Vacation Day Two

We had a lovely drive out of town this morning.  Beautiful weather all the way, with only a slight delay hitting traffic crossing into Cincinnati.  Our friends in Columbus received us with open arms and a beautiful candlelight dinner.  It's been a wonderful day getting to know a couple that knew my husband for years before I ever met him, and hearing stories of their adventures all over the world.

They've met presidents, worked with celebrities and legendary performers, and taken away a boatload of wisdom from their experiences.  DH is scanning photos as I type; proof that all this stuff really happened!
Tomorrow I'll get to meet another of 'the gang' and hopefully get another glimpse of the life my husband led before we met. 

On the drive today, I knit like a pirate discovering buried treasure.  Row after row after row of purple cables.  I have hurt my shoulder and believe it or not, it hurts to knit when I'm on a cable row, just the pulling of the two twisted stitches!  Is that lame or what?  Okay, literally it is kind of lame.  :-)

Vacation Day One

I'm officially on vacation.  I'm not at the airport or waiting to take the train into the city.  I am on my very own patio, sipping strong coffee, wearing my oversized T-shirt and shorts, enjoying the breeze.  Lots of kids are  playing  in the surrounding back yards, but I can't see them because of the privacy fences and trees.  I like it that way.
It feels like I'm already out of town, because I've turned off my mental clock.  The one that says I better hurry up and get (blank) done before (blank).  My biggest obstacle to vacationing is my state of mind, period.  So I'm mentally undoing everything that might have been on my mind to trouble me.  I'm about to embark on my  25th anniversary trip with my dear hubby (DH). Being with him is always a vacation, because he takes care of everything, probably better than a travel agent or tour guide.  I get to be a tourist and not do anything.  He does all the detail stuff and he really enjoys it, I think. Anyway, he does it all and I only have to pack.  We're not going anyplace fancy so I don't have to pack high heels or dresses that might need pressing. Just jeans, shorts and flip flops, t-shirts and sundresses.  Yes!

I've got my knitting bag ready to go; the purple cabled pillow top with an extra set of needles in case the harmony needle tips break at any point.  Mind you, I will be going to at least one yarn shop in each of the cities we visit.

The first stop will be Columbus, OH where we're meeting with some old friends of my husband's.  He toured with them, back in his rock & roll days and I've never met them.  We leave first thing in the morning, driving not flying, and my son and his wife will be housesitting while we're gone, so we don't have to stop the mail, turn on lights or move trash cans.  No worries!  Just hitting the road.

Ducks and stockings

I've got a hankering to do some fair isle knitting recently.  I think that's a good sign, since it requires concentration and I've haven't wanted to do anything but mindless knitting lately.  There are literally thousands of fair isle designs and variations and I have some favorites, but am willing to try something new and maybe a bit more challenging.  In fact, I'll let you in on a secret.  I'm thinking of trying a Christmas stocking.!   With all the heat of the summer, sometimes I just need to look ahead a little.  Further down the road than the weather forecast can predict.

In the past I've made mittens, a vest, a sweater and some socks.

Fair isle is not nearly as difficult as you might think, and well worth trying, especially if you already knit in the round.  Watching the pattern emerge as you go is like getting a prize from a gum machine.  It always is a little different than you thought, but not necessarily in a bad way.

The colors choices are endless and the only really hard part is keeping up with the chart.  A few years ago we went to Memphis and I stopped in a yarn shop and bought this magnetic board.  It's a great way to keep up with the lines of the grid, and believe me, you will need help.  A sticky note or something to stay on track.  Do not trust your eyes - take it from someone who's been there.  No matter how sure of yourself you are, you will eventually get off just a little, and you won't know it for at least one or two rows.  Un-knitting several rows of fair isle is no fun.  No fun at all!

I used to do a lot of cross stitching back in the 80's.  I had all kinds of embroidery floss and a million cross stitch charts for some reason.  I don't know why, but ducks were extremely fashionable back then.  I remember a particular job I had as a loan officer, where there was lots of scrap paper in the copy room that was mine for the taking.   I would copy duck patterns for cross stitching on the backs of botched loan packages.  That's probably illegal today and anything confidential like that is shredded immediately.  But those were simpler times. Ha.

Anyway, I gave away all my cross stitch stuff over a year ago, and I am on a mission now to find just the right fair isle pattern. Merry Christmas!

Don't judge a book by its spine

Whenever I see bookshelves, I get a little rush, cause I know hidden treasures are found there.  Often people are quick to pass by a book, based on it's spine.  We hardly ever get to see the cover, if the books are on a shelf, although nowadays, we see more book covers online than in person.  That's a big plus for booksellers and a big plus for me.

