Finishing Weekend

September 30, 2017 / shellssells / 4 Comments

I finished Miss Marja’s very long gorgeous scarf! But, it’s soaking and blocking. So that’s not on the list of things I can show off today. Tomorrow maybe, if it doesn’t rain all day.

But I also finished a sock. I guess that’s not truly finishing, I mean, I’ve got a whole other sock to knit. But, because finishing the first sock means you get to try it on and be sure it actually fits as it should, it’s a type of finishing.

This sock fits as it should. Which is to say, it’s a little large. Mr. Ink is going to see his brother and sister in law at the end of October, and I wanted to send a pair of socks out to sister in law. These are most decidedly NOT her colors, but I often make her stuff in pink. There’s a story behind that. She had a dear friend who passed away a few years ago. This friend used to tell her she needed more pink in her life. So despite the fact she doesn’t generally choose pink, when she does choose pink, it reminds her of her friend. Most of her handknits from me contain pink, but not her socks. It was time for pink socks. So, a little large means perfect for sister in law.

I started the second sock last evening, but will not continue much over the weekend, as I’ve got work training in the upcoming weeks that allows for secret under the desk knitting to keep my hands occupied. These socks, on my tiny circs, are perfect for that.

The other big news of the week:

This is…my own office. I’ve been in an absolutely lovely corner back of the room cubicle since 2009. Surrounded by windows on two sides, and very well hidden. Because of our very large work load, we had to hire a new person. Which means we also needed more space. So, I was given my own office. I have yet to figure out if I like it, to be honest. First of all, from my cubicle I could see my favorite coworker in her office, and we could make faces at each other. Especially when people were annoying us. This was sometimes the best part of my work day. Secondly, I have way less desk space in the new office. I am hoping this keeps me from “spreading” as I did at my old desk, where stuff would head behind me and I wouldn’t look at it again for a long time. But it’s hard to tell if that will be the case. Thirdly, now I am right in the middle of the office and people can see me! I’ll have to be more helpful and I will probably be interrupted more often. On to the positives though-I can now play my music and hum along without anyone noticing. During the time in which the conference is being worked on and I need high levels of concentration, I’ll be able to shut the door. We have an open door policy, but for a project like that, I feel certain I’ll be able to alter that.

And, the biggest reason that I am not sure about the new office is that the windows face north. How am I going to keep my geraniums going all winter?!?!

Ah well, things change. And we learn to adjust, or we don’t, and we get left behind. The coworker who took my old spot has made it look great, and I am sure she’ll be quite happy there.

and I get to come home to this goofball every day! She’s hanging out in the yard with me after we mowed, as I needed to cool down and drink some water before heading back in. Lizzie Bean has gotten very good at going outside off leash in the yard. It’s nice, so nice. She’s well under my control with vocal commands now, and sticks to me like glue anyhow. So, heading out to sit on the patio doesn’t mean adjusting a leash while she wanders around my chair. Next? Spinning on the patio with her out there. Soon. I could do it now I think, if I had any interest in spinning at all right now.

Happy Weekend Folks!

My Handspun Vest

September 27, 2017 / shellssells / 6 Comments

It’s done! And I really love it. I am wearing it today actually, as I can get away with it, it’s slightly cool.

It really turned out so nicely. I am thrilled with it. And the best part? I was left with 400 yards of this yarn! So, it goes back in stash and I get to enjoy the pleasure of it again.

I’ve been pretty averse to knitting garments lately, so I am really thrilled with how this turned out. Maybe there will be another garment in my future! I do have one more sweater I need to figure out if I will knit or rip.

I was finally able to get a photo of Mr. Ink’s firepit/landscape project. He worked late into the night on Sunday night, into very early Monday morning, because we knew it would rain all day Monday. He wanted to see how much of his driveway dirt pile he could get into the new project before the rain. Turns out, probably 2/3 of it. It did indeed rain all day Monday, and right into Tuesday morning. He’s not sure when the dirt will dry out enough again for him to work with it.

So, the firepit is in. The sand, gravel, and rocks are in at the bottom of the pit. I am not sure if anything else gets done with the pit itself. However, we have a metal firepit insert that will go in that hole when we have a fire. When not in use, the pit will have the container of decorative grasses. Of course, around the pit much more is to be done.

The top ring needs quite a bit more dirt, and then will contain trees/shrubs. And who knows what else. I am unclear still as to how that will look. But, we’ve taken out another large section of my mowing responsibility, so I’ll call it good!

Life continues on at a mad pace, we’ve got parent teacher conferences already tonight. My new employee starts Monday. My hours change for a month. We’ve got tons of things planned this month. It’s kind of nutty, but in a good way I think. I am almost done with Miss Marja’s scarf. Not much of a point in showing it off right now I don’t think, I should be able to show it off completed by this weekend, hopefully. I ordered some yarn for the next westknits mystery shawl that begins Friday. My yarn won’t quite be in by then, but pretty soon after I think. I can’t wait to see what is in store, it’s always weird and wonderful!

And that’s it from here, hope everyone is having a lovely week!

Weekend Updates

September 25, 2017 / shellssells / 7 Comments

I have no pictures of the firepit progress because that got worked on late in the evening. This morning was too dark for a photo, so I’ll grab a photo when I get home tonight. MUCH has been done, and Mr. Ink worked well after my bedtime on it.

