Closing In.

The end of the year is nigh, and I might finish one more book and one more knitted item.  This is the one I am currently working on, rather focused to see whether I can finish:

The body is handspun from Knitting Lagniappe, and the border is from Bombshell Dyeworks.  I think I have buttons that will work, in my buttonbox.  I am going to make the sleeves slightly longer, but don't have enough yarn for them to be full-length.  Yes, this is a rarity - something for me!

A contented day.

Family celebration of Christmas today, part of it was happiness that none of us were "on call" for work, nor felt an obligation to sidle off to work for a bit.  We ate a reasonable (vegetarian and gluten-free) brunch, complete with snacky bits of cheese and multiple desserts.

Most of the gifts we exchange are donations to favourite charities.  I had token gifts for the family: dark chocolate covered apricots for my parents; socks with the Hot Wheels® logo for my brother, who owned and played with many as a boy; compost for my sister-in law, who directed it to a local farm; National Parks water bottles for my younger niece and her partner; and for the elder niece, a hat:

When I mentioned to my mother on Tuesday that I was struggling to find a token gift appropriate for my older niece, my mother suggested a warm hat because my niece's job includes working with students in a community garden, and it's been cold.  I sent a message to my niece asking for her three favourite colours, because I know she has a black coat and didn't want to make a black hat, especially on short notice.  She responded that evening.

Then I had to dig to find enough yarn in her choices of black, green, and pink.  I found a skein of handdyed yarn in pink with bits of black, and some leftover green.  I decided to use a pattern I've knit many times, doubling the pink/black to get the correct thickness.  I started on Wednesday morning, and spent the evening watching holiday videos and knitting.  I woke early and managed to finish with plenty of time to wrap the gifts and arrive at my parents' house with time to help set up.

The hat fit, it's soft enough to suit my niece, and she's happy to have it when the weather gets cooler again.  Today was unusually warm, especially for Christmas Day.

Eight nights of light.

It was a stunning beginning to the holiday as we learned of the terrorist attack in Bondi Beach.  And the terrorism continues throughout the world, with synagogues and other Jewish buildings receiving bomb threats, as so many of them have in the last two-plus years since the attacks of October 7, 2023.  Of course these attacks didn't start then, but they have tripled and multiplied even more than that.  It's as if the attacks let people feel empowered to bring their anti-Jewish views and intentions into the streets, the gathering places, the eyes of the world.

And there is the other side, which are people coming together in support, to do good deeds to overcome the evil that is happening, to show that just as the candles each evening overcome the darkness of the night, so too can the goodness in the world overcome the darkness that threatens to wash over us.

One of the observations in my rabbis' Hannukah message to the congregation really resonates with me:  "Perhaps, the miracle of Chanukah is not that there was enough oil for the menorah to last eight days, but rather, that on the first day, when they saw how much oil was left, that the Maccabees had enough faith to go ahead and light it anyway."  This is something I've often thought as well: the miracle is that their faith held despite everything that had happened to them.  In many ways, that is how it feels to be Jewish today.

These are the videos I posted this year:

If Lin-Manuel Miranda Wrote a Hanukah Musical - Jared B. Goldsmith

A 'Wicked' Hannukah - Six13  (and the Maccabeats' one seems even more applicable this year)

I'm Spending Chanukah in Santa Monica - Tom Lehrer (because it's Tuesday) performed by Honest 2 Betsy and Ravi Round the World

Puppy for Hannukah - Daveed Diggs

Happy Hanukkah - Matisyahu (it's a live session so the audio isn't great)

Dancing with the Stars' special dance, the first time they have celebrated Hanukah, plus Celebrating Channukah on the International Space Station

Burn - the Maccabeats, one of my favourite Chanukah videos

On the eighth day, two with 'eight' in the name, Ocho Kandelikas (in Ladino) and Eight Nights, One Heart

Again this year I bought the ChemKnits Creations Channukah box for myself:

Some days came with stitch markers or a little light.  On the bottom photo, it is Day 1 on the far right and across to Day 8 on the far left, plus the bonus skein at the top.  This way each of the miniskeins is 10gm and the extra is 20gm to give a total of 100gms in fingering or DK weight.  My favourites this year are Day 7 (sadly, sold out) followed by Day 5 and the bonus skein.  Now to figure out what to make.

Almost three feet a day.