I can tell right off the bat what genre of book I'm looking at, based on the font, the decision to enlarge the author's name or the title, and of course the artwork.  That said, I try to give most books a chance, by reading the first several pages.  You'd be surprised how good a book can be, even if the book has a so-so cover.  I especially like book review magazines and newsletters.  I get most of my books based on recommendations from other readers and/or reviewers.   It pays to listen!

Okay, so I took a little weekend trip with my husband to a nearby city for some refueling, and it was truly worth it.  Free room and board, thanks to my in-laws, and a neat concert by one of our favorite songwriters.  The drive was super short.  I started another pillow on the way with this great purple-y yarn in my stash from way back when.   I love the color but have never found just the right project for it.

I love the way the cables are showing off the subtle color variations.   I think the wool was dyed and then I spun it, but wasn't happy with the uneven color at the time.  Now it totally makes sense.  Beautiful bits of blue, purple and lavender, and even a bit of periwinkle I think. 

The yarn is coarse, but since I'm making a throw pillow, it won't matter too much.  Just for looks, you know!

Today was not a bad day, in spite of the dread I had about it.  I wasn't looking forward to the work that was on my agenda, and I had not slept well, after waking from a bad dream.  I've been having weird apocalyptic dreams lately, and this one was unsettling, as opposed to the last one that was just weird.  But regardless, the day went by quickly and I still had enough time to get in some grocery shopping after the trip out of town; fresh milk and fresh fruit! I need to go start supper!

Tipping Points

 Last night I made myself a fancy coffee that was so darn good, I had to make another one. Problem is each coffee had two shots of espresso.  That makes 4 shots of espresso before bed ! I read for a while, watched TV, browsed the internet, and thought of numerous ways to solve the crisis in the middle east.
Even after I finally fell asleep, I tossed and turned all night long.   And I paid for my mistake all day at work.  It was like a coffee hangover.  Clearly I am no party animal! 

I have a bag full of knitting needles, literally.  I have almost all  (10) sizes in three varieties. Regular straight needles,  double pointed needles and circulars.
 Non-knitters probably wonder why one would need so many needles , but for those of us that knit, it makes perfect sense.  It's like having sunglasses, reading glasses, and regular glasses. They're all good, it just depends on what you need them for!

After I spun up the self striping yarn, and started to knit the swatch, I decided on using  the new Knit Picks Harmony needles, size 6.

The self-striping yarn is a complete success by the way; this swatch has three stripes from one strand of yarn.  The weight, size and feel of the yarn is great.  Very sock worthy, and that is what most people use self-striping yarn for.  Socks! 

Currently in the news there are about 5 public figures whose careers are going down the drain because of their refusal to make a right choice and deal with something they know they should address.  They are at a tipping point in their future, and we are all rooting for them to make the right choice.  And yet they don't.  They are so convinced that they are right and everybody else is wrong.  Sadly, they become a joke on  late night television.  Playing fast and loose with people's lives. What a shame.  What a doggone shame.

Card of Many Colors

The new issue of Spin Off magazine has a great article about spinning self-striping yarn.  When you're aiming at self-striping yarn, you usually think of roving that's been dyed for that purpose.  This method in the magazine is so simple and obvious that you think, why didn't this occur to me sooner??  Totally worth the price of the magazine, just to get some inspiration; so there's my challenge.  Beautiful cover and great articles!

I was so inspired that after carding a little wool yesterday, I had to give it a try today.

I have only spun the singles, so I won't post those pictures, but the semi-circle above is a rough try at carding with distinct color ways. 

The idea of laying your locks side by side and making rolags of different is the premise of the article, but I did my carding on the drum carder.  I can't wait to ply the yarn and try knitting a swatch!

Here's my latest FO.

I finished the Coral Cables pillow front and cast off this afternoon. The fact that this only took about two skeins of yarn gives me hope that one day I will use up the yarn in my stash, since it consists of two skeins of every color known to man.  Hope is a good thing!

We are making plans to take a trip soon, to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. Columbus, Cleveland and Ft. Wayne. Woo Hoo ~ Our anniversary was back in December but we're just now able to get away! I'm looking up all the yarn shops in those cities, and my husband has already bought tickets for the event he wants to attend in Ft. Wayne.  If I play my cards right, I might just have some self striping yarn to take with me.  Hope is a good thing!