It was rather an eventful evening at our place. I ordered pizza late because Mr. Ink wouldn’t stop working. I got the cash ready for pizza delivery, opened the front door and turned on the lights, and heard a large bang. Mr. Ink was coming around the corner at that time, and saw what happened. A car on our busy street had hit a raccoon really hard. The car didn’t stop. A cop was behind that car, and took off after the car, I am assuming because it didn’t stop. But now we’ve got a raccoon in front of our home, still alive, but not moving much. Mr. Ink decided he’d better move it, I told him he’d better not do it with his hands, we do not need a raccoon bite on top of this. He went to get a shovel, and thankfully during that time, no other cars hit the poor thing. When Mr. Ink went down there with the shovel, the raccoon hauled himself up on the side of our yard and went back down. So, we decided to call animal control. It sure looked like it was hurt, and we didn’t want it suffering and dying in our yard.

Animal control showed up about half an hour later. We’d kept an eye on where he was, though he was moving about a bit. The animal control officer went to take a look at the raccoon and the raccoon ran off! The officer observed it for a bit, and then told us he wasn’t going to catch it, as it seemed to not have any broken limbs. He told us that sometimes they are just really stunned after getting hit, it looks alarming, but then they turn out ok and it is their policy to let them be, which I totally agree with. He told us what to look for in order for him to need a call back, like the raccoon hanging out in our yard during the day.

So, quite an eventful evening overall. The day was lovely, though hot. Mr. Ink actually spent a good portion of the day dealing with his new japanese maple. He’d purchased a very large one, only to find that it was completely root bound in its pot, and it may have been a bad decision. He treated it with the type of aggressive TLC he treats all plants and trees. Meaning, he took this terribly root bound plant and basically cut away all the bad roots, gaining 8 additional inches of height on the tree, so poorly had it been potted and left that way. When we purchased it, 3 men could not lift the pot into the back of his truck, it took a skid loader. When he was done, he was able to lift the tree himself.

It’s now in, and hopefully it will appreciate its new home, and work on rooting itself in the soil. I suspect it being tied up will be very necessary in the upcoming months. There’s just so little root system left on the thing. It is pretty there, against the neighbor’s evergreens! It has a look about it like evening sunlight is lighting it up, even when that’s not the case. When evening sunlight is lighting it up, it’s completely stunning.

I will try not to be too bitter about the fact that Mr. Ink removed a bloodgood japanese maple from that exact spot, to add this maple. The small maple he removed we’d been nursing along for the past 2 years, so I would like to find another spot in the yard for it. Of course, no spots are in “the plan.” It might be time for a tree diet, like a yarn diet. One cannot change up their trees every 2 years!

In other around the yard news, last year Mr. Ink purchased me some gorgeous deep red mums. Let’s see if I can find last year’s photo.

There it is! Well, once they were done blooming, I replanted them by Coco’s memorial tree.

And they have just been gorgeous this year! Now, I am finding that area to be a bit difficult overall when it comes to appropriate flowers. I get some spring flowers, as I’ve put bulbs in there. But, while last year I had a whole host of petunias going nuts in there, this year’s petunias didn’t really produce. I suspect this is because the redbud has filled out beautifully and it’s just too shady for them. The mums though, they are loving the afternoon sun and the heat. I’ve got some pink mums in another area of the garden, I think I’ll replant some of those in this garden bed, and maybe pick up some purple ones this year too, that can go in there. Then I’ll just have the spring bulb display, and the fall mum display, and be pretty happy.

We’ve got orange mums starting to bloom on the front bank as well. I couldn’t remember for the life of me when we got those. Then, all of a sudden it hit me. Last year I’d been to a grocery store late in the season. There were free plants, including orange mums, in terrible shape. I brought some home, of course, because we would run a plant rescue if we could. Looks like Mr. Ink took that one pot, split it in 3, planted it on his front bank, and now has 3 lovely bunches of orange mums coloring the front bank! Good deal for free flowers!

Know what I did yesterday? I finished the body of my vest. I know, I am knitting very exclusively right now! I sewed up the shoulder seams this morning and tried it on. Looks like it is going to fit absolutely beautifully! Salpal1– I’ll have you know that I took your advice and experience and applied it to my vest by decreasing all the way down to the size smaller than the one I was knitting once I began decreasing for armholes and shoulders. Seems to have worked well! So, now I just have to finish neckbands, armhole bands, and buttons. So close!

That’s all I’ve got around here, just a few tree photos and a story or two. Heading into the work week with anticipation. This week and next is a grants deadline, AND, on Friday I get my own office. Crazy stuff happening around here this week! Hoping to do some serious clean out of my current space in order to make Friday’s move a bit less tedious.

Sunday

September 24, 2017 / shellssells / 5 Comments

Not too much new to report, but I figured I’d give an update on the firepit/landscaping project as much was done yesterday by Mr. Ink. Plus, I think much will also get done today. So it was worth documenting. When last I showed the project, it looked like this:

We were at the point where Mr. Ink needed more large rocks. He got more rocks, though they are not in place yet. However, the largest amount of progress is on the pit itself.

