The Novel Knit Girl Blog

So, sometime last week I opened up one of my many yarn storage containers around the house looking for - I can't even remember what I started looking for- and found this pretty coral yarn and lace shawl pattern (my first) that I had a few false starts on and eventually abandoned sometime in the last year or two. I still have it in my Ravelry project listing as in progress, and for some reason, I felt my time would be better spent recasting on this shawl than following through with any of the other projects I was committed to finishing up. I got through the first 50 rows and had to rip out 3 times. The good news is that this was a good crash course in the garter tab cast on and I'm now an expert. And, now, I'm glad to say that I've made it to row 56 and have the correct stitch count and am happy with the progress. Each row is well over 160 stitches now, so it has become slow going. But, for some reason, this came up and spoiled all my plans for last week. Sometim

After a very mild winter, we finally have a snowstorm in March. I've been lazy lately - not with knitting, but with life. I've been working out, trying to cook, and doing all sorts of knitting, but my house is not in order or as clean as I'd like it and I hate leaving the house lately. I think it's finally happening. I'm becoming a knitting hermit. Last weekend was a cleanse weekend. My husband and I gave up hard liquor for Lent (not that we are church goers, but we felt like it was time for us to give something up for a while (or, we're drinking too much and wanted a reason to challenge ourselves to drink less)). I had some vanilla beans and since we're not drinking vodka at the moment, I decided to make some homemade vanilla. Then, I organized the bottom (food section) of my pantry and tossed all the expired stuff and put some of my mason jars to use as organizers. (This is before Kid 2 went snack hunting). Meanwhile, Kid 2 found his baby hat