Green Envy

My Green Envy socks, which I started at the beginning of the year, are done!

I've had more comments and questions about this yarn than any yarn I've ever worked with. The colors are gorgeous. It's been wonderful to knit with. And it's box store sock yarn, Heart & Sole (from the same folks who bring us Red Heart Super Saver!)  When I first fell in love with sock knitting, it seemed like all of the really pretty colors were expensive hand-dyes. Knitpicks has always had drool-worthy colors, but I love that I bought a skein of this yarn along with my groceries!

As soon as I had the last stitch bound off, I cast on a new pair with a different colorway of the same yarn.

I'm linking this post to Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, Get Crafting Friday, Pinworthy Projects, Freedom Fridays, Inspired Friday. and Friday Favs.

{Yarn Along} Until You're Mine

What I love most about this new sock is that it's not green. I love green, I have tons of green yarn and fabric in my stash, but I really needed a change. Except for the color, these socks are identical. It's the same brand of yarn, the same needles, the same number of stitches -- but these are knitting up so much FASTER!

This is three evenings of knitting and one of those evenings didn't start until after midnight. Maybe I knit faster when I'm stressed....

With two stepsons, a husband working away from home, her own busy job, and a new baby on the way, Claudia Morgan-Brown needs outside help. Zoe seems to be the perfect choice, an experienced nanny with fantastic references. But there's something about her that makes Claudia just a little uncomfortable.

Until You're Mine by Samatha Hayes alternates chapters between Claudia, Zoe, and Lorraine, a police officer investigating a series of brutal attacks on pregnant women. Claudia and Zoe's chapters are in first-person; Lorraine's are in third-person. Sometimes it's not clear who is telling the story and I wound up guessing whether it was Zoe or Claudia based on whose "turn" it should have been, at least until a specific detail gave it away.

I enjoyed the book, but after the first few chapters I got tired of the way that Zoe's chapters made it so clear that she was hiding something. I saw a few of the twists coming, but others took me by complete surprise.

For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis. And be sure to come back tomorrow to enter the giveaway!

Disclosure -- The publishers provided me with an electronic ARC.

Dollhouses

I have a dollhouse. (Actually, I've got two -- one in the attic and one up in my sewing room with yarn stuffed into the empty rooms.) I've always had vague plans to get the fancy one set up again one of these days, either when my kids are older or when I think of an inaccessible place to put it. It's been low on my list of priorities. 

Then Joanna Campbell Slan started making dollhouse furniture and posting about it on her Facebook page. Which led to a Pinterest search for dollhouse tutorials. Which led to a birthday trip to Dot's Dollhouse on the coast and much drooling and even more Pinterest searches after we got home. I'm now following about a dozen different blogs about making miniatures and pestering Teenage Daughter about polymer clay techniques. 

I can't remember when or how I got interested in dollhouses. But I think that might be the culprit:

I walk by this thing every single week, but I stopped actually seeing it a long time ago. When I was little though, a trip to the library was not complete without looking at the contents of every room.

I love that parlor. My dollhouse needs a vacuum cleaner. And a clock like the one on the mantel. 

Taking pictures through glass is not one of my skills, but you get the idea, right?  I don't know when or if I'll get around to making any of these tutorials that I keep pinning (here if you want to see what I'm obsessing over), but it's sure fun to look and daydream!

A Little Something New

I've got lots of things to get done over the next few days, none of them to do with quilts, but I took an hour before bed Saturday night and decided to just start cutting and see if I could get the pieces ready for a two color baby quilt. Those strips and squares didn't take long to cut, so I sewed the strips together and pressed them open and cut them into segments....and by the time my hour was done I had all of the nine-patch blocks done. 

Another little chunk of time and I'll have the snowball blocks done and be ready to assemble the top. As busy as things are right now, I need to remember that quilting and knitting calm me down and that stealing bits of time to catch my breath is a good idea.

This post is linked to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.