Our peonies have been taking a bit of a beating with the windy days we’ve had, but I rescued these for the mantle.
Note the little Corgis. The little felted guy was made by one of our grandsons, using a photo of our previous corgi, Lewey. The other piece is a lovely Tasha Tudor corgi, sent to me by a fellow knitter, Robin.
Also note that both are safely out of reach of the Hankster.
“Who me??!!”
I think I’m the last person on Ravelry to finish one of these hats. There are over 10,000 projects for the Musselburgh hat pattern, by Ysolda Teague.
That is just the best hat pattern on earth. Here are the details:
Project Details:
Here’s a photo of the whole hat:
I do have a few more colors of this yarn in the stash. This hat is for me, but John tried it on, and he’s picked out his color.
Last but not least is Hank! He’s growing, learning, and in general being a whole lot of fun.
I’ve been studying French since I retired. I know, it’s probably somewhat useless. Given the current pandemic crap, I’m not likely to be traveling anywhere soon where I might actually use this skill.
It is definitely more challenging to learn a new language at nearly 65 than it is in high school. I’ve resorted to making flash cards. If you see me walking around muttering the days of the week to myself, I haven’t lost my mind. At least not yet.
It is Thursday, right? I’m a bit discombobulated this week. First there was the damned time change. I don’t care which “they” pick, I just wish “they” would pick one and stick with it.
Then I had my colonoscopy on Tuesday. Which meant both Monday and Tuesday were shot, and yesterday I was a bit befuddled as well. My sleep schedule had been a mess the past year with all the pandemic/work related anxiety, and it had just started to get back to normal before the time change.
I feel like I haven’t gotten anything done today, but I did start some sourdough bread.
It’s just plain old white bread, with flour, sourdough starter, water, and salt.
And I started a pot of black beans for tonight’s supper.
Isn’t that a pretty bean pot? It’s a Colombian-made Chamba pot, and it makes terrific beans and stews. Here’s another photo.
Now that the Blue Cloud Shawl is done, I’m on to the next lace thing. I have two lace shawls still in progress, both ancient. I picked the one that has been on the needles the longest, my Cathedral Stole.
According to Ravelry, I started that in 2016, so it is just freaking time to finish it. As usual, that color is way off. It is more of a deep scarlet red. Once we get some sunshine around here I might get a decent photo.
And the Blue Cloud is almost ready to come off the blocking mats. I may have a Finished Project for Friday.
…doesn’t necessarily stay in Bean Club. I’ve mentioned the Rancho Gordo bean club before. It’s a hot ticket item, and there is a perpetual waiting list to get a spot. With the pandemic, their regular store offerings also tend to sell out quickly. It’s a quarterly shipment of 6 pounds of beans (and occasional peas and lentils), along with fun stuff.
Of course you want to see it, right?
It also came with a jar of real Spanish paprika, and a fun gift:
It’s a bean passport! With stickers! And you guessed it, the Coronas are getting cooked today. Actually what’s cooking is a pound of Coronas from a prior shipment. These are huge runner beans, very creamy when cooked up. They are sort of perpetually sold out, but worth hoarding and eating.
Here’s what they look like compared to pintos.
I’m cooking those simply with some sliced onion, olive oil, and fresh herbs from the garden. I’m also cooking up a bunch of pintos to go into the refrigerator for later in the week.
I also buy a lot of beans from Purcell Mountain Farms. They have the Coronas in stock if you can’t wait!
RG also sends their branded tissue paper in the box with every shipment. Lewey isn’t sure about it, but he’s pretty cute in his tissue paper bandana!
I’m at THAT point in the sock. You know, the one where you try it on, it’s about an inch short of where you need to start the toe. You knit, knit, knit, try it on. It’s still an inch short of where I need to start the toe.
I am thoroughly enjoying my week off, staying at home. Don’t get me wrong, I love to travel, but hanging out with John, enjoying all the spaces and comforts we have at home has been great. It’s giving me a little taste of what retirement will be like.