There’s been even more progress since, another layer of the cement edging was added, since the fire pit itself didn’t fit well enough for Mr. Ink’s contentment. Then dirt was backfilled out from the edge, which served the additional purpose of getting more of the dirt pile out of the driveway. I did have quite a giggle yesterday when Mr. Ink had begun making another pile of top soil, then came inside and said “Look at it! Just look at it! There’s too much dirt in this earth!!!!”

As for my projects, or project as it seems, the handspun vest continues along. I’ve divided for the front and back and am working my way toward a finish now. Much was done yesterday. In fact, we stayed up well past my bedtime watching Cloud Atlas, an absolutely terrible and way too long movie. However, it did help me get quite a lot of knitting knocked out. When Mr. Ink and I finally headed to bed, I said “Well, netflix was right. It said that if we liked The Giver, we’d like Cloud Atlas. We hated The Giver. So it’s only natural we would hate Cloud Atlas.” We were both tired, and this set us to giggling in that way only being overly tired can do.

Of course, despite wanting to sleep in, Miss Lizzie Bean Who Will Not Be Ignored woke us up by jumping on us at 7:15 this morning. She and I went for a nice long walk, and sadly she got stung on the face by a bee. Poor thing howled, and rubbed her face in the grass over and over for awhile. Thankfully it doesn’t seem to be swelling so I think we are in the clear.

That’s about it from here! It’s another hot one today, but predicted rain tomorrow and then more autumnal weather is in the forecast. That’s sounding pretty good to us around now!

A New Project

September 23, 2017 / shellssells / 6 Comments

Ever since we moved into this home, I have said I wanted to make macrame plant hangers. In a home such as ours, solidly from the 60s, with paneling we have no intention of getting rid of, it would be perfect. But, I didn’t want big crazy thick macrame, I wanted something a bit thinner and delicate.

Right after we moved in, I purchased some hemp and some beads, with the intention of making plant hangers with it. But, right about that time was when my work began to be crazy and I mostly quit doing new things. I put the beads and the hemp away, and every once in awhile Mr. Ink asks where his macrame plant hangers are, and I tell him very politely to shove it, and we move on.

I finally did it! I made one. This is my first attempt, and I kept it fairly simple. I am sure I could do better next time. But, I like the result here, and I am glad I finally gave it a try.

Isn’t the spider plant in a macrame plant holder against wood paneling just so very PERFECT?! As you can see, I’ve another hook to fill. Actually, this spider plant will go back on that hook and I’ll do a longer one with green hemp next.

Here’s one last vacation picture from last week. I took Lizzie over to visit Miss Marja’s Max while Miss Marja was at work. I wasn’t sure how walking two dogs at once would go, but it actually went quite well. Max was thrilled to see Lizzie at his house, and they seemed to really encourage each other on while walking, at times Max would be bouncing and running next to Lizzie. It was super cute and fun!

That’s about it from here, I’ve mostly just been enjoying knitting loads of stockinette on the vest. The handspun is pretty and while stockinette isn’t that interesting, I feel pretty invested in having a new handknit garment come cooler weather.

Last day

September 21, 2017 / shellssells / 3 Comments

And so much to share. I guess we finally got in the vacation groove in time to go back to work! But, it’s only one day of work and then the weekend.

I mentioned yesterday that I interviewed someone for our team last week, and am so pleased to report that she accepted our offer and will be joining us very shortly. You know, my work situation has been awfully bad for over a year, and I’d say if I were truly honest, closer to 2 years. Bad enough to look for other jobs, bad enough to leave everything I’ve worked for in the past 12 years. That’s pretty bad. But, I can now see the situations improving, and even knowing they’ll likely improve has got me feeling so much less stressed!

How did this impact my crafting world? Well, I quit trying new things. I quit knitting sweaters, or more complicated stuff, because I just didn’t have the mental bandwidth for those things. Simple knitting and spinning were par for the course, punctuated by a few more complicated projects that stretched my brain a bit, but weren’t actually learning new things.

I started a brand new to me project this morning. Not knitting, weaving, spinning, or crochet. I’ll show it off when I get finished, hopefully tomorrow. How’s that for extra bandwidth? I mean, I guess you could say this is vacation talking, but I’ve had multiple other vacations over the past 2 years and haven’t really been able to do anything new during them.

Let’s check in on the galiano vest, shall we?

Much progress was made. We sat down last evening to watch There Will Be Blood, I’d forgotten just what an amazing movie it is. And, I was able to knock out some serious rows. I just began the increases of the body shaping.

And shall we have a tiny look around the yard? Let’s start with Mr. Ink’s projects. He’s been meaning to make us a firepit/landscaped section for an awfully long time now. He finally began. Prior to vacation he spray painted a rough idea on the lawn, and then set about killing the grass.

Miss Butterfly and I joked that he was clearly decorating for easter, it just looked like an easter egg to us. Thankfully what we see and what he sees are very different things.

After a bunch of work yesterday, we now have an actual pit. And apparently our own little stonehenge. He put poles in the pit because he already fell in once. I appreciate the safety measure, as it’s straight out from the back door, where I take Lizzie out in the dark.

He’s worked beyond the easter egg because he decided to make that section larger to accommodate my choices in evergreens that he purchased for me as a surprise. But, now we wait as he needs to purchase more rocks, and he’s working on another project right now. Also, he needs to take my car in and get an estimate for the woman who hit it the other day.

