Posts

On My Mind

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mood Hello!  Today is THE day where cool breezes prevail.  Finally a break in the weather, I'm wearing jeans, the back door is opened and I'm loving every single second.  Knowing that summer is winding down and seeing some leaves fall to the ground gives me hope.  This post is a mish mash of what's on my mind. My reentry into work was fantastic.  She was inquisitive, funny and delightful to spend the day with.  She kept asking me 'what's your name?'.  I was off ten weeks and I saw her once during those ten weeks, how can you forget my name??  We talked a lot, well maybe I rambled and she chimed in.  I went on and on about the fall and how great it is, I asked her what she liked best about fall and she said 'wearing boots'.  Gah, it was a fun discussion. There's a new cat (kitten) at work who was friendly and affectionate, he was dumped on their property (humans are evil).  Thinking back about when I rescued Holly from death on the si

Knitting News

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I've been focusing on two projects this past week.  First off is the ever so addicting to knit baby sweater in a deep forest green.  Baby sweaters are delightful and fast!  I should be done with this sweater in a day or so.  It's amazing that human beings start off so adorably tiny. I've tweaked this pattern so that I do not have to seam anything.  I knit the sleeves in the round and then pick up stitches at the sleeve edge while creating the body.  The last of the scrappy cowls (I've made two here and here ).  This scrappy cowl will be extra scrappy because I really don't have enough yarn to make the cowl in three colors.  I like the challenge and it stretches my creativity in a good way. What have you been working on this past week?

Weekends

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Another weekend!  I don't know how your weather is where you are, but here it's hot and humid.  I quit summer yesterday - well, as best as I could quit summer.  I'm hibernating in the AC, and I put one  fall tablecloth out in defiance.  Whenever my son calls to chat, we both commiserate about our lack of love for summer.  We talk about wearing jeans (comfortably) and dare we wish for a breeze and jacket?  Most people love summer, my husband especially.  I try to keep my grumblings to myself.  He bemoans the leaves falling into the pool, I'm squealing inside with joy. Onto the weekend: On Friday, I received a delightful fortune message - It made me smile all day. So how was your weekend?  Mine was pretty good.  I did paint for an hour, I knit manically on a baby sweater.  So much so my wrist was hurting last night when I went to bed.  So today, I'm trying not to be a maniac.  My grocery shopping is out of sync and I went on a Saturday morning, which m

Ebbs and Flows

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I have to be honest with you, I've been on a knitting creativity surge.  For many months my knitting has been sparse, I'll blame it on the summer season.  In the summer I knit the least amount.  Maybe because I'm busy being outside, or maybe because knitting with wool isn't as much fun when I'm hot.  Or maybe there is no reason.  I'm learning that my creativity ebbs and flows.  I am floating at the edge of a wave enjoying where ever the wave takes me.  Right now, the knitting urge is rampant.  'Strike while the iron is hot' is my mentality. I've never been one to be upset when I start a bunch of projects.  How lovely to see an array of project choices when I sit down to knit.  My maximum amount of projects on the needles is five.  Over five and then the fun seems to end in my mind. I saw a lovely mitt pattern trending on Ravelry and quickly dug through my minimally processed, hand spun wools to make ME a pair of fingerless mitts.  The ea

Mint Blanket

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I wanted to finish this blanket by Wednesday and so I did a mini-marathon of knitting.  I have to balance knitting with stretching and moving or else bad things happen to my body.  I'm here to report that I was successful in finishing the blanket AND my body is happy. When I started this blanket, I wanted to use what was already in my stash and have some creative wiggle room.  I started with the green, then realized that I didn't have enough yardage so added the white then again realized I didn't have enough yardage so I added the blue and purple striping in the middle section. I love how all the colors play together and how I was able to design as I knitted the blanket. Ravelry notes Now to knit a baby cardigan!

Weekends

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Okay, to me a staycation includes spending the night at our daughter and son-in-law's townhouse in Delaware.  Saturday morning we got into the car and drove to their place, picked them up and spent the day at the Franklyn Institute . They had a fantastic exhibit on Marvel Comics.  What fun! We walked around and dropped in on the Reading Terminal Market .  Sorry I have no photos, but I did eat some great food before we went out to dinner.  (and we picked up donuts!). After we spent the night at their townhouse, my husband and I drove back to Philadelphia on Sunday to spend the morning and early afternoon at the Philadelphia Museum of Art . I haven't been there before and the museum was great.  My only wish was for clear and obvious signs for parking in the garage.  We drove in circles looking for it.  And we were using two different GPS (including apple maps).  The garage doesn't exist in that dimension.  Being an old lady, I told the ticket desk people all

Amplify

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Today is the beginnings of a two week 'staycation'.  My husband is off two weeks and I'm planning all sorts of fun things that we never seem to do on a regular basis.  How did life get so busy?  I blame the internet.. If I bottled up all the hours I spend writing this blog, reading blogs, reading news (and the news is fast paced!) checking social media accounts, the hours add up. I scale back on some habits and amplify other habits.  I do love blogging, I love sitting here with my coffee by my side and sharing with you whatever I'm thinking about.  I love when I walk around with my camera and see what I ordinarily take for granted with quick glances.  And that is why the staycation is exciting for me.  I have many local activities to explore and some easy day trips as well.  Car riding is fun (better than airplane riding, airport navigating).  I've been writing a list in my notebook.  Later today I'll see what my husband wants to do or not do.  I will

Purple Gray Cowl

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I finished the second of three cowls that I placed in project bags before the summer started.  This time around the pop color is a pale pink.  I took some photos for you all to show the finished cowl but I need to re-soak the cowl because after it dried I saw some minor bleeding from the dark colors to the pale pink wool. Ravelry notes I am reading on my Kindle a psychological thriller, The Woman in the Window.  I know it's over done at times in novels, but I love an unreliable narrator.  While the plot is a slow buildup I am reading this book any moment I get a chance just to see what happens next. What are you working on? Joining Ginny

Weekends

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a highly stressed out schnuazer due to thunderstorms Hello!  Another weekend and we are in August - I would throw a ticker tape parade if I had ticker tape because we are inching closer to the fall season.  Who cares how hot it is, in my mind I'm seeking out the hints of things to come.  How was your weekend?  My husband and I had a work luncheon to attend yesterday, smack dab in the middle of the day.  I took a photo of the floral arrangement at our table, so pretty!  The lunch was nice, but since it isn't my work I really have nothing much to say unless I'm talking about my creative pursuits.  How does one sneak in a segue into knitting?  I tried twice and no one blinked.  I felt like a fisherman casting out my line hoping for a bite... After the lunch we stopped at the hardware store for a few things, then off to the pool store for more super shock.  Once our errands were finished we went to Saturday night Mass.  We were asked to take up the gifts (I'm gue

Personal Epiphany

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This past week was my eighth week off of babysitting.  Can you believe it?  Eight weeks have flown by.  I've eked out the goodness of each day, I plotted what I would do with the precious 16+ hours I gained in my week.  The weeks have been glorious. I remember when I had my first week off and I sat on my loveseat just basking in the luxury of an unscheduled day.  I loved that sense of boredom and the freedom of an entire afternoon just begging for all sorts of activities. Yesterday I realized that all that free time is good when I have balance. I don't like change of any sorts especially in my life but it seems there are potential changes on the horizon that I am not in control of and I spend way too much time plotting out the 'what ifs' and 'oh my' moments.  Nothing has changed .... except I have time on my hands to think about it. My personal epiphany this week was realizing that summer break has been wonderful but I'm ready to go back to