My Favorite Time of Year . . .
It was 58 degrees in my house this morning when I woke up. This required fleecy slippers, pj bottoms and my fuzzy Clapotis shawl. I am resisting turning on the furnace for as long as humanly possible. I mean, it's only October 2nd for cryin' out loud. I am NOT turning the furnace on yet. And let's face it - even when I do turn it on, I don't turn it on very high anyway. In the words of former President Jimmy Carter, the last time we had an energy crisis: "Put on a sweater."
Energy crisis. Financial crisis. Political crisis. It's all making me a little cranky. Besides which, my White Sox (go American League!!) lost today, and my cousin's beloved Cubs lost yesterday. For awhile, early in the day yesterday, it was quite a day for Chicago baseball. Not that I've given up hope. Oh no - not me. Those Sox have every chance in the world to pull this off again. The Cubs? OK - let's face it: not so much . . . and yet they are the team of choice for most Chicagoans. A subway series would be amazing - actually, it might be a little scary in this crazy sports town. Yes, I'm a Sox fan, but it would be great for the Cubs to at least get the National pennant - but if they meet the Sox in the Series, I know where my heart lies :-)
I'm knitting! Yay!! I have a pair of socks that I started las
t Saturday. I'm nearly done with the heel flap on the second sock, so things are moving along there. Haven't had the opportunity for any spinning this week. But here's what's on the wheel. It's Mountain Colors' Targhee in the Sandstone colorway. It's like melted caramel and pumpkin pie - it's really beautiful stuff. I noticed something about this top when Red was over spinning the last time: The Mountain Colors top looks better spun up than it does as top. I'm spinning this finer than the Merino I did recently in the hopes of getting sport weight. I don't think I've got the singles small enough for fingering. That's OK.
Here's something else I've been working on. I don't usually take photos of works in progress, but this is really a great sweater. This is the back of the St. Patrick sweater from Lisa Lloyd's book, A Fine Fleece. I love this sweater and I love this yarn (Queensland Kathmandu Aran). It was tough getting a good photo of it - it really needs to be shot in better light, but you can see how lovely her design is. The green tweedy color is much richer than it appears here. I've got the front band done, and will be picking it up again as soon as I finish off a couple of the million other things I seem to have on the needles. It's worked as for the back, so I already have a good handle on the cables.
I'm blaming Knitterary for all this stuff sitting around not finished ;-D - she stopped casting stuff on for two months. And me, the one who usually finishes one or two projects at a time - never more than three on the needles (one of which is a sweater that's been languishing for a year . . . ) - well, I got some weird bug that made me cast on stuff like a maniac.
In addition to St. Patrick, and the Opal self-striping socks I have nearly finished, I have some wrist warmers in progress with some handspun; Wendy's Spring Fling socks started with some Yarn Nerd (really nice color saturations); one sock completed of the Saxony Socks (also from A Fine Fleece) in Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock; Wendy's Feather and Fan scarf on the needles; AND finish work to do on two scarves. This is just not like me at ALL :-D The good news is that all were done with yarn from the stash. Yay!!
My hand is good, but I'm still awfully tired - and not walking enough, which I know will make me feel better in every area . . .
Anyone else see the CHRISTMAS ads yet on the telly? There's a Christmas tree place up in Barrington: Tree Classics - only does mail order and the trees rock (I know because I got one last year!) - and they're sponsoring some show because I saw their ad the other day - it was actually in September! And in the "Chicago" shop in the train station, again last week, a new card rack was up in the window and it's full of red and green Christmas cards. And I was at Michael's on Monday, and although all the fall and Halloween and Thanksgiving stuff is out, there is one entire store aisle already devoted to Christmas stuff.
Christmas - the biggest retail event of the year, and one where many retailers make their annual profits. Clearly worries about the economy are causing many to start really early this year, milking it for all it's worth, I suppose. It caught me off guard to see all that holiday stuff so early.
