back to life, back to reality

remember that song?

anyway. for the past week, for me, it has been back to life, back to reality. Today was the first day of school for kids, and all last week was pre-planning. It's been hard to adjust to waking up at 6 am again, but I definitely don't mind being on a schedule. unfortunately, this leaves less time for things I enjoy doing such as knitting, relaxing, reading blogs, writing in my blog...but, such is life. the summer definitely spoiled me!

i have, however, cast on for a featherweight cardigan and it's working up very nicely in yummy malabrigo lace. i have three other projects which have deadlines - 2 for my mom for her birthday in september, and one for my niece's birthday in october. luckily, these are well on their way and should be finished up on time. jake has requested a winter sweater, so that will be my next project and i'm pretty excited about it. it's going to be my first sweater without a pattern - just a guideline. I'm using Elizabeth Zimmermann's saddle shoulder method (his choice), and I'm excited at all I'm going to learn by doing it.

I have also decided after much thought and consideration that I'm no longer going to be selling handknits in my etsy shop (for now at least). I've decided I'm really going to go full steam ahead with pattern designing and focus more on that. Plus, I'll have time to knit for myself and my family, which is something that i haven't really had time to do. i learned how to knit in the fall of 2008 and opened my etsy store in april of 2009, so i didn't really have time to do anything other than knit for the shop or for craft fairs. the things i have in the shop now will be it for a while - besides the patterns. i've got some really great ideas for designs floating around in my head, and a few that are in the process of being written up, including these guys...

Hope you've all had a happy, happy Monday!