Wednesday, October 29, 2008

World Champion Phils!!!!!

WoooHoooo. Phils Win!

2008 World Champion Phillies!

Time To Put On Your Woolies

The weather has been chilly and mild, and then yesterday - Wham!  Wind, rain, and even snow flurries.  I was talking to Mom, and she was going outside to catch some snowflakes on her tongue.  Today it is windy again.  Can I use that as an excuse again to put off going to Lowe's to complete my order for new carpet?  I just may do that.  Tonight is knitting group at the library.  I really look forward to it every week.  I guess I didn't realize how much I missed being around groups of friendly people since I retired.  Besides, who can resist the mutual admiration of fellow knitters?  I showed off my stole last Wednesday,  and I have a cowl  to show this week.  This was a fun and quick (and BIG NEEDLE) project.  I'm going to get some critiques tonight to see if this would be a good project for holiday gifts.  I don't like to knit on schedule, so projects that can be completed in a day or so are about the limit for me.  Socks, of course, are always on the needles.  


When I started the stole, I figured it would be fun to knit a beaded lace mystery KAL, even thought I probably would never wear it.  Well, I have already worn it to two weddings.  Alas, I have no photos of it being worn, but here is a photo of some happy people -



















An absolutely beautiful wedding.  The bride is stunning, the groom handsome and happy, the father of the groom happy and exhausted (and more relieved than words can express that he found someone to tie his bow tie mere minutes before the official photos were taken), and the best man and flower girl happy and handsome/pretty themselves.  I've been close to these 3 men since two of them were 13 and 10, and this was a happy and emotional day.  I'm so proud and lucky to know them.  It was a wonderful weekend, but, except for their dad, they all flew back to OR and CA shortly afterward.  I miss them already.

In other news, I went to Rhinebeck!  I missed last year, but Mr. G decided the trip was a go this year, so off we went on Sunday.  It was a chilly, breezy and fun day.  I really bought very little, one Sheep to Shoe kit in the Space Dust colorway and one skein of STR lightweight in Lodestone from the Fold, one skein of Araucania sock yarn in the descriptive colorway 309 from Carodan Farms, and a tote bag for my Hitchhiker wheel from The Merlin Tree's Dave Paul.  I enjoyed meeting Dave after having communicated by email and phone when I ordered the jumbo flyer for my Marvin.  The flyer and bobbin are BIG.  I haven't even used it yet after pining for it for a year, and I've had it for more than a month.  The bad news was that it took us hours to get back to North Jersey from Rhinebeck.  I guess the nice weekend had the leaf peepers out in force, because traffic was slow and backed up for miles.

On the spinning front, I just finished two bobbins of singles from this roving .   I have to ply and wash 'n whack, then I'm planning on another cowl (really a gaiter, I think).
There are so many neat patterns for cowls, and I think they are less likely to get lost than scarves.  Also?  I really like knitting in the round.
I was lucky enough to get a Black Magic Woman sock batt from Josette
and I really want to spin that sparkly black fiber into some sparkly black sock yarn.  I waited too long to acquire more sock batts from her.  I wanted to make sure I liked the socks I made from a Mermaid batt I had gotten a while ago.  
Now I know I love those socks sooo much, but now her batts sell out practically the second they are listed, so I may have to special order some.  I know that I MUST HAVE the Pumpkin Juice batt.  And the sample that was included in the BMW batt - I think it is Gold Dust Woman,and it is gorgeous and I want that too.  And Galadrial, and and and...
Sigh.  I am supposed to be on a fiber diet until I reduce my stash, but sadly, I cannot spin and knit as fast as I can push that PayPal button.  

Today I am going to paint the woodwork in my junk(soon to be office/craft)room.  I ordered the carpeting weeks ago, the carpet-measuring person came out, and all I have to do is go to the store and pay for it and set up an appointment.  Why have I not done that?  I have a bazillion things to move from the closet in that room, and from my bedroom which decided it needed new carpet too, and the woodwork painting.  At least I freecycled many, many pairs of shoes, quilting books, sewing patterns, etc.  Unfortunately, I haven't even made a dent in the load of stuff I need to downsize.  The good news is that the more stuff I move downstairs to ready the upstairs rooms for carpeting, the less I want to keep.  I'm sure that when it's time to move it back up, more of it will go out the door.  This is not a bad thing.  You can see that I have even been driven to blogging to put off the painting a little longer.  OK, that does it.  I'm off to paint.