Another weekend come and gone

And it was a lovely one!  The weather was absolutely perfect!  We did some visiting with A’s sister on Saturday , and got the cars serviced, chores done haphazardly between outings.

I did some knitting at the Toyota dealership, but they were so quick on both cars that I didn’t get as much done as normal.  🙂 I did get lots done at Whorls and Purls in the afternoon Saturday – finished all the knitting on my vest, and wove in the ends!  The shoulders are a little wider than I would like, but I can fix that – either with a small pleat or some shirring along the seam.  Have to do that, put on the two little buttons, and then block it.  Once I do that, I will take photos for you.

When that was done, I immediately focused on my Moon and Sky shawl – have about 40 rows left on that, so I expect it will move along now.

Sunday we visited A’s other sister, the one with the new house.  It looks amazingly better than the first time we saw it!  She has been painting and cleaning, and had plumbers and carpenters in. She is living there now, and not quite settled, but certainly settled enough!  I think the house will be perfect for her, it is small but not tiny, and it has loads of storage and a huge yard.

When we got home from that visit, I changed into my new gardening outfit, and went out , determined to finish the front garden, then go for a swim.  Sadly, because I was so much earlier than normal, the front was in the hot sun, and I did almost nothing before I decided that if I was going to be out in the sun,  it should be in the pool.  So I left the gardening for this evening, and hopped into the pool, which was delightful!  I am not supposed to be out in the sun at all, so I was swimming in long sleeves and a hat, but I still loved it.

The rest of the afternoon was spent working on the secret fiber project (in about a month, I can share with you what it is!) and knitting the shawl and plotting what to make for the craft fair.  I will have to really get that organized this week so that I can churn out things for that!  Debbie at the Purple Fleece loaned me a couple of great display pieces – things that lift the inventory up off the flat table – always a challenge for me to do.  If I was doing lots of these shows, I would design something elegant for this purpose, but as I only do about one every year or two, it hardly seems worth it.  But she is nice enough to share, since she no longer does shows. It got my juices flowing to think about how I would display things, and what those things should be.  🙂

The weather continues to be wonderful today, a little warm, but I am ok with a LITTLE warm.  🙂 So I intend to get that garden in the front completely done, and then figure out where I will put all the left over dirt.  As my mother said , the whole yard needs dirt, so I could really put it anywhere, lol.  I have a few plants that would love the help, and a few raised beds I want to move, so I might do that this week, and start hauling that dirt around to the back where I want more things to grow.  We will see how motivated I feel.  After I finish the front and have my swim, of course.  🙂

Hey! That was mean!

So last night I get home, decide it is nice enough to do my one hour of gardening and then have a nice swim.

Got all set, went out and pulled weeds and shoveled dirt and  finished off an area that took three bags of mulch to cover.  Took more than an hour, and worked up a good healthy sweat (read: was drenched.) Looked at what is left and think it is really do-able by the weekend.

Cleaned up the gardening mess and headed for the pool.

CRACK!

No matter how foolish I am for a nice swim, I know not to go anywhere near the water when I hear thunder.

So, I went in the house and worked on the secret fiber project instead.

While I was glad to work on that project, I was very disappointed to not get my cooling, relaxing swim.

I was also disappointed to not get any rain.  Just rumbling thunder.

That was mean, Mother Nature.  I did the work, I should get the reward.

 

 

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Another quick post, mostly because my big projects all look the same – how often I seem to say that!

Last night I got home before A and it was warm and sunny, so I did about an hour’s worth of the gardening project, then hopped in the pool.  It has been so dry  (until last night) that the pool was getting low – too low to run the filter!  I would have noticed if it had been nice enough for a swim, lol.  I ran the hose for a while and got the water high enough to run the filter, but I will have to do that a few more times this week.  Even though it did rain last night, it didn’t add up to much in the pool.  But the garden loved it!

I think I have hit the point of the garden project that an hour’s work shows progress.  It was depressing for a while the space was so big that I could work for an hour and it looked the same to me.  But last night’s work looks like it made a difference, which helps to motivate me to keep on going. Plus I spoke to A and we decided I could go ahead and order a couple of the oriental poppies I love.  Woot woot!  Those will come in the fall, and I will get to plant them in the new bed out back. Of course, they will probably come when I am in Wisconsin, but I will see if I can arrange for that to not happen.

