Pumpkin Sunrise

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig. Ah, can I tell you how much I love being home?  Most people go away on vacation to unwind and relax.  Vacations remind me how much I love being home.  I love my bed, my coffee maker and that beautiful perfect loveseat.  Such sweet bliss! Holly was happy we came home.  Stephanie asked me how we take care of the pets while we are away.  Holly stays home by herself and I have a friend come to check the cat every other day (Holly hates people) and of course the house and the pool. Frodo goes to the kennel where he gets lots of love from the humans.  When we come home, they are both needy in their own ways.  Then after 24 hours, you don't see either pet because they are sleeping to recover from their vacations. I'm a new cat owner but I do make sure she cannot shut herself into a room by accident (towel between the door and the door jamb).  I heard a story of a cat being shut in a room for many...

We've been together for a week at Cape May NJ for a long awaited family vacation.  This vacation was in the planning stages since Christmas.  I wanted to go back to Cape May where we used to take our little children on a yearly vacation.  We have fond memories of foods, events, childhood accidents and wonderful beach moments. This past week was perfect weather for all the beach sun lovers.  I can't be in the sun in massive quantities because of my medications and my autoimmune disorder, but that doesn't stop me from loving the beach.  I walked the beach daily.  We rented a house this year to accommodate our adult children, everyone had extra wiggle room in this house.  The front porch was my favorite spot to read or knit or chitchat with whoever was with me.  Of course a vacation can't be a vacation without a problem.  This time I pulled a hamstring muscle (beach walking???) and that really hurt for more than three days. I'm happy...

I finished the hitchhiker shawl!  I must say this was a delightful knit and I can see why everyone keeps knitting this pattern over and over again.  I enjoyed how quickly I memorized the pattern and of course how each section took a little bit longer than the last section.  My love of garter stitch grows a little bit more every time I have a project that showcases this simple stitch design. I did have enough yarn for 41 teeth AND I had yarn left over.  Phew!  Most of you loyal readers have knit this shawl but if you are a lone reader who hasn't you might want to give it a try one day.  Ravelry notes

This weekend has been relaxing and calm.  Even Frodo looks like he is taking time to smell the lilies.  My weekend included: -tons of reading -finishing the washcloths as a knitting palate cleanser, gearing up for a new cast on. -time spent with my family, lots of talking, eating good food and being together -because I'm with my family, the photos are minimal.  I tend to be in the moment when we are all together -sunshine and summery weather (finally) -loving life How was your weekend?

Sure I could go on and on about the relentless dreary rainy cloudy weather.  How every single blessed day this week has been rainy.  How my hair has gone crazy with all the moisture in the air.  How I long to feel some tiny bit of sunshine that lasts for the day.  How I wake each morning, look out the window and let out a little sigh because it's raining again.  But instead of focusing on something that I cannot control (although I'd like to!) I'm going to focus on gratitudes.   For all the thunder and lightning snuggles I enjoy when Frodo is frightened during a storm.  For eight years he was fearless and now as he ages he isn't thrilled with the noise so we snuggle.  For these pockets of time when I drop whatever I'm doing to give him some moral support.  For gardens that grow with all this rain.  Every single plant that was bought off the clearance rack at Lowe's is thriving in our gardens.  Maybe if it was ...

I've been feverishly knitting the hitchhiker shawl trying to finish it.  I have 40 teeth and Im squeaking my way to 41.  Ah, the thrill of wondering how much yarn I have left.  I thought I had a partial skein of this yarn in my stash but I was mistaken.  So this lonely skein has to do all the work. The three color cowl is at the exciting contrasting color part.  I doubt I will have enough green yarn so like I said previously, I'll be fudging this pattern about to get the three colors in.  I'm considering this a scrappy three color cowl with my own creative license. Today I wound up two lovely lace weight skeins of wool.  I haven't decided exactly what I will be knitting but I do know that the project will be purple. What are you working on this week?

I finished reading the novel, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng and it was good.  She touched upon some difficult topics with elegance.  I miss the characters and felt sad when the book was over.  That's a sign of great story. Ah well, onto some new books.  I've read all of the Agatha Christie books back when I was pregnant with my daughter and in a new to me town with nary a friend.  It was just me and Agatha getting me through those lonely days.  I'm never lonely when I'm with a book. Anyways my daughter is 29 years old and I'm pretty sure I will not remember any of the stories. I spent time painting each afternoon, squelching the negative thoughts as best as I could.  Oh I swear I am thinking 'well this is a hot mess' each and every single time.  But then I flip through my book and see the tiny progress and that makes me happy. You know I wasn't an expert knitter on day one!  There are many many many hours, days, weeks, ye...

I'm excited to share with you a new ebook that has been recently published by knotions magazine titled Lacestar written by Elizabeth Felgate. This ebook is filled with useful information regarding lace knitting which is perfect for beginning or early intermediate knitters who are dipping their toes (or knitting needles) into lace knitting and want to understand some theory as to what is happening when you manipulate the stitches to create lace. Lacestar  covers many topics including:  placing a lifeline, making yarn overs, increasing and decreasing, the best cast ons and bind offs and making nupps as well as many other topics.  I found the section about fixing mistakes quite useful. Throughout the Lacestar ebook, there are links to tutorials as well as to additional resources to broaden your library.  Each section is supported with a written explanation about along with many photographs to understand the topics covered. There are nine exercises that prog...

This past week I've been grateful for the sunny days when the rainy days overwhelm me.  I find myself walking into the gym wondering why I'm a little grumpy.  Oh, there's no sun, that is why.  I'm usually not affected by sunless skies or at least I wasn't aware of my reaction.  This year because of record rainfall, I'm noticing.  This endless rain does water all the new bushes and plants my husband has planted.  He is finished cutting down the bushes around the house and now I'm in the habit of stopping at Lowe's to check their clearance section (half off the lowest price runs intermittently...).  Nearly all of our plantings are from the clearance section.  Overwatered outside plants can be loved back to life, as long as they are not indoor plants that I'm taking care of - indoor plants meet their doom from my diligent watering love. I've visited the gym four times this week stretching the strength of my body.  I'm exhausted but in ...

The knitting time has been gradually increasing a little bit each day, which is perfect for the beginnings of my summer break.  I've been working on two projects this past week.  The cowl out of leftover yarns is coming along nicely.  While I doubted the color combination initially, I'm totally in love with the colors together now.  Sometimes I have to knit it to see it.  Even though this is an easy knitting pattern, I've managed to mess up the eyelet row.  I boldly thought each time that I could knit and read while executing the eyelets.  Oh the untruths that I believe in.. The hitchhiker is coming along.  This is a fun relaxing knit that I know i will knit again and again.  I can see what all the fuss is about! What are you creating this week?

Ah, the first weekend of my summer break.  I felt relaxed and did all the things that bring me joy.  I wore shorts yesterday and today and the weather was perfect with low humidity and sunny skies.  I did some knitting and some painting each afternoon. Oh, I read a book --- during the daytime!  That felt decadent. I'm still knitting for limited hours but my hands feel fine.  So I think the worse is behind me.  I had a solid week of aches and pains that would pop up in one joint for 4-6 hours then disappear and pop up elsewhere.  It was weird and annoying.  However, how blessed I am that it comes and goes! We went to Saturday night Mass and stopped at the local bakery on the way home.  We skipped the pizza run because we were determined to eat all the leftovers from the week of cooking when our son was here.  Today a friend came over to knit, but we talked more than knitted by the pool.  It felt like vacation si...