Mary Oliver

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?"









Sunday, January 31, 2010

Snow at the Beach

Steve and I took a walk in the sunshine and snow today. This is at one of our neighbor's house.....an igloo with OV (for Ocean View) spray painted on it. Oh, and a fishing pole, though I'm not sure why. This is a couple of blocks down and over from us. I think the Dead End sign is overstating the obvious, but what do I know? But isn't the blue sky lovely?






And here's the beach scene. The dunes are covered with snow and the contrasting white and browns looked just like the colors in a cup of cappuccino.

Looking to the right of the walkway.





Left of the walkway.






The snow drifted up our side door, although Steve has already shoveled it away by now.









Aren't these berries gorgeous? They must not be tasty to birds if they're still here.





I just loved the contrast between the blue, green, and white in this picture.







People have been driving up and down the street beside our house all day and while some of the snow has been ground away from the friction, most of the road is still iced over, since the temperature never got out of the twenties.


Just heard that the in-service scheduled for tomorrow is officially cancelled, not that I'm surprised, so that means I have another day at home. I think I'll do some sewing tomorrow. I need to put a rod pocket in a pair of curtains that have been hanging by clips since the summer, I need to hem M1's pajama pants (the ones I made her for Christmas), and I might make the curtains for S's room since I've had the fabric since we moved here almost two years ago. Also, I'm thinking about doing something with a thrift store sweater I felted yesterday. Maybe a laptop cover? The sleeves could be used for cell phone holders; I can get at least four out of them I think. Details tomorrow.

Tonight, it's Emma, on PBS. I missed the first installment, which was last week, and I'll probably miss next week's due to a Super Bowl party, but it's not like I don't know how it turns out now is it?


Sunday with Sparkling Snow

Snow!
Sparkly Snow. Sparkly Snow on Sunday!


I can't stop taking photos of the snow. It usually disappears so fast around here. This time it may stick around though, since the temperature isn't supposed to get above freezing until Tuesday. It's so sunny right now even though it's only 22 degrees that I'm guessing we'll get some surface melting which will make for some dangerous road ice.I love the way it looks piled up against the wood fence in the front yard.
Doesn't the potted rosemary look like a miniature Christmas tree?


In addition to taking photos of the snow, I've been knitting on the Saroyan shawl. But I've also been reading, making soup, baking bread, and napping, so the progress is a little slower than I expected. I've finished the increase section and two repeats of the ten repeats of the middle section.


Still, I think I'll get most, if not all, of it done by the time I have to go back to school. Which will give me time to give it a little bath (I'm finally hooked on blocking) before giving it to my mom.


Steve and I watched the first three discs (six episodes) of Life On Mars, the British version, this weekend. It's interesting enough but a little uneven in quality I think. Still, I'm going to keep going with it since Steve likes it better than the Lynley series.
Now Steve's gone outside to shovel the walk and I'm going to get dressed so I can walk down to the beach and, you guessed it, take more photos!!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Snowfall Update

Here's the bread dough getting ready to rise. And here are the finished loaves. Nothing smells better than baking bread.
This is a sight we don't get to see too much. Ice on the windows.


Some of our neighbors had a sled, and are making good use of it. We don't have hills, so I'm not sure where they're headed.



I included this photo because of the flag across the street. It's so windy that the flag is perpendicular to the ground.



I'm off now to ice my thumb which I burned when I was flipping the loaves of bread onto the cooling rack. It's throbbing like nobody's business. Might even cut into my knitting time, dammit!


Snow is still falling.


Which gives me lots of time for web browsing. Isn't this is a great idea for shipping those college care packages?. I need to get the Valentine's Day ones together soon and I'm definitely going to try this. If I get busy, I may include a couple of these too. These look cute too, although I think I'd choose a different fabric? And why am I so fascinated with hearts these days??


Here's the shawl I'm obsessively working on; isn't it pretty?


And although I shouldn't have photographed this color on the identically colored couch, here is the scarf I work on at work. I think the pattern would be better with a more drapeable yarn than the Manos I'm using, but I think I'll keep it. Soaking it afterwards will soften it up and this is a warm yarn.




I have been taking breaks from the knitting and sitting and snow monitoring. Right now I have a batch of bread rising and a pot of beans soaking. I love doing both on snowy days. I used to bake bread all the time when I was a stay at home mom with small daughters but I haven't made any in years. My Kitchen Aid mixer with the dough hook makes it so easy I should do it every weekend but I always put it off. And I'm thinking of making these cookies, courtesy of a link from this blog.

