Sunny and blue...

I kind of hate this song, but 1) it's funny when Chandler sings it, 2) it ties in to this blog post...kind of, and 3) the video provides some visual amusement since my post-related photos don't show up until further on down in the text. Just trying to keep you, dear reader, engaged. ;)

It's been a delightfully warm weekend here in the 'burgh. Temps in the 40's and 50's are a veritable heat wave here at this time of year. Yesterday and today both started out sunny, though clouds inevitably moved in. Still...it all hints of spring, which is nice to see. Still a long way to go, though...it is, after all, only February in Pittsburgh!

My son and his family are home for a couple of weeks while he's on pre-deployment leave, so I got to see him and my grandson yesterday for a little while. That was a brief little bright spot in the my day. And last night I had dinner with a high school friend I haven't seen in close to 20 years...we recently reconnected through Facebook, learning that we've only lived about ten miles away from each other for the past nine years! It was a fun little reunion, hopefully to be repeated before another twenty years pass.

So, that's the sunny. The blue I refer to, however, is not the sky (clouds, remember?) but my mood despite the warmer temps and seeing family and friends. I also missed going to the gym yesterday, but that was so I could see my son, so it was an acceptable trade-off, though I'm realizing today just how much my gym days do to help my mood...who'd've thunk it? Anyway, I won't go into details of what's taken place to put me in this definitive blue funk...suffice it to say there always seems to be bad that comes with good and sometimes it can outweigh it. That has been the case since yesterday, and I'm sad and tired and feel helpless to change any of it. :::sigh::: I know it will pass and I'll get through it and the sun will come out to-MOR-row! Betcher-bottom-doll-AR--er, yeah, nevermind. 

Anyway...always a bright spot in life is the knitting, and there has been some knitting...

I finally finished the first Blackberry Jam sock, yarn by NummaNumma in the Blackberry Jam colorway. It's a simple 3x1 rib using my usual sock pattern. It's been my carry-around projects for ages now, and so it has taken much longer to complete than it otherwise would have. Need to cast on its mate so I can start carrying it around. There's nothing like a simple sock to knit on the go!

I also finished the first afghan square for the extended afghan swap I'm in...

I'm trying to kick the patterns up a notch for this next batch of seven squares, as some of the ones I did for the original swap were more simple and while they turned out nicely, I feel like I'd like to do a little more this go-around. I used the Openwork and Twist pattern from Harmony Guides 440 More Knitting Stitches, Vol. 3. (Am I the only one who just loves stitch dictionaries? I never get tired of perusing them!) The "twist" part of this pattern isn't showing up real well in this picture, but it is very pretty. I'll have to try to take a better detail picture before I send it off to its recipient (who hopefully does not visit my blog, or at least not until she receives her square!)

And now I intend to spend the rest of my Sunday drowning my sorrows -- or perhaps tying them up -- in yarn while watching comfort movies (some people have comfort food...I have comfort movies...fewer calories, just as effective). I'm thinking maybe an indulgent viewing of a Lord of the Rings movie...maybe two. We'll see how it goes.