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!

I Restarted a Shawl

I finished the Reyna Shawl:

That one took about two weeks to make.  Then I started a different pattern with the remaining two balls, but did not like how the thick-thin of the Berocco Topaz yarn worked with the pattern, plus having a lace pattern on every row instead of every other required more attention than I could guarantee, and it was getting fiddly.  I frogged the shawl and restarted with something simpler:

Yes, it mostly looks like a lump of garter stitch, but there are large holes on the edge.  You can see a bit of them in the lower right.  I took this photo after I used all the frogged yarn so it appears tidier than it was.

I don't have too much more to report.  My mother and I went to Florida to visit my grandmother last weekend, as it was my grandmother's birthday.  It took her a bit to realize we were really and truly there, but once she did it was a lovely visit.  I gave my grandmother the blanket and she was overcome - how soft, all the colours!  She grabbed it up and hugged it, and kept rubbing her face in it while we talked.

I am so glad I didn't mail it to her, but was there to see her joy at receiving the gift!

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.

Leap Day!

What does one do on Leap Day?  I went to yoga, did errands, and worked on projects at home.  Pretty much the same as any Saturday.  Keep Hartford Warm held a distribution event; I dropped off a toddler jacket that I was given to pass along, but did not stay.  It's been a busy month, and I needed to catch up on laundry and decompress.

Work took me to Chicago, then I went to North Carolina to see Kinky Boots with family (DNiece #1 loves it as much as I; over Christmas I introduced my nieces to the original film) and stayed for the discussion afterwards.  It was not about the show, as talkbacks usually are, but about LGBTQ+ persons and their lives in North Carolina.  My mother ended up talking to one of the panelists about adoption and all kinds of things, until we all were kicked out so they could set for the next show.  If you haven't seen the show - you must do, if only for the showstopping Act I ending.

I stayed a couple days for a recital by Lawrence Brownlee, which was wonderful.

From there I went to Stitches West to help friends at their booth.  As I said last month, my mini-resolution was to make a sample bag from their hemp yarn.  That didn't work out because I was rushing and the yarn was snarling and it was a bad combination.  So on the day home between trips I grabbed a couple hanks of Makimo that I had lying around for other purposes, and before Stitches West ended they had a sample of the bag in their own yarn:

Closeup of the bag bottom
and the lace pattern.

The small pink balls are all the yarn I had left after finishing the bag.  There is more pink on the handles than the pattern instructs; I was using the Makimo doubled (the original used a worsted weight cotton, and Makimo is a DK weight), which gave a little less yardage than the original yarn.  I started the pink when the purple ran out.  So you can make the bag with two hanks of Makimo.

I bought almost nothing (some stitch markers as a gift, and a couple patterns) because I don't need yarn and didn't find anything that made me excited to dip into my purchasing money for DFW Fiber Fest.  The big names that I really like will be there, and I enjoy buying from small indie dyers who mostly cannot afford to be at Stitches events.


I returned just in time for Fat Tuesday.  A local makerspace held a Fat Tuesday party but it was also Science on Screen night at Real Art Ways, so I made a cameo, dropping off some from-the-pantry jambalaya on the way to the talk and film.  It was fairly interesting, the talk more than the film.  I look forward to the next two but may be out of town for one.

Wednesday I went to a library cookbook club that I'd just found out about, where they cook from a specific cookbook each month, sample and talk about the recipes.  This month's choice was Food52's Genius Desserts, and since I didn't have time to swing by the library to select a recipe I did some online research and chose World Peace Cookies.  We agreed that having nothing but desserts was a LOT to take, even if you just do a bite of each one - and most were too good to stop at a single bite.  Luckily for me, about tw0-thirds contained chocolate, so I didn't have as much to taste as the others.  But what I did taste was fantastic:  Lemon cookies (with a hidden ingredient of avocado); Guinness stout cake that was like the tenderest gingerbread ever; espresso gelato; blueberry cake with pecans; the famous 62nd Street Lemon Cake; almond cake.  Most of these I would make, yes.

Not for tomorrow's monthly brunch, however.  If I had Guinness around I might make the cake, but I decided to make potato cakes instead.  These are something between boxty, which is a griddle-cooked bread, and scones.  I doubled the recipe and am leaving out the seasoning, so they will be plain and make nice sandwiches - if any are left!

