New Job

Yesterday was the first day at my new job. Boy, do I have a lot to learn. It's interesting, if a bit frustrating. The frustrating part is the logistical set up in the new place, not the job itself. I am glad I made this move.

Knitting has been mostly the Shellseeker Sweater and my Cordelia Shawl. I have 5 of 9 pattern repeats completed on the apple blossom part of the shawl, then the edging. On the sweater I have completed the front pocket and am now knitting the body of the sweater. I have decided to knit Bob's sweater sleeves from the top down so that knitting will resume soon. It makes for a bulkier, less portable knitting project but I think I will be happier with the sleeves.

I have been spinning a bit again now that the Olympics are over. I spun another bobbin of BWM and switched to spinning the bamboo from the Phat Fiber box I won (actually, Melanie won it for me) in July. The theme is seaside cottage and I love the colors. I bought more of the bamboo fiber that was included in the samples and intend to spin one ply of that, then spin all of the other fibers together sequentially for the other singles and then ply those together. Bamboo is tricky to spin.

Have a good day, all.

 

A Few Pictures

Just because I love them, here is a photo of one of the water lillies we have blooming in the water garden right now. I love the delicacy of the petals and stamen, the color shifts as you look along the length of the petals. Can you see the water drops on the petals? I love it.

Last weekend I noticed a hawk (or vulture or something. I am ignorant as to how to tell the difference when they are way up there and I am way down here) in the sky overhead. Then I noticed another, and they were making quite a bit of noise. Then I noticed another!

I didn't get a photo with all 3 in it, but you can see two of them and they circled for quite a while, making a kind of mewing sound the whole time. Very interesting.

This is a basket of Black Welsh Mountain fiber carded and/or flicked and waiting for me to spin it.

This is my first skein of 3 ply BWM, pre-wash. You can see the hairs sticking out in all directions.

And a close up view. I washed it and thwacked it pretty vigorously. It bloomed nicely and is a bit softer but still very hairy. The color is a darker black than this appears.

This is a bad photo of my Wensleydale singles on the spindle

and the singles plied into a beautiful lace yarn. I have to comb more of the locks before I can spin more and I can't wait! It's so glossy and soft, with a bit of halo.

I haven't washed this yet to see what that will do to the halo.

I finished the body of Bob's sweater last night! He tried it on and other than saying that it felt a bit snug in the chest area (it doesn't look snug) it fits well. I believe in my gauge so I am going to leave it as is. I measured a sweater that he loves and this matches in measurements after blocking. Fingers crossed. Next step - the sleeves. I have to decide whether to knit up from the cuff (more portable but assembly required) or pick up stitches and knit down the sleeve.

My Shellseeker sweater is doing well. I am on the body now, with the sleeves on waste yarn. If we go on the boat today, Shellseeker, the baby blanket and the circular shrug will be my projects. If not (due to rain in the forecast) I will spin.

I made tomato sauce with home grown roma tomatoes last night. I hope it tastes good. I know the fresh tomatoes from the garden have tasted yummy in our salads. We had home grown green pepper, cucumber and tomatoes in our salad last night. Only the lettuce was store bought.  ; )

Well, I am off to wake the husband to see what the plan is. Have a good day, all.

PS tomorrow begins my last week in my old job. September should be a very good month.

Not much to say

But I do want to brag that despite having a migraine today, I did the dinner dishes and went out for a walk. It was only about 10 minutes and much slower than normal, but I did it. Three days in a row. Pat, pat, pat.

I hope to post pictures tomorrow that I took over the weekend. The head hurts too much to do that now. I am off to do a bit of knitting, then sleep.

I did it!

I took the first step in getting myself back in shape. I have been feeling very flabby and out of shape lately, but I find it very hard to do much of anything outdoors in the heat of the summer. Now that the weather is cooling off I think I can get back to my walking. I started last night.  The first one is always hard, and I was a sticky mess when I got back (I HATE to sweater and while not very warm, it was humid).   I hurried into the shower but I did it! 20 minutes of fast walking. I'll stay at that amount for a couple of days, walking every day, and then gradually increase the time/distance. On days when I really can't walk, I'll do some work with small weights and try to get my upper body and core muscles toned up.

I knitted on Bob's sweater last night, and during the day I knitted on my Shellseeker sweater. Over the weekend I did some spindle spinning (on the boat and at home) and I plied my Black Welsh Mountain and my spindle spun Wensleydale. The Wensleydale is beautiful - shiny and slightly fuzzy. I can't wait to be able to knit with that yarn. The BWM is, as expected, very hairy and prickly. I cannot imaging wearing anything knitted with it even over a layer, so I guess it will be a mat or rug or something like that. That's a disappointment. I really thought it would make a vest for outdoor use. Sigh.

We had a wonderful day on the boat on Sunday. The weather was perfect - warm but with just the right amount of breeze. The water was calm and the sunset gorgeous. I knitted on my shellseeker sweater and my new project - the Circular Shrug.  I needed something besides cotton to knit with on the boat, but it had to be small enough to not cover me in wool. I am using 1 skein of mushishi that was intended for another project. I didn't like what I was knitting so I frogged it and will give this shrug a try. If I don't like myself in a shrug, I'll give it to someone else.

