knitting update

Trying to post some pictures here.  This is my St Enda, an aran sweater.  I'm very happy with it.  The yarn is soft and warm.  I like the cables - first time I did a closed end cable.  Very cool.  I really enjoy cabling.


Here's a hat I did with some leftovers, sent to my sister who loves to wear hats.  I wish the picture wasn't so washed out - they are great colors.


I think that's up to date for finished projects.  Working on a few right now, planning the next ones.

The middle finger's other uses

There are more things that the middle finger does than just flip someone off.  I learned this when I sprained mine over the weekend.  It was a gardening mishap.  I was moving some daylilies to try and pull out the onion grass there when a big fat bumblebee came flying out.  In my haste to escape the dangerous bee (I am very, very, very afraid of bees), I managed to sprain my left middle finger.  Gripping doorknobs is not easy.  Griping my fork to anchor my meat so I could cut it was paintul.  I found that lifting some things - like my ipad - are impacted by the pain.  Worst seems to be hooking my bra - I'm not sure what role exactly the middle finger plays in that, but it hurts to do it.  Fortunately, it does not impede my knitting.  And fortunately, or not, I can still flip someone off - with the other hand.

Holy Cow it's been a while!

So, the Aran sweater was finished - at 11 pm the night before the St Patrick's Day Parade.  Or so I thought.  I did a final check the next morning and saw one end not woven in.  Fixed that, wore it to two parades - so proud, will post finished pictures soon.  Now I am working on three projects.  One is a cardigan with an interesting stitch pattern - the name of the pattern is Neon.  It's got kind an openwork pattern - a nice spring/summer sweater.  I'm also working on a Quill shawl - the colors are gorgeous.  I knew they were nice, then yesterday I was sitting outside knitting and in the daylight they are even prettier.  Must take pictures!  The last project is a travel project right now - socks for A.  It's a simple pattern, k3, p1 ribbing.  Great travel knitting - no need to keep referring to a pattern.

In other news, my brother got engaged - very happy about that.  His fiancee is terrific.  Boomer is happy that it is getting warmer out and he can go lay out in the yard, work on his tan.  Life is generally good.  I've just been a bad blogger.

Happiness is...

...making good progress on a knitting project. 
I started an Aran sweater earlier this month.  I should finish the front tonight or tomorrow night.  This is giving me great hope that I can finish the sweater by St Patrick's Day.  I would love to wear it to the parade - after all, it's an Irish sweater and it's green.  This project has made me appreciate Ravelry more than ever.  Looking at other people's St Enda's (the pattern) and reading their notes helped me see that if I stuck exactly to the pattern, I would be making a sweater for someone far taller than me.  So, here are some pictures of the sweater as it stands now. 

The color is not quite as green as it appears in the first picture, it's closer to the second. And I must say that I am loving this yarn.  It's slightly heathered looking, which really works for this sweater and it's soft.  For anyone who cares, it's Stonehedge Fiber Mill Shepherd's Wool Worsted.

Boomer in the snow

The snow has melted some, thanks to the rain Monday and some slightly warmer temps.  So, Boomer has ventured out into the yard a few times.  This morning, the snow had a bit of a crust, so he could walk on top at times and would fall through at others.  Is it bad that I got a laugh out of watching him navigate?  Here are some pictures I took.

16 inches

16 inches - not too bad.  Not as bad as some people in my home state got it.  Boomer's not such a big fan, but really, all in all, not bad.  Let's just hope we don't get more storms!  I have some good pictures, so I'll post those.  I finished a hat, made good progress on my St Enda sweater and got some good exercise in doing snow removal. I suppose I can handle a blizzard once in a while - but would prefer not to have to do it.

Hunkering Down

Blizzard on the way!  It won't be as bad for us as for our friends and loved ones in CT and MA, but it won't be good.  We have plenty of food, just need some milk and coffee and  A will get that tonight.  I have plenty of knitting to do!  I finished my Bombay Sapphire - I'll have to get pictures loaded from my ipad.  I've now started my Aran Sweater!  The pattern is St Enda if you are on Ravelry.  I'm excited about this.  I've wanted to knit one for a while, finally found yarn I thought was just right in October and now, I'm almost done with the ribbing for the front.  I hope to make lots of practice while snowed in tonight/tomorrow.
Working out is going well - I'm addicted again.  I had night meetings every night the beginning of the week, so I got up Mon & Wed and was at the gym around 6:30 and did my workouts.  I think I'll have to reschedule tonight's appointment with the trainer, due to the weather.  Hopefully I can move it up to earlier in the day and just leave work early - but I'm not sure yet when the snow is going to start.  Bottom line though - it's working.  I'm eating healthier and feeling good about working out. 
Now - the even better news - A is working out again.  I'm so happy about that.  I want him to lose weight and be healthier and he's doing it!  YAY!  So proud of him.  I know full well how hard it is to get started.  We'll be looking good, feeling good for our cruise and beyond!

