After nearly six months away from the office, yesterday was my first day back in the office full time after back surgery in April. I did amazingly well, thought I might flag by 3 in the afternoon, but no. I made it. Even stopped and did some errands on the way home.
Then, once at home, ate dinner and had only enough energy to crawl into bed. In the sack by 6:30 and full asleep by 7 p.m. Slept straight through till the alarm.
Feeling great this morning.
We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden.
--Goethe
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Monday, October 02, 2006
A problem with lace
When you step through the doors of a yarn shop, and none of the novelty yarns catch your eye, and the wonderfully fat bulky handpaints do nothing to your pulse, but the finest yarns of all, the laceweights make your heart go pit-a-pat, you might have a problem with lace.
As you can see from my selection from Monarch Knitting and Quilts in Pacific Grove, CA, I may have a problem with lace. I couldn't resist the lichen colored Misti Alpaca. The palest of ocean blue merino laceweight seemed to whisper in my ears "make a shawl with me and whenever you wear it, you will hear the Monterey Bay." Even the pink and purple soysilk, which would seem out of place here, was made into a wonderful neck scarf that will be striking on my daring friend Jana, a red head with true style.
At the Monterey Pronk that weekend, I met the alpaca breeder who sold me the lovely creamy alpaca from two of her finest fleeces.
I think I may have a problem with lace. See, it all started by me wanting to make a simple but elegant little pair of socks for my mother. Those accomplished with lace may scoff that the simple little pattern I selected, but these socks have taught me much.
In fact, I made a huge discovery on the plane winging westward, somewhere over the Sierra Nevada I believe. I have been knitting my yarnovers incorrectly. That is, knitting into them on the next row, I was working devilishly hard to put an extra twist into each stitch. Once I discovered the error of my ways, the lace just opened up before by eyes, like the socks' eponymous butterfly, and took wing.
My heart has taken wing for lace.
As you can see from my selection from Monarch Knitting and Quilts in Pacific Grove, CA, I may have a problem with lace. I couldn't resist the lichen colored Misti Alpaca. The palest of ocean blue merino laceweight seemed to whisper in my ears "make a shawl with me and whenever you wear it, you will hear the Monterey Bay." Even the pink and purple soysilk, which would seem out of place here, was made into a wonderful neck scarf that will be striking on my daring friend Jana, a red head with true style.
At the Monterey Pronk that weekend, I met the alpaca breeder who sold me the lovely creamy alpaca from two of her finest fleeces.
I think I may have a problem with lace. See, it all started by me wanting to make a simple but elegant little pair of socks for my mother. Those accomplished with lace may scoff that the simple little pattern I selected, but these socks have taught me much.
In fact, I made a huge discovery on the plane winging westward, somewhere over the Sierra Nevada I believe. I have been knitting my yarnovers incorrectly. That is, knitting into them on the next row, I was working devilishly hard to put an extra twist into each stitch. Once I discovered the error of my ways, the lace just opened up before by eyes, like the socks' eponymous butterfly, and took wing.
My heart has taken wing for lace.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Lost week
Hmmm...when you haven't posted in a while, it's hard to know where to pick up. Short story: Monterey for fiber and fun, home for the work (and the FLU!!), progress on socks for Mom, and learning to spindle yarn.
Monterey was marvelous! Full of beautiful sights, like these luscious hydrangeas, of which I am very jealous because they are difficult to grow in Utah.
While on the plane knitting Mom's socks, I took a good look and realized my gauge was way off. These would fit my father! So I searched for and found a wonderful yarn shop in Pacific Grove (right next door to Monterey). This is a charming town, full of darling cottages.
Monarch Yarn and Quilts is a great resource full of scrumptious yarns and very kind-hearted people. I managed to lock my keys in my rental car (thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week...) and owner Joan Williams and the friendly staff gave me all kinds of assistance. Including Kleenex as my tears of frustration at myself welled up.
The inside of the shop was just as fun,with a fabulous selection of needles, excellent yarns, and even spinning wheels.
My stash enhancement was amplified by the two-and-a-half hour wait for the tow truck guy with the get-into-the-rental-car tool, which took him all of 10.8 seconds. Still, it was nice to calm myself among fiber and new friends, and even gaze longingly at the spinning wheels for sale.
I came home to flu, with the flu, or some such gombu. Laid me low for most of the week.
More details on stash and sock photos tomorrow.
Monterey was marvelous! Full of beautiful sights, like these luscious hydrangeas, of which I am very jealous because they are difficult to grow in Utah.
While on the plane knitting Mom's socks, I took a good look and realized my gauge was way off. These would fit my father! So I searched for and found a wonderful yarn shop in Pacific Grove (right next door to Monterey). This is a charming town, full of darling cottages.
Monarch Yarn and Quilts is a great resource full of scrumptious yarns and very kind-hearted people. I managed to lock my keys in my rental car (thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week...) and owner Joan Williams and the friendly staff gave me all kinds of assistance. Including Kleenex as my tears of frustration at myself welled up.
The inside of the shop was just as fun,with a fabulous selection of needles, excellent yarns, and even spinning wheels.
My stash enhancement was amplified by the two-and-a-half hour wait for the tow truck guy with the get-into-the-rental-car tool, which took him all of 10.8 seconds. Still, it was nice to calm myself among fiber and new friends, and even gaze longingly at the spinning wheels for sale.
I came home to flu, with the flu, or some such gombu. Laid me low for most of the week.
More details on stash and sock photos tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