Sad news about the Cocoa Bear hoodie.  In piecing it together I've somehow managed to not make something correctly and I don't know what.  There are vague piecing instructions so I've had to rely on my sewing know-how to manage, but clearly I'm not good enough.  It's just not going together like it should. Best thing is to lay it aside and pick it up later when I have  fresh eyes.  (Exhale and sigh. ) 

Coral Cables

The heat of the summer has hit full force this week.  After all the cool, rainy days of spring, we are now experiencing summer like temps and humidity.  Oh my gosh, what a change!  If its gonna be this hot, I would really rather be at the beach, okay?  I think I filled out the wrong form when I ordered my weather for June!!
But, in keeping with my Florida thoughts,  I have to show you how fast I'm knitting on this Coral Cables pillow.

I've done an outstanding job, don't you think?  Okay, maybe I shouldn't brag yet, but I feel good about how much progress I've made.  BIG honking needles make it go so, so fast!

This calendar page has lots of colors I'd like to find to make some complimentary pillows with.

Watching the movie "BIG" with Tom Hanks last night, reminded me of a job I had over 20 years ago doing something similar to what 'Josh Baskin' did when he found himself to be larger than life.  He got a job at a toy company doing data entry.  That's what I did back in 1986 for a music management company.  The company I worked for  collected those little pieces of paper that people filled out at concerts when folks wanted to be put on the mailing list for upcoming concerts and events.  Now that kind of thing is all done through the internet, and that type of work is probably obsolete, but for me back then, pregnant with my first child, it seemed to be a great job with little physical exertion and lots of quiet, routine work to look forward to. ( I don't like drama.)
I love the way Tom Hanks' character walked into an environment whistling his own tune.  He did not know what his future held, but he certainly made the best of it.  Even to the point that he had to decide if he wanted to go back to his old life.  The lives he changed while in an adult world, were better off for his presence.  What a great example!  I wanna be like that.  No matter where I go, and no matter how long I stay, I want to make the best of the situation. 

Full Steam Ahead

When knitting with massive size 13 Addi Turbos and two strands of worsted weight yarn, there is no stopping what my hot little hands can do.  I am on fire!

Coral Cables Throw Pillow

I know you're thinking there are actual flames coming from my fingers, but not to worry.  I'm just doing what any self respecting knitter would do in this situation.  I am racing toward the finish line full steam ahead. (But I may need potholders later, if the needles start smoking again!)

Picking the yarn for this project made me launch into yarn-stash fantasy land.  I began to imagine my bed covered with assorted pillows; pillows with vast stitch pattern variations.   Like the kid on A Christmas Story, imagining a Red Rider BB gun, I had grandiose visions of pillow making fame.  Book tours & appearances at state fairs, you know.  That kind of thing.

So anyway, I may be making more pillows in the future and will be available for autographs after I finish doing the dishes.

Victory Garden

I went  to my garden plot today to weed.  It has rained and I guess it's been a while since I was there.  I barely recognized my space and had a hard time finding it.  In such a short time, the weeds had practically taken over.  Marlene told me this would happen, but my pride got in the way.  MY garden will never be taken over by weeds. Ha.  Famous last words.  So, I'm red in the face and wiser from an hour in the hot afternoon sun.  (But I love it!)

 My back yard stuff is doing fine, since I can check on it every day.


I cut apart the things from my little frame loom and put the white linen runner on the breakfast table.

I still haven't warped the loom for some fresh weaving, but it's been very busy at work and I am just too pooped at night to start a new project.

I took out some of the coral yarn and had a great idea for a cable project.  Then it hit me Coral Cables!  I'm so clever.

I'm thinking a small throw pillow would be cute, simple to knit, and just the right size since I've only got 4 skeins of yarn.  By the way.  Some people pronounce that, "skeens" and some people say, "skanes".  You can say it either way; I don't mind. ( Did you just say them both out loud?)  :-)

Part of my job, on occasion, is to help people when they are moving.  Last week we helped a lady sort through some things in her garage, as she bought a high-rise condo in the city.  She has a lake house and some stuff is going there as well, but in her downsizing (post-retirement) I received several items that I have been wanting for a few months now.  Literally.
Two of these

a bread machine

a pedicure thing-a-ma-jig

and several other things like seeds for the garden, chocolate, party trays and a beautiful tin planter.  Somebody up there likes me!!