Monitoring the Snowfall

This is the snow in our front yard after three more hours. Not a whole lot more, but steadily falling, which pleases me. And most of the green and brown bits are covered now.

And this is the backyard view again. Looks more piled up here.

The flakes seem larger than they did this morning. I think the weather people downgraded us to six inches, which is still great to me. And since it's supposed to snow most of the day, I'll be parked on the sunroom couch with the curtains open, for continous monitoring. And where is Steve? He's still in bed, enjoying his day off. Layabout.

Snow!

It's snowing! This is the view from the sunroom at 6 a.m., after three hours of snow.



And this is the front yard.



Apparently we're supposed to get heavy snow all day today with an accumulation of six to ten inches. If you live in a snowy clime, this may not seem like much, but to us it's HUGE!!

I don't have to be anywhere until Tuesday (no way will we have our in-service day at school on Monday) so as long as the power doesn't go out (we have above ground lines so it's a real possibility), I will be happy, happy, happy.

Can you imagine not being a reader or a knitter? Luckily, I'm both!! I have a stack of library books (plus my bookshelves) and a pile of yarn, as well as a couple of projects in the works. And three days to enjoy them. Hope you have a good weekend too!

Friday, January 29, 2010

Snow?

They're calling for snow around here starting tonight through Saturday night. Most areas are expecting six inches, but it looks like our little area closest to the water will only get three. Three inches counts as a blizzard around here. The only thing better than getting snow is getting out of the in-service day on Monday. I'm hoping for that.



More cute hearts here. And has anyone noticed a garland/bunting trend out there? I think Purl Bee started it as their New Year's craft idea and it's evolved into hearts in other places. Well here's some mini-bunting, sort of along the same theme. Very cute.
And as for the knitting; I'm enjoying the green scarf knitting at work but loving working on the Saroyan shawl. It makes me feel smarter even though it's a very simple pattern. But it looks like fourteen lines of code and I can do it! I've been able to do three repeats of the six repeat increase section and with the weekend coming up, I may be able to knock out the large middle section. If so, this may end up being a birthday gift for my mom, who turns 70 next Saturday.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Knitting and Traveling Plans

I started a Saroyan shawl last night. I had seen this version which got me thinking about it, then my daughter posted the photo of a Swallowtail she knit, and all of a sudden I grabbed a skein of burgundy Ultra Alpacca (from my stash-yea!), wound it up using my knees, and cast on. I only just started but I'm looking forward to working on it tonight. I even started the counting columns in a small, bound notebook, so I don't lose track. I'm using the yarn on the left; apparently I was so overloaded with yarn at the time I bought this, that I grouped these four skeins together in my ravelry stash. I didn't even see the green yarn last night, but I'm committed to the burgundy anyway.





I started this scarf (the second one) yesterday using some celery green Manos (also from stash-double yea!), ripped it out, and started it again today. I think it'll be my work knitting, although since it does involve a minimum amount of keeping track of the rows, that may be a problem. There are only four but I already messed up once so we'll see. For this, instead of writing down row numbers and checking them off like I'm doing with the Saroyan, I'm writing down the row number as I complete them. Why two different systems? I truly don't know. How do you keep track?




I also would like to knit a pair of worsted weight socks for Steve for Valentine's Day, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen.




After a couple of months of staying put, it looks like I'm doing some traveling again. For the first trip, Steve and I are supposed to take a thrifted chest of drawers out to M2 this weekend, but that may be postponed due to snow in the forecast. I need to take a photo of it; my dad refinished it and it looks great. I only wish I had a 'before' photo, but as usual, I don't.



In February, Steve and I are going to Annapolis for a Valentine's Day/my birthday celebration(it's the big 5-0), then the following weekend I'm flying to NY to see M1. She's going to give me a tour of her college campus, in addition to our yarn store visits. She's starting classes tomorrow after a four or five year hiatus and we're all very excited about it. Very excited.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Monday

Not much going on today. Other than a heavy rain and windstorm that knocked out our power this morning before work. Luckily I had showered and dried my hair before it went out, so I threw my curling iron in my purse and took care of that at work.



Came home and sold the roof rack. This selling stuff to declutter is pretty cool.



Gearing up for midterm exams tomorrow and Wednesday, an event that makes me happy as I get to sit at my desk and alternate knitting with tidying up the paper piles while the students work their little hearts out.



