Risking It

I’m running late again. My MIL was buried this morning. It was a quick event but we’d received a text warning us of traffic in the area due to an accident. This caused us to rush getting ourselves thrown together and out the door. We arrived early. Evidently the accident had been cleared and the traffic recovered quickly.

Hopefully Sharon from Security has no knowledge of my blog and I won’t get a citation for posting a photo of my Secret Handshake MKAL cowl. This is the first time I’ve shared a full photo on the blog. The last clue, which I’ll start today, was released Friday so I suspect the hardcore MKAL participants have finished and won’t find my post a spoiler.

I’ve really enjoyed knitting this pattern. Each row is knit with one yarn. All the colorwork looking stuff is done with slip stitches. Many of these stitches are new to me so the whole thing has been a learning adventure. The color vibe is a bit 70’s. The dark color at the bottom of the photo is brown, not the dark green it appears to be. Overall I’m enjoying everything about this project even if it sits way outside my comfort zone.

Monday Excitement

I overslept just enough this morning that I’m running a bit behind. I had trouble falling asleep last night because I am so looking forward to a Zoom visit with my knitting friends. I used to do it as a kid too. I was probably the only kid who had to be woken up on Christmas morning.

Anyway, this is my rudimentary set up: 3 puzzle boxes and an iPad. N is using the dining room table for school today so I’m using the coffee table. This is one of the few times I’ve wished I had a kitchen table in the kitchen. The other was when my kids were little and needed homework supervision while i was trying to fix dinner.

There will be a row or two put on the blanket I hope and then I’ll go back to the cowl and finish the third clue. I’m so close to starting the final one. I can’t wait!

Enjoy your Monday! I hope you have something to be excited about.

Travel: A Blogville Challenge

We are all pretty much trapped in our own little space these days while the world goes on. I was lazing on the couch with the TV paused when the screen saver popped on showing me photos of all different beautiful places. It got me thinking, where would l like to go if I could blink myself there. I am putting out a challenge to Blogville: Where would you like to go if you could blink* yourself anywhere?

I would go here: Peggy’s Cove Nova Scotia.

My parents, H and I took a brief trip to Nova Scotia in the early 1990’s when we lived in northern Maine. I remember my first view of this quaint fishing village. It felt like home. I wanted to immediately move into one of the little houses along the water and never move. Whenever I want to be somewhere else I think of Peggy’s Cove. So Blogville, where do you want to go?

* Travel by blinking is safe for Covid times. There are no airports, airplanes or long car rides requiring rest stops.

And I’m Back

Yes, that is a fudge covered Devil Dog. It was the required purchase this week. Some people use alcohol or drugs as a crutch, I use fudge covered Devil Dogs.

We survived the family events of this week. There was only a little drama and one ER visit* so all in all things went as well as can be expected. Wakes and funerals are difficult in the best of times but adding Covid makes for unbelievable events. No touching, hugging or coming within 6 feet were the rules, they were broken repeatedly by every person in the room. If this was a review I’d have to say “I do not recommend if I could give it zero stars I would.”

There has been very little knitting. I did a few rows on both the blanket (I did learn the baby is due Thanksgiving week- I have plenty of time to procrastinate a little.) and the Secret Handshake cowl. That’s it in the background. The fourth and final clue was released yesterday. I am still on clue 3. I’ll be concentrating on it for the next few days.

There won’t be any knitting until this evening though. N has a cross country meet this afternoon. It’s an away meet and since buses are a no go we will be driving him.

*My BIL had a kidney stone. He did not pass it but it seems to have slipped back into his kidney. He somehow managed to make it through.

WIP Wednesday: Reluctant Model Edition

See the furry black foot at the top of the photo? Myles was happily laying under the two blankets but moved the minute I grabbed my phone to get a photo. He moves now the minute I pick up my phone. I suspect he thinks I’m leaving. I don’t think he understands the whole photo thing. Though maybe he’s just shy.

I’ve been enjoying the mostly mindless knitting of the blanket. I’ve added two inches since the other day. The other two WIPs, the shawl and cowl, haven’t been touched in days though the shawl did get a ride in the car Monday.

By way of reminder, the blanket is my variation of Malt by TinCanKnits. I’m doing a center of garter stitch with a border of stockinette and an edge of garter stitch. I’m really only using the numbers from Malt and the general idea. The yarn is Plymouth Encore in gray that I got from my mother’s neighbor. She was given 9 trash bags full of yarn and passed them along to me because all the skeins had some percentage of wool.

A Q & A With A Side Of Knitting

Look! I worked a few more rows on the blanket. It’s about 31 inches wide and 16 inches long so I’ve just passed the halfway point. This leaves me hopeful but I’ve got to knit at least a handful of rows every day if I’m going to finish before the baby arrives.

After a weekend spend doing things that I find annoying I thought it would be fun to talk about things that annoy us. I thought it would be fun to do it as a quiz.

Feel free to answer in the comments or leave a link if you’ll be answering on your blog.

