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I know you have missed these almost as much as I have missed having Fridays off from work. 😀This week was a bit unusual at work, with late meetings, and a fundraising event this Sunday. So, to keep my hours to 40, I am able to stay home today.

What will I do with myself you ask? Here goes:

I am doing a bit of spinning this morning, working on filling that third bobbin.

Have to go out and get a haircut, long over due. While I’m out, I’ll go to the PO, and maybe, if I am feeling adventurous, the dump. We’ll see about that last one.

Back at home, there is always laundry to get started, a few dishes and some general tidying to do.

Then knitting. There are some photos I need to take for you, if the weather cooperates. And I dug some yarn out of the stash for a sweater, so I will be working on a swatch and a plan for that. And winding lots of yarn.  The yarn is Briggs and Little Heritage, picked up many years ago in New Brunswick. The color labels say “dark gray heather” “medium gray” and “light gray.”

I get the latter two, but the first looks very green to me. It looks nice with the grays, though, which is all that counts.

I even found the pattern I was going to make originally – a simple yoked sweater with colorwork in the yoke and at the bottom of the sweater. It is pretty, but I think I want a cardigan, and I don’t want a round yoke.  I dove down the Ravelry rabbit hole for a while, and when I was done with that, I decided I want to make my standard raglan top down sweater, with stripes. I toyed with the idea of making a turtleneck sweater I have made before, but I realized that the one I have is almost the same color. Oops! So, I dug out the old pattern, an ancient Candide one. This is my second copy, pretty worn out, and it cost a dollar. I wonder if it is still available, and how much it costs these days? It might be time for a new one.

Anyway… I also will work on the blue sock, which is getting closer to done – working on the leg. My goal is to get it done by Wednesday, then cast on the next pair, which will be knit with the Garden Center yarn I spun with an opposing ply, can’t wait to try that! Which reminds me, i might cake that today.

That’s really all I have planned for the day – not a lot but that leaves me loads of time for that knitting and spinning. And thinking about yet another sweater…that turtleneck still seems like a good idea, I wonder what other yarn I have in my stash? Add that to the list – more stash diving!

 

 

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I am so glad that this isn’t the year I decided to go to Rhinebeck!

Came down with a horrible cold this week, and so left work early yesterday, and stayed home today.  My list today has a theme!

Do some research on cold meds I can take – ones with no sugars or alcohol to satisfy the whole 30 eating plan; ones with no caffeine or other stimulants to comply with doctor’s orders regarding the heart; ones with no NSAIDs to comply with gastric by-pass surgery requirements.

I honestly think I can do two out of three with what is in the medicine chest, but I am just not sure.  So on my list today is also a call to the doctor to get her take on it.

Once I know that, I need to make a shopping list – I have no decaffeinated tea!!!! Definitely  want some tea… and the meds, and I think we need more tissues…

If I feel up to it, I will take a hot shower and head out to get those things, if I don’t feel like it, I will call A at work and ask her to stop on her way home tonight.

I expect I will do some knitting and spinning, but mostly, I will be napping.  If only I could lie down without everything hurting and clogging up.  I wonder how horses sleep standing up??? I should learn how to do that.

Not an exciting list.  Sure not as exciting as if I was heading off to Rhinebeck, right?

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I took the day off to even out from last week’s crazy hours, and so you get  a Friday list this week. (You lucky thing!)

Oh, such a simple list!

Get up and dressed in a very special fair outfit, meet up with niece B, head off to meet Mom, then go to the (Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association)  Common Ground Fair!

It is supposed to be a rainy day, so the very special fair outfit involves shorts, sneakers and warm socks, a t-shirt, sweater or sweatshirt, a raincoat, and a ball cap.  All of which seriously impedes the ability to shop as all these layers fill the day pack when they are not in use!  A towel, shoes, and socks go in the car so that the ride home can be warm and dry.

This year we are going to Thorndike to catch the train to the fair – a ten minute train ride that hopefully saves lots of traffic congestion and walking from distant parking lots. We would rather spend our walking around energy AT the fair, not getting TO the fair. Conveniently, the train drops us off near the flush toilets!  Mom planned this change, can you tell?

Mom and B will want to spend loads of time with the farm animals large and small.  Fortunately, the animal barns are always located fairly near the fiber and yarn tents.  I am excited this year to check out spinning fibers by local dyers.  Still not ready for a whole fleece (haven’t got hand carders!) so I won’t be lugging three bags full of wool around the fair.  Maybe next year? But I do plan to get some pretty, unique yarn and fiber.

And who knows what I will find in the Maine-made artisan tents?  So much great stuff is made here.

