This weekend just went by too quickly. I can’t remember the last time the family and I  had such a kick back and relaxed weekend! Nick was wonderful, thoughtful and an absolute angel 99.9% of the time… the other .01%? Well, let’s just say he started to get a little out of line, and all I had to do was let him know that it wasn’t cool at all. And he dropped it, right then and there. That’s hard for Nick to do. Normally he will keep focusing on something until he can’t focus on anything else, then everything escalates from there. Not this weekend though, not this weekend. It’s almost like on last Wednesday someone hit a reset button on him, and it’s wonderful! I’m keeping my finger’s crossed that this week continues to go as smoothly.

But that isn’t the only reason for me to grin like the Cheshire Cat. Oh no, I’ve got plenty more to grin about around here! The Gift of Friendship Scarf is a success. At this moment, it has been downloaded 46 times! (Thank you all so much for downloading it, that is the greatest encouragement that you could give me.) I am totally floored. I mean, I am just beginning to design and I was a little unsure of the scarf. It’s such a simple pattern, no intricate lace patterns melting into each other, but still, it seems that I have managed to design something that appeals to a wide variety of knitters. You have no idea of what that has done for my moral. And to top it off? The icing on the cake? My free patterns are going to be listed on Knitting Pattern Central! Yippee! Okay, I know that all you have to do is submit the links and they will be listed, but still, it’s a rush knowing that I am going to have my patterns listed there. It will bring more traffic to the old blog as well as get my name out there a little bit. This can only mean one thing for me, there will be more designs, more patterns, more ideas…..

Yes, the ideas are coming in like you wouldn’t believe. It almost feels like someone is just putting them into my head, telling me just how it should look, or how I can do this. I have one idea, and it might be a little tricky to design at such an early stage, but this idea just won’t leave me alone. I’ve had it for quite some time and I am thinking that I will have to start doing some sketches of it, figure out a few things, do a little math and go find the right yarn to do it all in. I’m feeling adventurous!

I know that I teased some of you with the thought that maybe today I would flash some of the “other” stash, but I think I will save that for another day. Never fear though, this is not a photo-less post by any means! I have been working on something with some of the other stash and I am really loving how it’s all working up.

This is the “Little Leaf Lace Scarf” by Silvia Harding (it is one of her free patterns). The yarn is “Citrine” handpainted sock yarn from my dear friend Delia of The Fiber Denn. (I believe she has discontinued this particular yarn.) You can also find Delia’s luscious handpainted yarns over at KPixie! (Congrats D! I’m not at all surprised that your handpainted yarns are showing up in other online shops! You do gorgeous work!)

Do you see how the colors are zig-zagging? I completely love it and was hoping that I could get it to do this! Reminds me of how the leaves glide down on a still Autumn’s day! I know Autumn is a bit away, but I have been in a scarf knitting mood as of late and when Autumn does come around, I will have plenty of scarves to choose from.

I just got my electric bill the other day….. now, our utilities are split here. I pay one company for gas and another for electricity (when I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, I paid one company for both). I know that I have only been using the florescent bulbs for a couple of weeks now, and for at least a week we didn’t use the washer and dryer because the washer needed repair. However, my electric bill is $25 less than what it normally is. I nearly fell over when I saw that. It will be interesting to see what the bill will be like next month with only using the new bulbs but also using the washer and dryer as we normally would. If it drops anymore, I swear, I will never use incandescent bulbs again.

Even Spurg is trying to be more energy efficient these days. Since the weather has been so nice he hasn’t been driving the car to work at all. He dusted off his bike and has been riding to work. We only live about 4 or so blocks from the paper, but he drives in the winter because of his asthma, (the cold morning air really triggers it badly) and he also drives on the hottest of days. I can’t blame him. He’s just been inspired to do his bit and use the bike to save energy but also get a little workout in as well. I’m still looking for other little things I can do around here to cut down on waste, pollution and our carbon footprint on the world. It’s just a good feeling to know that I am doing the right thing and trying to find more ways to do it.