Speaking of hearts, I love this one, don't you?

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Seven Things on Sunday Edition

No, I didn't give away a car, nor do I live here. But I did finally post an ad on Craigslist for my VW Beetle car cover, dealer price $365, that has been sitting in my garage for over a year. This is the pile (mostly books) that Steve and I took to the thrift store today. Even though I counted some of the books in last week's effort, there was more.
I also posted this bathroom medicine cabinet on craigslist. We never even tried to put it together. Why did we buy it? You might well ask, but we can't answer you.


I kicked the weekend off by selling this futon for $50, thus alighting my desire to sell everything that wasn't nailed down.



Like this roof rack, which was also on my beloved Beetle until November 2008, when a nutjob on the interstate caused an accident that totaled it in a transparent attempt to defraud the insurance company. Posted on craigslist today, a mere fourteen months after it became obsolete to me.


As for knitting and felting, this is the accessory case after felting. The colors blended beautifully I think. Side one.






And side two.





Really didn't need to show the cat toy ball yet as it doesn't look much different. Maybe tomorrow, eh?

Felting & Process

I finished knitting the accessories bag last night and am in the process of felting it, along with the cat toy I had planned to give M#1 for Christmas.


I put each item in a pillowcase and in lieu of a zippered one, decided to tie it closed. It actually took me a few minutes to come up with something I could use as a tie.......


hey, how about some yarn!!


This is side one of the accessories bag,


and this is side two.I really like how the yarn pooled; I think it'll give it a nice watercolor effect.


And here's the cat toy. Very odd looking.
Steve asked me why I was photographing unfinished objects. Process, my dear, process.







Saturday, January 23, 2010

Blogs

I love the second scarf from this post, but mostly I loved the line "caffeinated as hell". That's the way I felt a couple of mornings this week, since I slipped and fell into my old habit of drinking iced coffee. I was jonesing for it today so I stopped by a WaWa on my way back from the library run. (And no, I wasn't in my pajamas.)



And what about this great idea for gift knits? I really have to remember this one when the mason jars go on sale. Talk about being done and done. This is why my blogroll is epic in length.


Speaking of my blogroll, YarnHarlot's was the first one I started reading about four (maybe five?) years ago. I had bought (or was gifted?) her first book and on the back was her blog address. So I started reading it. She was and is still so funny. Turns out today is her sixth blog-versary. I was thinking about my blog today and wondering about its purpose and what it means to me and what it means about me that I have one. Well, wouldn't you know it, that's a part of what her post is about. (Well, not about my blog, but you know what I mean.) Happy Blogversary Steph!

Friday, January 22, 2010

Saturday

The dinner I photographed last night? For some reason, it wasn't done until 8:30, instead of 7, so we ate sandwiches and cereal instead and will dine on the porkloin dinner tonight.


Having a lazy, perfect Saturday. Lounging around in pajamas of course. (I wanted to say "natch" the way they always did in the Nancy Drew books, but figured it's a little odd.)



Just finished "The Lost Art of Gratitude". I really enjoy that particular series of his. Thought provoking and word play without being too weighty. Now I'm off to the library to return it and pick up another on my reserve list.


I used to receive the Chinaberry Books catalog when my daughters were young; if you have young children in your life, look it up. I ordered as often as I could afford it, but I also used it as a reference to locate good books in the library. It led me to a lot of good children's literature. The catalog also has a Good Reads for Adults section that I almost never bought from but always used to find books for me to read. I ran across the online catalog a week or two ago and selected a number of books from that section to reserve at my library. It's always a nice surprise when I read the auto-generated email message telling me my reserved book is ready for pickup. Like an unexpected gift.


So lovely, this poem. She always posts great poems, but this one is especially timely. I feel like I'm one of the few bloggers around that hasn't done anything for Haitian relief yet and I'm still not sure what I'm doing for it. This link from Ann & Kay has a lot of ideas from which to choose.

Weekend Plans

Yippee! It's the weekend!! I love the weekends!! All we have on the agenda is hanging around the house. The best kind of weekend, especially after the hustle and bustle of a busy week. Steve drove S back to school last weekend (three hours each way) and then had to turn around a day later to drive five hours north for work. So you know he's a little tired. My work week was good but tiring, so we're looking forward to the quiet. As a matter of fact, I think I'm skipping the heavy cleaning plan this weekend. Other than the basics, that is. And I mean basic.
I plan on reading, knitting, and more of the same.


