It might be a two thermos kind of day. Yesterday, during a bright, sunny morning, I got an email from a Plein Air group I belong to that meet on Fridays to scout the countryside for interesting places to paint. It was cancelling today’s meet-up because of heavy rains. Now, this was a beautiful, sunny day and they were cancelling the next day’s meet. Really ?
So, five AM this morning…..pouring rain…..absolutely beating the roof and all around….loud enough to wake me from a sound sleep…….and it kept up all morning and looks like it will be hanging around this afternoon, too. What Magic Ball does she have ?
The last time I was working at the museum, I got a call from a lady in desperate need of help with a pattern. Because we do not know each other, we decided to meet in the Rockwell Public Library. That was my first library in the region and I love the staff.
I met with her this morning and had a productive visit. She is a lovely older lady from this area. I helped her read her pattern and figure out her stitch count and gave her my tricks for dealing with repeated patterns, etc. She gave me a recipe for a knitted baby bib that is adorable. We hit it off quite well and I guess I am okay when she realized the librarians knew me by name. I hope we meet up again some time soon. It’s always nice to have a knitting buddy.
I finished ‘The Fix’ and have started on a book my cousin sent me. I had read “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson last month for book club. “The Sun Does Shine” is about Anthony Ray Hinton, who spent 30 years on death row in Alabama for crimes he did not commit. Looks interesting already.
Time to curl up in the corner of my couch with a book and a cup of tea. It’s that kind of afternoon.
Have been crocheting and spending the afternoon with Ali from Little Drops of Wonderful….another Brit podcast…fancy that. She’s charming and chatty and a talented knitter. Look what the mail brought me this afternoon.
Of course, I saw them on The Grocery Girls Knit podcast and thought they would be helpful in my sock knitting, especially if someone just gives me a length of their foot, or I slap one up against the foot of a grandbaby.
Stomach has calmed down and I might try to eat something later. Going back to crocheting and listening to Ali.
Today is going to be one of ‘those’ days. It is a gloriously sunny day and will probably get warmer (35 degrees to 75 degrees yesterday), but I ate the wrong thing yesterday and am paying for it this morning. It’s definitely a day I will have to stick around the house. That’s as graphic as I’ll get.
Tree beside my driveway…..Spring has sprung in North Carolina………..
The VA Center called me to tell me my therapist called out sick this morning, also. I was going to talk to him about how I/we sabotage our own good intentions and shoot ourselves in the foot and deny ourselves the joy we deserve in our lives.
When my children were in grade school, I was very involved. I was in PTA, their sports, church and Sunday school. One night, when I was on my way to yet another meeting, my husband said ‘Why ?’ and I said, “FOR them” and he said, “but you’re never WITH them.” and I realized I had not been home at night for over two weeks because of all I was involved in. It made me stop and think seriously about my priorities. I think that was about the time I learned to say no with no apologies or excuses. “No….that doesn’t work for me”……that’s about as good an excuse as I gave.
I enjoyed being with my kids. I made a great folded airplane. We would fly them all over the neighborhood. Kids would come down the block to get them. One day a little boy knocked on our door and asked my husband if his daughter could come out and play, so Russ called Jennifer to the door and the kid said, “No, not her…..your BIG daughter.”……….still makes me laugh….Ah, an ADD diversionary tactic being pulled out of a hat.
Anyway, we overload our plates with outside projects and keep adding more on until we are mentally and emotionally exhausted and drained and then we don’t have enough space for US. Sometimes I don’t think I deserve the joy of just sitting. Or sitting and knitting or reading…that I should be doing something “important”, more productive.
We go on a diet, lose weight almost to our goal, and go on a binge. We sock money away for an important item and frivolously go on a shopping spree and get inane objects we would never look at. We make promises to ourselves and/or the important people in our lives and shelve them, forget them, trivialize them….but others do not.
This is what I did yesterday. Last year I was having wicked gall bladder problems and my doctors gave me the bum’s rush to get it taken out. Once the appointments and surgeries were scheduled I took a breath and stepped back. I researched online what that little organ actually does for your system. I talked to people who had had the surgery and how it is impacting their lives. It is not the ‘simple little operation’ that people make it up to be.
