Through some sort of miracle I have managed to write my first knitting pattern! This one originated through a small swap I participated in. The charge was to knit a cowl for my dear friend Meg, who I met through the 365 Days project on flickr. I started about 50,000 different things before I finally came up with the herringbone cowl, and I think we’re both pretty pleased with the results!



The stitch pattern consists of zig-zagging slipped stitches. If you can read your knitting well, you’ll only need the pattern for the first few rounds, then you should be able to take off on your own!



So to you, dear readers, I offer the pattern. Please keep in mind that it’s free, and something I did on my spare time, so there may be errors, and things may be unclear.

Download the Herringbone Cowl pattern. (PDF!)

Feel free to email me about any errors you happen to notice!

So I’ve been spending plenty of time online … as usual, way too much; it just hasn’t been on this blog. Not even other blogs that much. I’ve been kind of skimming things but that’s about it. Mostly I’ve been hanging out with my 365 Days Project on flickr. Admittedly, I’ve missed some days in the project here and there (mostly when my old camera broke and I was waiting for a new one), and I took a brief hiatus when we were dealing with Peto’s cancer (wouldn’t it have been nice to document that in some artistic way, but let’s face it, I was just dealing with keeping myself fed and walking back and forth between the hospital and home), but I still haven’t quit yet which is really saying something. Today is day 58, I think. Honestly, taking a picture of yourself every day is harder than it sounds. At least for me. Remembering to do it is hard, and on a lot of days it gets left to 2 seconds before bedtime when I think, “CRAP I forgot, but oh I’m so tired, oh here we go…” and take a picture of myself falling into bed or something not at all artistic like that. But I suppose that in and of itself is a reflection of my life sometimes. I’ve noticed that tends to happen on Tuesdays and Thursdays when I have class. (I know, I know, the schedule of a graduate student sounds so luxurious – trust me. It’s not.) Here’s a couple of my favorites from the project so far:



Why yes, I do post pictures of myself playing videogames in my pajamas on the internet. And you know, it doesn’t really bother me. Anyway, this is clearly from the moment we started playing the new MarioKart for Wii. HOLY CRAP is it fun!!! I think I’m going to go do a couple quick runs after I’m done writing…

New haircut, in sunlight.

I’ve been trying to eat healthier as of late, maybe lose a few pounds before our wedding. I know I know, bride wants to lose weight, bla bla bla, but I came back from Yemen sick in September and when I got healthy I put the weight back on, and then it just kept coming. I’m not pleased.

In knitting news, there’s not a whole lot I can blog about right now! I knit up some cargos from my dear dear friend Jenny’s little son Dylan (soooo cute) in record time, and didn’t manage to take a picture of them before I gave them to him at his first birthday party! Man, that was a fun pattern though, and I put the most finishing effort into it that I’ve ever put into a knitting project, I think. Lots of ends, there were hems involved, and even and elastic waistband!!! The yarn was frogged from the first sweater I ever made (I know, I have no soul), which was an ugly old rowan pattern (and after tooling around on ravelry I can’t find it anywhere, so I guess I was the only one stupid enough to knit this hideous sweater) and that pricey rowan yarn just made much better cargo pants for a baby than it did sweater for me. I did, however, notice this apricot jacket from Rebecca all over the rowan all seasons cotton pages, and HOW. CUTE! I want it, and I may just have enough yarn left to knit that sucker too. Yeah, all I have to do is get a hold of a 4 year old German magazine. No problem.

Besides those pants I’ve knit a present that has yet to be blocked and given to its recipient, a present for a baby that may have been outgrown by now, and a few more stitches on the raspy sweater I started last November. Pretty aimless stuff. I’ve got more gift knitting planned, hopefully I’ll finish it up quickly and put up some pictures!