when life gets in the way of knitting

Things have been a bit slow in the knitting front lately. I've been focusing the majority of my efforts on decorating the house. The Living Room is for all practical purposes complete, and the Bedroom is well on it's way. I'm also painting a faux wallpaper on the Powder Room wall, which I'm unsure about at this time. I'll just need to complete it and live with it for a few days before making a final judgement. I'm also getting busier with my Master Gardener training and will be volunteering for the program by the end of this month.

My sweater has been set aside as of late because I can't make the neck look decent. It looks more like a tall boat neck which is so not the look I'm going for. I've already taken it back once and although this version looks better, it's still not wearable for me. I may need to research some patterns and see how the neck of a sweater is normally done. I should have knit my first sweater from a pattern instead of the recipe from Elizabeth Zimmerman, so that I had the basics down. Oh well, it's all a learning experience.

Most recently I've begun to knit a pair of basic socks for myself out of Koigu KPPPM 537. It's the perfect colorway for spring socks.

spring has sprung!

It's official, spring has made it to Northern Illinois! I found my Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis) sprouting near the front walk! It was 65°F here yesterday and we're hoping for similar temperatures today. I love this time of the year and I love watching my plants grow, it makes me feel like a proud papa!

ravelry

I finally received my Ravelry invite today! There certainly is alot to look at. I'm sure I'll be busy over there for the next couple of days. If you are on Ravelry, feel free to add me to your friend list. I'm "gardenerstitch" there as well.

Stitch on!

what's this?

Welcome to my first attempt at writing a knitting blog. Ok, so it isn't just a knitting blog. I'd like to share many of my hobbies, including: knitting, crochet, painting, gardening, and what ever else I'm focused on at the moment. I can hear almost every teacher I've had, telling me to focus on one thing to write about. Well, in this case I can't. I have so many interests that I'd have to keep up several blogs to share everything, and who really has the time or energy for that? Besides, I figure that there must be several others out there who have the same interests as me and will find these topics palatable if not interesting.

So, who am I? I'm a guy living in the Chicago suburbs with my partner and a dog and a cat. I'm an interior decorator running my own company. My grandmother taught me the basics of knitting and crocheting (gardening, cross-stitch, etc.) when I was very young. Recently, about 6 weeks ago, I began to crochet again. This lead to knitting, which I've only been doing for about a month. I'm working on several projects, I've completed a few and will share in future posts.

I've been reading several knitting blogs and I am very excited to join the blogging community. If you somehow end up here, reading my blog, please let yourself be known. I'd love feedback and some interesting conversation.

Until then, stitch on!