rough cuff

One of the great things about our new location is that there are always little unexplored hiking areas within a 30-minute drive.  On Valentine's Day, we drove out to Lake Monroe, which is about 11 miles from our temporary apartment.  Blue skies...

...big water.

Borga was not a fan.

It's mid-February, but I'm definitely noticing signs of spring.  Even on dark, 20 degree mornings, birds are starting to sing around 6:30 a.m.  The winter palettes of morning sunrises continue to be amazing.

And I'm seeing some green on the trails.

Still plenty of earth tones and fall leftovers...

...but I'm loving the slow changes.  As the weather warms, we'll be out on the trails several times a week.  I'm really looking forward to it!

I'm still working on my watercolors...

...and knitting.  I've finished one arm and cuff and am working on the final side panel.  The cuff construction is pretty remarkable.  You cast on several stitches with a spare needle and knit the stitches, picking up another stitch from the sleeve end each time you make a round.  Although it looks strange at first...

...the cuff emerges, sideways, and first-row slipped stitches create a tidy "braid" that separates the cuff from the sleeve.

It's unblocked, but I'm really pleased with the finished piece.

There's a little 'V' where the cuff gaps open.  I think it's a really cute detail.

I'll keep working on it and hopefully will finish up in the next few weeks!

Todd asked me to create a "We've Moved!" picture for our website, which hasn't been updated in a while.  I made a few silly ones...

...but to me, this really epitomizes my feeling about those horrible sleepless weeks preceding our trip.

We love living in Bloomington and have slowly started looking for properties again.  Moves are always tough, and we have about 8 storage units crammed full that will be a pain to relocate, but it won't be anything like our move from South Carolina.  I'm so excited about finally setting up a hobby farm and slowly adding animals to it, to establishing a large garden, and to customizing our house to our specific needs.  Hopefully I'll have some news in the next month or so.

Have a great week!