Here are the questions:

• I have more than my fair share of faults. I’m sure everyone has one or two. I find one of mine particularly annoying. What is your biggest fault that you care to admit to?
• Is there something you have to do that really annoys you? Maybe you would never do it again if you could?
• When it comes to your crafting, what is the thing about it that annoys you the most?
• Does your significant other annoy you at times? What annoyance about them would you change?
• The whole Covid pandemic has been difficult. What has annoyed you the most? Is there something that others have complained about that you find is a positive?

Here are my answers.

• I could write a book of my faults but the one that annoys me more than any other is the fact that I hate doing things (like clean the house) that have to be done again quickly. I can literally wash every dish in my sink (we have no dishwasher-a minor annoyance except at holidays) and 5 minutes later there are more dirty dishes. Never ending chores are so annoying and I can’t stand them! I’ll leave them until the last possible second and then it’s twice the work and triple the annoyance.
• I don’t like to dust. I would never dust again if I could. It piles up though and once it’s disturbed I have to dust.
• I have a few annoyances with the crafty stuff. First, I can never find what I’m looking for. Be it yarn, needles or a pattern, it’s always a hunt and I have been known to just give up and buy another set of needles. It’s wasteful but it saves my sanity. Second, I’d really like to learn to sew. I have a decent sewing machine and my junior high home economics skills but I suck at it. It annoys me that every single time I try to sew something I end up with a barely passable item. I’ve got a ton of beginner tutorials saved on Pinterest but I just can’t convince myself to sew napkins or pillowcases as a way to get better.
• Of course The Husband annoys me at times. The one big one that I’ve learned to live with is he can’t get anywhere without directions. We can go the same place three or four times and he still needs me to tell him which way to go. Did I mention that he was a navigator in the Air Force? When he got his car he had to have a navigation system. Ironic isn’t it?
• Oh Covid. There are so many things to be annoyed about. My biggest annoyance is the fact that no one cuts the folks in charge any slack. This is a first in my lifetime: a global pandemic with a virus that doesn’t behave like a standard virus. We are all learning on the job and when we know better we do better. Lots of mistakes were made at all levels. The fact that a health issue has been turned into a political issue is just plain wrong. Nothing is more important than people’s health. My positive is being at home. I know a lot of people have missed their usual social interaction. While I have missed taking a vacation or going to eat in a restaurant, I have a new appreciation for being at home.

Again, feel free to answer in the comments or leave a link if you’re answering on your blog.

This Post Brought To You By The Number Three

We are enjoying a Monday holiday today. I love a three day weekend. I spent the weekend catching up on things I don’t particularly like to do. There was cleaning-yuck! Then I spent time tinking back on the shawl. I don’t like tinking back on a project that has k2tog and kfb at the end of rows. They aren’t easy to remove. I got the rows, there were three, undone and reknit.

I rewarded myself by completing the first section of the third clue of the Secret Handshake Cowl MKAL. Maybe last today I’ll get to the second section.

Then I did three rows of the baby blanket which required adding the third skein of yarn. I had thought four skeins would be enough to complete the blanket but now I’m thinking five. This is making me a little nervous since the baby is due next month and I haven’t reached the halfway point. I’m going to have to reorder my knitting priorities.

How’s your weekend? Did you get to get some things done? Did you get some crafting in?

Ain’t She Pretty

First thank you so much for the condolences. They are much appreciated.

The photo is the new furnace. She’s a beauty and she cranks the water up really hot. The guys doing the install did a great job and even swept the floor. I’ll really appreciate her when the temperature drops below 20F and there is a blizzard blowing outside.

Even with all the waiting while the furnace was installed I got no knitting done. I made some beef stew which we enjoyed with biscuits for dinner. Today brings the first cross country meet of the season. After that I predict a quiet afternoon of knitting and if I’m feeling it maybe I’ll bake an apple pie. It’s a three day weekend so I’ll have plenty of time to squeeze everything in.

How are you spending your weekend? I hope you enjoy it.

Embracing The Pattern

When I knit a pattern, this one is a 4 row repeat where the odd numbered rows are the same and the even is slightly different but completely different than the odd, I often shorten it to a few words in my head. It’s my shorthand of knitting. Unfortunately when I get going sometimes the words I pick for my shorthand cause me to make a mistake. I may have a mistake in the stitch pattern here but since the stitch pattern isn’t readily visible and the stitch count is correct I’m going with it. It doesn’t matter. The overall visual will be the same.

The color of the yarn in this photo may be the closest to correct. Maybe it has a teeny bit more yellow, a buttery yellow not a bright sunshine yellow.

My MIL passed away yesterday after a long slow decline. While we are saddened by her passing, we are glad she is no longer in pain. I may or may not be around every day. It depends on where we are needed.

Good News Bad News

Good news first. I finished the second clue of the Secret Handshake MKAL. I don’t want Sharon from Security, the cat running the MKAL, giving me a citation so I’ll post a link here to the photo if you’d like to see it. It’s on Ravelry. I’m pleased with the way it’s coming out though the colors are brighter than I would ordinarily use.

The bad news is that our furnace is a goner. There is a crack in the top so the steam that should be heading through the pipes to our radiators is just going up the chimney. Tomorrow the new one will be installed. I’m thankful that we are having to do this in October and not February like we did last time.