I Am Ready...To Knit

Thank you for bearing my rant last time.  Life is still requiring me to be the strong one, but I'm managing.

The biggest drama right now is my husband's employment, or more accurately, unemployment.  After 26 years with the same company, he was laid off a couple weeks ago.  The company is closing operations here in Columbus.  Ed hasn't been handling the stress well.  He dove right into looking for another job, but he is at the level of obsessing about it.  He spends every waking hour on the computer.  He hasn't exercised since the news broke on May 4 and his diet, when he does eat, consists mainly of sweets.  I told him that he needed to take a break this weekend.  The only way I got him away from the computer was to give him a list of jobs out in the yard to do.  I can't control what he does when I'm not home, so I expect to find him still in his pajamas when I get home from work tomorrow evening.  If you are the praying type, please say a prayer that he finds suitable employment soon.  If you are not the praying type, please just send positive thoughts this way.  Thanks!

Times like this make me glad I have some distractions.  After sorting and selecting the fabric for my quilt group's raffle quilt, I began cutting the pieces for each block.  Color #1 is cut.  Color #2 is shown below.  The next Sew In with the group is on June 9.  I hope to have kits made up for each block by that day.  I haven't decided yet if I'll have the group help me with the sewing.  I may ask only a couple ladies that I know will be careful about their seams.

Another distraction was the Great Lakes Sheep and Wool and Fiber Show.  My friend Cindy and I made our annual trek to Wooster.  I didn't go too crazy this year.  Well, maybe I did.

I bought some sock blockers.  I have sizes now for the family and a future.  No, no one in the family is expecting.  It was just a special the vendor was running.  Buy two sets and get a baby booty set for free.  The sock project bag was a freebie from my friend.  The vendor gave her that with her purchase.  Since she already has one just like it, she gave it to me.

The show features a lot of fiber for spinning.  Most of it, though, is unwashed.  I have no desire to process the fleece myself so I just pass it by.  I did find some fiber I had never heard of before.  The sheep breed is Gotland.  The lady said that they are new to the US.  Their fleece has a long staple length with a little crimp.  It might spin up nicely for socks or gloves.  It is a little coarse, but won't be too itchy.

My favorite indie dyer, Destination Yarn, was at the show.  I couldn't resist her Scottish Highlands green.  When I mentioned that I am a huge Outlander fan, she showed me this project bag.  I literally squealed in delight.  Cindy had no clue why because she is not familiar with the books nor the show.  She also did not know what the French meant:  Je suis prest = I am ready.

Wolle's Yarn Creations was there.  She had a sample of Bellrose hanging in her booth.  It was just beautiful, so beautiful that my credit card magically jumped out of my wallet.

Ann Hanson of Bare Naked Wools was also there.  She had a sample of Twig and Leaf.  I had bought the pattern a couple years ago when Cindy and I did a shop hop.  I hadn't bought any yarn to make it with, so I remedied that.  I need to dig out the pattern and put it and the yarn in a bag together so I remember what I intended.

While we were driving to the show, I mentioned to Cindy that I wanted to get more linen.  I asked her to make sure I did not get anything in the taupe-beige-grey range.  I wanted color.  We were quite surprised that there was only one vendor with linen.  I bought poppy red.  It will become a nice summer top someday.

Next weekend Cindy and I are going to visit the Mid-Ohio Fiber show.  I must control myself.  It is a smaller show, so I should be able to.  Stay tuned to see if that is true.

Trying to Stay Strong

"You don't know how strong you are until strong is your only choice."  

This is a very timely quote I came across recently.  It has me wondering, though, what does 'strong' look like.