Flat Ena is still visiting us. I don’t really remember when she is supposed to go home, but it’s not like we have to actually take her to the airport or anything. She has been the best visitor, quiet, doesn’t eat much, certainly doesn’t leave junk hanging around all over the house.
Today she got to go to the dentist with me.
This was a routine cleaning for me, which I scheduled six months ago. I thought about canceling it, but I have a history of bad teeth and dental problems, so keeping up is important. The dental practice that I go to is very on top of things, have adapted their clinic flow for the Covid-19 issues quite well. I’m glad I didn’t cancel, I felt very comfortable about being there. I have only been out of the house a couple of times (other than work) since March, so even going to the dentist was sort of an adventure.
Last but not least, a hint of things to come. I may have finished something.
Stay tuned!
I’m home on vacation this week. John’s sister Ena is supposed to be here this week, but the pandemic had other plans. I’ve had the vacation time blocked out for quite a while, and can’t turn it back in, so drat, I have to stay home. John and I find ourselves saying about every other day that this isn’t a bad place to be quarantined.
So that’s my plan up there. Reading, knitting, maybe a little spinning, and definitely some deck time. We’ve had a really cool and windy summer so far, but this week is supposed to be in the 80’s, so that works for me. If Ena was here she’d likely freeze to death. She lives in Georgia, and it has been getting down into the low 50’s here in the evening.
John’s son (who is a graphic designer) made a “flat Ena” so she could enjoy the vacation virtually. Here are a couple of photos.
She’s already had loads of fun!
That’s the sock in progress. I’m hoping to get more done on that today.
Last but not least, a friend gifted us with a big bowl of Gravenstein apples, so I am making this.
It is still in the oven, but it is starting to smell awfully good. We might just have that for supper tonight! And there will be plenty, since Ena doesn’t eat much!
I’m plugging away at my Hudson Valley cardigan. That’s the left front on top of the back piece. As you can see, I still have some “work” to do.
John thinks it is pretty amusing that I refer to knitting as “work”. Knitting is rather a worthy activity however. Perhaps it’s not as necessary as cleaning up the kitchen, or reading medical texts so I know what the hell I’m talking about at my job, but I do provide clothing and accessories for us to wear, even if it is at a glacially slow pace. If I sense that he’s getting annoyed that I’m knitting away whilst he is doing the dishes, I just pull out the sock I’m knitting for him and work on that instead. “Oh look! Here’s the sock I’m knitting for YOU!” It works sometimes.
Here is that sock.
That’s the second of the pair, so I don’t have much “work” to do to finish it.
And here is a close up of the lace on that cardigan.
The latest baby surprise project is in time out. The big center garter stitch piece is on a 16 inch circular needle until it gets bigger. Despite the fact that I’ve collected dozens and dozens of knitting needles over the years, I could only find ONE circular 16 inch needle in the proper size in my stash.
I don’t even know what brand those are, but it’s a 16 inch bamboo needle. I really am not a fan of bamboo knitting needles anyway, and this one has that damned little plastic bump at the join that is a major pain in the ass. So I have a replacement on the way, and this is in time out until it gets here.
The replacement needles on order are Lykke brand knitting needles. They are made of birch, and have perfect points, and nothing annoying at the join to slow down the knitting. I have a bunch of these in the longer circulars as well. I don’t use the shorter circulars very often, but they do come in handy for certain projects. Here’s what the Lykkes look like.
Sorry, you don’t get any better photo of that. I think we had our one day of summer sun yesterday. We’re back to overcast and barely 70 degrees today.
Oh wait, let’s try that again.
That’s better. I love these needles. I have a set of the straight needles also. I know, I know. I’m probably the last person left on earth that loves and uses straight needles.
Back to “work”.
Like most of you, I have a lot of time on my hands when I’m not actually at work. Like most of you (I suspect), I don’t have a lot of brain bandwidth for anything particularly complicated or challenging. I don’t want anything that will take up too much space in my brain, and I definitely don’t want projects that will require too much intellectual capacity.
So I finished the last book I was reading (The Master Butchers Singing Club, by Louise Erdrich–great book), and was rummaging around for a new fiction read.
I came up with this.
