A Time For Rest

I hate that it's been so long. It makes me sad, actually. But these past few weeks have been rough, and I've either not had the time to sit down and devote or I've just been too weary, either physically or emotionally. There were two deaths, one that I had to leave the state for. There's been YMP busyness. Easter. Insomnia. Illness. Mal Madness. A LOT of stress at work (the summer is coming faster than you think, and it's hitting my office already).  It's just been exhausting, tiring to experience and too tiring to talk about at length. I spent a lot of time in my head, and I kept thinking to myself, "I should write about this!". I couldn't bring myself to put words to what I was feeling though, there was just too much.

Sleepy penguin!

Candome Hat

This past weekend, though, I finally got to take a vacation. Granted, it was just a long weekend with my hunnie, less than a three-hour drive to Mystic, CT, but it was the only vacation I've had since August of 2011 so I was SUPER PUMPED.  It was a sort of strange weekend, though it all worked out in the end. Just being ANYWHERE but our apartment alone with Boyfriend would have been great, but Mystic is kind of special for us, so it was nice to get back.  We went to Mohegan Sun, walked around the town & Olde Mystick Village (my fave!). We met two ADORABLE miniature Australian Shepherds, which I did not know existed but now I must have. Boyfriend & I have been wanting one but they need way more space than we have; apparently, the minis are calmer and need less space. SO CUTE my head almost exploded. We also went to the aquarium, which I love, & saw the penguins, which I love. I wanted to buy some original Penguin Art but settled for a print & mug instead.

I did visit two yarn shops, I'm proud to say, and I think I did pretty well with my self-restraint. The first was Mystic River Yarns, which was a lovely shop, really. They had a great discount wall, and I picked up a few skeins of different yarns by Ellyn Connor's Yarn Sonnets. The other was really an alpaca farm (though we didn't get to see much of the alpacas themselves, which was fine). Our hotel was 10 minutes from Burgis Brook Alpacas in Canterbury, CT. It was kind of tough to find and when we got there we were a little creeped out . You pull up to a house on a quiet country road surrounded by hedges & high fences with only a few other cars, a padlocked barn to the right, and not a soul in sight. It was a little eerie, but the proprietess heard us and came to open the shop. Once inside it was quite pleasant, although it was mostly mainstream yarns, lots of Malabrigo, Noro, & Araucania, which was kind of a bummer. I was able to score a skein of Aysen and one of Coliumo in Berry (which I actually really needed  for a project I have in mind - I'd swapped for one, but the person stiffed me & thought I was SOL) as well as 2 skeins of their farm blend and one of a corriedale/mohair blend from another local farm. I was well pleased with my purchases, all told.

I got a bit of knitting done, including a bunch of work on the bag I'm making for a swap.  I'd decided to crochet the bag originally, and unfortunately most of what I did was work on this bag. I got to the point where I'd start the cuff of the bag...  and it was WAY too small. I wasn't jazzed about the way that it was coming out anyway (reminding me how much I dislike crocheting) so when we got home for the weekend I frogged it all and started a knit bag. I'm almost done with the body of it, and I really like the way it's coming out. 

I also did a wee bit of work on my Candome hat.  I bought a skein of Rios in Candome during Mal March (naughty me!!) because it was on sale and I'm trying to use it up so I don't feel guilty about having bought it lol. I always love people's pictures of FO's in Candome but I never like the way it looks in the skein... To be honest, I don't know how I feel about this hat that I'm making  either. Something simple, just a plain stockinette slouchy hat, I'll probably put a button or something on it. The only bit of fanciness is that I added some mini cables to the ribbing on the brim. I meant to be able to knit this in the car, though I wound up driving on the way up and passing out on the way home. Now I'll try and punch it out once I finish my bag, though it's hard to work on it because I get bored really fast with the stockinette. Slow & steady though.

I'm hoping things will quiet down for awhile. Probably not for long, but two weeks of routine would be nice.  I'm a creature of habit, I like routine.  I'm all for shaking it up once in awhile, but I've had enough shaking now. No more shaking.  Time now to rest.