Right now I have a pork loin in the oven with carrots, potatoes, onions, and celery in the pan as well. It's got about an hour to go, and then we'll have it to eat all weekend.


Oh and I just made $50 by selling a futon on craigslist. The woman came by right after I got home to pick it up.


Want to guess what I'm wearing now that she's gone? At 6 p.m. on a Friday?


That's right, my pajamas. Life is good.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Oops!


Okay, it looks like I got the wrong book. I browsed the Knitter's Book of Wool last night and realized I should have gotten The Knitter's Book of Yarn. So I went back to B&N after work today and swapped them. Even steven.
***Two hours after posting: I'be been skimming through the new book and it's PERFECT!!


Funny, if I hadn't cleaned up my credit card balance, I probably would have kept the Wool one and just added this, but since I'm paying cash for everything these days (especially for luxury items), I didn't want to buy them both at the same time. Trying to stick to the good intentions.


Speaking of intentions, why does it seem impossible to get it all together? I was doing so well on diet prior to the holidays, but was using credit and collecting too much stuff. Now that I'm working on clearing clutter and not using credit, my diet has gone all to hell. It's like trying to stop more leaks than you have hands or something. What is UP with that?

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

A New Book

In my quest to better understand my yarn stash, I purchased this after work this evening.

That's right. In order to save money by using the yarn I have, I spent money to buy a book to educate myself about it. I call that a win-win.

Seriously though, I've read some good reviews of this book and I've looked at it a number of times before finally succumbing to a clever marketing ploy by B&N; they mailed me an extra 15% off sticker. I mean, that's fate, right?

Plus, I did get rid of at least four bags of books this weekend and I'm in the middle of selling an old futon that's been taking up space in the garage. Rationalization, oh how I love you!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Four Day Weekend and a Four Day Week

I had a great day today, my first day back at work since last Thursday. Why can't we have more four day weekends? I had enough time to get a lot done around the house, a day of errands, and a day to rest. And I had plenty of energy today. I call that a win-win.

Since Steve is out of town tonight at a quarterly meeting, I planned to work until 6 p.m. to get all of my grading caught up, as well as a few other paperwork chores that I'd been putting off. When the 3:45 dismissal rolled around though, my head was pounding and I knew that I would have a hard time sticking to the plan without a little incentive. So I ran out to the 7-11 and got a large iced coffee and brought it back to work. Boy, that certainly did the trick. I worked until 6:30 on that caffeine buzz. All the grading is done, entered, and uploaded to the online gradebook. I even updated my class pages, something I hadn't done since the first of December. And since I'm giving the last test of the term this Friday and the exam next week, this puts me in a very good position to wrap up the grading period. As I told one of my coworkers, if only we worked ten hours a day every day, we'd always be caught up. Right.

So now I'm home in my jammies, catching up on all the blogs, doing a little reading (an Alexander McCall Smith's Isabel Dalhousie novel, The Lost Art of Gratitude), and getting ready to watch another Inspector Lynley episode while knitting, before going to bed. Feeling kind of satisfied about the day. Hope you had a good day too.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Cleaning Hangover

I'm so tired today. For some unknown reason, I stayed up until 2 a.m. last night. Caffeine? Cleaning high? Whatever the reason, I feel like I have a hangover today, even though no alcohol was involved.


No cleaning today though. I need to recover. I met my mom for lunch, did a little grocery shopping, took a photo of a futon I want to sell and posted it to craigslist, and now I'm headed to the couch for more Inspector Lynley and knitting. This is what I'm working on, using yarn that's at least five years old and possibly moth infested. For some reason, every ten yards or so, the yarn is deteriorated to the breaking point. Either that or it's defective yarn. It seems as if I may be past the bad areas but we'll see.
I'm making the felted accessory bag from Weekend Knitting; I should add in some other yarns according to the pattern suggestion, but until I figure out what this yarn is doing, I'll stick with just the one. Besides, it's varigated and there's 200 yards of it, so I'll have plenty to do another if it's not totally ruined.
I need to do some school work but in true middle school mentality, I'll postpone that until the last minute.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Too Much Cleaning, Not Enough Knitting

I think we cleaned too much today. It's at the point where we keep moving things out of the room we're cleaning and junking up the rooms we're not. Which feels like a wash somehow.



