Where's the Ark?

It's raining and it's never going to stop. I am convinced. We went to the marina today near high tide to check on the boat.


See that sign that says slip holder parking? That's supposed to be a parking area, not part of the Chesapeake Bay. (Our boat is the 3rd one in, with the blue cover.)
Between those poles (pilings) there should be a dock. It's there somewhere because we saw people walking on it.

That guy in the red jacket is my DH walking on our dock, coming back from checking the lines of our boat. He's wearing hip boots. When I went out there to help him, I got wet to my mid thighs. I had no boots because we didn't plan on me getting out of the vehicle.

Many roads were closed due to flooding and the water was over the top of the creeks and rivers in the area, flooding the area around them.

We've had about 5 inches of rain so far and they expect us to get another 2-4 inches over night. Maybe we should sleep on the boat!

I worked from home today and I'm glad that I escaped the commute home. I do have to go in tomorrow, though, at least for a while. : ((

Knit nite at the LYS was cancelled tonight so I think I'll go spin for a while. My Mata Hari sock is growing in length, the Vampire Boyfriend sock is off to Molly for a test fit and the sweater
has a neck opening and the bind off for the sleeves is beginning. It looks like I'll have enough yarn this time .....

Progress on the fiber front

I have been spinning and knitting every day. I am very happy about that – I missed spinning. I have been doing spindle spinning because my back has been giving me problems since we hit a big wave while on vacation, and sitting at the wheel for any periods of time is not good. I’ve been working on the Wendsleydale and the silk, both fine singles but very different from each other, and enjoying them both. I can’t wait to start plying the Wensleydale plain with the Perfect Storm singles. I am anxious to see if my vision looks as good in real life as it does in my head. The silk is gorgeous and I have no idea what I will knit with it yet. I am enjoying the process of spinning it and that is enough for now.

The sweater that I ripped and had to re-knit is at the arms again. I was right – it was better to rip and re-knit. Since I am knitting both left and right sections at once, when I bind off at the top edge, I’ll have half the sweater completed. ; )) It makes great football watching knitting, BTW.

The trade socks – boyfriend vampire socks from Knitty.com – are going on their way today to Molly for a fitting session. The designer warns that the stitch pattern is not very stretchy and I want to be sure that they will fit over Molly’s heel before I complete the pair. I finished the heel turn and gusset last night and if they fit now, I should be good to go. If not, it’s not so much progress that I will hate myself for having to rip.

As a result of those being out of the knitting line up, I should be able to finish the Mata Hari socks soon. That sock is in the process of having the heel flap knitted, so there’s not much more than leg to go. This is the second sock, so I’ll have a pair done. I have one or tow (or possibly more) single socks in the bin that need completion, so I’ll do that next, I think.

I hope to get back to lace knitting soon. Before vacation and Mom’s surgery I had picked up a lace shawl to knit on for the first time in a few months. I’d like to get back to that soon, assuming that things go well with Mom. She is due to have another CT scan of her head this week and then gets a progress report later this week from the neurosurgeon.

I will be going away for 2 days in October for a spinning retreat. I think I will really enjoy the time away from everyone, though I will be in touch via cell phone. It’s a beautiful campus and an entire weekend dedicated to spinning sounds great. Of course, I can knit instead if I want, and I may need to do that part of the time since I am not in good conditioning for 2 solid days of spinning. I’ll bring my camera and spend some time wandering campus and taking pictures in addition to the fiber activities. Getting up and moving around helps to digest all of those goodies that we bring to munch on. It takes more vigorous activity to work off the calories, though.

I hope to get some pictures of my WIPs this weekend, and to post more of my photos from vacation (not that I took all that many this year, but it's my favorite place and I like to share).

Try not to get too wet if you live on the East coast - it's gonna be a heck of a rainstorm.

I need a drink ….

I am just back from vacation. In some ways I feel like it was a month long, and in others I feel like I need a vacation. Soon.

