She knits...not much

It sure has been awhile, but I really am still here. The new job keeps me quite busy and, unfortunately, has a not great commute that goes with it. Actually, in the morning, it takes me about 15 minutes to get there; however, then add about 20 minutes walking time to get from the parking lot to my office. I don't mind when it's nice out. At the end of the day, it's the pits. The traffic is beastly, so add to the morning drive/walk time with stuck-in-traffic time of usually 20 minutes or so. No reason for it other than poor roadway planning. I would take the bus, but so far, it's just not feasible.

Memorial Day weekend is the US's unofficial start to summer. The week before was quite cool and so was much of the weekend (but it was nice and sunny). This week is warming up quite nicely. I'm quite glad that we opened the pool early, because now it is up to 81 degrees, so there is no fear of turning into an iceberg. The peppers and tomatoes are planted and looking good so far.

Summer does bring many nice things. I have discovered that the wireless network goes as far as the patio. Now I can both blog and knit out there! Not much knitting has been happening, but I'm making progress. I've changed the heel (many times) and am actually going to think about what stitch pattern that I would really like on the sole before I start.

Aren't these just the coolest flowers? I think they look like something from an alien planet from far, far away. I have one purple and another in white. The centers of these things really are very, very blue (and darker than the pics).

Time Flies

We've all heard that you get more done when you have less time to do it in. I believe that's true. I managed to get through my first week back at a regular job. Honestly, the week just flew right by; before I knew it, it was Friday afternoon.

Progress has been made on this year's "get your act together" project, a.k.a reaming out the garage. One wall is complete and I'm really quite pleased with how it looks. I'm even more pleased at how much brighter the garage appears. We will be moving on to the adjoining wall/corner and then on to painting half the floor. This is definitely a job to be done in parts.

The wisteria appears to be over it's pouting (it really hasn't bloomed well over the past couple of years) and is putting on a very nice show. The weather turned cool this last week, so the flowers are lasting quite awhile.

As far as knitting is concerned, I've started two different pairs of socks at once. The Meilenweit on the left has only the ribbing done as I haven't quite decided on the pattern yet. The bit done on the right is one of Charlotte Schurch's tessellated patterns from Sensational Knitted Socks (actually, it's going to be the one on the cover). The blue yarn is KnitPicks and the orange is Trekking.

Bubba is sure that he likes any activity that includes a cuddle. All this upheaval this week has clearly tuckered him out.

Escargo-away

Our sunny streak took a temporary break this morning with some showers and a bit of thunder. That's OK because we needed just a wee bit of moisture to keep our clay-based dirt from turning to concrete.

When the showers stopped, my front walk was just covered with snails. At least their shells make them more attractive than their cousins, slugs. There are seven of the darn things in this picture. You'd think that with that high a snail population, that I would have a real problem with them damaging plants, but either they don't eat much or I'm not that fussy a gardener (probably both).

It seemed like it was time to open up the pool for the summer. This year, I managed it all by myself as DH is out of town for a few days. Setting up the pump, filter and chlorinator was quite a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. There are a couple of minor leaks, but nothing to be overly concerned about. We may or may not fix them this year. What I'm even more pleased about is putting in the pavers you see here. I have been annoyed at having the hoses dragging in the grass since we put the pool in. Most years I just ignore it; this year, I got busy and put in the pavers that were released from their temporary duty in another project.

The pool still needs a serious vacuuming, but other than that, it's open for business. Bear in mind, though, that the water is a balmy 60 degrees. Thank goodness for solar covers; I'll get that out tomorrow.

I started a new sock, but am not sure if I'm happy with it. It's the Pomatomus sock from Knitty. I like the pattern, but I'm having trouble with it, probably due to yarn choice. I think I'll just choose another pattern for this yarn and go stash-diving to find something lighter weight for the Pomatomus socks.

Finally

The pictures on yesterday's post were taken in other people's yards (except for Bubba). Today, I'll show you some of what's blooming in mine.

We have a few flowering trees, Bradford Pear, Flowering Plum and a Weeping Cherry. This year is quite the exceptional year. Usually, we get to enjoy the flowers for approximately 30 minutes or so before a heavy wind/rain storm moves through and completely washes away the display. Good news for wisteria lovers...our wisteria seems to be done pouting and is clearly planning a very nice flower display in the near future.










Today was another delightful day. I would even call it summer-like. This spurred me on to get started on some more outdoor chores. I've removed the milk jugs and water tubes that were weighing down the pool cover and started skimming leaves off the cover. At the side of our pool is a space between where the pump/filter goes and the pool. Today I dug it out and put some pavers in that space. It has always annoyed me to have the grass all unkempt because the hoses have to be there. Problem solved. Tomorrow, I'm going to finish skimming leaves, yank the cover, start topping it off and attempt to set up the pump/filter. I like to get the pool set up and ready a bit early so that it has time to get balanced and warm up for the season.

