Thankful for Thoughtfulness

I received the most delightful gifts today. All were wrapped in very special, personalized paper.

Each had a wonderful hand-knit card.

Three spectacularly thoughtful books.

I don't know why I didn't take pictures at our pizza-party, which was at Punch ... but there will be more opportunities for photos this week so I will try to post kid pics this weekend.

Surprise Package

Rose the Gypsy recently returned a needle that she borrowed from me back in April.

She added a couple of things to the package...

Thing the first:  A sock blank from Yarnover New York (who knew?) in color "I Love Yarn" (d'ya think?).  She got it at Annie & Co.  How is it I have never been to that shop?

What is particularly brilliant about the sock blank is that the contrasting cuff and toes are built right into the blank.

I am not going to knit the socks quite yet because I enjoy the blank as an objet d'art.

Thing the second:  She also sent a book to help me use up my leftovers, which I am still not very good at.

I am planning on taking leftovers on the cruise in December to make Christmas mittens for the grandkids ... that should work, right?  I mean, if I'm on a boat in the tropics and I pack odd balls and leftovers I will get some used up ... right?

On Color Therapy and Flags

Aqua seems to be the color of the season. In April I purchased mink yarn in a beautiful shade of aqua. I also purchased a sweatshirt and sheets in the same color this spring.

Perhaps aqua has a special, soothing appeal to offset mourning.

I continue to walk around Lake of the Isles.  It's amazing how the combination of things changing through the seasons and the area covered on a three mile walk (even if taken every day) means that daily discoveries are always possible.

Like this weird concavity in one of the trees.

I had a student on the phone today who lives in South Carolina.  She said she is 63 years old, and that she has seen it all.

"Today," she said, "is a great day in South Carolina."

I told her that it is a great day in Minnesota too.  And just for the record, that flag has been up for 54 years not out of respect for the fallen in a war that ended over 100 years ago.  It went up during the Civil Rights movement for a reason, and it's about time it came down.

Back to color therapy; I got a pair of purple ballet flats this week.

I am knitting a pair of purple socks (Christmas knitting has begun).

And also in knitting, I finished a Baby Sophisticate jacket for a former co-worker who is due in September.

Ok, well, to be honest the buttons are not sewn on yet, but I'm pretty much done.

I also started a secret birthday gift tonight at Drunken Knit Night.  Let's hope I can keep it under wraps until November ;-)

I Do Still Knit

Methinks I have not posted much about knitting for a while.

I still knit and I still have a yarn addiction.

After several false starts I think I have finally found a "significant piece of lace" to knit (that was one of my goals for 2014 - to knit a significant piece of lace).

I'm also back to knitting black hats for Boy-child.  Even though he is currently in Chile he will be needing woolies when he gets back to the US.

I also accidentally knit another pair of socks.  They are conveniently my size, but that is also Girl-child's size, so who knows where they may end up?

I also knit four pair of felted clog slippers.  This is the only pair remaining - I took no photos of the previous three pairs.  Girl-child got orange tops with heather green soles, DIL got red tops with purple soles and Boy-child's landlady in DC got green and blue (I don't remember which was which). These are for Boy-child - forest green with black souls soles.

No, I do not generally weave in the ends until I absolutely have to.

In decorating news, I am thinking I will probably paint the floors.  Right now I'm leaning toward the purply-gray one (second in from the right, top).  I've been looking at gray and off-gray.  If it turns out that concrete floors are too cold this winter I may change my mind.  Painting is pretty thrifty though, I can do it myself and I could get new countertops in the kitchen sooner rather than later if I paint the floors.  

Plus I can alway get cork floors later, when Auntie wins the lottery (she swears she's going to win and says I shouldn't scoff since she plans to share with me).

Sunshine in a Box

Although I love this time of year, sometimes it can be dreary.

Imagine my surprise Friday to discover a box of flowers with my name on it in the lobby !

A box of sunshine ...

The Gypsy really knows how to make a girl's week.

And the extra bonus?  Because they are delivered like this:

I have a replenished supply of yarn bras!

Thanks Rosemary!

