Pumpkin Sunrise

Well well well, I am on to another book!  I saw this novel displayed at the library and checked it out without knowing what the story is all about.  Goodreads gives an array of opinions from people either loving or hating it.  So I will let you know what I think.  Just started reading two days ago, so I'm opinion-less. I am casting off on my test knit .  I will be blocking this cowl sometime over the busy weekend, so I can achieve a bit more drape.  I think I knit on the snug side... That skein of purple loveliness will be my next project but I'm not sure yet what pattern.  I keep changing my mind.  I'm leaning towards a shawl but yet I wonder if that is what I really really want, first world problems of a dedicated knitter.  Stay tuned for the decision, if I make one today or tomorrow. What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier dreams

Weekends are for memory making,  relaxing and enjoying quiet moments of our days.   If you would like, please share your weekend moments  in the comment section with a link to your blog. Yesterday while slowly walking down my drive way, I spied these twin fawns!  How exciting! The closest on in the first photo was quite brave and stared me down while I inched my way closer and closer to snap a few photos. Ah, technology is wonderful -- I called my husband on the cell phone to tell him to look out the window.  They were beautiful to watch and I wanted someone else to witness the event. Yesterday I finished the window cleaning and mini blind replacing, in under a week. I had to take two hours of rest to recover. Just so you know, knitting was invented to encourage slowing down and resting.  I'm thrilled the window washing is over and now I can wait another 5-10 years to clean them again, ha ha ha....I'm sort of serious though. Afte...

I set a goal earlier this week on tackling the filthy windows in my house (yes, you read that correctly).  I live by the golden rule, if the blinds are down then the dirt doesn't exist.  Simple really!  Day after day, I fixated on those windows and their dirt and those dusty miniblinds that are quite aged. The thought of that massive task depressed me, especially since I'm physically limited and knew I could not do that job in a single day.  Don't get me wrong, I'm doing great!  My wrist is the best ever and I'm still continuing to see daily progress.  So after a mild pouting session, I changed my thoughts and my expectations. I decided to replace all the miniblinds in the house - that eliminated washing all the miniblinds in the house (they were over 10 years old....).  My next stage in changing my thinking was to focus on what CAN I do!!  Well, I can work for one hour a day.  Seriously, I can do that. I set off to protect my ...

I know, you're thinking that my reading this week is exactly the same as last week.  You're correct!  But I'm so close to finishing After You, I only have three or four chapters left.  I am enjoying the book, her writing is compelling to read.  I haven't touched Tavern on Maple Street . My knitting is all about a test knit for Andrea .  I love this cowl so far and I'm enjoying the Madeline Tosh sock yarn immensely!  There is nothing like a plied yarn after using single ply two projects in a row.  And the wool, well it's squishy and soft and my hands itch to work on it.  Nothing could be better than that! What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

Over the weekend not only did I finish two gifts that have been in my knitting bag for a few weeks but I tagged them with their washing instructions, photographed them AND wrapped them up.  Ready to give.  I believe this gift giving is balm for the soul. My wurm hat  turned out nicely!  I only repeated the purl ridge seven times because of the drape of the cotton blend yarn.  I prefer knitting with wool but for the recipient who will be undergoing chemo treatments, I thought cotton would be much much more comfortable than wool. The baby  blanket is done and believe it or not, I still have left over yarn in that dye lot.  It's like the seven loaves and two fish(es) deal.  It just keeps meeting the needs of the many!  This yarn is a cotton blend as well and now that it's done, my hands can rest.  Cotton can be rough on the hands since it has little give. My wrist/hand keeps improving and I feel good overall.  I just...

Weekends are for memory making,  relaxing and enjoying quiet moments of our days.   If you would like, please share your weekend moments  in the comment section with a link to your blog. there might be a bug there and there might not be a bug there Another weekend upon us and around here it's hot hot hot.  I'm sure some of you have it hotter than me, I respect that.  All I can say is that I love my AC and cannot imagine what my life would be without it.  I don't know how Scarlett O'Hara survived the southern summers in those poofy dresses.  All the amount of fanning would not cool me off -  at all. ready to cast on a test knit :) Friday night we went out for pizza after a month long ban of not eating out for dinner, self imposed I guess.  I was sick and tired of eating out so much in Santa Barbara that I made a pointed effort to cook every day at home.  Even though I'd rather be knitting, I'm a good cook! We are ba...

the never ending sock blanket Why I knit defines who I am, I'm sure it defines you as well.  I have been a knitter for such a long time that I cannot remember a time when I wasn't knitting something.  I knit for many reasons and I thought I'd share them here with you. I knit because it's fun There is nothing in the world like finding a perfect wool and dreaming up what that skein can become.  Whenever I purchase wool the possibilities are endless and sometimes I knit the project that I imagined and sometimes I knit something else.  The unpredictability of future projects draws me in.  Stitch markers are another small decorative but functional item that thrills me to no end.  Decorating your knitting with meaningful, delightful markers....well it's like jewelry! I knit because it's healthy for my well being  I easily enter a meditative state of mind, soothed by the endless stitches in front of me.  Following an intricate pattern cro...

