Unraveled Wednesday 11/1/23

 Good Chilly Morning!

It is bracing out there - just in the mid-30's or so.  Refreshing, but chilly.  Mabel is out doing her thing...fingers crossed she comes back by 7:30 or so as her vet appointment is at 8:00.  Speaking of Mabel, we had sent a gift (Edible Arrangement) to the family who rescued Mabel, fed and cared for her for 4 months.  Monday we had the sweetest note from them.  Thanking us for the gift, but also saying what a joy Mabel was to have with them for that short while.  So nice the way things worked out.

Did you get any trick-or-treaters last night?  We did not get a single one!  Thank goodness we had not bought candy (we had some to hand out if any kids showed up).

Oh!  We never got our RSV shots on Monday.  I received a text from CVS saying they were sorry but our appointments had been cancelled.  Turned out they had no one in the pharmacy that day to administer the shots.  We are re-scheduled for 11:00 today.

Moving along, it is Unraveled Wednesday and time to link up with Kat and her Merry Band of Unravelers.  Usually I talk about knitting (usually socks), but with the flurry of work the past few weeks, I have not picked up my knitting needles in far too long.  However, I have had an itch to get back to making some granny squares.  I started making some at the beginning of the pandemic with leftover sock yarn and then I stopped.  Not sure why - most likely some bright shiny object caught my attention.  It had been so long that (again) I had to watch a video on how to make them!  LOL  Anyway, turns out that granny squares are so easy to pick up and put down when life is busy.  And the result turned out to be quite a few.

I have not counted how many I have in total now...I'm sure it's not enough even for a lap blanket, so I will continue to make these on a regular basis.  My basket full of leftovers from making socks had been over flowing and was really annoying me.  It is becoming much more manageable now.

Reading wasn't much better than knitting!  I did finish one book:  The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell.  Billed as a cross between Clue and the Great British Bake Off, I thought it would be fun.  Add to that the setting was in Grafton, Vermont - a village I know well.  I was put off early in the book when it talked about being in Northern Vermont...Grafton is definitely in Southern Vermont.  And then the book was just ok.  I finished it and enjoyed parts of it, but it just seemed a bit "over" - you know, over-done, over tedious, etc., etc.  And none of the characters were all that appealing.

I've picked up a new book at the library, so hopefully I'll have something different to talk about next week!

And, just so you know, I missed a TNT post simply because, like knitting, stitching has not happened  in a few weeks.  Hopefully that will all change now.

Happy November!  Be sure to head over to Kat's to see what everyone is making and reading.

Unraveled Wednesday June 10, 2020

Good Morning!

So happy to be HOME today!  The past two days have been fairly intense.  I still have a number of reports to run today, but at least I can do them here at home.  Since I had to go into the office the last couple of weeks I've been noticing a definite pick up in traffic.  I guess more and more folks are back to work.  I really liked going to the office in April when there was virtually no one on the road!

Not much crafting of any kind has taken place since the weekend (hoping to remedy that today).  My Hellebore Hitchhiker hasn't seen any love in days!  I brought it out last night to perhaps make another tooth, but my eyes were just too tired.

Luckily Bonny reminded me that Hitchhikers can be extremely patient!  I had forgotten that, but it's true.

Over the last week I did manage to make two more Granny Squares.

I'm continuing to have fun with these and enjoying the play of different colors.  These two really show how different fingering weight yarn can be.  The square on the right is obviously smaller than the one on the left yet they have the same number of rows in them.  Thin yarn versus thick yarn.

One thing I have been doing is cooking.  Last night I made pesto using some of the garlic scapes from our garden.

Oh my!  So yummy.  We had it on linguini and I added some artichoke quarters and kalamata olives to the dish.  We had this alongside some fish and also roasted cherry tomatoes.  It is supposed to get way too hot today (90+), so dinner will be a cold salad.  I'll get Fletch to pick lettuce from the garden before it gets too hot.

On the reading front I started the next "Read With Us" book:  Wild Game which so far is a fast read.  I read a few chapters last night before falling asleep and I think this one will hold my attention.

Linking up with Kat and her merry band of unravelers (channeling a bit of Ken Kesey this a.m.).

Planning to catch up on blog reading today...and get my work finished before Noon.  Hoping your week is going well so far!

Unraveled Wednesday, 05/27/20

Good Morning!

It is sort of a Sleepy Hollow morning here - quite foggy and damp, grey.

I managed to survive my day at the office yesterday.  It was actually pretty quiet and I'm hoping today will be like that as well.  I'd like to get out of Dodge early if possible.

When I got home yesterday my bike was on the patio.  Fletch had brought it up from the basement, cleaned off all the dirt and cobwebs, put air in the tires and lubed the places that needed to be lubed.  My bike looks brand new!  I had forgotten that I have a big basket on the front handlebars - perfect to hold my phone, some water, keys, etc.  I'm all set to go biking...now I just need some time (away from the office - lol).

While at the office yesterday I did manage to get some more hawk pictures.  In this first shot below you can see the mother sitting on the nest and the two baby hawk rumps right there! 

