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 I have been doing while I haven’t been posting

First off, a quick health update – feeling ever so much better now! Thank you all SO MUCH for your kind thoughts and comments, it feels good to know there are friends out there who wish me well.

I went to work all 5 days last week, although I only stayed all day toward the end of the week, and was SO glad when the week ended.  Somehow I found the energy to go to knitting on Saturday, and made loads of progress on my sweater as I resisted a delicious looking cheesecake.  Can’t eat while you are knitting (good thing, really.)

I am now past the body/sleeve division, and working my way through the waist decreasing.  I really think I will have this done by the end of November at this rate.  Of course, I can’t keep up this pace – I have an order for a hat from my Etsy shop – yeah! – that I need to make this weekend – just waiting for the yarn to come in.  And a few Christmas gifts that need doing, some by the end of the month for shipping.  But those aren’t huge projects, so then it is back to my sweater.

And spinning – I don’t think I ever showed you the finished skein of this yarn – September’s roving of the month from Purple Fleece – it’s corriedale. I totally missed on bulky weight but it will make a good warm hat anyway.

Or October’s roving of the month, as yet unspun.

Debbie is getting creative, trying to find fibers we haven’t spun yet.  She thinks this one will make great mittens, and I can see that it might!  Only one of us had spun it when we met last week, and she wasn’t a fan, but I will give it a shot, eventually.  Right now I am working on finishing this spin:

which is cheviot in Hestia, from Highland Handmades.  I think it will match nicely with this one:

Cadillac Mountain by Purple Fleece, and I have a plan to make a cowl with them.  I got the pattern from Over the Rainbow when I was there this summer. You will have to trust me that the pinks in them both are loads closer than these photos show.

And the Christmas cards for this year are rolling around in my head – it is time to get started with those – November already!  Some people take November off from work to go hunting.  I think I need to start taking it off to do crafting!

Other news – I finished the first 30 days of Whole 30.  Hurrah!  I lost about 20 pounds, (eventually) found I didn’t miss much except my morning coffee WITH CREAM.  In the process, I am holding tight to first place in the Biggest Loser game at A’s office.  Big money prizes on the line, so I will take two days off from Whole 30 (sort of – turns out we have a whole fridge full of veggies to be eaten) and then return to it until the end of the competition and Thanksgiving. After that, I think it will be that I develop a lifestyle of eating that way and having occasional meals where I don’t worry about it.  I have to say, it really works – I feel so much better, not just the weight loss. Knees feel better,  skin is better, digestion is better. Rats.  Why can’t eating cheese and bread and chocolate ever make me lose weight and feel better?

Tuesday marked the last day of my volunteering for Fair Vote Maine – I have been doing that for several months now, as they work to educate voters on Rank Choice Voting, which is on our referendum ballot this year.   No more Tuesdays before the election, so we wrapped up our Tuesday night gig with a  some sparkling cider, cookies, and lots of data entry and shredding!  It will feel odd not to go there anymore – wonder what I will do with Tuesdays now?  Well, I know what I will be doing next Tuesday – agonizing over the returns and knitting.  After that, who knows?

Other than all of this, nothing much is new – A is away for a few days this week – working up in “the County” (Aroostook, for those of you not from Maine) which is far enough away that she stays there overnight. The cats are quite put out, as she is the favorite mommy.  Last night they acted like I was completely insane to think they should go to bed when she wasn’t home.  Zumba didn’t even want her bedtime treats. She wasn’t even really interested in breakfast!  For Zumba to turn down food is amazing. Allie isn’t sure what to do – I don’t play right, but I do pat her nicely.  So she was torn during play time this morning, finally decided to ignore the toys and get some loving instead.  It usually takes them a couple of days to adjust to one of us being gone, and right around the time they do, A returns, and they forget all about me again. 🙂

What’s new in your neck of the woods?