We have a new family rule this year for the fair, though, that I have to keep in mind – if you buy it, you carry it.  So maybe I will leave a layer of clothing off so I can carry more. We’ll see how cold it is.

Then there is the food – !  Cousin B will likely be selling his wood-fired pizza, so delicious – and there is so much more.  The food has to be Maine-sourced, which can make an interesting meal – but we harvest crab meat, and grow potatoes, and make maple goodies….I am hungry just thinking about it.  I will take pictures there and pictures of the things I buy, and share them with you as I do each year – it will be like you came with me to the fair – get ready for a fun day!

 

 

 

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A and I have scheduled a few Fridays off over rest of the summer, so watch for the return of my Friday list posts.

This week:

I have to go to Ellsworth in the morning to drop food off for a work meeting – I don’t have to stay for the meeting, so it will be a drop and run.  Run where?

Out to breakfast, then some grocery shopping with A.

Pick up the mail at the PO.

Home again, where we will tidy up the house and get the laundry rolling, as this is a busy weekend coming up, starting with a visit from nephew D and his lovely wife, also A. They are in town from Colorado and asked if they could come over sometime in the afternoon. Naturally, we said yes, haven’t seen them in so long!

There will likely be cookie baking in preparation for the visit.

And, as it is predicted to be hot, there might be some swimming.

And a bit of spinning/plying/knitting indoors.

Perhaps a visit with D’s A to Creatively Maine, as D’s mother (sister-in-law L) nicely gave her a birthday gift of a  “universal gift card” (cash) to spend there.

More swimming.

More knitting.

Sounds like a fun summer day, doesn’t it?

 

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Due to an inordinate amount of work done this week and a couple of late in the day meetings, it turns out I have today off!

And if you have been around a while, you know what that means – a Friday to do list.  Since A will not be home, it is a pretty standard list for a “me” day.

-I intend to paint the 5 book case boxes that are all primed.  I also want to paint the fifth bookcase back, so that these five can be assembled and perhaps installed this weekend.  We had a bit of conversation about the next step.  A thought we would install these 5 bookcases and begin unpacking books.  She would measure for the 6th and final case that will complete the wall.  She wisely waited to do that so it could fit exactly.  It will also be the one that is not permanently affixed to the wall, but will be removable to provide crawl space access.  So it will be fussy.   Once that case is done and installed, she will put the face trim and top shelf on the whole works.

All of this made perfect sense to me except the part about unpacking the books before the end. We went back and forth about it, and we each have valid reasons.  Mine are about painting.  I don’t want to be painting trim around the books. Hers are about boxes of stuff weighing her down.  She wants them unpacked.  I think we have reached a compromise, and that is that we will install and trim what we have and I will paint trim before it goes up, so only touch ups are needed.  Then we can START loading shelves while we await the finishing case and trim bits.  I hope that this will keep us moving forward on this project, and I really fear that if the boxes are out of her way, forward momentum will halt as other projects grab her attention.

-Head to the PO where I hope I will find several packages.  A and I ordered “scads” of new clothes while we were on vacation.  Our favorite plain knit shirts were on sale, so we got some replacements and some new colors. I also ordered a few new skirts as it seems I haven’t got any.  Well, maybe I do, but I really could use some additional year round ones, my winter wardrobe is pretty limited. I hope the ones I ordered fit!

-Block Danse Macabre and take photos of it for you. I know this project will take at least a couple of hours, better to do it while I am home alone.

-If there are any blocking squares and pins left after that, I will also block Maluka.

-knit on the Over the Rainbow store sample Reyna – I am on the last section of openwork and hope to get it done this weekend.  It calls for one skein, 400 yards of sock-weight yarn.  The store provided one skein of yarn that is close to the proper weight, but only 350 yards, so I will be carefully weighing it toward the end to make sure I use every bit and get as big a garment as possible.  Right now it feels like it will be a bit small, but I know it will grow when blocked.  The color is really pretty – a green, teal, brown, blue variegated.  It has a nice sheen to it, too, so the finished product will be a pretty piece.  Can’t wait to show it to you!

-maybe get outside and work on the yard and pool a bit. It is supposed to be a gorgeous day, and I have been neglecting spring outside chores for inside painting.

-do a bit of planning for knitting stock for the Creatively Maine shop that will open in July, not that far away!  I hope to have a supply of cotton baby booties and hats to include there, along with jewelry, and maybe a wool hat or two.  And a couple of shawls.  Where will I find the time for this knitting?  Good question. I do have two shawls ready to go, one that has been done and for sale for a while, one that is done but hasn’t been shown anywhere for sale. And hats are quick, right?

