Using Your Jam

Yes.  It is that time. 

The bind off.  I started the bind off last night while finishing the book I was listening to.  I did not complete it,  but decided to leave it for today.  To get there, I used my hands beyond what I ought and when the book was done, I dropped it.  But it is in the bind off.  I  am really looking forward to the sleeves, which should not take more than a day each, or less and then to calling this one done.  It feels pretty good.

And yet, this morning finds me feeling just a little bit down.  But when I get feeling a little down, I force myself to focus on the joy of something different, something silly sometimes, something comforting. So, different and silly it is. 

I am going to make some date loaf today, and test one of those new found programs on my bread maker.  Probably just the dough cycle. 

I do find the idea of using the 'Jam' setting endlessly titillating.  I have got to figure out how I can use that with what I have on hand.

Blue Knitting and Quarantine stuff.

I am not sure how to explain it.  I stuck with the blue top. It seems I have grown up to an age where completion counts.  Bahaha.

I am pretty happy that I stayed working on the lace.  Without that lace, it would be very hard to get through it all.  I am not able to do as much on it as I did at first in  a day.  The cotton, while not being 'hard' on my hands, is heavy and my wrists, even with the puddle of fabric sitting in my lap, are limiting how much I can do.

I do want to finish this in the worst way.  It would just be so great to have this done.  If I do, that means I will have 4 summer tops to wear and that means half of the time, I can wear things I have done myself.  4 tops does include the green top I am currently working on too.

That green knitting is how I am ending my day.  It is light and straight back and forth with no complications.  I just can't tell if It will fit.  I have done the numbers repeatedly, but I am not at all comfortable trusting the numbers.  Not at all.

**The landlord went out to get groceries yesterday and we managed well enough.  We found almost everything we wanted, though they did not have big bags of flour.  They had lots of the mid size, so no problem.  He did have to go to three different stores to get everything though, so there still are some short items out in our local market place.  The big store staff told him that they have been seeing a lot of strangers early in the mornings. Word is (word is gossip of course) that city people are coming out here to buy up kleenex and toilet paper. Not that we country folk would feel the urge to buy up everything we can, mind.  We locals are above that.  (Of course we are not.)

Right from the start, Keith and I talked about a grocery strategy.  We felt that over stocking just makes it harder for people who can't afford to keep a lot on hand. Stocking up, keeping lots on hand is very much a  game comfortably off people play.  Good value in groceries are available if you have the money to buy in quantity.  Many, many don't.

Our strategy is to stick with one big monthly purchase and as few other trips as possible.  We are trying to make sure we have enough basic produce, potatoes, carrots, onions and cabbage, and apples to get us through at least 2 weeks so that his forays out remain low.  Spinach, lettuce, and a lot of fresh stuff, just doesn't last, so beyond immediate use after a trip, it is a no go zone.  We are meal planning a bit more.

Beyond that, the only thing we did different than our normal, is that we have a bit more flour on hand than usual because we will make our own bread and  we made an allowance this grocery trip for supplies to make sweet treats that you could make without an oven.  Nothing will make you crave a thing more than being unable to have it in any way, shape or form and we were both craving cookies.  We are set now.  Favourite unbaked cookies coming up. (No we don't buy cookies, except for the landlord's rare forays into a fruit cream cookies and my deep and abiding love for brownie cookies)

I am going to try quick breads in the bread maker this week.  I have never tried that and you know what?  My machine has a setting for them.  It also has a setting to just bake.  And a complete setting called 'Jam'.  Who knew? (My current bread maker is 10 years old, at least)

I might be bored with blue knitting, but I seem to be determined to find adventure somewhere.  It seems I will have kitchen adventures instead.

And that is my make it through your quarantine tip for today.  Find an adventure somewhere. Most people figure that you have to get out and go somewhere unusual to have an adventure but it is not at all true.  Adventure happens in your own head.  Look at what is at hand and have some fun with it.


