Category: Uncategorized

Has it really been two weeks since I've posted?  I realized mid-week that I had completely forgotten to blog last week.  Nothing real exciting going on, just life and its normal business.  There has been knitting, but no pictures – just visualize the Hidcote Shawl a few rows longer.  The rows are getting very, very long, so I can only manage a few in a sitting.

I've also found myself quilting more.  I seem to do this on a regular basis.  I have several interests, and when one catches my fancy, I seem to really immerse myself in it, almost to the exclusion of everything else.  I'll do that for several weeks and then one of my other interests will come to the forefront.  I don't know that I consider it exactly a problem, but I do envy those who have single interests – they probably get a lot more done.  Of course, I also have lots of help:

Can you see Kirby squished in there on my right side?  That is his favorite place in the whole world and he is never happier than when he is wedged in there.

Maggie, of course, is never happier than when she is out on a walk.  We've been getting out more lately because there have been glimmers of spring (despite a little scare – a two hour snowstorm last week!).  Behold – Dog with Crocuses:

Spring also means that she is starting to blow her coat.  Corgis don't shed too badly most of the year, but at least once a year they blow their soft downy undercoat.  It takes constant brushing to make sure you don't have clumps all over the floor.  Maggie really doesn't seem to mind too much:

You can see the pile of down over to the left of the picture. 

And that, folks, is just about it on this end.  See you next week!

I was going to post about the first harbingers of spring.  In fact, the only reason I hadn't posted lately was because I kept forgetting my camera on my walks to take pictures of the budding trees and daffodils and tulips popping through the ground.  However, this morning we were greeted by this:

It is extremely unusual for us to get snow this late in the season.  Driving into work was really treacherous!  The roads were solid black ice.  But by this afternoon it was all gone off the roads and only a little left on the deck and lawn.  By tomorrow afternoon it will be all gone and I can hopefully get some pictures of spring in the making.

I've also put off posting because of lack of energy.  I'm still battling bronchitis.  I thought that last week I was getting better, but experienced a set back this week.  I've managed to get to work and back, but seem to have problems getting enthused about much of anything.  I have done some scrapbook pages.  This one chronicles a wonderful road trip we made back in 1985:

And some knitting has been accomplished as well.  I managed to put in a few repeats on a new baby afghan for charity:

Sorry I don't have the stats handy.  The information would be in the other room and that would entail actually getting up out of my chair and walking back there.  Too much trouble!

I've also made progress on the Hidcote shawl.  This part is really relaxing and you can even see a bit of the pattern developing:

Maggie continues to provide us with endless sources of amusement.  Lately she's taken to racing in after her morning constitutional to gaze adoringly into the fire:

And if you think that's cute, take a look at this:

Yes, Nana is already planning different layouts for a really cute scrapbook page!

The wonderful thing about taking pictures of children is capturing those moments of pure joy!  This photo of Isobel was just such a photo and deserved its own scrapbook page:

I think this is my favorite page so far, but then I say that about every page I make.  I had a goal to make at least one page a week this year, but that resolution took a hit when I got sick.  I couldn't even muster up the energy for that.  But I'm happy to report I think I'm back to full strength, so maybe I can make up for lost time.

I've made quite a bit of progress on Hidcote, but now it's jumbled up on the needles, so a photo won't necessarily show much.  As I mentioned before, that's one of the downsides of knitting lace – limited blog fodder.  I really did appreciate all of your comments on my boring post!  They reflected very much how I feel.  The blogs that I frequent don't necessarily always feature stunning knitting, although they often do.  I return to them because they are written by women with full lives and lots of stuff going on besides the knitting.  They are all women I would love to sit down and have a cup of coffee with.  Some of them I have met – Li, Lorette, Theresa and Kris.  Others I hope to meet some day – Marguerite and Theresa.  And there are others that I probably will never meet – Deb, Lynne, Anne, Sue and Kathy.  But they all join me every week for coffee and I enjoy their company! 

