I'm enjoying the unusual colour combo, it reminds me of spumoni icecream: cherries, pistachios, chocolate.

And now the tricky part: not getting too distracted. The next step is knitting the sleeves in the round from the bottom up, my least favourite part. 

Ah, Saturday morning. Waffles and coffee. A little more tidying. The number of cardboard boxes diminishes very, very slowly.

Fun little week. Started my own Hollywell, finished a couple of other things. Don't forget, the sale is on all weekend!

It's the middle of April, and while some folks are blogging about the first crocus or a day at the beach, I'd like to broach the topic of ice pellets. 

As I tried to wrangle several boxes of swatches into their new spots in my new office, I wondered, what to do with all this swatching? It's useful to experiment with yarn and stitches, sure, but then what? A giant swatch-work blanket? Not really my style. Scan them all in? Sooo much work.

But at the very least, I could share a few of them.

I noticed that stripes are showing up a lot on my needles these days. I think knitted stripes always look good, and are always cheerful. You can mix colours, fibers, and it (almost) always works. Try stripes with lace, stripes with texture, stripes with cables. Stripes are the new... what goes with everything? Salt? 

And of course, great stashbuster.

Weirdly, I don't have many suitable cardigans for this in-between weather. Literally boxes of knitting, but no perfect cardigan. My Arbois was my go-to sweater, but then I put it in the washing machine. Yes, I was conscious at the time. Yes, it is felted now.

I posted a while ago about ordering some Knit Picks Billow for a blanket, in the colour Gosling. Billow is a newish yarn, in a lovely muted palette. It would make a cosy blanket or oversized pullover. 

It's been quiet. A little too quiet. The mess in my office had to be faced. Shelves had to be built, anchored, moved, re-anchored. Deadlines had to be met. And two weeks later, success. The printer has a home, my yarn is sorted and labelled in clear plastic bins, and all the files are filed.

Cleaning is good therapy, and forces one to Make Decisions. Decisions made:

Have found swift, tripod, camera. Never lost coffee machine. TV located, intact, in Toronto warehouse, and delivered yesterday. Downton Abbey and knitting anyone?

Snowing again. If Ottawa does indeed have Four Distinct Seasons as people keep telling me (sounds like a Tarantino-Merchant-Ivory collaboration) then this is distinctly winter. Which I'm totally fine with. But let's call a flake a flake. People are funny about their own weather. I was living in Vancouver when David Duchovny infamously complained about filming the X-Files there because of the rain, and Vancouverites were frothing at the mouth with indignation. But it does rain a lot in Vancouver. Anyways, I digress.