The pets kept tabs on me. They seem to think that I need constant supervision or something. Trouble, our other cat, checked on my progress a few times. Gypsy helped with excavation by moving chunks of sod around the area. Bubba? Well Bubba is just a camera hog.

And, last, but definitely not least, today's title is referring to the good news that I have a start date (Monday) for a new job. It's been an interesting (to say the least) journey, but I have a feeling that I've found a new "work home".

Spring has (finally) Sprung

Like many in the north, winter seemed extra long to me this year. It was a mild start, but then it just dragged on and on and on...well, you get the picture. Actually, you did get pictures of my poor, snow-flattened daffodils.

I've been promising blog friends that I would post pictures of some of the trees when they finally flowered. It was quite cool the last few weeks (but no snow), so they were delayed a bit. This week it has finally warmed up and everything is just busting out in flowers and leaves.

Cherry trees are in full flower, like this huge weeping one that I saw on my travels. When you get into more populated areas and also closer to Lake Ontario, it's sheltered enough for magnolias. Not a tree for me, it's too wide open and brutal in the winter in my yard.












As a kid, my neighbor and I used to scour the woods looking for trilliums every spring. We left them be, as they were on the endangered list back then. I found this big patch in a yard the other day and they really brought back some memories.








Flowers are a definite sign that spring has finally arrived, but, for me, not much says spring more than the brand-new leaves on a maple tree and a cat clearly enjoying the warm sunshine.











Note: There has been actual knitting and spinning. The second sock of the ridged wave pair is done, no need for a picture, it looks the same as the first one. I'm also well started on spinning up some white for a vest, also not riveting picture material.

2nd GVHG Fiber Weekend

During my travels the end of last week, I came up over a hill and saw these sheep. There were hundreds of them scattered about the pasture. I figured it was just a hint of good things to come.

This last weekend was our 2nd GVHG Fiber Retreat weekend at Stella Maris Camp on Conesus Lake. There are not many better ways to spend a weekend than with great friends, great fiber and great food/drink.

One camper was so excited/distracted that she left her home like this. Good thing the weather was even better than predicted, highs in the low 80's, sunny and just perfect, no shoes needed!

She did remember the important stuff...spinning wheel, fiber and snacks.

Most of us spent the days on the deck overlooking the lake. This last weekend was the first really nice, warm weekend since sometime last September or so. Since it snowed last weekend, we were all super-ready to enjoy basking in the sun. Besides, sun-warmed fleece spins ever so nicely.


Sunsets over water are just phenomenal. The colors and reflections are endlessly fascinating to me.

Does this look like a skein of yarn to you? I think I'll just try the technique that Cara's been using to choose colors.

Is this better? I see at least two different skeins...one of the sky and one of the water or maybe this is the time to try making my own self-striping yarn. Either way, I think it's time to make one of those warping boards that Scout wrote about and open up some dye!

Gotta Go!

No pics today. I'm off to Conesus Lake for a spinning guild retreat. How can you go wrong: a bunch of friends, good stuff to eat, much to drink and it's supposed to get up to 70 F and sunny all weekend?

Hope all of you have just as good a weekend!

Who Knew?

Who knew that I would still be here after a whole year? Yep, today is my first blogiversary. Much has happened over the last year, besides being another year older.

Gypsy clearly believes that there has been enough computer time, bring on the cuppy-cakes!

One of the best things to happen this last year is to become part of this knitting blogland. Not only have I made many new friends, but have actually had the opportunity to meet a few them in person. If you get the chance to meet a fellow blogger, do it. They are every bit as nice, clever and fun to be with as they are on line!

I'd have to say the most inconvenient award goes to being laid-off. I do miss having a job, but I don't miss working for that company. I keep on job-hunting, so something is bound to come up, sooner or later!

The sock (and I) were taken out to dinner Friday night. I thought it was mighty convenient of the restaurant to supply props for sock pictures. DH said if I took one more picture of the sock he was leaving us both there. Now one would think that this was quite muggle-ish, but he did mention both of us...

There has been fibery goodness this last weekend. I went to Knit One Scrapbook Too for a sale and came away with some sock yarn and another 11" Addi size 0. Another stop was at the Artistry in Thread event at the local museum. It was a nice shopping event, but to be honest, I was really expecting there to be more textile exhibits. All was not lost, as some hand-dyed merino-tencel from Winderwood Farms had to come home with me.

