Tag Archives: reknitting

Tuesday Report

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Tuesday, January 7, 2025

It is a bit chilly today. When I woke up at 6:30am it was around 10 degrees and will only get up to 22-ish. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying a day to myself today. I spent the morning having coffee and relaxing as usual, cleaned up the kitchen and emptied the dishwasher, got dressed, and after my hubby went to work I started by Christmas puzzle. Turns our my puzzle attention span is very long because it was 3pm before I stopped and went upstairs to do some work.

It’s been a good start to the week. I got some baking done yesterday and my dear hubby made vegetarian chili at my request. I’ve decided that I don’t love meat much any more and I’m exploring vegetarian eating. I’m married to a guy who needs meat at every meal and who does the majority of our cooking … it will be interesting.

Easy No-Yeast Cinnamon Rolls

I baked some pecan rolls. These are wonderful because they don’t include any yeast so they’re quick and easy to make. No waiting for the dough to rise! The one thing I do is I don’t mix the toasted pecans in with the filling because it’s more difficult to spread. I spread the filling and then sprinkle the nuts on it and roll away! The recipe is Easy No-Yeast Cinnamon Rolls (New York Times Cooking). When it’s just the two of us, we don’t put the frosting on until we warm up a roll or two and then frost them … warming up frosted cinnamon rolls makes the frosting melt away. These are delicious!

I’ve been working on a couple of different projects. Yesterday I spent a good amount of time on my Hoodola by Laura Nelkin. I”ve gotten about a third of the rows knitted and I had to put it aside to eat a few Doritos so I picked up my New Year shawl, Winter’s Finery by Romi Hill. I had to go back before I went ahead because I had made a mistake on the spine somehow and decided that I couldn’t live with the way it looked especially since it’ll be at the top of the shawl. Frogged back a few rows and the reknit it. I even made a little bit of progress.

Hoodola before
Hoodola after
Winter’s Finery
before blocking
after a light steam block
because you know you wanted to see the inside
On to the tippety top!

The lobster hat chart is complete and I’ve moved on to the sea weed chart for the crown. BUT before I started the crown I put the stitches on a strand of yarn and gave it a little bit of a steam block so I could see how they’ll look when finished. I’m happy to report that they’re going to be fantastic! I put the stitches back on my needles and continued knitting.

Today I spent hours working on my Christmas puzzle and then had to pay bills and my new walking pad was delivered so I had to try it out. Next I’ll be ordering a standing desk and I hope I can write these posts while I walk … preferably without getting hurt.

Grand-Parenting in the Big City

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Thursday, October 31, 2024

We have been in New York babysitting for our granddaughter while her parents take a little anniversary holiday in Costa Rica. It was all planned out so that we would have a bit of a break when Sylvie went to school on weekday mornings … but you know about the saying, “when you plan, God laughs”, right?

On Monday morning we were so proud of ourselves, we got the little miss up and dressed, fed and out the door … delivered to school at 8:00am. We got to the grocery store and back home and I pulled out my knitting after I cleaned up the kitchen, vacuumed up the dog hair and put a load of wash in … and the phone rang. School was asking for us to pick her up; she had bumps on her hand and face and they suspected HFMD. So we packed up the stroller for the second trip to school to pick her up and on the way called the pediatrician to make an appointment for a sick child visit … and she was sick! Hand, foot and mouth it is and she’s out of school for at least this week. So, no more breaks for Yaya and Poppi, but I’m proud to say that we’ve fared very well partly because we go to bed early and partly because she takes a good nap in the afternoon. BUT we are re-learning what a challenge a 2-year old can be! Ha! Ha! Yaya has a lot more patience for toddler antics than Poppi does but we are tag-teaming it and we are winning!

With HFMD she’s not allowed in proximity to other children or people so we are trying to keep her busy without the playground and we’ve been pretty successful. Yesterday we went out to the courtyard in her building to carve our little pumpkin and the day before we made cookies. Today we went back into the courtyard with sidewalk chalk and bubbles.

We had a pizza party with her aunts and uncle on Sunday and she’s eaten left-over pizza a couple of times. Yesterday may have been a three-cookie day … she ate mine! And playing in the leaves is still fun when you’re two! She loves coloring inside and out, and she can put her own shoes on! She’s brilliant. We’ve been singing SO many songs and she loves Miss Rachel – when Yaya and Poppi need a breather we will turn her on for a few minutes.