My personal life is going through some changes right now, and my attitude is to always keep my chin up, no matter how I feel inside.  Usually, if I stay positive, my life will follow suit.  If I give in to emotion and negative feelings, I can find all sorts of things to complain about.  There's an old song that is perfect for this occasion, "Count Your Blessings".  In light of the recent bad weather, death and damages to cities all over the country, I can't complain about my circumstances.  I hope you have things to be thankful for, too.   When I hear people walking through the rubble after a tornado, say that they're happy to be alive, I realize I should be too.

Albania is somewhere between Greece and Venice

This week I spent some time with a friend/co-worker from Albania.  She has a very thick accent and is very pretty.  She works at the airport gift shop and I only get to see her on rare occasions as her hours at her other job are pretty random.  Every time I ask her to remind me where she is from, and she tells me, it is clear that she does not like being mistaken for a Latin American.  She is European, through and through and has all the language barrier issues that someone like her would be expected to have.  She innocently says funny things at work that could be (and often are) misunderstood.  That's what makes her so charming.  She's a single parent, working very hard to provide for her children, and is such a lovely person.  Men hit on her and mistake her accent for ignorance. She is very bright and a joy to be around.  I just googled Albania, and I know exactly where it is!  Maybe she'll invite me to visit her homeland with her sometime!!

As I sit at my spinning wheel, listening to a classical internet radio station from Venice, I feel so far away from home.  Transported to where the trees are more beautiful, the yarn in my hands is softer, and the cappuccino in my cup is more expensive.  It must be.

I read on the Yarn Harlot's blog how  she spun her Jacob fleece, " underspun and overplied for bounce", so that's what I'm doing.  Trying to achieve bounce in my yarn.  I have a lot of flat, hard yarn that's great for socks or shawls, but I want something springy and bouncy like Tigger.  I want to squeeze it and have it go back to it's original hank position.

Update photo for proof that I really am piecing together the baby sweater.

And here's a pattern I'm seriously considering for my next project.  I need some soft, soft wool yarn - nothing scratchy, and most of what I've spun is a little scratchy, but that cannot slow me down.  I really have to pick something soon and this is the best looking candidate so far!

My back yard is looking really lovely - with little bits of color everywhere that surprise me whenever I go outside.  The little blue flowers were from seeds our children's pastor gave to all of us workers a few years ago. Forget-me-nots!  And I don't.

And the apple tree by the compost bin was a gift from my mom & dad when we finished homeschooling our kids.  It has apples again this year; two years in a row, thanks to Noah's ark levels of rain!

We had a birthday party Saturday night for my son's new wife.

At the end, my husband, son and daughter stayed up watching Grey Gardens, the original documentary.  No matter how wealthy a person is, their tastes and eccentricities vary as much as the hemline of the latest fashions.  That is one unsettling, but engrossing movie!

Skill Set

backyard at dusk

 I went to the doctor(s) recently and noticed something that really stood out to me; the skill and knowledge of those that were taking care of me, some more than others.  I noticed how some doctors and nurses were simply keeping the business going, getting me in and out the door with my insurance card.  But at least one doctor seemed incredibly interested in my well being.  She asked me all sorts of questions that at times seemed irrelevant to why I was in her office.  She was all about looking things up on the computer to find out the answer to what we were discussing.  And she seemed totally interested in bringing to me the best possible care that I would need.  I was really impressed with the level of interest she took in me as a whole person and wanted to integrate her skill with my needs.  What a perfect fit! What a refreshing change that someone would step out of the box for a moment and do a little more than expected.  Skill is a valuable commodity these days!!

As we celebrated the graduations last weekend of two young men in our family I noted that it takes a long time to earn a degree, and only about 5 seconds (I timed it!) to receive the diploma.

I am skilled at making homemade cappuccino!

 What a laugh. And yet, it is indicative of what our society values when it comes to skill and expertise.  We want McDonald's speed and price and Mercedes quality.

 As I've become a true lover of knitting, I see the great skill, expertise and man hours it takes to knit a garment.  I saw a large crocheted afghan this week that must have taken close to a year to make.

Simply beautiful! I know what went into each and every stitch made by some very skilled hands.  Amazing!  It probably looks so simple to the uneducated, but I know how hard it was to make that blanket. ( And can imagine the many loving thoughts that went through the mind of the person making it. 

I am such a slacker when it comes to my own projects - I am only just now blocking the Cocoa Bear Hoodie; maybe I can do the button bands on Tuesday or Wednesday night.  (Very long day ahead tomorrow!) I also finished the red wrap, but I can't remember if I ever named it.  Surely I could skim my old posts and find out, but as I said, I'm a little slacker, short and stout!