In other yard news, my new rose is just amazing. I mean, it’s gone from this tiny little plant to larger than my old established rose. And it’s stems are beautifully thick and healthy. Mr. Ink thinks maybe he has gotten the hang of roses, and if so I plan to have him use that knowledge some more.

A before and after photo.

That’s about it from around here! I guess I should get myself up and around and get some chores done before I head back to crafting and puttering. Hope you are having a great week!

Vacation

September 20, 2017 / shellssells / 5 Comments

It’s been an odd kind of week. Mr. Ink ended up not going in to work on Monday, but it rained all day preventing anything productive happening in the yard. I admit though that I didn’t mind having a fairly quiet day. I spent some time with a girlfriend I rarely get to see these days, and Mr. Ink puttered around the house getting a few things done indoors that had gotten shoved low on his priority list.

He did have to work on Tuesday, and that was basically an all day situation despite the fact he’s on vacation. We went and picked up a lovely japanese maple early in the day, but after that he worked. I puttered, and got my hair cut, and fixed the tire on one of my bikes, and went out and bought a new collar for Lizzie who has lost enough weight that the old one is too big.

We then went for a bike ride with a bunch of friends. That turned out in an interesting manner. We’d headed out of the city to a small town where one of our bike group lives on a lake. We planned a nice 20 mile route, and then to end at our host’s home with a fire in his fire pit, overlooking the lake. We got about halfway through our ride, encountered some construction that should have been fine, except that a construction worker truck decided he had time to do a uturn right in front of the bike group. He did not. He caused an accident, our host ended up on the ground with a broken rib after a nasty fall. So, local fire department and EMT’s were called out to take him off in the ambulance and we cut our ride short.

I have to say though that the response times of the local all volunteer department were fantastic. Small town EMT’s and firefighters don’t get near enough credit, in my opinion! We take them for granted until we need them. They dropped everything and took great care of our group, even getting our host’s bike back to his home for him. I do hope that the construction company is held accountable in some way for the accident their employee caused, it would have been nothing for him to wait the few more seconds for our group to go by before he did a uturn. And, as a construction worker, he’s gotta be well aware of how dangerous it is when you are on a road and exposed.

Today is a slow day, we had dentist appointments this morning. Miss Butterfly has her first cavities (that she’ll remember) but the dentist stressed that these aren’t ones that she could have prevented, her oral hygiene is just fine. And they are surface and easily fixed. She’s had so much work on her teeth lately with the braces and so on that she’s sort of shrugging it off in general. What’s one more thing at this point?

I can hear Mr. Ink outdoors digging, so he must have started on a project. The other night he was sifting dirt, and Miss Butterfly and her best friend went out to help him. This prevented them from shrieking in the house, which has become rather commonplace, and apparently it was pretty helpful to Mr. Ink as well.

I did start a new project. Remember this yarn I spun early in the summer?

First I cast it on as the falling waters stole. After knitting a few rows, I decided I would prefer that particular stole as a scarf, and ripped it out. Then, I decided to knit a vest. I chose the Galiano vest, which I saw knit by Salpal1 recently. Looks great in handspun, and I should have plenty of it. I admit I winged it though, I haven’t even checked gauge which really could bite me in the butt.

I am sure you’d like to see it though, right?

Here’s the thing. When it’s so long in between garment knits, I tend to forget just how LONG it takes, especially when knitting the back and the fronts at the same time. But, it’s also great vacation knitting, there’s nothing complicated about this one, I can knit a row, put it down, get some chores done, pick it up, knit a row, and so on.

That’s about it from here. I just heard from work and got some good news, the person I have been interviewing and very much want hired has gone through further interview processes and has passed with flying colors, and they’ll be making her an offer. She’ll fit in beautifully with our office culture I suspect, and I am eager to get her started and get her trained. And quite frankly, with another round of grants coming up, this is perfect timing. Best yet? She was eager, at her previous position, to do more with grants, which means that this is something she wants to learn. As I am sure you know, teaching someone something they want to learn is a heck of a lot easier than teaching someone they have to learn. I told boss to please call me once she had a response from this hopefully new coworker, as that will put my mind at ease greatly.

Have a good one! I’ve got one more full day of vacation left and you know what my calendar says? It is blank. TOTALLY BLANK!!!

Finally!

September 17, 2017 / shellssells / 2 Comments

So then I had a picture to post, but couldn’t get my wordpress app to work!

I started and then finished something without ever posting about it on the blog. I needed a palette cleanser. Something that wasn’t tiny lace that required chart reading. And I found a simple scarf pattern called Flatlander. Knit horizontally, it was one of those knits that was both mindless and fast, due to rarely having to turn my work around.

I used some of Miss Marja’s handspun from my stash, a wonderful pink based yarn out of a great big batt she spun and I found I had my eye on right from the start. Here it is!

With that done, I got more than another full repeat of Miss Marja’s colorful scarf done, and then some. Now I am on to some other knitting.

We were supposed to be on vacation starting Friday after work. It hasn’t quite worked out that way. Mr. Ink had to go in on Saturday, and unfortunately he’ll have to go in on Monday as well. He doesn’t get that vacation time back, so that’s irritating. I AM actually on vacation, as far as I can tell, so it would be great if I’d quit thinking about work. Hah.

