Countdown...

Today is Monday. On Thursday, noon-ish, Amy and I will climb into her CR-V, make the obligatory beginning-of-road-trip Starbucks stop and commence heading east by northeast to Gloucester via a stop-over in Hartford. 

Three days and counting.

We've been planning this trip for well over a month now, and it's always seemed off in the distance, as these things usually do. Now it seems imminent. It is imminent! And that's exciting, as I love to travel. I love road trips, especially those Amy and I take together. I've never been to Gloucester, so I'm looking forward to seeing the quaint seaside village that has been described to me, as well as its neighbor, Rockport. I look forward to the possibility of a whale-watching trip, and many, many photo opportunities. I look forward to a few relaxing days with books and knitting and coffee shops and the beach. And while Amy is not a knitter, I hope she will indulge me by facilitating a yarn shop trip or two over the five days we'll be gone, which I undoubtedly will enjoy. 

Furthermore, I look forward to seeing Denise, a friend whom I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting in person, who readily paints with her words charming visions of the northern coast of Massachusetts. And en route, I look forward to meeting up with a couple of Ravelry friends (also as of yet unmet in person) for an early lunch in Hartford. 

It will all be good. 

But until Thursday, I have a lot to do. Three full days of school (and an abbreviated day on Thursday morning). Balancing the checkbook and paying bills. Going to the grocery store/pharmacy. Rearranging some appointments for when I get back, as I have myself double-booked. Doing laundry. And, of course, packing -- and as any knitter knows, it takes more energy and time to choose and pack your knitting projects for a trip than it does your clothes. :}

I best get busy!

Rain...

Today is a perfect rainy day. At least it is here in southwestern PA. If you live in gulf coastal Texas or Louisiana, it is anything but perfect and you are in my thoughts and prayers today. I hope you are safe.

But for me, today is a perfect rainy day. I woke up uncharacteristically early today -- before 6:30 -- and it took me a moment to realize the incredible sound of water was not my husband in the shower but the rain coming down, heavy, outside my open bedroom window. It has continued to rain heavily, or at least steadily, most of today, with breaks now and again, only to start up again. 

I will not complain. It is fall. It is allowed to rain. I cannot remember the last day of soaking rain we've had. It's been quite a while, and certainly the second half of summer was very, very dry. Unseasonably cool at times, and very dry. We closed August a good inch below the average rain fall, and nearly halfway through September, we are almost three inches below. Today (and tomorrow, by the looks of the forecast) should help bolster that measurement! 

So, what to do on a perfect, rainy Friday? Schoolwork, of course. Today marks the end of our second week of school, and they've both been excellent weeks. 

I've been knitting, of course. I'm determined to finish my February Lady Sweater for my trip next week. I need to get cracking on it if I'm going to have it done by next Thursday. And because I cannot resist challenges, I'm also working on my first ever lace-weight shawl pattern, North Roe, which is written in French.* I haven't been spending a lot of time on it, as I am trying to concentrate on FLS, but I can't help myself...I pick it up and work a couple rows of the chart now and again throughout the day. 

And there has been reading, of course...blog reading. Rainy days always seem like a good time to catch up on blogs I like but don't read on a daily basis.

And finally, there have been tomatoes. Being the busy week it has been, I've not had time to can the latest bounty of tomatoes that were quickly starting over-ripen in my kitchen. But a rainy day is a great day to can. So I sent the kids down the garden to pick whatever other tomatoes were ready, and we got to work. Many hands indeed make light work, and the three of us ran all of them through the Squeezo in record time. I'm making tomato sauce this time, so there is a lot of cooking time involved to thicken it. Good thing there weren't more tomatoes because I ruined my extra large kettle last year in an unfortunate apple cooking incident, so I'm making due with the smaller kettle and my regular large pot, both of which were just about at capacity after I dumped in the last bowl of tomato goo. It's cooking down now, and it smells wonderful.

What I'm not doing today? Leaving my house, clearly. I opted to miss knit group today because I didn't want to skip out on the kids during school hours. (This is going to be a problem...I may be scarce at knit group for the foreseeable future.) I was going to go to my friend Peggy's house and help her turn the heel of her sock, but between the rain and the news report today of a van that's been driving around the area following school kids off their school buses recently, I didn't want to leave the kids at home alone, period! 

