Contrary to rumors, I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I’m still here, just got sidetracked a bit over the past two months. Here’s a recap:
I worked a lot in March and April. Busy, busy, busy. Things have started to slow down a bit in the hospital since the warm weather (all the way up to 56 F so far today!), so I’m getting a little more accomplished outside work.
No exciting trips! Actually, not even any boring trips. We have a couple things later this year that I’ll tell you about as they come up, but now is just the best time to stay put in the Pacific Northwest. Flowers are blooming, the trees are all leafed out. Remember the ice storm in January that took out a big old maple in our back yard? We planted a cute little new tree to replace it (little is the operative word here).
It’s a Stewartia pseudocamellia. No, I’d never heard of that either, but they do well here apparently, and will fit better into this space than a huge canopy tree. And it won’t drop those little wingy things all over the decks and roof like the big leaf maple did. It looks pretty pitiful right at the moment, so we got the bright idea to put a small Japanese maple tree in a pot on each deck.
Neither of those will get huge, but they disguise the neighbor houses a bit.
Let’s see, what else? Oh, I got a new computer. My ancient Mac has been threatening to bite it for the past year. It was so old that I couldn’t even get memory cards for it, even if I had wanted to update it. It also didn’t have enough oomph to handle any further upgrades to the operating system. Even though I had everything backed up and double backed up, I finally got nervous enough that it was going to die on me, and got a new Mac. Meet Bert*:
Why yes, there is a crown hanging off my computer. Why do you ask?
We’ve done assorted other fun things with friends and family, saw a few good concerts (Pink Martini, Arlo Guthrie, Mary Chapin-Carpenter). Oh, and there was the Kentucky Derby. We had mint juleps, and one of us dressed up. I don’t remember which horse won, but my, that hat is swell!
I’ve been in a bit of a knitting slump, but am getting back at it. I got a real bug up my you-know-what this spring to dredge out my office/loft. It was getting to the point where I had to almost crawl over stuff to get to the desk, so it was time to take action. I pretty much have it done, but it involved weeding out tons of books and junk, and getting rid of one of the desks, since I only really need one. I have some shelves coming next week to organize all my craft crap, and my goal is to have nothing on the floor except furniture. It’s already a huge relief to get rid of a bunch of clutter.
One benefit was finding and organizing all my knitting projects. I took photos, of course.
Everything is in its own bag, with the pattern and extra yarn. I bet you want to see them.
Sock-in-progress. Same old sock, the yarn is Tinsel Toes from the Unique Sheep shop.
Lewey thinks I should have finished that by now. He said, “Even I could knit a sock faster than that.”
Dog mittens, those have been in progress for years. They may get done someday. Actually, teaching the dog to knit might help.
Box full of little balls of sock yarn. Any guesses? Here’s another hint.
Hexipuffs!
Yes, it’s a Beekeeper’s Quilt. I’ve totally lost my mind. Somebody send me a virtual head-slap.
Ancient lace. That’s that Evenstar Shawl, which has been in a very long time out. It’s just too pretty not to finish it though.
More ancient lace. This one has actually seen some progress. It’s about half done. The pattern is Morning Glory by Anne Hanson.
True Blood Faery Ring sweater. It’s all done except the hood and button bands. My hard stop goal is to finish this to wear this fall/winter. Somebody remind me of this later when I’m screwing around starting new projects.
Speaking of which. The only logical thing to do when you’re bored with a million old knitting projects is to start a new one. Right? I thought you’d agree.
It’s a sweater. The yarn is Araucania Nature Wool that’s been marinating in the stash for years. The pattern is Corduroy from the book “A Fine Fleece” by Lisa Lloyd. It’s pretty mindless knitting so far.
Then there are the failures. Remember this?
This was a mystery knitting project that I started God knows when. I got this far and decided to be skeptical, and waited until the last clues were out. It did turn out to be a hat, but it’s something that I would never wear. Here’s a photo of a finished one.
Cute, but not for me.
So it sat around in a bag for a few months, until my cleaning frenzy. I ripped it out and wound it all up back into little balls.
I think those might make cute little hexipuffs, don’t you?
Enough already. I’ll try to be back before another two months goes by!
*The old one was Bert also. My laptop Mac Air is Ernie, of course.