On July 4^th, my mother had a loss of consciousness and fell. She hit her head hard, was in the hospital for a few days and seemed to be getting better, but never did well. Then she started to have more problems with balance and memory. Long discussions with her about needing to see the doctor were unsuccessful, and after all, she is an adult. I couldn’t make her go. Suddenly she fell 3 times in one week and couldn’t finish a sentence without loosing her words.

A visit to the local ER (after much pleading with Mom on the phone about the need to be seen) lead to a transfer to another hospital, one that had a neurosurgeon available. On the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, Mom had surgery to remove the blood in her skull and relieve the pressure on her brain that would have killed her in a matter of a couple of weeks. She was trying hard to stay “OK” until after we all had our vacations. We (her 4 children) were all supposed to be out in Montauk at approximately the same time, and she didn’t want to ruin our fun. Typical of Mom but very frustrating.

She had a lot of pressure in her skull that was putting a lot of pressure on the brain and pushing it into places that it didn’t belong, causing it to not work well. : (( A couple of holes in the skull later and some meds to decrease swelling fixed most of the critical problems. A week later she was out of the hospital and at home, though with supervision. Her balance was tenuous and her judgment lacked …. Something. She’s tired of being sick and tired of being limited but still needs to follow some restrictions for about another month or so. My brother (who lives with her) has stepped up to the plate and is taking care of her, but hasn’t worked out a way to get her to agree to things without making her feel bad. I’d bring her down here to stay with us for a couple of weeks but I know that she wants to be in her house, with her things. I just don’t know what to do.

Vacation itself (staying in the hotel on the water in Montauk) was good. The weather was reasonably good (a day or two were too windy for boating) and we caught fish, ate well, did our best to relax. My brother drove Mom out there one day (it’s about a 2 hour drive for them) and Bob and I spent the afternoon with Mom while he had a break. We were both disappointed to not catch a striped bass, but did bring home fish for future eating. (I love to eat bluefish, though many don’t care for it). I love spending time at the lighthouse.

Some days were dark and stormy off and on, but most of the time the sun was shining.

We stopped at Mom’s on the way home and spent another 2 days with her. Now we are home, I am back at work and wanting to be in NY with my mother. I wish I could telecommute.

ETA It's been a week now and things are better. MOm is till doing some things I wish she wouldn't do (against doctor's orders) but with only 2 weeks to go on the limitations, I am hoping she can stick with the program.

Knitting happened despite everything else. I have completed 3 pattern repeats on the Vampire Boyfriend socks that will be a trade for the DPNs. I am enjoying the pattern immensely. My sweater is almost halfway there. I have right and left fronts almost complete. The bad news is that I will have to try to get another skein of wool. I should have had a little extra and don’t know if I just knitted it a little longer than called for in each section or what, but I will be a bit short unless I can get more yarn. Hopefully Jimmy Beans will come through for me. I like the look of the sweater. It will be that cross between my beloved sweatshirts and dressing up a little nicer. I knitted a square on the afghan for eldest son but mostly knitted on the socks, the sweater and did lots of fishing and steering of the boat. We hung out near the lighthouse a few times, and I was able to get in some knitting at the end of the day, but it was chilly and I was tired, so I didn’t accomplish as much as I had hoped. Plus there was just a touch of distractedness due to stress …..

ETA I ripped the front pieces of the sweater and am re-knitting. I decided that was less stress than cutting and piecing things together and using another yarn for the bottom edge. I am at the arms already.

The other good things is that I am back to spinning. I wasn't feeling much like spinning when I got home, but we went boating yesterday and i grabbed my drop spindle. I really enjoyed spinning up more of the silk fiber and today did some spindle spinning of the black Wensleydale to be plied with the Perfect storm color way.

It’s fall for sure. I have pulled all of the annuals from the railing boxes and hanging baskets. They are finished for the season, and this is early for that. I am still picking a few tomatoes, but the rest of the garden is also done for the year. I hope next year’s garden is better. It was dark when I drove into work this morning at 6 AM and it will be dark again at 7 PM. Bummer. I am not quite ready for the nights to be so long already.

I hope to blog more regularly again now that summer has ended and things are(I hope) calming down n the family front. I will be posting more photos of Montauk and some photos of my WIPs to share.