 
**the quarantine stuff is really just to keep track of something that is going to stick in the memories of my grandkids for all of their lives.  This is what grandma did that was different in this strange time.  

Bored of the Blue Top?

Bored of the blue top?  Me too.  Today I will do something different.  I am not sure what, but it will be different.

One of the options is this delicate thing.  This could be a really important part of my future wardrobe, particularly when I travel.  It squishes up to absolute nothing and pops out of storage with nary a crease. I haven't been knitting on it because I have to go back a few rows.  I lost my place with increases and one side of one sleeve, is short two sets of increases.  

The yarn is lovely to work with.  I found my mind straying to the possibility of purchasing more as I worked with it, but it is a hard thing to find here.  I could special order but that would mean I would need a full bag, and 10 balls of it is way too many.  I am kind of looking forward to this pretty little summer sweater.

Or maybe I will work on this.

The lava flows have been done for a couple weeks and I am not sure what to start next.  Or how.  When Marcus was here last he told me I had to get the bubbles of lava just right, so i am not sure of my plan using Shasiko style work is the way to go.  I am starting to think that a mass of french knots

would be the thing but with those, there is no way to show the movement his drawing has.  So I am stalled and thinking on it.  But maybe today.

Or maybe this.

This is probably the best picture I have of the green jacket.  It is plain, but will have a massive ribbed edge that is all the show the jacket will need.  I aimed and utterly failed at getting it done for this past winter.  So next year...  But there might be a few stitches done on it today.  Maybe one day, I will open the box, look at it and magically, it will be done.

Today I will do something different.  I am not sure what, but it will be different. I already started some rye bread this morning and that is different than my usual whole wheat.  So you never know.  Different may be the thing de jour.

Maybe.  I seem to be making a compelling argument in my head that if I tough it out and just keep knitting on the blue top, it will be completed sooner. 

This is just not like me and could be the first sign of dementia.  Or cabin fever.

No post yesterday.  Sorry about that.  I had a terrible nights sleep and dreamed horrible dreams and just couldn't face up to posting anything, not even to try to cheer myself up.  

But I did by yarn.  That has always been my solace and in these times, I wanted to share what I could to help support the small businesses that I care about, who helped me though all the years good and bad. It took the whole morning and it did make me feel better. So I bought yarn.  I can't wait to show it to you when it arrives.

And then I knit on the blue top.  With all the knitting getting done to that, it is really starting to look like something.  Something nice!

I did have a bit of a hiccup on one lace panel.  I had placed a yarn over incorrectly and tried to drop down to fix it, but ended up going back two rows.  I just couldn't get the stitches to lay properly and ripping back a couple rows proved the quicker fix option.  But I am well underway again.

Work continues on the green top too.

I am about two inches from starting the neckline magic.  One of the things I am going to change on this top is on the back, right at the neckline.  As designed, it has the same v on both front and back.  It makes some peoples projects look as if it won't stay sitting on their shoulders properly.  I would hate that so filling in that back v is the plan.  As I pick up speed knitting towards the shoulder, I am debating if I ought to have any shaping for the back neck or if it should just go straight across.  

I also have to tell you all that this green top is making me nuts.  I can see only one quarter of it, and I have no way of knowing if all my knitting is going to be worth it or if it will be a waste of time.   No way to try on a garment knit in pieces. 

Mid way through my day, I video chatted with Cassie and Marcus.  That cheered me up enormously.  I am going to call Isaac, Carter and Emmett today.  I have to wait till after lunch though.  Both mammas are doing school in the morning, which is just as it should be.

Before I went to bed last night, I spent a couple hours watching clips from Graham Norton's show on youtube.  Such silliness. And then I watched an episode of Queens of Mystery on Acorn TV. Something light and quirky was the perfect end to my day.  I slept the sleep of the well quarantined and woke this morning feeling chipper. Next up, coffee and knitting.  And maybe a bit of a stash dive just for fun.

Not Crying Uncle

I baked bread as I planned.  It didn't quite work out however.  