After the gardening and a swim, I worked on a secret fiber project that I can’t share with you all yet – but let me tell you, it is FUN and really coming out like I hoped!  I am taking loads of photos, I will share with you in a couple of months, lol.

By the time I sat down to knit on the vest, it was nearly bed time!  I am almost done with this project – I am working on a skinny little strip that is the back of the neck.  It seems like I should be able to knock that out tonight.  Then the armholes.  I had in my head that they were finished with an I-cord, and I was not really looking forward to that element, but I re-read the directions last night, and they aren’t, they have a very simple (and fast) garter edging. I know I have said this before, but I REALLY think I am almost done with this thing! I have the buttons already, and so I should be able to get it soaked and blocking this weekend.  In fact, I will be really disappointed if that doesn’t happen! And I am purposely not spinning until this is done, to give me some push in the finished direction. I feel the need to finish SOMETHING.

My sock knitting has also slowed a bit, but I am on the foot pattern of the second sock, so I am confident I will get it done before September.

I did just sign up for a craft fair in November.  This frightens me a little bit, I need to knit some hats and small things that will not cost a lot, and I have so many big things I want to knit instead!  But I will get it done, I am sure, and have plenty to offer the customers. now to get them to want to buy my things…

That is about all that is going on around here this week – same old same old, as they say.

 

Short post! Busy weekend!

This is how my weekend started. Isn’t A wonderful??? She was exhausted from a grueling week at work, but found energy to make me breakfast AND to vacuum the house. In exchange, appreciation, and gratitude, I committed to doing the rest of the weekend chores.

So you would think I would have no time for anything else, right? Not so!

Went to Whorls and Purls Saturday, and we all brought along our TDF accomplishments. For a non-competitive event, I think we did really well. I was disappointed not to have three full bobbins there, but chores interfered with spinning Saturday morning, sigh. Adina not only spun, but knit what she spun! Wow!

Saw this as I pulled into the driveway on the way home. My car is so quiet she just wasn’t worrying about me. Kept grazing while I got the camera out. We seem to have a few small groups of deer wandering through this year. Last week three young bucks were snacking in the yard. Last night a mom and fawn were exploring the field. Have to be alert when we drive!

A had a relaxing day and wanted to finish it off with a bang, so we trekked to Brooksville to Bagaduce Lunch for our supper. I had a crab roll which was dwarfed by the fish and chips, but which was delicious! We try to get to this gorgeous spot at least once each summer, but Whole 30  is making it tricky this year. I start again Monday, so ate lots of bad food this weekend. Thrilled to be able to! All seems right again in the health aspect of life.

Sunday was so cool and nice, and A had to work! Only 4 hours, but then she went to her sister’s, to help her get ready for her move on Wednesday. So I did the laundry, got groceries, did the dump run, and then settled in to finish plying my TDF spin. Last day!!!

Since July 1 I spun and plied 16.375 ounces of yarn! Haven’t counted all the yards, but it is a lot!!

I still have just under 20 ounces to go on this but I am pleased with my jump start on this project.

Sunday night was for knitting. Still working on the vest, so close I can taste it!

What did you do this weekend?

I am not posting this until I have photos

So who knows how old this news will be by the time I hit “publish”!

I have not been doing anything new or dramatic, but I do feel like small amounts of consistent attention is resulting in progress that shows.

In the yard, I have the back bed all ready to settle in and await some fall and spring planting. I want to put in some sweet peas next spring to offer a bit of shade on the porch, and some oriental poppies for their amazing color.  And I think I still want a dwarf lilac in this bed, but I don’t think I want to move the one I have, which means I should get another one, right?

In front, I have been working on it a bit at a time, and I worked last night until I ran out of mulch.  Tonight I will get another ten bags, which MIGHT be enough for what is left. Not sure I have enough newspaper, but I can always buy a few weekend papers, right?  I have figured out what I want in this bed, but it might not get it this year.  I want some delphiniums, daylilies of different colors, hollyhocks near the porch, and maybe some oriental poppies.  I am not sure how I will do this, as in where to put the things that go dormant so the garden doesn’t look awful when they go by… maybe just have the day lilies interspersed among everything? The hollyhocks I can grow from seed, the rest I will purchase plants, so it might take a few years before I have everything I need.