AND while all of this is going on, they’re fixing the facade of the building right outside of the apartment … jackhammers on the walls, brick bits falling onto the windows. As if New York wasn’t loud enough for these Mainers! What an experience! Thank goodness they’re gone by four o’clock or so in the evening. But the New York City kiddo is SLEEPING through it all! What a trooper.

I fixed the neck of an anchor sweater that I made as a sample for a workshop that I taught that just happens to be the right size for Sylvie right now. It didn’t go over her head the way I’d made it so I pulled the neck ribbing out and re-knit it and used a stretchy bind off and now she can wear it.

I have finished the front and back of my pink Lane’s Island sweater and I’ve started the sleeves. I’m knitting both sleeves at the same time and had mostly completed the four inches of ribbing for the sleeves and I’ve managed to knit eight rows of stockinette stitch. Not much knitting going on here! But I’ll have plenty of knitting time “soon soon” when her parents get home. I’m going to hate to leave.

Making memories. Call me Yaya! Gone knitting.

Spectacular Saturday – Coffee on the Porch

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Saturday, May 25, 2024

What a beautiful morning! We spent the morning on the porch with our coffee and there was just enough of a breeze to keep the mosquitoes away. And a bonus visit from my college roommate who’s in the area to attend Colby College’s graduation. I pulled a few weeds and have spent the last couple of hours or so in my atelier writing a newsletter for the store and getting organized for the week ahead. We have no particular plans for the Memorial Day weeekend but we hope to take our first boat ride in two years this afternoon.

The third time’s a charm. My Hermione’s Everyday Socks in the deeply stashed TOFUtsies yarn are done. Done! I have no idea why I had such a challenge with these socks. I’ve made so many pairs of socks for myself and they always fit. These just didn’t. The first sock I finished was too long. I frogged it back and reknit the toe … too short. Frogged it again and added a bit to the foot and knitted the toe and it (finally) is juuuuust right. The second sock was not a problem and as of yesterday afternoon, I have a pair. Good grief.

I still don’t know what the problem really is. I have my foot measurement that I’ve been using for years as 10 inches. So, I knitted to 8 inches for the foot and added the toe. Should have been perfect. What did end up being right was knitting the foot to 7.5 inches … I KNOW my feet didn’t shrink. Could it possibly be the fiber content of the yarn? TOFUtsies is a blend of 25% soysilk, 22.5% cotton and 2.5% chitin (from shrimp and crab shells and 50% wool. Can you see me shrugging my shoulders? I’m stumped. But they’re done.

I repaired my college roommate’s sweater and hat and have sent them back and I finished the little Zip Up a Baby Sweater. The two former items have been mailed off to Michigan and the sweater just needs a little something for the big brothers to go with it to Colorado. I’m getting there. You can read about these projects in my previous post.

Yesterday I worked on my “Longest Day” Emotional Support Chicken – I’ve promised to send one to one of the people who donate to my Longest Day fundraiser in June. I’ve promised to knit from sunup to sundown in honor of my mother who died in 2008 from Alzheimer’s Disease. My mother was a vibrant, active, involved mother, grandmother and friend to many. She loved animals, children and tennis. When she was still quite young, we started to notice that she would make the dressing for her potato salad twice, or she was buying her morning coffee (because she couldn’t remember how to use the coffee maker) and other little things. She was diagnosed in her mid-60s with Alzheimer’s. It was a devastating blow to all of us as we watched our mom withdraw into herself. In October of 2008, mom passed away. She was 76 years old but she’d been gone for ten years. We were all robbed. So, in her honor, I knit for a day and hope that the funds raised will find a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease once and for all so that no other family has to struggle like we all did.

Emotional Support Chicken (knit)

She is going to be a beauty!!! I’m knitting her with two yarns with purple as the main color. All the details are on my Ravelry project page.

I’ve also been laundering sweaters and need to get the hats and mittens going … it’s that time of year to clean up and store the handknits for the summer season. Moths or their larvae love to feed on the dead skin cells that hang out in our wooly items. I have been really lucky that we have not had an infestation … yet. It takes me several days of lovely weather to get the hats and mittens done and several more for our sweaters but it will get done and I’ll start today.

Next week I’m off to my brother and sister-in-love’s house in Marblehead, MA for a few days. I’m on grand-mothering duty while Sylvie’s mother is working in Boston. She’s performing with the Boston Pops on Wednesday and Thursday in a show called from D-Day to VE Day. I’m sure we will all be ready for our normal lives to begin again post babysitting but we will also have the fullest hearts and lots of new memories. I hope we’ll have some beautiful weather like today so we can play outdoors!

Gone knitting.