Fall in August

It will reach the 90’s today but Fall is in the air. The evenings have been cool – more like September weather. I love the cool evenings, though I don’t want them to be too cool over the next few weeks. We’ll be on the water in the evenings while on vacation. Let me tell you – temps that are comfortable on dry land are downright cold when on the water with a wind blowing. I am really looking forward to vacation, though, no matter the weather (except for non stop rain or a hurricane).

We were in NY this past weekend – a viewing for a friends’ mother who passes on at 88 years of life. We had a good visit with him and he and his family are OK with the passing of their mother considering her age and health.

We visited with my mother and brother (we stayed with Mom instead of driving 4 hours home after the viewing). We made a trip to Captree and checked out the fishing boats at the dock, then went to the beach for a little while. We love the beach and it was good to get Mom out of the house. She’s still a little under the weather since her fall over July 4^th weekend.

We drove home on Sat. night, listening to the Raven’s game on the radio. We lucked out because they were playing the NY Giants and we could listen to the NY station broadcasting the first half and then the Baltimore station for the second half of the game.

I didn’t get much knitting done on this trip – I did most of the driving and we were busy with activities during our short time there. I did get some spinning done yesterday, in between chores. Last night I knitted on the sleeve of the Slinky Ribs top while watching the Broncos game. I think that sleeve will never get long enough. I’d love to have it finished for vacation but I think that won’t work. I still have the neck edging to knit IF the sleeve ever grows long enough. I want (I think) ¾ length sleeves. I have one knitted to elbow length and am trying to get the other one to ¾ length so I can try it on to see which I like better (since I am terrible at visualizing).

Vacation knitting is settled. I will have the yarn for the trade socks (with Molly at Celtic Swans) so that project will go, as will a simple non-patterned sock. I plan to bring the yarn (in Black Pearl) for the cover sweater from this book. I’ve swatched, measured, blocked and measured again. Shaping is accomplished by changing needle sizes. I hope that works for me. On Ravelry I have read that the neck opening is too large and fall off the shoulders, so I hope to adjust the pattern enough to prevent that, but otherwise it should be a nice easy knit, great for boating and just daydreaming on vacation. I will bring the afghan I’ve been working on for eldest son and my lace shawl (from Victorian Lace Today). That’s it. I will, I hope make a visit to the LYS there in Montauk called Purl By the Sea, but will only buy if there’s something unusual in the way of a pattern or yarn (or if I need to replace a needle or something, of course).

This will be a busy week. I will have a crown placed on a bad tooth, get my hair cut and finish up as much work as possible before being gone for 2 weeks. Is it Friday yet?

I have a well rounded fiber life again. : ))

Lace is back in my life.

I am spinning, knitting lace, spindle spinning and finishing up projects on the needles. I finished the knitting of the V neck cardigan and it is blocking as I write this post. I can see myself in Montauk, going for a walk in the evening, pulling that sweater on to ward off the chill. (I hope it’s just a chill – we seem to be having signs of fall arriving and it’s only mid-August! I hope I won’t be wearing my winter coat)

The next thing to push to finish will be the Slinky Ribs sweater. So far one sleeve is elbow length and the other has about 2 inches knitted.

My lace knitting has not taken over my life but has a part in most days. I try to knit 4 rows each day and I am working on the shawl from Victorian Lace Today. It’s amazing how paying attention to my knitting avoids mistakes or lets me catch them right away. Giggle. I have to turn off my audio book when I knit on that shawl, but it’s worth it. I feel good that I am back to knitting lace again. I also picked up the falling leaves scarf I was knitting for Mom in the fall colors yarn with the silver thread.

Vacation is just a couple of weeks away. With Bob not working outside the home, he’ll be stuck with most of the prep work, but I have my share to work on. I haven’t settled on vacation knitting yet. I’ll be thinking about that over the next week or so.

