Pumpkin Sunrise

  How was your weekend?  Mine was picture perfect - there was abundant sunshine and endless blue skies and slightly warmer weather. Today is going to be better than yesterday. I adore when Mother Nature gifts us with hints of things to come. I know you are thinking 'but Karen, you love winter'. I do love winter but this season I'm ready for a change and to be outside more. Saturday and Sunday we walked down the dirt road that isn't a dirt road anymore but it was for a long time so the name has stuck. There are no signs of green but the creek is flowing and skunk cabbage is sprouting. The earliest beginnings of springtime. Saturday, I read my Stephen King novel, The Outsider , in the afternoon. He is such a gifted writer! I wish I could read this at bedtime but I can't see the print with my junky cheapo readers that I use (I won't use my progressive prescription eyewear because I don't want to bend the frames from accidentally falling asleep - which I do ever

  My knitting this week has been minimal, no excuses for me. It is what it is. I am finally on the ribbing of the body of my fair isle pullover  sweater. Just think I'll be whipping through some sleeves in no time. I guess it does take a lot of time to knit the body. As I mentioned before, I'm making two Christmas stockings for the newlyweds for their home and one for my daughter-in-law at my home. I found two skeins of red and I highly doubt all three stockings will be made, I wish I would have kept better notes when I made these for my daughter and son in law for their first Christmas.  Last but not least this hat ! I am so close to finishing it and yet it sits at the bottom of my knitting bag. I do remember now that the decreasing was all done in one color so that makes my knitting a bit easier.  What have you been working on this week?

  What a glorious week! This photo was taken earlier in the week and all of that beautiful snow in the background is gone. We still have snow in parts of the yard but it's shrinking so fast. Yesterday I wore a spring jacket, I wrote it down as a gratitude. I felt light and free. Today will be a nice day as well and then we go back to cold but not that cold. I love March and how the emergence of springtime begins. Can you believe we change the clocks this weekend? Golly, time is a flying by so quickly. On Monday I received my second vaccine dose and for that I am extremely grateful . I'm on a medicine that lowers my immune system and so I qualified. I was so not well all through the night and most of Tuesday. I had most of the side effects - nausea - fever - chills - aches and pains. By Tuesday evening I felt a bit more like myself. Even though I was miserable, I was very very grateful to be miserable. From all of the intense shivering my lower back pain acted up and I had to d

  After my little knitting hiccup with following the wrong size when I did the short row shaping, then ripping out all of that hard earned knitting work, I am proud to report that I am back on track with my yoke pullover . I'm happy to be swimming in a sea of stockinette knitting. I do love simplicity and the rhythmic cadence I get into when knitting stockinette stitch. My hat is also making slow and steady progress - I need to measure it and see how many more inches of the fair isle knitting I want to do before I do the crown shaping. Also I have to figure out the crown shaping. I charted out the fair isle pattern on a grid paper but failed to write any notes for the rest of the hat.  What are you working on this week?

  Not to brag, but we are on day three of blissful sunshine! It's funny to me that when there are endless days of cloudiness I long for some sun. Then when there is brilliant sunshine, I'm like a vampire squinting away wondering why the sun is so painfully happy. Don't worry, sunglasses cures my squinty-ness. It's a wonderful problem to have and I'll take the sunshine. Not only are we on day three of sunshine but we will have three days in a row of a daily walk. The roads are dry enough and getting my wiggles out is the best medicine. We continue to have snow everywhere but it is slowly melting away.  I've been doing lots of journaling this past week. I picked up some snail washi tape at an art store a few towns away that I thought was delightful. I'm not fond of snails but I am when they are on washi tape. I've been enjoying winter, it's my favorite season but I'm looking forward to a thaw and the arrival of springtime.  I thought I'd so yo

  Good morning! How are all of you? The weather has been snowy and so I've been knitting up a storm. First off is my fair isle hat that I have not worked on lately. I wanted to document with a photo and maybe it will spur me on to picking it up and working on it. Next project is my lovely cowl . I love working on this because the wool is squishy and soft. The color is one of my favorites to wear and I'm eager to get this done. However, I am enjoying the savoring of each delightful stitch. Last but not least is my new fair isle sweater that took four cast ons to get right. I am loving how the colors play together and every evening I am knitting away thinking 'just one more row'. It's a delightful headspace to be in. What are you working on?