The pile of dirt still looms, even though I have taken many wagon loads of it to other places.  Need to get it all used up and covered before that darned crabgrass takes it over and makes it impossible to move.

It might mean that I actually work on the far future plan of turning this

into a garden space. My plan was to cut it way back this fall, cover with heavy plastic or really thick paper, and mulch, and let it sit for a LONG time – like maybe a year.  I don’t trust blackberries and sweet ferns to not come right back. So maybe I will put this soil down under the paper and mulch before I cover it up.  It can’t hurt, and it will get the mountain out of the front of the house.  Of course, it will be a lot of work… seems like a fall job.  Which means actually weeding the pile of dirt this summer.  Ye gods.

In the house things are moving along.  I spin at least a little, and often a lot, every day.

I aim to be ready to ply my second set of bobbins for the big spin no later than Saturday, and when I do that, I will be more than 1/3 of the way through this project.  I thought I would be farther along by now, but I am not, and so what? It won’t go bad.  I just have to persevere and it will happen.  Then I can knit myself a sweater with this lovely stuff. That keeps me spinning away.  It helps that each bobbin is so different from the others.  I think if I was doing this much of all one colorway, it would be hard to stay interested.

Knitting – I decided that doing a little on all my projects was not working for the part of me that likes to see things complete, so I am focusing on one thing at a time.

First up is the handspun vest, I think I mentioned it in an earlier post.  Even though some days I might only do a row, I try to more than that, and so I am quite close to done.  I have a couple more inches up to the shoulders, then it is finished!  I am thinking this will be done this weekend, since I will take it to Whorls and Purls on Saturday.

Once the vest is done, I will attack the Moon and Sky shawl, as I want to wear it and I want to cast on my next shawl.  In fact, I want to cast on two of them, but I only let myself do one at a time.  This rule does not keep me from swatching for and planning for the shawl after that, just doesn’t let me cast it on. So I will be swatching and planning soon, lol.

The blue striped socks also come along.  I finished up the first sock (except the heel) on Saturday, and cast on the second sock this week.

Not much lunch time knitting this week, so progress is slow.  But I have until the end of August to finish this pair, and still stay on track for the year.  I don’t see a problem with that.

The pool has been a godsend this week, it is so hot and muggy!

I have a funny little after work routine now – when I get home, I change into my bathing suit, add sneakers and a hat, do as much gardening as I can stand, water the garden, rinse myself off, shed sneakers and hop in the pool.  Luckily, it hasn’t been buggy!  I am glad neighbors can’t see this crazy lady gardening in her swimsuit, lol.

That means I don’t get in the house to think about knitting or spinning or supper until close to seven , which is not normal for me!  I like to be settled in and knitting or spinning by then, not just wondering what is for supper.  🙂  But summer is a short season, and I am motivated to do this yard work, so as long as I am motivated, I will do this routine.  I hope it pays off with a pretty garden next summer!

A has had a busy several weeks now, with no let up in sight.  This week she actually is away overnight for two nights, which makes everything feel sort of off for both of us.  I will be glad when she gets home! Maybe she will remind me to come in the house sooner so I am not up so late at night knitting and spinning.  🙂

Here’s a pretty daylily I didn’t remember I had, I thought the tall ones were all orange!

 

 

Randomness

I am afraid this will be a rambling post with not too many photos.

It was a good weekend, it didn’t go exactly as planned, but it was OK.  Saturday morning instead of doing some gardening and swimming in the pool before knitting, we went up to Orrington to visit my SIL, just home from the hospital with a knee replacement.  She put it off YEARS longer than I would have, but it went amazingly well, and she is happily ensconced on the couch, with rocker nearby for exercising. Husband is doing stellar nursing work.  He ran out to the store while we were there, I think glad for the respite, lol.

Came back in time to grab some early lunch and then pick up my new neighbor and head off to knitting for the afternoon at Whorls and Purls.  I actually brought the spinning wheel – traveler’s first trip in the car.  She fits neatly in the back seat of the Prius – yea!  Actually, the Prius holds lots more than one might think.  It is like Mary Poppins bag.  Way bigger inside than out.

A and I grabbed some fried shrimp to go for supper and had a quiet night indoors.

