A Quick Note

Just a quick note to say that I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. We had a great get together at my sister’s with a special surprise that our son, Matt and his family came home on their way to Georgia. It was wonderful seeing them. Saw our other son who lives locally and talked to our daughter who was at her inlaws. 

I developed bronchitis and am currently on antibiotics while trying not to cough up a lung. Resting a lot. Knitting getting little love. The Alpaca Icelandic Yoke Sweater body is about 13 inches long. I need to knit another skein to make it to the armhole join.

Going back to rest. 

Preparing for the Holiday

Two hours of exercise today!  Boy, am I tired.  Didn’t go to the gym, didn’t walk or “Shred”. Two solid hours of moving furniture and boxes of books from the second guest room to the office so that our son and his family can come for Thanksgiving. 

We got a call yesterday asking could they stop by on their way to Georgia and spend the night and Thanksgiving Day.  Of course, they can!

And of course, when asked, I said, “sure, we have enough beds for everyone”. I just didn’t say that the beds were covered in yarn, books, clothes that don’t fit and stuff.  Three huge garbage bags went out the door and I took this opportunity to sort my stash by weight. I think it will be very hard to convince Tom that I neeeed to go to a yarn shop when we travel.

The other good part was that I found yarn that I had forgotten that I had purchased.  I am being struck with startitis something fierce. All I want to do is surf Ravelry for new projects.  Arrgh! 

I am forcing myself to continuing working on the colorwork yoke sweater (two sleeves and half the bottom ribbing are finished) and our daughter’s Encompass scarf (one and a half repeats are finished).

My knitting baby items, trying to get a stash put away, has paid off. The reason our son and his family are heading to Georgia is to visit his sister-in-law who had a two-month early preemie. I have the perfect little sweater all ready for the new arrival. Welcome, John Michael.

Now to rest up for tomorrow when I will be dusting, starting to cook for Thanksgiving dinner and counting my blessings.  

I hope your preparations are going well for the holiday.

Knit What You Want to Knit

Read Glenna C’s blog (Knitting to Stay Sane) this morning and shouted hurray!  She wrote about knitting what you want to knit, not what others think you should knit. If Lisa likes to knit dishcloths, go for it! If Ramona likes to knit hats and socks, why shouldn’t she? If I don’t like to knit shawls and scarflettes and want to knit only one or two things at a time, why should I be made to feel inferior. Our knitting is just as good if not better than others who jump on every bandwagon and join every KAL. 

That being said I am slogging through a cowl in black alpaca. That’s right, I said black. Our DD lives in the frozen north and has requested warm neck wear in either black or gray.  Uggh!  The only bright light is that I am knitting Stephanie Pearl McPhee’s Encompass which is a wonderful pattern. It would be more fun if I was knitting it in a nice cheerful color. 

I have turned the heel on the second sock of the “He Who Must Not Be Named” socks. Only mindless knitting left. They should be finished soon.

I have finished the Elizabeth Zimmermann stocking hat that I am using for a gauge swatch for my EPS Yoke Sweater.  The fabric is so soft and light weight. I love it.  Now to measure a sweater that I like the fit of and start the bottom ribbing. Since this is about knitting what I want, I plan to knit both sleeves first. (One at a time, of course!) That way, when I get the body finished to the underarms, I can move right into the yoke, which is the fun part. Also the sleeves will be great take-along, car knitting.

I am perusing a stack of fairisle books and patterns to decide on which I will use for the yoke. This sweater will probably not be finished until January or February as I am easily distracted by small projects. But, that is okay, since just about the time it is finished, the weather will be cool enough to wear it.

So are you knitting what you want?

Random Thursday

Halloween was a non-event at our house. We put up the Halloween village on the piano in the living room and put out a few mums and a fall flag on the front porch. We had no trick or treaters.  The only ones that enjoyed the screaming witch door bell were the grandchildren and the UPS man.

The Mexican sage is finally blooming, but we have had frost a few mornings this week which will shorten its blooming season.  The blooms will be enjoyed for as long as they are here. It is a little sad to see it go. It marks the end of fall, which is my favorite time of year.

Knitting: Fingerless mitts are finished. I modified the pattern accidentally.  I was knitting the Susie’s Reading Mitts on Lorna’s Laces Honor in the Goblin colorway. Everything was going well, until I got interrupted while knitting the lace at the top of the mitt. When I came back I assumed I knew where I was and stopped doing the lace and began the turning pattern. This made the mitts too tight when the picot edge was turned. Frog! but just the sewn edge. I decided to leave the edge bound off but not to turned with a picot edge. I repeated the mistake on the other mitt. They are warm and fit well. Guess I need to call it a design feature instead of a mistake. ;~)

Working on an Encompass scarf in black alpaca. Fun to knit, but I need to be uninterrupted to keep up with the charts. I have two skeins of the yarn. I hope that will make the scarf wide enough. We’ll see.

Dinner tonight uses up leftover baked chicken leg quarters. I put red inca quinoa, onions, a bag of cole slaw mix and chicken stock with some herbs in the crockpot, stirred well and added the chicken on the top. It has been cooking for half the day. The house smells wonderful! Hard to wait for Tom to come home to see if it taste as good as it smells.

In the meantime, I’ll keep working on the scarf until dinner.