The previously mentioned sock has been completed. It is the ridged feather pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks (Charlene Schurch). I tried a new toe this time...since there were 66 stitches, I chose to decrease 6 times, evenly spaced around the toe. This makes a nice round toe for my short, wide little feet. I've even started the second one.

The daffodils took another beating earlier this week. Thankfully, not quite as crushing as the last time. We were saved, get this, by warmer air from Canada!

Fresh Air

My seasonal job brought me all the way up to the lake shore today (Lake Ontario). It had finally stopped raining and had even warmed up a bit. I came around the corner saw this:

Ahh, fresh air, windswept tree and a waterscape.

Obviously, a much better smelling scene than my home at the moment.

As near as we can tell, Gypsy startled one of these nocturnal creatures the other night, causing it to spray in the general direction of our house. The breeze blew the scent cloud over Gypsy, then to our garage and then into the house.

For those of you who live in areas where there are no skunks, count your blessings. If you have never smelled their odor, it is one of the nastiest, most obnoxious, pervasive smells known to mankind. Again, count your blessings.

We have deskunked Gypsy (which was much easier than you would think). We opened all the windows yesterday (a chilly proposition...only 40 F). What I wouldn't give for a few nice, warm breezy days! I was out for awhile yesterday and noticed that my car smelled like skunk, so I ran it through a carwash. We have sprayed couches, chairs, floors, curtains and air with various scent-removing products.

The house still smells like skunk. Not as strong as it was, but it still smells. So tell me something? Why can't the air freshener people come up with something that smells better than skunk and lasts as long?

Another Tuesday

I'm telling y'all, Tuesdays are days that are just meant to be difficult. Again, today was no exception, but there were some good bits.

I went off to my seasonal job, got to the designated neighborhood and started estimating. After about 1/2 dozen or so, I noticed that I was running out of some supplies, only had 1/4 tank of gas and was very, very hungry. Normally, I just run off and do all the estimates and come back to the shop. Nope, not today. I go back to the shop, get supplies, fill the tank (both me and the truck) and return. Not very efficient, but we can handle that.

I heard a somewhat new song today on the radio: Ticks from Brad Paisley. It's so random that it just made my day!

Also, while traveling around, I found these: Alert! We may be about to be invaded by pastel-colored dinosaurs or maybe just very large chickens!

Here's the other reason why Tuesdays are not a good day. Last night (about the time that it might as well be Tuesday, rather than Monday), DH and I were sitting in the living room. Suddenly, we both start wrinkling our noses, simultaneously saying "Where's Gypsy?". In a moment of panic, we discover she is outside. We were much relieved to discover that she was not the source (or receiver) of the stench. However, it appears that a wayward breeze brought eau-de-skunk into our garage/house and it. is. still. here.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all of you! Rather than show you the rather large amount of candy, that none of us really need, but all want, I thought I'd show you a few other goodies.

As I mentioned earlier, I've been selling off quite a few items on ebay that have been laying around here gathering dust and/or taking up room. I do, sometimes, actually buy stuff on ebay. DH brought home this really nice green and clear glass bowl last year from an auction. When I brought it out for spring (I often rotate glass for the seasons and holidays), it just seemed a bit empty. Ebay to the rescue...I found this little glass fish. He is the finest little fish to have...doesn't eat much and is very, very clean!

Another find were these nifty martini glasses. I looked all over the place earlier this year for some nice glasses and could only find some that had some really, really long stems on them. They were very nice, but those stems just really got in the way. Since it snowed today, has snowed for the last 3 days and looks like there's snow in the forecast for the next 3-4 days, it seemed appropriate to put something in them tonight. I mix a pretty good Cosmopolitan, if I say so myself!

Speaking of snow, what's up with that? It's the middle of April! I gave this some thought today. I imagine that people from milder climates actually find that there are actually 4 more-or-less equally spaced seasons. In this area, the growing season (last frost to first frost) is approximately 4 months long (sometimes 3-1/2 months). Snow from mid-October to mid-April this season adds up to 6 months, add 4 months of growing season (which may or may not be summerlike) and get 10 months. That leaves 1 month each for spring and fall. This is clearly not very evenly distributed. You've got to admire the hardiness of plants that can go from completely frozen and snow covered to blooming in the space of a month.

Believe it or not, there has been some knitting going on around here. I finished these socks last night, another pair of Trekking. I had a serious case of SSS to the point where I thought about frogging them completely just to reknit them using a stitch pattern to break up the stripes.

