Glowing in the Dark

I thought I'd write a post for Unraveled Wednesday before I left for a dr appt.  I think I have *just* enough time.

So I have been reading a lot lately, and for the most part enjoying it.  I recently gave up on a book that so many others have liked, but hey that happens.  My current book is this one:

I am only a couple of chapters in, but so far it is keeping my attention.  Hopefully I'll want to keep reading, since I'm always annoyed when I decide to give up on a book - though at least now I know it's OK to do that!

Knitting-wise, I just finished the first sock of a pair, and am hoping that it's colorful enough ...

The Tim claims that I will glow in the dark when I wear these - he said I should save them for when the weather threatens a power outage.  😀  I'm really happy with how this one turned out, and especially pleased with my Shadow Wrap Heel, even though it is kinda wonky - but not bad for a first try!

Want to know what others are making and reading?  Head over to Kat's blog, following the link above and find out!

Perfection In One Day

First of all, thank you for your kind support and commisseration about my work situations in my last post.  Please be assured that everything that can be done has been done, even if to no avail.  Though I'm guessing that now you can appreciate more than ever why I am dreading next week, when we have to return to the building to work five days a week.  At least being at home some of the time gave me some space and a buffer.  Oh well

ANYWAY, the important thing here is to share some of our weekend with you.  This past weekend, both the NJ Sheep and Wool Festival and the Lehigh Valley Fiber Festival returned to in-person events.  I love going to the NJ one, but this year just didn't get myself together to go.  

Instead, since it sounded as if the weather would cooperate, The Tim and I planned an outing where Hamlet could join us.  So we got into the car and headed a bit northwest to the Andorra Meadow - about 20 minutes away on a Saturday with little traffic that early in the morning.  It's a little more than 2-mile trail that ends up in a meadow.  We hadn't been there before, so we were exploring as well.

Me to The Tim: We can tell people we went for a hike, and found some fungi(s).

The Tim: [crickets]

In any case, it was wonderful, and Hamlet had a great time!  For the whole time we were there, we ran into only two other people (and of course Hamlet made sure that they petted him).  It was perfect.

Apparently, the grasses were very tasty.  The Tim and I did not sample them, but Hamlet took his time doing a tasting all along the way.

In the photo above, Hamlet is right in front of a log that was blocking the trail and required one to go over it.  I went over first, and then Hamlet lept over it, "just like Lassie!" (OK, that's what we told him - in reality, I pulled, and The Tim pushed and lifted.)  Then The Tim joined us and we continued along.

I always love seeing little wild daisies like these:

And seeing these little berries pleased me!

This was in the meadow, where they had these little houses scattered all around.

Just look at that sky!  And if you saw these photos and didn't know where you were, who would think that less than a mile away was a major road with stores and houses?

On the way home, we passed a corner where one side of the street had a place called Pete's Pierogies, and the other side of the street had Murphy's Tavern.  We decided that was the best corner in town, since it would cover all of our needs ... 😊

The day finished up with some knitting and reading in the afternoon, and then The Tim made a pizza for dinner.  We watched some shows we'd recorded and just relaxed.  There aren't many days that are that perfect, but Saturday turned out to be one of them.

As we were walking around on such a lovely day, it struck me that it was the same kind of day that it was here on September 11, 2001 - a little bit cool, very sunny, and the kind of day that made you smile and believe that nothing could go wrong.  And it made me think once again how lucky I am to be able to still be here, enjoying those kinds of days, when so many never had that privilege, through no fault of their own.

Small Acts of Courage Shouldn't Be So Difficult

Before I say anything else, thank you so much for your very kind comments about my finished summer top!  It is one of my most favorite things I've ever made, and to say I'm thrilled with the result is an understatement.  When The Tim first saw it after it was finished and I tried it on, he said, "That looks great - it's like it was made for you!" and then about a minute later said, "Oh yeah ... it was.  Anyway."  Which made me laugh.  Thank you for taking the time time say you liked it.  😊

Today is Three on Thursday, so I have decided to participate.  And my topic is not knitting-related, but there you go.  You have likely noticed the title of this post - or if not, you have now.  I am going to talk about three small acts of courage - or lack thereof - from my recent experience, and why they should not be so hard for people.

