First of all, the big news! Lizzie let me sleep in until 7:30 this morning!!! It was amazing! She generally has me up at 6 or 6:30. I couldn’t believe it. Another holiday miracle.

Of course, I’ve got a lot to do today and am a bit behind because I “lost” an hour.

I finished my singles yesterday as expected.

Miss Butterfly and I really did take the slowest day. It was very nice. Of course, at some point she got bored and told me that she’d like to go shopping after all. But I’d let Mr. Ink take the car that was in the garage and I did NOT feel like scraping the one in the driveway. Plus, we were experiencing “freezing drizzle” which…I don’t even know how that happens at 19F?…but I didn’t want to drive in it.

I didn’t begin to ply these, nor did I begin to knit my new sweater with the yarn I purchased for it the other day. I just worked on my new handspun scarf as that was the easiest option late in the evening. I’ll get the yarn wound for the sweater hopefully at some point today.

But, want to see that yarn?

The point of the sweater is to choose 6 yarns that are different colors, but fairly similar and then stripe them every 5 rows or so. This gives a sweater that looks striped and also not striped and very colorful and beautiful. I’ve seen them and I always love them. I’ve been drawn to peachy colors lately and I think that was reflected in my yarn choices here. I am so eager to see how this works up! But also, winding skeins to start has me uninspired. It’ll get done, soon.

Today is another full day. I am hoping we get out for some area rug shopping. Absolutely everyone is annoyed at the purple dust bunnies floating around the house and the fibers that stick to our clothing every time we sit down on the current stop gap rug. I am so hoping I can find something I really like!

One handknit wool sweater, one handknit wool hat, one pair of handknit wool socks, one pair of handknit wool gloves and one very large coffee are what is getting me through this one degree day, my one and only day of work this week.

Precisely one other person is at work with me. There’s no one else here. It’s VERY quiet. And it’s pleasantly warm in the building.

On Christmas morning, Mr. Ink and I got up and did our personal holiday tradition. Miss Butterfly is always at her father’s home so we get to make ourselves funnel cake!

It was absolutely delicious. Light and fluffy and amazing. Lizzie even got a few scraps.

We had a quiet day. I took Lizzie for a cold cold walk. I listened to A Christmas Carol on audiobook, something that really needs to become a tradition. I spun the first bobbin of the second 3 braid combo spin. I had a nice nap.

At some point, during some indoor play, Lizzie hurt her paw. She’s now limping and I am not sure what the problem is. I didn’t step on her, and it’s not her leg that’s the issue. I’ve done everything I can to make sure it’s not a piece of salt or other irritant between her paw pads. I washed her paw in a bowl of water, making sure to get up in her paw pads and have a good feel around. She’s been extremely patient with me. But I’ve got no solution at the moment. I think this is a wait and see situation for now. Poor girl is pathetic, clearly wanting to play but hurting, so she just carries her favorite toy around everywhere while she limps. We got out old Coco’s handknit booties for her when she went out in the evening. She tolerated them well, so they’ll be used regularly when there’s ice and snow. Though they may be harder to get on her when she’s feeling fine, I mean, I can barely get her to stand still enough for a harness on a regular day!

As I mentioned above, it’s 1F today. Now, a few weeks ago I told Mr. Ink he’d better move the motorbikes to the upper garage so that he could park in the lower garage during the winter. He said “Is it even going to snow this year? It barely did last year.” To which I responded “I don’t know, but ice is something we always get, along with cold.”  He didn’t move the motorbikes. Last week we got ice, and he had to park in the lower driveway. Plus, he couldn’t get the motorbikes up the iced over driveway even if he wanted to. This morning I was feeling sorry for him, having to go out to that cold cold car, scrape windows and suffer through driving to work. Then I remembered that he had ample time to fix this issue for himself, he just didn’t take it. I rode in my nice warm car with heated seats and a heated steering wheel.