A New Day

 Last Thursday night my son and his wife joined us for dinner, and afterward my son helped his dad with a few work projects, while I joined my daughter in law for a little chit chat downstairs. On Friday my daughter and her husband joined us for dinner and more chit chat. They had arrived in town to pick up the key to their new place, moving back to our area after finishing school.  All six of us get along really well. Both of the boys are graduates this weekend and have an awful lot to look forward to.  Commencement speeches remind us of the big world that lays ahead, and they path they'll take to get there.

As a kid I remember my folks saying that if we didn't like the way things were, "There's the door!"  Teenagers don't like to hear that but it's probably good advice.   It prods the kids to be thinking about leaving someday and what the future will hold for them.  Often a boss will remind an employee how lucky he is to work for them, and if he doesn't like it, “There's the door!”. We are all looking for new opportunities but many times we have to walk through a door to get there.

As both my son and son in law have graduated they are thinking about "the door" to their futures; leaving school and academia, tests and papers, projects and the like - what kind of jobs they will be entering into, and how they will approach them, they will be looking at how their skills and acquired knowledge will fit into someone else' vision and/or needs.  There are other options as well, but whether one is self employed or employed by someone else, "the door" is there to be opened, as they say.
I'm so happy for my kids and their bright futures.  (I will have to admit selfishly though that I tried never to use the door analogy with my kids 'cause I never wanted them to leave!)

I love a good collection

My daughter is in the midst of moving and she and I talked on the phone briefly while I was on my way to the doctor this morning (speakerphone, heavy morning traffic with serious rain, going through a construction zone).  She could hardly hear me and I could hardly hear her but one thing was clear.  She's just like me.   She finds comfort in organizing things.   When you organize things, you realize that you have sorted stuff, like you did at the little table when you were in kindergarten.   Some things go together, and others don't belong with this group.

Last night I finished another Harlan Coben book (not on Kindle) and found a real satisfaction moving the books on my office bookshelf to make room for Live Wire to sit next to the four other hardbacks by HC.  I do have some of his paperbacks and even something on my Kindle by him.  So I realize I now have a collection of his books.  I have Mary Higgins Clark, Harold Bell Wright,  and several others on my book shelf.   Once I find an author I like, I will pretty much ready all their works.   It probably goes back to my OCD habit of collecting things and keeping them together.  I even imagine that people will look at my things with a critical eye and wonder why all the (fill in the blank)'s aren't together in a group like they should be. Like why are the salad forks mixed in with the dinner forks?  (Of course they're not!) But that would really bother me if people thought that.

In the garage, all my spinning stuff is together, but all my knitting stuff stays in the house.  It bugs me if something gets in the wrong guy's area.  Yarn technically can go in either place.  Weaving stuff pretty much stays here in my office because I say so.  Socks go in the sock drawer, shirts go with shirts, and pants go with pants.  Got it?

And when I finish a knitting project I have to put the needles back in the zippered knitting-needle tackle-bag I bought at the Bass Pro Shop. It has one side for DPNs and one for circulars, with ziploc pouches for each size.   I had to explain my putting-back action to my husband the other day, telling him that if I didn't put them back exactly where they came from, I would never be able to find them again.  But I realized as I said it that I was justifying all this to myself.  Organizing comes from wanting to have some sense of control over my environment.  Especially when you don't feel that you have any control whatsoever over your circumstances.  This is a permanent state of mind for me, and is probably why I retreat to reading or knitting whenever I can.  Nobody messes with my knitting and nobody takes your book away while you're reading it.  Two boundaries everyone respects without having to remind them or give them a dirty look.

Now, with all this organizing I have spent little time knitting anything much lately; and that is another story altogether.  I won't chase that rabbit.
But I will chase this little Cocoa Bear Hoodie.

I've finally finished all the pieces but ran out of yarn and had to get another ball.  The front left and right will need button bands  after I press the pieces tomorrow.

I'll pick up the stitches on the left and right front pieces, and allow for buttonholes on the left side.
Then I can sew all the pieces together and do one last blocking session.

In spinning news, I spun some of this very soft, if not dirty midnight blue roving last weekend.  It is very pretty on the bobbin, don't you think?

And finally the pair of Uncle Albert socks were drying on the patio table Saturday morning.  I'm extremely grateful for any little bit of sunshine lately.  It feel like Seattle around here lately!

I will be somewhat busy the rest of the week but in a good way.  And it's good to be busy to keep your mind from worrying about other things.  Kind of like going to the beach or reading a good book.  Being busy is an escape that costs very little and serves you well!  Like organizing your collections!