After finishing the scarf I took with me on the trip last week, I pulled out a skein from a stash I have there (purchases when the local Joann stores closed) and started a scarf.  This is what I knit in about a day - it's slightly past because I continued on Monday before I left, but I marked where I stopped on Sunday night and this is what I knit in a day:

   

Of course, I was doing a lot of sitting and knitting as we went to a play and then out to supper, and I wasn't driving, plus it is the very basic garter stitch on only 24 stitches on US#8 needles.

After returning home I finished the hat I'd left behind, which is the 100th hat for the community center afterschool collection.

Hat #100 is on the right; on the left is the next hat, which
starts the collection for next year.  There is a lot of the
colourway of Hat 100, apparently they are show leftovers.

I'll get them washed and tagged and ship the box right after Christmas, because there is no reason for them to go into the holiday craziness.

Now they can be shown.

Almost every year since it began (when I was living in Dallas and attending the shows was easier) I've gone to see "The Beulaville Baptist Book Club Presents the Bur-Less-Q Nutcracker".  It's fun and silly and the male lead does everything from en pointe ballet to tap to handing out pickles to the audience.

A few years ago a friend I took decided that she'd enjoyed herself so much that she wanted to give thank-you gifts to the cast and crew, so she made everybody a facecloth.  (She actually made several more than were needed, so people could choose.)  I decided to make some fun soaps to give them also.

We've continued the tradition (one year I found some solid lotion bar kits and made those, but haven't had enough of the compound since) every year, and when I wasn't sure I'd get back for the production I left the soaps with my friend on an earlier trip.  It's fun and the cast and crew seem to love them.

This year, I finally decided to make a very fiddly design with a mould I was tempted to buy a few years ago.  They came out well, but I promised to keep the photo secret until after they were distributed:

In addition to the gingerbread people - of course scented with
"Gingerbread Cookie" - I made snowflakes of "Fresh Snow" and
little gold-speckled crowns (three designs) in "Woodland Elves".

I also found a kit to make a knitted pickle for the male lead (who also writes and choreographs the show - and yes, everything gets freshened each year, just like traditional Christmas shows often are), and will post a picture of it when I return home as I will finish it whilst traveling.

In addition to the knitted pickle - which he LOVED - I found
the lollipops, since there are some running jokes about both
lollipops and pickles.  Turns out he'd heard of these but not
found any.  I said they could sell these as concessions.

Update on the knitting shown in my last post:  I finished the scarf yesterday and am leaving it here, as I usually donate scarves to Warm Up, America! at DFW Fiber Fest.  The hat is at home; it was close to being finished when I left and I didn't want to do the last bits while traveling.  I'll finish once I return home and then wash and pack the hats and ship the box.

Five in (about) one.

Last night was a "wintry mix" event with all sorts of things, including the Triangle Fiber Guild holiday party, cancelled or postponed.  So errands didn't happen.  That meant I had five or six to accomplish today, and at most a 90 minutes timeslot in which to achieve them.  Could I manage all the errands in an hour?

Not quite, but I tried.  Part of it was maximizing the route:

• First to the library, to return a book and drop off a couple jackets for the Welcome Baby collection.  As I did and turned to leave, I heard a happy "thank you, dear!" and over my shoulder responded "Absolutely!"  The guard and I then wished each other a happy day.
• I thought that if there was a close post office I could shave a bit off the route, and the car's navigator claimed there was, but after following the directions I didn't see one.  It could be that the gas station or another shop on the strip mall next to it had a postal kiosk or a courtesy station, but I wasn't going to spend time looking.
• Instead, I headed to the Durham Rescue Mission to deliver a duffel bag of mostly clothing, plus a lot of unused wallets that could be likely holiday gifts.  I wanted to be sure they would arrive as early in the month as possible, and we'd just located them during a drawer-cleaning.
• Then to the post office, and the automated machine was available and working!  Package was quickly postage'd and in the big rotating slot.
• Off to Kohl's to pick up another couple jackets, the result of rolling Kohls Cash credits.  While waiting for the item I realized I'd forgotten to grab my knitting, so I checked work email and dealt with a few things.  Which is how I noticed that a meeting was just beginning, less than an hour after I'd left.  Ooops!  A new addition to my calendar.  I joined, apologized, accepted the bag of jackets, and headed to the loggia where a bench waited in a sheltered spot.  Luckily the call was quick and I could continue on my route.
• Stop at the pharmacy for a prescription and an OTC ear-unblocking spray recommended by my PCP that I use before flying this week.  I have until tomorrow afternoon to figure out how it works.

