August means--startitis!

Had a serious startitis attack yesterday. Began a sweater and then a pair of socks on 1.5mm needles. Why? Because I finished two large circular shawls in the last few weeks and I'm not finding anything in the WIP pile that gets me excited. I'll get back to all you languishing projects, truly. But I need inspiration.

And how could I not find inspiration in Ann Hanson's Highlander? I have a merino and cashmere yarn to knit it in and found even the set up for the thing vastly entertaining.

The backdrop to the project was the movie My Dinner with Andre. Such a rant, so long, with the occasional interesting idea/notion tossed in to keep me from turning off the thing. Can't say I didn't like it (enjoyed wouldn't be the right word here) but can't say I did like it either. Mostly I'm puzzled about why anyone would bother, doing this as a rant and not a movie, exploring the ideas. Very odd experience listening to this rant, there was nothing to 'watch' which made it good for starting a knitting project.

The other project I started yesterday is a sock in a fine alpaca yarn, probably the needles are too fine, but I wanted to try them, so here we go.

Now off to the doc's to get blood work checked out and see if my blood pressure is behaving itself.
Likely not, I'm on my second cup of decaf this morning and that can't be good.

Where I've been

It has been a bit of time, months! since I've posted here. That's because I've started two new blogs on Wordpress: Memoir Creator and Elder Life Design. I've also been working on my website, which is due to launch in the next few weeks: Memoir Creator

The Memoir Creator link has a coming soon page for the moment, check back in mid-August for the real thing.

Lots of fun and a great deal of work as I build an on-line presence as a preliminary to an on-line coaching business.

Join me on the journey if that interests you.

Knitter credentials

I read many, perhaps too many, knitting blogs. There's one thing I'm now certain of. To be a real knitter (RK) you need at least one cat. While I love the feline as an idea, my asthma and a friend's deadly allergy, prevent me from enjoying the live in company of my own cat. I need a virtual cat, and have yet to find one that I find satisfactory.

What to do about my lack of official credentials as an RK? I've knit enough I do believe that I should qualify, even without a resident moggie. Do the cats in my yard count? I have several regular visitors who are very enamored of the space beneath my garage, which I suspect is overflowing with good moggie prey. Said moggies are less amusing when the spray my woodpile however. Just saying.

So what I wonder might be an acceptable alternative to having my own cat?

Suggestions?

I'm concerned, I do want to be considered a RK, especially as I spend many hours each and every evening, knitting my wee fingers to nubbins. Another lace shawl Girasole nearly finished, which will bring me to five shawls so far this year. The Girasole is knit in a fine mohair and is truly luscious as well as great fun to knit. Just finishing up the knitted border, probably at least two more evenings of this until I'm done.

The weather (summer?) has been lovely and cool (I know that I'm weird in this!) so knitting a mohair shawl has been a perfect enterprise these last couple of months. As the weather is apparently changing to warmer, I'll move on to something a little less cozy once this piece is finished.

There are, after all, another five or six shawls in the queue....

Back from Gatorland

Well I did it, managed to get myself organized, packed, out of here and home again without any major crisis, financial or otherwise.  I'm so very pleased because I had serious doubts I could manage this without a melt down. It's been a decade since I've travelled anywhere by plane and I've never been to the US except once for 20 minutes to visit a health food store just across the border back in the era where you were just waved through and back. And then the wave and smile were even reasonably friendly.

Now Gatorland, aka Florida where I did see a gator though it wasn't as easy a quest as one might think, is not my personal go to place for anything except my family: G, E and baby C. Yes it was warm, how could that much concrete not be warm? That is, miles of roads, malls and suburbs. I wouldn't want to be poor in that sort of environment or without a car. Can't actually see what all the fuss is about, when people go all gooshy about Florida, except of course in the middle of a nasty Canadian winter.  But did I enjoy myself? Oh yes, it was a very interesting experience of another culture and made me more aware of just what the difference between Canadian and American culture is.  

What made the whole thing amazing though was the time spent with my grandson,
son and daughter-in-law. How very very fortunate I am in my family and the love we share. I miss them all more than I can say and I wish we lived much much closer to each other. Maybe that will happen and maybe it won't, but I won't let another ten years pass without finding a way to spend time with them again, because hey, now I have a passport!

Hurray, it's March!

