knitting books, including the book where the pattern is from, Mason-Dixon Knitting.

The impressive collection of knitting books at the Brookline Public Library!

The pattern itself is very easy being only a two row repeat. Nevertheless, it took me a while to knit. It was one of those patterns were I had to constantly look at my work in order to know what stitch to make. I spent most of the weekend up until the last night working on these three burp cloths. I wasn't sure if I would even have time to finish the third...

Despite being a simple pattern, it required a lot of attention while knitting.

Despite my doubts, I managed to finish all three in time! I took every chance I could to knit, even during a Boston College hockey game on Friday night and a long walk through the garden on Sunday night (aka during several episodes of The Wire).

Last home game of the season for the Boston College hockey team. Go Eagles!

For the rest of week, I will focus on finishing the Gloucester Baby Blanket. I hate letting projects hibernate for too long. Here's to hoping it'll be an FO in the next post!

Seriously... this snow is never-ending!

Remember when I said I was in no way sick of snow? Well, I changed my mind. Now I'm kind of sick of snow. New England is bracing itself for yet ANOTHER blizzard. Neptune I think it is? And on a sidenote, since when have we been naming blizzards? I thought it was just hurricanes... Anyway, Michael and I had plans to venture to Salem tomorrow and spend the day drinking tea, strolling in and out of little shops, and make a visit to a new LYS called Circle of Stitches for their soft opening. Unfortunately, public transportation, which we refer to here as "the T", is officially shutting down  from tonight through tomorrow night, making us postpone our day trip.

When the T shuts down, there is not much going or doing around Boston. Yes you can walk, but there is already a ton of snow on the ground plus another foot to come, making it quite difficult to walk around unless you have cross country skis or snowshoes -- which people, including my roommate and friends, have actually been doing. I am not a big skier, as in the first and last time I went skiing, I ended the day by faking an injury because I was too scared to go down the mountain and wanted to be sledded down. That means I'll be snowed in at home yet again. Fortunately, I get to be snowed in with Michael, and we will indulge in a day filled with tea drinking, knitting, reading, and foodmaking (my vote is for pizza and tacos) while wearing our flannel pajamas. I guess snow days aren't THAT bad.

WIP - Gloucester Baby Blanket

So I felt very productive with my knitting this week, and I'm hoping to keep that up tomorrow. I'm still test knitting my own pattern for the Gloucester Baby Blanket. This blanket is knit sideways so that "stripes" are horizontal. I am a third of the way done now, and I'm hoping to make some serious progress on this tomorrow. I'm eager to finish so I can finally share the pattern!

FO - Slouchy Fisherwoman's Hat

Besides working on the blanket, I started and finished this Slouchy Fisherwoman's Hat last night. This hat is basically twisted ribbed throughout (K1TBL, P1 repeated), and you can find this very easy pattern here. It was such a quick knit, especially since I used this bulky alpaca yarn I brought back from Germany. I originally made this for the etsy store that my mom and I have called Huber Stitch Originals, but I love it so much that I might keep it for myself and make a few more later on.

Well I'm off to catch the T home before this blizzard starts yet again. On a much a lighter note, happy Valentine's day to everyone! Charles Schulz said it best that "All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt." He did forget to mention wine though :) Hope your day is full of love, chocolate, wine, and yarn!

A Never-Ending Snowstorm Means Never-Ending Knitting!

For those who haven't been keeping up with the New England weather, we are amidst the most epic and never-ending snowstorm of all time. No exaggeration. Since my last snow day post, we've had three snow days, and it takes a lot of snow to shut down Boston. Most of Boston is exasperated with the weather, but I must admit, I've enjoyed living in a winter wonderland. Fortunately, I can say that because I don't have a car or driveway shovel out, and I have a job that allows me to easily work from home. Plus the snow days allowed me to sneak in a few extra hours of knitting, so I can't complain.

Before I get to the actually knitting, I just want to take a second mention two other feats I accomplished this week: stash organization and blocking! These are on my list of bottom 5 knitting activities (along with weaving in ends, grafting, and frogging). Even though I dislike the process of organizing and blocking, the end results are worth it.

Blocked - Hive Mind Cowl

Here is a test knit for the Hive Mind Cowl that I finished knitting last month. The pattern is not available yet, but when it is, I'll let you all know. It's made out of this bulky alpaca/merino/acrylic blend, and the brioche stitch makes this even softer and squishier. The cowl is a holiday gift for my fiance's friend, but I didn't want to give it without blocking. Now the gift is very late, but I'm so glad I waited. It looks so much better.

FO - Eugenia Mittens

I also managed to finish the Eugenia Mittens started on the last post. I mostly followed the pattern as is, but I did the following modifications:

• used a 4.0mm needle throughout, 
• worked rows 1-16, 1-16, then 1-10 in the cable pattern, 
• started the thumb gusset at row 7 instead of row 5, 
• only worked thumb gusset until there were 13 stitches, and
• picked up 4 stitches when working the thumb, then k2tog twice on the next round.

Overall I liked how these mittens turned out. To be honest, I have a love-hate-love relationship with mittens. I love how they look, then I hate making the thumb, and then love how they turn out. These will also be a belated gift. One day I will catch up with all of these gifts!

WIP - Gloucester Baby Blanket

This weekend I also started drafting a pattern for a baby blanket, which I will share here once its done. I'm calling it the Gloucester Baby Blanket, as its inspired from an old fisherman's sweater. 

Now I'm off to get ready for work tomorrow. I almost forget what that's like!