MNKD and New Camera cont'd

I failed to mention in my original post that I received a delightfully sheepy mug at Knitters' Days (I took it to work since they all think I'm pretty kooky with the knitting):

As well as a pair of black, sparkly fingerless mitts (I would never knit sparkly for myself):

And matching sock earrings:

This is the scarf in progress which is the product of the Domino Knitting class (note the color pattern in the bottom-right of the paper - it's knit on the diagonal so the next square will be green):

I continue to be thrilled with the new camera:

Now I just have to go out more so that I find things and take pictures.

This from the Farmers Market - I didn't know you could grow garlic here!

Also, just when The Gypsy and I had decided on a cruise we got an email for another possibility ... hmmm ... go somewhere warm and uninteresting on the cheap or go somewhere spendy and cold but very interesting .... ???

Knitting

I have been knitting a bit lately ... 

...this pair of socks were sent to Boy-child's landlady in D.C. today:

I made a second Color Affection in colors that are more in keeping with what I usually wear:

And there are more projects under way.  Some are surprises so I will only show this, which is proof that for me knitting is not just the stuff, it's not just the process; color therapy plays a large part in my love of knitting.

The lace project has been put into hibernation.  I'm hoping it will make sense again when it wakes up ;-)

Pièce de Résistance

And finally, the prettiest hat in my collection, also by Rose the Gypsy:

Did I mention she's never one to under-do?  And it's reversible!

To be worn today since it's supposed to be snowing this afternoon :-(

Yarnover 2014

Yarnover has come and gone. Rose the Gypsy made it again this year ~ what fun we had!

The purple was won at Yarnover, the pink purchased there and the green/blue is from the Yarn Shop Hop that happened a couple of week ago.

I learned interesting stuff in my classes but mostly I worked on socks over the weekend.

Rose the Gypsy brought luxury yarns as gifts, which go well with what she brought last year and also with some of the gift yarn from the cruise last December.

Because I don't have enough yarn (the satchel is what I took to Yarnover for class supplies).

The stash-buster class with Melissa Leapman was inspiring even if I dumped the sweater idea and plan to make a hat from what I created in class.

More hostess gifts from Rose the Gypsy, because you can never have too many hand towels or pot holders.  

Rose is the only person I know who can make a sock knitter feel like a slacker - she never goes half-way!

We went to the Matisse exhibit too.  Hopefully we'll see the one that's going to be at MoMA this fall/winter as a follow-up ;-)

Random Calendar Shots and a Story

I think I mentioned that I have a very cool shoe calendar on my desk. Photos were requested, so here's a sampling:

As you can see, some are more practical than others.  We have a lot of fun at work critiquing the aesthetic and practical merits of each. I seem to like the ones from the 18th century, the 1920s-1940s and the 1980s. My shoes these days are not very exciting, but I can still appreciate looking at all types.

It's hard to come up with blog fodder these days.  I feel like I don't do much, although Girl-child disagrees with me.  I told her this story over the phone tonight and she thought it was very funny….

…I went to an awesome party last weekend.  A ballet mom (from the old days) has these amazing parties to which I sometimes get invited.  Last weekend's bash had a travel theme.  Everyone was to wear something (a piece of jewelry, an article of clothing or whatever) from a trip.  It makes for a great ice breaker and interesting stories.  I met another AFSer who went to Italy in the 1970s - I went to Venezuela the summer of 1977.  There were a ton of really interesting women there.  Great party.

Anyway, I took the bus to the party since it was easy and close, and that way I could have two glasses of wine (yes, I really let my hair down sometimes).  The bus driver apparently took a shine to me and was pulling out a treat to gift me before I got off.  I said, "Oh, is it a dum-dum?!?" (They gave these out to kids at the liquor store when I was little and they still did at Lunds and Haskells when my kids were little).  And the driver replied, "Would I give a dum-dum to a lady?  What kind of a message would that be sending?!?"

This is what he gave me:

A Blow-Pop.  I'm not sure what to think.  

Since it seems like a bad idea to accept candy from a stranger, even at my advanced age, I've decided to just leave it in my bag.  Makes me giggle every time I see it.