It's finished, and photographed, and it makes for snuggliest, softest, warm hug of a shawl. This project was lovely for so many reasons. I cast it on right before we left for Maine and I finished the setup rows on the plane and at airports so that I could knit the shawl body once we arrived (in a more relaxed/distracted vacation knitting mode). It will always remind me of that trip...

One way or another, I've come to believe that I don't enjoy summer all that much. I think it's one tiny part that I'm Minnesotan-born, living in Texas, and multiple parts my attitude about that. I do truly enjoy all that summer is, with it's long days and sunshine and a-bit-more-carefree-feel, even as a working adult. I love the concerts in the park and dining al fresco...

It's been awhile since my last "creative check in." I've finished quite a lot in that time and I have a lot of future plans for both knitting and sewing. If you're new to reading my blog, I do these check-ins periodically to log and plan my sewing, knitting, and crafty projects.KnittingFinished:There are some you've already seen in posts of their own:Scrappy socksBandera shawlNinilchik SwonchoAnd a few that are done, but I haven't written a full post about:a finished gift for a friend's first baby: Mavis baby sweater finished and blocked, but drying Milena Shawl...

I've knit a lot of things over the years, so it's hard to choose favorites. I could write out a list of most-worn items or items that stretched my skills the most at the time. But this project may be the most in-depth knitting project I've tackled to date, and when the temperature cools down again in approximately 5(?) months, I anticipate it will be heavily worn. I do have a little previous stranded colorwork experience with a hat for Nicholas, a Modern Colorwork Cowl, and a Glacier Park Cowl, I had never knit a top-down sweater, or a yoke, let alone a stranded colorwork yoke...

My last several blog posts have been about our recent trip, so it has been about a month since I've written about our day-to-day life. I want to write about trips and big heart lessons, anniversaries and birthdays and life changes, but I also I want to record and remember these days of little things. They are worthy, too. Here are some things, in the format of a little list-type post, about small things I love, that reflect my life, right now, on June 3, 2018...