It is a very very long time since I baked in the bread maker.  Very long.  In fact, recalling it is a pain getting the paddles out of the bread is the only reason that I know that baked in it before.  When I make dough, I make the large recipes because the bread maker is listed to make up to a three pound loaf.   As a dough maker, it delivers two of the nice long loaf pans just perfectly filled with finished bread.

What I found out though, is that being able to make a large dough batch and baking said large dough batch are two different things.  The dough rose to touch the window on the top of the unit and stopped the vital flow of hot air over the loaf.  At ten minutes left, I lifted the lid just a wee bit and the entire top, which should have been set and almost baked, caved in as if it had just been over proofed.  I could tell there was heat there, but I had no idea what I would end up with.  

I guess my bread maker is really only good at three pounds of dough.  It will probably be better with a small loaf if I bake it in the machine.  I ought to also say that it took four hours, so bread maker bread is not the quick way.

I knew the problem immediately.  That didn't require any thought, but I sure did wonder how it would all go.  Still, I wasn't ready to cry uncle yet.  In the end, the top half was cut off and tossed into the garbage and the bottom is actually some pretty good bread.  I did think about making shoe soles out of the top, which is deep fried dough covered with icing sugar, but there was no way to separate the partially baked bits from the gooey utterly unbaked centre.  That idea does give me another way to have bread without baking.  

So, today's work is to try baking in the slow cooker to see if I can come up with a decent loaf.  The plan is the big batch of dough, with half the dough going into the oval slow cooker and half into the small slow cooker as pull apart sticky buns. Because once I got the idea of sticky buns into my head, I couldn't get it out.

Knitting continues apace.  There is a lot of knitting time when a batch of something takes 4 hours. 

The Good, the Bad and the Bread

I did not knit a whole lot this weekend.  My hands did not want to cooperate with tons of knitting, but I also suspect that my heart wasn't in it either.

I will show you what I did do.  I knit quite a bit on the blue top.  It is now at a great cropped length, though for me, this would be much too short.  More length.  More length.  That is as much my unconscious mantra as the lace pattern.  You can see that the lace is now well established and looks great.  It makes it so much easier to knit.  There is always something coming up and the two basic pattern rows always mark your place.  It is zipping right along.

And then comes the sad heart part.  I realized after another of the increases, that my pretty little blue and green lace, was right out to lunch.  I was starting to suspect that my pretty little lace had gauge problems, as in my way of counting gauge was not the actual gauge of what I was knitting.  I set it down for a bit to think about and pulled out something else. I will try again, but later.

That something else is green.  Deep forest green.  Seriously.  Green must be the worst colour to photograph.  It looks kind of like a dud here, but it isn't.  It is really rather splendid. 

This is the pattern I was going to use for the bright blue and green yarn I just set aside (I didn't feel I would have enough yarn to make it happen).  The pattern is Blanche by Veronika Jobe.  I have lots of this yarn and it is going to look something better than fine.  It is a bit like knitting two wide scarves, but the parts you shape make all the difference in the world.  I do plan to make one change, but more on that when I get there.

The rest of my plan for today was to bake some bread and buns.   We have chili left over from the weekend, and I was going to make some nice giant buns that we could turn into bread bowls for it.  Unfortunately, our oven is on the fritz.  When the landlord was making brunch, the oven would get hot and then rather than holding the heat, it would go back to a hold on warm cycle.  Our oven doesn't have a hold on warm cycle. We suspect the chipset or board is bad. I am not sure if the repair people will come out.  It isn't a critically needed repair.   Sort of.

I have a bread maker so our plans to make the bit of bread we eat can still happen.  I just hate baking in the thing.  I need a dough maker, not a bread maker, because that is what I use it for; dough.  I find baking in the unit gives you rather coarse dry bread, where the same dough, in the oven comes out wonderfully.  Still, I will use it.  The other thing I came across is quite interesting.

