Wednesday

 I have given the shawl a second chance. I ripped back quite a bit and knitted it again. So far so good. 

It's kind of wonky the way it knits up on the right side, but hopefully will block out nicely. 

I had two new chairs delivered yesterday for the high counter in the kitchen. Originally I had bought 2 chairs on an online home goods site back in March (the company rhymes with Hey There). One of them basically disintegrated. My husband kept re-screwing the screws to keep it from being wobbly, but one day it finally fell apart. So, I went out of the box as far as my style and bought two new ones at a better company. I love them!

They're navy and white striped and woven. Very comfy and can be wiped down to clean. 

Here's a picture of a cute little critter taking a nap on the fence outside the kitchen window. He stayed there for a while, then scampered off. I think that I woke him up.

That's about it. We voted by using a ballot box yesterday. I'll be checking online in a few days for confirmation that it was received. Went to the grocery store this morning. Everyone was masked up, and I felt pretty safe. Today I'm working on the shawl and will be taking Sir Reggie for a walk with the husband. Enjoy your day! I'll leave you with this:

Tuesday

 It's a sunny cool day here in my neck of the woods. My wind chimes are chiming away out on the patio, and maple leaves are slowly dropping from way up in the tree. 

I have a beautiful hosta plant in my yard. It was transplanted from my former Mother-in-law's house. It's spectacularly huge, and is a beautiful light green. I tried to find a past picture of its entirety, but this is all that I can find.

But you get the idea. I diligently spray this baby with "Deer Out" every few weeks all Spring and Summer long. This keeps it from becoming a salad bar for my wandering neighbors overnight. It's a great product, and is not toxic. Mostly mint and lavender oil. Anyway, I must have gotten lax with the spraying these last weeks.

Stalks... Seems that there was a feast in my yard last night. 

Luckily, Lion's Ear and Japanese Anemone are not a delicacy to my deer friends. They are growing over five feet tall, and are really putting out some blooms this year.

Above: lovely fall orange of the Lion's Ear

The Japanese Anemone came into my yard as a volunteer. I have moved it from the back to the front of the house and this year has been its best year yet.

On the knitting front, I started a new project with alpaca yarn that I bought this year at the Md. Sheep and Wool Festival(virtual). It's from an alpaca farm and the yarn is tagged with a photo and the name of the alpaca that supplied the yarn. Here's the pattern and the yarn that I'm using. All from a place called Berrymeadow Farm.

I knit up to where the second color (the darker of the two) was added and knit in dashes across the shawl. I have ripped it out, because I don't like how I've carried the other yarn up the side. I'm about to add it again, but I'm just not in love with this project. Thaddeus has provided some beautiful yarn, and the pattern is well written. It's me. I'm just not into it. I will try one more time to keep going. Pictures later.

Sunday

 First off, I need to clarify something. When I said that we remodeled our bathroom, I meant that we paid a lot of money to a company to do the work to remodel our bathroom. This girl knows nothing about pipes, grout or electric wires. What I do know is communicating my vision to the professionals, picking out all Tile, faucets, cabinets, cabinet pulls, natural light options, etc. and getting someone else to do the work! Thank you all for your compliments. It came out exactly as I envisioned it would be. The one thing that I did not pick out was the ceiling color. I picked the blue walls, and the contractor suggested using a darker tone of blue for the ceiling. What a great effect it made!

And if you're wondering what role my husband played, he prefers me to pick out things, then come to him for his opinion (which is always positive). He says he has no taste. I beg to differ. I mean, he married me, right? 

Yesterday involved a lot of blocking..

I finished the Grinchy socks last night while watching bad 60's horror on Svengoolie..

Now I need to peruse the stash upstairs and figure out what I want to knit next. Stay tuned!

Some of us are taking the whole "Lazy Sunday Afternoon" seriously!

Friday

 It's Friday, which does not prompt the end-of-work-week happy dance as it did around this time last year. Last year, this was my last month of work before retirement. I retired on 10/31 last year. Wow. Can't believe that it's been that long already.  But then when I think of the lost time due to the pandemic, it feels like eons. So many things we would have done in 2020 that have been put on hold...sigh.

Ah, well. I have many things to be happy about. A husband who is with me through this. A room full of yarn. Roof over our heads and food on the table. 

Speaking of the roof, we raised the one in our bathroom and totally renovated it. The ceilings upstairs run along the roof line, so they slant. Our shower was very short, and my 6 foot husband had to crouch a bit under the shower head. Not any more! The roof was raised, a skylight was put in, and my ancient tiled bathroom came into modern day! Here's some before and after shots...

Before:

See how slanted and low the ceiling is in the shower picture below?

During:

After:

That's my big news from the last few months. Is it weird to love a bathroom? 

In other news, I finished Grinchy sock #1. 

It's October

 It's October. It's when changes come to the yard and the wildlife changes.  Flowers fade and tomatoes on the vine just won't turn red any more.

There are mantises galore. They are camouflaged in many ways. Above are two examples. 

The monarch butterflies have been abundant.  More this year than I ever remember.

And they manage to pose quite nicely for me. This one is a male. Do you want to know one way to tell?  See those two black dots in the middle of the smaller wings near the end of its body? That's a sure sign.

My hummingbirds have left for the winter for a warmer climate. But one managed to stay still a few weeks ago, long enough for a quick picture.

My current project on the needles is a pair of Christmas socks. The color scheme seems more like the Grinch than Christmas, because of all of the Grinchy green. But it's beautiful yarn and quite sparkly. 

Simply Socks Yarn Co. had a big sale on some Christmas yarn a few weeks ago, and I took advantage. I bought 3 skeins. More on the other two later.

Hope everyone is having a good week. Thank you for all of your comments, and welcoming me back to the blogosphere! 

I'm Back!!

 I'm back to blogging. I took a break. I was having a few speed bumps in my life. Family stuff that I really don't want to share. I have found some peace and come to a place where I can just let whatever happens happen. Sometimes you can't be the fixer. Sometimes things or people have to fix themselves. Detachment is sometimes the best gift that you can give yourself. 

And there's the election. Oy, that is a whole other ball of wax that kept me off of social media a bit. But now I'm back and ready to blog again. I have missed this and all the kind comments! 

First off: knitting. I have done quite a few things. Two sweaters, socks, socks, socks, a hat and a shawl. Creativity grounds me and helps me put things in perspective. 

The socks above were my own design. Knit in three yarns, I had a field day weaving in all those ends!

This shawl entailed 656 yards of fingering weight in knit and purl rows. Boring TV knitting for sure, but I love the outcome.

And lastly, a hat for my sweet supportive husband, who waited patiently while I knitted yards and yards of yarn for other projects before finally living up to my promise to knit him one. He's a champ. 

I also knit up Andrea Mowry's Weekender sweater, but I don't have a picture. Will post at a different time.

Tomorrow, some non-knitting things. It's good to be back. 

The Garden

I am quite liberal with the garden pictures these days. There's a reason for that. The garden is something that keeps me going.

There's growth in the garden. There's change. 

New things emerge daily. Nothing is stagnant. 

There's a feeling of fluidity.  Purpose.

Plants have motivation. There is no status quo.  Things change. Things bloom. Things grow.

There's beauty without vanity. 

Diversity without judgement.

The only conflict that I see are the weeds trying to take over the soil.

The garden keeps me going. It makes the day less ordinary.  It's an anchor in an otherwise uncertain world.