Looking forward to May

We've not been having the best week here, the weather has been cold and grey and not at all like it should be. I'd been looking forward to Felicity going to preschool for longer morning sessions and having a bit more time to myself and then Cassie came down with chickenpox so I've had both of them home all week instead. It looks like Cassie should be back to school on Tuesday and then i just have to wait for Felicity to come down with it too. However, May is promising to be a super fun month so there is lots to look forward to.

Pox Child!

Today is the first day of a long weekend, so there's no work or school on Monday which is super useful as it's both the beginning of Me Made May and the latest Boo Knits Mystery Knitalong, Just Be You

Me Made May was really fun for me last year and also very useful when looking at my handmade wardrobe as a whole. I didnt actually find it too difficult to wear an item of handmade clothing every day so I wondered whether to bother again this year as it will probably be even less challenging but I do think it is a useful excercise for identifying wardrobe gaps and focussing on what I need to be making so I went ahead and made this pledge for this year:

"I Hannah of hannahknitsstuff sign up as a participant of Me Made May 2017. I endeavour to wear at least one me made item each day, with no outfit repeats for the duration of May 2017. I will be awarding myself bonus points for kids/husband also wearing handmade clothes,"

This is similar to the pledge I made last year, although I didn't deliberately try not to repeat my outfits. Essentially I will be trying as far as possible to largely wear only clothes I've made myself there are some things I will never bother making, like little jersey tank tops that I wear under shirts a lot so I just stuck with pledging to wear at least one item. Last year i discovered that i didn't have enough warm weather clothing and I found things more difficult towards the end if the month as the weather warmed so I'm currently working on sleeveless dresses and tops just to be sure I'm not caught out the same way again this year.

The main even in May will however be the Boo Knits MKAL. It is entitled Just Be You and there are 6 clues released between 1st and 19th May, which sounds pretty full on but I prefer that to having to wait for days for the next clue when I've completed the previous one. The suggested yarn for this one is Lichtfaden Meridian and as a massive treat for myself I waded into a Sunday afternoon Etsy update and found this one of a kind skein in Violet Grey calling me very strongly.

It made its way from Germany in just under a week and I have to say that it did not disappoint me at all. The purple is just beautiful and the yarn is shiny and drapey and just glows. I honestly cannot wait to get this stuff on my needles!

Picking beads was a a bit more difficult. I ordered 2 different types of beads to try out. Czech etched beads in Crystal Vitrail Light

and Toho Tanzanite Lined Crystal

and at the same time I ordered these Czech Etched Crystal Chrome which I had intended for another project altogether

Of course once I got them on the yarn it was clear that the Etched Crystal Chrome were the ones for me so I had to order a load more as i didnt have enough! Stu disagreed with me and was all for the Tohos but I decided that his eyes must be broken and have entirely disregarded his input.

So I'm all ready to go, roll on May!