On the plus side, both the bathroom and bedroom are totally clean. I've culled three (smallish) bags of books from my bookshelves, and Steve cleaned the kitchen floor. (I know, aren't I lucky?)



Tonight I'll get to sit in the sunroom and watch another episode or two of Masterpiece Theater with Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers, assuming my dvd player doesn't skip the ending like it did with last night's episode. Is there anything more frustrating than watching a mystery only to miss the ending? That's why books are so much better. Except I can't knit and read at the same time. Oh, the injustice of it all!

Knitting and Cleaning

While I was complaining about not being able to decide on a knitting project, Steve reminded me that I hadn't finished his cable scarf yet, so that's what I did last night. I used three skeins of Plymouth Yarn Royal Llama Silk and he loves it. I also finished my scarf the other day; I have enough yarn left to make fringe but I haven't decided if I should. Suggestions?
And here are some photos of our tiny bedroom. This house was built in 1952, so the bedrooms are small. I think the "master" bedroom is 12 x 12, maybe, and the other two are even smaller. You can see the hamper is in the corner of the room, with the armoire and the bookcase lined up beside it, and other than the space the door takes up, that's the whole wall. Also, the head of the bed is up against the opposite wall and you can see how little space there is between the foot of it and the armoire.


The main change we made was to move a chair out and put this bookcase at the window instead. The chair was never visible as we constantly draped clothes over it, so this gives us a cleaner, less cluttered look, even if it is a teeny-tiny room. Still not sure what else I can or want to do in here other than re-organize the closet and clean up both bookcases.



It looks like today will be a rainy, gray day, perfect for staying inside. Steve's reading the paper, the laundry is all done, and I think it's time to play with some yarn.
Oh, I almost forgot, I need to clear out seven things for Sunday. I think I'll start with the bedroom bookcases and then move on to the yarn stash. YarnHarlot's page-a-day calendar entry for Friday was "cull your stash". I'm on it. Maybe.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

More Yarn and Some Cleaning

Still mulling over the yarn/knitting dilemma, but swatching seems to be the way to go. Meanwhile, I've cast on for yet another pair of handwarmers, using a pretty blue with brown yarn. And I've finished the orange scarf, so of course we're getting warm weather now. No problem though, as it looks nice in my knitwear basket.

I also decided to thoroughly clean our bedroom today, which meant taking the duvet cover to the laundromat. Steve met me there after his audition (no word yet) and we had a nice little "date" time. When we got home, we moved all the furniture so I could use Murphy's Oil Soap on the floors and woodwork, and we also rearranged it, in addition to washing the curtains. I should have taken a before photo, but I guess that's not my style. Anyway, I'll take an after one before it's in disarray again. It feels a lot more open and it's definitely cleaner. One room a weekend seems to be a trend right now. The one room a month is for actually making changes, but trust me, the cleaning doesn't need to wait that long. It's been too long already.

Now I'm in my jammies (yes, again) and we're watching the football game while I rummage around in my knitting books and magazines. I love a three day weekend.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Soliciting Suggestions

I'm having a knitting problem. I have so many patterns, books, and yarn that I can't decide what to knit. I really want to use what I have but I don't feel like I have a good enough understanding of yarn types. For example, I've found a couple of patterns I like but I'm not sure which yarns would make a good substitute for the yarn the pattern calls for. Remember the Purl scarf I started a few weeks ago? It's a pattern that encourages you to mix and match and yet I couldn't seem to come up with something I liked. I have a huge variety of yarn, but generally just one or two skeins of each type, so I'm limited somewhat to small projects. Suggestions are welcome.

I went to my gyn appointment today. I took the whole day off so I could get some other errands run too; I even scheduled my hair appointment. Highlights and everything. I had also planned to get my driver's license renewed but it turns out they were closed today, so I went to a matinee instead. Seeing a movie on a weekday felt really indulgent. I saw A Single Man, with Colin Firth. I was glad I saw it and Steve was even happier that he didn't have to go! It was a period piece, set in 1962, and beautifully filmed. Sad, but beautiful.

Speaking of Steve, he auditioned for a part in a production of Twelve Angry Men for a local theater group this week and he got a callback. He reads again tomorrow. Fingers crossed!


While browsing the internet, I saw this drawstring bag tutorial over here and it reminded me of the many different bags I used when my girls were little. All sizes and shapes. As a matter of fact, M2 sat down the other night with a bag she still uses that was her library bag when she was going to storytime; she was either two or three years old. She's almost twenty-one and it still brought pleasant memories for us both. I can't remember where I bought it, but I know it was either a yard sale or thrift store purchase. And she's still using it.