And, speaking of lace, thanks to Sue, I have joined a lace club!  This is the first time I've ever joined any type of yarn club, but when I found out there were actually lace clubs, I was intrigued.  The one I joined is hosted by Wool Girl and features some top designers.  It won't be all shawls – there are socks and scarves and mystery projects, along with lace goodies.  I can't wait for my first project to arrive the end of March.

And, falling under the heading of "It wasn't me, it was him!"

Of course, we all know who the troublemaker is!  Good news is that we had both dogs to the vet yesterday for their annual checkup and they are both in fine fiddle.  We are especially grateful for Kirby's good health.  He was a Valentine's present from hubby 14 years ago today! 

I leave you with this Valentine toast from Abby:

The other day Marguerite and I were discussing how sometimes we feel pressured to gear our knitting to our blogs.  Sometimes the knitting we are doing seems a little boring and heaven forbid we should bore our readers (all four of you!).  However, we decided that our knitting is our knitting and I, for one, blog as much for me and my family as for knitters.  So I'm afraid that you may have to move on for more exciting knitting content.  I might suggest either Theresa or Marjorie who have committed to NaKniSweMoDo, which means knitting a sweater (adult sized!) a month this year.  It makes my fingers hurt just to contemplate that. 

Part of the problem is that I have been busy knitting, but a finished baby afghan looks about the same as it did halfway through – only longer:

And lace pretty much looks like a tangled mess until you get to the end and you block it.  In fact, the further along you get, the worse it looks:

 

And I know you get tired of hearing about the weather – after all, we've had it pretty easy this winter compared to the rest of the country.  However, we did have hail this afternoon:

 

Yes, that's all hail, not snow!

I do have a scrapbook page to show.  I'll probably be showing more – my fingers have been aching a lot and I don't know if I've been overdoing it, so I'm going to be taking it slow on the knitting front.  I'm particularly proud of this page.  The background is an actual photo of our hands.  My first draft of the page was pretty awful because I used the original color photo.  Over the years it had developed a very red color cast and all my efforts at editing it in Photoshop Elements were unsuccessful.  I finally decided to change it to black and white and add a filter.  This is the result and I am very happy:

 

Those of you of a certain age might recognize the song as "Lean on Me", sung by Bill Withers.  It is "our song".  I had made it a goal to try and do one page a week this year.  My little brush with bronchitis kind of put me behind, but I'm ready to catch up.  I know this has been mainly a knitting blog, but I hope you don't mind viewing some of my pages in the months to come.  Please feel free to chime in!

I don't even want to know what kind of Google hits I'll get with that one!  Hubby returned home safely from San Diego with his new baby:

Carmen (clever name, eh?) is a 1970 Karmann Ghia convertible.  As you may recall, he had a 1930 American Austin.  Well, the right offer came along and he sold it to a guy in Oregon.  This lovely lady came up on eBay and after copious research and correspondence with the owner, he decided to bid.  He really had no hopes of winning and was stunned when he did!  Apparently there were several bidders pretty miffed that he won and one even called the owner and offered her $3000 more, but she did the honorable thing and honored the auction.  She said she knew she did the right thing when hubby asked her if the car had a name (it didn't).  She knew it was going to someone who would love it and care for it.  We had fun tossing names around.  We knew it was not a "he" – definitely a "she".  Hubby said he had to drive her before coming to a conclusion, but by the time he arrived from San Diego had decided "Carmen" was appropriate.  Yesterday he could bear it no longer and put the top down for a little jaunt.  It was, after all, sunny and at least 40 degrees!  I didn't tag along.  It's got to be a little warmer to tempt me.

Carmen is going to be lots of fun for going on cruises with our car club.  There is plenty of leg room so there's a perfect spot for my knitting bag.  It remains to be seen whether or not I can knit with the top down!  That's the car's top – get your mind out of the gutter!