Mr. Ink has had a few days of those terrible awful no good very bad days. You know the ones. Where you feel like someone must be out to get you because everything that could go wrong does so. The one I find the most amusing, is that he got rear ended when he was attempting to stop for a stop sign. The car is ok, though there’s an imprint of a license plate in our bumper. However, when he got out of the car, the woman who hit him said “Huh, must be something wrong with my car, usually my radar thingy prevents this from happening! I’ll have to take it in to the dealer.” Mr. Ink told me this response, and I was just like “WHAT?! That’s not how you even DRIVE!!!” Completely fascinating response. In any case, we aren’t going to make a fuss about this, but I do think it would be HIGHLY interesting to tell that response to our insurance company!

I would make a fuss if it was the new car though. Yes I would.

I’ve got the next 4 days off. Lizzie isn’t going to know WHAT to do with me! But, she’s been a pretty happy doggo that we’ve been home. I have filled my time with bits and bobs but nothing huge and exciting, so it should be a very pleasant vacation.

The Week

September 14, 2017 / shellssells / 4 Comments

Yep, I’ve not been blogging. I don’t think I have any interesting photos, and somehow I feel like that’s the only reason that people will come look at the blog. So what’s the point? But, I am probably off base there.

It’s been an interesting week. A good week overall. A very busy week! This might explain the lack of photos.

On Monday, we played pub trivia with some friends. We tied for first place! And then came in second in sudden death round. But, that still meant a prize, so we were pleased! We also found out that the last time we played, our team name won best team name nationally. So we got a prize for that too. I’ll tell you what, that really made playing all the more fun. We are considering it about a once a month thing if possible.

Tuesday evening I took Miss Butterfly in to get her hair cut. Our stylist of the last 10 years has moved on to do something other than hair, so I let Miss Butterfly be the guinea pig for a new stylist. It went very pleasantly, and I’ll be getting my hair cut next week.

Last evening was a night off, finally. I took Lizzie Bean for a nice long LONG walk, and then did a whole lot of knitting. I even got a short nap in, until the Bean stuck her cold wet nose under my arm for some pets. Mr. Ink was home quite late from work, I sort of wondered where he’d gotten to, or if he’d just had a really good day and had to work late. Upon his arrival, he said “Come look what I got you!!!” That’s when I knew he’d been to a garden center. I walked outside to see that he’d picked up 3 evergreens for me. Ones I’d been looking at regularly at the shop we’ve been frequenting. I was like “What?!” And he said “Well, I figure if you have evergreens you are loving, I should get them for you.” He’d apparently decided that his next project, the firepit area, would now incorporate my evergreen choices. That’s the upcoming project for next week.

I don’t know what we’ll do for Lizzie Enrichment this week, but we are looking into buying a trailer to take her on a camping trip in the near future. Here’s how she feels about it:

Yep, she thinks we’re weirdos! But so is she, and that’s perfect.

Last Week

September 11, 2017 / shellssells / 2 Comments

Last Week:

~~Daily step goals~~
~~Finish current spinning project~~
Make another set of batts
- Nope nope, barely even looked in my craft room.
~~Get some cleaning done.~~
One bike commute or a bike ride with friends.
- Again nope, this didn’t happen

As I mentioned before, I am not going to keep up with the lists, possibly until the end of October. That being said, it was nice to look over last week and see that I did actually do some stuff despite the fact I felt like absolutely NOTHING had gotten done.

Yesterday we continued in our Lizzie Bean enrichment project. It was dog day at a local pool, they open it up for a couple hours at the end of the season for dogs to go swimming. It was pretty nutty, there were dogs everywhere! We weren’t sure how Lizzie would react to the water, but we figured we would give it a try. We started with the kiddie pool area.

Getting her feet wet, not a big problem! She then spent a lot of time doing a perimeter check, which is what she often does when we go somewhere new. Then we decided to see if we could get her to go in the big pool. Mr. Ink was prepared to ease her into this swimming thing, he had his suit on.

So, he got right into the water to help ease her in. She wasn’t overly impressed, but she gave it a try.

Actual swimming happened! Then, Mr. Ink picked her up and had her try again.

She was not particularly impressed with that. So, we soon finished up in the pool itself, and gave her lots of good dog pats.

Once we took her home, I sprayed her down with a leave in shampoo/conditioner, and then gave her a blow-dry. I’ve heard repeatedly that leaving her coat to dry on its own can cause skin problems, it’s too thick to dry by itself. So, she ended up smelling great and being quite fluffy. And tired.

She slept for a good portion of the remainder of the evening! She also doesn’t hate Mr. Ink now, though we worried about that. In fact, she seems to trust him more. That ended up an interesting end result of swim day.

That’s about it from here. We just have to get through this week and then we’ve got a little vacation time! Quite exciting! We couldn’t be more pleased to hang out around the house together.

Skewed to the Left

September 10, 2017 / shellssells / 1 Comment

I so rarely knit socks these days. I don’t really need anymore, though sometimes I’ll knit them as gifts or for Mr. Ink. But even then, I knit simple socks. In May though, I cast on a pair of skew socks with dyeabolical’s watercolor stripes. It took me a long time to get even one sock done, but the left sock is now finished, and it’s exactly what I wanted to be knitting yesterday.

