I don’t even know what to say – it’s been well over a month since I last blogged. Lots of busyness, but “nothing” busyness. You know, the everyday grind. Kids, job, house. I turned 40 in April and we had a huge bash – 30+ people came! Including most of my lovely stitch ‘n bitch group, which was a real treat. Thanks for coming, guys. I am in my busiest part of the year at work – it’s scholarship season. I have 5 scholarships that I administer, including one that gets 130-140 applications each year. I also keep having customers croak on me, dammit! When it rains, it pours. Deaths always come in 3’s. Well, they started dying off last July and it just keeps on going. Hugely stressful. Lots of work, lots of people who want the money they’re inheriting, dammit! Plus all the administrative stuff that goes along with it – paying final bills, cleaning out houses and storage units, disposing of assets, contacting beneficiaries, filing final tax returns, getting assets revalued, moving the account to a new status, paying specific bequests, etc. etc. etc. I could go on forever but I don’t want to bore you to tears!
I’ve been knitting:
Plain old vanilla socks knit with hand-dyed yarn by my crafty buddy, Kristin!
We won’t discuss the mistakes (like knitting one of the socks above the ankle with a size smaller needle than the other sock – oops!) but suffice to say, I’m glad they’re done. It’s good experience. I also finished a market bag:
I used this stretchy nylon yarn that I bought 6-7 years ago. Here’s another shot with Sir Archibald looking devilishly handsome:
And….I started a new sock. I’m really branching out on this third pair – I’m trying a mistake rib (whoo! how exciting! Next thing you know I’ll be trying a cable pattern, oh goodness, it’s too much!):
I’m still working out of this book, which taught me how to make socks. I have a lovely Vogue Knitting Sock Pattern book and some day I’ll use it. Promise.
But the best thing of all? All of the above projects were made with stash yarn! Still trying to do my best to keep my New Year’s Resolution to knit with what I have. I’ve done pretty good. In the months of January and March, I didn’t buy anything. I bought enough skeins to do 2 scarves in February. At the end of April, I was feeling sorry for myself, caved and bought a skein of trekking xxl sock yarn in some delicious browns. Then, this month? I did buy yarn – 5 skeins – but they are to go into projects which I had already bought yarn for when Lainie was 2-3. Since she’s 5, I need more yarn. Does it count as a yarn purchase? My stitch ‘n bitch group thought so, but I’m pretty much rationalizing that purchase away.
We have veggies planted, but the weather is not completely cooperating here in Illinois. It’s still cool and we’re getting a lot of rain! The farmers haven’t even been able to get out into the fields because of all the rain, and it’s pretty much unheard of not to have all your crops planted by now. I keep thinking this must be a byproduct of global warming.