Not a lot of knitting content this week.  I'm still battling this bronchitis and feel kinda puny.  My powers of concentration are not at their peak.  I did pick up Queen Silvia briefly, but knew that nupps just weren't on the ticket for me until I feel better.  I finally decided to start a new lace project. The Hidcote Shawl by Miriam Felton fit the bill.  I needed something that would capture my interest, but not be too complicated.  I actually started this with some black lace yarn I had on hand, but quickly decided that was a tactical error.  My old eyes needed something a little lighter:

 

I'm not sure exactly what the yarn is – it was in my stash with no band, but it is probably 100% Merino – very soft.

This week Isobel made a list of her favorite things.  They are (in order):

1.  Ice cream

2.  Maggie

3.  Nana (Woo hoo!)

4.  Yeh-yeh (grandfather)

5.  Mama

6.  Daddy

7.  Master Chief (a video game hero – and no, she doesn't play it, Daddy does)

8.  Pistage (their Lhasa Apso)

9.  Blue (their Chinese Crested)

10.  Mei-mei (Ivy)

11.  Gargamel (the villain from the Smurf cartoons)

I came in third after ice cream and Maggie!  Poor Mei-mei came after the dogs and barely beat out a villain.  Abby said they are going to have to work on that.

And, to distract you from the fact that there is pitiful little progress on knitting, here are some updates of my beautiful granddaughters wearing their Christmas sweaters:

 

So, are we talking about the weather or the illness?  Well, both.  This bronchitis is just hanging on and on.  My doctor confirms that I'm on the mend, though, so there does seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel.  Of course, there was a train coming this week when I got hit by . . . pink eye!!  My doctor says that it's not unexpected when you work around what he calls "little walking germ factories" – kids.  I've been trying to keep away from all the kids at work to avoid giving them what I have, but apparently one of them launched a preemptive strike.  Add in the continued lack of sunshine.  We've seen a glimpse now and then, but when the cloud cover clears, the fog rolls in.

One of the effects of all of this has been a complete lack of interest in anything.  Usually when I walk into my sewing room I get excited about all the possible projects I could be working on.  Today I walked in, looked around, and walked back out.  It was just too much effort to get excited about anything.  So, I've spent a lot of time cuddled in my chair with Kirby on my lap and just knitting.  Mostly it's been pretty mindless projects like this afghan for the Linus Project:

I went over to the next island today to the LYS and picked up a couple of more skeins to finish it off and and while I was there picked up some more Encore:

So, I have plenty of yarn to get me through some pretty mindless knitting until my brain cells can wrap themselves around something more challenging.  I did put in a few rows on Queen Silvia, but I knew better than to push it:

And a close up of nupps for Lynne:

Last weekend I dragged myself out and went to visit my sister.  I did manage to make it through the opera without disturbing the other patrons and getting myself unceremoniously kicked out.  We also went to a "Cruise Show" sponsored by AAA.  Who knew there were so many possibilities for cruising?  Anything from a jaunt around the Caribbean to a trip through the Panama Canal to a river cruise into China.  I brought home stacks and stacks of books so hubby and I can start planning for a cruise in a year or two.

In the meantime a shorter trip is planned for April.  My sister and I got our tickets for a trip back home to visit the parents.   My office will be closed for about a week and a half and it seemed the perfect opportunity to go spend some time with the folks.  Tomorrow hubby leaves for a trip of his own.  He's flying down to San Diego to bring back a new toy.  I won't spoil the surprise, but if you know his love of classic cars, you might have a hint as to what's coming.

One of the things I learned last weekend was that "nupp" rhymes with "soup".  Who knew?  The workshop with Nancy Bush was everything I hoped it would be and more.  One of the things with fascinating classes, however, is that photography is rarely on your mind and the camera is only whipped out for the sake of blogdom and then quickly put away so you can get back to business!

Nancy had tons of beautiful shawls to show, but this is the only photo I have of her showing them:

In my defense, I was sitting off to the side and couldn't get full on shots.  For better photos, just pick up a copy of her book, Knitted Lace of Estonia – if you can find one!  She had all of the shawls and scarves from the book and more!  I did manage to get the obligatory name-dropping shot:

I was still feeling pretty puny, but am fairly confident that I was no longer contagious.  I literally bathed in hand sanitizer the whole time and tried not to touch anything.  I don't think there was a person there, though, that faulted me for going. 