Sunday I woke up full of energy, AT LAST feeling better (maybe fried shrimp cures tummy viruses?) and did some early spinning, then layered newspaper and mulch over the garden that has nothing planted in it this year, so it is ready for next year.  I really hope the whole newspaper mulch thing works for killing weeds, if it does, I am going to be THRILLED and use it all over the yard, lol.

Then I ate a delicious breakfast A cooked for me before I headed out to return bottles, go to the dump, and the hardware store (for more mulch, lol) got home, unloaded all of that stuff, spread a last bag over the garden in back, and headed inside for a rest.  After that, the day got much more like you would expect from me, lol.  I knitted and spun while I waited for the sun to move over to make some shade in the yard.  Then I did some watering, jumped in the pool for a quick swim and fishing out all the tree bits that had landed in there this week.  It was a WEEK of no pool for me.  So very glad I am able to go in it now as it is supposed to be hot this week.

That was followed by some weed pulling while I drip dried, and then a relaxing evening watching Turn with A. Oh, that Simcoe gives me the creeps.  🙂

I started my list for the trip to Wisconsin.

It is hysterical!  I was worried I would forget some important thing I promised to bring, so I started jotting things down. After all, we leave in 49 days!  So my list starts with “Crock Pot.  Waffle Iron.” and progresses through some secret stuff to “knitting projects: Socks.  Sweater. Shawl.” to “Backpack. Road trip food.  Vitamins.”  before it ever gets near anything like, say clothes.  🙂

I have to get everything organized carefully since we will be on the road for three days (2 nights), then there for 5 days (4 nights) and then on the road again, probably for 4-5 days and 3-4 nights.  I don’t want to unload everything at each hotel stop, so going out I want to have a smaller bag with travel items, and then I will reorganize before we leave Wisconsin.

Beyond going for the reason to be there – Ravelry meet up and Wisconsin Sheep and Wool festival, on the way home, Mom and I are doing a few things – we are meeting up with some old school friends of hers in Chicago on Sunday, and we plan to stop an extra day at Niagara Falls (Monday night, Tuesday?) before making a mad dash race for home.  Which might be a two day mad dash, depending on how we feel, and how anxious we are to be through with the car and driving. Or how bad traffic in New England is.

I am SO excited to be doing this – I have not done a big road trip like this in a very long time, and one without my wonderful A doing all the driving?  Not in about 15 years.  Heading west, we plan to go through Canada, then cut across Michigan, and take the ferry across Lake Michigan.  Coming home, because of the Chicago lunch, we will head south, and zip across Indiana and  Ohio, sticking close to the lakes. From Buffalo, we will do some more zipping across New York – and yes, I know how darned long that will take, Thank goodness for Route 90. It may be boring, but it will get us back to New England.  It is a lot of driving, and I hope everyone else stays off the road while we do this.  🙂

A just looks at me like I am crazy and says she is glad to not be going, she will stay home and tend the fire, lol.  Or play with the cats. Ort help her sister with projects in her new house.  We will each have fun, but I will buy yarn!

And speaking of yarn – I finished all but the heel of one blue striped sock – that heel will wait for the other sock to get to the same place, so that I can make them match.  And I am making very good progress on the hand knit vest – might finish it up some time this week. Spinning update – I have refilled two of the three bobbins, and will work on the third one this week.  Hope to be plying again by the weekend. Plus I am plotting some secret yarn related things which I hope to begin work on.  I will have to wait to share them with you, but they are going to be so fun and exciting!

 

See, random.  No photos.  Maybe I will be better about getting some for you this week.  🙂

 

 

OK, let’s try this again!

My stomach bug decided to linger long enough that I took Tuesday off and went to the doctor without an appointment, which of course meant waiting for over 2 hours in the their waiting room.

Final determination?  Virus. Dehydration.

Advice?  Drink a mixture of salt and Gatorade, lots of it, small sips all the time.  If I wasn’t sick before, that might have made me sick.

Do that for 24 hours, then add dry toast to the menu.

If that works, add crackers and brown rice.  Still good?  Add bananas.

So, I am at the brown rice for lunch phase, and while I don’t feel good, I am not sick.  I think the chemical fake sugars in the Gatorade are making me nauseous now, so I will stop drinking it as soon as I get home, and switch back to flat ginger ale.