So much yarn, so little time

I'm trying very hard to be on a yarn diet.  It's really hard.  I see gorgeous yarn and think about what I could make from it.  The problem is that I really don't have enough time to knit everything that I would like to knit.  Another problem is I have yarn that someone bought a tag sale years ago and gave to me that I feel like I should use - but I know it's not great yarn so I'm not inclined to use it for something nice.  What I might do with that old acrylic stuff is to double it up and knit a quick blanket or two or three for my dog and to donate to a shelter.  I just don't think I should toss it, so maybe the blankets or donate it to the senior center.  And another problem I've run into is the colorful baby blankets I've made that didn't use the full skein, so I have a bunch of partial skeins.  I'm trying to use them up by making blanket squares.  I'm working my way through, but like I said - I see pretty stuff and it's hard not to add to the stash.  So, I'm on a yarn diet and a food diet.  Fun stuff!

I hate my scale....

,,,.not because of what it's saying - well actually - yes because of what it's saying.  It says too many different things.  Move it to one spot on the floor and I've lost weight, move to another spot and I've gained, move it one more time and I've gained a different amount.  I'm done.  I cannot rely on this scale anymore, so a new one is on it's way.  It's gotten great reviews on Amazon, so hopefully this one will do better.  BTW - I've gotten back on the wagon.  I'm working out, eating better and feeling good.  In a couple of days, I hope to know how good.

Fat Fingers

Oops! I deleted a comment because I missed the publish link and caught the delete link instead.  Sorry Brenna!  So, this taught me something, apparently you can't retrieve deleted comments.  Anyway, I don't really have fat fingers, it just sounded good as a title.

Happiness is...

...makign progress.  Sometimes the trip is just as rewarding as reaching the destination.  So, I'm happy that I'm making progress with my decluttering.  I'm also happy that I'm making progress with my knitting projects.  Mostly right now though, I'm happy that I'm making progress with my workouts and diet.  I'm also happy that my husband is making progress with improving his diet.  Now, if I could only get him on the treadmill.....

Purge Report

3 garbage bags full!  Yes!  One is clothing good enough to be donated.  The balance was worn out t-shirts, old shoes, old empty shoe boxes, broken hangers, etc.  Amazingly, not one purse tossed - turns out I didn't have what I thought I did in terms of purses.  That was Saturday's effort.  On Sunday, my husband and I set to work in the basement.  We only did one small area - the tool bench - but again we were looking at something like 4 garbage bags full when we were done.  There is plenty more to do - but we are getting there.  This coming Saturday I hope to attach my dresser top and night stand top.  If I get decluttered enough, my plan is to hire a housekeeper for say every other week to do the dusting and vacuuming and the bathroom.

Purging

My plan for Saturday - a great purge.  Clothing, makeup, handbags, shoes - I'm doing it.  I've already been working on the clothing part.  I've decided that t-shirts over a certain age are gone.  I plan to apply that to sweatshirts as well.  I'm going to be brutal.  After that is done, I'm going through all the stuff - well maybe I should call it crap - on my dresser and night stand and I'm going to be brutal there too.  I will have a bin for the questionable saves - put them in there, put them in the basement, if I haven't needed it in a year - gone.  I just have too much clutter in the house and not enough space to keep all of it and have a home that appears neat and tidy.  Maybe next weekend I'll attack the glass/mug cabinet in the kitchen and get rid of all the unnecessary stuff there as well.

I'll be back next week to let you know how it goes.

Happiness is....

....knitting progress.  I finished my Noro Striped Scarf before Christmas.  It is pretty.
I am also making good progress on a top I'm knitting for myself.  My goal is to finish it by the end of the month.  I've got one blanket square done and am working on another - nice mindless knitting for lunchtime - while I watch the shows I didn't get to see during prime time.

a full week

I have not worked a full week since the first week of December.  This week is going to drag.  Or not.  Budget season is upon us, so I will be busy at work - which should make the days fly.  Please please please.

On the knitting front - I'm working on a top for me.  I'm about to the end of the increase section.  I am planning to add short row bust darts to a garment for the first time.  It's kind of a necessity for me, unless I want sweaters that bag in the midsection or which ride up in front.   Hopefully it goes well.  I'm also working on some blanket squares.  The woman who owns a yarn company that I like is collecting squares to make blankets for the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting.  I'm about finished with my first and will cast on for #2 after #1 is done.  This is my lunchtime knitting.  I'm using up some yarn from other projects and some yarn I dyed myself.  It's great mindless knitting, since she wants garter stitch squares.  I would like to send off 3 or 4 squares.

26 Random Acts of Kindness

I'm working on 26 Random Acts of Kindness in honor of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting.  I know that others are as well.  Mine tend to be really random - like just doing something when the opportunity presents itself.  I know others are more planned about how they are going to do them.  Either way works, I'm just not the type who can plan to go out today and pay for someone else's meal at the drive thru.  So, it may take me a lot longer to get to 26 than it has for some other people.  I'm at 4.  Two of mine have resulted in positive responses from the recipient that just made my day.  It does feel good.  It feels positive - which is an awesome way to remember the innocent children and hero teachers who were killed on 12-14-12. 
So, the moral of my story is - go out and practice random acts of kindness.  You don't need to do 26 just do some - because you will find that there are 2 beneficiaries of your kindness - the person you helped and yourself.