Our project on the second day was a sampler.  I managed to get a fairly decent amount done:

Nancy's advice on nupps was priceless and I have to say that I feel much more confident about them now.  So much so, that I started Queen Silvia from the book – with over 1,000 of the little critters:

The yarn is Skacel Lace Merino, the needles Knitpicks Harmony, size 3.  I discovered that wooden needles are almost a must for conquering nupps!  Looking at the two photos, it occurs to me that lace knitting is an enormous act of faith.  Until it is done and blocked, it looks like complete crap.  However, once blocked it is almost ethereal.  Maybe that's why I like it so much – the transformation!

I started a new pair of socks.  The yarn is Knitpicks Essential Black Tweed.  I don't have a pair of black hand knit socks and really need (want?) them as I wear black a lot.  I must have started at least four different patterns before finally settling on a simple 6×1 rib.  Between the softeness of the yarn and the black (and old eyes), everything else just proved too fiddly.  Maggie approves of the yarn so much, she tried to steal it:

I did finally cave in and visited the doctor this week.  He said I have viral bronchitis.  Nothing for it but to just let it run its course with some super duper cough syrup to get me through the nights.  He said he's seeing a lot of it this winter.  The congestion phase only lasts a week, but the cough can go on for 2-3 weeks.  Yeah, just what I wanted to hear. 

Off to Seattle again this weekend.  My sister's birthday present to me was tickets to the opera – the Pearl Fishers.  Fortunately it's a matinee and mid afternoon seems to be my best time coughing-wise.  I'm pretty sure I'll be able to manage without disturbing anyone. 

Next week I promise photos of the girls in their new sweaters.  It looks as if they really needed them this week.  It was actually colder in Orlando than it was there.  But I bet they actually saw the sun.  We got a brief glimpse yesterday – maybe for an hour?  Other than that, I think it's been since Christmas Eve that it's been out for any length of time.  However, I am NOT complaining.  50 degrees and cloudy is downright balmy when you think of what the Midwest and New England states are going through.  Hang in guys and keep warm!

The past week has not been a stellar one in our household.  Although hubby and I don't suffer clinically from S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder), it's really hard to get enthused about anything when it's always dark.  I go to work in the dark and I come home in the dark.  And it's dark at noon because we haven't seen more than a glimmer of the sun in weeks!  Even when it's not raining (and it's mostly been raining), there is constant cloud cover.  But am I complaining after those freakish snow storms in December?  You bet I am!  See how lethargic hubby and Maggie are:

You might have heard about the terrible flooding in Western Washington.  We don't usually have too much of a problem on the island since we have no rivers. But we have an awful lot of standing water.  This is the end of our driveway:

And there's a lake in our backyard!

Add to this the fact that I am sick.  I very rarely get sick and get a trifle cranky when I do.  There wasn't even any staying home and coddling myself.  We have one employee out for an indeterminate time and two more injured and on light duty.  As office manager the buck stops here, so I soldiered on.  The past two days were very difficult as I completely lost my voice!!  I couldn't answer phones or converse with parents.  There was a lot of note writing and pantomiming! 

However, my day was considerably brightened yesterday when I got a phone call.  When the receptionist told me I had a phone call, I told her she had to take a message and I'd write out my answer.  She insisted I take it:

"Nana, are you sick?  Do you need a hug?  I love you Nana!"  Ok, I feel a LOT better!!  I think she was especially sympathetic because both she, Ivy and her mommy have all been sick too.  Get better soon Izzy.

Fortunately I've had completely mindless knitting on the baby afghans to tide me over.  I don't think I could have focused on anything else:

I really like the colors on the variegated one.  They're soft but not too soft – very happy and cheerful.  One thing I have discovered, though, is that I am so much happier on needles no larger than size 7.  The blue afghan is done on size 7, the variegated one on size 8.  Just that one size difference makes a world of difference in how long my hands can hold out.

Tomorrow I'm going to rest and take it easy and rest my voice.  I want to be in fine fiddle for the Nancy Bush class this weekend.  Of course, you know I'd be there – even if the paramedics have to wheel me in on a stretcher!

