How did September get here?

I don't know whether it's because I haven't been traveling, or just because time is warped this year, but it doesn't seem as though it should be September.  And yet, here it is.

I also don't feel as though I have much more to report than I did in the previous post.  Work has continued, and we signed one deal but another has taken quite a turn, so I'm busy with it but in a different way.  I found out that eBay was offering sellers extra free listings in August, and that gave me incentive to go through my stash and post a number of auctions.  Many years ago somebody sniffed that you never receive what you paid for the yarn, so why bother?  My thought is that I get the advantage of more space in my home, a bit of money in return, and somebody else may love getting yarn at a good price.

So far, it seems to be working that way.  I've also sent boxes to people who make items for charity, and donated a bunch more (do you know the IKEA Dimpa bag? we'd had one of those donated to a local makerspace, and after sorting out the yarn it included I filled it with other yarn to donate) to a local thrift/charity store.  A woman on KnitTalk has been posting about the good things she is excited to find at her local charity/thrift store, so I don't mind donating to mine.  Again, somebody benefits.

August mini-Resolutions Update

As I said, no progress.  I didn't finish the Boneyard Shawl, nor any of my own UFOs, although I did finish several that were in the Dimpa bag with the yarn.  In addition to the striped hat in the last post, I finished the hat with the entrelac top, and put together some granny triangles into a scrappy scarf:

Also shown are a hat and mittens made of scraps of a multi and some royal blues, and an in-progress scarf of (not mine) handspun.  So I've made plenty of things this month, just not the ones I resolved to finish.  So........

September Mini-Resolution

Easy ones, just rolling over from August:  Finish the Boneyard Shawl, and at least one of my own UFOs.  I've made some progress on one UFO, but not to finishing.

Back online, with hats

Tuesday, August 4th, Tropical Storm Isaias came ashore in Connecticut and did impressive damage.  I took some photos which are not great; you can find plenty online showing trees down, buildings and other property damaged.  Some trees looked as if they had been wrung; my friend Rich took this photo:

I was lucky, as we had little to no power loss in my condo community.  However, the internet/phone/TV utility went out, and after two days of pushing the posted estimate for repair further, they switched to "as soon as possible".  Since I use internet for work (also the landline phone, to a more limited extent), I got permission from work to charge my additional data draws to work, as long as it didn't get too expensive.

It worked out to an extra 2-3GB per day.  For a week, although on the weekend I used as little as possible.  I didn't feel right about doing social things when work was paying for the additional data.  Online meetings take a LOT of data, in case you were wondering.

On Tuesday, a week after the storm, late in the day, they predicted that we'd get service back by around 3:00am on Friday.  Wednesday afternoon I was startled to hear the phone ring - naturally, it was a robocall.*  While I had to pop back onto the hotspot a couple of times on Thursday to get through a work meeting when the internet faded, by Friday morning it was indeed back to being stable.

I still feel that I came out well, as some people were without power for nine days.  Not only did they lose any food in their refrigerator (at least two friends said they'd just done a big shopping trip) but some needed CPAPs or other devices to help them sleep, or other medical support.

I've caught up on a couple lectures that happened while I was offline.  It's quite handy that they record them and you have a week or two in which to watch or rewatch.  One is on Chicago architecture styles, the other on Nicola Tesla.

* I think the robotcall was from the National Republican Congressional Committee, which was funny because our primary election was the day before.  I voted by absentee ballot, which I often do because of travel, but this time I dropped it into a box at Town Hall instead of mailing, especially as it arrived only the Saturday before.

How is my August Mini-Resolution going?