Miss Butterfly returned last evening around 8 pm bearing all the gifts she’d received from her father’s family. I am telling you, this is a family that buys stuff just to buy stuff. It never ceases to amaze me just how much junk she comes home with that ends up in my basement and then at goodwill. I hate it. She had more than one shoebox full of candy she cannot eat because of her braces, so Mr. Ink won on that one. The things I do rather like is when she brings home candles and nice handsoap, those do get used. Though I still have some from previous years. Even after the accusations of telling her family she wanted nail stuff (still not true!) she ended up getting enough stuff that she decided this was the best christmas ever. I guess she was pleased.

We had very little under the tree, we are probably the opposite of her father’s family. We prefer experiences and larger more practical gifts. Mr. Ink got a cord of wood from my parents for the firepit, and I got an akerworks kate (SO EXCITED!!!). We got Miss Butterfly a weekend at camp in the spring and Mr. Ink got her a couple classic music cds, like Stevie Wonder, to appropriately expand her collection. I got Mr. Ink silverware. I’d picked up a couple forks because we are constantly out of forks. I didn’t want to buy a full set. I mean, who wants salad forks? NOT ME!!! But, he liked the forks I got so much that I ended up buying that style in new silverware. But one at a time, so that we don’t have salad forks. NO SALAD FORKS!!!!

I am getting a living room rug for christmas, but we have to get better about going out and hunting for it.

Oh, and Lizzie got a christmas gift too. She’s funny, again, she was an outdoor dog so she isn’t afraid of outdoor stuff. But wrapping paper and gifts? THEY ARE TERRIFYING!

Lizzie is looking at me to see if it’s ok to be near Miss Butterfly now that the gift is unwrapped. She got a treat puzzle. She has to slide those little wooden disks around to get to the treats. It was a hit! Though she does keep thinking that the treats might be under the puzzle itself, which is hilarious.

I began a new project late last evening out of handspun. Let’s see if I can find the picture of the yarn…

Look at that! I found the yarn AND the batts I’d created to make the yarn. Anyhow, I’ve got four small skeins totaling 400 yards. I am knitting this into a bias knit scarf with a simple lace pattern and nice color changes.

Here’s a photo of the start, since I am not about to go outside in this weather today to allow my photo to be taken of the hitofude. I think you’ll all understand!

Tomorrow my favorite local yarn shop begins it’s annual sale. I plan to go and get a sweater amount of yarn. For a specific sweater. It’ll be colorful. I can’t wait! Plus, bonus day with Miss Butterfly hopefully running some errands and making cookies or pita bread, not sure which.

Wandering through the 2016 holiday was somewhat daunting with all that was going on. I thought “Surely holidays go better than this?” So I decided to look back at the 2015 holiday.

Guys, guess what? The 2015 holiday was crazy busy and WONDERFUL! Seriously, I only have the best memories. I was in the midst of the bathroom renovation, completely stressed out and trying/learning new things about home improvements. I was scraping the adhesive off 196 old blue tiles so I could reuse them and attempting to remove the smell of mold from my home. My hands hurt and I caught a cold. I was inspired and busy and introverted but productive. I was still enjoying the warm glow of a new home (Ok lets be honest, I STILL enjoy that glow, it’s just not new anymore) and I was so impressed with myself for taking on such a large project and succeeding.

So much has happened in two years, and not all of it good by any stretch of the imagination. But, it’s nice to look back and realize these are cycles. We’ve had a rough patch with a lot of big emotional stuff going on, but we are coming out from under that now and hopefully headed for an upswing. It’s nice to look back and realize these are cycles and patterns.

Now on to more crafty stuff. I finished my Rikaart shawl on Thursday evening. It didn’t take me all weekend to weave in the ends after all! In part, I believe, because there were lovely little seams at the back to weave them into. While I sometimes don’t spend a lot of time blocking garter stitch, I did so with this one as the shawl seemed a bit small to me. I wanted to open it up as far as I could without pulling out blocking wires. I think it worked pretty well, but it’s hard to tell, as I didn’t take measurements ahead of time. It did soften the orange yarn quite a bit.  In any case, this was a pretty fun knit and I really enjoy the blocks of color and unusual construction.