Another set of bags we have are a couple of very large drawstring bags using fabric I had used for a birthday party tablecloth. After the party, I decided to use the fabric and made either two or three bags, originally to store the girls' sleeping bags. They both took one when they went to college and still use them as laundry/storage bags. They stand about waist high and hold a lot of clothes. More good memories, as I still remember the birthday parties I used to give for them.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

A Cowl in New York City

So you want the story of the cowl that almost killed me? Well, last February I flew to New York City to visit my oldest daughter, M1. I knew that it was really cold up there so I decided the week before I went that I needed to knit a cowl to help me keep warm. I looked at some patterns but for some reason decided that all I needed to do was knit a tube. A big tube. I thought if I made it big enough, I could pull it up over my head and use it as a quasi-hat/cowl. Well that sucker was warm alright. Even though the temperatures never made it out of the twenties, my neck was good and warm. Sweaty warm. Not particularly stylish, but that's never been a big concern of mine.

So my daughter, her boyfriend, and I are walking all over Greenwich Village and I'm loving life. Looking around, taking pictures, and just generally doing the wide-eyed tourist routine, when all of a sudden, as we were crossing a street, I tripped and fell. This is a street in New York City, mind you. I tripped, fell, and my cowl shot up over my head, making me sightless. With the light getting ready to change. I was laying in the street in New York City with a cowl over my head rendering me blind, with traffic getting ready to take off and my daughter on the other side, because she thought I was still with her. Luckily she realized what had happened, came back into the street, helped me up, and led me to the curb to recover, before the traffic ran over me.

It was funny later. Much later.

I frogged that sucker.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Who's The Boss?

After finishing a couple of projects this past weekend, I looked around for something to knit. I wanted something easy, that I can knit while I am on hall duty in the mornings (30 minutes every day, with time out to sign hall passes). I decided to use some Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca Grande that I had sitting around from a badly designed cowl that I made last year (I was the "designer", hence the poor design quality), wore in NYC on a trip last February (long story, but it was nearly the death of me; the cowl, not the trip), and upon my return home, immediately frogged. (Are you still with me?)

The yarn is a nice orange color and so soft; I'm using the uneven rib stitch that I used for M#2's scarf. Since I gave a test today, I actually had extra knitting time, so I'm on the second ball now. Believe it or not, knitting is the best thing to do during testing. I'm able to watch the students so they don't cheat. If I work, I tend to get involved and forget to keep my eyes on them, so this actually works out better. Plus the kids are always interested in what I'm knitting.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to decide what to do for my Olympics' project. I'm still thinking of frogging the Farmer's Market Cardigan and using the yarn for a ChicKnits pattern. I'm sure I couldn't finish it during the time frame, but it definitely meets the challenge portion of the requirements. And after all, who's the boss of this knitting thing? Me, that's who!

Monday, January 11, 2010

Why Can't Every Day Be Sunday?

This is what drove my ambition this weekend. A page from my Yarn Harlot calendar.
Since Sunday was another stay-at-home-watch-football-in-my-pajamas-day, I finished the Cap'n Crunch neckwarmer, although the color I used is more BooBerry. The unfortunate thing though is that I only have one pewter button and there are two buttonholes. So I either use only one or I go searching for a pair of different ones.


In addition to watching football, I also soaked the green handspun scarf in Eucalan wash and blocked it out on towels in the living room. It feels a lot softer now.


Sunday turned out to be a good day for finishing a few knitting projects from the UFO trunk too. The trunk holds a few finished objects too, like baby hats, but mostly it's for stuff that's fallen out of favor. This scarf was finished at least two years ago but when I bound off, I did it too tightly and it was unwearable (who knew that was possible?). So it's been languishing. Until today. I decided to pull it out and frogged the last two rows so I could bind off LOOSELY. Now it's ready to wear. I sort of used the Men's Rustic Scarf pattern from LMKG, only I used Plymouth Yarn's Baby Alpaca Grande, my go-to scarf yarn back then.
I also found this felted wallet, based loosely on the clutch pattern from One Skein. All it needed was a closure, so I sewed on a button and some velcro and with a little help from my friend Sam, it's done.

Not too bad for a lazy Sunday now, is it? Go Ravens!!