As has been the case all along, as long as I don’t swallow anything, I feel fine. It’s kind of ridiculous.

I did get a chuckle out of the nurse at the doctor’s office Tuesday.  She commented “wow, you have lost a lot of weight since Friday!” and I said “Well, the doctor told me to lose 5 pounds a month. I got right on it.”

Of course, it won’t be that much once I get hydrated.

Anyway – here we are, almost to the weekend. I am going to try making plans again and see if it goes better than last week.

There is much yard work still to be done. If we get a nice cool morning, I will work on it then.

The pool needs attention, I haven’t been in it in over a week!

Saturday afternoon is reserved for Whorls and Purls, and I am DETERMINED to go, after missing two nice fiber gatherings last weekend.  I have loads of knitting and spinning still to do. (And always will, right?)

A and I have a semi-plan to go to Bagaduce Lunch for supper on Friday, if there is any point in going out to eat.  I hope there is! We haven’t been there yet this summer, and I do love that place. She has Friday off from work, so we can eat early, before the crowds.  I hope.

A trip to the Post Office is needed, I think I have a package or two on the way. Other than that, there is laundry and housework begging to be done, I will try to fit it in around all that other fun stuff.

We don’t happen to need a lot of groceries, since one of us didn’t eat all week, but I am pretty sure there are a few things that will need picking up, so I will do that while I am out and about.

I hope this weekend is much better than last weekend!  And I hope that you all have a good weekend, too!

 

 

 

 

 

None of That Happened

It was a good plan, wasn’t it? But Friday night brought severe stomach cramps and diarrhea. In between bouts I felt fine, but the bouts happened randomly and suddenly, so I never left the house, except for a short time each day to move some dirt. I moved 4 wagon loads to the back garden. It took two days to do that.

I was so determined that I was going to the Ravelry gathering yesterday that I made a nice chicken salad. If it lasts until I can eat again, there is enough for a week’s worth of lunches, at least.

The rest of the time I sat spinning and then plying, and when I needed a change, knitting.

A did most of the work all weekend, and got to go to her sister’s to spend time with her nephew visiting from Colorado, plus she made a ton (7 batches) of jam. Luckily I had done the grocery shopping on the way home Friday night, and I did the laundry. But other than that I was a slug.

But here is the first skein of that giant combo spin I am doing. Much more plying to come before the bobbins are empty so I can spin again. But I am amazed at how this is coming out! I think it will make a great sweater!

Hope you had a better weekend than I did!

 

Now THIS will be a weekend!

After working so hard last Saturday that it was hard to move on Sunday but we did, we are both looking forward to this weekend.  The weather, of course, having been beautiful all week won’t be this weekend, but that is OK.

A plans to do her annual strawberry jam making extravaganza.  I leave her to it. I prefer jelly (all those seeds get in my teeth) and I don’t eat a lot of jelly, so it is far easier if I just get out of the way and let her make jam. That will take her all weekend, and she will do quarts and quarts of berries.  Fresh strawberries and some frozen raspberries. Yum.

While she is doing that, I plan to continue the yard work, but at a slower pace.  I picked up a lot of mulch, and need more.  I also have to haul dirt in the wagon from the front of the house to the back where I was working, and put that down, then mulch that.  On the advice of a good friend, I am going to put some newspaper down between soil and mulch, to help keep the weeds down until I plant there – likely next year. I probably won’t get to it this weekend, but I need to keep weeding where J made such a good start, so I can put soil and mulch on the rest of the front garden.  And yes, it occurred to me to not weed it, but put newspaper there as well.  Right now that is not my plan, but it might become my plan if the work is too slow and back breaking.

But that is for mornings only.  Saturday I intend to go to Whorls and Purls, which I missed last week.  We are all spinning for an unofficial Tour de Fleece.  But I expect I will be close to plying at that point, and if so, I won’t bring my spinning over, I will just bring knitting.  I have enough of that to manage to keep me busy! The wheel I ply on is all set up in the craft room, and I don’t feel like hauling it up and down stairs, it is rather bulky.  If I am still working on that third bobbin (or by miracle have already plyed and so am ready to start again) I will bring my new small wheel and some fiber and work on that.