So it took a bit over an hour, almost an hour and a half, but I think there needs to be some adjustment for the meeting and of course the stupidity penalty whilst hunting the snipe of a post office.  And a lot of extra slowness and stoppages due to construction on or next to the roads that took them to one lane in places.  So I came close.

This is the current knitting: I reached 99 hats for the big collection I've been doing (some were made by others, which I figure balance the ones I made and donated to the Blue Elves and otherwise) and stalled over the weekend for the final hat.  All the yarn was too thin, or too pink, or already used in other hats and I didn't want to make one more for this year, or........  So I started the scarf:

I knitted the first ten inches of the scarf in a knitting group
online gathering on Sunday.  Garter stitch moves quickly.

Then yesterday, a box arrived that included some mystery skeins, and one immediately spoke to me about turning it into a hat!  So I am doing that and may have it done before I leave tomorrow.  If not, it will be quickly finished when I return, then THAT box can head out too.

Some people may ask why I used hand-dyed yarn for charity work instead of cheap acrylics.  Well, I can afford it; the purchase helps a small business indie dyer; I get the pleasure of making something with the yarn; and somebody gets a warm and unique hat.  Wins all around!

Thirty in 30

It was a bit of a squeaker, and more than once I didn't expect to make it, but before I went to bed last night* I finished the 30th hat made in November.  Here's the list:

Some days I managed to complete two, especially the crocheted ones of worsted weight (#4) yarn using a USI-5.5mm hook.  I tried a number of patterns as noted in the details.  Here is a photo of 28 of the thirty hats:

Why are two missing?  I donated them to a Blue Elves collection, and too late thought I should have donated a couple that I made earlier so that I could photograph all thirty together.  The ones I donated are a flower one like the one in top left of the photo, and a striped one similar to the one in the bottom left.

Some of the hats look very narrow because they are knitted in ribbing all the way, so they are very stretchy.  Top right are the two "Giftable Beanie" hats, and the flower one next to them is Red Heart Flower Power yarn, following the accompanying pattern through Row 4 and then instead of changing it to a square, just working as a hat around and around.  On the bottom are two Triangle Granny hats, using yarn that I think is scraps of the rainbow yarn shown in six of the knitted beanies, but choosing which colours to put into each hat.

Next to each other, at the top, are the two hats using new-to-me techniques.  The blue-striped one in top left is another top-down knitted beanie, practicing how to start without a hole.

I counted the total number of hats and I am much closer to one hundred than I thought!

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

* It might have been slightly after midnight, but not much.  I misjudged the yarn and had to frog to get enough to finish the top.

Thankfuls 21-30

Day 21 - Thankful to be able to enjoy an organ and clarinet concert via Congregation Beth Israel as a bit of a break in a long and hectic day.

Day 22 - Thankful that my mother felt like sitting up at table for supper, first time in a week!

Day 23 - Same as always, thankful for this guy! (He's bigger now and has less hair.  )

Day 24 - Thankful for kind and helpful and thoughtful neighbors.

Day 25 - Thankful to finally finish a major deal at work, so now I can get back to normal(-ish) work, at least for the rest of this week.

Day 26 - Thankful for people who are kind and friendly during everybody's frantic pre-holiday last-minute shopping. Also for a station playing classical music, not Christmas stuff.

Day 27 - Thankful for family, and that we are able to gather together and enjoy each other's company. Thankful for the food on the table, and that we can share it with others. And thankful that Mom made sure to get my great-grandmother's special pumpkin pie recipe!  [I forgot to take a photo before we ate it, but it was YUMMY.]

Day 28 - Thankful that we do not need to try to get anything from a Black Friday sale, and that I can stay in the office and home, watching football and eating leftovers for dessert. Also that I was finally able to catch up on some very tedious administrivia because of the quiet at work.

Day 29 - Thankful that my parents are still as compos as they are, with spirits and brains willing even as their bodies decide that a nap is the better way to spend an afternoon. Well, semi-napped and directed my willing hands and feet to help clean out closets and reorganize the master bathroom - thankful I can help them!

