Summer of Sock

Half a sock. Not half a pair, but half a sock. That's all I managed this summer. So much for churning out a half dozen pairs for Summer of Socks. Ah, well. I think I'm stuck in close-up photos lately. I'll need to experiment with some outdoor shots this fall. My husband says there's two kinds of people, ones that see details and pick things apart, and ones that see the whole picture and put things together. He is the later and I am the former. Some of the time I don't see any of the picture and get stuck with overwhelming anxiety. Nothing I do seems right and I feel completely off-track with myself. I'm at that point now. It doesn't help that the baby doesn't sleep well (day or night) and I'm so tired some days I don't know which end is up. This will pass and I'll get by.

Look, I really do knit! Bonus moving photos

The little mauve raglan is nearly done, just a few buttons to sew. The yarn is Elann Devon 787 Dusty Plum, US 2 needles. Basic raglan with picot sleeve hems. I worked to the bottom of the sleeve so the picot was last and kitchener stitched down. What a pain. I decided the collar and bottom hem would not have the same lovely treatment.




Top photo: view from the old place, our ground floor, tucked in the back with a cushy green fence snug apartment. Middle photo: view from the new place, top floor, vaulted ceiling, slightly rolling hills near the Blue Ridge outlook. Bottom photo: all that white and a peek at the extra vertical space. The psychological contrast between snug Hobbit hole den living to birds eye view and vertical space will be great. Some boxes of books have been moved over and we've been busy running for things like pantry shelving and child-proof cupboard latches. The furniture will be moved next weekend and I'll finish packing the kitchen, my son's room, and the miscellaneous odds and ends this week. The fun part is unpacking and making the new place home, I will be glad for that as I've been so overwhelmed with everything lately. Too much to do, too little time.

Big Red

Valerie was working on Elsie Vredenburg's Big Red of Holland, Michigan from the Lighthouse series of quilt patterns. She had a few other patterns in the series, but I only found this one in progress. I'll finish it and send it back to my father in law. The quilt is rather small, it will hang on a wall or door. My apartment is a total disaster with the impending move, so there will only be close up photos for another few days. We get the keys to the new place tomorrow, I'm a little hesitant about all the white walls (we'll now have more whiteness with the vaulted ceilings, but hurrah for more space), I'll just have to think white-washed, crisp Scandinavian snowy white and make the most of that.

Red, Orange, and Yellow

It's the first sunny day below 80 degrees in a long time, and while the leaves aren't changing yet, you'd think fall was on my mind. There's a lot on my mind lately, mostly that Anne just learned to crawl burn rubber yesterday. Man, she's quick. She's scooted, rolled, and scootched around for months but yesterday she just took off in a real crawl and the cats are terrified. This kiddo is something else. She doesn't sleep much (I probably can't get this post done while she naps for 15 minutes, and she wakes every hour at night for the last 3 months, so if you wonder why there is no knitting around here it's because I'm just too darn busy and TIRED). Anne also gave up baby food. Won't pass her lips anymore, so she eats what we do. We mostly eat very healthy foods especially with my cholesterol issues and looming diabetes. It's the salt habit I have a hard time letting go of until now, as I have a child who won't eat a thing unless it's from my plate and I hold her while we eat. I feel pregnant again! I really don't mind, I will miss these times when she is older. I may not get to read, knit, quilt or even use the restroom uninterrupted, but it's worth putting these things aside for a while to have a baby in the house again.

Also on my mind, I go in for my surgical consult next week. I've been trying to avoid it, but a routine ultrasound showed bad news this last time around. It's nothing major, tests found no sign of cancer last year. I lose one ovary, so having more children isn't out of the picture. My grandmother died of ovarian cancer, and that along with my mother in law's ordeal has left me a bit gloomy. I'm sure all is fine, but it's just one more thing, you know?

On the less gloomy side of things, shown are my daughter's favorite red crab, Trekking color 283 I picked up at Y'Arnings in Helena. Then there's our orange cat, Robert, a mother and baby pair of *amazing* growing octopuses - these are the first I've found that really expand to many times their original size, I even scored them off CVS's 90% off summer clearance for 23 cents. Amazing! I made a pumpkin bread two days ago and it's nearly gone, we've all been hungry for a little autumn.

The orange and yellow veined leaf is a Ruth Lampi original, made during her cross-country pottery tour this summer. Ruth is Martin's adopted sister, an artist in Philadelphia. Lastly, Anne in yellow wondering in amazement at the University of Wisconsin's Badger Ballad. Hmm, yellow and badgers? We're reading Harry Potter IV aloud to the older child, maybe the sorting hat would put her in Hufflepuff. If you want to be a badger and hear the song, come along with me.... We introduced Anne to the song the other night while watching Antiques Roadshow. I don't know how we made the connection, one minute we were watching the Keno twins and the next we were singing her the catchy tune. That's pretty normal for us, though.

Sweater Season, Almost

Ok, early morning may be the only practical time for sweaters in Virginia right now. It's 86 degrees out, but the start of school and the end of late sundowns makes you almost think autumn could be lurking around the corner somewhere. Anne willingly modeled her gansey for me, and it will fit perfectly for the upcoming months. Her hemangioma tumors are slowly going down and they aren't so bright magenta any longer. MRI scans show no signs of it in her spine. And yes, that is the cat trying to sneak into the photo. Again.

Here is my poor Birkenstock sandal, the hole getting progressively bigger, the cork ground down to nothing in the back. These are my favorite pair and I can't bear to think of the day where I am walking through the library or grocery store and lose a whole chunk of my foot gear like a shredded semitruck tire. I was on my way to the library, pondering if it were best to even go out in public with my holey Birks.





While at the library picking up books for my older son, I ran across Catwings. I've been meaning to pick up this book and the others in the series but I completely forgot with our busy summer. No one cared about my holey sandal, by the way.