I have a very nice amount of brown handspun leftover, which is great because it’s extremely soft! I am sure I’ll be able to find another use for it in the future. I also have plenty of the white, though I am not sure what I’ll ever use it for. Then again, it was a surprise to find it worked so well for this shawl, so perhaps I’ll figure out something else in the future.

Another nice day is likely here in the heartland, and I think we are planning an afternoon bike ride. Mr. Ink saw a tree he loves and wants to get a picture of, so we are on a specific mission. Beyond that, I am not sure what else we’ll get up to today! Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

The time where when I am at home, it’s dark. I actually have always kind of liked that time, as long as it doesn’t last too long. It’s cozy. It brings up memories of late naps on the couch growing up, where you wake up all warm to the beginning of prairie home companion on the radio and lay there listening with your eyes closed because you are just totally in this lovely cozy space and you don’t quite want it to end.  Or later, when I was a young adult and working so hard just to get by, but still took the time to light a candle or two and enjoy the christmas lights in the neighborhood. That important space of just being, rather than being busy all the time.

Now? It’s a comfortable chair in the living room by the tree with a dog at my feet, knitting in my lap, the constant chatter of my teen telling me all the school drama, and the sounds and smells of Mr. Ink cooking in the kitchen. Still extremely cozy.

What it is NOT good for? Perfect lighting to show off pretty handknits.

Here’s my ameeta scarf, all done, after some time in the comfy chair yesterday. It’s sparkly and pretty and this photo does not show off the color at all, we’ll have to go back to the in progress photo here:

And then I’ll just have to ask you to use your imagination for the finished object. Though looking at that photo it’s not great lighting either. But it’s closer! Anyhow, it really is a lovely scarf, and so festive with all the little sparkly bits throughout. The pattern was not difficult but I did have to really keep track of each row. As long as I did so, this moved along quite well.

I don’t know, beyond the hitofude cardigan, what’s next for my knitting. On Saturday the third braid for my second 3 braid combo arrives, I picked two of the three up at a local shop, but they didn’t have the third color in stock. So I’ll be back to that spin soon. I am 4 rows away from a completed rikaart shawl as well, though there are ten thousand ends to weave in and it might take me all weekend. I exaggerate, but not by much. Lesson learned. Don’t take anything with color changes to work for lunch knitting where weaving in ends can’t be done with as I go along.

I guess that brings me to the place I love to be in, where I contemplate what to knit next. There’s really nothing quite like anticipation of the next new project!

On the daily life front, I tried my instant pot for faux mashed potatoes out of cauliflower. It went super well, and Mr. Ink really loved the end result. I did too. I mean, they aren’t mashed potatoes, but they are close enough to enjoy. One head of cauliflower makes so much that we’ve enough for another meal. I had also made another dozen hard boiled eggs in it, and while Miss Butterfly keeps saying she doesn’t like them, I noticed she’s been eating them. Win!

Mr. Ink got Miss Butterfly a desk for her room since she’d cleaned and sorted and organized and gotten rid of stuff. It arrived yesterday. I have dinner plans tonight I think, so they’ve decided that they’ll hang out together and assemble that desk. The package arrived with two more packages that were a complete surprise! Two Adirondack chairs for our firepit, a gift from Mr. Ink’s brother and sister in law. Seriously, it was a great gift and such a surprise!

With this fall being rather weird and crazy and busy, so full of sickness, and just full on getting away from me, I am thinking this weekend I may be due for some quiet reflection. I guess thanksgiving was clean up/clean out. Now it’s time to look back at what was last year, and what is this year. I can tell you full on that this year is better than last year despite the busy. Despite the fall just completely getting away from me. It’s better. But, it is probably wise to reflect on how it is better. To go back to last year and really remember.

