Pumpkin Sunrise

I'm mentally crumbling under my own self-imposed deadlines.  Why do I do this to myself?  I set some arbitrary goals then panic.  So - today is about being realistic in my expectations and setting time aside daily to focus on making progress. I am one-third of the way through the gray hat  knitting that is a gift.  I can knit and read at the same time with this project so I'm sailing through the ribbing.  This is the project that is not stressing me out, hats are fun and fast. I finished four washcloths from one skein of scrubby cotton.  I'd like to knit four more from the other skein but it's okay that I don't knit them. This shawl is taking up mental space and somewhat stressful because I'd like to be finished and have it off the needles.  I'm going to keep knitting and keep hoping I finish this project.  Sadly, I cannot read and knit at the same time so this is the TV knitting project. You cannot see well, but there is some lovely eyel

new hat on the needles  Hello!  How was your weekend?  Are you enjoying your extra hour today?  I am.  Well it feels like this day is lasting forever, but since time goes so quickly anymore, I'm okay with the foreverness.  Yesterday we drove to Delaware to visit our daughter and son in law.  I had a lot of fun.  We had lunch at their place then shopped at the 'big' mall and later headed out for dinner. Driving home was tricky in the dark and the GPS gal was being a little bit difficult.  She likes to sometimes omit street names.  So there were two wrong turns.  Do you remember when we used paper maps???  Now that was tricky, especially if I was the one reading the map. I finished the third Gamache mystery last night ( Cruelest Month by Louise Penny) and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I'm chipping away at Alias Grace,  I do adore Atwood's writing style immensely. Today, I've done all the laundry and some of the house cleaning.  I ran out of energy because

I'm having fun with my new gel pens and creating Christmas tags.  I'm sure you're not surprised at all that I cannot pass by a stationary store without going in and buying something.  My confession is simply this- I own too many:  pens, pencils, notebooks (empty and filled), note cards and loose paper. I love to have options!  Imagine my delight when I discovered I needed, seriously needed white, silver and gold pens.  Gah.  Off to another art store, browsing all the goodies that I do not need. my sister-in-law made me washcloths so I had to copy her and make the same kind  A mini health update:  I continue to feel better every day (not fast enough but that's just me) and next week is the last week of physical therapy.  I'm ready to free up some time, you know, for knitting.  Well, some free time, I do have that gym thing going on as well.  Friday is my first for real session, wish me luck, I'm nervous.   Stepping outside my comfort zone is so difficu

Good morning!  November first, isn't it grand?  I finished my hat over the weekend.  I haven't even looked at what hat pattern to knit next, even though I said that was what I was going to do.  If only there were more hours in the day.  My past few weeks have been a slurry of physical therapy and babying my sore twitchy back.  However, I'm seeing some promising healthy weeks ahead as I ease out of physical therapy and into a new exercise program (yay). While I dither about on what hat pattern to cast on,  I've been knitting plain old garter stitch wash clothes for a knitting palate cleanser. What are you knitting up? Or crafting?

third hat progress How are you?  How is your weekend so far?  Mine was quite nice and I've got a few more hours before it's over.  The temperatures are dropping so hopefully I'll be wearing some wool knits this week.  A knitter can dream. Yesterday we visited our son and had lunch out at a Thai restaurant.  I never knew I liked Thai food as much as I do.  I love the veggies.  We walked a bit around the town and I purchased some new gel pens for making gift tags (white, silver and gold).  I'm pretty excited about this - last Christmas my sister gifted me the ingredients to make the tags - card stock, washi tape, etc.. We visited an Indian grocery store to stock up on some supplies then headed home.  My back was not happy on the ride home at all, but Tylenol helps. son in law's sweater progress Today I had some time to knit and make some progress on the third hat which just might be finished tonight - I'd like to be finished soon.  I will been look

This week has been picture perfect.  Whenever I look out a window or take a walk, I want to hit the pause button and keep this wonderful season on hold.  The leaves are nearly off the trees. There was a gusty wind that blew through earlier in the week and dispersed all leaves everywhere.  Most of my trees are:  oak, maple, dogwood, black walnut, sassafras, aspen, pine, sumac and sycamore.  I am blessed with an array of multicolored leaves. I'm pleased to report I'm feeling better every day.  While I do two more weeks of physical therapy, I've decided to join a gym and have a personal trainer and gently start a strengthening program. (I might be a jellyfish in disguise.) I'll be doing this until....well until.  I've thought long and hard about how much I want to never be in pain - this to me is a reasonable doable goal. The gym has experience with people coming out of a muscle injury and I explained the RA stuff.  So I'm excited.  I feel like I am in ch

