What I Knit in October, Part 2

Well, hello, and Happy Just-One-More-Day-Of-Political-Ads to those of us in the U.S! Not having to see another one, or receive flyers in the mail will be soooo nice.

Our weekend was pretty quiet. Our trip to IKEA to look at area rugs didn't happen, because The Tim didn't feel that great. Since we don't have to have rugs right away, it's no big deal that we put off going. Sunday was nice and chilly, really feeling like a fall day - so nice!

Anyway, I thought I'd show you what else I knit during the month of October. It started with these cakes of yarn:

These were going to be socks for me from the get-go.

Project: Apple Cider Socks

Pattern: My go-to vanilla sock pattern

Yarn: Legacy Fiber Artz Steel Toes, Micro-Sock Kit in the colorway Old Cider Mill

Needles: US size 1/2.25 mm

Notes: I thought this would be a perfect pair of socks to knit during the fall - the colors, the name of the colorway, it all just screamed fall to me. I thought I'd use some of the contrast yarn for some stripes near the top, and I like the way it looks. The sock itself is a 1 x 1 ribbed cuff, with a 3 x 1 leg and plain foot. I did a Shadow Wrap Heel on this pair - I'm trying to practice it, because it's nice to have some variety when knitting socks, and I have failed spectacularly at trying Afterthought Heels. 

I knit the first sock pretty quickly, and once it was finished, decided to put these aside and work on the Halloween Socks for The Tim, since those were on a deadline. My goal for these initially were to have them ready by Thanksgiving; but once I finished the other pair, I really wanted to try and finish them by the end of October - and I finished on October 30, so I had an extra "free" day! 😊

The Micro-Sock Set contains a 50-gram main color and a contrast color. I had most of the contrast color left, but this was the amount of yarn I had left for the main color:

I was sweating out the last couple of rounds, let me tell you! Not that it really mattered that much, since the socks were for me, and I had plenty of contrast yarn to finish the foot before knitting the toe. But the closer I got, the more I was hoping it would work.

The best part of this is that it means I have no partial skein left to add to my stash. It's a nice feeling to think I used all of the yarn for once!

I personally cannot believe that I knit two pairs of socks in a month - but I was motivated, and not working on any other things, so that combination made it all work.

So what's next? Well, I'm sure there will be another pair of socks coming up, since I like to have a pair going all the time. And I'm waiting for some needles I ordered to arrive so that I can move along on another project I've started. 

But more on that later. 

Have a good week, and if you are in the U.S., please remember to vote! People have died for that right, and worked hard to obtain it. And this election is too important to skip showing up at the polls.

Happy November! And, What I Knit During October, Part 1

Hello everyone and Happy November! I hope all of you surivived Halloween. Ours was quiet - not a single trick-or-treater. I blame the current state of the world. People are afraid to let their kids go trick-or-treating, and only allow them to go to parties, or do the Trunk and Treat thing which frankly I think is gross. I miss seeing the costumes so much, that was one of my favorite things.

Oh well, just another thing that apparently isnt' going to happen again around here. A friend of mine who lives in one of the fancy 'burbs said that they only had 20 trick or treaters. Which sadly makes me feel a little better - it's not just a trend in the "big bad city." 

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But onward to November and the coziness of it. I will especially enjoy it when November 12-15 is over. I have a colonoscopy on the 15th, and have to do the usual (for me) three-day prep. So other than those dates, bring on November!

I have a finished object to show you - actually one of two pairs of socks I knit during October, which is insane, because I seldom can knit one pair of socks in a month, but guess what? If you concentrate on a project, it gets finished - who knew?? 😄

It all started with this ball of yarn:

Project: Tim's Halloween Socks

Pattern: Plain vanilla sock pattern, based on this pattern, which is my go-to for basic socks

Yarn: Nox Yarn Mars Sock base, colorway is Potions Master

Needles: US size 1/2.25 mm

Notes: I've had this yarn in my stash for a long time, and every year would notice it either right before Halloween, or right after. This year, I made an effort to find it well in advance. 