One of my likely vacation projects will be a pair of socks for a trade. Molly at Celtic Swans doesn’t knit socks but likes to wear them. She makes beautiful knitting needles out of bronze (or silver) that I would live to have. I noticed a post on Knitters Review about the trade and apparently she has posted it on Ravelry, also. I have decided to take her up on it. She has chosen the Vampire Boyfriend socks from Knitty.com and Cascade heritage sock yarn in a kelly green color. I’ll probably work on those while on vacation. Cable sock knitting and vacation – I think that’s a great combination. ; )

I’ll have a shawl along. I don’t know if I will bring the one I am working on now or resurrect Laminaria and try to fix my mistakes on that one.

One requirement for vacation knitting (which is automatically also boat knitting) is a project that uses worsted weight yarn and has a fairly simple pattern. That may require that I start a new project. I have some yarn and ideas …. I did just order some yarn and found a pattern in a book I borrowed from the library that looks pretty simple to knit, though, so that might be the thing to bring along. Have to swatch before departure, though. If I don’t feel up to all of that, I can always bring along the afghan for eldest son.

Migraine prevention has been a goal of mine recently. I had so many migraines for a while that I used up my “allowance” of Imitrex. I tried Topamax but had some bad side effects and the doctor had me stop. I am now on verapamil and I have no side effects but I’ve had 2 migraines. The next question now is new medicine or up the dose? I’ll be putting in a call to the doctor.

My younger son has my camera right now, so there are no photos. Hopefully next week I can get someone to take a few photos of me in my new sweater in addition to getting some photos of my spinning projects and other things.

There has been no boating over the last two weeks. We had discovered a gas leak and Bob just finished putting the last seal in place yesterday over the gas tank. We may get in a couple more trips before vacation. I hope. : )

Blog Vacation

It appears that my blog has been on vacation. I can’t really say that life has gotten in the way, just that it doesn’t allow time lately for photo taking and blogging. Regular blogging will probably resume once the weather gets colder, vacation is over or some other thing happens that gives me time that I am willing to spend in front of the computer.

Meanwhile, there will be an occasional catch up post, like this one. ; ))

I won a ribbon for each of my entries into the county fair! I really was not expecting to do that well. I won a first prize ribbon for the Estonian lace scarf. That’s the one I thought I would do well with. Unfortunately, the person judging thought that I had left my ends too long and that kept me from winning champion or reserve champion, but that’s life. I won a first place ribbon for the Mondo Cable Pulli knitted in Angels Kiss yarn. I also won a first place ribbon for my vest. Bob’s cotton sweater took second. The funny thing is, one of the people viewing the entries (not an official) insisted that I must have machine knitted it because the stitches were so even, there was no way that I could have knitted it by hand! LOL. I don’t even own a knitting machine. Anyway, I also entered Purple sunshine socks, the heavy cabled socks that I knitted for bed socks and the basket weave mobius - they all won second place ribbons. I am very pleased. I’ll be sure to trim all of my ends down close before the state fair, though.

Mom is doing better. She has started walking every day and has fewer dizzy spells per week. She’s going tomorrow for a tilt table test to try to help diagnose whether her problem is with heart rate or blood pressure. I hope they get an answer.

The garden is producing but not doing well. I am not sure if it’s the soil preparation, too much water, too much heat or just my brown thumb. Usually my brown thumb only affects indoor plants and I do well with outdoor things, but if you look at that garden, you will doubt that. We are eating corn on the cob, tomatoes, cucumbers and some green beans, but not in the quantities I expected and the size of the tomatoes has me puzzled about what I did wrong. I think we’ll send off soil samples for analysis – maybe we are missing some important mineral or have a very off balance pH.

“The boys” – my sons – are doing OK. Rob fell last week and hurt his arm – probably over-extended the elbow, maybe even dislocated it and it popped back in place right away. He had a lot of swelling and discomfort for over a week. That’s getting better now, there was some bruising noticed and we are hoping that there’s not too much permanent damage done. Health and job initiatives aside, my son still does not have a job or health care benefits and he has been trying.

