Happyween!

That's what my youngest daughter, Melissa, used to say!

 

 

 

Hope yours is happy, whatever you call it!

 

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A Walk on the Beach.

The above picture is the ocean on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. They are sustaining major damage and loss of roads.

 

The Bay, while rougher than usual, is no where near as damaging to the shoreline. The problems that are happening in our area are due to high tide flooding.

Steve and I just took a quick walk down to the water to see what was going on, and we are very lucky indeed.

The dune grasses are flattened by the wind, but they should hold up.

Hope everyone stays safe.

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Sandy

Hurricane Sandy is doing a number on our coastline, but Steve and I are quite fortunate in that our street is high enough and far enough from the shoreline that we are doing fine. This photo is of the OV Fishing Pier, which is about twelve blocks to the west of us.

This is actually an intersection near the interstate, about eighteen blocks west. The houses on the right of the photo are on the beach side, so they are receiving some serious flooding.

 

Meanwhile, we are fine, we both have the day off, and I'm splitting my time between knitting, reading, and browsing the Internet.

 

Stay safe, wherever you are.

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Weekend with Sandy?

My plans to spend the weekend in my pajamas, knitting and watching Inspector Lewis videos got off to a slow start. My former mother-in-law has been in ICU all week with asthma related stuff, and I've been visiting her every day after work. Since Steve and I haven't eaten dinner together much this week as a result, he and I met for coffee Friday, and then went to dinner before I went to the hospital, which meant I didn't get home until 8:30.

It looks like Hurricane Sandy may be coming our way, depending on which weather report you believe. I stopped at the grocery store yesterday, but since it's just the two of us, I'm not particularly worried. I'm actually hoping for a day off school, isn't that awful? Who knew teachers long for days off just as much as the students do?

I spent most of Saturday running around, meeting my parents for lunch, doing a little shopping, grading papers at the coffee shop, and doing a little thrift store shopping with Steve. I bought an all wood chest of drawers to put in the spare bedroom, in what used to be Melissa's room, for only $35. After I get my yarn cleaned up from the moths, I'm going to put the yarn in ziplock bags and store it in the drawers. Not as pretty as all my baskets, but I don't want to go through this again.

By 5:00 p.m., I was finally able to get into my pajamas and sit on the couch to relax and enjoy the smell of a chicken roasting in the oven, while we listened to the wind and rain. We put all of our deck chairs and potted plants in the garage for safe keeping, and we are keeping our fingers crossed we don't have too bad of a storm. Unfortunately, it seems like the projected storm path is heading right for my oldest daughter's city in Connecticut, so I'm worried about her as well, although there isn't anything I can do about it.

 

This photo was taken at high tide this morning, just a few streets to the west of me. Streets are flooding, but so far, our street is okay.

I'm half way through my pile of papers, but first, a little knitting break. And some football.

 

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The M Word

So, it appears my yarn has been a buffet for the moths. After noticing some fluttering going on in the sunroom, I broke down and looked closely at my yarn collection, and lo and behold, the moths had been hard at work. I now have the garage freezer completely stuffed full of yarn and the house freezer is holding the overflow.

 

Luckily, Steve is quite understanding of the situation. I was hoping to spread it all out on the deck in the sunshine this weekend so I could refreeze it all, but Hurricane Sandy has another idea. So the yarn will stay safely frozen until next weekend. Boy, I have a lot of wool.

Meanwhile, I'm knitting up a luscious skein of The Spun Monkey yarn I bought from Madison Wool on my last visit to Connecticut. I'm making another Wingspan shawl, since it makes for good hospital waiting room knitting. My former mother in law has been in the hospital all week and I've been visiting her every night after getting off work.

The iPad camera and crappy lighting doesn't do this yarn justice, but I'm too lazy to take a real photo just now. Imagine a rich, tonal purple with flecks of silver. I think it'll be a beautiful shawl, but as usual, I've no idea who the recipient will be. It's the knitting, people.

In school news, every student in my transition class (students at high risk for dropping out of school) passed their test on The Odyssey! I am so excited and happy for them!

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Weird Sleep Habits and New Yarn

I don't know what is going on, but I seem to have developed some strange sleep habits. Last night I couldn't stay awake past 10:00 p.m., and tonight it's 12:30 a.m., and I'm still awake. Coffee isn't really a factor, since I had one cup in the morning Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and the only difference is a few glasses of iced tea for lunch today. Hmm, maybe that is enough to make a difference?

