Not a Bad Winter So Far

Knock on wood.

I have been knitting, knitting away on a blue sock.

And even though it's not as cold here as it is most places, Fred and Ethel don't know that and they are careful to seek out the late afternoon sunbeams for their last nap before dinner each day.

Back to my knitting.

Hitting Restart. . .

oh my, coming up out of a bit of a fog. . . fall was a fog because I did not anticipate that my boss's Christmas prep would totally supercede my own Christmas prep and of course I tried to act like everything was normal. Finally the inevitable crash and now hitting restart. Not as refreshed as I would like, but carry on.

Here's a list of things that happened, or in some cases, didn't happen. . .

1. Duncan has decided to join the Coast Guard Auxiliary -- which involves fitting into a very complex hierarchy, taking a lot of training, and having several uniforms -- each requiring the sewing on of name tags and stars and such just so. He is very fussy about it. Eventually he will be able to go out and help  rescue boats in distress. There is an Auxiliary Chef class he is very keen to take. Hmm, peanut butter sandwiches for 50.
2. We visited Christy and Morris in Southport. They have about the nicest brand new house I've been in. Very comfy and livable, even for Aubrey and her wheelchair.
3. Mom visited us in Charleston. We took a day trip to see Pearl Fryer's Topiary Garden in Bishopville. A worthy day-trip.

4. Spent a lovely Saturday at Botany Bay with Debbie and John Dickinson. It is a protected area, so very pristine and "unbuilt." Debbie & John are excellent company and we would have spent the night with them at Edisto, but Duncan felt bad.
5. The very next weekend I spent Saturday with Circular women at Dewees Island -- another lovely barrier island -- this one north off of Isle of Palms while Edisto is down 17 South. Dewees is approachable only by ferry and no cars allowed in the island. Some very nice homes there, tucked into the landscape and made comfortable enough to not want or need to leave for anything. Would have been very relaxing but for the mob of Circular women.
6. I did not make my "This Year I'm Thankful For. . . " list. Not because I'm not. Just didn't get the juices flowing. A regret. I like doing that each year.
7. Thanksgiving was a bit of a whirlwind. We traveled with the kitties to Grandmas. Left them at home while we visited Uncle Bill, the farm in Person County, went to church, had Thanksgiving dinner with Lil Martha and her whole crew -- beautiful table, great food there. Those are the nicest people in the world. We stopped by to see Aunt Mary and I think she knew who we were when we first got there, but things went fuzzy shortly thereafter. On the way home we went by Elizabethtown and I had a Melvin's burger and saw White Lake again for the first time since I was three.
8. We re-joined the gym. Oh boy.
9. The cats think bringing a tree into the house is the very best idea anybody every had. 

10. I successfully did some Christmas knitting.
11. Mom came for Christmas. We agreed it would be low key and quite. A good thing because Duncan got sick  and went to bed. 
12.  A trip to Black Mountain got nixed because Adam and Wilson were both sick too. Must have been grand for Jeffrey.
13. Oh, here's something that fits in the list as a thing that happened and a thing that didn't happen. . . what happened was, my husband, you all know Duncan, he didn't get me anything for Christmas. He didn't have any ideas. And he got sick. I'll just leave it there. 
14. Life goes on. I was fine, then all of a sudden last Sunday night I got cold and started shaking and basically went to bed and stayed until yesterday. So, some days were lost. Some thank you notes haven't been written. Actually some bills didn't get paid, (but they're paid now). Finally, I think I have righted the ship and am steering again. Just not with a lot of enthusiasm or direction. 
15. I did not do the "change over the calendar ritual" that I always enjoy but thumbing through the 2012 book I find clippings telling me The Artist won the Academy Award for Best Picture (eh,), when Mom & Sally were here in the Spring we visited Magnolia Plantation, 3 friends had high school seniors who graduated, we volunteered for Spoleto, when it was hot we went to a little spate of movies; Magic Mike, Moonrise Kingdom, To Rome w/ Love and The Most Exotic Marigold Hotel. Lee and Kathy and I had a weekend in Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill in early December. Lee's daughter Nicole got married this summer and Laura finished Law School with a job. A good year for them. Christy and Morris moved into their new house. Barack Obama won, again. . . and I have a clipping that says: 1 in 3 newly elected congress members is a woman, 29 women of color will serve in the new congress, and the 113th congress will include the most female members ever.

So limping a bit, but trending upwards.

The Christmas Knitting

a post referring back to a previous post about all the places our cats sleep

The previous post I'm referring to is the last part of this one.
Sometimes Bizarro just nails it.In this case, just a couple of weeks too late.

My Knitting Life So Far

I learned to knit just about a year ago. I've really enjoyed it but can't say I've had stellar success. I thought it would help me use some of the mounds of yarn I have acquired over the years, but I just seem to have acquired a whole lot more yarn. . . plus all manner of knitting accoutrements and books. The ever-expanding loom room swells some more.

I learned enough last fall to make a twirly scarf for a friend's Christmas present. Having a friend who has just learned to knit is not a great thing when Christmas rolls around, but she is a good friend and humors me.

Sandy Witman in my first twirly scarf!

I took a 8-week basic knitting class during the winter and then a 6-week sock knitting class in the spring. Somehow I got it in my head that I wanted to knit baby socks and try though I might, it just wasn't meant to be at this stage of my knitting career.

There are a lot of things that can go wrong between the cuff and the toe.

I did complete a pair of adult socks. They are clearly a first pair of socks, and I had to position them just so to take a picture without showing you some big honking holes, but I got the idea down and a lot of people never get that far.  So, I'll try this again.

 

These were done on size 3 double pointed needles which in and of itself was a challenge.