Good morning!  How are all of your knitting and crafting plans going?  I wrote 'THE LIST' and I'm a little daunted by what I'd like to accomplish before Thanksgiving.  I'm already triaging the list and making notes of 'have to knit' and 'maybe not in time'.  Ah.  This is what I do every year. This past week I've been working on the sweater for my son in law making tiny progress but chipping away at the body of the sweater.  I haven't knit a bottom up sweater in years.  So maybe when I'm done with the body, the rest will go zipping by. I'm nearly done with the ribbing of my third hat (a Christmas gift).  This is the last one using the same pattern, I need a different pattern for future hats to re-ignite my enthusiasm for hat knitting.

Can you believe we are coming close to the end of October?  I cannot.  Seems like I just flipped the page to October first only days ago.  Time is flying by!  How was your weekend?  I hope it was filled with goodness. Yesterday I witnessed a beautiful sunrise while I was outside with Frodo.  These days have been glorious to look at, sunny, bright and moderate temperatures.  I'm still wistful for a wool wearing day but I know that will be here soon. Our weekend was a 'pretend we are on vacation' weekend because we were supposed to visit our family in Ontario.  However, since I have back issues the trip was sadly cancelled.  We stayed local and ate out at our favorite restaurants.  We also took a walk by the river near the park in town. Our son came home for an overnight visit to get away.  He was here for 24 hours then was back at his apartment.  I'm still doing laundry but the kitchen is super tidy. This morning while driving to 7:30 a.m. Mass I saw an ev

Every day this week, I focused on knitting and finding the perfect position to sit to do it with my back issues.  The experts believe the pain is muscular and not related to a herniate disc.  I am lucky!  Ever so slowly, I've seen progress.  Did you know I am impatient?  I want everything now (or yesterday).  Waiting has never been one of my strengths.  So daily I wake up, tenderly assessing my progress.  My initial reaction is disappointment, but when I flip to listing the positives, I see significant progress. Last night I did not wake up to a 'back' alarm to take Tylenol.  This is huge!  I feel completely rested.  I have a long way to go and I will be in physical therapy at least a month.  After that, I need to create a ritual of supporting my health on a regular basis. So when I'm impatient, I stop and reflect.  I assess my progress and celebrate the journey. I was keeping a bullet journal of sorts for many months with daily repeating tasks that I would

I finished another hat  for the Christmas gift giving box and I'm ready to cast on one more with this pattern .  I'm knitting at the speed of light - well it feels like it when you knit the same pattern over and over.  I don't have pattern fatigue yet...so I'm going with it. I looked at my 'what I would like to knit for Christmas present list' and it's mighty long and slightly crazy to execute.  However, I love to make lists even if they are out of my league.  Hats are the theme this year and maybe mitts. I started my son-in-law's sweater over the weekend.  Even before the casting on, I came across a problem.  The chest size I want is in between two sizes.  Ugh.  So I opted to knit the larger size knowing (and hoping) that worsted wool on size 7 needles knitted my me is definitely not 5 stitches to the inch like they want.  Fingers crossed that my assumptions are correct. And no....I did not swatch.  I know that on size 8 needles with this y

How was your weekend?  Mine was slow and steady.  I'm the famous tortoise taking my time to win the race.  I've sat around a lot and I must say I'm now comfortable enough to knit which is all that really matters if you're a knitter.  I feel so calm when there are knitting needles in my hand. Yesterday was a do-nothing day.  We took a walk down the dirt road before lunchtime.  In the afternoon, I worked on the red hat  while my husband made his famous curry dinner.  We were together doing our own things - one of the best facets of our marriage, being alone - together! Today was more of the same.  Another walk down the same dirt road and lots more resting my back and knitting or reading my books.  Oh did I mention there were donuts?  yup.  Definitely donuts cure back pain... Kathy B  asked on  Friday's post why I named my blog Pumpkin Sunrise. Well....the story is a little twisty turvy.  I knew I wanted to have a blog and I anguished over a name since bl