This was super fun to knit! And, I have knit the pattern before, though it’s been awhile. So I was extra cautious about making sure I’d done it properly even though it’s kind of a mind game all the way through. My last pair fit beautifully and I wore them until they developed holes in the heels, so I am hoping to get similar use out of these. Though to be honest, they fit a bit tightly. On the other hand, I feel like that happens regularly, and then once I wear them a bit they stretch out. I am hoping that’s the case with this pair as well. I’ll just have to make sure I handwash them no matter what.

Yesterday was blah. On Friday night I got a bit of a stomach bug, and was still suffering from it Saturday morning, but not all day. I didn’t really want to do anything and kept forcing myself to do the things that needed to get done, as well as the things I love. It took me until about 6 pm to realize I might still be feeling not so well, and THAT could have contributed to my inability to get motivated about ANYTHING. So, at that point I quit trying. I spent the whole day trying! What a waste.

Today? We are hoping to take Lizzie swimming. Or at least see if she has interest in the water. However, there’s a storm threatening, and we are hoping it disappears before swim time. But we DO want to get the rain!

Other than that, I think I’ll take an easy day on purpose, and not force myself to do stuff I don’t want to do. Other than the things that must get done, like laundry. I never mind laundry all that much anyhow.

Spectra 2.0

September 9, 2017 / shellssells / 3 Comments

My second spectra scarf raced toward a finish quite under the radar. Prior to casting on Marja’s scarf, I had decided not to cast on anything new. So, while Spectra 2.0 had resided at work for lunch breaks, I brought it home over a weekend and that was basically the turning point. The point at which I knew it would be done very soon.

The colors in the first picture are the most accurate on my monitor, though that rich red is really hard to capture. This turned out so nicely! It’s quite soft, the red portion is knit rather loosely to accommodate rather thicker handspun, so it’s also super drapey. I am actually far more pleased with this one than the watermelon colored spectra.

So I’ve been sitting here for a few minutes wondering what else to write about. I guess I got nothing! So, I’ll leave it with showing off some knitting and save anything else for tomorrow. Have a lovely weekend!

Project Update

September 8, 2017 / shellssells / 3 Comments

The Lamina scarf is coming along so beautifully! I’ve got all the colors in there at least once now, which is what I was waiting for in order to show it off again.

It’s stunning! The colors are so beautiful, and the pattern is going to pop so well once blocked! I love the undulating green garter rows, and the bright pops of color are so fun!

This week has been exhausting, despite the fact it’s a short week! Work has gone completely pear shaped, but probably in a way that will be good for us all, long term. The trouble is, we are going to have a few months of growing pains before then. It’s been exhausting, I am TIRED, mentally, again. I am going to keep my eye on the light at the end of the tunnel though, and really hope for the best in the upcoming months.

It’s so stressful actually that I think I’ll probably forego weekly lists for a time, until everything straightens out again. I keep looking at my list for this week and stressing out, which is just adding to the overall stress. So, maybe it’s time to back away, absolutely nothing on my blog list has to be done, they are just wants!

But, there’s still a dog keeping me amused! In the last post, I shared a photo of Lizzie Bean sleeping on the floor near her dog bed. The night before last, I snapped another photo. I’d told Lizzie to go to her bed, so she did, and settled down in there in quite a huff. I could hear her saying “You told me to go to bed, I did, but I don’t have to like it!”

But, she ended up sleeping there on and off all night long. I wondered if this was in part because the evenings have been cooler recently. So last night I added a fleece blanket to one side of the dog bed. She would not go NEAR that dog bed all night long! Ok then. I’ve ruined it already. We are back to where we started. Mr. Ink would tell me to stop fussing over her, I am certain. Can’t help it!

We are really looking forward to a weekend after the work day today. And then, only one more week before we have a little at home vacation time! Mr. Ink has his projects planned out, and I am very eager to spend my mornings walking the dog and finding at home projects for myself, even though I haven’t bothered to plan any out.

Handspun

September 6, 2017 / shellssells / 3 Comments

I got my spinning done! This is dyeabolical yarn’s 10th anniversary colorway, and it is STUNNING! I love it. I got 350 yards out of this 4 ounces, in a fingeringweight 2 ply. I did a fractal spin on this, and I think it’s just so pretty!

We had a birthday gathering to go to last evening, so I really didn’t do much crafty stuff except for washing and hanging to dry the above skein of handspun. And I only got a few rows knitting in this morning before work. Tonight isn’t looking good for crafting either. Busy week so far!

On Monday evening, we took Lizzie Bean to the local botanical gardens for their monthly dog walk. Once a month during the summer they open the garden to leashed dogs, which is awesome.

Lizzie absolutely loved it. She much preferred this experience over the dog park. I think, in part, because the other dogs were leashed. She felt like she could investigate them without them totally getting in her space.

Lizzie knew something was up Monday afternoon when both Mr. Ink and I put on our shoes and didn’t put her in the kennel. This began an unmatched load of excitement. There was running through every room of the house, jumping as high as my shoulder, jumping in the air and spinning in circles, just so much excitement. So cute! And so much laughter for us. Thankfully she settled just fine in the car. We did so much walking in the gardens, she got sick of other dogs after a time, but she wasn’t sick of walking at all, she could have continued. Her endurance is so much improved from when we got her only 3 weeks ago!