The V neck cardigan progress has gained momentum. One sleeve is within a couple of inches of being done. Slinky Ribs has one sleeve at the length that I think I want and I need to pick up the stitches for the other sleeve. I will knit them both to the same length, try it on and decide whether I want longer sleeves or not. The Spiral square stole is stalled. It is lace and I haven’t been able to work on lace. Maybe soon, though …. I feel the need for some open work. The Mata Hari socks are moving along after my latest frogging episode. I just could not get the fit right on these for some reason. They are staying on the circular needles so that I can try them on at will.

I am thinking that after these two sweaters are completed that I might work on lace and socks for a while. I’d like to finish up some of the things on the needles, and, as I said, I am starting to feel the lace love again. On the other hand, there’s a KAL at my LYS that I’d like to do ….. Probably I’ll just work on what I have, but I’d like to knit that cabled cardigan …..

Heading to NY tomorrow

Mom has an appointment with a cardiologist to try to find the cause of her loss of consciousness last month and I am going to drive up there tomorrow to go with her. I'll feel much better if I can make sure he gets all the info about what happened and also get all of the info he gives her about his thoughts and plans. The only way that will happen is if I go there. I will drive up in the morning after rush hour, spend the night, go to the appointment with her on Tuesday and drive home, planning to go into work a little bit late on Wednesday.

My dye has arrived so I'll be heading out to the storage area in a little while to find the fiber to be dyed black. This black fiber will be spun and plied with the other spun fiber from the TdF to as the third ply for two nice three ply yarns with good yardage for some still undecided project this winter. Also, the almost solid Wensleydale fiber arrived yesterday and can now be spindle spun, to be plied with the perfect storm into (I hope) a lace weight yarn for a small shawl. I am still spinning the silk, but not as fast as during the TdF.

On the knitting front, I finally bit the bullet and figured out the sleeve on the Slinky Ribs top. It went smoothly despite my concerns about not really understanding the instructions and I have several inches of sleeve knitted up. I plan to knit 3/4 length sleeves but will try the top on several times to see what I think.

The V neck cardigan sleeve is growing but not as fast now that the weather has gotten a little more bearable and we are spending more time outdoors. It's a large, warm project to sit in my lap out doors, so I only work on it inside.

Rob's afghan grew some yesterday while we spent a gorgeous day on the boat. I knitted 2.5 squares.

I frogged the wrap/laprobe with my hand spun yarn. I wasn't happy with the look of what I was getting and I like the yarn too much to make something with it just to use it up. I'll have to rethink that idea. On the other hand, I cast on another project. Apparently I have a case of startitis, although in this case it was balanced by ending a project, so maybe that doesn't count. ; )

I have some hand dyed cotton rayon yarn by Roz Houseknecht that I purchased at MD Sheep and Wool Festival one year. It is dyed in deep jewel tones of blue, purple, bronze and green. I am making the Eliina Shawl with it. It looks good and it fits my needs right now. I want easy to knit - apparently lace knitting doesn't fit into my life right now, though I have no doubt that it will again. This shawl starts with lots of stockinette stitch with a few rows of decrease yo thrown in. When I get to the lace edging part, I hope I'll be ready. Otherwise it will go into the lace-in-waiting queue with Laminaria and the Curved Shawl with Diamond Edging from Victorian Lace Today.

I am hoping that October might be a finish up the lace month as well as finishing up socks on the needles or one of a kind that didn't get completed while on vacation in September. Vacation knitting is funny - I need small, portable projects, but I also need projects that are simple and that use at least sport weight yarn that can be knitted with little attention to needles or pattern for knitting on the boat and/or in the dark.

I can't update the blog very often these days. Blogs are blocked at work (I don't like it but I don't blame them) and it's hard to find time to sit at the computer in the evening after dinner, dishes, spending time with DH, doing some knitting or maybe a chore or two and getting to bed in time to get up at 5:15 and be at least semi-conscious on the drive into work. So, it's pretty much just weekends, and I don't even have pictures this weekend. there's not enough progress on anything to show off. I will have news about ribbons from the county fair knitting competition next week, though, or maybe I can sneak in a post from Mom's house tomorrow .....