Rhiannon, Home Stretch

Yes, friends, I am in the home stretch for the knitting of Rhiannon.
I had to take her outdoors in semi darkness to get a picture. Not really good definition with the flash, but you get what you get sometimes. I'll take a better pic tomorrow after work and upload here, and to Ravelry....but I am doing the last repeat, and have half of the rows completed. I'm getting excited.

 

If'n ya can't tell, this is a close up, again with flash, that just drowns out practically all definition. At this writing, she is almost 7' long. She's a big-un.

 

I can't wait for her to be blocking!

Demo's at JoAnn's

I've been demoing at JoAnn's for the last year. Lately, the store has been really swamped on Saturday's especially right at the noonish hour--and I'm a busy girl there at these times.

Employees walk past me and comment on my craft. Store patrons, too. Yesterday, one person surprised me by telling me that I should be employed there.

Well, yes. Perhaps. Not that I haven't tried. Somehow the application got lost and I just never followed up on it. I might have redone it, had they not come up with another manager that rubs me the wrong way. I figure, since I need a second job with a bad manager like I need a hole in the head, I just didn't make out a new ap.

I guess that I'm like that now. I know myself well enough to know the sort of person I don't get along with, and I steer clear of those types, just to keep my life a lot less "dramatic". I've had enough drama in my life. I'm ready for peace and quiet to allow myself whatever stressors in my quiet times that *I* desire, and not what somebody else wants to set on my shoulders.

With that in mind, I didn't knit at all on Rhiannon yesterday. I'm not at all sure what I *did* do--I mean, I know I went to JoAnn's for a few hours.

Then I bought some meats at Kroger, and stuffed my purchases in the trunk.

Then, I drove to Country Stitches and picked up my sewing machine--ah, that reminds me...gotta go fix something...be back in a minute.

There. That's done. I've been meaning to fix the laundry hamper for months--all it needed was a quick once around the top with the sewing machine. Since it's been in the shop...was my last excuse...even though I have 6 sewing machines that I could use. Go figure.

Wait..now I've misplaced my coffee...ah, there it is. On top of the stove. Oh snap. Now it needs a warm up!

So as I was saying, after picking up the sewing machine, I drove over to the bedding shop and got a new mattress pad. We get these pads that are SUPER thin, guaranteed for 10 years (although they never last that long, but by the time 5 years has elapsed, you've usually lost the receipt), and cost an arm, a leg and your firstborn. Then I walked to the Verizon store to look at the newer phones to see if I could/should buy a newer one. I ended up leaving. Those people frighten me.

Then I came home and put away some of my purchases, then I sat down and watched Avatar-The Last Airbender. This was a really cute series from either China or Japan--somewhere Asian, anyway--about a boy and his destiny, his travels and his friends. It's nothing like the Avatar with the blue creatures. My husband lost interest after the first several dvds, so I watched it pretty heavily for about 3 weeks. I thought it was pretty good, although I'm sort of young at heart.

After that, I watched all my Saturday night shows. Antique Roadshow, The Brittas Empire, 'Allo 'Allo, Born to the Manor, and the Red Green Show. So basically, I sat in front of the television all day. Fun times.

I had hoped that hubby would take me to breakfast this morning, but he's behind the 8-ball at school, and has to get his homework done, so no Denny's today. Darn it! I was looking forward to that! Guess I'll have to get something around for breakfast then. Back in a flash...

Now you see just how busy a gal I am. I am nearly always "going", and I don't mean incontinent. How did they come up with that word, by the way? Incontinence. It makes me think of someone from South America or something. My brain works in pretty crazy ways, I guess.

Well, let's see. I have to spend time with my husband today. I'm waiting for him to head for bed--he's working on his homework right at the moment. After that, I have laundry to put away, dishes to wash, knitting to do, sewing to do. I'm just really busy again today. Somehow, some way, things have got to start slowing down for me, before I have a heart attack from all the stress!

