Maybe This, Maybe That ... Oh, Something Shiny!

That's me these days.  I think I've decided on something to do/wear/make/watch, and then I hear about something else, and go to that, and then - SHINY!! - and I'm off again.  Which for the purposes of today's post is the same thing as saying I am neither unraveled nor raveled ...

Knitting-wise, I'm still working on the socks I showed in this post, and have the toe to do on one sock, and the leg and toe on the other, so those are going along very well, thank you.  But I finally decided that I wanted to start knitting a sweater, which OK, good decision, Bridget.  And I had enough yarn purchased long ago for about three different patterns, so it was deciding which to choose.  Two of the patterns were for heavier weights, and I just wasn't feeling that, so I decided on a fingering weight sweater that I've wanted to knit for a while, because I've liked all that I've seen that have been knit by other people.

So I *thought* I had decided to go ahead and give the Pavement sweater a try, and figured I would wind the yarn and swatch this weekend.

But then yesterday, I was watching the Flame and Fiber podcast, and she showed her recently started Carina sweater, and then I was like, WAIT MAYBE THAT'S THE ONE.

I can't even say, well, if I go ahead and make X, I already have the pattern, so I don't have to pay for a new one, but I already had both patterns.  And I realize that whichever one I make now does not mean that I can't ever make the other one.  But that's NOT THE POINT, people!!

This indecision has been good for me, in that it has meant the aforementioned socks have been getting a lot of attention, which is why I've made such progress.  :-)

Reading-wise, I finished a book called The Wonder, by Emma Donoghue, over the weekend, and have been spending a ridiculous amount of time deciding what will be next.  I've dipped into a couple of things, but nothing has grabbed me yet.  I have to say that this aggravates me more than deciding on a sweater.  I think because I have the socks to work on in the meantime, but I'm not currently reading anything other than articles, news, etc. and that is just not fair!

Hopefully, if you head over to Kat's blog, you can see that others are being more decisive than I am (not that it would be hard).

***

Back to knitting for a moment - I have a funny story.  You may or may not recall that we have a craft group at work that meets twice a month.  It's open to any interested parties, even those who may not really be crafty but would like an actual break in the day (we meet at lunchtime, and there are a lot of "I don't have time for lunch" types who drive the rest of us crazy).  

So yesterday was one of our meetings, and a woman who comes every time and brings treats ("baking is MY craft") was there, and she started saying that she just might want to learn to knit.  Then she said, "I'm guessing I could save a lot of money knitting my own stuff," and then of course the discussion began.  At one point, one of the guys said, "If I thought someone was getting a living wage, maybe it wouldn't bother me to spend money on clothing and such.  But since a lot of clothes are made in sweatshop conditions, I'd rather spend the money on fabric and make as much of my own stuff as possible," and pretty much everyone both understood what he was saying and agreed.  

And then our baker said, "So here all of you are, knitting, sewing, etc., and none of you are being paid a living wage, either."  The room burst into laughter - not because we are happy to be paid poorly, but because she was actually making a good point!  Then of course we all had to "thank" her for bringing down the room, etc.  

Trust me, it really was funny.  :-)

OK, that's it for today.  I hope your Wednesday is a good one.

Mixed Bag Weekend

Hello again on a Monday.  And a rainy Monday to boot.  Ugh.  It's rainy and it's too warm and it's Monday, and I feel cheated out of my winter weather.  I mean, I only do my best to put up with summer because I figure it's a tradeoff for winter.

But I am certainly not in charge of the weather, so time to move along, right?

How was your weekend?  Mine was definitely a mixed bag.  Friday morning we woke up to some awful news.  If you have read my blog for any amount of time, you may remember that there was a year when The Tim was a permanent substitute teacher in the Philadelphia public school system.  He had a class of fifth-graders all year, and he loved it!  Well, Friday morning on the news they reported that a young man who was a popular chef at a neighborhood restaurant had been shot and killed while sitting in his care outside the restaurant.  Once they said the name, The Tim realized it was one of his former students.  This kind of thing is always sad and frustrating to hear, but when you know the person it adds a whole other level.  So if you are a praying type, please say a prayer for Quadir and his family and friends left behind wondering what happened.

Saturday, I convinced The Tim that we should head out and go to what I thought was a Michael's craft store not that far from us, that is also near to a Home Despot (as it is known in our house) and a Lowe's.  The Tim always finds a reason to go to one of those places.  But when we got there, the store that I thought was a Michael's was in fact a former A.C. Moore, and now closed.  Whoops.  

The rest of the day was just spent doing and not doing stuff at home.

Sunday turned out to be beautiful - cool and very very sunny!  Hamlet and I had a couple of really good walks, and even met a couple of very young and adorable puppies on one of them.  I finished a book that I was reading, and then I finally started on something that I had wanted to do for a few weeks, but just never got around to doing - I cooked ahead!  By the time I was finished, I had two casseroles of stuffed shells with spinach (one went into the freezer right away), and a huge pot of veggie beef and peppers that can be served over rice, noodles, or mashed potatoes.  

We had one of the casseroles of stuffed shells last night, and not only were they yummy, but we have enough leftovers for yet another dinner later this week!  I realized after the fact I could have put some of the beef and peppers in the freezer as well, but I'm not gonna beat myself up since I got so much accomplished.

And - when I walked over to the market for a couple of ingredients for my cooking, there was a table where some young girls were selling Girl Scout cookies - Thin Mints for the win!

So although the weekend started sadly, and there was an undercurrent of sad the whole time, it really ended up being OK, which when you think of it is how life turns out.  

