End of the Year

It has been an interesting year.  Since September, Tom and I have been co-parenting our three South Carolina grandchildren -- a thirteen year old grandson and six year old twins - one grandson and one granddaughter.

Since Christmas, we have been in NYC child sitting the three grandsons here.

Our RV trips have been put on hold and the RV has been winterized and put in storage waiting for a warm spring weekend.

I have been knitting down my stash to offset the purchases made at SAFF. My friend, Lisa, and I made our annual pilgrimage to the Black Mountain Yarn Shop and to SAFF.  We really liked the new set up with more space and not having to share with the Tractor Show.  We met up with friends and compared purchases. Of course, we ate at P. F. Chang's for lunch before I headed home. It was just the break I needed.

Three pairs of socks have been completed and a boomerang scarf is almost done.  I plan to start on fall variegated shawl out of fingering alpaca next.

One Step at a Time

Lemonade Socks

Wyrt Socks

Blue Boomerang

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you a peaceful and joyous New Year.

Until next time. . . . . .

Productive Week

Simplify
Still working on stirring and organizing my stash in the upstairs bedroom. Also, knitting on the Newsom sweater by Bristol Ivy in burgundy alpaca. It is an interesting construction!  Body and sleeve are finished and joined. Working on the yoke now. The sweater is an easy knit.

 Also, started vanilla socks in a light lemonade color of cotton and bamboo yarn. I'll go back to the more complex knitting later. For right now, simple is all I care to do.

Beautify
We painted our grandsons room, a light Bahamas blue green. He wanted kelly green, but that was swiftly vetoed.  It took half a day to paint the ceilings and walls and another 6 hours to paint the woodwork. It looks nice. We hope he likes it!

Modify
Spent a week with our son in Pennsylvania. Helped strip wallpaper off the walls of our grandson's bedroom. This can be tricky in a 180 year old house.  Because the previous owners didn't prep the wall before they papered, there was a great deal of spackling that had to be done before we could paint.  We finished the painting and pulled up the carpet and padding. Lots of staples! As our son was pulling up the tack strips around the edge of the room, he commented that it was criminal to put nails in such beautiful hard wood floors.

I left the next day with the furniture still needing to be moved back in the room.  Drove to Virginia and stay with nephew and his wife at their farm. Left to drive home after chores were done and we had eaten breakfast. Good farm fresh eggs, milk and blueberries! Yumm!

Home again and tired.

Still Keeping with the Theme of 2015 - Simplify, Beautify and Modify

The title reflects the theme for 2015.

Simplify

Trying to simplify things, I am knitting and  weaving only from my stash.  Projects currently on the needles are another RV Striped Throw, Green Striped Socks and a Gemini with 3/4 sleeves.  All these are easy patterns which require very little thought, just plain knitting.

We have been in a whirl with RV travel and family issues. This makes simple knitting necessary.


Beautify

Working to organize stash so that the bedroom can be used by family later this summer. Plan to remove all the Boy Scout items and send them to storage.  Then there will be room for stash and still room to use the room as a guest room.  This should also allow me to clean off the dining room table.

Modify

Since May 1, I have lost 15 pounds by strictly staying on the Atkins Diet. Thirty-five more to go. I also purchased a kettlebell hoping to strengthen my upper body. I have noticed a little improvement. It was easier to move roofing shingles when we roofed the new Habitat for Humanity home last weekend. You would think that I would have lost lots of weight since it was two five hour days in above 100 degree weather. But no.  Still just slow steady weight loss.  That is better than none.

Until next time . . . . . . .

Simplify, Beautify and Modify

January 2015 has arrived. Begin as you will go is the order of the day.

Simplify

Today I reassessed some tops, shirts and sweaters that have been unworn for over a year. I finally got around to taking a look at some of them. I made it through three drawers and two shelves.

Over half the items were taken to Goodwill today or tossed, and the rest were put on shelves where they are more visible. I hope that means that next year there will be less to donate. I want to simplify getting dressed and have nice clothes to wear. If I can see the items, I should wear more of them.

Only made it through some because since the surgery, I can only stand for a little while. I still have two drawers and three shelves to go through. That’s for another day.

Beautify

Following the suggestions on Apartment Therapy, the floors were cleaned this morning and flowers were bought for the kitchen.  Everything looks and smells great!

Modify

A friend in our knitter’s guild just had a new baby boy. I went into the gift drawer and pulled out a baby boy sweater and hat. (Yoke Baby Sweater by Gail Bable) Looking at the sweater, I decided that the buttons on the sweater --little Dalmatian puppies--while really cute, will be too difficult to button and unbutton on a wiggly baby.

I took the buttons off and moved them to the other side of the sweater band. Then I added snaps to the back of the buttons and the other side of the band. This should be so much easier for Jennifer.  If I finish the socks, I will add them to the gift that I will give at the guild meeting tomorrow.

A great way to spend the first few days of January. 

Until next time  . . . . . .