this time, I'm back for good!

Hopefully, anyway! :)

So, it seems I may have spoken too soon in my last post! After the last time I went off the grid and made a reappearance, apparently, another month and a half has gone by. Whoa! I know it's a cliche to say this, but the time is seriously flying by this year, and it seems that any sort of balance and routine I had in my day to day life just stopped working as of January 1st! But, I promise I have good reasons this time, and also some things to share with you. 

If you follow me on Ravelry, you may have seen the final photos of my scoop neck Julissa pattern:

With 3/4 length sleeves in Madelinetosh 80/10/10 Worsted MCN, colorway 'Carmine'

I'm extremely excited about this version and couldn't be any happier with the final product. My only regret is that I didn't get the samples knit and the pattern written up faster!

The short sleeve version that I posted a sneak peek photo of earlier in March is also now off the needles as of April 20th:

With cap sleeves in Fiberphile Super Squish Worsted, colorway 'Night Walker'

The next step is to get this pattern through the test knitting phase, so I'm afraid I'm not announcing the pattern release quite yet. But, I hope to have some news on an estimated release date around mid-June if all goes smoothly! :)

While busily getting the first draft of this pattern wrapped up, the month of April flew by in general - my day job kept me busy (but I won't bore you with the details of that!) and, more excitedly, my husband and I were planning and preparing for a vacation to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary on May 7th. 

We've never really taken an actual vacation before, so we made a whole 9 day road trip of it. On Saturday, May 5th, we loaded up our car and hit the road on the way to Reno, Nevada. I wish I had thought to take pictures on the drive down - the scenery was so beautiful, and the gradual difference between states and terrains was amazing! On Sunday, we drove from Reno to Las Vegas, where we spent our actual anniversary day and the majority of the time. My hubby made this photo collage of our view of the Strip from our hotel balcony at different times of the day: 

(click to enlarge)

There was so much to do in so little time and we were sad to leave, but made our way back home through California Thursday-Sunday that week, stopping over in Los Angeles, driving up the Pacific Coast Highway from Morro Bay to Monterey, and spending an afternoon in San Francisco before eventually getting home late Sunday night.

Now that I'm back, I'm feeling very relaxed and ready to take on the rest of the year! I'm hoping that now, the dust is settling and that things get back to normal. 

Until next time! :)