In other news, while she’s only lost half a pound so far, I’ve had to adjust her collar twice in 3 weeks. I told Mr. Ink last night I couldn’t understand it. How could she be losing so much size but not that much weight? He said “Same as with people, she’s losing fat but gaining muscle.” Oh. Right, of course! While she’s still a very floofy dog, you can really feel the difference on her body, it’s quite remarkable.

And for one last Lizzie photo, this is her demonstration on how to use a dog bed, according to her. She really doesn’t use it. Except as a head rest. Also, note how she loves the hardwood floor. I can only imagine it’s because of all the fur, but it’s her first choice in where to sleep. We’ll see once it gets colder if she changes her behavior.

That’s it from here! I can’t wait to show off the current knitting project, but I am trying to get a full set of colors knit on it before I take a photo. Stay tuned!

This Week September 4-10

September 4, 2017 / shellssells / 1 Comment

Last week:

~~Daily step goals~~
- Rocked that one big time!
~~A bike ride with friends~~ and a bike commute, or two bike rides with friends.
- Half done, got the bike ride with friends, and then took Miss Butterfly and her friend swimming yesterday.
W~~ork with Miss Butterfly on her room, and reducing the “slime situation” in the house. Things are getting out of hand with the slime fad in our home and I have reached a limit.~~
- There’s no more slime in the house. The worst of it was thrown out, and then the remainder secretively moved to the neighbor’s house. Miss Butterfly orchestrated that, and it seems like it’s working well as it hasn’t come back.
~~Measure rooms for moving the large area rug.~~
- Looks like the only option for the large area rug is the bedroom, which is fine!
Work on cleaning out basement.
~~Get a load to donate out of the basement.~~
- One load into the car and donated. But, that’s the extent of cleaning in the basement that was done!
~~Make batts.~~

We went swimming yesterday as I had promised the girls. I brought a picnic lunch. We had a good time, but were only there from about noon to 3:30. Usually we are there quite a bit later. After we ate, early, the girls decided they were quite tired and wanted to go home. Having had plenty of sun myself, I agreed. As it turns out? Both girls were sneezing, blowing their noses, and had sore throats. Who knows if it’s allergies or the beginning of a cold, but once I saw that I realized why they felt so tired.

I did get a bit of knitting on the second spectra done while we were at the waterpark. I basically spent the day in the pool until I got cold, knit until I got too hot, went back in the pool until I got cold. It was a pretty decent cycle.

Since we returned early though, I was able to finish the singles on my spinning project.

So, I got down to the business of plying this morning. I am not far, as we’ve got mowing and walk taking and so on to do. But, it’s a good start and I hope to finish up today or tomorrow.

This combo is turning out quite a bit lighter than I expected! It’s very pretty and I look forward to having a color that’s kind of unusual for me in my stash.

Tonight we are taking Lizzie to the local botanical gardens as it’s the one night a month that dogs can be there. It’ll be interesting, as she’s pretty distracted by other dogs, but we love our botanical gardens so I am really looking forward to it.

In a quick what’s new with Lizzie update, she’s begun to be able to catch her toys midair during a game of fetch, if she can catch up with the toy as it’s being thrown. That’s really quite amazing, her aussie shepherd tendencies continue to improve and shine a bit brighter the more energy and stamina she gets. And that REALLY puts to rest the idea that her weird eye interferes with her eyesight. Though she does still knock into walls or the dishwasher or the screen from time to time. I think this is more her oafishness, so full of energy it can barely be contained so she expends it without looking and suddenly she’s running into things.

This upcoming week:

Daily step goals
Finish current spinning project
Make another set of batts
Get some cleaning done.
One bike commute or a bike ride with friends.

I am leaving it there for now. This week involves quite a lot of social events in the evenings as well as workplace drama and extra mental energy needed for that. So, I think this will stay a simpler week.

Happy Labor Day, I hope you are having a day of rest if it’s a day off for you!

Saturday

September 3, 2017 / shellssells / 2 Comments

Oh Saturday, how I love you!

We took it fairly easy around our place yesterday. I got a load of stuff out of the basement and donated it. I went to petco for treats and another toy. That’s the extent of my out of the house chores. Other than that, I played with Lizzie, took her on a couple walks, got laundry done, that type of thing.

Miss Marja and Max joined us for a bit, and she dropped off yarn for a project we talked about before she even spun up the yarn. She had a bunch of gorgeous inglenook batts, and wasn’t sure what to do with them. She also found out that I had purchased the Lamina Wrap pattern, but hadn’t yet found a suitable yarn choice for it. Then we discussed her batts, and decided that she could have a Lamina wrap out of her own handspun.

She took two or three of the most similar colored green batts and spun them all up together for the main color, the color that separates all the other different colors. Then, she just spun up all the batts into separate skeins.

You can see the green at the top, the larger skein. And then all the different colors that will go into this project. Aren’t they gorgeous? So fun! I spent a bunch of time last evening getting them wound into balls, and then got started.

I wasn’t sure if I’d add colors randomly, or choose a color progression. In the end, I made a color wheel out of all the different colors, sorting them until I liked how they progressed. I’ll just work my way around that circle until I run out of the green separation yarn.