I’ll try to post this weekend and show you photos of some of this work I will be cranking through in one long day.

 

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How quickly the week has gone!  I wonder why work weeks don’t go this fast?

Today A and I are going to be busy.  We are headed up to Bangor this morning to pick up a rental van, then it is down to Ellsworth for a few errands including the shoe store. We are both in a search for the perfect shoe (very different definitions of these shoes of course) and not having much luck. We are picking up pizza from Finelli’s and heading over to see Crimson Crow. We will exchange lunch for a bookcase, it seems a good deal! Then back home.

If it stops raining we will gather our big dump items in prep for a trip tomorrow.  Until this week our method of vehicle management has worked well. Own and maintain small fuel-efficient cars for regular use, then rent a larger vehicle or truck only when we need one. But this week that didn’t work as planned. There were no trucks for us to rent. So, we will make do with a van. Might mean a couple of trips, I guess.

When we get home, it is back up to the sewing room. I finished the bodice and sleeves of the dress. Things went really well on the sewing front.

But on the fit front – not so well.  I know the pattern said negative ease. It also said to trust it. My measurements were one the low side of the range so I did in fact trust it.  I have blocked enough things to know that if you pull a knit in one direction, it will shrink in the other, but I kind of thought that they would have planned for that. And maybe they did on a flat chested woman. Which I am not. The bodice barely comes down over my bra!

So, I look on this as a muslin or toile or test sew or future rags, whatever you want to call it. Future efforts will be wider and longer.

It’s probably just as well as I didn’t do a super job of lining up the plaids. I might be the only one to notice, but I would have.

What are you doing this rainy Friday?

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It’s been a long time, I know, but it’s vacation time!  A and I have all next week off, and we also scheduled Friday off.  But then she had to go meet a client for a few hours, so really, I am the only one with a vacation day today.

I was contemplating what to do with al of this time, and realized I could at long last write a Friday list so you all could join me in the glory of a free day.  🙂

Since A has to work, we both are up early, as usual.  But I can take my coffee and sit on the porch and enjoy the morning and write for you guys.

Then I have to get moving.  I need to clean the guest room and make the bed, because niece B is spending the weekend.  She will get here some time late this afternoon, her last class gets out at 2.  I expect there will be some pool swimming when she arrives, she hates the heat and loves to swim as much as I do.

I also should give her bathroom a swipe, and get the laundry moving.  A did some earlier this week, but there is always more where that came from. And I bet that B will be bringing her laundry with her, she is a smart girl.

The PO.  The grocery shopping – just a few extra things for my girl to eat. She *might* anticipate that we will feed her.

I might do a bit of porch sweeping, and then I want to head upstairs.  This week while we are on vacation, I want to get some sewing done, and before that can happen, I need to clear off the table in the craft room.  It has been so long since I was up there that I can’t remember what is smeared across it.  But that is why I love the craft room – it is OK to smear and go.  🙂

I also expect to soak and block the shawl I finished last week, so I can take photos for you.  A said I can use her camera, if I can find it and charge it.  So I guess I will take the photos with the phone, lol.

This will likely fill the day and then some.  It will feel good to have this kind of time to do things, even laundry.

I have other things I hope to get done this vacation, but several years ago we stopped making ambitious vacation to-do lists.  Every time we did, someone got sick or died or broke an ankle. So now we make “project lists” and on mine for this week, in addition to the sewing, are things like washing some windows, doing a bit of cleaning.  Also, I want to make some frames to protect the shrubs from falling snow this winter.  I have an idea, using a couple of 2 x 4’s and old pallets.  A thinks it won’t work, so I hope to try it this week.  If not, we have a load of pallets to take to the dump for recycling.  But if it works, I will recycle them in my own front yard.

Crimson Crow has a bookcase for us, and I hope to get it (and she hopes so too) this week.  I’ll make a few cosmetic changes to it, and hope to get it set up with my cook books so they can get off the stair landing. But I might not finish it this week, it depends what else goes on.

Monday is a day for visiting Mom and going for a sail.  Tuesday is a day for staying home waiting for the man to service the pellet stove and clean the chimney. And sewing or knitting, I would guess.

A wants to have an excursion to a golf course somewhere that she doesn’t usually play, and I hope it will be near some cool shopping or a yarn shop.  But if not, I will drive the cart and knit.

And of course, visiting with B and playing games will fill this weekend.

Looks like fun times ahead!

So many things planned and in our heads to do, and only a week to do them! But no to-do list after today.  Only a project list.