• The Boneyard Shawl is still in timeout.  I've felt the need to work through some of the stash I'm trying to divest - I know, counterintuitive - and I've made a scarf and four hats:

Counterclockwise from the top right: hat of leftover deep blue and the last bit of some handdyed/handspun; the scarf of Aslan Trends "Los Andes"; a hat of Nashua Stripes and some leftover brown; hat of leftover green and some fingering weight wool I dyed, and used doubled; and the bottom center hat is from a ball of Knitting Notions Classic Merino Sport and some random pink/multi from the stash (I'd planned to use a different pattern but the yarns blended too much so I just did garter stripes).  On the bottom right is a partly done hat, somebody did the center part and it cupped, so I decided to add sides and turn it into a hat.  For a long time it was a decoration at MakeHartford for the String Thing area, and when MH closed I brought anything not wanted home and finally have been going through the last bag of yarn and bits.  My addition is in a very close shade of green, but just single crochet, not entrelac Tunisian.  Or any Tunisian.

• Other UFOs remain UFOs at this time.  Unless you count the fifth hat, but I didn't do the starting part and it's not really from MY stash.
• At least one non-fiber project progressed a bit.  What else could I do without internet or TV?  I pulled out DVDs and audio books, and finished a novel and an anthology by Agatha Christie.
• Thrift store load progressed a bit.  I posted that if the charity group that will receive the items I've made wants the animal-fiber yarns to let me know, otherwise they go to the thrift store too.
• Yarn diet - well, not perfect, because I signed up for a yarn club, but the first delivery is at the end of September and they had only one week for subscriptions.  So I count it, and I can yarn diet through September.

Edited to add:  During the KnitTalk zoomcall in the evening, I finished another hat:

This was also in the makerspace stash, and mostly finished, but partly unraveled while I untangled the last of the yarns in the big bag o' stash.  It didn't take much to finish the final wedge and sew it together.

Not Quite Done - Redesigned

I've been knitting.  And working.  And walking, when the weather is good in the mornings.  And doing other things like reading books and some secret non-knitting projects.

There are many containers of blueberries and peaches in the freezer, not as many of plums (a pain to prep) and blackberries (not available), and I've eaten a more-than-respectable share.  I made my first tomato tart of the season earlier this week:

Not spectacularly photogenic, but more than adequately delicious.

Do you remember how I redesigned the shawl shortly after I began?  I was close to finishing, then decided I didn't like the harsh change in yarn, and ripped out several bands.  So it's not quite done:

Day 6 - Not much knitting time.

Day 7 - Well into Colour 3.

 

Day 8 - More of the same.

Day 9 - Getting ready for Colour 4!

I realized that I didn't have enough of Colour 4 to do a proper finishing, since I had just one miniskein.  However, I'd purchased some very similar yarn at another shop, and despite that being in a completely other country it appears to match closely enough to be able to join the shawl:

 

Therefore, onward with confidence!  However, I soon decided I didn't like the abrupt changes to Colour 3 and then Colour 4, so I frogged extensively:

Days and days of knitting undone and rewound on Day 11.

Day 12 - progress again.

Day 13 - More frogging.  I didn't have enough
of Colour 2 to complete a band with the garter
stitch separation rows, so back to Colour 3.

Day 14.  Colour 2 finished with addition
of the scraps of tying yarn, now two
bands of Colour 3.

Day 15 - Finally back
to Colour 4.

Since that was the return-home day, I decided to not continue the daily photographs and post the finished item.  As I said, I haven't had as much knitting time as ideal, and of course the rows are much longer so they take more time.  I'm about to wind the hank from Julija's Shop and I think the end may finally be in sight.  Not what I'd planned for that yarn, but I am glad that I have it.

August Mini-Resolution

I feel like finishing things.  First, the Boneyard Shawl.  Then at least one of the other UFOs in my stash.  And one or two of the non-knitting, non-crocheting projects.  Plus at least one load to the thrift store.  I also need to do a yarn diet, and since I just purchased the latest Dolores kit I just have to stay away from the indie dyers for a month.

Where I'm not today, with a shawl

According to the itinerary, today on the Craft Cruise we would be in Dublin, "the home of Guinness Beer, numerous literary greats, and the rock band U2; a fun city that is currently enjoying the status of being one of the hottest and most livable cities in Europe."  Instead, as for the last four months, I am home.