Also, cookies. I’ve decided that this year I am 100% making some christmas cookies. We aren’t doing anything special this year by any means, but I think christmas cookie baking is going to be an important part of celebration this year.

 

That moment when you realize you are so far behind in your holiday planning as to be ridiculous.

Even just normal, run of the mill shopping needing to be done is out of hand now, and I am not sure how I’ll even keep up with that! And then it’s coupon season, meaning the stuff you need anyhow is cheaper if you just buy now, despite the fact one might not like to set foot in the store because it’s the holiday season.

So, I made a ridiculous list this morning of the various places I really need to go. There are currently 8 stores on the list. I also listed out when I might possibly get to each of them, of course in the most efficient way possible. And naturally, I feel a bit guilty just realizing I let an entire weekend go by without doing any of these tasks!

That being said, we took Lizzie out for her first long walk post kennel cough. We took her on her harness instead of collar just in case, as we didn’t want to aggravate her issue. The walk we took is a 3 mile walk around a lake. It generally takes us about an hour with her. Mr. Ink rode his bike on the mountain bike trails while Miss Butterfly and I walked Lizzie. For the first two thirds of the walk it was miserable. She had to smell ALL OF THE SMELLS since she hadn’t been out in awhile. We walked so so slow, and it was so irritating. But for the final third Mr. Ink had been riding long enough and came to find us. Once she saw him on the bike, she decided that she wanted to do some running too. We let her off leash, and then it was tough to keep up with her.

BTW, Lizzie has her own instagram account run by Miss Butterfly. While most of the photos posted there are ones you see here on the blog, sometimes she also posts videos. You can follow here if you are so inclined. There are long periods of time in between posts because sometimes (often) Miss Butterfly has her phone taken from her for one reason or another.

Anyhow, instead of posting a Monday list for the week, which I seem to have failed to do anyhow, I am just going to see how many of those 8 places on my list I can manage to get to this week.

The photo for today is my rikaart shawl as it is currently.

There’s only the brown colored edge left and then I am done. Well, that and weaving in ends, obviously. I brought this to work so I could get it done this week, before I told myself I’d use my lunches to help me get some of those stores off my list. Unless I take it back home with me, I won’t get a chance to work on this until Wednesday. Ah well, projects will get completed despite the full schedule. There’s a week of vacation time coming up at the end of the month!

 

I am still working, quietly, on my Rikaart shawl. I am not quite done with the third pattern section, and the fourth comes out tomorrow. But, it’s been my work project so it can be slow going.

It’s been a fun project. I like the changes in color of the orange. The brown has far fewer color changes going on, it’s pretty even. And then there’s the cool brown slubs in the off white. Fun stuff.

Not sure what all to post about yesterday, it was pretty quiet. Lizzie sounds a bit better, enough so that I canceled her vet appointment. She got to the point yesterday where walking around the yard was just not cutting it. She simply stared at me like a total creep for hours, until I took her on a walk around the block. She sneezed for half the walk. But she was thrilled to be out.

Miss Butterfly came home from visiting her father yesterday evening. She walked in the door hollering “I KNOW I KNOW I HAVE A LOT OF STUFF BUT IT’S NOT HERE TO STAY!” I look over, and there’s her and her father with an armload of boxes. What the heck? Turns out it was some of those porcelain christmas scenes. You know the ones, with the light up homes? I don’t know much about them, but her grandmother had given her a house and a barn and about a million trees. So, I told her she could indeed set them up on the sideboard. She did a lovely job, so I’ll get a photo of that tonight.

Other than that, not much new. I kept working on my sparkly scarf yesterday, and finished the first bobbin of the 3 braid combo. Mr. Ink worked on…gardening. It was a lovely quiet day.  This week is likely to stay busy so I do love a quiet weekend prior to a busy week!