1.  In a recent department meeting, I asked a question about something, and it started with the phrase, "Could you offer any ideas to why the committee decided ...," and our boss responded, and I quote: "Well, Bridget, maybe it's because none of them are as stupid as you are." I will admit to being shocked and struck dumb.  And my co-workers said ... nothing.  Now, moving beyond how it was inappropriate in the first place for him to say that, that fact that no one said ANYTHING at all, then or afterwards, is upsetting to say the least.  A friend was being generous and said that a) maybe they are afraid of him saying that to them, so they said nothing, and b) maybe they said nothing to me because they were embarrassed or felt bad.  All I can say is, if you are ever in a similar situation, please speak up somehow.  Anything at all said by anyone else would have made a difference to me.  (P.S. I have complained to HR, who have told me that since it was said and not in writing, there is not proof, so they cannot do anything.  So apparently my co-workers have blocked it out and when asked said nothing or that it never happened.)

2.  In a similar vein, at a department meeting yesterday, the boss said that he felt that none of us should attend monthly section meetings because "we don't need to spend an hour that way."  Then he said, "I am guessing none of you have an issue with that."  So I spoke up and said that I did, and it was valuable because it gave us a chance to interact with our colleagues in our section that we don't necessarily see or talk to otherwise.  By the end of the discussion, three out of four of us had said that we wanted to continue going to the meetings, because we found them useful and since attendance is voluntary anyway, anyone who doesn't want to go is not obliged to do so.  After which the boss said, never mind, we could attend if we chose to.  When the meeting was over, the other two people who talked thanked me, and said they would not have spoken up if I hadn't.  And I knew that he would probably be annoyed when I spoke, but I felt strongly we should be able to participate in the meetings, and knew that if I didn't speak up, no one else probably would.  There are four people (including me) in our department: one person NEVER wants to disagree with anyone or stand up for herself ever, one person is the favorite who can do no wrong whatever, one person is often the victim of his wrath, and depending how recent it has happened, either does speak up or not, and then there is me.  It's not easy for me to speak up, because at the most I have one other person who might offer support; also, I know that our boss is not overly fond of me.  But I strongly believe that if something matters to you, you should state your case, even if it might not be agreeable to the boss.

3.  Non-work-related (aren't you glad??), is my third example.  There is a neighbor on our street who is always calling out others for not sweeping their sidewalk, not putting their trash out "the right way," and/or so many other things that are in no way a problem for anyone else.  We do not, for example, have a homeowner's association that has specific rules.  Sure, the city wants trash in receptacles, not just strewn on the street or sidewalk, but this particular neighbor wants everyone to use a certain type of thing for it "so that it all matches."  (Because you know how trash collectors enjoy uniform looking trash.)  One of his big gripes is that people who don't live on our street park their cars on our street.  First of all, we live in the middle of the city.  In order to park at all and not get ticketed, you have to have a decal that you purchased from the city for your zone in order to park legally for more than a certain amount of time.  Needless to say, parking spaces can be difficult to find.  Sometimes the gods smile upon you, and you find a place on your street; sometimes you are three blocks away.  Anyway, this neighbor started a petition to take to the city to make it illegal to park on our street unless you lived there.  Everyone was talking about how ridiculous it was, and trying to avoid the guy altogether so they wouldn't "have" to sign it.  We had a block party a few weeks ago, and said neighbor brought the petition for everyone to sign.  At which point, The Tim - who seldom interacts with neighbors, much less speaks to them (but of course they all still think he is the "nice" one), told this neighbor why his petition was not a good idea.  Afterwards, no one was willing to sign the guy's petition, and though he left in a huff, everyone else kept complimenting The Tim for his "courage" in refusing to sign and saying why.

***

People, none of this should be that hard.  These are not life and death situations, these are situations where one person who is a bully is pushing their weight around and no one wants to speak up.  I understand why it is hard, but it shouldn't be.  With so much else going on in the world, and people being more than willing to speak out about the big stuff, why are the small acts of courage (it that is even what you can call them) so difficult?

Anyway, that is my rant o' the day.  I am not asking for sympathy nor congratulations, I'm just trying to point out that all of us should do our best to support each other when it can help or make a difference.  We all have to live and work together every day, regardless of how we feel personally about each other.  Wouldn't it be better if we could be more brave in small, everyday ways?  

If you have read this far, thank you for coming to my TED talk. 😉

Knitting Needles Tuesday - An FO Post

Hello all, and I hope you had a lovely Labor Day weekend.  Ours was nice, the weather was for the most part really pleasant - even the rain wasn't much and didn't ruin any of our plans, mostly because we had none.  The Tim had to work yesterday, but I got some projects of my own organized, and then fixed us a picnic dinner, so it was all good.

Do you remember seeing this just started WIP back in June?

If not, you probably do remember these photos:

Well, I'm happy to tell you that it is now an FO, with ends woven in, blocking completed, and ready to wear!