There's only about 8 1/2 hours of 2008 left here in the Pacific Northwest.  In looking back, I can truly say that the year has been a very good one for us.  Like everyone else, we've seen our investments take a tumble, but at least we have investments!  In looking at my retirement account, it may have an impact on whether or not I can completely retire next year, but time will tell.  Hubby, the sons, daughter-in-law, granddaughters, sisters, brothers and parents are all in reasonably good health.  Life is good.

I spent today enjoying the fruits of my labor and some really nice Christmas gifts.  Ben and Abby gave me an Amazon.com gift certificate and I bought Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day.  I made my first loaf:

Yum!  I think this is the best bread I've ever had – especially spread with my own homemade apple butter.  I made white bread for hubby – he prefers it over whole wheat.  I usually don't like white bread that much, but this was very good.  I'm really looking forward to trying the whole wheat recipes with my own home ground wheat. 

This afternoon, I fired up my iPod shuffle (thanks Dr. Olson) and loaded in some new tunes (thanks Allen for the iTunes gift certicate) and did some lace blocking while listening to The Priests.  Talk about the voice of angels!!  Lace and beautiful music – how good can it get?

Garden Shawl before:

And after:

I guess blocking a blue shawl on a blue carpet doesn't make for the best of pictures, does it?

Specs:  Garden Shawl by Fiddlesticks Knitting
Yarn:  Baruffa Cashwool
Needles:  I forget – 2/3??  Something like that.

I will always think of this as Hester's shawl.  I was working on it when she died and in the weeks after I immersed myself in it as a way of dealing with my grief.  When Maggie arrived I was way too busy to focus on lace and put it away for a while.  I'm glad to have it finished by the end of the year.

Our plans tonight are the same as most of our New Year's Eves.  We plan to eat leftovers and attempt to stay up until 10:00 p.m.  We are real party animals!  Happy New Year!!

One thing about being snowed in is that there is lotsa time for knitting!  We were not able to get our cars unstuck until yesterday.  I know the snow didn't look that extreme from the photos, but underneath the snow was ice and underneath that gravel, so it was impossible to get traction on the hill up to our house.  We were downright giddy with delight at being able to finally get out yesterday!

While stuck in the house, I engaged in one of my favorite activities – watching cheesy science fiction movies and knitting.  I was determined to conquer the border on the Garden Shawl – and I did!  This is what victory looks like:

All that's left is to weave in a few ends and block.  Since I have the next week off I should be able to get to it fairly quickly.  Usually I like doing the borders on shawls, but this border seemed to be tedious in the extreme.  Perhaps it was because the pattern was difficult to memorize.  It took me about half the edging before I really got it down.

Tomorrow we're really going to get out and are going to the mainland for shopping, lunch out and a movie, courtesy of my sister.  I am way beyond giddy at the prospect.  Is there really a world out there? 

Maggie is going a little stir crazy.  She did get out while there was snow, but now that it is melting, it is a muddy mess out there.  We're going to have to put her on the treadmill to expend some excess energy.  We've spent endless hours throwing her ball down the hall.  She's a good little girl, though, and brings it back every time.  If she drops it where you can't reach it, all you have to say is, "It's too far away!" and she'll nudge it with her nose until you can reach it.

In the meantime, she pretended to be snuggly with my sister, but I think she had ulterior motives:

Although usually a huge fan of New Year's resolutions, I have decided not to make any this year.  I am going to use the next week off work to try and get a little more organized.  I'll try to do an organizational project each day and my reward will be some "play" time.  So far I've organized the hutch in our kitchen, which had become a dumping spot for just about everything. 

My major job will be organizing my sewing room – AGAIN!  I do not seem to have the knack of keeping it tidy when I'm working on a project.  I hope to find the bottom so I can start on a new project on New Year's Day.  I usually start a new project for the new year.  This year it will be a quilt rather than a knitting project – so stay tuned!

Hope this finds everyone safe and digging out from all the snow.  Happy New Year to all my readers!