Here is a cotton scarf done with lots of yarn-overs. I was doing this on size 7 needles when we went to the beach with Duncan's family over Memorial Day. Turns out, Aunt Emilia is a life-long knitter and she recommended I start over on larger needles. Soon after that, I was trying to knit and participate in a conversation at the same time and I made a mistake I couldn't find my way back from, so I did as she suggested and moved up to #10 needles.

I have not become a yarn snob. This is made with very inexpensive cotton yarn from Wal-Mart.

Claire sent this pattern and I gave it a try. Again, yarn was on sale at Michael's. It is variegated browns and greens. I hope it doesn't look too much like camouflage.

When my knitting classes were over, I started going to a knitting group that gets together at the  Barnes & Nobles cafe on Monday nights. I know two or three from the Fiber Guild who go regularly. -- and one is Beth Parrott, another life-long knitter and co-author of several books on knitting socks.  She helped me with baby socks until I willingly gave it up and since she has continued to answer every question and show me tricks.

For this baby shirt (I was determined to make something for a baby!) I did use yarn I've had for years. It's a nubby cotton and I guess I thought I would eventually make a baby blanket with it but that just never happened. This little shirt is very simple, but I did have to sew seams and make the sleeves fit into the arm holes.

Like weaving, there is lots of planning involved and lots of surprises. The yarn in the kimono style shirt above is probably too heavy for a baby shirt, especially one that has a double layer of fabric in the front since the right front crosses over the left front. Live and learn.

I do like the portability of knitting. When I weave, I have to be in the loom room and sometimes that gets lonely. I like that I can knit AND watch something on NetFlix with Duncan.

Next, I'm going to try another pair of socks -- and I have a pattern for a market bag that looks doable.

Touching Base

Oh boy, the days just fly by and I never get to Fried Green Tomatoes anymore, though I often compose mini blog posts in my head, mostly while I'm driving.

The posts in my head are snippets about the new preacher at Circular who is working out very well, thank goodness (in last Sunday's sermon, Pete Seegar was likened to the old-time bibical psalmists. Well, of course, but I had never quite thought of it), but just now I have lukewarm enthusiasm for church as a regular thing -- couldn't I just read his blog?

They are snippets about the "campaign season" which I can hardly stand to turn in to. . . but still I had this reflexive feeling that I wanted to watch the party conventions.

And that leads to a snippet about living sans television, but that is a real quick snippet because it's hard to really know what we're missing because we're um, . . . missing it. All I know is that whenever I do get to see television I think "No, I really do not want this going in my house all the time."

I miss commercials. Annoying as they are, they are a bit of cultural lingo I miss being tuned into. Sometimes in the conversational swirl, I realize I've just been eliminated because I've dropped into the "we don't have cable so no TV reception" hole. But really, the only things I miss are The Olympics and The Oscars (and Masterpiece Theatre and Sunday morning news talk shows but now we're back to not wanting to go to church. . .)

For mindless diversion, we have Netflix and this summer we watched five seasons of a show that ran from 2006 - 2011 on BBC called Doc Martin. He was a surgeon in London but developed a phobia of blood, so now he's a GP in a small village in Cornwall. He's the stereotypical surgeon with no social skills, no bedside manner but he's in a small community where he really needs them. It's filmed in a lovely seaside location and has wonderful quirky characters. Now that we have run through all the episodes, we actually miss the people who populated the little village of Portwynne. We're looking for something else to love but haven't found it yet.

Here's a recent weaving project:

Using these particular colors was an assignment from my weaving study group -- and I made myself use yarns I already had so I dug into these novelty wools and mohairs -- I suddenly remembered these are not ideal for warp threads. Anyway, I'm not crazy about it, it looks very 1970s to me.Plus, it is too much wool for our Lowcountry winters.  I think I'll take it to GreenPeace and let it be the house scarf for anyone who needs one. It gets cold enough up there to appreciate it even if the colors are a bit blah.

And of course every other day I'm sure I have something totally original to share about Fred & Ethel.

This is My Chair

This is my chair

This is my couch

That is my bed

That is my bench

There is my chaise

There is my settee

Those are my footstools

Those are my rugs

Everywhere is my place to sleep

Perhaps you should just get a hotel room

          from I Could Pee on This and Other Poems by Cats

I'll try to check in here a little more often.

Cat in the Bag

Ethel has discovered a paperbag makes a great toy. She circles it, she bats at it, finally, she gets in it.

 

I lay down on the floor with the camera because she is so-o-o cute, but she decides she doesn't want to be cute for the camera.

I'll bet she wishes she could take MY picture.

Changing the subject, I bought this African Violet for $0.75 off the "almost dead" table at K-Mart.

Stay cool, friends. It's entirely too hot outside.

Doldrums. . .

It is so easy to get busy and not write anything here. We've had an incredibly mild summer until this past Wednesday when the heat and humidity call rolling in on us. We've had rain, tropical breezes and Super Moons causing lush tides.

 For a while it was most pleasant to get up a little early and go for a walk. . .

We will still try to get some walking in, but it's going to be more work now I'm afraid.

I have given up on knitting baby socks. I really tried, I'm turning my attention to other knitting and weaving projects and someday will come back to the tiny sock project.

This is as good as it got, and a better picture would show you that the heel still isn't right. (They're still pretty cute, aren't they?)

We went to an event at the Aquarium one night and saw not only fish, but Lemurs from Madagascar!

I love the 2-story fish tank at the Aquarium

I'm not sure why an Aquarium would have Lemurs, but they do. . . They are very busy, like to climb and have these very flashy tails. . .

This one wanted to get to know Duncan a little better. . .

And since we've shifted for sea life to four-footed animals, I'll close with a couple of pictures of daily activities of Fred and Ethel.

Ethel napping on the couch

Fred monopolizes the chair.

It's almost the 4th of July. . . time is flying.