I wondered if people ever tried baking in their slow cookers.  I have two of them.  One older smaller round unit is the landlords, and my big oval unit.  Apparently people do bake in them.  So I am going to give that a try.  I will bake bread in the bread machine, after I make a batch of dough for the slow cooker.  But not for bread.  I am going to make sticky pull apart monkey buns in the slow cooker.

Even if it fails, we will eat those. 

Anyway, to everyone reading this, stay healthy, keep your quarantine.  It is the rule of the day, the sensible thing to do.  We will be done public distancing only when we no longer are diagnosing new cases of the wee beastie.  How long it takes, is going to be dependent on how well we do out part.  Stay home.  And that is it from my house.

The Sun Will Come Out.

I saw a birthday notification this morning on facebook and the first thought that came into my head was 'the sun will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar.....'

I still feel like breaking out into song because this.  

It is that time of year when I can start to mark the season by the suns march on my livingroom wall.  It has been a bit that the sun gets over the garage early enough in the day that it still can shine in here.  

My knitting for the day yesterday was this. 

That's  better.  It just has the feel I wanted for this sprightly yarn.  I am using Ysolda Teagues Leisl pattern though I hope to get a spring top out of it rather than a cardigan.  One other person knit it in a fingering weight so what the heck.  It can't hurt to try.  

My gauge is so different that there may be some hiccups along the way, but the experimenting is fun.  I already gave a second option in mind to try iv this doesn't  work.  

Off to knit.  Possibly off to bash an old dresser apart.  Who knows what the day will bring.  Might even bake a date loaf.  Maybe do some weaving or combing....

Going Lace

After I completed my Cascadas Tee, I gave myself permission to start something new.  

I worked up a swatch to see what gauge I liked.  And then I cast on.  

And started to knit.  I am certainly enjoying working the yarn, but I am not at all sure I like what I am making with it.  

I was aiming for a summer top with a neckline that was anything other than circular.  I have knit so many top down circulars lately and just thought it was time for something different.  And that is the problem.

The top I started is a plain knit v neck but I am having trouble getting past how pretty the yarn looks in a feather and fan pattern (see the top photo). The plain is pretty but...

I think I am going to pull this back and restart it as a Leisl.  That Ysolda Teague pattern has a wonderfully integrated into the lace increase that is just the most fun to knit.  Right now a little fun in my knitting is a very ğood thing.  

So that's  where I am headed right now.  

Later today I think I am going to pull out the Icelandic shawl and sort out that lace. I seem to be in the mood for lace and I seem to have new reserves of fortitude and gumption.  I think I would like to spend it there.

What We Make It to Be.

This morning, after talking with the landlord, he was saying he was going to ask to work from home because he will most likely be the lone person here bringing the bug in and he worried that he would be giving it to me.  He looked pretty devastated that this might be the case, but I told him no.  That he should never feel that way.  

He has been picking up most of our groceries all winter.  He gets the mail.  He does all the household out and about.  It made sense for him to do that because he works a block from the grocery store, less if he cuts out the back door of his office, and has to pass most everything else on his way home.  For me, it means less cost of gas and less wear and tear on my car.   We are just going to keep on doing this in this time of pandemic.  

Bugs like this one, like most virus live outside the body for a time on whatever surface they land on.  The virus could come on on the packaging for a box of pasta, or the plastic surrounding that pack of toilet paper.

I live a pretty self contained life.  I have never been a go out and party type of person.  I have always found ways to entertain myself and recharge myself in my own company.  This past winter, with my spinning buddy's changing circumstances, I have really been a stay home kind of person.  Even making no changes to how I live, my chance of getting this bug is small.  

If I do, it isn't anyone's fault.  It isn't China's. It isn't a persons,  It certainly isn't the landlords.  It just is.  Pandemics and virus are part of the human condition.  As long as humans have existed, we have had this kind of thing.  Recorded history of pandemics goes back to ancient Roman times and I have no doubt that preshistory had them too.   

There is a lot that we can do to stop from getting it, but I just have to say to the landlord, to my sons and daughters in law, to my grandkids, some things just are.  If this grandma gets sick, it just is.  Okay?  Okay.  And I love you all.

