On Saturday morning, I wound most of the rest of the MDK Atlas for the kids' sweater.

Then I hauled it all over to Ann's, where I spent the afternoon doing laundry and a little cleaning -- but mostly laundry -- along with knitting, sipping peppermint tea, and watching a little TV. There'd been seven guests there for the Thursday night football game, and to visit family (the parents grew up on the same street in the '40s & '50s, and Grandpa's old house is just at the end of the block)... there was a boatload of laundry!

The main knitting goal was the striping on the left sleeve. The original design for the 5 Point Bomber (Rav) has a series of narrow stripes in the contrast color separated by wider stripes of the main color. I wanted more color, of course, and ended up doing slightly narrower stripes of six colors separated by narrow stripes of the main color.

I really like how it turned out. And as of last night, that sleeve is finished!

The bright blue cuff is straight from Malina's design. Interestingly, Malina & Ginny made the stripes a contrasting color, but Ali is the only one who used more than one color, and Ginny is the only one who needed the symmetry of stripes on both sleeves! You can revisit all their designs here. I am considering stripes on the right sleeve, but on the upper arm instead? So many questions... the same sequence? reversed? mixed up? all the colors? wider stripes of just a couple-few colors?

?????

Anyway, I spent the entire afternoon at Ann's and it was glorious!

On Sunday I was thinking about the upcoming week and cooking and cleaning. I started by cleaning the sink with the intention of doing a deep clean of the counters and the top of the "Depression Glass Cupboard" that is one of a few catch-all spots in the kitchen. I ended up doing a deep clean of one of the upper shelves in the kitchen to put away the cake stand I'd taken down for my birthday cake. It's been sitting on one of the counters for a couple of weeks now, because that shelf & everything on it was filthy... I just couldn't put it back, even though no one would ever know if I did! I even washed some of the glass panes. I'll tackle another shelf or two next weekend. It's just not fair that the inside of a mostly closed cupboard can get so dirty!

I did the top of the cupboard, too, but never got around to the counters. There's still time... and that's a lot easier in comparison!

I only broke two things in my frenzy, one of which made me sad... the smaller of a couple of nesting bowls that Kate found in Fife. I happened to talk to her yesterday, and it happens that she needed an excuse to visit that shop again, and she'll find a replacement for me.

Tomorrow night I'm meeting Ali at Ann's to prepare for guests arriving for Thanksgiving. At this point, I have a few quiet weeks at my Airbnb, though I really know enough by now to be prepared for last-minute arrivals... especially now that I've said that aloud a couple of times. Anyway, the plan is that she'll come over for a little crafting time sans kiddos, too.

For the first time since September, I'm joining Kat & the Unravelers today for Unraveled Wednesday!

This is the colorbox of MDK Atlas yarn that I'm working with for the kids' sweater. I have enough of the main colors (Navy & Clementine) that I could knit this 5 Point Bomber in two colors per pattern specs but, based on preliminary discussion with the kids about their favorite colors, I also threw in Barn Red, Citron, Pear, Seaglass, Mallard, Lapis, and Tutu.

(Watch for coordinating hats & mittens with the leftovers!)

SNEAK PEEK JUST FOR YOU!! I played around in Photoshop (to the best of my limited ability) (see left sleeve cuff, front view) to color in Holli's sketches per my plan -- subject to change! 

In fact, there's already been a small change. And there will definitely be more stripes -- somewhere -- and maybe bigger. I've incorporated every color -- the kids' favorites -- and I don't know how it's going to end, but this is a great starting point.

It's certainly not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I love it!! 

You may have seen my recent post on IG showing progress as of Monday night*. So far, there are two pieces started and I'll be casting on a third today. Rather than hunt around for stitch holders for all these bits & bobs, I just culled a few of my US5 needles from my collection! haha.