Resolutions for March

As noted above, I completed the knitting mini-resolution I set for February.  For March, I am going to make a baby blanket for friends.  I bought the yarn some time ago, and thought I knew what pattern I'd do, then a new one came out and I decided to do it instead.  No photos until it's delivered in April.

Then I have to finish the items I am making for Mittens for Akkol's grads program.  I signed up for four:  a purple scarf, a blue and orange hat, and a red and yellow (or gold) sweater and scarf.  I chose these because they will use up yarn in my stash.  I have a purple scarf, but decided I may offer it for sale at an upcoming sheep-to-shawl-and-beyond event, plus I had some other yarn reclaimed from the sweater that I pulled apart, making the multicolored yarn used in part of it into a scarf.  I'm using broken rib stitch and it's going fairly fast.

Books:  Still finishing The Ballad of Frankie Silver.  I don't have much sit-and-read time, but I am enjoying the historical chapters, which are written in the first-person voice of a young frontier lawyer and court clerk.  So I'm behind on the February book but decided to finish The Agony and the Ecstasy, which I started some time ago and put aside for an unremembered reason when I was halfway through.  Hopefully I'll get caught up in March.  I do have the "book with a nature word in the title" set aside, and it's fairly short - more about it in the next post, once I've started reading.

In Other News..........

Covid-19 is big in the news.  With stories like Communion of Dreams and others, could it become a truly devastating pandemic like the 1918 Flu Epidemic?  I guess we shall see.  My parents are pressuring me to skip the North Texas Irish Festival this year.  I am a manager and we are shorthanded and I hate to not go.

We had more snow today - the weather went from clear and sunny, to a snow squall, and back to sunny within an hour:

Many years ago in Dallas, I worked for a company called Affiliated Computer Systems, or ACS.  After I left, they were acquired by Xerox.  A couple weeks ago, the building where I worked was slated to be demolished.  The usual way to do it in a city these days is by a controlled implosion.  However, that didn't work.  It's been fun to watch the reporting (a wrecking ball is now in use, slowly), and I have to say that this is my favorite photo so far, titled "They finally brought in an expert":

Another one coming

I did my last post during a storm, and we have another coming tomorrow.  So of course I am flying to Florida.  It's not fleeing from the storm; I've had this trip to visit my grandmother on my schedule for a while.  I admit it's a convenient coincidence.

My last post was also during the final football playoffs of the season.  Last Sunday I watched the Super Bowl with friends and their family and neighbors.  Quite a game!  Having more friends in Kansas and Missouri than in San Francisco, I chose to root for the Chiefs.  I missed the first half because I went to a matinee (and was very glad I did so, the show was amazing!) but the second half - really, the fourth quarter - was edge-of-seat playing.  I am glad the Chiefs made the final touchdown, because if people argue about the penultimate one, they still won when you subtract those points.

Work has been busy, so I don't have much more to report on my Resolutions.  These are the scarves I finished and have yet to finish, except one:

Finished:

• Stitch Studio Sweet Dreams in Creamsicle (center row, second from left)
• Patons Lace in lavender and Porcelain (next on the right)
• Browns - Bernat Super Value Stripes in Beechwood, knit, and Caron Jumbo in Chocolate Variegated crocheted on the sides (center row, second from right)
• Caron Chunky Cakes in Trifle (center row, right)
• Red Heart Fleece Hugs in Jungle (bottom row, right)

In Progress:

• Ferris Wheel (top row, left)
• Premiere Serenity Chunky Big Ombre in Walnut (bottom row, left - the yarn was badly snarled and tangled, so much time was spent getting it useable)
• Big Twist Premium in Peacock Stripes (center row, left)
• Patons Lace in Woodrose (not shown)

I will probably have the Chunky Big Ombre scarf finished this week.

I also made a chemo cap for a friend of my mother's who asked for one in cornflower blue:

I also finished the scarf for my niece, to go with her Christmas hat and mittens, and the extra blue mittens.

No idea why the colour is so odd on the close-ups.


On a completely different topic, since it's Girl Scout cookie season, I've made purchases both to donate boxes to the troops and taking them to work.  We had a team leader get a promotion so for his last week, given that we are in the facility of a federal contractor and options are limited, this was his farewell party:

OK, we met after dinner one night at a local sports dive bar, and alcohol was consumed, but for the in-the-office celebration, amusement and cookies were appreciated.  He made off with the boxes that contained his favourites, Do-Si-Dos and Tagalongs.