So, I talked to the surgeon and told him of my reservations and asked if I could change the problem with diet. He said to go for it, because once the surgery is done, it’s done. There is no going back. So, I went on the Keto Diet…simplified. I have allergies to grains and cutting out anything with processed flour really helped me. My mind seem to clear up and I was more focused. My joints stopped hurting. My heartburn went away immediately. And, over the last almost six months, I’ve lost 33 pounds. That was a nice unexpected sidebar to the whole business. The best thing, my gall bladder calmed down and I’ve had no problem. I have been pretty consistent….until the last two weeks.
Over the past two weeks I have had burgers and sandwiches here and there. Some french fries. (not supposed to eat potatoes). Fewer salads. Fewer green shakes. And this week I have had an ungodly craving for ice cream. So yesterday, instead of just going to get a cone or something, I bought a half gallon of Breyer’s Waffle Cone ice cream….and ate about a third of it. But I also bought chips and salsa. To die for….and this morning, I thought I was going to. I can only explain the stomach pain….PAIN….and heartburn by….I’m picturing how Krakatau or Kilauea looked at the worst of their eruptions, with huge lava floes coming down, enveloping everything.
I went through major holidays with no problem whatsoever. So why would I do that to myself now? Well, it will be awhile before I do it to myself again. The next time I think things are going along too well and I need a little drama in my life I’ll have to take a trip or something. I can take the housebound thing, but not the pain. Gonna go sit and knit or crochet and watch a podcast.
I’m crocheting a baby blanket for my grandson’s new baby. Isn’t that a great pattern ? Found it…..wait for it…..on Youtube.
Whoever invented “Wednesday” needed spell check. Who hasn’t said “Wed-nes-day” ? I remember when I was learning to read I thought “Language is so strange.”
My dad was a reporter, sports reporter, sports broadcaster, and then an editor for newspapers. He taught me to read when I was three. He would have me cut the large print headlines out of the paper….individual letters….and paste them onto paper to make words. He probably did it to keep me out of his hair whilst he was working on some project. My first efforts looked like really bad ransom notes. At times, I think he did me a great service and at others I think a disservice.
I was always bored in school because I could already do things. When I was seven, I read my first adult novel….”Tall in the Saddle”. I scared myself senseless when I read “Treasure Island” later that same year. I could not sit at breakfast without reading the cereal boxes. I cannot go a day without reading, if only for a few minutes before I nod off to sleep. I am as addicted to reading as I am knitting.
When each of us turned five years old, my mother would take us to the library to get our first library cards. It was a very important right of passage. She would hand it over and say “This is your passport to lands you will never visit and people you will never meet”.
I remember asking her and the librarian how many books could I take out and they both said, “As many as you can carry”. We lived across town and walked everywhere, so an armload of books was a difficult feat. The second time we went, I took my little red wagon and filled it up. I made many trips to the Huntington Library on Chestnut Street in Oneonta, NY. It’s still there.
In every place I have lived, the first place I find is the local library. Even when I was in the Navy, the first place I would find was the base library and the second was the local library. It was not the habit of the East Greenwich, RI, library to give library cards to naval personnel, but I got one. The librarian there helped me plot my college plan. I was accepted at Cornell College in Clinton, Iowa and planned to go on to the University of Minnesota or somewhere in that region for a Masters in Library Science. I eventually wanted to get back to Washington, DC, and work for the Library of Congress. Ah, but life has a way of fooling with your plans and your road goes in different directions. I did work as an assistant librarian at one time, so that part of the dream materialized.
I’m sittin’ and knittin’, waiting for a new circular needle to come in the mail. I broke the needle that the Quicksilver shawl was on and had to rip back the shawl a bit. I’m working on the Scatterby Socks, which is a free pattern on Ravelry. There is a multi-part Youtube video by Purl Together….if you ever wanted to try a toe-up sock….this is a perfect way to do it. I do two at a time/magic loop on separate needles….not two on the same needle. If I make a mistake, I do not want to tear back two socks to fix it.
Mine are done in the colorway “Pin Up” by Yarn Ink. I love their yarns. This was a pairing with Mrs. Brown’s Bags and I finally found the right recipe for the yarn.