It's rainy Tuesday and I don't really mind. The plants and trees need water and I have to work anyway .... I just wish I could have spent the day at home knitting and spinning. Have a good day, whatever you are doing today.

Wine and rain

Bob and I did something unusual today. We went out, not on the boat! Boordy winery has summer concerts on Saturday nights, and the husband do a knitting buddy of mine plays in one of the bands that performs there. I missed the first chance to go but we went tonight. The weather forecast had the potential for some storms, but the likelihood decreased through the day so we went. (The concerts are outside.)

We got wine, had our dinner, watched the people and listened to the music. I kept checking the radar, but I apparently was not correct in my thoughts about where on the map we were ....... There was a downpour! Everyone got drenched, though we escaped. We had just gone into the building to look around when the torrential rain started. We hung around for a while and eventually made our way back to where we had left the chairs and food. The chairs had huge puddles of water in them-no more sitting for us. We chatted for a while with other friends but finally left. As we started to our cars, the rain started up again, so leaving (the band had resumed playing) was a good choice. Sigh. So much for our night out. 
The laundry and gardening are done, so we will most likely head out on the boat on Sunday. Cotton sweater knitting, because it is the least smothering in the heat, will happen. I wish I could knit socks while on the boat. They are small and so take up little room when packing as well as not hanging all over the lap adding to the heat. I find that I can't knit lighter weight yarn on the boat without watching my knitting, which will make me I'll after a while. So, heavier weight yarn in simple stitch patterns is what I work with. 

I have been enjoying watching the Olympics so much! Closing ceremony is tonight - these last 2 weeks have gone by fast. Team USA did a wonderful job. Go USA!!!

Friday!

I am working a half day from home today and, since I had a few long days this week, will take a half day off.  That makes this Friday an especially good one.

Good news on the family front. Ed, my SIL's husband, is doing well today. He will get out of the ICU today and may be home by Sunday. Hopefully my SIL can arrange a ride to get him home, and then they have a bit of time to make arrangements to get rides for groceries, etc. I am hopeful that maybe social work or some community group can help.

The knitting is moving along - another inch was added to Bob's sweater last night and I got in a few rows on my shellseeker also. I miss spinning and am looking forward to getting back to that this coming week.

It's rainy here today but I don't mind. So far it's been a slow, gentle rain that the ground appreciates. I do hope that it clears up for some outside time tomorrow, though.

Well, back to work. I want to get my hours in so I can knit as much as possible today. I love knitting.
 ; ))

Startitis. I have it again

ETA pictures!

I have so many projects on the needles (spinning projects, too) that I probably don't remember them all. I am on a push to finish some projects, though, so things will get better.

My Ravelympics project ( yes, I am aware that the name changed. I hate Ravelenics) was to finish Bobs sweater. That isn't going to happen, but I will finish the body by the closing ceremony and plan to get the sleeves done by the time we go on vacation in September.

My LYS had the annual Coolest Customer sale in July and I bought Cascade Sierra in steel blue and a light khaki color to make Shellseeker. I am going to love this sweater, fashioned like a sweatshirt.

The stitch markers you see there are from winemakerssister and I love them. They are beautiful and sturdy and make me smile every time I look at them. I love the beach and the sea.

Juneberry is on hold but will be resumed after the Olympics. Topiary will get picked up next.

I started a baby blanket that will be a gift for a co-worker, due in December. It will be ideal vacation knitting, so while I have started it, I have only gone as far as establishing the stitch pattern and will put it on hold until September.

I have several other projects that will be picked up and finished, one at a time. I plan to avoid starting anything else new for a while with the exception of the shawl pattern from the Sivia Harding Mezzoluna Shawl Club that Angela and I signed up for. Beaded, semi- circular shawl patterns one every other month. I hope it will help me use up my lace weight yarn stash.

Spinning projects include finishing the third bobbin of Black Welsh Mountain singles, so that I can ply. Then I'd like to spin some Ryeland that I have carded and finish up other smaller projects in the works. Then I'll go back to another 3 bobbins of BWM and ply that.

My SIL called yesterday and told us that her husband had a heart attack and was having heart bypass surgery. He had it today at Emory and is doing OK. He was having some bleeding problems but they were hopeful that he could avoid another surgery. This is stressful alone but add to that the fact that my SIL is blind and her husband's hospital is 60 miles from home, you can see that it' s even worse. Even once he gets home, he won't be able to drive for 6 weeks so they have a problem. They live in rural Georgia so they can't just walk to the store down the street. We are hoping that they can work something out with neighbors.

My brother is finally gaining weight after his cancer treatments. He is looking forward to vacationing in September at the beach.

I start a new job in a couple of weeks. I will still be doing research, but in a different area of the hospital, working in several ICUs and shock trauma. I am very anxious to have a new start and learn new things.

That's it for now. I hope to add photos of my projects in a day or so. Have a good day.