Time's A Wastin'!

It is a beautiful morning full of promise and at least a little bit of sunshine!  I am only on day 3 of a 8 day vacation, but am up early due to 1. hungry cats that don't know the meaning of vacation is to sleep past 0530 and 2. a very painful sore throat.  The cats part is easy to take care of, the sore throat, not so much.  Hopefully it is just allergies again and not something worse.  Rich is working today and tomorrow, and then we hope to go to either Richmond or Greensboro later in the week.  Hopefully we will head somewhere else for at least one other day trip.

I am determined not to waste this vacation.  By waste, I mean not get anything done.  But what to do first?  There isn't a lot to do outside since I haven't bought flowers yet.  If I see what I want today I might get some. But allergies have made me shy away from the outside.  Also cramping my style so to speak are the pains in my hands (and feet and other joints, but the hands are the ones that stop me cold).  This makes gardening and knitting a little on the painful side.  I am going to pick up some of those heat wraps for hands while in Walmart later this morning.  All this damp weather is to blame for that problem.  I have to do something as I have 3 more rosaries to make.  One for Pam's husband Mike, one for Brandy G, and one for Mom.  I am still waiting for the beads for Mom's.  I splurged for hers and ordered beautiful rose pink Swarovski crystals.  They should be here later this week.  I have the supplies for Mike's and Brandy's and want to get them done by the time I go back to work next week.

I would like to take at least some of the time off this week to start some sort of wellness program.  I read that book yesterday and I am going to start working some of the ideas from that into my days.  I would also like to get back into a regular yoga and exercise routine.  I know I felt much better in the past when I was exercising and doing yoga regularly.  I have "The Woman's Book of Yoga & Health" by Patricia Walden I am currently reading.  Hopefully that will inspire me.

I am getting that "restless" feeling again!  Yes, every time I am on vacation (even though we never go away for vacation anymore with MIL obligations and animals that need tending) I always get that "I NEED To Start A New Knitting Project! feeling.  It isn't enough just to start one I already have the yarn and supplies for.  We usually take at least one day trip during vacations, and I love to pick up some knitting project that will always remind me of where we went and where I got it, and the day trip in general.  It is sort of a souvenir of vacation.  It is a ritual, and I enjoy it.  So, what to get and where?  There are knitting stores in both Greensboro and Richmond, so where will not be a problem, but what usually is.  I rarely have something specific in mind, and I just end up with more yarn to make a shawl or scarf or something.  That is mostly because I like to buy novelty yarn - something splashy and flashy or mohairy and something I can't find just anywhere.  Last trip to Richmond in December, I bought 2 different yarns - a red one with sequins and a gray mohair one with silver metallic - to make infinity scarves.  Last October in Greensboro I bought the yarn to make Dad's scarf and hat for Christmas.  So what to get this trip?  I have been scouring Ravelry for ideas.

So back to the wasting of time.  In the book "Take Your Time," the author (then a busy professor) describes his own struggle in his early 40's with wanting something more in his life and wanting to add time for meditation. He did what he calls the red line exercise where he lists all his activities, prioritized them, and then red lined those that he could do without or no longer were in his favorites list.  He described the exercise as being both painful and liberating.  What are my biggest time wasters?  The computer probably ranks up near the top of the list.  Like anything else, if I don't have a "to do" list and/or schedule in mind when I sit down to the computer I find myself just surfing aimlessly.  There is so much to find/read etc. on here that it can suck you in and swallow up a great deal of time before you are even aware that it has happened.  Also a time waster for me is "aimless puttering" or "flapping" as Rich calls it.  When I bounce from one project around the house to the next without any real objective to get one thing done.  I end up using up a bunch of time and not much to show for it.  I have discovered that I do better with some sort of "plan" for the day, even a day off.  How's that for crazy - take vacation from the rat race and structured scheduled days, and I need to schedule "vacation" days!  Oh well, I am a Virgo after all!

Time to make that schedule and head to Walmart before too much more of the morning slip past me!  Time's a wastin'!

Squish, squish, squish.........

That is the sound you make as you walk across the swamp.... er, I mean yard.  We have had many days of heavy rain, storms, fog and gloom.  Delightful weather for mosquitoes and frogs, but since I am neither one of those, I am far from delighted.  Today started out promising with blue skies and just a slight amount of ground fog, but then up came black skies and a sudden downpour.  Blue skies and sunshine returned, but the air is heavy with humidity and the promise of more thunderboomers.  Or gullywashers as an old friend of mine used to call them.  Between the high humidity and the bane of my existence, pollen, it is quite unpleasant to be outside.  You would think that all of the rain would have knocked down the pollen levels, but that is not so.  I had grand ideas about transplanting a few of the tropical plants, but the rather difficult to breathe atmosphere quickly squashed that idea.  I had to kick the rest of the tropicals outside today since the old plant light in the basement finally kicked the bucket.  Hopefully it will not venture too far below 50 degrees outside any more nights or I will be dragging some plants indoors.  I am trying not to complain too much about the rain since in a few short months, I will be begging for it.  Too bad we can't stretch it out over the whole summer instead of having a year's worth of it in one month.  I am a little grumpy about it too, since I am on vacation this week.  I usually take a week off in May.  The forecast is for more of the same for about 2/3 of the time I am off.  So, being done outside for now, I am determined to save the rest of the day and go get some chores done than take an early shower, fix an early dinner, and spend the evening relaxing and knitting.  I did read a very interesting and enlightening book this morning.  The book is "Take Your Time: How to find Patience, Peace and Meaning" by Eknath Easwaran.  I read about this author while browsing one of my knitting books, "Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines" and I looked him up on Amazon.com. I read "Take Your Time" cover to cover this morning.  It seemed to speak to me directly, and it gave me lots to think about.  I am going to try to incorporate some of his principles for living in my own life. How appropriate that I discovered this book while reading about the activity that brings to me the most peace and yet at times requires a great deal of patience..........knitting!

