What a Wonderful Week!

Sunday, June 1, 2025

Today started out as so many have this spring … gray and overcast. Dreary. I had to get out of the house by 11am to pick up my friend, Janna, and get over to Augusta for the Maine Arts Academy graduation ceremony and just as Janna and I left her road the sun came out.

This week our MeAA strings group performed the National Anthem at the Maine Statehouse on Wednesday when the Senate opened and two of our students were pages for the day and then today was graduation. And graduation was wonderful! The student performances were amazing.

This week I have an evening meeting with a potential new board member on Monday, a committee meeting on Tuesday and a meeting at school with the Maine Charter School Commission on our 5-year renewal on Wednesday. It’s going to be another busy week but it’s always fun. So, today I’m getting my calendar ready for the week so I don’t miss anything. I live by my Bullet Journal. I handwrite a calendar that I create every week. It has everything I ever need in it (passwords, income, books I’ve read and want to read, projects I’ve completed for Queen Bee Knits, teaching records, and more. It’s the best way for me to keep track of everything – my knitting business, teaching, workshops I teach, and my calendar for work and volunteer efforts. And it can be creative. Sometimes it’s creative.

This week I also worked a half-day at the store restocking and reorganizing. I taught my three knitting classes on Friday and I baked for the hubby’s birthday. This week was my mother’s birthday (she would have been 93 this year but she’s been gone 17 years) and my hubby’s birthday and my big brother’s birthday so we got to make and receive lots of phone calls celebrating our family. We are shopping for a new bed so we can move things around a bit and we bought a new chandelier for our dining room, finally, to replace the one that we took down 2 years ago. (Yes, we’ve been living in the dark. LOL) Note that it’s been ordered, it’s not installed!

I have been knitting away and am happy to say that I’ve finished Dolores after she hid out in the cupboard for the last seven years and she’s taken up residency in my studio/atelier where she sits in my chair and looks at me with judgement all day long. She’s demanding that I get on with knitting her some new outfits now that she has a face and can talk to me. Franklin warned me, he did!

Last night I finished another pair of socks. I love this pair – in On The Round Signature Sock yarn in the Wicked colorway. I originally bought the yarn because one of my daughter’s friends was having a baby and she was in the Broadway production of Wicked. It was so appropriate, right? I made the baby (now a big kid) a pair of socks with it. But that left a lot of yarn and I decided its time had come and made myself another pair of socks. I used the free pattern on Ravelry by the Crazy Sock Lady called Hermione’s Everyday Socks. I love the texture that is knitted into these socks and I am excited to wear them one day soon.

And what these two FOs mean is that I need to find some more projects! I have been working along in the evenings when we’re watching television on my Jelly Roll Blanket. I’ve just begun another strip … when this one is finished, I may be half way done with the project. It’ll be awhile before it’s really done but it’s a great way to deal with all the bits and bobs of fingering weight sock yarns that I’ve collected over the last 40-ish years. I still have to work on the pink mittens … I’ve got no idea why I am putting this project off all the time. I’ve got to get them finished before winter. They’re so pretty. I guess I just haven’t enjoyed the embroidery. And I’ll need to do some on the second mitten, too.

I have four outfits to knit for Dolores and three stuffed animals that I bought yarn for … and a blanket that I bought yarn for, too. Lots of things that I could work on … so now, what do I WANT to work on?

Gone knitting.

What a Week!

Sunday, 2/11/2024

I’m sitting at my desk having finished my newsletter for the store and adding the subscribers to the list. I don’t love “working” on Sunday. I like to keep it set aside as a day for me but some weeks this just doesn’t happen. This was one of those weeks.

We drove back from New York City on Monday after a fun but disappointing visit. We had gone down to meet a little dog at the Humane Society that we’ve been approved to adopt. She’s a 4 year-old shitzu, bichon and maybe a bit of poodle thrown in mix. I fully expected to bring her home with us but got a call on Sunday night with a health update that triggered me as my Boq died with the same two “issues”. I ended up cancelling my meeting and we came home requesting more time for me to think about whether we want to adopt a young dog with potential health issues that might require a special diet and/or medication. I’m so grateful for the understanding and caring response from the Humane Society. We’re now on hold until we get back from a family wedding in a few weeks and we’ll see if the medical issues have resolved and decide about next steps. This is a great and very thorough place that really wants adoptions to succeed and so do we. I know I’ll fall in love with her if I see her so I’m trying to step back from the emotion and take care of myself first in this instance. After 40+ years of taking care of everybody else first, I’m really trying to listen to myself and leave space for me to practice self-care first. I was proud that I could speak my truth and name my concerns and ask for some more time. I was rewarded with a wonderful conversation and a mutual understanding. Bravo, me!

Monday evening I was dropped off at Maine Arts Academy in Augusta to attend a board meeting. It was a great meeting and I’m so proud of our school and proud to be associated with it, too. We had a student visit to update us on her life today after we granted her an early graduation last year. She’s an incredible young woman who will do great things and it was so thoughtful that she wanted to thank us and update us on her life.

The next couple of days I got all the house and home stuff caught up so that I could work at the end of the week. I baked some bread and some hermits (read about it here) and it’s been fun to share the cookies at work with my wonderful co-worker friends. I am so fortunate to work with some excellent, creative, smart women! I’ve been at the store working and teaching for the last three days and today is (finally) a day for me to catch up … again. Ha! Ha!

Photo by Melissa Blackall Photography – “Of This Place”

Friday night we went to Colby College to see the performance of “Of This Place” in the new Gordon Center. The new theater space is amazing and I really enjoyed the performance. My only criticism is that they’ve not completed the sound system and it was difficult to hear some parts of the spoken words. I loved that it was a multi-generational collaborative performance that included kids from a Waterville elementary school, staff and alumni, students from Colby and Maine Arts Academy, and professional dancers, too. I’m not a dancer and don’t pretend to be but I do like to watch dance and admire people who can dance.

All of this to say that I haven’t gotten a lot of knitting done this week. When I was teaching class on Friday morning I realized that I didn’t have some of the stuff I needed to knit, other projects needed more attention than I could give at that time and place. What’s a knitter to do? I have worked a little bit on the second sleeve of my Norwegian sweater and I’m up to the heel of my Hermione’s Everyday sock. My friend Glenda and I are going to do another self-imposed KAL and we’ve picked Christopher’s Bunny by Susan B. Anderson to be our project. I may choose to cast on today … although, I’d love to finish the sleeves of my sweater. I’m so close that I’m not sure why I’m continuing to put it off. I NEED to do our laundry because I have one pair of underwear left in my bureau. Ha! Ha! I SHOULD vacuum and wet mop the upstairs because my allergies are showing their ugly heads … between the unseasonably warm weather and lack of snow, I’m afraid it’s going to be a really bad year for allergies. Our road is already thinking it’s mud season and I was white-knuckling the drive home last night as my car was sucked into the muddy ruts.

Enough “griping” … I’m off to attack this beauty of a day. Wish me luck.

Gone knitting … I think.