In Which I Am Feeling Unstable

Hello there!  I hope all of you in the U.S. had a good Labor Day weekend.  Ours was for the most part uneventful, but the highlights were my successful crockpot dinner of minestrone on Saturday, and our trip to Nockamixon State Park for the day on Monday.  Most of the weekend was rainy, but Monday was one of those perfect days, and we had a great time hiking around, and then ending the day at the pool.

On Saturday, I finished the first of my pair of socks using the Solar pattern.  It took me a while, with my arthritis flareup, but I'm really pleased with how the first one turned out.  Here you will see one of my assistants checking for mistakes ...

I have yet to cast on the second sock, mostly because my arthritis is acting up again due to too much knitting over the weekend.  No one's fault but my own.

Rest assured, the other assistants also were busy.

I am currently having one of those weeks/times when you are fine, nothing much is going on, but you are unable to really concentrate on much of anything for any length of time.  I started a book, and I know I'm gonna like it, but I put it aside until I *must* read.  Right now my reading consists of looking at magazines and being able to handle the short articles.  My knitting is currently non-existent, between the discomfort and my lack of interest/concentration.  I'm trying to just ride it all out, but I'm feeling really out of it, and am with it enough to have it be annoying!

I did manage to revisit my Scattered Wishes shawl over the weekend, and make progress on the lace border past where I had to rip out and start over, so that was a good feeling.  (Until I realized that I'd done myself no favors by doing that much knitting.  Sometimes it's like I'll never learn.  Eejit.)  It's looking nice, but I didn't take any photos because at this point the stitches are so shmushed onto the needle, you can't really tell quite what it is supposed to be.  :-)

Summer Book Bingo 2017 ended and I didn't even have a single bingo.  Such is life.  I enjoyed it for the most part, but I'm not sure I'll do it again, at least not at this point.  I'm glad I branched out in some of my reading, but I guess the whole thing just didn't "click" for me.  Which is fine - some things I glom onto, and others, not so much.

This coming weekend is the New Jersey Sheep and Fiber Festival.  We went a couple of years ago, and it was a lot of  fun.  It's quite small, but perfect for spending a good portion of a day.  I'm not sure if we'll be able to go this weekend or not, but if you are nearby, it's worth a visit.  And yesterday I found out about the existence of the Lehigh Valley Fiber Festival; I was not aware of this event before, so maybe we can check that out.  It would not be that far from us, and at that point in September would probably be a lovely drive.

And that's it for now.  What are you up to?  Any fiber events coming your way anytime soon?

Pie Day

Not to be confused with Pi  Day (March 14) ...

My mother was not much of a cook, though she loved to eat.  But once every summer, she would make a lemon meringue pie.  It was a *big* deal.  And always yummy.

The other day I stopped at the market near our house for a few things, and I saw that they had a box of Lemon Pie filling.  Hm, I thought - I have a pie crust in the freezer, and I'm home this week, maybe I'll make a lemon meringue pie.  So I bought it, and today turned out the be the day.

It doesn't look as nice as my mom's used to - she was really good at getting super high peaks on her meringue, and successfully spreading it so that no filling was visible.  But I think I did a pretty good job for my first attempt.  We'll have some later, and hopefully it will be good.  I already remembered one ingredient she would use that I forgot, but I'm hoping it will still be OK.  Lemon meringue pie always makes me think of summer.

This week has been OK, so far.   Monday afternoon we took Milo the Koodle to the vet for a checkup.  We've been so busy with Dug and then Jetsam the past couple of years, that it had been a while since any of the others had gone.  We were trying a new vet, and hoping for the best.  Milo was so freaked out, that when we put him in the carrier, he expressed his anal glands.  OH MY GOD THE SMELL!!!  Fortunately, the vet cleaned him up.  He got his shots, and was declared in good health.  Of course they made a huge fuss over him, which he loves.  And his report from the vet said he was "a good boy."  PUH-LEEZE.

Yesterday was just a terrible day. First thing in the morning I got awful news (nothing health-related, don't worry) and frankly it just ruined my whole day.  I couldn't stop crying.  I don't mean to be vague, but I just can't talk about it right now.  By the end of the day I was OK again, but it was one of those days that was so humid, it was unbearable. So unfortunately, it was a lost day.  

We had crazy loud and violent rainstorms overnight.  I was having trouble sleeping anyway, so I sat up watching most of the night.  Needless to say, I'm tired today!  But it was a day of doing stuff around the house, baking, cooking, and things like that.  The weather today was gorgeous, so we had a pleasant walk this afternoon, and will likely sit in the garden for a good part of the evening.

Tomorrow - a beach day!!  YAY!!

I've also been knitting away, and yesterday I finally swatched for my summer sweater top.  Ahem.

I finished one book today, and started another.  Though I have a few squares on my Book Bingo card filled, I'm not anywhere close to having a completely filled card like some other participants.  But I'm OK with that, because I wasn't thinking it was a contest, and I just wanted to see what I would be able to accomplish.  There's still a week or so left, so who knows, I may have more than I think by the time it's all over.

So it's been a week when I am more than happy to not be at work, especially yesterday.  Now the weather has improved, which helps everything anyway, so it's all good.  

How has your week been?