Ring Around the Rosaries

Yesterday I finished two of the remaining 4 rosaries I have to make. Hopefully I will finish one more this afternoon. I worked on my yarn necklace last night. I am using Art Yarns Beaded Pearl & Sequins yarn in color 193S that I bought at J.J.'s Knitting Knook in Stuart's Draft (just outside of Waynesboro, VA) last fall. I made a friend of mine a necklace and bracelet set out of this yarn, but hers was made out of crochet chains. Mine is an I-cord. I plan on hanging one of those lampworked glass focal drops on it. I have already made a bracelet from this yarn, but think a group of 2 or 3 different width "bangles" might look better. Time permitting, today I would like to cast on for that baby sweater. I am using a yarn that came in one of those Annie's Attic Knitting Club kits that was originally for a baby sack. It is a very pretty soft mint color. The sweater pattern I chose is a baby kimono from the Lion Brand Yarn free patterns website. I have already done my test swatch, and as usual have had to go down one needle size. I knit very loosely. I was told this is because I knit Continental style instead of American style. Or maybe it is just because I find knitting to be very relaxing? LOL

So many possibilities, so little time!

Story of my life, so it seems! I have so many hobbies that I love to work on that when I finally do get time to work on something, it takes me so long to decide what to do that I sometimes just get frustrated and end up doing very little of anything. Besides knitting, I love to crochet, bead, needlepoint and read, and I have ongoing projects in each of those categories. Not to mention life is getting a little more stressful, and time is getting a lot tighter lately. Lots going on right now, and most of it is not great. But life goes in cycles, and this too shall pass. It occurs to me that this is exactly the time that I most need to rely on my hobbies to get me through. I can't even count how many times in the past that my hobbies, knitting especially, got me through some really bad times -- times that I'm not sure I would have made it through without the calming powers of knitting. My latest finished product this week is not a knitted one, but rather a beaded one. It is a rosary I made for a friend of mine at work, or rather for her daughter who is about to go through Confirmation. It is made out of moonstone beads. The picture really doesn't do the beads justice. They are so pretty - they appear to be glowing when they are in strong natural light. I have 4 more rosaries to make, 3 of which are over halfway completed. The rosary pictured is the fourth one I have made. The first was for my niece Megan's Confirmation a year ago, that one was made with rose quartz beads. The second one was made of hematite beads for Megan's boyfriend Jordan and the third was for my sister and made out of garnet colored Czech fire polished glass "Preciosa" beads. Those were Christmas presents. I haven't abandoned knitting! My current project is a knitted I-cord necklace made from silk yarn with sequins and beads. About to be cast on the needles is a baby sweater for a friend at work. Her little girl is due in July. I also can't wait to cast on for some Go Knit bracelet kits I bought right before Christmas, one in the Flamingo colorway and the other in Carribbean.

I'm trying to finish up some of the numerous knitting projects that I have lying around here. I ran into a problem with the first one I picked up last night -- it is a Noro Kureyon in color #74 and one strand of Trendsetters Me tal color #55 held together. Well, I didn't have as much of the Metal as I thought, so I ran out. Oh well, that is a pretty good reason to hit the yarn stores again!

So I dug through the embarassingly large pile of undone projects and came up with a shrug made out of Caron Simply Soft Shadows. It is the perfect weather to work on this - cold, dreary and rainy. Oh well, I guess I should be glad it is not ice. I still need to finish my sister Paulette's Farmer's Market Tote made out of Knit Picks' yarn Wood of the Andes. It is a little over half finished at this point.

What's in the rest of the pile? Yikes! It's a very long list..............

Long time, no see!

 

It has been a while since I have posted.  Life has gone on as usual, sometimes difficult, sometimes great.  This past weekend Rich and I took another trip to Rockbridge with my Mom and Dad.  Here is a pic of one of my favorite places -- the Orchardside Yarn Shop where I bought some lovely yarn to make another felted bag, and Mom bought some really dreamy yarn to make a scarf. 

Lightning Bugs in November?

Louis the Pug has his first handknit sweater!  It is a little bit too large for him at the moment, but I wanted a sweater that would fit him when he finished growing.  He looks a little like a Lightning bug or a wooly glow worm, but he is adorable in it. 

I have added a couple of pictures of finished projects I have done over the last couple of months.  There are more finished items to post, but I have to take "after" pictures of them.  One of the most exciting things I have knit lately has been the Starlight Shawl.  The knitting part is finished, all it needs is its fringe added. 

Time is flying by super fast.  I can't believe that Thanksgiving is just a little over 2 weeks away.  I have decided that I am NOT going to do a lot of Christmas knitting this year.  It always seems to turn a hobby that I absolutely love and turn to for stress relief into a source of stress and aggravation.  That is not to say that I won't do any Christmas knitting, I will just pick and choose a few handknit gifts to do instead of trying to make so many.  My knitting time is precious and what little of it there is is carved out of an already hectic schedule, so I don't really want to turn it into an exercise in frustration instead of an exercise in relaxation.  So who will I knit for and what will I knit?  Good question.  So many things I want to knit, so little time!