Finished Pillow and Finding Balance

Finished Pillow: Entrelac Square from The Great American Afghan Pattern

My goodness!  I have NOT posted a lot on this blog lately. 

A lot of my creative energy has been going into healthy cooking over on my cooking & baking blog; you can read more HERE.  I also recently shared quite a bit about my cruise to Alaska on that blog, so check it out if that interests you. 

I did finish up a pillow with in the past few weeks (or months?) but never got around to showing the completed project.  Above, you can see the pillow top.  This was a challenging square from The Great American Afghan pattern.  I posted about this square way back in March (see it HERE).  My, time sure is passing me by quickly.  I finally made a back for the pillow and got it all sewn together. 

For the back of the pillow, I knit a square on the diagonal using the basic "Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth" pattern.  I just kept increasing until the square was close to the size of the pillow top (on the diagonal) and then I started to decrease.  Both the pillow top and the pillow back have a crocheted edge.  I whip-stitched the top to the back and inserted a pre-made pillow form.  Viola!  A finished pillow.

Currently, I am working on my Skew Socks (see pair #2 HERE).  My goal is to finish up this pair of socks this weekend so I can move on to other WIPs/UFOs.  I recently took a class to make a highly embellished felted bag and look forward to sharing more about that soon.

One of my biggest goals since I retired back in October 2015, was to find better balance in my life. I think the fact that I am NOT knitting a ton is a good sign I am finding better balance.  I have been taking advantage of the time I have to exercise more, but I am also enjoying reading more.  This summer, I have finished up some great books, which you can see below.  I got a bit bogged down in "The Goldfinch", but over all, it was a very good book and an excellent story.  I could not put down "Unbroken" and "The Girl On The Train".  I enjoyed the storytelling in "Unbroken" so much that I am now reading "Seabiscuit" by the same author. 

Otherwise, in my knitting world... I am still teaching my monthly classes using the "Building Blocks" pattern by Michelle Hunter.  The students are currently working on Block #8 of 12.  In mid-September, I am teaching a class at my local knit shop called "How to Use Ravelry".  In October 2016, I am looking forward to participating in a Mystery Knit Along, also by Michelle Hunter.  Sounds like we will be knitting socks from the toe up and the socks incorporate cables, but that's all I know since it's a Mystery Knit Along. I better finish up some of my WIPs/UFOs so I can get cracking on another new project in October!

Can you believe it is already mid-August?  How did that happen.