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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.

 

Friday list – last one for a while

It’s my last Friday free for a while, and I don’t have anything fabulous on it!  I feel like I should at least buy a skein of yarn or a tube of beads, lol.

But no, the things on the list are things I have been hoping to get to for a long time – yard work!  It might not rain, so I can get to some raking and mulching.  We have driveway sand and rocks everywhere, and I need to clear them out and put down compost and mulch where I don’t want weeds.  Which is foolish.  If only you could see the mess we call a yard… 🙂

Maybe I will even work on clearing that huge endless circle for the pool. I don’t actually have that much more to do, and I am so determined to get the pool set up this summer.  If I can do it before we get those drenching rains of early summer, it will be that much easier to fill.  Yard work is one of the things I wanted to get done before I went back to work, but when the snows stopped, the rains began, and I simply have not been able to get motivated to sieve mud and rake wet leaves.  Now I have to, since I will only have weekends and evenings.  The good news is that the flies and mosquitoes still are not out.

There is a bathroom that could use a swipe, and I have been meaning to clean the ceiling fans.  Maybe I will get to that before A vacuums this weekend…

See – not very exciting.  I will knit on shawls and scarves and necklaces, and I will maybe get some GOOD photos of things I am working on and cards that I want to put on Etsy, so that I can show you it all, and then sell the cards.  I’ll have to do some laundry, too, or wear flannel pajama pants to work on Monday.

Oh no, I will have to wear shoes.  My feet are crying for one more week with birks already.

Yesterday I picked tomatoes, today I will shovel snow

I guess the title says it all, right?

I heard the forecast, so I picked the last of the green cherry tomatoes to ripen indoors – amazing to be doing that on November 1.

Still have carrots to harvest, but as long as I get them out of the ground before it freezes, I should be good.  Probably will do that this week.

This first snow of the year is beautiful, of course.  But I wish it had held off a few more weeks.  It will now be a long slog until spring.

Indoor pursuits today, until it stops.  I expect I will do some knitting – started the black fingerless mitts yesterday, I think they will be hard to work on in artificial light, we will see.  I am using Premier’s Deborah Norville yarn – it was the right price and color, but it feels quite rough to me.  I hope it will soften with washing.  I am making up a pattern based on Pam Allen’s Tern socks, which I am also knitting, and will work on today.  And I should get started on some card making, but not sure I will venture upstairs to the craft room today.

The oaks still have lots of leaves on them, so I fear with this heavy snow and high wind we lose power at some point. I guess my first indoor pursuit will be to make sure the cell phones are charged, and to fill some water pitchers.

Friday in October

As usual, I am starting a draft of this list on Thursday, as I make a mental list of all I have to get done.

The list is a little ambiguous still, as today is the day my sister-in-law decides if she is coming to us from the hospital or going to rehab for a few days first.  If she comes to us, I know I will be staying close to home and fairly quiet, so she can rest, heal, and do her exercises.

If she goes to rehab, then A and I will have a day home together to get things done, and maybe finish cleaning the house before we head up to Bangor (or wherever she winds up) to visit her.  So that part is up in the air.

But either way, I will go take care of voting.  There is a chance that I will have to work all election day at polls in other towns, getting signatures for work, and I do not want to risk not getting to vote.  I know for whom I will vote, so I might as well do it and know that it is done, right?

I hope to do the yard work I have put off for a few weeks now – there is garlic to plant, and beds to get ready for winter.  I need to cut back the asparagus and put some compost and manure on it for the winter.  I also have some bulbs to add to my bulb bed. Still plenty of sand sifting in the pool area, maybe with all the time I will be tied to home over the next several weeks, I will be able to make better progress with that. I have really slowed down there lately.  I would like to have it pretty well done by winter, so that it is easier in the spring.

There is, of course, laundry and a trip to the PO in store for me, and a grocery run – but with A on vacation this week and next, not so much urgency to the errands, she can putter away at any we don’t get done.

And I will knit, no doubt.  I am working on a shawl from a pattern Claire of Mollie&Claire sent me – she said it worked up really easy and fast, and boy was she right!  I have only about 40 more stitches to add. I am making it in a silk/wool blend from Cloudlover, in a color way called Lady Edith – soft greens with touches of gold, peach and pale blue (since they are hand-dyed, the skein I have is a bit different from the one shown on this link, but you get the idea).  Maybe I will add to my list that I should take photos of it and share them?

