Today I spent the day exploring Pella, IA with my MIL. I was headed there for my second Moderna vaccine, so we decided to make a day of it to celebrate. After my jab we had a day of mask on exploration.

We visited the quilt store.

We visited one of the many Dutch bakeries in town.

We looked at the tulips.

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Pella does not have a yarn shop, so we headed up to Newton to check out Jan’s Yarn Barn. I had never been to that store, but I will be back. I picked up some yarn for an upcoming shawl, two pairs of slippers for my MIL, and some alpaca sock yarn. The shop owner threw in the fuzzy cake of yarn. She likes to throw in skeins from yarn reps to share with her customers.

It was fun to be out exploring today. It was a nice change of pace.

I’ve started the heel flap on my second sock for my niece. It is time that I admit that when I’m knitting socks for others they take more time. I’m less likely to reach for something if I’m not going to get to wear it right away. Luckily she is an amazing person and knitworthy, so I’m happy to be working on these. I need to focus on them this week, because my Knit Spin Farms Little Known Holidays Sock Club is due to arrive this week. I need my needles free so I can start on those.

Are you working on any socks?

I’ve been a bit of a zombie lately. I don’t want to read. I don’t want to knit. I don’t want to COVID buy craft kids on Zulily. I just want to sit and not think.

That zombie feeling led me to pull out a diamond painting kit I bought early last year and never opened. 24 hours later and I’ve finished two paintings. I’m not normally a fan of adding more plastic to my life, but these kits are perfect for my current head space. I’m planning on framing Mickey Mouse and putting it up in the toy room. I have no idea what I’ll be doing with the Christmas cabin.

Do you have any crafts you like to do when you are feeling brain dead?

After I finished my TARDIS shawl I gave myself a few days to work on my sweater and socks before I cast on a new project. I told myself I could start a project on Saturday, because Saturday Start sounded like a good blog post, and I’m having such a hard time staying motivated with my blog lately.

This morning I cast on a Beloved for my cousin Annie. I’m knitting it with some of Shannon’s Ewe Turn Dyeworks yarn. I love casting on a new project, especially when I get to try new yarn. I’m keeping the project in my fabulous new project bag that Alissa made.

I hope you are having a good weekend. Did you get to cast on anything new?

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I finished Bigger On the Inside. I really enjoyed working the lace. I powered through the TARDIS section, because when a project has over 300 stitches in a row I’m likely to stop knitting it and pick up a fast project.

I’ve had the yarn for this project for nine years. It feels great to get something off my to knit list that has been in my queue for ages. Having a white board for organizing my knitting has been very helpful.

Look! Sweater progress!

It is meant to have a lot of ease, and I’m sort of questioning why I didn’t go down a size.