Upside of being home in the summer is the fruit arriving at the local farmstands, and I have had to ration myself on blueberries and peaches or I would eat little else.  Ditto corn, which is so sweet and fresh you can eat it raw!  I am already planning to freeze portions for the winter.  Tomatoes are not yet in enough but when the season hits, I'll be ready.

I get my CSA share about every other week, sharing it with three other people and we take turns.  Yesterday was one of my weeks, and to my disappointment I seem to always miss the weeks with fennel.  I did get parsley, celery, zucchini, eggplant, purple basil, green beans, chard, scallion, and garlic.  My share partner got the napa cabbage instead of chard because her stove is disconnected for kitchen remodeling so she could take only things that can be eaten raw.  She did get the two bigger zucchini as I got the eggplant.  Otherwise we split fairly evenly.  We're both going to farmstands for fruit this week.

Since I planned to start the Boneyard Shawl the day I should have left on the cruise, I had time to finish a hat and scarf for charity:

Scarf folded at left is about 66" long.

Other side of the hat.

These were made from leftovers of my grandmother's holiday vest from last winter.  Lion Brand "Ferris Wheel" in Buttercup.  Just a simple 1 sc 1 dc pattern, hat made up on the fly.

I also started a scarf in the Uzume pattern, using some Noro Silk Garden that had been waiting in my stash for something to happen:

She's right - it's pretty in a shaded yarn.

Shannon Okey, the designer, had mused on Cooperative Press' Facebook page about how it would look in a shaded yarn, and offered to send yarn to a knitter interested in making one.  Since I had yarn in my stash I figured I'd just go ahead, especially as I knew I'd put it aside midmonth.  More photos when it progresses.  The pattern is fairly easy, I've had just one blip when I didn't do the correct cable row in sequence and I decided to frog.

July Mini-Resolution Update

I did start the shawl on July 11th, the day we were to have set sail from Amsterdam: 

The yarn is from Hedgehog Fibres, their merino aran in "Ferrum".  Not one of Stephen West's yarns, although I bought it in his shop.  And ..... I just wasn't feeling it.  It's lovely yarn, quite silky-soft, and the colour glows, but somehow as a shawl it wasn't thrilling me.  I kept seeing me wearing it as a vest instead, even though I don't usually wear autumn colours.

So I went back to the yarn I'd purchased in his shop last year, which included a handful of miniskeins from an Amsterdam dyer called Undercover Otter:

I remember having plans to make mittens out of these but have decided the shawl will be a better use.  Handily, if I were traveling "for reals", it is a very compact item, even though it is growing quite nicely:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3 - Yes, I added a stripe of Colour 2.

Day 4 - Finished Colour 1.

Day 5 - On to Colour 3!  Currently 12" deep, 24" across top.

Clearly, this is Meant To Be.  Yes, if I were on the cruise I couldn't have done the switch, but if I were smart I would have begun and learned the issue before I left home.  Or made the other choice before I left.  Or purchased more yarn in his shop......

Happy 40th, Mom and Dad

My parents got married forty years ago today, the only day both of them plus the reverend, an old family friend, were available.  They invited some close friends and a few family to dinner, with a mystery stop on the way that turned out to be the chapel where they were married.  We don't have photographs because a cousin opened the only camera and ruined the film, but this one from a New York City trip some years ago seems appropriate:

Happy Ruby Anniversary, Mom and Dad!!

Not much to report here.  Work was very busy running up to the end of quarter, as people tried to get deals signed.  I had only a couple days when meals were granola bars and peanut butter, which I consider a win for EOQ.  Because I am home I could have at least one properly cooked meal each day, which is even more of a win.  I've enjoyed cooking local chicken, local eggs, local vegetables, and the herbs from my countertop kitchen garden, rounded out with local cheese and yoghurt and ice-cream or italian ice.

