the busyness of life, and knitting, and pattern writing has kept me away from the blog lately. i thought i'd just check in with a few things worth mentioning.
first off, thanks for all the support in my attempt to quit smoking. so far, so good! i'm happy to say that it's day 84 today, which is a hell of a lot easier than days 1- 40-something, which were pretty sucky, honestly. it feels pretty normal to not smoke at this point, and i'm trying to not let the bit of weight gain get me down.
a few weeks ago, i packed up a bunch of single skeins of yarn that i had accumulated through numerous trips to webs and the book swatching process and sent them off to robyn for her one hundred hats project. i know that over time the single balls tend to start taking over my stash, so it seemed like the perfect way to put them to good use. you can also help robyn by donating even a dollar to help with shipping 100 hats!
if you ever wanted to thank kate for all the lovely free patterns she's given us, you can go read this post and thank her with a donation to the pspca.
i've been knitting lots of sweaters, but unfortunately only one is even scheduled to be out this year. luckily i have permission to share it's progress.
it's a top-down round yoke cardigan design in the very, very, soft tosh merino. the colorway is called tannehill, and it's almost impossible to describe. the colors look almost iridescent. here's a little peek at the back of the yoke:

the pattern will be out later this year and will be available through madelinetosh. i'll keep you posted here.
i did start a sweater for me as a little reward for quitting smoking. i cranked out the body and part of both sleeves in a couple days, but had to put it away to knit on other sweaters. my plan is to resurrect it right before rhinebeck and finish it up. it's knit in several different shades of rowan british sheep breeds chunky, and has a yet-to-be-determined yoke design.

oh, how i miss knitting for myself lately. my past knits don't really fit that great anymore since i went from a 34 to a 36", and everything else that i've knit this year has been sent away. this gal is going to be cold this winter :(
i'm also dying to knit more for my friend's baby. she's already outgrown the little hats and cardigans i knit for her earlier this year, so i'd love to make a few more. i am also totally using the same little girl as an excuse to buy amigurumi knits
, and then knit everything in it. holy cute!
so, maybe a little vacation from designing is in order this winter. just a month of selfish knitting, that's all i really need.