And I don't seem to be posting pictures...I have pictures I want to post, but they're on the downstairs computer and I'm upstairs and can't get to them. So stay tuned for pictures. Really!

Hope you're having a perfect Friday too...rainy or otherwise!

*It is "translated" into English throughout, but between my own limited knowledge of the French language and my own deductive translation of the pattern, I've found two omissions in the provided translation. Hopefully that's it. Could be interesting.

Busy week, month...

I seriously dislike weeks when there is so much going on that I have to be running nearly every day. That has been what this week has been like. Monday was the only day I did not have to leave the house, and I took advantage of staying at home. I desperately try to keep Mondays as "home" days during the school year because I've learned over the years that Monday sets the tone for the rest of the school week. Being at home is imperative to having a good Monday.

As I was writing everything on our big wipe-off calendar on the side of the fridge earlier this month, I sighed at the realization that there were only a few blocks on the whole month that had nothing at all written in them. Busy month. I have tried to keep my mind focused on survival mode. None of the things on the calendar are overly unpleasant, and indeed many things are quite good -- our church's 35th anniversary celebration all last weekend, a friend's farm party this Saturday, my long-weekend trip to Massachusetts with another friend next week. But even good things take energy, and being the introvert that I am, deriving my energy from quiet time alone, busy times like these (no matter how good), can really sap me.

Thus, I'm trying to keep firm boundaries around the time I have in my days that is not designated for anything specific. As much as I want to meet friends for coffee when they suggest it and go to my knitting group or go shopping for the things on my ever-growing list, I really need to weigh what I need more right now -- more time out or time at home?

Time at home is winning more often than not right now. 

Questions and Photos

Because it is a lazy Saturday morning (which will be in contrast to the busy Saturday afternoon I will be having!), I'm just bouncing from one fun thing to the next. Knitting, blog reading, knitting, drinking coffee, knitting...you get the picture. 

And because I love photos and because I love memes, I especially love the Flickr photo memes. I did a yarn meme a while back, and I think I did another non-yarn one before that (though I'm having trouble finding it in my archives...clearly did not tag it properly), but in my recent blog reading, I came upon another one...similar to the first that I know I did (wherever it is!) but I'm 95% sure that a lot of the questions are different. So! I'm going to do it, just because it is fun and because it is a lazy Saturday morning, and because I can! :)

(If you click through to Flickr, you'll see my notes for each picture 

since some of the pictures are more self-explanatory than others.) 

The rules:

a. Type your answer to each question below into Flickr search.

b. Using only the first page, pick an image.

c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Mosaic Maker. 

The questions:

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What high school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. What is your favorite drink?

7. What is your dream vacation?

8. What is your favorite dessert?

9. What do you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. One word that describes you?

12. Your Flickr name?

Knitting Update...

Just wanted to talk about knitting for a few minutes, because it's always a good time to talk about knitting, no?

Recently finished, my mom's Hey, Teach! cardigan. 

I tweaked the pattern to make the sleeves 3/4 length, per my mom's request. I'm really happy with how this sweater turned out. I had the perfect buttons in my stash, too! (More pictures of this sweater are on my Ravelry project page, including a button close up.) I made it out of Lang Kappa (cotton/polyester). I'd like to make it for myself at some point. 

It doesn't look like much yet, but here is the start of the yoke of my February Lady Sweater...

I'm actually done with the yoke now (or I will be soon...need to put it on waste yarn and see where the armholes fall), so there are three button holes. Looking forward to starting the lace pattern tomorrow! Actually, I'm looking forward to having this sweater finished, as I think it will be a perfect transition-weather piece. 

I'm making it out of Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool, which is actually turning out to be rather hard on my hands. Almost like cotton. Not as rough as cotton, but it doesn't have the give of wool, thus making it feel like it is cotton when knitting it. I've found I can't do more than a couple rows without taking a break (granted, there are 300+ stitches per row at this point!) to give my hands a rest. 

Being all garter stitch so far, I've knit it entirely continental, and that may have something to do with my hand pain, too, as I tend to really grip the needles when I knit in that method. But it goes so much faster than English! Always a trade-off, no? (I happen to have a good bit of this yarn in my stash because I fell in love with the colors and had to give them a good home during the shop closing sale. Might need to space out projects made from this, though, lest I ruin my hands for good!)

Also on the knitting topic, I've found a new blog to love: Skrilla Knits. It belongs to Cirilia Rose, who is the newest member of the Berroco Design Team. Isn't she the cutest? Anyway, my latest WEBS catalog came yesterday, and as I was flipping through it, I noticed one of the models looked familiar. I finally figured out who it was, and that sent me on a search for her on Ravelry and that led me to her blog. She doesn't post often, but as with all new-to-me blogs, I'll enjoy reading her old posts. 

Another blog I stumbled upon recently is Lolly Knitting Around, which is self-described as being about craft, photography and travel -- three of my favorite things! Lolly's photography is amazing. She is also big into color with her Project Spectrum, so that only makes me adore her all the more. 

In the category of UFOs, I really, really need to finish up the Green Purse and the Lopi Vest (refer to my fun new WIPs widget there to the right). The purse has been languishing for over a year, and the vest since winter. The purse just needs lining and a zipper, which I have here ready to sew and put in. The vest just needs a zipper, which I also have. Do you see a theme? I hate dealing with zippers in knits! Argh. But I really want to get these two things off my WIP list, so I am going to have to bite the bullet and deal with the darned zippers! Soon!

Lastly, I'm really getting a hankering to learn to weave. Blog posts and articles and advertisements about weaving have popped into my path several times in recent days, and they've totally reminded me how much I'd like to try the craft...really try it, with an actual loom, rather than a hand-made frame. I'm not ready to dive in and purchase a loom (though if I was going to, it would probably be either this one or the first one on this page), as I feel the need to figure out ahead of time how I'd make time in my life for both knitting and weaving. 

I've already given up any hope of pursuing spinning in any serious way at this time because of the time involved. I don't want to lose knitting momentum, and I think I might with spinning. But weaving seems more laterally compatible. Plus I think it is something the girlie would be interested in...so it would count as school. ;) Must think about this some more. 

Playing catch up...

My lack of blogging lately has left various pictures languishing. Every picture has a story to tell, right? Far be it from me to keep the stories silent!

First, the story of some luxurious yarn...

I don't seek out luxury yarn too often or, well, ever really. I don't tend to knit really luxurious things, and I also don't have the pocketbook to fund such luxury purchases on a regular basis. However, I stopped in at a new LYS a couple weeks ago, Knit One North, and a bin of these lovelies greeted me right inside the door. Artyarn Ensemble, a double-stranded cashmere/silk yarn. Oh...I could have just stood there and petted this yarn all day. So soft, so lovely. I couldn't leave without buying one. It's not enough for a shawl, but I should be able to get a nice scarf out of it, being close to 275 yards. And I can only imagine how yummy it will feel wrapped around my neck. :)

ETA I see that there is a luxury yarn version of the One-Skein Wonders books coming out next month. What good timing! I love the one-skein books! :)

Second, the story of books. Not story books, really, though each has its own entertainment value in what I can do with them. I seem to be on a Shannon Okey binge...

I've been doing a lot of non-wool knitting lately, so the alt fiber book really intrigues me. I love the diversity of fibers that are out today, and as much as I am looking forward to getting back to some winter-worthy wool knitting, I'm not sure I'll completely abandon my cotton, bamboo and other "alt" fiber knitting completely. How to Knit in the Woods...honestly? I bought this book for the pictures. LOL I love the picture on the front cover. I love the idea of sitting by the camp fire and knitting (though my experience with doing so earlier this summer made me aware of the inherent danger of sitting too close to the fire when doing so...drop a ball of yarn, and it could be disastrous!). The pictures inside are fun, too. And then there are the patterns...an enjoyable collection, to be sure!

Lastly, there is the story of obsession...

Wollmeise. I've read tales of this legendary yarn for a while now. I've read excited message board posts of lucky knitters managing to score a skein or two, while so many others are left out of the fun time after time. Some of it can get kind of nasty sometimes, actually. Crazy! The Loopy Ewe is, as far as I can tell, the primary pusher supplier of this yarn here in the states. It's demand is so great that it is not even included in the sneak-up e-mails Sheri sends out. It just goes up, and if you're lucky enough to find it, then yeay! 

Sheri tried to make things more equitable for people last go-round by dividing the latest Wollmeise load into three different sneak-ups last week. I admit that with all the hoopla over Wollmeise, I wanted to find out what all of the excitement was about. I mean...it's yarn. Pretty yarn, to be sure, and larger than usual skeins for sock yarn, but still...it's yarn. So, I spent more time than I should have stalking TLE and amazingly, I hit two of the three sneak-ups. I only managed to grab one skein the first time, as I found they fly out of your shopping cart without notice as others check out before you can. So, when I hit the third sneak-up, I started randomly throwing skeins in my cart and checked out, managing to get five. 

(Now, refer back to my comment above about the affordability of luxury yarn. Yeah. Same goes for the affordability of multiple skeins of somewhat pricey sock yarn. Oh geez.)

What was funny was that four of the five skeins I grabbed were nearly the same darned color! They were actually different colorways, but they were all in the red family. And yes, they were all pretty. But I opted to share the wealth (and defray the cost of my impulse purchase!), so I sold off three of the six skeins to three other Wollmeise "virgins." So, of the six pictured above, I kept the three on the right, and the other three on their way to other happy homes.

Oh, and about the obsession? I'm still not sure I understand it. Again, yes, beautiful colors they are. And I haven't knitted any of it up yet, but I'm still feeling like it is just yarn. There is other pretty yarn out there, and there will be other pretty yarns to come. What makes one brand suddenly so in demand? It's just kind of crazy.

September 1

Finally, it is September. I've always loved September, for many reasons.

• My birthday is in September (the 27th).
  
• Fall officially starts in September (this year, on the 22nd).
  
• Leaves begin to turn color in September. 
  
• I start to wear my warm, cozy sweaters in September (the evenings do get cool, if nothing else!)
  
• School begins (or has just begun) in September.
  
• Life returns to a predictable rhythm in September.
  
• I feel the undeniable urge to take stock and get organized in September.
  

And that's where I'm at today. Getting organized. We'll be starting our new school year tomorrow -- our ninth homeschooling year. I've got the books ready. Our basic plan changes little from year to year at this point...we have a rhythm that works for us, and it only needs tweaking here and there to accommodate new activities and other scheduled elements outside of my control. 

I clearly remember those day-before-school-starts butterflies I felt as a child. I don't know if my kids experience the same thing (I should ask them), but I still get them. They're borne of anticipation for getting back to a comforting routine, for what we'll learn, for how my kids might possibly surprise me (they always do). 

September also makes me take inventory of my own personal routines and what changes I might make that will benefit both me and my family. One clear change is my bedtime. I've slipped back into the 2 a.m. habit. I need to go to bed earlier. I always feel better when I do. It's just such a hard pattern to establish because it does not come naturally to me. I also need to put firmer boundaries around our weekdays. It's so easy to be flexible with our time since we homeschool, and when the kids were younger, it wasn't much of an issue. But now, our school work takes more time, and flexing our schedule too much becomes detrimental. 

I need to run less. Run, run, run. That's all I seem to do. And it's my fault, I know. I've allowed it to be so. Some running is clearly necessary. But I feel like I am always running anymore. I'm tired of running. I want to be home. Related to this is wanting less temptation to spend money. When I run, I spend. A few dollars for a mocha. Another tank of gas. Grabbing lunch on the go. Buying things we don't necessarily need just because I'm at the store anyway. I need to slow down, run less, and spend less. 

I need to prioritize my time when I'm home, too. There are so many things I enjoy doing, things I want to be doing. I want to knit. I want to write. I want to scrapbook again, at least a little bit. I want to have time to read. The #1 thing that keeps me from spending time on these things I enjoy? The computer. Yep. My pretty little MacBook with its wireless internet connection...such a wonderful thing, yet such a temptation, too. A total time-suck. Like many people, I've battled with this for years. I remember back when it used to be e-mail that took my time away. Checking it every few minutes. Now, it's web sites like Facebook and Plurk and Ravelry. Nothing bad about these sites in general...I just spend too much time on them. I need to adjust that. 

So...September 1. A lot of changes are brewing. And I love that. It's time for some change. We'll see how it goes!