Friday, November 28, 2008

Ugh! The day after

I'm sitting here trying to convince myself that today is Friday, not Monday. I almost never go to Robert's on any day other than Sunday. But since Thanksgiving always falls on Thursday I went over there, had way too much rich food, and got home late. Just like when I go over there on Sunday.

My usual feeding habits are by no means spartan. I try to keep things within a range that doesn't do me too much harm. Thanksgiving can be a killer, almost literally. I will be paying for all that butter and sugar for several days. I did have both the pumpkin and the pecan. By that time though it was anti-climactic. It felt good to go for my walk this morning. Slim-Fast is today's choice.

I'm in the middle of holiday knitting. Socks mostly. Several pairs at different points of almost done-ness. I went through some of my sock yarn stash yesterday. It was overwhelming so I just jammed it all back on the shelves. There are several colorways of Koigu that I had forgotten. And lots of Cherry Tree Hill sock weight. I'm going to do another two person KAL with L (of L&H fame). This time it's a huge circular shawl. Cast on 1300 (or 1800 if you're making the larger size)and join in the round and knit for months.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thankful for

so many things. Great friends and family, color, wool and time to knit. And for the rain we've had for the past couple of days.

It's Thanksgiving Day here in the US. Like so many of you, I will be sitting down to a turkey dinner later today. I'm looking forward to it. My diabetes dietitian said it would be okay to have a slice of pumpkin pie. I wonder if I could substitute pecan. Little does she know that I'm not all that strict with my diet. I just had the bank of glucose tests and I don't see much change from the last time. For which I'm also thankful.

I have no plans to go shopping tomorrow. I'll be working at A Stitch in Time. Several of my Friday morning students are away for the holiday so I don't know how busy I'll be. We're not opening early for Black Friday but we do have a sale that's starting. And I've heard from a couple of friends that they'll be in. So it'll be a good day.

Thanks for reading.

Monday, November 24, 2008

It's that time again, again.

I know it's been a while. My excuse is that I've had the worst cold I've ever had. Three weeks and still feeling the effects.

I haven't done very much knitting. A few small projects for holiday gifts. Fortunately I have some things that I knit earlier in the year to round out my gift stash.

We did have our yarn yard sale though. And I think it was pretty successful, even if we did have yarn left over. We're planning another one for late winter or early spring. There are still five boxes in my yarn room that I never got to go through. Too weak and bleary eyed. So I know I'll have some new stuff when we have our next sale.

And speaking of sales, it's time for A Stitch in Time's semi-annual yarn and needlepoint sale. Thirty five percent off knitting yarns, needlepoint canvases and knitting books. The sale officially starts on Dec. 1, but I think we'd be able to flex a little on that date and start with the discount the day after Thanksgiving. As usual, the sale price only applies to in-stock items. And no returns.

The mailing hasn't gone out yet so you're among the first to know.

Saturday, November 08, 2008

The yarn yard sale is Nov 15, next Saturday

I've been going through boxes and boxes of yarn. So far I have nine large, really large, bags of yarn that I've priced as low as I possibly can. I really need to reduce my stash. I'll still have an unrealistic amount of yarn left that isn't going to the yarn yard sale. Not this time anyway.

It's been a tough week as I've had some kind of virus/cold thing going on that has left me feeling too weak and sleepy to get as much done as I wanted to. Some boxes haven't even been opened. I still have a few days though before the sale so I'll probably get a few more bags full to take with me.

If you're interested in going to the sale, leave me a comment or email me and I'll send you the information. I haven't seen everything that others are contributing but I bet there's something you'll like. I just hope I don't come home with more stuff than I went with.

Monday, November 03, 2008

A long day

In the spring I set my clocks ahead before I go to sleep. It's bad enough losing an hour but I don't want to know about it. In the fall I wait until the next day. I love the luxury of suddenly having an extra hour. My cat doesn't quite get the idea.

I suppose it's not entirely his fault. The clock did still say 4AM when he woke me up even though it was actually 3AM. This morning, since I had reset the clock, it said 4Am and that's what time he woke me. Maybe he can tell time and I don't know it. Or maybe I was just lucky. Either way, it was a longer day than usual.

Either way, I had the bright idea that I could knit this hat in a single day. And I could have two if I'd paid more attention to the pattern notes. Everything was fine until I got to the decreases. I misread one of the chart symbols and was knitting two through the back of the loop instead of three. Once I realized that everything was fine. When I got to the point where I needed to switch to dpns I decided I'd wait until this morning.

All I have to do now is wash and block it. And fix that loose stitch I noticed when I was trying to take a photo. Actually, it's not a loose stitch. I just didn't pull up the yarn tightly enough when I was drawing the stitches together.