New Year's Resolutions

I have three.

1. Be kinder - just in general to anyone, including myself.  I have been working on 26 random acts of kindness in honor of the victims in Newtown.  I have found the little acts of kindness make me feel good, so this is partly selfish, but mostly a lesson thing.  Being kind to others has positive benefits for all.
2. Take care of my body.  This means eating better, trying to stay away from fad diets and working out.  I am already doing well with the last part.  
3. Blog more, which will include more on my knitting and more pictures.  This means I need to take more pictures, which I suppose should be its own resolution.

Happiness is....

....a full house, then an empty house.  We hosted Christmas this year at our house.  My mother and sisters arrived Christmas Eve, though only one of them actually stayed at the house.  Oh - and Oliver, Boomer's doggie cousin arrived as well.  On Tuesday, A's parents came.  So we were 7 for dinner.  My brother and his girlfriend dropped in after dinner, so then we were 9.  It was lovely having everyone and dinner was terrific.  The living room was chock full with all 9 of us and 2 puppy dogs.  Last night, we again had my sister and Ollie staying over and A's parents as well.  All are gone now, and while it's fun to have a housefull, it will be nice to be back to just me, A and the Boom Doggie tonight.

Newtown

I want to talk to you about Newtown.  I grew up in Bethel, the next town over. Newtown was quite literally our backyard.  As an adult, one of my first jobs was working for the Town of Newtown.  It is a beautiful town, lots of farmland and rolling hills and meadows.  Newtown is a large town in terms of square miles, but not population-wise.  It is a typical small New England town.  Back in the 80s, when I worked there, it didn't even have much shopping.  Years ago, a woman named Mary Hawley donated money to the Town to build a library, a school and the Town Hall.  Once upon a time, the Town Hall had a bowling alley in it.  When I worked there, it still had a gym in it and a movie theater.  It is one of those second run theaters where the movies are really cheap.  There is a beautiful meadow near the downtown where the Town Christmas tree stood. Main Street is lined with big, old beautiful historic homes.  But for me, what always symbolized Newtown, visually anyway, is the flagpole.  It's a huge flagpole, smack dab in the middle of Main Street.  Every once in a while, people would argue that it was a safety hazard.  Maybe so, but when you come around then bend, heading into Town, and you see the American flag flying there, well, it is just an awesome sight.  I've seen so many beautiful pictures of the flag flying on that flagpole, the saddest being the one I saw this weekend, with the flag lowered to half mast in memory of the students and faculty murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
A & I were home Friday morning, I had taken a vacation day because we had a wedding to go to that afternoon.  While we sat a the kitchen table, A noticed something on one of the feeds he gets on his phone.  He gets dispatches from various fire departments.  He said "There's a report of shots fired at a School in Newtown."  Moments later, from the dispatches, we knew it was Sandy Hook Elementary.  I turned the TV to a news channel, but It hadn't hit the wires yet.  We sat and listed to the fire and ambulance calls, the police calls were scrambled, thank God.  It was scary, but didn't seem horrific yet.  A picked up on things that went over my head, but he would recognize that stuff having been an EMT.  Soon enough, it was on TV.  Watching the news unfold, it was so hard to accept that this had happened in Newtown.  Having grown up in that area, it is one of the last places I would have expected it.  Danbury yes, even Bethel or Brookfield, but Newtown? But really, we all now that it can happen anywhere.  And, of course, it is made all the more horrific by the fact that it happened at an elementary school, to children just starting to learn, who didn't get a chance to live.  And it happened during the holiday  - Hanukkah, Christmas - a time of such my and excitement for children.
 I wondered if I would know anyone who lost a family member.  I had gone to high school with a lot of Newtown kids, I had coworkers who lived there, I studied and taught karate there.  I worried how my brother was doing as an educator in the areas biggest community, Danbury.  Tragedies like this affect us all on various levels.  It hits all Americans hard, parents maybe a little harder, those from  Connecticut harder, those of us from the Newtown area even harder, then of course those in Newtown harder yet and so on down to those who lost someone.
When you remember the people of Newtown in your prayers, especially the parents and loved ones of the lost, please also remember those who witnessed the horror.  The children who survived, their teachers, the police and the volunteer firemen and ambulance corps that responded need our thoughts and prayers now too.

Happiness is....

....a repeat - but it does make me happy - Boomer doing his little dance when I give him a scratch on his back near his tail.  He's so cute.  He arches his back like a cat and does this thing where he just kind of rocks on his back legs.  Clearly he likes his little back scratch.  Now - what happiness isn't?  Boomer doing his nearly silent cry by the side of the bed at 4:15 am.  Seriously?  He wanted up in the bed.  That wasn't happening.  And I'm pissed that he woke me up.