My original plan was to make a pair of Halloween socks for myself. I was even going to use a pattern. So I got it going, and decided that with the way the yarn was dyed, the pattern would be completely lost. Since the pattern I was trying out used the number of stitches I generally use to make socks for The Tim, I decided to just knit a plain sock and give it to him for our anniversary, which is a few days before Halloween.

It's a 1 x 1 ribbed cuff, and then a 3 x 1 ribbed leg, with a plain foot. Shortly after starting these, I finished another project I was working on; I'd also completed one sock of a pair I was knitting for myself. So I decided to concentrate on these, since I had a deadline at the end of the month.

I finished them a week ago today, and I'm really happy how they turned out. And it's a shame that Nox Yarn is no longer dyeing, because this was lovely yarn to knit with, and makes a great pair of socks. 

They were gifted for our anniversary on Monday, and even though The Tim has been sitting *right next to me* for a lot of the time I was knitting them, he was completely surprised. Which works for everyone, right?

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Do you have any special plans for the weekend? We're headed to IKEA at some point to look for a couple of area rugs for our living room. We had our living room rug picked up for deep cleaning and storage last week (long story, I'm sure I'll tell it sometime), and would like to find a couple of smaller rugs for the living room until the big one is in use again. Other than that, I'm sure there will be a LOT of napping (The Tim), a lot of hilarity (the kitties), and a lot of knitting and reading (me). It's supposed to be cooler (thank the Lord!) this weekend, so it will be nice to just cozy in and stay in the house.

I hope your weekend goes well.  Rest up, because next week should be a long one, at least here in the U.S., with Tuesday being election day. I sincerely hope that you will cast/have cast your vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Because any other choice is unacceptable if you want to continue living in a country that you're not completely and totally ashamed of, with a vile creature deciding our futures ... or lack thereof.

And I believe that sincerely.

Take care.

Yep, They Went There ...

After the events of last weekend in the 'burbs near here, the Philadelphia Inquirer published this cartoon.

(Meanwhile, my friend Lisa has a son who is friends at his college with a single mom who works at McDonalds full-time and goes to school part-time. Her shift was cancelled that day because of the "event." Apparently she told Vince that "Even a day of crappy pay is better than a day of no pay." Sigh.)

May your weekend be completely uneventful, unless it's something good. 😊

Decorations and a Visit to the Vet's Office

If someone could contact the fall weather and ask it to please return, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

Well last week I finally got my act together and pulled out the Halloween decorations. I always try to have decorations up at *least* two weeks before whatever they celebrate, but sometimes I'm just not with it enough to get it together. 

Anyway, I pulled out these little ghost decorations, and they made me smile. You can't see it in the photo, but they have ribbons to use to hang them up. But what I like the best is that my nephew's wife had her kids help her make these and sent them to us years ago. At the time, the oldest kid was maybe about ten years old - she is now 24 years old.

But if you look closely, you can see that what they are are pieces of clay with footprints of each kid! Then Liesl (their mom) painted and glazed them, and voila - a family of ghosts! Isn't that cool? I just love the whole thing.

 

So they come out every year with the other random things we've collected for Halloween. 😊

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At the end of last week, I had an appointment to take Alfie to see the vet. He was overdue for a yearly check up anyway, but he has also been scratching his right ear a lot more than usual, so I was worried there might be a problem.

Now, you may remember that we refer to Alfie as our "affectionate weirdo." And he is - he's a cat who sincerely marches to his own drummer. For instance, he has no clue that the cat carrier is something to be dreaded. Which means when it's getting to be time to go, you pick him up and put him in it - no drama, no trying to escape. And then he sits there waiting to see what is next. (Meanwhile, the others who are not in the carrier are all hiding, and act scared the rest of the day, even once it's put away.)

When we got into the exam room, the vet said just to let him out of the cage to explore a bit. He was enjoying that, and then the vet teck lured him onto the scale to weigh him with one of those squeezy treats. Well, he LOVES those, so he was a willing participant - though it was funny, because he kept looking around while eating it. I'm pretty sure he couldn't believe he was getting one all to himself, since usually they have to be shared!

Then the vet and the vet tech wanted to go back into the lab to take a look at his ear culture. So they left the room for a few minutes. Which led to sitting by the door, crying because they had abandoned him ...

