‘Tis the Season …

Sunday, January 12, 2025

It’s a gloriously sunny Sunday here on the lake and we’re watching the lake and shaking our heads. Today we have lots of vehicles on the lake … yes, I mean vehicles – cars and trucks. The ice can’t be much more than six inches thick. If it was up to me there would only be snow machines and ATVs but when the first car drove by recently, I decided it was time to post about my morning and this crazy activity. Ice fishing is a sport that I don’t have any interest in. Never have, never will. A day out in the cold, drinking beer and doing “crazy” things like driving your $30,000 vehicle on the ice is outrageous in my humble opinion. Lucky nobody asks me.

I’m about to take my knitting and see if I can walk on my new walking pad for ten minutes while I knit. My goal is to work up to 30 minutes a day for now. That’s a lot more than I’ve been doing. And I have to ask my daughter what kind of standing desk she has because there are a lot of them out there with mixed reviews. I’ll be buying one pretty soon so I can write and walk, too. (Lucky there’s a “seat belt” that stops the machine when you’re about to fall off. Ha! Ha!)

I’ve got the last load of laundry in the washer, I’ve washed a shawl that I wore last week that had something sticky on it, I’ve ordered my new coat from LL Bean and I’ve written the store newsletter and caught up on adding new contacts. I’d fallen way behind.

It snowed lightly all day yesterday and (the royal) we has shoveled and gone out for the NY TImes Sunday paper so he’s happily ensconced downstairs while I’m up in my atelier. I think today I’ll work on Baby’s blanket because it’s just about half done and it’s a quick knit. Next will be mitts for daughter #2 who has been wearing her favorite ones I made her that had her ex-husband’s initial on them. It’s time to get rid of them and get something new. She’s chosen her pattern and I bought the yarn.

I’ve got an order for two tams from a customer who contacts me every couple of years. I went looking for my pattern yesterday and it’s not available on Ravelry any longer and, of course, I’ve cleaned out all my paper patterns because I had them on Ravelry. I sure hope more designers don’t take their patterns off Ravelry … I’ll be furious because I thought, even if it was a free pattern, that I’d have them safely in my library. Not so. Luckily the designer responded to my message and she’s going to have someone email me a copy. Phew. I’ll get those on the needles soon so I can get them out of my queue.

So, for now, the ice fishermen are at it again. So much for our peace and quiet on the lake. Luckily they’re not in our front yard … yet.

Gone knitting (and walking.)

Free Fishing Weekend

February 17, 2024

Today is the start of Maine’s Free Fishing weekend apparently. Our lake is covered in people ice fishing. There’s one group that was out in front of our boat house last night when I got home from work and they were back at 5:45 this morning. Typically, I’d welcome people to enjoy our lake but this morning I was upset at being awakened by their noisy vehicles and augers so early. The lake is nearly 2 miles wide where we are and 7-ish miles long … dontcha think you could find a special spot that isn’t right smack dab in my front yard? They’ve got traps, at least a dozen, on the ice in front of our house when the next mile plus of shoreline is occupied by summer-only residents.

But I haven’t come here to gripe (much) and I wanted to share with you a couple of knitting projects that I’m enjoying today – and share a yarn shop story, too.

I’m half-way through the Hermione’s Everyday Socks that I’m knitting. I am loving this pattern and can’t believe it’s taken me so long to try something new. It truly has been a while that I’ve been stuck in a rut of knitting my favorite sock pattern, Yankee Knitter’s Classic Sock #29. BUT this one was pointed out to me by my friend/co-worker/knitting conspirator friend, Glenda. She was wearing a pair with her Nancy’s vest a week ago and I thought I’d give it a try. Just so happens I had finished a pair of socks and needed to cast on another. (Needed. See that?!) Anywho … I love the Hermione’s sock and will wind and cast on the second sock today.

Meanwhile, my other friend/co-worker/knitting conspirator, Carol, showed me a pattern on Thursday that she was going to try and I couldn’t resist. The pattern is called Luggage Finders and it’s a free pattern on Ravelry by Skacel. Designed by Kathy Sasser, this is a collection of four little tags that you can add to your suitcase to make it more easy to identify when you’re traveling. I’m traveling later this month and I can’t wait to put my Maine Lobstah yarn name tag on my suitcase.

These two women get me into so much trouble! I really should be finishing older projects from their spots in time out but instead I’m casting on new projects, too. Ha! Ha! The rest will wait a day or two while I play, right? (Kind of like the dust in my house.)

Some of my Friday afternoon class is knitting a Maine Mitten project in class to try something new. They’re using the pattern that we all got from the Maine Yarn Cruise this past year from Jagger Spun, the Original Maine Flag Mittens. I had knitted a pair and gifted them in our Christmas Yankee Swap and that started a family squabble and quite a competition. So, I suggested we try a KAL with the pattern. It’s a fun pattern for a basic mitten and a charted duplicate stitch pattern to add the original Maine flag pine tree and star.

I have several items that I’ve knitted and worn once or not at all (these were one of them) and I really need to send them all off to good homes where they’ll be appreciated. I’m going to get some photos and put them out there with a price on Facebook, I guess, and see what happens. I sold one pair of Malabrigo Rasta mittens to a sweet friend in Ohio. That feels good. I just need to take the time. BUT for now, I’m going to get dressed, throw in a load of laundry and mix up some bread dough so I can bake tomorrow. The hubby and I are heading to town to see the new exhibits at Colby’s Art Museum and maybe we’ll stop somewhere for a bite to eat after that.

Gone knitting … well, you know what I mean. Thanks for being here, friends.