Project:  Blue Anker

Pattern:  Anker's Summer Shirt, by Petite Knit (Ravelry link)

Yarn:  Berrocco Farro, in the colorway Turquoise, 4.5 skeins

Needles:  US size 4 and 6

Modifications:  I added more stitches to the underarms, since sleeves always feel tight there to me in knitted items.  Then I decreased until I was where the sleeve pattern started, and went from there following the instructions.

Comments:  I completely love this top!  It fits the way I wanted it to fit, I just love the color, and even though it gave me fits with the 1 x 1 rib and the increases, it was all well worth it.  I think I'll get a lot of wear out of this not just a few more times this year, but a lot once the weather gets warm again next year.  Wearing this with a sweater or blazer over it, or a denim jacket, would be really comfy, as it is not bulky or heavy at all.

The yarn was a bit tricky to get used to, but other than occasionally being a little slippery-er than I would have liked, by the time I was a few inches in to the project, we were getting along just fine.  The pattern was straightforward, once you decided if you were following inches or centimeters!  There are a lot of sizes included, so I could see this being a pattern that would be really nice to use the Knit Companion feature where it shows your size only.  However, my printed pattern and highlighter worked just fine also.

I finished the knitting, weaving in, etc. last week, but was waiting for a time when the day was nice and The Tim was available to take a photo.  So Sunday afternoon, we went out on the deck.  I may have to find a new photographer, as you would have thought I had asked him to give me one of his kidneys, he was so put out by "having" to do this!  Then he was annoyed because I was squinting - but when the light is in your eyes, YOU try not to squint.  Anyway, I was pleased with how this photo turned out.

And oh that yoke!  It makes the 1 x 1 rib worthwhile (well, now that it's finished, at least).

Between that, a the fact that I am a sucker for anything turquoise, it couldn't have turned out better!

The Week That Was

Remember when life just went along, and sometimes you would think to yourself that it was all just kind of boring, and how come nothing interesting or exciting ever happened?  

I learned a while ago that a lot of the time, boring is good.  Because at least in my case, "interesting" or "exciting" was not what I had been talking about.  I mean, if one day you are just living your life, and you find out that you won a million dollars somehow - that's exciting!  But when you are just living your life and then you find out that, say, you need to have a dental implant that costs thousands of dollars - well, OK, no one asks for THAT kind of intersting or exciting.

And this week was good example of that, both locally and globally, if you ask me.  I mean:

• pandemic continues and numbers go back up
• the U.S. troops leave Afghanistan
• Texas decides you can carry a gun with no license and no training, but you can't wear a mask to school and women cannot get legal abortions
• Hurricane Ida cuts a swath of destruction in Louisiana and Mississippi
• Ida's remnants come up the East Coast and there are TORNADOES in the Philadelphia area and New Jersey; New York City shuts down because of TOO MUCH WATER EVERYWHERE

And those are just the things that immediately come to mind!  As someone on Twitter commented the other day: "I think I would have rather had the plague of locusts."

Fortunately, The Tim and I and the critters are all fine, if just somewhat inconvenienced.  We got a little bit of water in our basement, but we get a little bit of water in our basement whenever it even thinks about raining, so no big deal.  No wind damage, no loss of power.  

However, west and north of us in the city - not so much.

You know the Schuylkill River Trail, which is 2 blocks west of our house, where we walk/ride bikes/walk the dog sometimes?  Here's how it looked yesterday:

Do you see on the right of the photo where there is what looks like pipes and something pointing to the sky along them?  Well, that's the trail, and those things pointing towards the sky are the lights on the trail!  

To quote The Tim: "Looks like we won't be riding our bikes there this weekend."

And then, this image, which many of you may have seen on the news.  This is the Vine Street Expressway, which cuts across the city from east to west, and is a major link.  But yesterday it was more like the Vine Street Canal:

And that is about 5 blocks north of our house and below but right in front of the building where I work!

My friend Lisa, who owns Hidden River Yarns in the Manayunk neighborhood of the city, couldn't get to her shop to see how things were, but her landlord informed her that the street level part of the store (aka ALL THE YARN) was dry, but the basement was flooded.  Phew!  

And my other friend Jocelyn who is the owner of O-Wool, lives on a farm nearby in New Jersey, and they lost a couple of trees in a tornado, but are otherwise safe (as is her yarn supply!) - but the house nearest to them, about a mile away, was completely destroyed.

And those two are some of the luckiest ones!

Can we all agree now that it would be absolutely wonderful to go back to boring now??? 😉

I hope wherever you are, reading this, that you are safe, well, and healthy.  And that if you are not, that help is on its way.  Take care everyone, and for those of us here in the U.S., have the best kind of Labor Day weekend that you can - however you can!