And here are the babies:

They periodically stand up and hold out their wings.  Won't be too long before they fly off.  So fun to watch.

As I had hoped, I managed to finish up the first of my brother's socks last night, and start the second.

The cuff of #2 is complete, so I can start on the leg tonight.  I also did a few more sections on my Hellebore Hitchhiker, but forgot to take a picture.  However, I did remember to take a picture of the latest Granny Squares:

That one in the middle certainly looks splotchy!  I am still having fun with these - just sticking my hand in a basket and seeing what yarn comes out.

That's all I have for today.  Hope your week is going well!

Unraveled Wednesday 05/20/20

Good Morning!

Time continues to be moving at warp speed for me.  The days are just getting away from me.

A little bit of knitting and crocheting has taken place.  Not a lot, but a bit.  First up, the Hellebore Hitchhiker now has 12 teeth and 50 stitches on the needle.

So many pretty colors in this yarn and it is all flowing together so smoothly.

My brother's sock is progressing as well.

Hard to see the herringbone pattern on this, but it's a bit more visible in real life.  Again, this yarn is full of such pleasing colors.  I'll probably do about 5-10 more rows and then start the heel flap (right now it has 15 rows of ribbing at the cuff and then 62 rows with the pattern and plain knitting).

Finally, a few more Granny Squares were made.

This is proving to be a fun project.  I'm up to 16 squares so far.  I think once I hit 25 I'll lay them out and see how they all look together.

My reading mojo isn't fully back yet.  I keep starting and stopping books, but I am almost finished "Olive Kitteridge" which I am re-reading in preparation for reading "Olive, Again."  I must have read Olive Kitteridge when it was first published and I don't remember any of it!  Some of the stories are just so bleak (maybe it's the time we are in right now?).  I have one or two stories/chapters left and then I will pause before picking up Olive, Again.  Fletch and I are continuing to read "All the Little Live Things" by Wallace Stegner (a favorite author of mine).  This book too has some dark bits to it, but we are now more than halfway through.

Once again, linking up with Kat for Unraveled Wednesday.  Head on over to her space to see what she and others are making and reading.

Weekending

Good Morning!

How was your weekend?  I hope it was good.  Ours was nice and thankfully did NOT include snow!!  Though I know it was all around us.  Definitely a weird Spring, but the weather has been weird for so long (my opinion).

Friday ended up being very busy work-wise and I never shut the computer down until some time in the evening...and then was back doing work Saturday morning.  But, that's ok (happy to be employed).  I (finally) took a turkey breast out of the freezer and cooked that on Saturday.  The house smelled like Thanksgiving!!  I ended up making a huge pot of turkey soup with the carcass and some of the meat and now we have good sized containers of home-made turkey soup in the freezer.

Yesterday, Mother's Day, was a much nicer day.  It turned out to be beautiful.  We met Colin & Mailing, Zhongren & Bonny (Mailing's parents) and Anna (her sister) at the trail I walk alongside the canal and river.  Huge turtles were out in amazing numbers, but no sign of the heron and (thankfully) no sign of serpents!!  It was just so nice to see everyone and get out in the fresh air.  After our walk we all stopped at Zhongren & Bonny's house.  They had made dumplings earlier in the day and had large containers for everyone.  YAY!!!

When Fletch and I got home, I noticed something high in our crepe myrtle tree.  It has not leafed out yet and I believe what I spotted is a hummingbird's nest!!

(Look at how blue our sky was yesterday!!).  It is roughly the size of a golf ball.  Not sure if this is a current nest or one from last year.  Fletch did see a hummingbird one day last week and our feeders are now out, but we have not seen one since.

There was a small amount of knitting over the weekend.  First, I finished the socks for my sister-in-law on Saturday morning.

I smile each time I see them - they are just happy socks!!  I decided I needed to pick out yarn for socks for my brother in CO and I also wanted to wind the yarn from Vicki for a Hitchhiker.  The yarn I picked out for Phil's socks I'm positive I bought at a fiber bestival (probably Allentown).  It is by Cape May Fiber Co. and the colorway is Janthina.  So pretty:

So pretty, but notice the way it is wound?  This yarn would not behave and ended up looking like this at one point:

Yup - yarn barf!  It took ALL Saturday afternoon and part of the evening to straighten out this mess.  Weird how some skeins just fit on the spindle and wind up beautifully and others are a horrible mess.

The Make-Do yarn from Vicki DID wind up beautifully.  While the sock yarn for Phil was put in time out for misbehaving, the Hellebore Hitchhiker was started yesterday.

This is going to be one gorgeous Hitchhiker.

I also managed to make one Granny Square over the weekend.

If you click to enlarge, you should be able to see that the yarn in the outer rows has some deep red in it.  Soon I'm going to have to spread out all the squares and see what they look like together.  Not enough for any one thing, but it should be fun to see them all together.

It is grey and overcast (again) outside and I think rain (again) is in our forecast.  I hope to run out to the garden this a.m. and cut some rhubarb to make a strawberry rhubarb pie later today.

Here's to a great week ahead!