  Good morning! First knitting post of the new year - and I've been quite busy with my knitting. After a massive catching up on chores and tasks on Monday, I spent most of my Tuesday knitting which made me gloriously happy. The above photo is a new project using the shawl kit I received as a Christmas present from a knitting friend. As always changing colors and striping sequences can be addictive.  My other project that I decided to resume knitting is my languishing hat . I finished the four inch ribbing and started the fair isle portion of the pattern. I designed this hat many years ago and my chart has scant notes. This second time knitting it I'm trying to figure out what I did and write better notes. Thank goodness for Ravelry and the photos that are there of the previous hat! What are you working on this week?  Joining Ginny

  How was your weekend? Yesterday my in-real-life knitter friends had our annual Christmas exchange. We met in a driveway and socially distanced while dropping off our gifts for each other while wearing masks.  We have not all been together since March. Later in the afternoon we zoomed and opened them. It was fun to do an annual tradition no matter what.  Look at all the goodies I received! The weekend sped by.  I spent most of the day yesterday doing laundry and wrapping the kids presents so I can get them shipped today.  I'm curious to see how much this is going to cost! But then I am saving tons of money on gas and traveling, right?  I believe I am done with shopping for the two of us and I have only a few more gifts to wrap up. Overall our Christmas is simplified and that makes planning so easy. I also did daily sketching, knitting and reading.  I'm stuffing my days with what brings me joy. How was your weekend?

  Overall my weekend was nice. My weekend was filled with: -reorganizing art and journaling supplies - playing Christmas music -  journaling - thinking of family - walks - knitting (always knitting) - reading Fred Roger's biography - eating all the leftovers from Thursday - daydreaming - wishing for snow - finally witnessing the first hard frost (my fall allergies are thankful) - contemplating new knitting projects - online Christmas shopping How was your weekend?

  Good morning! How are you and how are your knitting projects or other works in progress?  I've been in a knitting frenzy this week. I started a new project, a top down sweater that is the last photo. It would have been the first photo if Blogger would upload my photos in the correct order. This sweater has been such a delight to cast on! I get excited each afternoon when I pick up and knit a few rows.  I'm using yarn from my stash which permits me to buy more yarn right? The above photo is a hat a started earlier this month and haven't spent much time working on it. I decided to photo the project and add it to my Raverly notes so I remember that I should be working on this beautiful hat. Lastly, I will be finishing the last sock of the last pair of holiday gift knitting. I estimate that I will be done in three days. I'm so excited to reach my knitting Christmas goal! What are you working on this week?

  Good morning to all of you! How have you been? I've been focusing on my knitting and my relaxation techniques which includes daily meditations. I am also trying my best to NOT multitask. This is quite the challenge since I love to be doing two things at the same time. Apparently multitasking increases stress levels, who knew! I have two projects on the needles, another pair of holiday knitting socks (number 3 out of 4) and a hat for me that is of my own design.  I haven't made a project page for the hat as of yet. I'm enjoying both projects immensely and while working on them I think about a knit for me. In other news we woke up to a 'bear' incident yesterday morning. The little stinker got into our garbage and threw that around as well as broke into the fenced in area and tried to walk on the pool cover.  We think it's a cub based on the footprints below. This is one huge disadvantage of being surrounded by woods in a rural area.

I'm happy to announce that the sun is shining brilliantly today.  Sure it's cold out but those glorious rays uplift my spirits.  This morning I have a few chores to do and then I'm off to the gym.  Once I'm back home I will be working on some watercolor practicing and some knitting. I'm stunned that next Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and Lent begins.  Doesn't it seem like we just celebrated Christmas?  I rarely give up a food like I used to when I was a kid.  I remember one Lent my mother gave up smoking (and she was an avid smoker back in the day).  For four days or so the whole family was tortured by her and her unhappiness.  If I'm remembering correctly she went back to smoking and gave up sweets instead, we were all relieved. I used to give up candy but what's funny we didn't have candy in the house, so how was that a sacrifice? Have you noticed the earlier mornings and the later days?  I have and my oh my spring is slowly approaching