This week we see the arrival of Valentine's Day on Friday, which is also the birthday of our Pip!  So we will be celebrating at our house, and it's also a long weekend here in the U.S.  I'm glad to have something good to anticipate all week long.  :-)

I hope you had a mostly good if not all good weekend, and that this coming week will be nice to all of us.  Even if the rain continues to annoy me ...

Weird Week

What a weird week I've had.  Nothing incredible or world-changing, just weird.  Does that ever happen to you?  A week that is not really awful, not really great, but just ... odd? 

Nonetheless, it's Friday, so at least the weirdness didn't somehow cancel that! 

I had a major knit fail this week.  I mentioned that I was doing a test knit.  I don't want to give more details, since the pattern is not out, and the designer told me that two other test knitters were having the same issue, so she wanted to take a new look at things.  To be honest, I know that in my case, it's a matter of just not being able to wrap my brain around a certain set of instructions, no matter how many times I try to figure it out.  I have watched about 5 different videos on YouTube by different people trying to explain it.  It's one of those things that my brain understands all of the words, but I can't translate them into being able to work the process with my hands.  So that process may be for another time.  A few years ago, I could not "get" the action/concept of Wrap and Turn, but when I made my Neverender sweater last year, my brain was able to make my hands get it to work.  Anyway, I feel bad in that I will not be able to knit the item anytime soon, but it's not because I didn't try, so it's all good.

I went back to my stripey socks for comfort.  :-)

I also have another small and quick project I want to try, but I do not have the shade of yarn I need in - of all things - cotton/dishcloth/that kind of yarn.  I have many other colors, but the project needs a specific one, so hopefully I can have a chance to get my hands on it sooner rather than later.  I tried it with some wool yarn leftovers I had, but it just didn't work out the way it should have.  More on that if/when I get the right color!

Planning-wise, I'm still trying to get my brain organized to decide what the next few projects will be whether knitting, stitching, or sewing.  I had planned to do it before, but my brain was too busy flitting around to everything and anything.  I *think* I'm in the right mindset to try this weekend, so it's time to give it a try again. 

According to the weather guy on TV this morning, the rain is supposed to stop around lunchtime today, which will be a nice change.  He also said next week should be rainy again, and honestly, that's just annoying.  I like rainy days now and then, but 3-4 days of rain in a row start to make me stabby.  Plus, I am annoyed that we have not gotten a single flake of snow this winter.  No, I do not want a blizzard that closes everything down for a week, but a nice decent snowstorm would be nice.  Who wants winter without any snow at all?  You can move south for that ... (though of course they are actually getting snow!).

Regardless of weather, I hope everyone has a good weekend and has the chance to spend some time doing what you like, rather than what everyone else wants you to do!  See you next week.  :-)

Just This Guy

 ... and his perfect name, given his profession.

First February Weekend

Happy February!  I know that a lot of people do not like this month, but I happen to really enjoy it.  There's Groundhog Day and James Joyce's birthday on the 2nd, and St. Blaise Day on the 3rd.  Of course, for football (or I guess commercial fans), also the Super Bowl.  Then there's Valentine's Day, which is also Pip's birthday, and this year, Leap Day on the 29th.  Seriously, what's not to like?

We also have a some other family birthdays and an anniversary, and a long weekend for Presidents' Day.  It all works for me, I have to say.  :-)

I didn't have anything specific planned for this past weekend, which meant that anything I did or did not want to do was reliant only on my feeling about it.  I have to admit that I was lazy a lot of the time, but I did start another pair of socks.  I got a cuff knit on Friday night, and then would just sit down and work on them when I had some time over Saturday and Sunday.  So imagine my surprise when I realized yesterday, that in just two days, I'd knit the legs of both socks!

I think some of it was that I was in the mood to just knit and watch shows or podcasts, and also that self-striping yarn gets me every time - you know, the "just another stripe" syndrome.  This is Knitpicks Felici sock yarn, in the Goth Kitty colorway.  I saw someone online using it a year (2 years?) ago, and was lucky enough to snag some the next time it was available.  Then of course, it apparently had to age before I actually felt inspired to use it ... I'm having fun knitting these, and no, I don't care that they will be fraternal socks.  I'm also trying an experiment with this pair, which I'll report on once they are finished and I've had a chance to try them on. 

You may remember I said I would be starting a test knit.  Well, I actually had to order a skein of mohair for that project, and there was a mess up in the shipping, so it will be delivered today.  As a result, I do not currently have anything to show related to that.  Stay tuned if you want to see how that goes.

I've also been giving some thought to what I might want to knit (other than socks of course, which are always part of the mix), sew, or stitch.  I need to get that more organized so I can actually get going on some of those projects. 

I only saw the first half of the Super Bowl last night, but I was very happy that Kansas City won.  I was not overly invested in it, but I wanted Andy Reid who coaches Kansas City and who used to be the coach of the Eagles, to get a win.  He always seemed like a good guy.  And I have to say, it was nice for there to be a Super Bowl without the Patriots for a change.  (Sorry, Patriots fans.) 

I didn't see very many of the commercials, but I have to tell you that the campaign commercial for The Man Who Currently Lives in the White House infuriated me.  It was bragging about how he was instrumental in getting an woman who was in prison unjustly released.  Which, OK, fine, and good for her and her family.  BUT - when the tag line was something like, "Donald Trump reunites families," I nearly went through the TV.  Tell that to people in cages and children separated from their parents at the border.  REALLY.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. 

Moving on.

As far as I know, nothing out of the ordinary is going on with us this week.  The guy on the weather report this a.m. predicted rain or the never-popular "wintry mix" for most of the week, which is annoying enough, but even worse when you would like just one decent snowfall for the winter, and all you get is rain or that slop.  Today is actually cool and sunny, so I'd better enjoy it I guess.  ;-)

Have a good week, no matter what the weather decides to do!