A Little Finished Object Dance, a Little Neh!

I'm doing pretty well on my holiday knitting so it's time for a little finished object dancing.

So far I've finished these socks, this hat, these socks, these socks,and these mittens.

I'm about half way through a Pinwheel Sweater for Little Niece. That leaves another Pinwheel for Big Niece, Christmas stockings for my sister, brother-in-law and Little Niece (Big Niece already has one), socks, hat, mittens and scarf for Little Nephew and a pair of socks each for the two Zen Masters at the Cambridge Zen Center.

I'm also having a great time on Ravelry. I love the project organizer and am absolutely addicted to updating the percentage finished I am on my projects. Thanks to omly, I've been seeing who has my yarn and/or has been knitting with my patterns. I've also been trolling around seeing who else I know and friending them. It's turning into my latest guilty pleasure!

So, what's making me go "Neh!"? Well, after all this knitting including all day and all night yesterday, I woke up this morning with my left hand fingers very sore and actually swollen and some of my right hand fingers going numb. Not. Good. After a trip to the chiropractor, I'm much better but still am taking it easy. I always thought repetitive stress was something that happened to other people but apparently not.

Ravelry's Kinda Fun!

I got my invite to join Ravelry a couple of weeks ago. I'm not really such a joiner when it comes to these things but I have to say, I'm having a good time. I've got all my Christmas knitting set up in the queue and I can go to my WIPs and update how far I've gotten that day. As an obsessive list maker, this is like crack! I can't wait to have some time to troll around and see what other people are making, maybe get some ideas.

OMG! Christmas is Coming!

As the Harlot often points out, this is not news but for some reason, between yesterday morning and yesterday afternoon, I started to go nuts about my Christmas knitting. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I just finished the gardening project. I tend to not let myself think about upcoming projects while I'm in the midst of a current one.
For whatever reason, I'm making lists, digging the stash, pulling yarn off the shelf and starting to knit like crazy. I'll have some pictures soon but right now I must knit!

Got My Bulbs In!

Hooray, the bulbs are in! With the help of my new friend here, I was able to finish digging up and turning over the side yard. It took a loooong time! I started last Friday and finished just the turning over part yesterday. I was also able to put in the peat moss and lime as well as a generous serving of bulb food. If there's any soil that needs amending, it's this stuff. It's like acidic, black talcum powder. Actually, I don't even think it qualifies as soil yet. I think it's still just dirt. I'll put a couple hundred pounds of manure and another sixty of peat moss in it this spring and then maaaybe we'll start calling it soil.

Anyway, today was planting day! I had read a weather report saying it was going to rain all day but when I got up this morning, the sun was out. So, as soon as I got back from dropping off Little Nephew at school, I got to work. The first thing I wanted to deal with was the downspouts. I didn't want them dumping all this water into my newly dug bed and having runnels of it down into the neighbors driveway. Also, for years, I've been trying to think of fun landscape things to do with all the slate that I keep pulling out of the yard. I swear, our yard grows this stuff! So, here is the answer:

I just wanted something sort of rustic but that also gave the water the right idea where to run. Then it was time to get the bulbs in. I actually bought about another $80 worth of bulbs when I was out on Tuesday and it is a good thing I did. It's a very big bed and I needed them all.

I really splurged getting all kinds of fancy tulips, irises and crocuses. I even got some frittillaria and some snow drops. If they all come up, we should have a real show here come spring.

Well, I finished just in time because the sky had started to look like this and the rain was starting to come down. It's great that it's raining today because otherwise I would have had to water in the bulbs. There's no hose on this side of the house so I would have been walking back and forth around the house with the watering can until it was done. Hooray for Mother Nature!

What Have I Been Up To?

Monday, I dyed yarn. I actually dyed about twice as much as usual and it took Kerry and me until after 5pm to finish it all. We really dyed until we died. Near the end, I got into this eye-watering hot pink and used it in a few colorways. Strangely enough, people like them. Look for them on Etsy soon.

Tuesday, I recovered from dyeing and then did some housework! For real!

Wednesday, before the shop opened, I cleaned more. (I know! It must be some kind of virus.) Then I had a bunch of lessons during shop hours. This seems to be a big lesson week. The only reason I'm writing to you now is that my four o'clock didn't show.

Thursday, more house cleaning (holy crap!) followed by many lessons and then an evening talk at the Zen Center where I told them about my trip to Korea.

Today, I didn't clean house. I gardened! I've decided to reclaim the side yard.

It is the only place in my yard that is safe from both dogs and children. Way back in September, I bought about $60 worth of bulbs that I really need to get planted. Unfortunately, the side yarn is a real mess. It is full of rocks, glass, bricks, nails, cigarette butts, you name it.

And it has already claimed a victim.
I worked on it for about an hour today and plan to do the same tomorrow. I have some fun ideas for it though I know it will be a long term project. Right now, I'm just going to try to dig it through, add enough peat moss and lime to take the curse off it and get my bulbs in. I'll worry about more planting come spring.

Purple Sweater Done

The purple sweater is fully reincarnated from a skirt and I'm wearing it right as we speak.
I now have three new winter sweaters which is good because it's stinkin' cold in here and I'm trying to resist turning on the heat. I broke down on Tuesday and turned the heat on for a bit but then turned it off again on Wednesday. This gets me to the end of all the half finished winter sweaters I had lying around here. I have a half finished cotton sweater left but I'm going to leave that one until at least after Christmas.

My newest project is this pair of socks which I've owed to a friend from his birthday in April.

After that I have a several more small things before the Christmas knitting starts in earnest. Also, I just received 45 lbs of sock yarn which I'm madly winding for dye day on Monday. I won't be dyeing all 45 lbs but I'd like to dye at least 20. We'll see how I do!

I have to include a few pictures of the ghoulish visitors I had on Wednesday. Here we have a very scary Little Nephew. Looks a little like Eddie Munster, doesn't he?

This pirate and witch came to see me too.

What a fun night!