More important news is that I visited a new, local yarn shop today! It's only been open for seven weeks, and it's in a great location. The owner is a former teacher and she carries some wonderful yarns. She said she opened with the kinds of yarns she loves and will add others based on customer requests as her business grows, which sounds like a great plan to me. She is the second yarn shop owner I know who is a former teacher; I hope my career path follows the same road. I would love to own a yarn shop! Steve and I have talked about doing just that one day, so who knows?

I bought two skeins of Malabrigo silk and wool in a luscious shade of purple called Velvet Grapes.

 

I'm thinking a Honey Cowl for someone's Christmas gift would be a fine thing, don't you? Although the Malabrigo website has some free patterns I need to investigate further.

I finished Steve's brown hat, only to find out I had cast on 88 stitches instead of 72, and therefore it was way too large. I mean, really big. No one I know has a head that big, so I ripped it out and started over. Luckily it didn't take long the first time, and since it'snice yarn, it's not too much of a hardship to reknit it. Steve loved the color, so at least it's not a waste of time. After all, knitting is knitting!

I'm also coming along quite nicely on the Brattleboro hat, from New England Knits. I love the yarn color and can't wait to pick out the buttons for it.

Speaking of knitting, I'm sure you know that Rhinebeck is this weekend and from the photos I've seen on Instagram, they are having beautiful weather. I really need to plan on going next year.

I thought the morning sky was breathtakingly beautiful this week, so I took some photos.

 

 

Enjoy.

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Wordless

I had a really rough day at school today, and then it got worse. A fourteen year old student at my high school died this afternoon from an asthma attack while he was at football practice. And I taught him when he was in the eighth grade. This is harder than I expected.

Words fail me.

 

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Knitting on the Beach

The weather was gorgeous today so I went to the beach as soon as I got home. Lovely.

 

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Random

I haven't knit on my Citron shawl for at least a year, probably two. I think I was too worried about having all the numbers come out right, but now, after having knit a number of shawls, I realize it's not that critical to knit it perfectly, so I've pulled it out again.

I also made a plain brown hat for Steve over the weekend. Boring, but he requested plain, so there you are. As an antidote to the plain, I started a Brattleboro hat from the book, New England Knits, using a lovely golden shade in Dream in Color Classy. No idea who will end up with it, but I've been wanting to make it for quite some time now.

 



We went to the state park again on Sunday, and the weather was very different from last Sunday. We also popped in to a small, local art show, right across from our library, but didn't buy anything. I was able to check out Anne Lamott's latest book, Some Assembly Required, from the library though, so all in all, it was a lovely day.

 

 

 

Back to work today, to find a note from Friday's substitute that wasn't surprising at all. My 9th graders behaved rather badly, which isn't much of a change from when I'm there. They are still pretty immature, but they are getting a bit better. Maybe by the time the semester is over, they'll be in good shape? Here's hoping.

I've been watching the newest series on PBS, Call The Midwife, and I like it a lot. Give it a try if you get a chance.

Anyone going to Rhinebeck this year? I'm not, so of course it sounds like everyone I'd love to see is going to be there. Maybe next year.

Have a great week!

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Gift Knits

If everyone I knit for would send me a picture of the gift knitting in use, I'd knit a lot more. This is a picture of the gift recipient wearing her mitts and showing the appropriate, yet rarely seen, level of enthusiasm.

 

She'll be getting something hand knit again really soon.

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The End of the Weekend

We had two very different days this weekend, weather wise. Saturday was at least 80 degrees and sunny, so I spent a couple of hours on the beach with a friend, soaking in the rays. I went to bed around 8 p.m., and caught up on my sleep.

Sunday was 60 degrees and grey, so Steve and I went for a hike at the nearby state park.

 

 

 

 

Tonight I spent a couple of hours enjoying a PBS evening and knitting another pair of cabled hand warmers.

Another lovely weekend. Hope yours was a good one too.

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An FO, a WIP, and a Blue Goat

I finished a pair of hand mitts last weekend. I used the Braided Mitts pattern and a skein of Quince & Co. Lark and while I knit them over enough that I should have had two pairs instead of one, I am quite happy with them. It wasn't the pattern's fault I had such trouble, but rather my attention span, or lack thereof.

 

Looking forward to making another pair actually, but for now, I've cast on for another Honey Cowl, just so I could work with a luscious skein of MadTosh that I picked up from WEBS last April. (Now that I've linked it, I realize I may be using a worsted instead of dk, which means I need to go up a needle size or two.)

And I forgot to share this picture of a painting that was hanging in a Richmond restaurant called The Blue Goat. Cool, huh?

 

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