*Lately, and especially now that the days are short, I've been heading straight over to Annie's on Monday nights after work to get laundry started. Laundry is the most time-consuming part of running an Airbnb; it's not so bad at my house/Airbnb, where the laundry room is conveniently located where I live, but I was stopping over at Ann's in the evening (once or twice, depending), again in the morning on the way to work, and again after work. So much stopping! I decided a few weeks ago to just stay. One night, I watched the first episode of the first-ever season of The Great British Baking Show... and wished I had my knitting. Another night, I watched Dancing With The Stars (almost live), and had some knitting but didn't get much done (lost a DPN... rearranged my stitches... and then found it again just as I was leaving). This week, I packed up my slightly-more-portable (than the temperature blanket) 5 Point Bomber, and then spent almost all my time trying to find/watch Yellowstone S5. Good lord. We don't have cable TV, it wasn't on Paramount Plus (to which I subscribe), and who the eff knew that Paramount NETWORK was an entirely separate thing? (I didn't.) I ended up watching E1 (free) on my iPad, and I don't know what I'll end up doing for the rest. Will probably just have to put that out of my head until it becomes available on another platform. So dumb.

But I'm really happy with the sweater!!!!

When the kids were over a few weeks ago, Malina was drawing/writing on the big chalkboard. She was showing me and saying, "D - O - and the letter RAINBOW!"

It's my new favorite letter! I smile every time I think of it.

In related (colorful) news... There's a big new project in the works! For Modern Daily Knitting's new I Made It with Atlas series (previously here and here, so far), I'm knitting a sweater for the kids... NOT a sweater for each kid, as some might be thinking (at least that's not the plan right now), but one that'll fit Junah right now (with a little room to grow) and that all the rest will eventually grow into. There's nothing quite like seeing all the knits I've made for one cycle through all the others -- sweaters that I made for Mack (graduating-high-school-this-spring Mack!) that Davy's wearing now!

The pattern I've chosen to make is Holli Yeoh's 5 Point Bomber (Ravelry). I considered a few others, but kept coming back to the Bomber because of what other makers had to say about it (all links to Ravelry project pages):

• Holli’s patterns are always so well thought out, and the projects are always so enjoyable to knit.
• Possibly the most wearable jacket I’ve made! The pattern is clear and walked through some really nice finishing techniques that I’ve used plenty of times on other jackets.
• This was an excellent pattern, and I would love to knit it again in a different set of colors.
• I’m surprised this isn’t a more popular pattern! A lovely written pattern. Pretty straightforward and easy to follow.
• My first Bomber is one of my most worn items, so decided to make another...
• Pattern is well written and really enjoying this project so far... Really love how this turned out.

As of today, there are only 17 Bomber projects on Ravelry, and 14 in the Project Gallery -- to read such positive comments on nearly half of those made it a pretty easy decision! I have made one of Holli's patterns before, the very colorful JUNEBEAN from her Devan pattern, which I love.

I bought the 5 Point Bomber pattern three months ago today and have been mulling over ideas ever since. I knew I wanted more color, and probably more stripes, but exactly how... that's eluded me. I finally emailed Holli and told her of my grand plan, asking if she might have some sketches that I could use to help solidify my ideas. She sent me PDFs of her original design sketches in a few different sizes -- and suggested that the kids color some, too!

We did that on Sunday when they were over for my birthday (64!) and, well, it's a RAINBOW world!!

They had a blast! And they're SO FUN!!

Ali has always loved fashion and color, so she did some, too!

She also understood the brief and asked pertinent questions about how the knitting is done (is the button band separate, etc.).

So many great ideas! I've already knit a swatch and will cast on as soon as I decide which way to go! haha. I'll keep you posted!

_ _ _ _ _

Things are still crazy at work but beginning to settle a bit. My trip to London was SUPER fun! My birthday was great, too. Obviously, I'm not doing NaBloPoMo this year... I thought of it at the end of October and then again on the 2nd or 3rd and considered "catching up," but it's not happening. Oh well, 13 years is a damn good run! Hope all is well with you.