This blog is going to go back to knitting now.  I just had to put this down because this blogger well knows how life can change in a literal blink of an eye and some things just need to be said.  Whatever world we wake up to when this is all done, it will be just as before: It will be whatever we make it to be.

Isn't it !ovely

Isn't it lovely?  

I love it when a plan comes together.  Finally.

I have a bunch of things to do today.  I have bread to make today.  I think today will be a nice rye bread, and am debating about a recipe from Company's  Coming Canadian Heritage Breads, the Soldiers Bread recipe. It has a whopping 13 cups of flours in the full recipe so no way will I go full bore.  Heck even a half recipe us a big batch for how we eat here.  But I also want to make another batch of focaccia.  It turned out so well last time and I think I am craving the smell.  All I think about is Rosemary.  

And knitting.  So, on to that.  

Accomplished.

And there we go.  I am the very proud owner of a very pretty, very pleasing new top. 

With two sleeves no less.  It is the brilliant shade of yellow that I dearly love, and which one of my  boys said makes me look like a bumblebee because of my wearing it with black as I like to.  I will think of me as a somewhat faded dandelion once I wash it.  The yarn colour softens to a very pretty lemon yellow.  But everything about this one makes me happy.

I am even more proud to say that I am now the owner of a slightly renovated top.

In a lot of ways, going back to add sleeve length to these cap sleeves is a much bigger deal than finishing the other top.  It is easy to finish a thing with a bit of gumption.  It is much harder to go back and make a thing better when it has been worn and washed and worn and lives most decidedly in your clothing pile, not your pretty new stuff pile. 

It did give me a chance to work with Remix Light again.  Gosh how I love to work with this yarn.  It is even better than working with its worsted weight counter part.  Just a seriously great yarn.

These things took me till noon.  And then.  And then.  

And then I sat down to work on my blue top and the recalcitrant lace at the underarms.  Sigh.  I knit and ripped back.  I knit and ripped back again.  And again.  And again.  4 times, I worked and reworked and still was doing some small thing wrong.  I put it down and debated giving up on the lace and simply knitting plain and finishing the darn top.

But I did not want to cry uncle.  I knit this lace before and I don't recall have any really deep trouble with it.  Maybe I needed to get familiar with the lace, as it was written again.  Maybe, by understanding the charts as written, by knitting them, I will find as Annie Modesitt said, in the lace class I took with her back when I was a very very new knitter, that one small thing that is in every lace pattern.  Maybe that one small thing will help me through to knitting it properly, so that when I change everything and knit top down, instead of bottom up, and hide all my increases in the lace as well, that I will magically know what the heck to do. So I sat down and knit through the pattern as given in the charts. 

It did!  It is a very simple lace.  Once I knew it, I could sort out just what I had to do to increase in this directional lace rather than decreasing as the pattern does.  It took almost no time at all to figure it out and to convert the lace in my head.

So, in what may be my proudest accomplishment of the weekend, I went back to the blue, and I knit this.

I can very happily say that I am now moving forward.  I have worked through all the yarn that was knit and reknit, and I am now in new yarn.  No small feat.

I rewarded myself by starting something new.  But more on that tomorrow.

I just want to note that today the entirety of this pandemic we are in has hit even my small town.  The government closed the schools with no opening date in site.  It may be that we won't see school again till fall.  We had Chinese food from our local diner and there was no one in the restaurant, though the owner said they had been very busy with take out.  We have no cases here, but it is a very real issue in small towns where the vast majority of us are seniors, or like me, almost (not yet 65). 

I am prepared.  I have yarn.  I have fibre.  I have all the tools I need.  And I have coffee.  All good.

I am sitting here, very pleased with the state of my little world.  I am the owner of a one sleeved top.

At the bottom of the sleeve, I opted for a tiny bit of lacey openess.  I thought about several different ways of finishing the sleeve, but this felt right. 