Sunday mid-day is a Ravelry gathering in my town!  Woot Woot!  I plan to bring knitting to that, as well as something for the potluck lunch.  That will be fun, even if I see half the people on Saturday.  🙂

Monday there is a potluck lunch thing at work, so Sunday evening will be spent fixing something for that.  I am thinking a tossed salad, but not sure.  Might do my mini salad bar so people can have what they want in their salad and not what they don’t.

I have been doing well on the Whole 30 this month, and Tuesday is day 30!!!! I plan to eat all the things on Wednesday.    Wish some of these potlucks were next weekend.  🙂

I promised you some more photos of the yard work we got done – here you go!

Here’s what mom got done, and another shot of it after I mulched tonight. This was blackberry thicket burying the roses, and she trimmed the trees so we can walk around the deck.

Here is a photo of what J did, with mulch added.

And while they were doing that, i dug out this bed. Still have to add soil and mulch, and some sort of edging.

And because you know I can’t stand to leave without a little fiber photo or two, here is my sock, coming along.  The flash of pink is the waste yarn where the heel will go, the socks are just blue.

And here is a spinning update – this is bobbin two, nearly full

Which, if you recall, gets plyed with this:

and an as yet unspun third ply.

 

It should be interesting.  🙂

 

 

what weekend?

This weekend flew by.  A said to me a few minutes ago “well, this must have been the shortest weekend on record.”

I guess that is what happens when you work a perfectly crazy week, and then work hard on the weekend as well. That is what she did.

Saturday my step brother J came over, bringing along with him Mom and B, all geared up to work in the yard.  I still have more after photos to take, but the transformation is amazing.  Of course, there is much more work to be done, but what has been done gives me hope and energy to carry on.

Here is a little taste:

Front of house before J spent 6 or 7 hours at hard labor:

and after:

there is still more edging to be done, and weeding, and dirt added, then everything mulched, but I feel like I can do that in spurts this summer.

Mom worked on this:

And I need to get a better after photo, her work was equally impressive, but hard to photograph.

I worked on this:

and was too tired to walk back there to get a photograph, but I will do that for you soon. I thought we were moving a bush back there, but we didn’t, so I will amend the soil and mulch it to keep the weeds down.  Next year I will put flowers in there.

While we did all of that, A and B got our old lawnmower repaired and running so we could give that to a family member  who just got a new house with tons of lawn.  Our goal is to have NO lawn, so we don’t need it.  B also helped set all that edging and showed me how to do it so I can finish the job.

By three, mom and I were beat, so we went for a swim, A and B settled in the living room to cool off and we all waited for J to cry uncle, which he finally did just before 5.  Here he is all cleaned up and ready to go for his lobster roll supper.  He doesn’t even look tired! But he looks proud!  The amazing thing is that he wants to come back next summer and do this for two days!

 

In other news:

This weekend saw the start of the Tour de Fleece – fiber’s answer to the Tour d France.  I was all ready and waiting weeks ago. Fiber prepped, bobbins empty.  Let’s go!

I started early Saturday morning before everyone arrived, and did some spinning after they left.

 

Here’s where I was at the end of Day 1:

This is going to be a sweater quantity and then some – just tons of yarn in a wild medley of blues, greens and purples with some pinks thrown in.

Today I spun in the morning again, and after a little road trip we took.  I finished the day looking like this.  (Sorry I had to use a flash in the low light.

Finished filling the first bobbin, then started the second one, which has very little pink but lots of aqua, green and blue with some purple.

I expect progress will slow down now because I do have to go to work tomorrow  Sigh.

Which gets us right back to where we started.  this was a very short weekend, and had a secret road trip in it that I can’t share with you yet. Soon, though, soon.

So tomorrow is work, but then we get a day off for the 4th.  we will head over to Moms, J wants to cook us a nice holiday meal.  That’s right, his other great love is cooking.  He really might be the perfect houseguest.  I know Mom loves having him come stay for a few weeks each summer.  🙂

And in case you are wondering abut the knitting.  Though I tried, nothing got finished before Saturday, except those red socks!  The vest did grow a lot, and I started the next pair of socks, crazy blue ones. Sorry about the bad phone shot, I will get you a better one soon.

I hope you had a nice weekend that seemed longer to you!