Pumpkin Sunrise

Hello knitting peeps and non-knitting peeps.  I'm excited to tell you all about my knitting because I am finally (finally!) at the fair isle knitting band before the ribbing of the body of the sweater .  Honestly, I'm a little sad that the miles of stockinette are done but I'm thrilled to be nearly finished with the body and so very close to the sleeve knitting. Lucky for me, I love sleeve knitting and how speedy the knitting goes as the stitches are decreased.  The husband's socks are not seeing much action.  I'm reserving them for babysitting days and lately I haven't had time to knit like I usually do because of inclement weather and starting work at a later date or not going to work at all.  I also spend approximately an hour a day on my son's blanket .  This is a long term project that is at the ready by my loveseat for TV knitting. What are you crafting these days? 

Well, my weekend was filled with goodness.  Yesterday after the kids all arrived, we drove up to Scranton to see Spamalot.  What a fun musical!  I love that we can go up there for a show and get home and sleep in my own bed.  Maybe in ten years time I can see Hamilton  touring (ha ha). Anyways, whenever the house is full, I can barely function with my regular pursuits.  I can't focus on reading a book or knitting on the simplest of projects.  You know what?  I am okay with that personality trait.  I went through the weekend having fun conversations and enjoying them be here. We ate dinner out on Friday and Saturday night.  Today was boring food to get back into a healthy eating habit.  My house is clean, the laundry is finished and I'm sitting here relaxing.  Everyone left by lunchtime, so I scurried about tidying so I could sit and knit later in the day. We have snowflakes in the air!  I'm typing away and looking out the window smiling.  My sweater continu

This is not my dog!  However, he is at the babysitting job and I do love him so and he loves me.  Whenever I arrive, he whines for me to let him out of his cage (which I do!).  I give him time to 'get his wiggles out' as he runs about looking for mischief. He is a Papillon and is a lap dog.  I definitely could be a lap dog in a previous life I think, sit and get petted, sounds great. The terrible twos seem to be giving way to wonderful threes (in April).  There are some temper tantrums but I give her lots of sympathy----'I know you are angry but let's think of something else instead'.  It works most of the time.  My little toddler girl that I babysit now has emerging imagination play and I'm all for that.  Our toy cows fly through the air and make friends with the toy pigs who fly as well.  We sing 'cockledoodledo' as long as we can and giggle over the tandem voices.  She dances and sings.  She also is funny.  I drank all of my hot tea and said it

Mark the date:  these are the first photos taken after 5:30 p.m. with enough light - again, January you never fail to make me love you so. Onto my knitting this week.  First up is my fair isle sweater - isn't it beautiful?  I cannot wait to wear it.  That's assuming it'll fit (which it should).  Luckily it's 100% wool so I do have some blocking wiggle room if I need an inch width-wise.  I love sitting and knitting on this sweater and sometimes I knit slowly to make the happiness last. These socks are for my husband who loves green.  I finished the first sock over the weekend and promptly started the second sock.  I'm trying to not knit on them on home so they can be taken to babysitting in case I have free time (nap!) to catch a few rows. Now we get to the BLACK blanket that is impossible to photo to show it's beauty.  Trust me, it looks great.  This past week I've been faithfully reading to finish two books.  Yesterday while I was readi

How was your weekend?  Mine was wonderful.  I finished a book (that leaves three more to go) and I finished one sock and started the second sock.  Oh and guess what?  So far I have electricity.  I was worried enough about the weather that I did all the laundry on Saturday and powered up the power banks for the phones AND filled up some jugs with water.  The water jugs are still sitting on the kitchen counter, just in case.  I believe in enough magic to know that if I tip them down the drain, the lights might just go out. I finished reading The Clockmaker's Daughter, by Kate Morton    and it was 'okay'.  I liked her previous books better.  I didn't care for all the different times in the past, there were a lot and the ending left me thinking 'what??'. I'm now focusing on Magpie Murders and will try my best to finish that book next.  I'm over half way and am thoroughly enjoying the mystery.  Sadly George Washington has been set aside so I

my work day  Hello!  Another week has come and almost gone.  I wish I could bottle up these January days and forever slow time down.  Every morning I wake up early and write in my journal and do my prayers.  I have full belief that every day is THE DAY I use my time wisely and eek out as much goodness from every minute.  Lunch time comes too quickly and yet again I'm sure I have more than enough time to read or get whatever tasks need to be completed.  Dinner time comes and goes and I realize that it's another day that I've frittered away time.  After dinner I knit and plot my next day. I go to sleep, I wake up and repeat the thought process again.  Ordinarily one would think I'm a 'glass half full' kind of gal based on this behavior and I would agree that I truly truly believe I can do everything and anything I've conjured up on my daily list. Here's the thing.  I love thinking of each day and it's possibilities and the hopefulness the

This week I've been focusing on two projects.  I'm adding inches to the body of the fair isle sweater and love the mindlessness of stockinette stitch.  So much fun!  Mindless knitting allows me to read a book or watch TV and I have minimal mistakes or if I'm lucky no mistakes.  Never say never. My yarn choice for the fair isle sweater is Quince and Co Chickadee which is pure delight to knit with. I love the dark gray with a bit of tweediness spun into the wool.  My other project is a pair of simple socks for my husband.  The pattern is burned into my memory and really old.  I usually do a 2 1/2 inch cuff then switch to stockinette (mindless!) for the rest.  This sock yarn is slightly thicker than regular yarn so there's some heft to the sock.  I think he will love them when I finish them.  This project is my 'grab and go' project.  Car rides or babysitting, I've got everything in a project bag ready to grab and go. What are you knitting or

Hello!  How was your weekend?  Mine was packed full of goodness but sadly the goodness didn't get photographed.  You see, we went for a day trip to see our daughter and son in law in Newark, Delaware and I did not take one single photo.  We had a pretty good time together shopping and having a dinner out.  I love a day trip because I can sleep in my own bed at the end of the day.  I didn't do much knitting in the car but I did do lots of daydreaming and chatting with my husband.  I go in waves on whether I want to knit or not.  I guarantee you though, if I didn't bring knitting I would have wanted to knit. When I returned home and picked up the mail I found a surprise gift from my sister!  Another knitting project bag - how cool is that?  I've had a rough week with some pesky worries and have leaned on her with them.  She is a good listener and boy oh boy, getting a gift - well it brightened my day and put a smile on my face. Today has been a much better d

Good morning!  Thank you all for the lovely compliments on my cowl on the last post .  How are you?  Around here the sun keeps trying to take a peek and then the clouds push back.  I'm thrilled the sun is peeking out, any kind of warmth is welcomed during the January days.  The temperatures have dropped and it's cold!  Frodo wanted to go outside and a blast of cold air had him change his mind and curl up on the couch for a nap instead.  Wise choice! I've been knitting furiously on my fair isle sweater and finished the yoke portion.  I've picked up the live stitches from the provisional cast on and need to divide for sleeves and body and knit top down.  It's an interesting construction, I'm not sure how I feel about it yet - I have a feeling I will like the fit but I'll await until I'm finished knitting. new mug from my daughter and son in law assembled paper castle by my son two years after receiving the kit as a gift I've eased

I finished this cowl last week and am extremely pleased with the results.  This cowl is oh so soft!  I substituted a different yarn for the project, Plymouth yarn Incan Spice .  I wanted a blend that didn't necessarily have to have cashmere in it.  There's a bit of yak and silk in this wool/alpaca blend. I could easily knit this one again and again.  There's something meditative in knitting a simple knit design.  This cowl has enough pattern changes to make it interesting but plenty of TV knitting blended in. Ravelry notes are here