Sleeve two is not complete.  A bit of a birthday party for my peanut got in the way. 

This young man, Mr.  Brian Carter is now 6 years old.  He may have a wiggly tooth.  You get those when you are 6 he told me.  6 is big news for my sweet boy. He is growing up, and I love it.  

Sleeve two is well under way and looks a lot like the sleeve from yesterday's photos.  It will be complete today.  Which means a finished product by days end.  Isn't that the coolest thing to contemplate?  Isn't it just?

After that, I think I am going to get out the too short sleeved top and make those sleeves longer, and then I am girding my loins and tackling the lace on the blue top.  We will see.  As much as I want those projects done, there are others that need doing, like some lace shawls.  There is an Einband lace and my lovely edging on my Bridgewater shawl, plus there are more than a few stunning yarns that I crave to knit, that needs finishing too.  After this bit of lace on the Cascada Tee to wet my whistle, you just never know.

Sleeeeeeeeeeves

And there we go,

on to sleeves!  

I am only making short sleeves here, though they are going to be longer than this little tops sleeves.

I wore this top a lot last year but everytime I put it on, I thought gotta make these sleeves longer.  If it had been once and done with that thought, I'd be fine as is with it, but this?  This is exactly the opposite of liking something so much that you appreciate how nice it is each time you slip it on.  I have not had that good feeling in my life in relation to clothing, in any real way for years, but then, when I think of the age of most my clothing... I am usually thrilled when I find a thing that fits!  

Note to self:  Sew more.

I would like to see both sleeves on the Cascadas Tee complete today.  I should be able to do it too.  I am in the middle of a riveting book, The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny, have coffee at hand and am ready to go.  

Onward.  

Quick Post

Not a whole lot more done but

Ain't it purdy?

There is one more repeat to go and then a quick bind off and two short sleeves.  But not too short.  Close to the elbow, maybe midway.  But no lace.

Long ago Crafting

Persevered, and moving on.  I actually look forward to knitting the lace and even more, I look forward to finishing this top.  Just one more lace repeat to go!  Knitting lace is much more interesting than swaths of stockinette.  It is such a nice lace, leaving lots of time for thinking about stuff.

I started thinking about a long time ago when I crocheted a bunch of doilies.  I was pregnant with my youngest son, the other two were independent enough that I wasn't needed in the same way as when kids are still babies and the house was small and I could see and hear everything.  It was Mid March and got on into mid April.

I had just gotten my grandmother's set of Elisabeth Hiddleson  Doily books . What a treasure trove.  I had cotton.  I had coffee.  I had relatively content little boys.  It was too cold and snowy out to do anything outside, so I crocheted.  And crocheted.

I don't know how many doilies I made but I made lots.  I still have one lone doily from that month long crazy raft of crochet.    There were big ones and small ones, and motif ones, and large dresser scarf ones.  

Why sit for a month and make doilies?  They were not in fashion anymore.  They were really more from my mothers generation and even then, more from her youth.  But I enjoyed the challenge and I didn't mind being teased for making doilies.  I also did it because I couldn't sit still.  I felt jumpy.  I wanted to be outside working in the yard, but the yard was under the snow.  

When I get this top done, there is the blue top to finish, along with its recalcitrant lace and one more top, long planned that I want to knit for spring and summer wear.  But maybe, just maybe, I will slip one little doily from my small stash of Elisabeth Hiddleson books in memory of that long ago spring and to feeling jumpy and wanting to be outside.

Wimping Out

Or how  not to wimp out.

The yellow top or Cascadas Tee is now at the point where I wimp out and then am forever dissatisfied.  I really don't  want to be unhappy when it is turning out so well so I I decided to go for it and knit the lace again.  

The lace chart, repeated three times as it is on the yoke is exactly the number of inches I need to be at my optimal length.  

It was going well and I knit an entire repeat through the curling.  Except at the end of the last round, I was in the wrong place in the repeat.   I looked and looked for the error and I found it, in the row below.  Sigh.  

So today's  work is to go back and fix it and then knit some more.  Part of me wants to say that this is the universe telling me to pull out the lace and cast off, but I know the numbers.  I need the few extra inches so I don't feel I have to keep pulling it down all the time.  

The smarter part of me says to persevere, to fix it and keep going on the lace.  It makes the long rows infinitely more interesting.  This is what I am choosing.  

I have coffee, I have an entire series to watch on my just renewed Britbox, and I have gumption.  No wimping out for me.  Not today at any rate.  Not today.

Found!

Years ago, in my spare room, I had all kinds of old family photos, pictures of generations past and the old farmyards from when our families first came to Canada.  Brian had gathered the pictures as he was building various family books with his dad and pictures on my side were copies from my dad, from uncle's and various relatives.

I loved having that bunch of faces from long ago, and I loved how those faces showed up in the faces of cousins and children as they grew.  Some of the likenesses are remarkable.

As  things changed in my life, the wall of family were boxed up and put away.  When I lived in my wee house, I took them out of frames and scanned them to my computer.  That drive died and I was certain I lost them all.

Photos have been something to avoid these past years.  It wasn't  looking the pictures that was a problem, it was the wash of memories I wasn't ready to deal with.  Still, I have a thing about not leaving too much 'stuff'.  No one should have to face that twice in a lifetime.  Pictures have been the one thing left to attach names to, to sort into what vacation, when and where.  Yesterday, I started going through all the individual photos.

And found most of the old family photos from my wall,

safe and in good condition.  There are dozens more. You can even see a very young me in the very top right hand corner, with the kerchief on my head, standing in a wagon with my cousins and brother and sister.

I am so very happy to see these again, just tickled pink.  I won't be recreating my wall, but I will attach names so that sometime long from now, when my grandchildren want to see them, they know who they are even if

I will be busy and happily so.  I will be less happily so with doubled sets of blurry vacation photos but that is another story.  

Yet another pair.

After a second full day of cleaning, I can very happily say that everything is cleaned, cleaned behind and is good for another season.  I also take great pride in announcing that several small boxes of miscellaneous stuff that had no home to go to has also been taken care of and sorted and ordered.  I have some shelves to put up and a few boxes to move around on the big bookcase and I will be in better shape than before.  Always pleasing when that happens. 

The only downside is that the table is still in my room because I have to get the dresser out before I can get the table in to store.  That is happening this afternoon so all I need is a bit of patience.

At my lunch break yesterday, I grabbed some yarn from a box and took up a set of found shortie sock needles, and I started knitting a toe.

That is all I planned for.  A toe takes about 45 minutes when you are watching curling (stops and starts) but I just kept knitting.  Before I knew it I had a few inches done and the draw was over.  This morning, since taking the picture, I have another few inches.  I love this colourway.  It is just brilliant and is making my heart beat faster. 

It is so much more inspiring than the other socks that are on the needles.

If I am honest, this one is growing on me.  It is soft colours in the background, but I kind of like the punch of the turquoise faux isle bits. 

This one is still a fight to love. 

It just needs some punch and I am sure I would love it.  I have never ripped back a sock that was this far along because of colour but I might on these.  They are not bad colours, they are just not inspiring colours.  They are dimmed because there is nothing strong, nothing that sets off what they are.  

There isn't any rush to decide about ripping back socks, it is just that I would feel better if I did.  I know I would.  Surely starting yet another pair of socks is a sign that it is time and I should just get it over.  

To Vanquish

Once again, a day of no knitting.  The landlord has decided to upgrade the wired networking for the upstairs, and it ends up meaning that I have to move stuff around in my room.  

Lest you think I get nothing from this, I gain in several ways.  I gain a sturdier internet signal here at the laptop.  It was iffy in my room and the kitchen.  I also get to deal nicely with a few little irritations and get to move and rededicate a few pieces of furniture.  And lastly, it is March and therefore, a sign that spring will eventually arrive and it is time to give this space a good deep clean.  It was a good idea to strike before the urge passed.  

