I'm Loving It

This is the start of my Pure Love stole.  I am so enamored by this fiber.  It is so soft and cuddly.  I can't wait to get this done.  Unfortunately, this has taken my attention away from finishing Ed's hat.  I'm rationalizing this by telling myself that he doesn't need it yet.  Duck hunting season started today, but it isn't cold enough yet for a hat made out of buffalo fiber.  I've got time.

Didn't mean to be away so long

Life continues to be absolutely crazy.  I told my husband the other day that I have a fantasy, which made him perk up his ears.  My fantasy involves a cabin in the woods with a woodburning fireplace.  I'd like to sit in front of a fire for days and do nothing  but knit, read, nap and drink wine.  It wasn't exactly what Ed was hoping I'd say, but he said he'll try to find me place to escape to for a weekend.

I've been doing a little knitting.  I made the Raceback Tee for Kristin.  The pattern was from Knitty.

My sister Patty spun the alpaca roving I bought at Knitter's Connection.  I now have over 600 yards of yummy 2-ply. 

I'm going to turn this into a stole using this pattern. 

Speaking of Knitter's Connection, I've starting knitting the Buffalo Gold Earth that I bought.  It is transforming into a simple hat for Ed.  The yarn is fabulous.  I don't know if buffalo have lanolin in their fur like sheep, but it certainly feels like it.  I've had to frog my original attempt because the hat was too large for Ed's head.  The yarn did not even seemed to be affected by the ripping out.

Over the summer I lost my friend who had been battling leukemia.  His family is having a rough time since he passed.  I made a shawl for his widow, but I'm not happy with how tightly I cast on and bound off.  The edges are curling.  I'll give it to her, but it won't be able to be used as I intended.  I wanted something she could wrap herself in when she needed a hug.   I'll give her something else this winter.

A few of my other WIPs are chugging along.  The Taize wrap is over half way done.  A friend gave me several cones of wool that he had in his stash.  He was gifted the cones from a friend who found them at a thrift shop.  They are fingering weight.  The wool is rather coarse so I'm guessing they were meant for weaving rather than knitting.

Gotta work on my stress level

As my last post will demonstrate, I've been a bit stressed lately.  Today was a total insane day at work.  I couldn't decide if I was in the middle of a mental ward or daycare center.  Oh well, I'm home now sipping a glass of wine.  Much better than an hour and a half ago.

To help with my stress management, I bought a hot tub.  It took us several weeks to get it all connected, but it is operational now.  The weather so far this summer has been cool enough to make the evening dips enjoyable.  Last night I spent over 20 minutes in it.  It was heaven!  We have it on our deck.  Here's a photo where it can be seen through the slats of the deck.  Ed took this picture to show an electrician when we were trying to decide how the power line for the spa needed to be placed.

Last week I went to Knitter's Connection here in Columbus.  I only took one class this year:  Introduction to Strickmuster by Candice Eisner Strick.  It was a fantastic class!  I fell in love with twisted stitches.  I came home and designed a pair of socks to make using the technique from class.  Maybe I'll post it someday.

Anyone who has gone to Knitter's Connection knows that they give out some fantastic goodies.  Included in this years bag were 3 skeins of yumminess.  I don't know yet how I'm going to use them.  I'll have to look for ideas on Ravelry.

While at the market, I splurged a little.  Not quite as much as I could have.  The qiviut was very, very tempting but I didn't have $175 on me to buy a skein.  I will own some qiviut someday.  As God is my witness, I will!  What I did get is this:

A skein of bison to make a hat for Ed.  Our anniversary is in September.  Hope to have it done by then.

Here is a skein of Footnotes from Fiber Optic.  I'm going to make the socks I designed with this.  Stay tuned!

Even though I resisted the siren song of the qiviut, I couldn't pass up the baby alpaca roving.  I bought a total of 8 ounces.  It is going to get shipped to my sister Patty who spins.  I'd like her to make it into laceweight.  To bribe her for this little favor, I'm sending along some Chocolate Kisses.  Not the kind from Hershey, but rather another skein of FootNotes from Fiber Optic.

Among all this shopping therapy, I have been doing some knitting.  The girls asked me to make them each a tank top.  I started with Kristin's.  I'm up to the bodice area on hers.  I took some liberties with the fourth section.  I figured any lacey pattern will do as long as it matches the stitch count.  I'll probably vary Trisha's also.

Unsolicited Advice

I really don't have a thick skin.  When people say mean and hurtful things to me I take it very deeply.  I wish I were different.  I know I should just brush it off and not let it bother me.  But I can't do that.  Sometimes there is a certain level of guilt that I feel if there is even a smidgen of truth.  I wish I were more able to take a deep breath and move on.  Today was one of those days that painfully reminded me about how personal I take some remarks.

We've had a green ash tree in our front yard.  This year, only half the tree leafed out.  The other half seemed to be struggling.  This tree hasn't been right for several years and it looked like this year was going to be its last.  A couple weeks ago one of the neighbors stopped Ed and commented about the tree.  This neighbor feels it is her place to point out to the rest of us when our yards don't meet her standards.  Now I have to admit her yard looks very nice.  Her husband works on it every day.  But not everyone has a green thumb, nor do they have the time or desire to work on their yards every day.  Now Ed and I don't have green thumbs.  We don't have the eye to create an asthestic border or coordinate shrubs and perennials.  Our landscaping is more utilitarian.  It frames the house without being the showcase.  We also don't have a lot of time.  Our kids are still at home.  WE both work full time, plus some.  And our hobbies lie in other areas.

Last weekend Ed and I worked on cutting the tree down until a huge storm rolled in and we called it a day.  A third of the tree was left. Given all the rain we've had it was really the first chance we've had to do any outside project.  While I was bundling the branches I was looking for evidence of what might have killed the branches.  I did not seen anything that was classic symptoms of the Emerald Ash borer, although I suspect that's what it was.  My neighbor thinks so too.  She gave me an earful this morning about getting the rest of the tree down.  She doesn't want her best tree to get infected from our tree.  I told her that her tree is very possibly already infected.  My college roommate is a forester and has worked on the EAB project for over 10 years.  She tells me that the only certainty is that all green ash trees will be gone because of this pest.  Its only a matter of time.  Anyway, after I got the EAB lecture from my neighbor, she then comments about the weeds in my flowerbeds.  And if that wasn't enough she made some remarks about my girls and the fact that my younger daughter is hanging out with my older daughter and her friends occasionally.  She also threw in a remark that I should start making my kids do yardwork to clean up the weeds. 

That's about the point I almost lost it.  After she pointed out how nice the neighbor's yard was, I took a deep breath and walked inside.  That was about 11:00 this morning.  As you can tell I'm still obsessing a bit and not over my anger.  I've decided that she is nothing but a bully and I'm her target. One of these days I'll muster up the courage to tell her off.    Maybe I should make sure I'm wearing my new T-shirt next time I see her.