The big event of the weekend in these parts (other than baseball right now) is YarnCon. Big fun last year and I have plans to go! Mostly to hang with my friends, because you know, I'm on the stash-busting wagon and really NOT buying any yarn or fiber right now - and YarnCon was not one of my planned dispensations. . . We'll see how it goes :-)
And now - the debate? Or the game? Or bed?
Energy crisis. Financial crisis. Political crisis. It's all making me a little cranky. Besides which, my White Sox (go American League!!) lost today, and my cousin's beloved Cubs lost yesterday. For awhile, early in the day yesterday, it was quite a day for Chicago baseball. Not that I've given up hope. Oh no - not me. Those Sox have every chance in the world to pull this off again. The Cubs? OK - let's face it: not so much . . . and yet they are the team of choice for most Chicagoans. A subway series would be amazing - actually, it might be a little scary in this crazy sports town. Yes, I'm a Sox fan, but it would be great for the Cubs to at least get the National pennant - but if they meet the Sox in the Series, I know where my heart lies :-)
I'm knitting! Yay!! I have a pair of socks that I started las
t Saturday. I'm nearly done with the heel flap on the second sock, so things are moving along there. Haven't had the opportunity for any spinning this week. But here's what's on the wheel. It's Mountain Colors' Targhee in the Sandstone colorway. It's like melted caramel and pumpkin pie - it's really beautiful stuff. I noticed something about this top when Red was over spinning the last time: The Mountain Colors top looks better spun up than it does as top. I'm spinning this finer than the Merino I did recently in the hopes of getting sport weight. I don't think I've got the singles small enough for fingering. That's OK.
Here's something else I've been working on. I don't usually take photos of works in progress, but this is really a great sweater. This is the back of the St. Patrick sweater from Lisa Lloyd's book, A Fine Fleece. I love this sweater and I love this yarn (Queensland Kathmandu Aran). It was tough getting a good photo of it - it really needs to be shot in better light, but you can see how lovely her design is. The green tweedy color is much richer than it appears here. I've got the front band done, and will be picking it up again as soon as I finish off a couple of the million other things I seem to have on the needles. It's worked as for the back, so I already have a good handle on the cables.I'm blaming Knitterary for all this stuff sitting around not finished ;-D - she stopped casting stuff on for two months. And me, the one who usually finishes one or two projects at a time - never more than three on the needles (one of which is a sweater that's been languishing for a year . . . ) - well, I got some weird bug that made me cast on stuff like a maniac.
In addition to St. Patrick, and the Opal self-striping socks I have nearly finished, I have some wrist warmers in progress with some handspun; Wendy's Spring Fling socks started with some Yarn Nerd (really nice color saturations); one sock completed of the Saxony Socks (also from A Fine Fleece) in Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock; Wendy's Feather and Fan scarf on the needles; AND finish work to do on two scarves. This is just not like me at ALL :-D The good news is that all were done with yarn from the stash. Yay!!
My hand is good, but I'm still awfully tired - and not walking enough, which I know will make me feel better in every area . . .
Anyone else see the CHRISTMAS ads yet on the telly? There's a Christmas tree place up in Barrington: Tree Classics - only does mail order and the trees rock (I know because I got one last year!) - and they're sponsoring some show because I saw their ad the other day - it was actually in September! And in the "Chicago" shop in the train station, again last week, a new card rack was up in the window and it's full of red and green Christmas cards. And I was at Michael's on Monday, and although all the fall and Halloween and Thanksgiving stuff is out, there is one entire store aisle already devoted to Christmas stuff.
Christmas - the biggest retail event of the year, and one where many retailers make their annual profits. Clearly worries about the economy are causing many to start really early this year, milking it for all it's worth, I suppose. It caught me off guard to see all that holiday stuff so early.
The big event of the weekend in these parts (other than baseball right now) is YarnCon. Big fun last year and I have plans to go! Mostly to hang with my friends, because you know, I'm on the stash-busting wagon and really NOT buying any yarn or fiber right now - and YarnCon was not one of my planned dispensations. . . We'll see how it goes :-)
And now - the debate? Or the game? Or bed?
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