a tree

Much sweater progress has been made. First, I finished my February Lady Sweater. No pictures of that yet, but I have worn it a couple times with glee. Glee, I tell you. I simply can't wear that sweater and not feel incredibly proud of myself for finishing a project that seemed so out of my league. Especially since I love the way it turned out.

Anyway, the tree. Joe asked me to knit him a sweater using this tree pattern we found on livejournal. It's modeled after the Tree of Rohan from Lord of the Rings. I decided to put it on one of Elizabeth Zimmerman's hybrid sweaters. To tell you the truth, I am much more afraid of doing the shoulder shaping than I am of any part of this tree. The charts provided for it are very easy to follow, and I just love how the tree pattern emerges and gets more beautiful with each row.


My knitter-readers will probably notice that the bottom curls. Don't worry, I plan on adding a ribbed border once the body of the sweater is complete.

cuteness

our new kitties

A week ago today Joe and I went down to the King County Animal Shelter in Kent to check out two sister kitties we found on Petfinder.


We immediately fell in love, adopted them and brought them home.


Joe joked in the car that since they look so much alike they are like two Sharons. The idea stuck and we named them Athena and Boomer after one of our favorite sci-fi shows.


Our last two kitties were not friends, and often got into fights. It's amazing watching these two play together, sleep together, and bathe each other. They are best buds (unlike Athena and Boomer on BSG, who were most definitely not best buds).

busy baking weekend

Yesterday I baked, and baked, and baked.











All the cookies (and the brownies) are for a care package to my cousin in Iraq.

On top of all my cookie baking, I decided to make pizza for dinner.



Today I made Smitten Kitchen's breakfast apple granola crisp. I'm so beat from all this cooking and baking that I didn't get any pictures of the apple crisp. Oh well. Such is life.

pretty dish mat

Using this idea from Amanda Soule's book, I re-purposed one of our old bath towels into a dish drying mat.



I used a Moda Central Park charm pack that I picked up from The Quilting Loft awhile back. I used the quilt-as-you-go method and added some simple bias tape around the edge.



I have a few more old bath towels that need a new life, so I think I'll make some more of these.

new hair

Well, it's still my old hair, just a new look.




My now-tiny ponytail.


This should give you an idea of how much I cut off. Roughly 4 or 5 inches, depending on the dread. They were a bunch of different lengths, anyhow.




My head feels so much lighter now. =)

this moment

From my walk last weekend.


Starting to sprout.