Day 30 - Thankful to reach the end of another month, and another year, and have things to look back upon and forward to and more adventure ahead that I haven't anticipated yet. As Stan Lee always ended his messages: EXCELSIOR! 🚀

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the way, I heard this short video about how gratitude and thankfulness can change your attitude and even how you think overall. I'm not sure it has this year, but I do try to focus on one good thing a day, whether it's the glow of autumn leaves against a deep blue sky, or family, or other things. It might be worth continuing beyond the Thirty Days of Thankful in November. Am I up for continuing in December and meeting the speaker's challenge?

Continuing the theme.

Hats, and I am getting rather tired of them.   I made or finished nine this week, partly because I finished two class ones, and partly because I crocheted a few, which goes faster with worsted weight (#4) yarn and a large (USI-5.50mm or USJ-6.00mm) hook.

The two class projects are a snowflake-patterned hat from the two-handed colourwork class I took at DFW Fiber Fest in September:

And the top-down knitted beanie hat from the Triangle Fiber Guild meeting earlier this month, when we had a virtual lesson from The Knitting Fairy:

In progress, showing how we start using a technique that
leaves no hole to be closed later!  Using up bits of yarn.

The handy thing is that since I wasn't sure how much yarn I had from these two colours, because they were part of a donation bag of leftovers, I could just work until I ran out.  Which I did, having just a couple-few yards of each yarn left, not enough for another row.

In addition to some plain crocheted beanies of ombre yarn, I made one of a new yarn called "Flower Power".  The idea is that you follow the instructions, and the yarn is coloured in a way that it makes the design without you having to change colours.  Instead of turning the item into a square once the flower is done, I worked straight to make it a hat:

There are enough colour repeats to make twelve squares, so since I used three for that hat, I can make four other hats of this style.  I may try doing a top-down hat instead of one both for practice and so that I won't have to worry about ending at the top in the middle of a colour.

Thankfuls 11-20

 

Day 11 - Thankful to all the veterans.

Day 12 - Thankful for the U.S. Postal Service, and a tolerant delivery person who still gets my mail to me despite all the times a neighbor blocks my box.

Day 13 - Thankful for the opportunity to study Torah with Rabbi Salem of Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life - ISJL.

Day 14 - Thankful to be able to finally shut off the work computer and unwind with a movie and crocheting.

Day 15 - Thankful for kind and understanding paramedics, doctors and nurses and ER staff, and supportive home health aides. Also that the damage is mostly bruises and a lumpy head. (As it turned out once all the X-rays and scans were done, Mom has two cracked ribs. Thankful it was not more serious.)

Day 16 - Thankful for a calm Sunday, with nice weather and talking to family, and knitting, and THREE online fiber gatherings. (Plus the Bears beat the Vikings!)

Day 17 - Thankful for the doctor (routine checkup) telling me to "come back in two years".

Day 18 - Thankful for neighbors who can take great photographs of our beautiful sunset:

Day 19 - Thankful I could get out for a midday walk. It was warm and sunny today.

Day 20 - Thankful for food trucks when my day (which started with a 7:00am meeting) goes long and is jampacked and I don't have time to cook. Thankful for the small businesses and other people cooking.

Bits of Autumn

Just a handful of photos from various of my walks.

I love sunlight filtering through some of the leaves, and also clouds!

Thankfuls 1-10

 

I almost forgot this year, but saw a friend posting and was reminded:

Day 1 - I am thankful for LIBRARIES. Today I spent some time at the main library of my county, learning about local and state history, meeting other history nerds, and surrounded by BOOKS!

Day 2 - I am thankful for modern washing appliances, as I have a lot of laundry to catch up on after two weeks of almost nonstop travel.

Day 3 - I am thankful to have a friend to take the ticket to a play I cannot attend; scheduling is always a risk when I buy season tickets, but it's worth it to support local arts organizations.

Day 4 - The ability to vote. I know what some of my ancestors went through to escape oppressive regimes and come to the USA so they could vote. I know what it took for most Americans to be granted the right to vote, when they were previously denied because of gender, race, or socioeconomic status. I cannot understand people who cannot be bothered to vote.

Day 5 - Glad for music. Specifically tonight, an "Opera About Town" performance featuring four people with wonderful voices. Also for my library book club, but I've already cited libraries.