Now, the other thing is that the wrap is very wide, and I’ve done another one of Ambah O’Brien’s wraps for Miss Marja, and it was just almost too wide for her to wear comfortably. So, I left out a bunch of repeats, making it more scarf like. Actually, I began it, decided that it was still too wide after the first lace pattern was done, ripped it out, removed another two repeats, and restarted. I think I am happy with the width now.

There’s my start! I think it’s gorgeous, and I absolutely love how the lace pattern makes the separation color all wavy.

Looks like I won’t get my second bike ride in this week. But, that’s only because I am taking Miss Butterfly and her friend swimming! It’s supposed to be warm today, and it’s probably the last weekend for it, so we are really excited! I am going to take my knitting as well, because there should be large amounts of time the girls aren’t bugging me to be in the water with them. In any case, it’s good exercise, so I think it can be considered a good substitute for the bike ride.

And now, it’s time for me to take Lizzie Bean for a walk. She needs to stop sleeping her day away. Being home and wearing her out is awesome for sleep for us overnight!

Morning Light

September 2, 2017 / shellssells / 4 Comments

I’ve been really into getting up early lately. Not sure why, though it may have to do with going to bed earlier, as Lizzie doesn’t really allow for quick after work naps. Anyhow, it seems like when I get up early, Mr. Ink isn’t too far behind. I got up early again this morning, fed Lizzie, grabbed a cup of coffee, and spent some time giving her all the attention she craves. Then I began my knitting. Mr. Ink decided to get up too, and Lizzie must have forgotten that he was in the house, because she hears someone in the bedroom and begins barking/growling/carrying on. Except, while she isn’t a fearful dog, she’s not particularly courageous either. So, instead of going to check it out, she jumps up on my lap and tangles herself all up in my yarn, continuing to bark and growl.

Mr. Ink comes into view, and she realizes what has happened, but now it’s just fun to bark and carry on, so he begins playing with her. Now she’s tugging and keeping her toy away from him and snapping at him, and he’s laying on the floor just continuing to work her up. She’s carrying on, and alternating between that and ripping the stuffing out of one of her toys, Mr. Ink and I are laughing so hard, and Mr. Ink says “She’s playing a little rough this morning!” I look at him with one eyebrow raised, and he says “Yeah, ok. I guess I started it.”

It was a fun dog morning. I also got a photo of the spinning I am working on.

This is dyeabolical’s 10th anniversary colorway on falkland wool. I think it’s going to be gorgeous. I am just working on a fractal 2 ply for this one, keeping it pretty simple.

Lizzie did have her spa day yesterday, though she’ll have more of it today since her undercoat rake arrives today. We worked on the fur growing between her pads using Mr. Ink’s old beard trimmer. It worked pretty well! She wasn’t too upset about it, though did grow a bit tired of it. She really doesn’t mind being handled by us at all, which is so nice. I tried giving her treats during the trim, but in the end those just distracted her and made her super wiggly, so we saved them for after the job was done. She’s lost close to half a pound now, which is right on target with what the vet wants, it’s not quite been a month. Also, the next two meals with added beans she dug right into without flipping the beans out on the floor, I guess she likes them!

That’s about it from here, I am about to go work on my weekly to do list, really hoping to have that completed by Monday!

Spectra #1

September 1, 2017 / shellssells / 2 Comments

I had hoped to bike to work today, but as usual, life got in the way of that. Miss Butterfly broke a bracket on her braces, and I ended up staying home to see if I could get her an emergency appointment. Now, our orthodontist, who I am very happy with, is just a small mom and pop shop. He is the orthodontist, his wife is the receptionist. Payments are in cash/check, there’s no computer, invoices are handwritten. There’s no web presence. Wife generally answers the line even on their days off, they don’t even use an answering service. Usually they are open at 7:30 a.m. but I was unable to reach them. So, I am wondering if perhaps they decided on a long weekend, which would probably be well deserved. If that’s the case, no big deal, but I am still hoping to get her in today and get the wire poking in her cheek resolved.

As such, I had time to get a couple finished object photos of the spectra scarf.

It turned out really nice! I like the contrasting colors together. I like how the peach/pink is rather tonal, running from very light to dark rather gently. It turned out quite nice! Sadly, I didn’t have enough of the green to actually get as many repeats out of it as the pattern calls for. However, I think the way it drapes will make it a pretty nice scarf anyhow. The green is dyeabolical’s strong arm skinny, and the peach is handspun Miss Marja gave me.

I am more than halfway through the second spectra scarf now. I’ll be putting it on the back burner once I get my hands on Marja’s handspun, but it’s been fun to keep plugging away at it, knowing that means a faster finish in the end. Though I am very surprised at my resolve to not start yet another knit!

That’s about it from here. I told Mr. Ink we’d be trimming Lizzie’s paw hair and weighing her and so on this evening. He told Lizzie “Oh! You are getting a spa day tonight!”

We finally picked up some no sodium green beans to add to her meals. This morning was the first attempt. It was pretty funny, she picked out all the green beans and threw them on the floor in order to eat her kibble. But, she must have been hungry enough, because she followed up the kibble by eating all the green beans she’d put on the floor. In other news, those wonderful vinyl tiles are amazing when you have a sloppy dog!

That’s about it from here, I’ll see if I can get some spinning pictures up tomorrow. Have a great Friday!

Suzy Sells Sea Shells

Month: September 2017