Well, I ended up calling the vet yesterday about Lizzie. The bad news, yes it sounds like kennel cough. The good news? She was vaccinated against it. It’s like the flu shot for humans, dogs can still get it. But their bodies are more easily able to fight it off. The vet said that she needs rest and we should keep her calm. While she was saying this, she was also laughing, because she understood the absurdity of the idea of keeping Lizzie calm. No walks. No jumping. Hahahahaha! She’s got an appointment set up for next week in case she doesn’t get to feeling better. Thankfully, this morning she already seems better. Though still congested, as it was indicated to us early this morning. She is the type of dog who WILL get her needs met. She needed to go out, but Mr. Ink and I were still sleeping. So, she does as she always does in this situation. Jumps up on the bed right in between the two of us and runs all the way up to our faces. Unfortunately, this caused an epic sneeze, so Mr. Ink and I started our morning with faces full of doggy snot. I can honestly say, I never imagined that happening to me. Ever.

Since we’ve been plagued by illness all fall, it’s no surprise that Lizzie would pick something up too I suppose. But it is frustrating!

I began my ameeta scarf yesterday, and am a few repeats in. Far enough to show off the beginning I think. I am loving the pairing of the handspun, the sparkle, and the texture.

It’s really soft too. The kromski spins a nice soft yarn for me, as it’s just a bit slower than the rose. The rose is great for sock yarn, the prelude is perfect for scarves.

In other news, we’ve joined the instant pot craze around here. We received ours last evening. I did the test run, and than immediately made hard boiled eggs. Today it’ll be yogurt. After that, I’ll start exploring low carb meals. Mr. Ink cooks really well, but his repertoire of low carb meals is getting really stale since we’ve been on it since February. Getting sick of our meals causes us to cheat, and then we aren’t enjoying the benefits of it at all in the end. So, now it’s time to expand. I am also going to try making low carb crackers today, that should be interesting. We’ll see how it goes.

And that’s all for this Saturday! Have a great one!

I’ve been having some problems with wordpress lately. Like, sometimes it posts stuff I had no intention of posting, but those posts are also…nothing posts? Like, it seems like there should be photos but they don’t show up. When I view them, those posts don’t even look like they exist. So they are hard for me to even notice. Except, sometimes Salpal1 finds them and comments, and then I know they are out there. But, when clicking on her comment, I still can’t view those posts. It’s so strange.

And then there’s this. I was trying to update my knitmeter tally, since I hadn’t done so before thanksgiving vacation. And, we all know how much knitting and spinning I managed on vacation, tons! I went down through all the visible posts, and guess what? I can’t find my finished venomous tentacula photo. Did I not post it? I feel like I absolutely did, and I also feel like I remember reading comments about it at some point! And while thanksgiving vacation was a bit of a blur with two GI sicknesses that week, I don’t think I am totally crazy.

For posterity’s sake, here’s the photo.

It’s done. I swear I posted it. But maybe not. Anyhow, it was a fantastic knit, I am sure I wrote that before too. It’s been too warm to wear it so far, but it matches so much of what I own.

In other news, Miss Butterfly didn’t go hang with her dad last night so she and I watched Doctor Who and I did some spinning. Mr. Ink went to his show, and I stayed home messing around with my new handspun. I began a scarf called Bias Scarf with Ribbed Cables. But, while I really LOVE the pattern and do think I’ll knit it at some point, the very sparkly yarn just made everything look terribly busy. So, I ripped it out this morning and began at Ameeta Scarf, which I think will be really nice. Once I’ve got a bit more done on it, I’ll grab a photo. I also need to get a current in progress spinning photo.

On Thanksgiving day, we took Lizzie to the dog park. Unfortunately, I am beginning to believe she picked up a case of kennel cough. It was really disturbing before I figured out what might be going on! But, now that I know it can be like a cold, I am less anxious. She’s eating and drinking just fine, so hopefully it’ll resolve without a vet bill. And I guess next time we are at the vet, a vaccination will be in order.

And that’s it from here, it’s been a really busy Friday so this is getting published far later than usual. But tomorrow is Saturday, and MAYBE I’ll be able to get a shot of a sweater finished weeks ago!