Late in the day, I was tired and not making good decisions.

I emptied the cabinet to sort and order things there.  I did this at least once since Christmas.  No idea why it seemed like a good idea to do again.  No idea at all. 

I love playing in the yarn but this did not need pawing in.  It is really nice but the timing is off.  There are two things that I am going to keep out for winding, but the rest is going back in there as fast as I can stuff it.

One of the other things I am going to do is move my cutting table to the other room.  My room really doesn't have space for setting up the ironing board and cutting table when I sew.  I have done it, but it is tight and takes a lot of the fun out of it.  With the decision to get rid of the dresser in there, I have room to store the cutting table and will have a place to set it up to use, leaving my big room just for sewing.  And ironing.  There will be enough room to set up the iron in here for those bits of ironing you do as you sew. No more traipsing out to the hall for a 2 inch long seam that needs pressing. 

So I have a bit of work ahead of me, but I see yellow top knitting in my near future.  And you know what?  I am looking forward to it.  Interminable middle, I vanquish thee! 

But later.  I have a few more dust bunnies to vanquish first.

  

Of Curling and Coffee and the Interminable Middle

This morning, I am sitting here with my regular Maxwell House coffe in my big cup, and I am watching the Brier.  

There was a time where I thought curling was horrid.  As a young person, when curling was on TV, I would run the other way.  The commentators whispered and talked monotone and it grated on my ears.  Of course, that was in the day when curling was broadcast from ice side and if you talked normally, the curlers would hear you and be disturbed.  Technology changed and curling commentating has made curling  one of the most exciting things to watch on tv.  I started watching when Brian started catching it on TV.  It became something we watched together.  After he died, there was a long time where I just couldn't watch it other than a minute here or there.  It was too tied to our time together.  As things go, as time moves on,  I can and do watch it again.  It is a very knittable sport.  

So, now that I recovered from my decaf test, and with curling going 3 draws a day (curling from morning to night) I expect to get some serious knitting done.  I did finish a few small things on Friday.  

I really love these slippers.  I could have made them only 16 garter ridges to the back of my foot, but they fit much better than my red pair.  And in this ever sturdy yarn...Yummiest warm feet.

I also managed to finish the second pair of bed socks.  They took much longer than they should have.  It is going to be nice to have a pair there when pair one is being washed.

And then this.  Carter figured out how to make the clumsy ninja play soccer on his head. It's always kind of nice to find stuff like that magically appear on your tablet. 

On to knitting.  Yellow top to start.  If I stick to it another 2, maybe 3 lifetimes, I might actually finish it. I am definitely in the interminable middle.

Movie Night!

I did not do a single speck of knitting Saturday or Sunday.  I was otherwise occupied.

A rare Isaac sighting.  The last few times I have been at Scott's,  Isaac has been with his dad.  It was great to get the chance for a few good talks.

We had a movie night, which over at their house means I got to sleep in the chair.  You may think this would not be a big deal but it is.  This was Carter's first sleep in the family room night. Mom pulled the mattress to the floor and he was thrilled to be in charge of picking the movies. 

He chose Frozen 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy 2.  I fell sleep through the second and they stayed up later playing games till Mom came down to turn them all off after 10.  It was a lovely time.  And somewhere through the day Cassie and Marcus called Grandma so the little boys had a good talk on Grandma's  phone.

Now to the chair.  It is just an ordinary leather chair, well used and slouch comfortable.  You only really understand it when you sleep in it.  It is one of the most amazing sleeping places anywhere.  This has been verified by more than just me.  I was telling Scott if he was ever getting rid of that set, I want the chair and ottoman.  Both his brothers and a couple of their friends took exception to this, claiming if the chair was up for grabs, they had first claim.  That we fight for it shows just how comfy it is.

Today is a good day for well all sorts of things.  The yellow top continues.  The blue top is under consideration.  If I get them going again and if I get some bread baked, I can call it a very good day.