And another!

I finished Picovoli last night. What a fun, quick knit, and such a cute top! The only change I made was to add short rows (12 wrapped stitches each side; excellent tutorial here. In retrospect, I would have lengthened it, and now I'm really interested in figuring out a v-neck version. Grumperina's wonderful pattern is here. Here it is:



I would like to point out to String Bean that Picovoli took me considerably more than two days :) I cast on March 25, which by my count is 11 days. Thank you to everyone who commented on the Farmer's Market Bag! I am writing up the pattern from my cocktail napkin notes and will put it up by next week. I do think it's an easy way to ease yourself into stranded colorwork, and the bag is so functional. Marie, my experience with felted bags is that they hold up quite well. The felting makes a denser, stronger fabric than regular knitted fabric. And if it starts to warp out of shape, you can just gently felt and block again to bring it back to its original shape. You could also add a stiff plastic rectangle to the bottom if you were really concerned. Now I just have the Somewhat Cowl, Orangina, and the Heavenly Stole on the needles. But first, I have to make one of these. How cute is that? And I've been kicking around the idea of making a little drawstring-based purse for going out, with some Debbie Bliss Merino Aran in Charcoal held together with sparkly ladder yarn (you know, it seemed like a good idea at the time).

Reading: I finished Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore, and like all his books, I recommend it. Fun, crazy, and wildly improbable, yet witty and well-written. Up next: Not sure yet. The next book club book is The Love Wife by Gish Jen, but I still have some time.

Writing: 17,000 words. At last, progress. (At first, I typed 17,000 pages--wouldn't that be great?)

Cooking: I do have some fun, interesting, and unstructured dinners planned, and the apartment is full of groceries again. I'll be making some standards like baba ghanosh and hummus to go with pita and raw veggies for lunch, and I have at least one interesting pasta dish planned. I'll post recipes as they turn out well :)