Awhile back I promised pictures of another finished object and then didn't get around to it. Stuff happens. At any rate, this is the Emma sweater from KnitPicks. I fell in love with the pattern, happened to have enough handspun (Ashland Bay Sandlewood) and starting knitting on it as soon as the pattern showed up in my in box. The KnitPicks folk are very quick. The only changes I would make if I knit it again (and I probably will) would be to do a 3-needle cast off or something like on the shoulders for a bit more sturdiness in that area and to make it a bit longer. I'm going to run a bit of clear elastic across the shoulder seam area which should pull that together nicely.

Spring?

Earlier this week, the spring weather was just delightful. You really wanted to be outside in the sunshine. Bubba sunned himself and Gypsy showed off her "summer do".

I did a bit of garden clean-up, including putting some round-up on a particularly invasive perennial. I gave some thought to what to plant and where to plant it. There's lots of time for that; we don't plant annuals around here until the last weekend in May and even that's a bit risky.

My favorite daffodils were coming along nicely and just beginning to open up. Yesterday, the weather was forecast to change back to winter, so I picked a bouquet of them. They opened up nicely once inside.

I wish I had picked every last one of them because this is what they looked like today. Damn, why did they have to be right this time?

WTF?!?!

Just to give a little background, there is a local advertising paper that has a column called "Gotta Vent" in it. This week, someone had written in how disturbed they were to observe something changing their baby in a restaurant. I must admit my first reaction was who would do such a thing and that they must be making it up.

Well, I sure hope that we saw the same person (and that there are not 2 of them in the area) today. We were in a reasonably nice restaurant this afternoon enjoying a nice beer and burger when, to my disbelief, a gentleman (and I use the term loosely) a couple of tables away proceeded to put his baby on the window ledge and change her diaper in the dining room. Not only that, but he chose to set his baby back in her high chair, finish his meal and left the debris on the ledge for another 10 minutes or so before eventually getting up and taking it somewhere.

Now a baby is a delightful little creature, but there is a time and place for everything. In my book, he should have taken her to the restroom or out to the family vehicle and changed her there (and washing up would be nice, too).

I thought about bringing this to the attention of the manager, but, when you think about it, what was he/she going to be able to do? Give us a discount? It wasn't the restaurant's fault. Throw the other party out? There were 5 other children (who were reasonably well-behaved) and at least 9 other adults in that party.

What did we do? Nothing. We paid our bill, left and continue to be mind-boggled that there are actually people that do such things in public. Oh, and the kicker...this was not an uneducated boob...he had already announced loud enough for us to hear that he had applied for positions teaching English and coaching sports at local school districts.

Tuesdays

I've mentioned it before, but there's just something about Tuesdays. I've never been fond of the day; for me, it often seems like the most awkward (and sometimes crappy) stuff happens on Tuesday. Today was no exception.

To start, DD wanted company to go downtown to observe a court trial for one of her classes. No problem. We get there, find a spot to park in the garage (dark, dreary place that is), go through security, only to find that there are no active trials at this time. I guess we're going to try again Thursday.

Later in the day, I went out again. I ran some errands and they all went smoothly. I should have known something was up. The last item on the agenda was an interview for a long-term contract position that I actually know how to do all but one item on their job description (and that was not a big item). I feel like I blew the entire interview. It appears that I lost my mind somewhere on the way there. DH says it sounded like I really did pretty well when I explained all the parts of the interview and the test they gave me, but I still feel like I blew it. Sigh.

After dinner, I enjoyed lovely cup of coffee. Maybe it should say "No Workee, No Coffee"?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Paddy's to everyone. OK, I'm a day late, but why not celebrate for the whole weekend? I figure it's a pretty good weekend that involves corned beef, cabbage, spinning and planning future projects. The weather, however, was definitely not of the Irish variety. Classic March for around here, though: about 8 inches of snow. I really felt sorry for those participating in the parade downtown. Today at least looks nicer outside, but there's a wicked cold wind blowing. Earlier in the month , I made this pair of Fetching mitts from Knitty, assuming that the weather wasn't going to be particularly springlike for awhile. At least they're green.

While reviewing Meg Swansen's Knitting for a potential pattern for Jane, I rediscovered the Mimbres Vest. This is a pattern that I just love the looks of, but hadn't decided on the yarn yet. Last year sometime, I spun this lovely blend from Nistock Farms. Robin's fiber is always nice; I regard her as a "can't go wrong" supplier. Now I just need to go stash diving to find a good white to go along, spin it and then start knitting.


Bubba has decided that it was a good day to pose nicely in the window. Gypsy has gone snow-plowing again. I finally saw what she does to get this snowy. It appears that she hears something under the snow that she wants, shoves her nose into the ground and just plows ahead. This also explains how she often comes in with a scraped up nose, too. Silly dog.