Spoiler alert: they did in fact return, and he has a slight bacterial infection in his ears. So we came home with ear drops to be given twice a day. But the good news was that once they returned, there was still time for some attention for Alfie, since as you have probably always suspected, he gets none at home.

To review:

Alfie had an adventure;

He got a whole squeezy treat to himself;

They left, but they came back.

As far as he was concerned, it was all good. And as to getting ear drops twice a day? Well, that ends well too, because after the ear drops, he gets a treat!

It's a good time around here to be Alfie, you know? 😉

Random Thursday

Hello there! I hope this finds you well, and taking the time to have a cup of tea or whatever your beverage of choice might be. I was in the mood to post, but had nothing specific to talk about, so today you are getting random things that have passed through my brain lately.

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It's so nice to have the fridge in the kitchen. But, out of habit, every once in a while when I go to grab something, I walk out into the living/dining area and then think to myself, right, it's not here anymore. 

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I am intrigued by people who go out in public wearing pajamas. Occasionally, when we had Dug and then Hamlet, I would see people walking their dogs early in the morning wearing pajamas, and a kinda/sorta understood that (though not really). But I'm talking about people who go to the grocery store, or the dentist - you know, places you'd expect to see people in actual clothing. Not that I am a fashion plate necessarily every time I leave the house. But I at least change out of my PJs.

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Yesterday I got my hair cut. The person who was cutting my hair was talking about people who come into the salon and pay many dollars to have their hair colored professionally. She was wondering aloud if they realized that these days, at-home hair color was really good. I found this fascinating, as I have never known a salon person before who said anything at all positive about do-it-yourself hair color.

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A woman who I used to work with and taught the basics of knitting posted a photo on Instagram showing her wearing a tank top she had completed. I commented that it looked great, and she sent me a private message thanking me for getting her into knitting. She said she took a break while her kids were little (she has three kids, only about a year apart), but got back to it and thanks to me, remembered learning the basics. I was happy to hear she was enjoying it. Because you never know when someone stops knitting if it was due to certain circumstances, or because they just didn't like the whole process.

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It will probably not surprise you to know that I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope that Kamala Harris is elected in November. REALLY. If I never have to hear about her opponent, see him (unless in prison stripes) or hear his voice again, my life will be a good one. Should things go south, I truly don't know what I will do. I am being 100 percent serious when I say that the four years that he was in office messed with both my mental and physical health in serious ways.

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At my volunteer gig on Tuesday, a guy came to look at all of the kitties available for adoption. He told me that he is trying to get a friend of his to adopt a cat, but she is hesitant because she has never had a pet. They guy and his wife have a cat and a dog, and he said he was never an animal person before he met his wife, but now he is in love with them. And he said that to him, the difference between dogs and cats is that "One is automatic love, and the other makes you earn it, every day." He's not wrong. 😊

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I am slowly trying to come to terms with the fact that I may never find another part-time job. I'm still applying, but, well, crickets. We are managing financially, though it's not ideal. And it's not like I long to be at work someplace full-time. Rather, I would like to be contributing something to our finances, because believe it or not, even my part-time pay previously made a huge difference for us. And having a part-time job assured that I would get out of the house and participate in society on a regular basis. Left to my own devices, I go for my walks every morning, and yes I *see* other people, but we don't really interact. Of course, I have my many health-related appointments, but they are not exactly something to look forward to doing.  Otherwise, I am at home, other than running errands, or going out to clean up some things in the garden. I am not a social person, in that I don't seek other people out - but I am glad to have my volunteer gig, so that I am around others and interact with them. And I know that especially as people get older, that's a good thing. 

I have decided though, not to count on finding another part-time job, because it was just making me feel more and more frustrated. I would apply for something, and then keep wondering why I never heard back, and drive myself nuts about it. If something works out, fine, but I'm no longer going to assume that there's surely something else out there. 

The good thing is that I have always been happy in my own company, even as a kid. And I have the cats to keep me on my toes. 😉 I just need to make sure that I don't turn into one of those scary old ladies that everyone wonders about and is slightly afraid of ... you know the ones.

(Though I doubt I could stand to have my hair so long ... 😂)