Brain Dump

Maybe photo dump would be a better title. Either way, this post is going to be a bit of a rambler, so hopefully you can follow along!

First off, happy Earth Day! I'm amazed every day at how beautiful this Earth is, so I especially love this day. Our wonderful planet gives us so much - it's important to take a day to slow down and remember that. And maybe even do something a little extra to help save all those wonderful things it provides us with.

Now, on to the knitting. I've got a few WIPs going right now (and even a couple of more stowed away out of sight). Only one is new - the others you've seen before. This week I cast on for another household knitting project. We've all seen those poufs all over the Internet - they were all the rage for a while. I even made one as a wedding gift a few years ago.  Since rearranging our furniture a few weeks ago, we're left without something to prop feet onto in the living room, so I figured some sort of pouf would work perfectly.

I searched through my library to see if I could find anything different from the standard poufs I was seeing, and stumbled upon this great pattern from Knit Green (how appropriate for Earth Day!).  The thing I like about this cushion is the neat history behind it. A zafu is traditionally used as a meditation cushion, and is usually sewn, not knitted. And while I don't plan on using this for meditation, I hope it'll bring some sense of calm to our living room. Because who doesn't need a little calming at the end of a long day?

I'm making mine a little larger than the pattern, using 3 strands of super cheap Red Heart acrylic and size 15 needles - perfect for something feet will be resting on. Plus, the bulky yarn has been a nice break from the sock yarn and lace yarn from my other two projects. Speaking of...

These guys. They're killing me, and I'm not totally sure why. I beginning to think it's just because I feel like I'm making no progress. I'll knit on them for a while, try them on, and seems like they haven't grown one bit. I don't know if it's because the seed stitch part is just slow going, or if it's because I'm doing them two at a time. I so wish I was one of those people who can just knock out a pair of socks in a couple of days, but they always seem to drag on. I think I'm going to switch from working them at the same time to working them one at a time - that way I'll be able to see them grow at a faster rate, which will hopefully help my mental block.

Because I do love these socks, and at this rate, it'll be next fall before I finish them, but I want to wear them on our trip to Colorado this summer.

My spring top has made a bit of progress since the last time I blogged about it, even though it may not look like it. I'm only 7 rows away from joining the front and back, at which point it will be smooth sailing knitting-in-the-round joy. I had originally planned on striping the body with grey, but now I'm leaning towards making the whole thing pink. This is a photo from right after I started, and the grey yarn is in the background. My concern is that they don't contrast enough, and will sort of just blend in with each other. Thoughts?

And, that, is the end of my brain/photo dump.