I’m still working on the diamond trellis scarf, one repeat at a time. My new project is the Frost Flowers and Leaves shawl from A Gathering of Lace. I’m not really knitting it as a shawl, though. I’m using Devon from Elann. It’s 100% wool that they call unshrinkable. That seems like it should mean superwash but they say to handwash it. It’s really soft and nice to knit. The color is called mineral green but Mike insists it’s blue. Whatever it is, I like it! It’s sport weight so I’m making a light blanket instead of a shawl. I love the look of shawls but don’t really see myself wearing one anytime soon.

You may remember this sweater from a while back. The sweather that I loved for many years that finally got too many holes to wear. Well, I have transformed it into this!I felted it, embroidered it with spiderweb designs and added a lining and handles. The handles are just plastic tubing from Home Depot with some orange Lamb’s Pride threaded through it. I love bags.
That’s armwarmer #2 in the bag. The lining is a fun comic book print. I sewed 2 pockets to the inside and I matched the fabric exactly! I was quite impressed with myself. You can barely see them in the picture. One pocket is the lady and the other is the beach scene.I finished my corset pullover! It just needs a light blocking and then you’ll get a modeled pic and all the details. It fits nicely and I’m really happy with it, which is exactly what I needed after the modern bustier disaster. Sorry I never posted a photo of that, by the way. Blogger freaked out on me and then my mom came to visit (so fun!!) and then I figured out how to fix it. Details to come.

In honor of Project Spectrum, here is a beautiful rainbow of flowers. Pioneer Square was all decked out in flowers in honor of the Rose Festival last weekend. Here’s an ariel view and a picture of me and my hot, tired pup.
I love Portland. I also love knitting again, now that I am reminded that I can do something right!

I hope your week is off to a great start, fabulous blog readers.

I try to make myself feel better by saying that I knit 2 mother’s day scarves and 2 silly apple cozies in the meantime, proving I can finish things. But there’s really no excuse. I’ve had plenty of time. The sunny weather has again turned rainy and grey so I couldn’t even wear it if it were done, I tell myself. Again, not a worthy excuse. I could have finished it before the weather turned bad again.

I’m afraid of screwing it up in the final moments. It’s knitted beautifully, the grommets are perfectly aligned but I’m afraid my sewing will mess it up. I need to get over this. Tonight, people, I will finish the stupidly named but very pretty Modern Bustier.

Ah but the finishing will not end there. I have finished knitting all the pieces of the corset pullover. Here is the 2nd sleeve. It will not sit in my basket for weeks. It doesn’t matter that I have other projects I want to work on or that I enjoy knitting more than finishing. I will finish this in a timely manner.

I must admit, though, that once I finished this sleeve, I started something else. I have a good reason. Really, I do. Mike and I took the MAX downtown on Thursday night and the thought of sitting on the train with nothing to knit was terrible so I knitted this: It is much more suited to Portland’s current weather than a summery cotton shirt. Sad but true. I finished it last night but I will not start the other until I finish seaming my other things.

We took MAX to the Rose Festival Waterfront Village. A fancy name for a carnival and we went because it was the 1st night so it was free. It was grey and rainy (no surprise) but still fun! We rode the ferris wheel. I hadn’t ridden one in years so it was really fun!This is the carnival as seen from the ferris wheel. It’s blurry because the ferris wheel was moving.

The carnival didn’t have tickets for the rides, they had a credit card thing that you add money to and gets scanned at every ride! Everything is getting so modern. I liked tickets better. One benefit (maybe) is that the ferris wheel lady forgot to scan our card so we got to go on another ride for free! We picked a spinning ride and this is Mike, mid-spin.
On a completely unrelated note, I greatly enjoy seeing other blogger’s lovely pictures of their cats. You probably are aware that I have a dog, but I like cats too and even have 2 of them. but they are greatly under-represented on my blog.

Because of this my letter K for the abc-along is for KITTIES! Before you get too excited, my pictures are boring because my cats are not nearly as interesting as yours seem to be. They sleep all the time. When not sleeping, they are outside far away from the camera.

This is Gatsby.I found him on Craigs List and after a rocky start he’s a happy member of our household. He was freaked out by the dog even though the dog didn’t bother him and then he ran away and we didn’t see him for almost 2 weeks and I felt really, really horrible for losing him. Then he appeared on our front steps and wanted to come back in. During his adventure he must have decided that the dog is better than whatever he encountered while he was gone. His favorite thing is to get petted. Mike says he’s pushy and needy while I just think he’s lovey and snuggly.

This is Ramona. The pest. She is the prettier of the 2 and she has extra toes on all her feet. I got her before Mike and I got married and while he did help pick her out, she lived with me. After we got married, Ramona decided Mike is a million times better than me. She’s a traitor. She lets Mike do whatever he wants to her but if I just walk by her the wrong way, she hisses and attacks me. Sometimes I think Mike loves her more than me. The only time Ramona ever wants to sit on my lap is when I’m knitting and I don’t want her on my lap. I’m convinced she does it just to spite me.

I don’t want to leave you with Grumpy Ramona so here is something more cheery. These pretty cotton prints were on sale the other day. Check back for some sewing projects in the future!