I am reading books again.  For a while, I couldn't.  Too much reading for work, keeping up with articles and reports online, and I just lost the ability to focus and enjoy the words.  A friend finished and launched a book, and I'd seem some early chapters, but it took him long to finish, and coincidentally the book comes out in an eerily similar time.  It's available free to download today, as it is the first of every month, and is a prequel to his earlier book, also free to download today.

Next I will try to finish some books I abandoned when I stopped traveling.  I had a couple that lived in my briefcase or travel bag, and when I cleaned those to put away for the longterm I found them.  They are waiting, but I have a feeling I'll dive back into them soon.

Status of June Mini-Resolutions

I did not finish two of the OTN items.  I did finish the sock, but not anything else that was in-progress.  The Center for Knit & Crochet suggested that World UFO Day tomorrow also apply to UnFinished Objects so I give myself through tomorrow night.  When I read that I was inspired to go to a bin where I have two quite old items.  One is a shawl I started during the nearly-year in Madison, and the other a shopping bag from before you received reusable bags from anywhere.  I am pretty sure I started it when I lived in Texas and the yarn shop from where I purchased the yarn is no longer in business - so it's been a while.  The pattern is fairly mindless so I've made quite good progress, and it might be done tomorrow if I figure out the top and strap.  The pattern is long gone.

I did finish the gift for my friend and the post office says it was delivered, so here are some photos:

I had just enough yarn for two bags - one crocheted, one knit.

  

I used the lace pattern from the Phyllotaxis Hat.

Kim received an elevation within her religion and I had a hank of hand-dyed sock yarn that reminded me of her.  I offered to make something out of it and she sent several ideas.  I decided to make these bags and I think they came out rather well.  Both patterns are my own design, other than following the lace pattern, and based upon measurements she sent.

Edited to add:  Kim posted that the bags are "perfect", she's thrilled.  Huzzah!

July Mini-Resolution

This is easy.  I was going to be on a Craft Cruise this month, but it was cancelled due to the pandemic and because no ships are sailing.  I'd planned to have at least one project in addition to the class projects:  Stephen West's Boneyard shawl, in yarn I purchased at his shop last year.  I plan to cast on July 11th, the day the cruise was scheduled to begin, and plan to have it finished by the time the cruise would end on July 25th.

Maybe I'll get some other UFOs finished, too.

Summer came in

Riffing on "Summer is icumin in", the old song celebrating the Solstice.  I watched what I could see of the livestream from Stonehenge, but they seem to have had a typically overcast British morning and the sun didn't blaze through.

I'm about a week behind for a midmonth update.  Much has gone on in the greater world, and locally.  Right now about 60% of the states are seeing an upward climb in confirmed cases, hospitalizations, and deaths from COVID-19.  I live in one of the few with a decline, but we're not confident that will hold, especially with the state reopening and people refusing to wear masks or follow basic kindnesses about keeping distant from each other.  Also, when I walk past some of the outside dining areas, it seems the tables may be six feet from edge-to-edge, but that doesn't allow patrons to be six feet apart.

Some people say they are eager to eat at or in a restaurant to keep a local business going.  Others say they will continue doing take-out as they feel it is safer.  I've thought about picking up a pizza, but that requires preordering and being at the store when you say you will, which I think is not worth driving specially and I haven't had time when in that area to add it to my travels.

My CSA made the first delivery this week.  I split it with friends, and ended up with lots of radishes, two types, which I am eating raw or cooked.  I went to the farmstand to get yoghurt, and some of the season's first tomatoes, which I've eaten in various sandwiches with herbs on top.  I roasted chicken with Thai basil stuffed under the skin because I didn't want to fuss with breaking down the chicken for Thai Basil Chicken; while it roasted I did a stirfry of snap peas and garlic scapes, with Asian chili sauce, for a side dish.  With rice the meal was something of an upscale, deconstructed version of Thai Basil Chicken, and yummy.