March seems a lot more hopeful than January or February, if for no other reason than it is the down side of winter and today, there were definite indicators that spring will get here eventually. It was 10C in Nova Scotia today, sunny and breezy too. That's enough to get me outdoors, ever hopeful that a walk is possible but since I dressed for the weather and not for March, I found my attempt at a beach walk was rather short, because the wind off the water, go figure, is cold. It was grand to be there though, however short the exercise portion of the expedition. Nice 'rollers' and good brisk sea-ish air completed the pleasures of the jaunt.

Working on my Pippa sweater and really enjoying the knitting of it even as I twitch about whether it will in fact fit me when it is done. Made a decision in my twitchiness to go up a needle size, so maybe I can settle down and just knit the thing. I'm knitting it in one piece until the armholes, though the pattern is written for separate pieces. Rather than doing all the shaping and fudging to get it to go together as it ought from three pieces, left, right and back, if I do it in one piece everything works out so much better and there's very little sewing at the end.

Only have the collar of the Rhinebeck sweater and the darning in of ends to finish. I'm really pleased with it. Will make it again with hand spun some time but there are so many other sweaters in Lisa Lloyd's book, A Fine Fleece that I want to try, it might be a while.

Have a cahjillion things I need to do before I go visit my son and his baby son and I'm about dizzy with the thought of it all. I have lists of lists. The real fun of course is juggling money and covering all the stuff that needs covering without enough money to do that and no income during the weeks I'm away from home. How nice is that? Trying hard not to think of that, but it isn't working and I'm wearing out my calculator trying to make things add up differently. We're at that definition of insanity where you try the same thing over and over and still expect a different outcome. Is that insane or faint hope? Or am I priming the pump until some creative fix arrives or I simply recognize that no, I can't pay that damn bill until some time in the future when income arrives. Reality sucks.

But hey, I can knit and spin for months yet and not be through all my projects or stash, which, you'll be happy to hear, means I won't actually go round the bend. Or not so much that anybody will notice or take alarm.

Six weeks into winter and counting...

There have been a few, a very few, bright sunny and above zero celcius days. I welcome such days. For some reason this winter seems unduly long and relentlessly cold. Perhaps I'm simply noticing it more because I'm home this year so have more time to notice many things. I'm not a fan of winter, mostly because I can't see what you can do outdoors in a world of ice and snow. I'm not the outdoors type so don't do winter activities such as snow-shoeing or skiing. Any walking that I consider is put on hold until I can take a simple walk to the corner post-box without falling and breaking something. Apparently it will be a while before that's possible.

Meanwhile indoor activities of the knitting and spinning sort continue to flourish. I'm making progress on a sweater that only needs the second sleeve and the button band/collar; have a new sweater begun, have a Shetland style shawl underway and the usual collection of socks. On the spinning wheel we are making good progress with the lace weight qiviut which needs to be done before I go on my 'winter' vacation later in March, so I can knit it up before the end of May.

More needs to be done in the work project department but as there is more light every day outdoors and faint hints of spring eventually, so too will my project revive and unfold. Everything in due course.

Ringing in the new...

Oh, that ringing isn't still happening is it? I mean it is now the 9th of new and the ringing should have stopped by now. Or you had some party.

I have yet to get the butt in gear to get real work done, but I'm making the approach. Or so I tell myself in response to the query: self, you working yet? So, okay, as far as approach--wow, that's taking tremendous effort.

It is cold which of course slows me down some too, but really, truthfully(!) everything slows me down and I have to get over myself and get at it. The 'it' in question being working on project tasks and preparing for website, workshops, and book completion. Sigh. You can see why I curl up in a ball next to the wood stove and wait for spring or inspiration, whichever comes first.

Caffeine does help, even though I have to adulterate my cuppa with the decaf variety to ensure I actually sleep at night. 

Ah, then there's the birthday on Sunday. Somehow that always requires a significant amount of self-reflection and noodling in notebooks and I'm at least making a bit of progress there. Perhaps though, because I've been doing that for so many, many years, even that particular pleasure pales a bit eventually. I've got a couple of days to go however so I may yet come up to standard on this.

In other news the root ball of the uprooted pine tree that blew over in a storm mid December is slowly making its way back into the pit created by the uprooting. A friend came by with a chain saw a couple of days ago and cut the tree from the root ball so the thing could fall back into place. A pit that size in one's yard is dangerous to small animals of the two and four legged variety.

This brisk January day requires that I make a thick black bean soup and I can hardly wait to enjoy that deliciousness. Of course I will need biscuits to go with it for the perfect lunch. Off we go to putter in the kitchen then...