Resolutions for February

Now for my micro-resolutions for February 2020.  Even though I didn't finish all the scarves I had on the list for January, I made good progress plus finished four (or three, if you count the pair of mittens as a single item) other items.  This month my resolution is to finish an item for Fiberlady to display at Stitches West.  I'll be there helping them again, and they invited a local lady who wrote a book to spend time in the booth and sign copies.  I decided to make a tote bag from the book in Fiberlady's hemp yarn.  I chose it because it looks like a quick and not too fiddly knit, and because I have a bunch of their hemp yarn lying around not turning into anything.

I added another series of resolutions.  Many online reading groups do a by-the-month reading list, and I found one that appealed to me:

My choice for January is The Ballad of Frankie Silver, a past-and-present murder mystery.  Thick book but the story moves even as multiple threads have to wind together.  I was hoping for something smaller but it's the only qualifying book I had at home, I didn't have time to shop, and I don't like traveling with library books.  I still have a bit to finish, but hope to choose a shorter book for February.  While Little Women seems an easy choice, or 1984, I am going to look through my shelves for something less expected.  Stay tuned.

Ornament Swap 2018

I won't go into a long explanation of why I haven't updated the blog for nine months, but it has nothing to do with giving birth or anything interesting like that.  Inertia, not having a very interesting life, not wanting to sit in front of the computer any more when I work in front of one all day.......

This year, I participated in an ornament swap and we all are supposed to blog TODAY about what we received and what we sent.  Tricky for me because I've been out of town.  While supper simmers (braised radishes and such, based upon a japanese recipe for braised daikon, which is in there along with celeriac and purple radishes and.....I digressed) I am getting a post together.

When I received my swap partner, I was excited and nervous.  It's someone I have known for a loooong time, so I was glad to have a friend - but she is an exceptionally skilled bead artist and teacher, and artist in other areas, so I knew that what I made would be nowhere in her league.  And here it is:

It's a very simple knitted sock in a sparkly cotton yarn with a few beads added.  I had gift deadlines, and lots of travel, and then flat-out forgot.  So while I received something very lovely:

Which included a handmade box, and handmade card, AND luminaria (because it was supposed to arrive during Hannukah, but I was traveling and didn't pick up the package until after), and TWO beautiful beaded ornaments.  Here's a better photo of them:

Yep, exquisite.  And all she got was a sock.

A couple people asked about it.  The basic pattern is - a sock.  I found a cable in Donna Druchunas' Spiegel Socks pattern that looks something like a Christmas Tree, although it doesn't show up as well as I'd hoped on the sock I knit:

That shows it just after I finished the cable, before I went into the plain foot (due to lack of time, and my hands starting to hurt from doing fiddly things in stiff cotton yarn on US#0 needles), to which I added an afterthought heel (because I didn't want to have to do math or a gusset), and yes, I made a goof but luckily this sock is not to be worn by anybody:

One handy thing I learned, since I was doing this whilst traveling, is that airplane tray cupholders are very good for corralling beads while you string them:

To summarize the materials:  Aunt Lydia #10 crochet cotton, used double, in gold (because I had to run out to get more and the shop didn't have silver) with silver (left over from a weaving class I took from John Mullarkey at last year's DFW Fiber Fest) ribbing at the top, toe, and heel.  Shown with the beads is some metallic gold sewing thread I used for attaching beads.  The red and green were knitted into the toe and heel; the pearls and blue bugle beads were sewn onto the sock:

The beads are from my stash, and are old, and except for the pearls are appropriately sparkly.

Because I don't have cardmaking skills, I included a card from Hartford Prints! which I purchased last year or the one before.  They do really lovely letterpress work and it shows a stylized Hartford skyline:

Apparently my package has not yet arrived, although it was promised for yesterday.  You can see what Karen said about the items she made on her blog.

Brilliant Midwinter *

We had quite a lot of snow last night, so I skipped going to a friend's show (final weekend - I thought maybe I could go on Friday, but work went very late, probably people trying to have Monday as an actual work holiday per our skimpy USA holidays schedule; I didn't want to go last night and risk driving in a snowstorm in the dark on a trip that's almost an hour in good weather; and today I have a cold) and while it looks quite pretty out there, the temperatures are well over freezing so it's melting quickly.  One of my neighbors was out with her dog trying to play with a flying disc, which the dog would let land then dig out of the snow, and run around for a while with it in her mouth until my neighbor snagged it back and skimmed it again.