Also yummy the local strawberries which are starting to arrive, and which I am eating daily.

Resolutions Update

I finished the sock:

Now I have to start the second one.

Nothing else that was OTN has been finished, but I did complete the secret project, with enough yarn for a second item.  I'm also designing the second one and it is going much more quickly (even with a measuring error that required frogging) and I should be able to put the package into the mail next weekend.  Pictures after they are received, in case the recipient follows my blog.

Storm and Songs and Sock

When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about.

Haruki Murakami, writer, born January 12, 1949 in Kyoto

We certainly find ourselves in and surrounded by storms these days.  Pandemic, protests, riots, flurries of news reports from all sides.  The inexplicable death of a man at the hands of police, and people unable to stop it - and now, unable to stop challenging the status quo that contributed to George Floyd's death.  And so many others.

I wonder if people will think this a frivolous blog, because I haven't been tracking how the pandemic has affected me and my family and friends, and how I feel about all the terribleness in the world.  It's not in my nature to be expressive in that way.  I have been talking with family and friends and in some ways feel "talked out" in the topics of sadness and stress and suffering.  Hence my blog containing other things.

Such as the songs I posted for the rest of the 31-Day Song Challenge month:
Day 17:  I've been in a backup group for karaoke, but never leading (although I might lip-sync, but that's not what they asked), much less in a duet.  Either of these work, both from musicals:  Annie Get Your Gun and Godspell.
Day 18:  I learned this song as a child, and wondered where it originated.
Day 19:  I think a ballet suite counts as a song that makes me think about life.
Day 20:  So many meanings in this song, at least for me.
Day 21:  This was one of the first songs I learned to play on the guitar.  Not well, but I did.
Day 22:  I first heard "Hafan Gobaith" when I was involved with the North American Welsh Choir.  Sir Bryn Terfel's rendition isn't quite a moving to me, but more than adequate.
Day 23:  I definitely think that everybody should listen to "Fanfare for the Common Man".  So many recordings from which to choose.
Day 24:  It didn't take long for me to choose THE BAND as a band I wish were still together, it took much longer to select a song (and a second) to feature.
Day 25:  I chose Beverly Sills as the deceased artist.
Day 26:  Since I couldn't think of "a song that makes me want to fall in love", I chose songs that make me want to dance with somebody.
Day 27:  A song that breaks my heart.
Day 28:  Since I'd already shared so many songs by performers whose voices I love, I focused on a couple of bass-baritones today.
Day 29:  A song from my childhood.
Day 30:  A song that reminds me of me (and some of my friends), but I never cut class or drank beer.
Day 31:  This song, and performance, comforts my soul, and reminds me of several family events.  And is so ironic to post right now.

Status of Resolutions

The blanket is finished and mailed, but I have not heard that it has arrived, so I cannot show it.  I did not finish the vest or the pair of socks, or even a single sock:

Part of that was trying to get the pattern to work with the yarns, and adjusting the stitch count when it was clear the first attempt was too big around, and then as I bound off I decided I really could make it longer, especially as I have the other lightest colour.  So as you can see, it's close but not yet finished.

I did finish several scarves, because I needed something meditatively simple due to high stress levels this month.  Work has been very busy, and I've felt guilty because so many people I know are out of work or on reduced hours or income.  People are being WFR'd at work.  So - I knit, and crochet.  And socks on US#1 needles need too much focus.

The timing meant I had to cook something quickly for our monthly cooking club, and since it was just before Shavuos I made a noodle kugel with things I had on hand, including shell macaroni instead of flat noodles.  It came out tasty, with a nice spiced sugar topping:

June Mini-Resolutions

Easy to decide to finish at least two items I have OTN, but which ones?  Might be the vest, might be the sock, might be something entirely different.  I also have another secret project for a friend, so I cannot say more, but hopefully will be able to post pictures later in the month.  I already have July planned, so I need to get things done in June.