Unraveled Wednesday 5/6/20

Good Morning!  Happy Wednesday!

If it's Wednesday, that means it must be Unraveled Wednesday.  Joining in with Kat and others to talk about what we are making and reading (though in my case, once again the books I've started are not holding my attention...).

First of all though, thank you Val and Kym for identifying our mystery plant.  As soon as I showed Fletch the link you had provided Val, he remembered the name!  And Kym, you are correct, there is a faint almost cinnamon scent from the blooms.  Very nice.  I cut one small piece of it yesterday along with some lily of the valley and a piece of another plant (once again, the name escapes me) and I have them in a little bud vase on the kitchen windowsill over our sink.  The scent from the lily of the valley is so strong!

I did make it into the office yesterday and ended up staying much longer than I anticipated!  It was like old home day or something.  My boss Bill had come in, my other boss Bruce was in (my other boss, Kevin, lives in Atlanta, so he was not in!).  A few people from accounting; Dan (our CFO) and Heather (she comes in Tuesdays and Thursdays to go through the mail and FedEx and UPS packages).  So, there was a lot of catching up to do with people and it was nice to see them all.

When I first was walking up to the office I heard a noice and looked up and one of the hawks was perched on the edge of the nest and squawking away!  Really, loudly.  I hoped to see little baby beaks poking over the edge of something, but I didn't.  What a mess though!  The entranceway to the building is covered in bird shit and sticks that have been dropped from the nest.  Bruce said the hawk flew at him when he came into the building!!

On to the making!  Tutti Fruitty sock #2 is now more than halfway down the leg and moving right along.

This is just such a cheerful piece to knit!

Granny square #12 was completed last night.  Here the the most recent 3 I've made.

Each square is 9 rounds and typically I use 3 different yarns.  The latest square though (the one in the back with the pink center) is from one little ball of yarn.  I just decided to keep going since the colors kept changing.  I still have a ton of leftover scraps from knitting socks and shawls, so there are still plenty of squares to be made.  It's fun to just stick my hand into the pile of bits and bobs and see what I pull out and then start crocheting.

One last picture for the day.  Cozy Tyg - curled up tight (it really got chilly), covering his eyes and also holding his tail down (his tail is almost constantly moving back & forth).  So cute.

He is out of the box and onto the chair at the head of the table!

Hoping your week is going well.  Be sure to visit Kat's blog to see what she and others are doing.

A Weird Day!

Good Morning!

Hope everyone is doing well and that you all had a great weekend (though the days are sort of all running together, aren't they?  Hard to distinguish weekends from weekdays...).

Yesterday I did venture out to my office.  It felt weird to say the least.  I got there around 8:15 and there were 3 other cars in the parking lot.  But, they must have been for other offices, because when I went into our offices, I was the only person there!  Tom from IT was in by 9 and he did his magic to my laptop so that I now have access to the legal database.  My conference call was at 10 and by the time that finished Bruce had come in and I met with him for about 5 minutes.  I saw Dan, our CFO who was in for a video call with our parent company.  Supposedly Bobby (CEO) was in as well but I didn't see him.  And that was it.  So, counting me, a total of 5 people in the office.  So strange.  I did bring home my printer since the one I had at home isn't compatible with Windows 10.

Oh, I did check on the hawk's nest on my office building, but saw no activity.  I don't know if they just abandoned the nest or if they had young who have already flown or what.  I was disappointed not to see them.

By 11:10 I was leaaving.  I stopped by Trader Joe's and had to wait in line about 5 minutes to get in - not bad.  Picked up the few things we wanted/needed from TJ's and was home before Noon.  I spent the afternoon setting up my docking station, monitor, printer, etc.  At least now I can really see the spreadsheets I work on rather than squinting at my laptop screen - my aging eyes don't like the little laptop screen.

I managed to do my workout - I have not missed a day yet!!  And last night we had a fire!

It was getting a bit chilly outside (freeze warning again) and it felt so good.  Colin & Mailing came over for about an hour.  Again - weird to sit around, but apart, and no hugging or anything.  I do not like this!

Walking around, I noticed that our wisteria is getting ready to open.

If we can get a nice sunny day these buds will open up and be gorgeous!

On the knitting and crocheting front...I started a new sock, but more about that tomorrow.  I think this newest pair will be for my sister-in-law out in Boulder, CO.  I have 3 granny squares finished and a fourth that is part way done.

I'm sort of up in the air about this project.  I don't love them.  I don't hate them.  I like making them ok, but I'm not wowed by the whole thing.  I'll make a few more and see what I think then.  I may end up just making a pillow out of them.

What I need to do is pick up that shawl I am almost finished and just finish it!  Also I need to rip out the sweater I was making the other year and re-purpose that yarn.  Maybe those will be my projects for today.  I will work out and maybe take a walk - depends on the wind situation.  I shot a few arrows yesterday, but lost one in the day lilies, so I may have to abandon that practice until I can figure out a way to avoid doing that (better aim would help - lol).

Well, time to get rolling.  My boss is calling in 5-10 minutes and I need to get a fresh cup of coffee before then!