Pumpkin Sunrise

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

Yesterday Frodo and I did a walk about in the yard.  These days go by so quickly that I forget to take photos.  Since Autumn is one of my favorite seasons (WINTER!) I wanted to make sure I take notice.  The cooler temperatures arrived two days ago.  There was collective sigh of relief heard by all who were tired of the heat and humidity.  I pulled out my fleece coat and if it drops a few more degrees, perhaps the woolens will be worn.  A knitter can hope. My daughter and son in law left on Monday morning.  After I finished babysitting, I cleaned the house and enjoyed the empty coffee table.  They are happy in their townhouse and we hope to see them soon. I've been struggling with back pain, so I saw my RA doctor yesterday.  I started physical therapy today and had some x-rays done to see if I did something really crazy.  No news yet.  I would do anything to sleep the whole night through and to not be thinking of my back. My knitting is on the back burner for now.

Oh hey, hi there!  I have finished another top down sweater, it seems to be the sweater to knit of 2017.  Maybe I'll be casting on another one for my sister before the new year, after I knit a sweater for my son in law. Could Mother Nature give us some pleasant weather??  Please?  You know the kind, cool breezes - seeing puffs of breath from the cold air.  Ah, soon.  Then I can wear this knit with pride and not be overly hot from the wool. I'm ready to focus on mostly small knitting projects for the time being for the holidays.  I've lined up some hats to knit and maybe some cowls.  During all of this gift knitting, I'm thinking of selfish knitting the whole time. Ravelry notes are here

clean coffee table - this is huge! My pesky back had me up at 4:40 a.m., so I'm dragging my feet today.  The back is feeling better each day but boy is it slow going and I'm impatient.  How are you?  How was your weekend? I started a new book,  Alias Grace - good golly is it a fantastic read.  I was drawn in from page one.  If you'll recall, I read The Handmaid's Tale  instead of watching the Hulu TV show and loved the book.  It was edgy but in a manageable good way for me.  I will be reading more of Margaret Atwood's writings in my future. gobble gobble, my sister sewed this turkey!  Today was knitting and reading but not together.  I still had dinner to make and my friends came over to knit and chat.  Truth be told, it's more talking than knitting, but we like that.  The conversations swirl and weave in and out, jumping from tangent to tangent. The weekend: -ordered pizza - hometown parade - candy -  rice Krispie Treats - morning rain sto