Well, coffee is gone. Time to move on with my day.
Today was blood test day. I don’t eat breakfast, but when the words ‘fasting bloodtest’ begin my day…yeah, I want something. Took my crochet to the doctor’s office. Spent more time in the waiting room than being stabbed. Boom….outta there. Stopped by Koco Java’s for a caramel macchiato, extra shot and dropped by the museum to leave MT’s socks and tell them I’d be in to work in the library before my pastel class with them tonight. Love when everything is packed tightly together.
These are little mug rugs I crocheted for the ladies at work. Only one tea drinker.
When I got there, the street was blocked off by a hook and ladder fire truck and another in the parking lot on the other end of the building. Whoa !….but only a false alarm and they decided to use the opportunity as a ‘practice’ run. It reminded me of when I was a kid.
My best friend in the whole world (of a five year old that’s a pretty small circle) from across the street decided one day to walk over to Wilber Park together. This was back in the day when children were free range. We spied the huge black water tank and decided to climb up. We wandered around the walkway, admiring the view, seeing our houses and the park below us. When we decided we’d seen enough, we went to climb down. Neither of us could reach the ladder rungs going down. We were greatly surprised at this. We had had no trouble getting up. We hollered out, but there was no one in that end of the park to hear us. We sat there, huddled together, holding each other, and crying our eyes and lungs out for over three hours.
Finally, a park worker happened by, but he could not help us. He called the Oneonta Fire Dept and they sent a hook and ladder to rescue the two errant children. They took Christy down first and then came back for me. I was all over that poor man like a kitten scrambling up a tree. I gripped him so tightly around the neck, he had to unclasp my hands and tell me if I didn’t calm down we would both fall to the ground. Slowly, ever too slowly, he descended the ladder and placed me on the ground.
similar tank….didn’t seem that high when we were going up……..
By that time our parents had been summoned and we were whisked away to our homes for a change of clothes and a good talking to. We were not punished as much as admonished for our adventure. We were told we could never do that again…..like, fat chance of that happening. (ever notice how fat and slim chance mean the same thing ?) I am, to this day, afraid of heights….or more like afraid of falling. I have no problem flying, or being in an enclosed gondola, or even having something (a railing) that is at least waist high….but an open space ? If anyone ever tells you I committed suicide by jumping off a building, know that I was murdered, because that would NEVER happen. Climbing a tower is the primary reason I stopped wanting to be a Forest Ranger.
It was so bad that when I went into Navy boot camp we had to jump off a two story diving board into the pool to pass PT. I would climb the tower, walk out slowly onto the board, my life passing before my eyes, crouch down and back off the board. Finally my instructor told me if I didn’t do it, I would wash out of boot camp and be sent home. I asked if it mattered how I did it and she said no, as long as I did it. The next time, I crawled out to the end, closed my eyes, and tipped over off the board and fell into the pool. When I came up, both my company and our sister company were surrounding the pool clapping for me. I still sweat thinking about it.
Since I am in avoidance mode I thought I would tell you about GG.
Last May, someone dropped a box off at my daughter’s (the joys of living in the country) with six kittens about six weeks old and one slightly bigger kitten that looked about three months. She did not want to take them to the local kill shelter, but could not keep them as she had seven cats and three dogs already. She was giving them away like party favors. Since my cat had died the previous September, I took the oldest kitten. Now I know why God gives babies and kittens to young people.
Notice that “M” on her forehead ?
As I said, we thought she was about three months old, but the vet said no, more like six or seven months, but severely malnourished. I have been living on my own forever and have a crafty, painterly, yarney domain. She only saw a giant playroom. I was going to name her Pia or Pita, for pain in the….you get the picture, but decided to call her GG for Gorgeous Girl instead.
Notice what started about two weeks into January……
this was maybe in August 2018.Christmas Eve when she thought I needed a break from sewing….she was still a blonde………First week in January 2019….notice the shifting in her coat…..Second week in January……….This morning……. today…………
And her stripes continue to get darker and further up her body…..I have NEVER seen this happen before. My granddaughter said I got rid of her and got a new cat, that this couldn’t be the same cat that was left at their house. Oh, she’s the same cat….still thinks my house is her playroom and all belongings are hers………
I didn’t realize what an Anglophile I am…..many of the podcasts that I watch are by Brits of one ilk or another and I adore them. I know if I visited Britain and went around to where all my ancestors spent their time, I would come back to the States with a British accent. Especially if I was around Rosina (sp) of the Zeens&Roger podcast. Even though the Grocery Girls are Canadian….that’s like one step removed from British. Let’s see….there is Zeens&Roger, Lesley Arnold-Hopkins, Amy Florence, Kat from Heather and Hops, Angie B, Tea and Possibilities, The Wee Sew and Sew (Scottish), Mina Philips/the Knitting Expat…..and more, I’m sure…..especially Caroline of Dunderknits/Knitting Vicariously……she is a spicy, funny, sassy, sweary girl that I would recommend to MY friends…..love that girl.
I cuss. People think I cuss because I was in the Navy…..not so. Then they ask, “well, when did you start swearing if you didn’t in the Navy” and I tell them…..”when I had children”. Swearing does not offend me. Name calling/labeling and ignorance offends me, but not swearing. When I worked for Cirque, we had people from all around the world…..many of our performers were former Olympians and circus performers. We had Russians, Polish, Chinese, Brazilian, Argentinian, Mexican, British, Japanese, German, French, French-Canadian (it was/is a Canadian company), ….you get the picture. They all thought it was funny to teach me their cuss words. You just feel so worldly by being able to say “arsehole” in a dozen languages.
When you have anger issues, counting to ten doesn’t always work and doing bodily injury to someone is not polite….I do not look good in orange….so I cuss. Sometimes I walk away sounding like the father in “A Christmas Story”, or that cartoon dog that always says “ratzzle/fratzle”. When I was a kid I would say things that SOUNDED like swearing to me…..rutabaga was a favorite…..phenobarbital was another…..I didn’t know what it was, but it sounded nasty. Like Ralphie in ‘A Christmas Story”, I found myself seated in the bathroom with a cake of Lifebuoy or Ivory soap in my mouth more than once. It was usually more for my vocal intention than the actual words. I would whine to my mother “but I didn’t SAY anything” and she’d give me THE LOOK and say “but I know what you MEANT”. She was little, but she was mighty.
I am killing my finger today. I use Hi-ya Hi-ya Sharp circular knitting needles and have poked a hole in my finger. I keep embedding the needle back in the same hole and it hurts like hell. My friend Holly, from work, gave me the Thimble-It protectors and I bought the Jillily Studio Poke-A-Dots. When I worked at Cirque in the costume shop, I used something like that, only made of moleskin, to protect my fingers when I was hand-sewing. The red circles are the size I need, but a little thicker than the moleskin. I wish I could find those.
And, because my finger hurts, my ADD kicked in and I caked up the Titmouse yarn because I was curious.
I get nothing for mentioning anything on my blog. I just want to share what makes me happy, what and who I enjoy…..what works for me. There is a huge Yarney Universe out there. I joined, but do not use Instagram. I can get lost for days in Ravelry and figure it would be the same for Pinterest or Instagram and I want to use that time to actually knit. If anyone actually reads this blog, that’s great. If not, that’s okay, too, because apparently I am getting something out of doing it. If you are out there and you go to any of the sites I list, or something hits a corresponding chord in you….that’s great, too.
Now to go kick my cat/cow out of my spot and finish up the sock.
So, today started out as a real “meh” day. Grey skies, dreary….not looking too promising. I hid for awhile in my computer and then kicked myself in the butt. I switched over to Youtube and some knitting podcasts and picked up MT’s sock. Have spent a couple hours with EarthtonesGirl and Lesley Arnold-Hopkins……much needed calming and humor injected into my day.
I recently did a DNA testing (actually three to see if they would balance out each other or wildly contradict) and find that I am over 61% British Isles. I know my families came from Moffatt, Scotland and Wales….but it turns out deepest, darkest London is in there and a bunch of Donegal, too. I also have 4% Scandinavian with no country that could be defined, so I am thinking maybe when the Vikings visited either Normandy or the British Isles that part of the bloodline was secured. I also am 0.10% (1/100th) Native American, so I guess a piece of me does belong here. Also 19% French and German with a smidge of Dutch. So I mostly have that white, Anglo-Saxon, protestant thing rocked.
EarthtonesGirl is a SOCK KNITTER…….she is so interesting and sweet and calm. I could never imagine this lovely lady raising her voice in anger, unlike myself. They say opposites attract….she had me at “socks”. I so enjoy her podcasts.
Lesley Arnold-Hopkins is so charming. She reminds me of my best friend from Junior High, Charlotte, who passed away a few years ago. There was nothing that we could not talk about. Lesley , to me, is that type of person. Her humor and stories and yarney talents are wonderful. Watching her podcasts is like sitting with your best friend for an hour.
So yesterday I lost my keys in my house. I took everything out of my purse (a couple times), touched every surface I had touched the day before when I came home sick from the museum, moved, shuffled, put away, hoed and throwed, checked my garbage sacks, and finally turned to St. Anthony (whom my mother implored for help all my childhood), dumped my purse on the couch and they were the very last thing to fall out on the pile. I tell ya….God has a sense of humor. I think He just wanted me to clean up my house a bit. I even put away tons of yarn that I had been auditioning for a project.
This is all leading up to why I only got the sock ripped out yesterday and have worked through the heel turn and part of the foot today.
Isn’t that “Sheep Squeezer” cute? They are made by Onesockwonderbags.com…..It was either the sock or the hot pad to work on today…….and I really, really want to finish the sock today. I am going to go back in and binge on those two ladies older podcasts and get this thing off my needles today.
If anyone ever tells you I died in an avalanche…..just know that snow was not involved…
You are NOT supposed to wake up and be functional this early on a Saturday….even when you are retired. I did go to bed early for me and only woke up twice (and one was totally my cat/cow walking on my person.
Ready to face the day………..So this is done……..and I played yarn chicken and lost………….but I think it works for this one…..
There is something magical about knitting garter stitch…….you almost don’t have to be present….you can problem solve, sail away to your ‘perfect place’, listen to an audio book, watch a podcast, watch tv or a movie…..you get the picture. So many shawls incorporate garter stitch. Purling is a slow process for me. I am a thrower…..I hold the yarn in my right hand and loop it around the needle. I have tried Continental, left handedly flicking, but my tension is very loose. You can practice that with garter stitch so easily.
Purling is slow. People say, “But why do you want to knit faster ? Don’t you want to savor the process ?” Because there are soooooooo many projects in my queue that I want to cast on and knit, Silly. I DO savor the process. I purl backwards. I used to knit in the back leg of the stitch all the time and I went to a knit group in Orlando and they all said “You knit WRONG”…..and later I was told there really is no wrong way to knit… that if the garment doesn’t fall apart, you’re doing it your way. I did change the way I knit a stitch (the old way is called twisted rib ? maybe)…..but I still purl by looping the yarn to the left under the stitch leg….not to the right over the stitch leg. I will always purl that way. I teach both and let the person do what is comfortable for them.
Look what came in the mail yesterday…I belong to a monthly yarn subscription called ‘Knit Crate’….and this month there was only one skein of yarn, Knitologie Sheen…colorway: Titmouse. It is such an unusual colorway for me, but I immediately went online and bought three more skeins, so now I have four skeins of an unusual yarn (75% Merino, 15% silk, 10% cashmere….FINGERING) and am looking for the perfect recipe for it. It struck me as an early SPRING colorway. It has been a very wet winter here, so this is like grey skies, dark blue storms, brown lawns and tree lines…and bright yellow daffodils pointing the way to Spring. I will have to see how it looks caked up and maybe knit a swatch to see how the colors flow. I’m thinking a garment of some kind….maybe something crocheted….the things that make you go “hmmmmmmmm”.
So, coffee first….finish MT’s sock, run the cleaner and wash up the sinkful of dishes….and move on to the Quicksilver Shawl, by Melanie Berg. It is a gift for someone and I would like to finish it up. I’m close. Closer than the Agleam Shawl is. One thing about Stalking The Grocery Girls…….it is making me a more organized knitter.