Having the cold means I am not getting as much done in terms of household chores today as naps seem to attack on a semi-regular basis.  But with chicken soup, naps, a sinus-warming gel mask, and Vitamin C in quantity, I think I'm ahead of this.  I have to be well by Wednesday when we have dress rehearsal for a show we're doing on Friday and Saturday.  I have only two smallish bits, which is fine with me, but it's a fundraiser for three local organizations so it's the one time I get out from backstage.

In the meantime, I've done some work on this year's resolutions and have been meaning to post an update since the beginning of the month, but have been traveling quite a lot.  I did finish one of the three books on my list, Jay Rayner's The Man Who Ate The World, and found it interesting.  In addition to speculating about what makes a meal a true experience, and the cost-versus-value analysis, he mentioned concerns about offsetting the carbon footprint of foodstuffs flown in for some of the meals as well as his travels to experience them.

I've read some other books as well, mostly lighter things such as historically-set mysteries.  And of course magazines, newspapers, and so forth.  An interview of Scott Kelly particularly sticks in my mind.  And I'm doing another clearing-out of cookbooks and such.

I need to combine my finished items lists, which so far include a couple scarves for Knit Your Bit and two hat and mitten sets for M4A grads, into a single list of "completed items".  I also helped our assistant director knit a Valentine's gift for her girlfriend:

Who, by the way, absolutely loves them.  The AD wanted to make a scarf, and I told her it probably would not happen in three weeks, so this was what we created with the amount she achieved.  As it happens, the girlfriend is also in the show, so trying to sneak around and get this done without people wondering if we were suddenly creating a triangle was a bit of an adventure!  Once the wristers were delivered all was clear, but we had a few difficult moments!

Once these we done, we did cast on again and a scarf might be ready by Christmas.  Then I'll get the AD working on a hat to complete the set.  She chose the yarn and buttons herself and did a commendable job for learning to knit just three weeks ago.

I missed Mardi Gras because I was at a customer site in Portland, Maine, but the team lead brought in Dunkin' Donuts in lieu of paczki and I had a final red meat meal before Lent began.  This year I gave up red meat, pork, shellfish, and baked pastries and desserts.  Knowing my sweet tooth I could not give up all desserts, just knowing that I can eat something if I wish makes it easier to not eat anything most of the time.  Of course there are times I go the other way, such as during tech rehearsal when one of the actresses brought in a platter of tembleque that her mother made.  I was very glad that pudding is permitted to me and a nice wedge of it was my lunch!


* The title of this post riffs on a Christmastime poem by Christina Rossetti:

               “In the bleak midwinter
                 Frosty wind made moan,
                 Earth stood hard as iron,
                 Water like a stone;
                 Snow had fallen,
                 Snow on snow,
                 Snow on snow,
                 In the bleak midwinter,
                 Long ago. ”

Flowers and Butterflies for Christmas

When I started this blog, I told myself that I should write at least once a week. Obviously, that didn't happen. I was busy with work, with holiday activities, and with trying to finish the items in the picture.

These were not gifts for anybody in my family, not directly. My SIL had asked me, when I visited in October, if I could help her make a blanket for a good friend of hers as a gift for the family's new baby. This really meant that I would do the crocheting and she would buy the yarn. While I don't usually undertake commissions, for my darling SIL I would do this. So we went to the local AC Moore to pick out yarn (and some additional Hallowe'en decorations) and when I got home I checked patterns and emailed links to some I thought would be good options. My SIL wanted something that looks like flowers, and for this one I had six different patterns of the three accent colours.

The blanket has 35 squares that I sewed instead of following the pattern for joining, so that it would be smoother. I added as much of a border as I could, ending up with a couple feet left of the green. The sweater is for the older sister, who is about two-and-a-half now. She loves butterflies and I was thrilled to find buttons in the shape of butterflies that just match the accent colours! I attached extra buttons to one of the wrappers, to give the mother washing instructions and just in case buttons got lost.

My SIL did not expect to have the extra item, was thrilled. Touched. I think that she thought the set a terrific Christmas present. And, I said, it explained why she didn't get the expected sweater herself (I'd asked her about the colour and style, to be sure it would be wanted) but a beautiful candle holder from an artisan a friend had told me about. My SIL loves candles and this one was especially pretty, a glowing bit of sycamore.

Her birthday is in September. I think she'll get the cardigan then.