Ha!  My knitting is a little bit different, although I'm still plugging along on the baby blanket .  Over the weekend, I cast on another wurm hat  for a relative of a friend I know who is going through chemo treatments.  I wanted to knit something in her favorite color and hope this small gift brings her joy during her health challenges.  According to Ravelry, this is the eighth time I've knit the  wurm  pattern.  I must like it! I also posted about my finished shawl yesterday . My reading has been minimal for The Tavern on Maple Street.   This happened because I started a library book After You  and well, it's a library book, there's a deadline of sorts so I feel I should read that more than the other one...  Both books are good. What have you been knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

I finished this shawl a while ago but hesitated to block it when it was off the needles.  I skipped the blocking in the end, because I loved the wavy lace eyelet strips and felt that a block, no matter how gentile would disturb the design. I loved this  surf  pattern tremendously!  You should knit this one up if you have any lace knitting skills and chart reading skills.  I was crazy and decided to knit the large size knowing full well I didn't have enough yarn based on the recommendations of the pattern.  So my lace edging on the cast off edge is shy one eyelet row out of three.  I'm okay with that because I used up all the yarn! Purl soho line weight wool  was beautiful to work with, I will confess that I prefer a crisper yarn usually with silk blended in.  This wool has a slight halo from being a single ply and the twist was sufficient with minimal splitting.  Again, a pretty yarn if your into single ply fingering weight....

Weekends are for memory making,  relaxing and enjoying quiet moments of our days.   If you would like, please share your weekend moments  in the comment section with a link to your blog. How was your weekend?  Mine was good and I'm pleased to report my wrist and hand have been the best ever.  Now, you and I know, every single time I say this I have a relapse.  But this time, I am not on a steroid nor any Tylenol.  Just my regular meds, one of them in the seventh week of an increase.  I think I've hit the sweet spot of the long term med working (six-twelve weeks). Oh my - that would be fabulous!! All of these photos are from my sister's house because we went to visit my sister and brother in law for the weekend.  She is a really really good cook, and I love to not cook so it makes sense that I enjoy being at her house. We had a graduation party to attend on Friday night at my aunt's house. My cousin's oldest daughter gra...

Creative ideas are swimming in my head right now.  Some ideas about writing and expressing myself and maybe stretching my sentence muscles.  I'm excited!  As most of you are creative people, you get what I'm saying.  We creatives, well we create.  I might be first and foremost a knitter but I am creative and I dabble in art (minimally but still....) and I love the written word.  I love picking up a novel and the excitement of not knowing where the story will take me or how I will feel about the story. Sometimes I believe I have a story or two I could write.  Just for me.  That is what I love about these creative ideas of mine, they are mine and mine alone.  I don't have to share them with others or have them critiqued by others unless I want that. Knitting has always been for me my first love.  I enjoy picking up yarn, picking a pattern and casting on.  I rarely follow the yarn suggestions and I usually change something in th...

Good morning!! This week my knitting has been minimal but I keep trying every day to add a few rows.  As I mentioned in this post  my RA flare up is STILL hanging around.  I am off prednisone (yay) and am now managing with Tylenol, icing my right hand and wrist and wearing the wrist splint religiously. I am improving every single day while waiting for long term med adjustments to kick in.  Call me an optimist but I think any day now that will happen!  It must. So while I'm taking care of myself, I have added a few rows to the baby blanket each night and I add a repeat to the lace shawl  ever so slowly.  I'm celebrating what I can do and know this is all temporary. My reading has been fun.  I'm still reading The Tavern on Maple Street  as my night time reading.  I'm enjoying the story and the cast of characters.  At the library, I picked up a bunch of creativity books.  I've read  Big Magic  in a few days, I...

Weekends are for memory making,  relaxing and enjoying quiet moments of our days.   If you would like, please share your weekend moments  in the comment section with a link to your blog. Hello!  As I type this post, it's tipping down buckets of rain.  My husband is whipping together a home made pizza with mushrooms and black olives.  This rainy day makes for an excellent excuse to stay home and do nothing :)  How was your weekend? I hope it was filled with family and friends and good times. Mine started off strong with walks around the neighborhood with Frodo - more dinners at home instead of eating out (I am on an inspirational roll!) - loving the summer-like days.  My husband and I sat in the back yard, listening to the birds, reading books and talking.  It was nice. Yesterday I celebrated my first day in 32 days of not being on Prednisone.  Unfortunately today, I'm in a lot of pain in my right hand and w...

Every single morning this week I did my yoga routine while babying my gimpy wrist (which is overall much much much better).  It feels good to be back into my daily practice.  Of course I've modified a few poses but that isn't a big deal for me.  I am enjoying knowing that I am doing exercises that are good for my body and for my mind. The wild roses are blooming this week and they seem to be abundant!  On my daily walks there are many dead trees (some kind of tree borer) and yet the roses have climbed and decorated and revitalized the end of a tree's life - beautiful! I also spied the first daisy bloom - a personal favorite . The beginning of June is so fresh with promise especially the start of summer.  This summer I want to really be in a "summer frame of mind".  My childhood summers were full of: -fire fly catching -endless book reading on the front porch swing with iced tea (no lemon) -pick up games of soft ball with the neighborhood kid...

I'm excited to share with you the latest project on the needles, another baby blanket !  A co-worker at my husband's department is expecting a little girl in the fall.  So I dug deep into the stash and unearthed more pink yarn and cast on. Check out my finished Reyna Shawl , if you missed the post! I finished reading The Nightingale on my Kindle and enjoyed the story over all.  I loved the World War II period and the plot, although predictable at times, had some twists and turns that I was not expecting.  So you should give it a read! My new novel I'm reading, The Tavern on Maple Street,  was sitting on my shelf forever, well it felt like forever.  I've read her two previous novels and enjoyed the "happy" overall story line.  Happy stories feel good and cozy and oh so easy to pick up and put down during the summer months. What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams