A Quick Hello and Some Blooms

Hi All,

It has been a busy morning - starting with an eye doctor appointment first thing.  That meant getting into work late, so I've been scrambling ever since.  You know what it's like before you leave on vacation - all hell breaks loose and everyone wants everything.  LOL.

But, I wanted to stop in before vacay.  I'll be *trying* to keep up with your blogs while I'm away, but I may not comment...I'll only have my phone with me.  I won't be posting.

No knitting or stitching to show you today, but instead some blooms...or the beginning of blooms.  First up, our lilac has started to open.  All the blossoms are high, high up and I have to pull a branch down to get a picture.  The scent is just wonderful.

Next up is the Wisteria.  A few of the buds have begun to open - some partially.  Again, the scent is just out of this world.

And last, our Lily of the Valley (well, one bed of it - we have a lot).  It hasn't opened, but there are plenty of buds.  I'm guessing we will miss it - usually it is pretty short lived.

This clump (large!!) is under the evergreen by our mailbox.  We have a lot more under our weeping cherry.

Our apple tree is also blooming (and the weeping cherry).  The one thing missing are our Iris.  We can usually count on them blooming the first or second week in May.  This year the leaves are up, but we haven't seen any buds yet.  The only late piece this year!

I did have a wonderful lunch out yesterday at North Italia in King of Prussia (right by the Mall - my least favorite place to go.  Traffic was ridiculous and parking was worse).  Luckily someone else drove.  We had excellent mussels and calamari for appetizers and zucca chips (zucchini) which were delicious.  Also meatballs (but I didn't have any of those).  Some settled on pasta dishes for lunch and some on sandwiches.  I ordered a margherita pizza which was to die for.  Everything was so fresh.

And...finally more blooms - two beautiful arrangements landed in my hands yesterday:

I'll take them home and Colin can get them so he and Mailing can enjoy.

We are planning to get back late on the 5th, so I am also off on May 6th.  I'll look forward to reading your blogs while I'm on the road.  Have fun!!

Unraveled Wednesday 4-24-19

Good Morning!

It did indeed get up to 81 yesterday!  Today is forecast to be a high of 71 which seems a bit more like April to me.  I'm just happy to see the sun shining.

I'm happy to report there have been no further fox and cat episodes.  I sort of expected to hear something since Tyg was out all night, but I never heard anything (windows wide open, and I was awake...as usual...for a bit of time in the middle of the night).  Tyg was meowing at the back door when I came down this morning at 5:30 to start the coffee.  He ate some and then wanted to go right back out.  He is loving this weather!

There is not a lot of knitting to show.  Days have been busy (and the weekend was too).  I do not have an updated picture of Hitchhiker, but think I am now up to 25 teeth or so.  Fortunately there has been no more unraveling on that!  Last night I worked a bit on the South West sock and managed to put in the heel flap, heel turn and start on decreasing the gusset stitches.

I really am enjoying the colors in this project and love how the flap and heel turn worked out color-wise.

The reading front is as it has been.  My Kindle is acting up again and I've been unable to access any books on it.  This seems to happen every single time it updates.  I believe I need to restart it and that should do the trick (but of course I couldn't remember that last night!).  I did read another story in "Islands" by Alistair MacLeod.  So good, but so sad too.  I just can't read more than one of these without taking a break.

Meanwhile, we leave for vacation on Saturday!  I'm off Friday and don't go back to work till May 7th.  We will be camping some and staying with relatives some - all of it in Virginia - Charlottesville, Richmond, Suffolk and Chincoteaque Island.  I've already mapped out some yarn shops to visit (hoping to have time to do this).  I need to figure out what projects I want to take to work on - and whether it will be just knitting or knitting and stitching projects.  Friday will be a busy day - last minute groceries, packing, etc.  And cleaning the bathrooms - I have to come home to clean bathrooms - lol.  Definitely looking forward to getting away.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Teeny Needle Tuesday

Good Morning!

It's looking like a gorgeous day outside and it is supposed to get up to 80 today!!

My morning got off to a little bit of a rough start though...6 a.m. and I'm standing at the sink chopping up some fresh veggies for my lunch today.  All of a sudden I hear a commotion outside.  The sliding door to our patio is just to the left of the sink.  I look out and there is Tyg and a Fox!  Tyg is snarling and growling; the fox is barking.  As soon as I open the door and clap my hands the fox runs off (he was beautiful!!).  Tyg does not want to come in - I guess he was defending his castle/turf.  But, I picked him up and brought him inside anyway.  He did go back out at 6:45  when I left for work. 

So...the perfect segue to Fox Forest and TNT.  A bit more has been added, two more foxes have joined in the fun, some flowers and a tree.  Fletcher thinks the fox in the upper left looks more like a Corgi.  I think the one in the upper right looks like a cat curled up.  The other two just look a bit mangy to me - lol.

I'm still really enjoying stitching on this.  There is one more fox to add (bottom left), another tree, some more flowers and then all the alphabet letters.

Meanwhile, the Hitchhiker has journeyed to work again today.  Yesterday there was no break, so no knitting.  Today I am hoping to spend a little time putting in a few rows.

Hope your day is off to a great start!

Weekending

Good Morning!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend whether celebrating Easter, Passover, or nothing.  It ended up being a good weekend for us.

My office was closed Friday and we closed early on Thursday, so the weekend was off to an early start.  Thursday before dinner we were sitting on the patio and spotted two bluebirds in our yard!  We don't normally have them in our yard, so it was a real treat.  Such a vibrant color!

We had a bit of rain Friday morning, but then the skies cleared and I went out for a quick walk on the River Trail (in Valley Forge Park, along the Schuylkill River).  There had to be thousands of blooms along the trail.  Some yellow cinquefoil:

And then literally thousands of bluebells:

These ranged in color from a very deep blue to pale lavender to pink and even some white.  There were a few others out walking or jogging, but the trail was not crowded which was nice.  the river was pretty high after the rains we've had.  I ended up walking just over 3 miles.

Saturday, after morning rain again, I headed over to the trail along the canal.  There were only a few flowers blooming, but scads of turtles sunning themselves on logs or - in this case - on someone's dock:

These are all pretty big ones, but I saw all sizes on logs.  I wish I had seen some birds.  There were only a couple of ducks and a couple of geese.  One person in a kayak and two people fishing.  Both the river and canal were still very high, and the trail was pretty muddy.  I spotted this poor soul on the other side on my walk back to the car:

Guess he/she walked a bit too far.  I ended up walking just about 2.5 miles. 

Sunday we headed over to Colin & Mailing's in the afternoon for dinner.  They made pineapple shrimp curry and Vietnamese spring rolls.  So good.  This was dessert:

Essentially an extremely large jello shot!  It was "The Last Word" which is a prohibition era drink made with gin, green chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and lime juice.  They added a vegan thickener to gel the concoction and then put meringues on top.  This was one strong dessert!  Tasty, but very, very strong.  It ended up being a lovely day, except that Colin and Lance (Anna's boyfriend) both found ticks on themselves later in the evening.  I guess that season has started....

I did manage to do a little bit of knitting over the weekend, but I'll save that for another post.

How was your weekend?

A Poem and a Bloom

Good Morning!

Thanks to Kym I know that today is "Poem in Your Pocket" day.  The poem I've chosen is by Ted Kooser and is actually in two books of poems by him that I have.  The first book is "Delights and Shadows" (2004) which my Dad gave to me some years ago.  This won the Pulitzer for Poetry.  I like this quote from the NY Times Review:  "....has a genius for making the ordinary sacred."  The second book of his poetry that I have is called "Valentines" (2008).  This book was also a gift from Janet one Sisters' Weekend. 

Screech Owl

All night each reedy whinny
from a bird no bigger than a heart
flies out of a tall black pine
and, in a breath, is taken away
by the stars.  Yet, with small hope
from the center of darkness
it calls out again and again.

Do you have a poem to share today?

Last night while waiting for dinner to cook, Fletch and I noticed that our Redbud has finally begun to open.  Our tree is young - Fletch put it in only a few years ago.  I remember the first year there was only one branch with a few buds, but each year the number of blooms increases and it is turning into a really nice tree.  It's not as far along as many I pass on my way to work,, but it's ours!

Well, this is my Friday of the work week, so wishing you all a lovely weekend.  We'll be heading over to Colin & Mailing's for dinner on Sunday.  Other than that, no real plans except start thinking of  - and maybe do a little - packing as we leave on vacation a week from Saturday!!  Maybe I can figure out what knitting to take.

Unraveled Wednesday - 4/17/19

Good Morning!

Now officially on the downside of the work week since Friday is a holiday for "Spring Observance."  We are not supposed to say Good Friday, but it is!

First of all, thank you all for your comments on my post yesterday and apologies for not replying back to you.  Somehow (a ghost??) settings on my blog were changed and I did not receive your comments by e-mail.  I rarely go onto my blog, but yesterday I did late morning when I hadn't received any comments via e-mail and found that there were comments.  I could have replied right there on my blog, but I don't like doing that - it would mean you'd have to come back to the blog to see my reply.  Once I leave a comment on another blog, I don't usually go back.  So...I just didn't respond.  I believe I have fixed the issue and all should be good now.

Thank you Kay T for your suggestion of a progress marker on the Hitchhiker.  My problem when I mess up is not that I don't know where I am, it's more that I zone out while knitting and forget a yarn over for the eyelets or skip a KFB.  I know now that when I'm tired I just can't knit on something that requires anything more than knitting round and round and round - lol.  Anyway, it's all ok now and I even worked on it a little bit last night.

There are 20 or 21 teeth now, so halfway finished.  Of course the further you go the longer the rows are, so the 2nd half will take a bit more time to knit than the first half.

The Southwest socks are coming along nicely too.  I worked on these Saturday when I met up with Dee and then did about 5 more rows this morning.  Plain vanilla and I'm loving the colors.

I still seem to be in a bit of a reading slump.  I'm enjoying the stories in Island but I need a break after reading one - they are pretty bleak and very intense.  The writing is gorgeous, but the stories can be heart wrenching.  Fletch and I have started reading The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas after dinner and are enjoying that.

On a Spring note, look at these:

A few days ago there were no visible buds on our wisteria.  Now it is loaded and they are growing so quickly.  There have to be hundreds of buds (one year I did count them, but not this year).

We are having a catered brunch today at work to celebrate Spring and Easter.  That should make the day go a little quicker.  I'm definitely looking forward to having Friday off.

Head on over to Kat's to see what's up with other unravelers!

Teeny Needle Tuesday

Good Morning!

The weather has finally calmed down a bit.  I did hear this morning that a tornado was confirmed the other night in Delaware.  We were lucky and didn't have anything come down (though I have not ventured out into our woods....).  Colin said he had a lot of branches and twigs to pick up and one of his fence rails came down.  Overall not bad considering the strength of the storms.  On my drive this morning I did notice a number of trees (some quite large) that had toppled over in the storm.  And the wind certainly brought in chilly weather!

After such a warm day on Saturday, I'm back to hand knit socks and even a shawl at work today!   My shawl pin is made out of birch wood and is one I bought (I think) several years ago at the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival.

Meanwhile it is TNT (Teeny Needle Tuesday) and here's a shot of Fox Forest from last night:

Another fox - pretty lean -- has joined in the fun.  There are still a few more to be put on the fabric along with a tree or two and some flowers.  And, of course, the alphabet sprinkled throughout the background.  I'm definitely not stitching as fast as I used to...and not as much as I used to either, but I'm pleased with the progress I've made so far.

On the knitting side of things I somehow managed to mess up the Hitchhiker again (and I didn't even take it on Saturday when I met up with Dee - I just knit on plain socks that day).  I think I managed to tink what I needed to last night an am (hopefully) back on track.  I brought the Hitchhiker to work today and am planning to knit some at lunch (maybe...).

How's your week going so far?

Weekending

Hello All,

Whew, another whirlwind Monday morning.  I had a doctor's appointment at 8 - another "spot of bother" removed (that is why I never hang out in the sun any more)...stopped for coffee at a new place near me (good coffee, a little slow on the service)...then at the office in time for a conference call.  Meanwhile the e-mails are flying from the CEO and a million and one things to do.  It's all good.  But really I want to talk about the weekend.

Saturday was the Allentown Fiber Festival.  Dee and I met up just before 10:00 and proceeded to shop!  Unlike other festivals, there are no animals at this one.  This really needs to change (in my opinion) - sheep and alpacas are needed!!  I didn't even see rabbits this year - usually there is a woman spinning angora with a bunny in her lap.  This was the 4th year for the Festival and each year it gets a little bit more crowded.  The venue (Merchant's Square Mall) is not the most attractive place and parking is at a premium.  Inside it was crammed with vendors (and some were in tents outside).  Anyhoo, here is what I got (I think I showed great restraint in my buying):

Some pretty yarn (the skein on the right was on sale for only $15!).  The cake is over 700 yards and I loved the shades of green.  There's a bit of sparkle to it as well.  I think it will make a gorgeous shawl.  I couldn't resist the DPN holder that has foxes on it.  And...a new project bag.  This one is quite sturdy and opens up and folds down so you can just keep your caked yarn in the bag and pull from there.  It has a drawstring closure and there is a sturdy handle too.  Love the kitties with the yarn.

The tiny object in front is a pair of the smallest scissors I've ever seen.  So light for my notions pouch and just cute!!  The only other thing I purchased were some individual little stitch markers.  And that's it!  See?  I really was conservative.

By the time we were done looking and shopping it had gotten pretty hot.  We drove over to Emmaus (only a few miles away) for lunch and a stop in at the new digs for Conversational Threads the local yarn shop.  Their new shop is gorgeous.  Lots of room for sitting and knitting and lots of natural light.  I didn't see anything to buy there, but there was plenty to tempt me.  Dee and I ended up at the local coffee/bike shop for some sipping and knitting.  A perfect day!

Sunday was spent doing chores and getting out some warm weather clothes.  Winter has definitely departed.  In fact, we had a very loud thunderstorm last night/early this morning - woke me up at 3:30!

Bad Kitty!

Hello,

Well this morning all hell broke loose in several places!  Let's begin at the beginning of things.

It's 6:30 a.m. and I am downstairs, dressed and ready to go to work.  I hear Tyg meowing outside at the patio door, so I let him in.  I go into the bathroom to put some gloss on my lips and hear a loud commotion on the kitchen counter.  I poke my head out of the bathroom and see Tyg squatting on the counter.  I yell, he jumps down and the next thing I know there is a bird in the house!  He takes it into the living room.  I yell (louder) for Fletch (who is still upstairs in bed).  He (Fletch) does get up.  I grab Tyg who has dropped the (stunned) bird.  Fletch is able to pick up the bird and he puts him on top of some boxes in the recycling bin right outside the kitchen door.  I rinse my coffee cup at the sink and Fletch washes his hands in the bathroom.  I open the door to leave and the bird is gone!  Hopefully he/she is ok.  But whew!  What a start to the morning.

The Bad Boy:

He's not really sleepy here...he's just squinting in his best bad boy pose. 

I start my drive to work and there are an abnormally large number of A--Hole drivers on the road this morning.  One passes me only to get stuck at a red light...he moves into the left turn only lane and proceeds to make a right turn from that lane.  Was he really in that big of a hurry to get to work?
Then I passed an accident and the day moves forward.

When I arrive at work the parking lot is already pretty full - turns out there are all kinds of meetings going on and some were over-booked and people are looking for places to meet.  A mad house.  Enter Bobby (CEO) who starts e-mailing me stuff he needs done yesterday.  There were some issues with a few folks that I won't bother going into - makes me think of Bridget and her tales from work.  All I can say is people are unbelievable!!

It was actually pretty comical and all has calmed down now.  And with so many meetings going on, there's bound to be a free lunch to be found somewhere in the building - lol.

Looking forward to Colin joining us for dinner tonight.  Either Fletch or Colin will be grilling ribs.  Not sure what else we'll be having as the frig is looking a little bare.  I'll figure something out.

And then Saturday is the Allentown Fiber Festival!!!  Dee and I will be meeting up for a fun-filled day.  I just wish there were animals like the NJ and MD festivals have.  There will be plenty of yarn and other goodies though, so I'm looking forward to it.

Unraveled Wednesday 4-10-19

Good Morning!

Just a little bit of progress on Mailing's Hitchhiker.  I haven't had a chance to knit at lunch (or a chance to "take a lunch time") the past few days and today does not look promising either.  But, the Hitchhiker now has 16 teeth:

(The floor obviously needs to be swept!! - LOL)

It is a gorgeous day outside and I wish I could just go out and take a walk.  But...instead, I am waiting for someone from Charlotte to call me.  My computer has been "sending dings" and they suspect it has some malware on it.  So, they (Big Brother) want to get on my computer remotely (why our IT department here can't do it, I don't know) and see what's up.

I have another conference call at 1 p.m. (which is my usual lunch time) and some other miscellaneous things going on.  I'll be glad to call it a day and get home this afternoon.

A quick post - gotta run.  hope you are all doing well and enjoying a great week.

Teeny Needle Tuesday

Good Morning!

Spring IS here.  Windows were wide open last night for sleeping and when I went to bed at 10:30 the back door was still open!  Plus, there is a good chance of a strong thunderstorm this afternoon between 3 an 5.  That's a sure sign of warmer weather.  Of course, I have an appointment at 3:00 which will probably involve walking through the rain.  Oh well.  I'll take it.

Meanwhile, it is TNT (Teeny Needle Tuesday) again and some more progress has been made on Fox Forest.

Here's hoping the borders meet up in the lower right hand corner!  There are, of  course, more foxes to stitch, some trees and some flowers and then the letters of the alphabet are scattered all over the sampler.

Mailing's Hitchhiker saw another 8 rows added last night.  Still not even halfway, but slow and steady progress is being made.  I will NOT be taking that with me when I meet up with Dee next time - lol.

I'm still reading "Island" by Alistair MacLeod which, as I said previously, is a collection of short stories (so far all pretty bleak), but the writing is just so fine.  Unsheltered by Kingsolver came through on Overdrive.  The reviews on this have been pretty mixed and overall not so good.  Her recent books have been such a disappointment compared to "Pigs in Heaven," "Animal Dreams," or "The Poisonwood Bible."  I've started "Unsheltered" but it already feels a bit like a lecture and I'm not sure I'll get through it.

Today should be a bit less busy than yesterday was...plus I have to leave by 2:15, so a short day at that!  Hope you all have a good one.

Monday Thoughts

Hello All,

I sure hope your weekend was as nice as mine!  The weekend actually started a bit early for moi.  We had an off-site lunch on Thursday and usually we get the afternoon off after that.  This time Bobby said that instead of closing the office for Thursday afternoon he was closing it for Friday.  Woo-Hoo!  I did have a conference call at 10 Friday morning, but it sure was nice to do it from the comfort of my home.  Plus, Friday was a crappy weather day - rain most of the day.  I managed to get laundry done and we also did the grocery shopping which nicely freed up the balance of the weekend.

Saturday I met up with Dee at a local draft fair (which was not that great) and then we headed off for coffee and come chit-chat.  One thing has become abundantly clear.  I cannot knit very well when chatting over coffee.  There are ALWAYS mistakes.  I messed up the Hitchhiker for Mailing something fierce.  Luckily, I was able to fix it without ripping out the entire thing.  So here it is as of last night:

I really had hoped to be further along, but am glad I'm not further behind!  I also replaced my yucky #5 round needle with a ChiaGoo #5 (thank you my friend!!) and things are moving more smoothly along.

Saturday night we headed over to Colin & Mailing's for a cookout.  Her Mom and sister joined us (her Dad is overseas on business for several weeks).  Let me tell you, these two kids can cook!!  We had two kinds of chicken done on the grill.  One was a tangy lime marinade and the other was a sweeter, but still spicy marinade.  We had potato salad (with home-made mayonnaise) and a large variety of pickled vegetables (carrots, beans, mushrooms, beets, Brussel sprouts) and dessert was home made grapefruit/pineapple sorbet.  So Good!!  We all headed outside for a fire afterwards.  What a nice evening.

Sunday brought the mistake in the Hitchhiker to light, so I worked on fixing that.  I also decided that I needed (ha!) to cast on some plain vanilla socks.  Nothing fancy, something I could knit on without paying too much attention (hopefully).  I found some Cascade Heritage yarn in my stash in the colorway "Southwest" and cast on.  I'm happy!

The colors are fun and socks I've made in this type of yarn are comfy and have held up well.

Finally, I have a new motto.  Colin was having a bottle of Magic Hat the other week and their bottle caps always have something fun written on the inside.  He got this (which I promptly stole):

With that, I'm off to embrace my madness at work.  We could get up to 80 degrees today!!!

Enjoy your week.

Unraveled Wednesday 04-03-19

Good Morning!

A bit warmer this morning – low 30’s…but there was frost on my windshield when I started my car.  Oy!  Heard on the radio that they are doing controlled burns in Valley Forge Park today in an effort to control invasive plant species. 

So, here we are mid-week, hump day, Unraveled Wednesday.  And yes, there has been a bunch of unraveling.  I did manage to finish the first Shell Cottage sock on Monday – not at work, but before dinner.  Here is the proof:

  

That night I started sock #2.  I did the ribbing (15 rows) and about 12 rows of the pattern (4 row repeat).  The knot stitch was still a PITA.  Tuesday morning I knit 4 more rows while having coffee.  At that point I decided ENOUGH!  I don’t like the socks.  The first one does go on my foot, but it is tighter than any other sock I have ever knit and the yarn does not feel good on my foot or leg.  I said it before – this yarn is just weird.  It gets very thin and then thicker – almost like thin roving (as Nancy said on her blog yesterday about yarn she is using).  It splits easily and is difficult to work with.  Folks – life is just too short to knit things I don’t like.  I could finish that second sock, but I doubt I would ever wear them.  So last night I unraveled the beginning of Sock #2 and put the yarn away (really I should toss it or donate it – someone might like it for something!!).