Day 6 - Thankful for Braver Angels and similar groups that are trying to reach across the political divides. I spent part of my evening in a group of people discussing political violence and ways to disperse or avoid it. We agreed that it affects both sides, but is avoidable.

Day 7 - Thankful to have professional organizations that boost individuals as well as the profession, and where I can contribute.

Day 8 - Thankful for a beautiful day and time to spend at the Triangle Weavers Guild Show & Sale, and the Triangle Twisters Sit-and-Spin. Lovely stuff to buy, good food to eat, nice to visit with people.

Day 9 - Thankful for excellent weather on a weekend day when I can get out and enjoy it.

Day 10 - Thankful for a working heating system. (Annual checkup was today, and it passed comfortably.) Also thankful for my community that has at least two "White Flag Warming Centers" for cold snaps like this one, and I see in news reports that many others have opened.

Eighty-Seven Years Ago

On November 9-10, 1938, Kristallnacht or "The Night of Broken Glass".  As one commemoration today said:

Kristallnacht marked a turning point in Nazi Germany -- the moment when years of escalating antisemitic legislation burst into open, coordinated violence carried out by Nazi stormtroopers (Sturmabteilung), SS forces, Hitler Youth, and civilians. On those two days in November 1938, close to 100 Jews were murdered, and approximately 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

It is one of many things we must never forget.  In that memory, tonight many homes are leaving a light burning all night, as a reminder and a signal of sanctuary across the decades.

This many.

I'd hoped for a hat a day in October, but the final total is twenty-three and one-half:

Yes, I have some ends to run in.  Technically one hat is a stand-in because I made a third of the Peacock colour in the lower left, but donated it to a local group's hat drive.

I was at our department's in-person meeting this week, and am self-conscious about knitting in those, so got almost nothing done, at least in terms of hat production.  Here's hoping that November is more productive.

Fine Times in Philly

I am on a quick turnaround at home between the ACC Annual Meeting and heading to Texas for our quarterly Legal Department All-Hands.  I had fun leading walks in the mornings, and meeting people, and seeing friends, and learning stuff.

Because I am in leadership roles I am invited to the Leadership Development Institute, where we had a team-building exercise to create the tallest possible structure using spaghetti, some masking tape, a piece of string, and a marshmallow.  The structures were measured from the surface to the marshmallow which had to be at the top.

My team had two engineers out of the four of us, and we won:

Design based upon oil derricks and the John Hancock
building in Chicago - and we didn't use the string!

I also, to my surprise, won this:

I did take time on Saturday, after arriving, to visit The Fabric Workshop and Museum and the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, which in addition to having some interesting exhibits was participating in the Philadelphia Open Studios Tour (POTS) so I met a number of artists and saw their ongoing works.  I picked up supper at the Reading Terminal Market and ate in my hotel room.

Sweet bologna on rye with mustard, and a pickle.

And I knit a bunch of hats:

Technically the pink one at the top was mostly finished when
I left for the conference, but the other five were knit there.
One of the blue ones was finished after I returned home.

Sitting out the nor'easter.

Bit of weather, but not too bad where I am: lots of rain, gusty wind.  A good day to stay inside with a plethora of fiber group online meetings (Center for Knit and Crochet's monthly member meeting, talking about Knitted Knockers; Franklin Habit; KnitStars; and KnitTalk) and organize the items I need for tomorrow's Triangle Fiber Guild meeting.

I keep plugging away with hats, and remembered before it was completely too late to take a photo of these with a bit of the yarn they share.  One hat has a blue carry-along and the other has a pale yellow one, with the result that they look very different.  I plan to use a bit of tonal deep blue when the multicolour yarn ends.  All of these are (near as I can tell) sock yarn leftovers a friend gives to me.

And here they are, finished:

The ones for our Hundred Hat Challenge (which I am pretty sure will come in well under, but it's good to have a generous goal plus it's alliterative) are finished and tagged.  I set a limit of ten per person as I know how many I can create and wanted it to be fair when we do the drawing for prizes based upon hats a person made and donated.

Yes, it's only seven - I have made many more, of course, but
for another collection.  Although I may add three if the
Guild collection looks very sparse.

I've also begun packing for next weekend's trip to the ACC Annual Meeting, figuring out what to do with my Saturday afternoon and evening, and when to get the token prizes for the program I am running on Wednesday, and routes for the morning walking group.........

And of course, yarn and needles to make more hats.