Right. That set has been on my book shelves for years, and I will eventually get around to reading it. But not now. I read a bit of the first volume, and put it quietly back on the shelf, then had a good laugh.
I chose the first of a new to me crime series, Michael Connelly’s The Black Echo. It’s perfect. Somewhat mindless, but not too much so. There is a murder within the first few pages, then the story spools out until I suppose Harry Bosch figures out who killed the guy. There are dozens more in the series, so I can just keep reading when I’m done.
I also don’t have much bandwidth for complex knitting. The lace has been neglected for weeks. Here are the current projects.
Two socks, both plain vanilla stocking stitch, a garter stitch Hitchhiker, and a garter stitch mitered square blanket. And a peek at the mystery white project, also currently in a garter stitch mode.
That should do it.
I’m pretty sure my Christmas cacti are actually the Thanksgiving variety. They are in full bloom. Here’s one of them.
The other one used to be all light pink.
I think there has been a little hanky-panky going on after hours around here.
By the way, I’m still only getting about 1 out of 5 comments emailed to me. I try to check back to see if anyone has commented, but if I miss one and don’t reply, that’s why.
I was shopping for a 2020 monthly calendar for my bullet journal today. I use sort of a free form blank page insert for my daily lists of things to do and notes, but like having a monthly master calendar to keep track of the major events of the year. I could make my own, but buy a two page per month pre-made dated calendar from Traveler’s, since I’m lazy. I’ve bought them on Amazon in the past, but their price markup has skyrocketed for these for some reason.
So I found Paper Seahorse. I’ll warn you now, don’t go there if you have a weak resistance and a ready credit card.
I did find the monthly inserts, at about half Amazon’s price. And a few other planner goodies.
And these:
They are little “business cards“ that you can fill out and give to those special people. Fortunately (I think), they are not in stock, or I’d be very tempted.
I dragged out all of the yarn boxes yesterday and sorted through some things. Doing this every now and then reminds me of how much lovely yarn I have, and reminds me as well (or it should) that I don’t need any more yarn.
Here are a few photos:
No, that is not all the boxes.
I don’t need any more lace yarn. That’s not all the lace yarn, either.
I apparently don’t need any more Opal sock yarn. There is more Opal squirreled away in other boxes as well.
Or Three Irish Girls sock yarn.
Or anything else, for that matter. I sorted out a few things to get rid of that I know I’ll never use, those are going to my knitting group today to see if anybody there wants them, or knows someone who will want them. I put a few things back in the boxes that I’m pretty sure I won’t use ever, but couldn’t part with (I’m looking at you, 1500 yards of black lace weight cashmere), but overall I have a pretty fine stash of lovely yarn.
Whilst I was rummaging around in the lace yarn, I found the leftover silk lace from my Evenstar shawl. There is plenty leftover, but I have no idea how much. I started with 150 grams, but I didn’t think to weigh it on the cone before I started knitting. So now I’m winding it off so I can weigh it. It’s fine enough that I don’t want to use my industrial strength ball winder, so I’m doing it the old fashioned way.
Please send whisky. This is a very tedious project.
*Stash fluffing: pulling the yarn out of all the boxes, admiring it, and imagining what it might be some day.
Well this just amuses me to no end.
I haven’t used nail polish in years, but one of my nieces is a stylist for Color Street nails. They’re basically stick-on nails, in lots of fun colors! These are a pretty close match to my knitting. Go check them out.
Ripley has definitely made herself at home. She and Zoe have become good buddies.
That’s a rare moment of quiet. They’re usually galloping around the house after each other.
My favorite place online to shop for pens and ink is Goulet Pens. An ad for a fun ink brand called Colorverse popped up earlier this week, and I couldn’t resist.
It comes in various color pairs, with out of this world names. The Schrodinger is a nice medium olive green, well saturated. I inked up my Visconti fountain pen, it flows nicely, but isn’t too wet. The other two colors I got were Crystal Planet, which is just one color, and Einstein Ring, another single color pair. A few of the colors, including Cat, have shimmer particles, so be aware of that. I usually don’t use those in my more expensive pens.