Moving along to Mailing’s Hitchhiker.  That was also unraveled!  Yup.  Fortunately I ended up being busy at work yesterday and didn’t get to knit more than 8 rows (1 pattern repeat), but I decided that I wasn’t loving it on #2 needles.  The eyelets weren’t really showing up (and I do know that blocking would improve that), but also it was a tighter knit than I wanted.  After unraveling that, I tried about 3 different size needles and finally decided on #5.  I managed to knit a little bit last night and then this morning I did a bit more.

Loving the way the eyelets really show now and this is just a nice, soft knit.

Moving on to reading.  Fletch and I finished reading The Zookeeper's Wife last night.  Yes, we are late to this book.  And we have not seen the movie.  Not sure I want to now.  The book is good – well written, but I think I’ve read enough books dealing with the WWII era to last me a long, long time.

On my personal reading front I am still in a slump (unheard of!!).  NOTHING is appealing to me or grabbing my attention.  Last night I ended up deleting a bunch from my Kindle and today I plan to start Island – a book that I had given Fletch a few years back that he really enjoyed.  It is a group of short stories focusing on people who came to “the harsh new world” from Scotland.  Flipping through the pages last night felt good (so different than my Kindle).  Maybe what I’ve been longing for is to just hold a *real* book in my hands.  I’ll let you know.

Today could end up being quite busy again.  I’ve been doing a lot of stuff for Bobby, our CEO, this week.  I always enjoy working with/for him…but it does cut into my personal time – lol.  Tomorrow there will be no knitting at work as we are having an employee meeting/luncheon off site at Season's 52.  I love this restaurant and am hoping that we can just go home after lunch!!

Be sure to head over to Kat's to see what others are up to on this Unraveled Hump Day.

Teeny Needle Tuesday

Good Morning!

Just a teeny bit of progress on this TNT.  Mr. Fox has been finished (the first of - I believe - five).

I think he looks a bit weird, but c'est la vie.  The other ones are a bit "off" as well.  Perhaps that is supposed to be part of the charm of this piece?

Hoping for more knitting time at lunch today - Mailing's Hitchhiker came to work with me today.  I'd like to make some good progress on that.  We're heading over to Colin & Mailing's on Saturday for a cookout and it would be nice to be able to show her more than just a few teeth in this shawl!

And that's it for me on this sunny morning.  Hope the sun is shining where you are as well.

A Chilly Start to April

Good Morning!

Happy April Fools Day.  The weather is playing a mean trick.  I'm back to wearing a turtleneck and sweater to work...winter coat and gloves.  High winds and fallen temps.  All this after a lovely weekend.  Typical Spring I guess.

Saturday was a beautiful day - warm, a little breezy, but very pleasant.  Colin & Mailing came over for a cookout and we all actually did a bit of archery.  Neither of them had shot an arrow since grade school (Mailing) or high school (Colin) and they did very well.  Fletch cooked delicious steaks and I made a corn and black bean salad to go with them.  We also had a wonderful ciabatta olive oil loaf that I heated up in the oven.  Bring on the carbs!  LOL  It did get a little chilly after dinner, but it was perfect for having a fire in the pit.  I woke up smelling like wood smoke on Sunday.

I had gone stash diving prior to the kids coming over and I had Mailing go through my sock yarn and pick out a skein she would like for a Hitchhiker.  Glad I had her pick as it was totally different from what I guessed she would want!  Sunday I was able to make a start on it.  I am a copy cat and am making eyelets in this one just like Dee and I love it.  The eyelets are a bit hard to see, but they are there.

The yarn is from Ancient Arts Yarn, fingering weight, 80% super wash and 20% nylon.  The colorway is "Midnight Clear." 

When the weekend started, I was sure I would finish the first Shell Cottage sock, but that did not happen.

I have 5 more rows till the toe decreases and am hoping to wrap this one up at lunch today.  I shouldn't be too busy as both my bosses are away with their wives in Southern FL for a get-away to celebrate our last fiscal year.  I don't expect to hear from either of them until Thursday.  Fingers crossed.

How was your weekend?