Last Wednesday I did a very klutzy thing and fell at the hair salon. My cut and color was done and the chemicals washed out of my hair. Good thing that the latter was done because I really, really hurt myself. 

I fractured my left patella and right humorous and both required surgery. I’m lucky that my head didn’t take the impact instead of my shoulder. That would have been much worse. 

I came home Saturday after we sorted out the wheelchair and rebooked the transport vehicle. Joe freaked out when we realized that they didn’t deliver the leg extension for the wheelchair. 

Our fridge was close to empty because we’re were leaving for The Keys on Thursday.  It’s now overflowing thanks to some amazing friends. 

I should be able to knit but … I’d have to get Joe to wind yarn into a cake and find and then measure needles (after finding a needle gauge) so I get “the right size”. Not a good idea right now. He’s already overwhelmed with all the things he has to do. It would be selfish to ask for this help. 

So, I’m not knitting, and that’s just fine.  

It’s the beginning of a new year.  A great time to reflect back on the past and decide what I’m going to continue to do and what needs to change.

In many ways 2015 was amazing. 

One of the most amazing things to happen was becoming a moderator for The Yarniacs Podcast Ravelry group.  It has given me so much joy.  The group is filled with wonderful people from all over the world.  I consider many of them to be friends; I only hope I get to meet them IRL someday.  I had no idea when I started to knit that it would open my world and heart so much.

I purchased a spinning wheel at SAFF in November.  Almost 4 years to the day after I learned how to knit and fell down this wonderful rabbit hole.  It’s a gorgeous Schacht Cherry Matchless.  I doubt I’ll ever outgrow it.  Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s the only wheel I’ll ever own.  Eventually I need to get a travel wheel since this can’t go with me if I’m flying.

And… I knit my first sweater.  I bought the sweater quantify of Malabrigo Rios at A Stitch in Time in December 2012.  It tried to become 3 different sweaters before I finally decided to knit Joji Locatelli‘s Worsted Boxy.

I love it so much I almost immediately cast on the fingering weight version.  I think this style sweater fits my lifestyle perfectly.  It’s a ‘better than sweatshirt’ sweater that is so cozy.  If fact, I’m almost done with the fingering weight one and am thinking about doing another one with a grey gradient set.  Hmm…

That’s enough for now.  I’m still sorting thru my 2016 goals / theme.

I LOVE retirement!  It’s exponentially better than I imagined.  (please don’t hate me!)  I have time to knit AND spin every day.

My colorful “seusical” socks are almost done.  Just need to knit the last heel and weave in all the ends.  The drawback to contrast cuffs, heels and toes is that there are a lot of ends to weave it.   The socks are so great looking it’s so worth it.

Yesterday I decided to start working on my Monkey Socks again.  Tried the sock that was one-third done on and it’s baggy.  So… its been frogged.  I should have done this ages ago, especially since I’m sure my tension has changed since I worked on it.  Yarn has taken a bath to get out the kinks and is drying.  I think the yarn and pattern were a good match so I may reknit it.

Note to self: Finish or Frog!!!!

I’m making very S L O W progress on the test knit I volunteered to do.  I picked a very delicate loosely plied 2-ply lace weight yarn so it’s slow going.  I’m not in love with my needles.  Might order some Karbonz and see how they work.  Can’t use my metal needles…. the yarn slips off the tips too easily.  Here’s a close-up of the fabric.  (There will be beads on the last section!)

Picked up Nuvem again.  More lace weight yarn; this time it’s Madeline Tosh Prairie which is a singles yarn.  Love it.  It’s going to take forever.  I think I’m about 20% done.  I’m afraid to weigh the ball and find out it’s a lot less.

 Also making great progress on my Poppy Boxy. I’m seaming the front and back together. I (foolishly?) decided to seam the shoulders as well as the sides.  I’m just over half done.  In order to seam the pieces, I blocked them. I was in such a rush to block the back, I forgot to take the row progress markers off. The cute little black sheep bled a little and I’ve got a few spots. It it doesn’t come out when I block the finished sweater, I’ll duplicate stitch over the spots to hide them.

Seaming in progress

Blocking the back piece. See the dark spots??

Until next time….

Some people want to go to the beach, others have family barbecues. We do it a bit different. Saturday, went to the Jacksonville Jazz Festival.  The day was cut short because of threatening rain. Yesterday, we saw Tomorrowland. We both enjoyed it. It wasn’t an Oscar-winner but definitely was entertaining. (clearly, I’m not a film critic, no elaborate post on the movie from me!)  After the movie we wnt to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner, Picasso’s.  We’ve never had a bad meal there. 

I’ve also had lots of knitting time (a critical part of any good weekend). 

• I made good progress on my newest pair of socks.  I’m about 3 inches into the foot of the first sock. I really do zoom on my 9-inch circular. 
• Finished my Moon River Socks 

• Almost done with my 3 Color TML Cowl (the pattern is Joji Locatelli’s 3 Color Cashmere Cowl). 2 more rows and a bind-off to go. 

Now, back to that cowl. There’s more to knit when it’s done. 😀

I just found this great alternative to the Kitchener stitch.  It’s really the same thing but you use a third needle instead of a tapestry needle – TECHknitter’s knitted graft stitch. 

I wish I’d heard about this 2 weeks ago when I was on a day trip with friends and didn’t have (actually had but couldn’t find) a tapestry needle.