Also working on the socks for my coworker friend – should finish sock one shortly, and will cast sock two right on.  These socks are going much faster than the last pair. Not sure why that should be so, but it is.  They are plain ribbed leg socks, she didn’t want anything fancy. Next up on the sock needle is a blue pair for a cousin.  She made a request, and I could hardly deny her when a.) I love to knit; b.) I love blue; c.) it was her mother who left me all that yarn; and d.) she is having a big birthday at the end of the month.  I might not get them done in time for that, but I will try, and it won’t be long after if I miss.

Then, for the quiet times this weekend, there is stitching.  I have set myself a goal of working on that danged lovely thing at least once a week.  It is the only way it will get done now. Make it a rule, I will comply.

So, no matter what L decides about rehab, it will be a day that combines chores and crafts, working hard and down time.  At the end of the day, I think I will feel that something got accomplished.  🙂

So today A asked me “Why do you think strangers care about what you are doing?”

That’s a stumper. Truthfully, I don’t really know that you all do care – yet I seem to be getting followers and likes. I tried to explain the community of bloggers, of knitters, of crafters, of writers. I failed miserably. I did tell her how amazed I am to have so many international followers, she still didn’t get it. So, why do you follow me? What is it about what I am up to today that makes you keep reading??

Meanwhile, since you seem to – here’s what I did today –

Went for a walk this morning – haven’t walked in a long time, and if we are going to Monhegan in 2 weeks, I had better get ready! It was the first morning in the last 7 that it wasn’t raining, so that was good. 🙂

When we got back, we had a message from sister-in-law L that she was on her way over to plant her 4 foot raised bed. So I planted the last of my seeds with her, and then we dug some day lilies out of the overgrown bank and moved them to what will someday be the front garden. Then we let A make us some delicious burgers for lunch, before L headed out. A spent the time we were out doors cleaning up her work space in the basement, and entertaining the cats. She reports that the mama phoebe is sitting on the nest – so I suspect there are eggs now! The cats are annoyed to not be allowed on their little deck, but that’s OK with me.

The hummingbirds are active, there is a pair who are feeding hungrily, they must have just arrived. That makes two pairs here so far, we will see how many we get now. I have a lot more flowers around this year.

Lots of buds on the red rose, and the wild roses are really spreading out this year, finally. Can’t wait to see how they look all covered with blossoms in a few weeks.
The asparagus is all up and leafing out, I hope this experiment works,a nd we get some to eat in a few years – meanwhile I interplanted it with cosmos to make the pool look less of an eyesore.

I scooped the pool from the outside today – it is FULL, but very chilly, so I didn’t; feel like getting into it. I will eventually, don’t you worry. Next weekend look pretty busy, but if Friday is nice, I might get into it then.

Now A is watching an afternoon of WNBA – Griner on the bench – will her first year of the pros look like her first year at Baylor? Lots of bench time. Meanwhile, Skylar Diggins had a rough game, but I thought she did pretty well for a rookie. And Delladonne is looking good – showing that perhaps she should have been the number one draft pick? 🙂 Sue Bird in the studio – so nice to have someone calm analyzing the games, not getting all excited and shouting at us (I mean you, Carolyn Peck and Rebecca Lobo!)

I finished a lightweight scarf in a heather purple wool/silk blend, which I will send off to the lucky person who responded to my Pay It Forward post quite a while ago – I might remember to take a photo of it before I send it off. As only one person entered that contest, I think Crimson Crow at aml8aml8 might be able to figure out it is for her. 🙂 Now I am working on a light blue scarf in lace weight alpaca/silk blend using a linen stitch. I might keep this one.

Yesterday I spent some time in the craft room – cleaning up the mess from the never finished Easter cards, and getting ready to do a little sewing. I worked out the pattern adjustments for a skirt, and cut it out from some leftover material I had, so I can be sure I got it right before I cut into the new more expensive fabric. Can’t wait to need summer skirts – it should be any time now, if the rain stays away, the weather WILL warm up. 🙂

Back to work tomorrow….