I started listing all of the other things in my life right now that require me to be strong, but it was becoming too personal so I deleted them.  It was cathartic, though, to write it all down.  Lately my life has been filled with things that require me to be the strong one, the fixer of misfortune, the organizer of the chaos, the person to help out in a pinch or the shoulder to lean on.  Any one of the things might not seem like much, but collectively I feel like I have tremendous weight on my shoulders.  Most days I'm able to keep a positive outlook.  But there are those days, mostly when I've not slept well the night before, I feel overwhelmed and just want someone to take care of me for once instead of expecting me to be the one who makes everything OK.  I want someone to give me a hug and let me lean on their shoulder for a few minutes or have someone call me out of the blue to ask me how I'm doing or have someone do a favor for me or just have someone show me how much they appreciate me.

Not sure this constitutes 'strong' but is it human.

Thanks for bearing with me during this little rant.  Now onto the usual blog stuff.

Mother's Day was a bit of a downer. (OK, the rant is continuing for a little while longer.  Sorry.)  Partly because my mom is gone (2 years now) and I'm still missing her terribly and partly because I feel like I was 'ghosted' by my own kids.  In the morning we went to Mansfield to have brunch with the in-laws.  It was nice but it was all for the MIL, not me.  After we got back home they left to go back to their apartments.  Later in the day Ed and I went for a walk to try to cheer me up.  It was a nice stroll along the river.  Afterwards we picked up some Chinese food for dinner.

I finished a couple scrub tops for Trisha.  She plans on stopping by this evening so we'll see how they fit.  I have fabric for two others.

 

I volunteered to coordinate this year's raffle quilt for my quilting group.  I selected the pattern and began sorting the fabric.  One of the other members acquired crates of Civil War reproduction fabric.  I sorted 4 bins of fabric selected 10 color groups for the pattern.  Next step is to cut the fabric for the 12 star blocks.

The ride to/from Mansfield last Sunday allowed me to get a few more inches done on a pair of socks.  I bought this yarn back in March around St. Patrick's Day.  It has a bit too much white in it but I do like how the colors play together.

If you've put up with me through this whole post, thank you.

The Goal of Parenting

When your children are born, the time when they become an independent, responsible adult seems so far off that it hardly comes to mind.  As they grow, and their personalities develop, you start to think about what they might be choose for their life's vocation.  Sometimes it is hard to determine.  For my oldest child, she chose a path that I never dreamed of for her.  My youngest is finally on a path I envisioned, but he took a few side routes before settling on his current major.  However, my middle child went the route I always thought she would.

This weekend Trisha graduated from Mount Carmel College of Nursing with her Bachelor of Science of Nursing degree.  For nursing, the ceremonies span two days.  The first night was the Senior Pinning and the second day was the actual commencement ceremony with all of the graduates of the college.

At the Senior Pinning, awards were given.  Most of the awards were peer-selected awards.  Two awards were faculty selections.  Trisha won the award for Clinical Excellence, the faculty selected award that goes to the student that performs at the top of his/her class in the clinical setting.  Trisha was nominated by her pediatric clinic instructor who said that she showed  compassion and professionalism to everyone including other students, hospital staff, patients and parents.  To be honest, this award did not surprise me at all.  Trisha has always been a caring, compassionate person.  Nursing is the perfect profession for her.  All of her patients are going to very lucky to have her at their side.

Below she is receiving the pin for her award from the Dean of the college.

After the pinning ceremony, we had the obligatory photo session.  Her boyfriend and his parents joined us for the event.  Don't they make a cute couple?

Her 'little' brother is very proud of her also.

Here she is before the commencement ceremony.  She had the most pins of all the graduates, including her Clinical Excellence pin and a Leadership award pin she was also given.  The two cords were for the academic sororities that she joined.  The gold stole was for graduating Summa Cum Laude.

The proud family, minus Kristin who wasn't able to get home for the ceremony.

After the graduation ceremony, everyone came back to our house for a cookout.  Now that everything is done, I'm going to spend the next few weeks focusing on activities I enjoy.

Like my knitting.

The Weekender sweater is off to the races now.  Knitting with size 9 needles is making it go fast.  Let's see if I can get this done by next fall.