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Well, I’m tired of thinking about my Melville sweater, and I bet you are tired of reading about. So instead, here’s what’s next! The Peggy Sue cardigan is next in my project lineup! (photo is from the directions – much better images at the link) I bought the kit for this sweater years ago when Craftsy was getting out of the yarn-selling business, and just never got around to making it. At the same time I also bought enough of the sky blue and the red to make tanks or tees to go with the cardigan. I’m not sure what patterns I’m going to use for those, but have a few idea. The argyle is only on the front, so the sleeves and back are all just plain stockinette, and the yarn is a slightly heavier weight, so this should be a nice quick project! Melville is moving along – I’m pretty far along on the first sleeve and pushing to get it done. But in the meantime I’ll be winding this yarn and getting ready for my Peggy Sue!

We took advantage of the long weekend and some beautiful weather to get a few projects done around the house. First, a long awaited redo of our entry landing floor. We just put down new linoleum tile, but for some reason it took us a really long time between buying the tiles and actually doing it. Here is the original floor with the new tile laid out on it so we could plan. It was in good shape, but neither of us liked the color. And the new floor! Really happy with how it turned out. We also bought and planted an apple tree. We did buy one last year but it did not make it. We read up on care and feeding over the winter, so we hope to keep this one alive! We shall see how that goes. We also started redoing a big landscape wall/planting bed at the front of the house. It has been slowly falling apart since before we bought the place, so it’s been on the to-do list for a while. However, it is a big project and is going to involve moving a lot of dirt and stone before we are done. S...

Still plugging away at Melville! The body and neckline are done and there’s just a few more rows to do on the ribbing, then the sleeves. I am going to start one sleeve tomorrow and hopefully make good progress. They are plain stockinette with a little bit of texture here and there, so they should go pretty quickly. Don’t get me wrong – I like this sweater and am looking forward to wearing it. But it’s been slow going and I’m ready to move on to the next project! What are you working on these days, and how is it going?

The pattern is Worst Witch shawl, designed by Vanessa Ewing of Cape May Fiber Co . and the yarn is a mini set of the same name, also from Vanessa. This was a fun knit – just complicated enough to keep it interesting, but not too complicated either. I love the autumn vibes of this shawl, and I might well also make it in other colorways!

I’m pretty late with this post, because things have been a little nutty. However, here are my reading stats from March I have set myself and admittedly modest goal of reading 25 books this year and am making good progress on that. March especially was a good month. I read the 3rd and most recent book of Annelise Ryan’s Wisconsin-based cyptid hunter series, which I very much enjoyed. The nonfiction books were all interesting as well. April was not so great. I put that down to a lot of travel. I mostly read magazines while traveling last month. I’m not sure why – normally I load up the Kindle and go to town getting some reading done. It just didn’t work out that way for last month’s trips. Even though it was just the one book, it was an interesting one. DH and I love going to caves and Wisconsin Underground is an exhaustive listing of all the caves and cave-like places in and around Wisconsin. I’m getting more reading done this month. Right now I am alternating between Moby Dick a...

Not a lot of change from last week’s WIP show, just a bit further along on both projects. My Worst Witch shawl is ready for the picot bind off, so not a lot left to do on this one I am done with the colorwork part of Melville! I’m a little way into the ribbing now, and have the neckband and sleeves still to go after that. I think once Worst Witch is done, I will start working on different parts of the sweater on alternating days to keep it a little more interesting. And also make some real progress on this thing! What are you working on right now, and how is it going?

Warning – this post will be picture heavy! This past weekend Mr QuiteaYarn and I got started on this year’s yard and garden projects. We started with some easy stuff – adding a little sun dial to a stump we have in the back yard with no other purpose as yet, and putting some flower pots on the back patio. Once the sun dial arrived, it turned out to be comically small for the stump, so we are not 100% sure it’s staying there. But it’s there for now! Then I put together some hanging baskets and a planter and DH installed some hangers on the front porch. We also built two new garden boxes to hopefully grow even more veggies than last year! And finally the toughest thing so far was planting some grape vines. I dug them in on the sunniest side of our house, so hopefully that will help them. However, the ground I planted them in has been very thick lawn since this house was built in the 60’s, so it was tough going to get through the sod and get them planted. However, it turned ou...

I’m still working on the same two projects as last week, but they are both moving along pretty well! Thee are only 2 rows of colorwork left on Melville! And then of course there’s the ribbing and neckband and sleeves, but I feel like the complicated part is almost done, so that feels like good progress. I’m also getting close on my Worst Witch shawl. There’s one more lace section and a picot bindoff left to do. This is a nice pattern and a really pretty miniskein set. They are both fun knits and I’m happy with the way they are turning out!

For some reason, May is a month with a lot of fiber arts related challenges going on. Just for fun, I will see how many of them I can participate in without making any serious effort. Me-Made-May has been around for a while, and is just a challenge to wear and share images of yourself wearing your homemade/handmade garments. I kind of do this one without really thinking about it, so that is pretty easy. Ideally this should encourage you to put thought into what you are stitching and making wise choices with your time and money. Will I do that part? Maybe. My LYS sent out an email invitation to participate in Stitch Every Day in May , which I see a lot of other yarn and sewing stores seem to be doing as well. This is another easy one – do some type of stitching (knitting, sewing, other handicrafts) every day this month. Done! It is the very rare day indeed that I don’t do some type of stitching. Maybe one or two days a year. So I think this one will be pretty easy as well. And final...