Don't get me wrong, I know that there has to be some stress in your life, or you'd die from lack of stress. You need some stress in your life--but there is a ceiling and a floor, that is right for you. Mine varies from day to day--it makes it difficult to work 40 hours a week.

Ah, there. Some of the dishes are done, some are in the dishwasher. The laundry is done and ready to fold and hang, and the chicken is in the crock pot roasting. I'm getting a little ahead!

In the meanwhile, hubby is still studying.

The dyes came from Dharma Trading yesterday, too. I have lots of fun in that package, but it will need to wait until next weekend, perhaps. There's just too much going on in my kitchen right now to make another mess. So I could sit and knit, but I think my sugar is spiking a bit after breakfast--even though I only had one piece of toast!

Hubby finally fired up the corn stove again. It was out all night, and I got chilled. I have the running nose to prove it.

Actually, the runny itchy nose is due to allergies. Believe it or not, I am allergic to soy bean dust. I had to drive behind a soy bean harvester yesterday, and my eyes were itching and my nose was running, and my throat was scratchy. Yup. Allergies. If I can keep away from the cold and flu, I might just be able to keep healthy this winter, but I get these colds around this time of year because my nose collects the soy dust like a moth to a flame. It's not a good idea to keep me chilly when the soy bean harvest begins. Even so, hubby and I like to keep the house a little on the chilly side--especially when we're sleeping. I guess we sleep better, warm under the covers. I don't know how my step son is handling this chilly weather--I know he's complaining about the cold.

Speaking of which, the parts he ordered for the fireplace downstairs still have not come in. I'm worried that we will be unable to get the flue in by snowfall if it doesn't come SOON, and roofs with snow on them are not safe.

Speaking of SNOW (four letter word), we had some on Friday. Not enough for any accumulation, but enough to know it was sprinkling little snowballs everywhere outdoors. Very lightly...but everywhere.

Soon there will be pictures of snow on the ground.

And thanks to Daylight Savings Time, I was able to watch the sun come up, and was it pretty! All the colors I like in a sunrise. Deep blue and purple and crimson, with a tinge of yellow on the edge. So with that image in your brain, I leave you. TaTaForNow.

It's Hard to Believe

It's hard to believe, but I am finally on the last repeat and a half for Rhiannon. Now, suddenly, it's hard to stay on task and get it done. My eyes aren't working right, either, and that's an added difficulty. I have to stop every so often because I can't see the pattern well, and I can't see the stitches well.

I wonder if I need better glasses? Or perhaps I just need to watch my sugar better? Well, after testing, I find out that yes, my sugar is higher than normal at this moment. So I will stop and rest for a while until things settle down.

The "on task" business, however, is another thing entirely. Work is boring. I was so glad to see the weekend come. I got so bored at the office today. It is feast or famine there. I'm either working my buns off to get caught up, or there is next to nothing to do. It's pretty amazing really, but the days I have next to nothing to do are so boring that I just can't stand it. It's these times that I over-think. I need to not do that.

In fact, I got so bored, that I went home early and started knitting and fell asleep in my chair. Then, I decided that I would take a nap, and ended up sleeping for two solid hours, waking up with that "I can't move" sort of feeling.

But now, I'm awake. I've had some protein, and a drink and playing with my tarot cards.

I drew

The Knight of Cups
The 9 of Swords reversed
The High Priestess reversed

I guess my husband is going to be busy with his own needs this weekend...perhaps he'll get some studying done. Perhaps he'll be helping his son in the basement. It doesn't look like we'll be having much to do with each other, though. I hate midnight shift!

Of course, tomorrow morning, I'll be going in to JoAnn's for Demo, and I've got the perfect idea. The caterpillar yarn that I made the scarf out of? Well, JoAnn's has a variation of it, and I'm going to take that and some base yarn, and make a hat. Nothing special, just using the caterpillar yarn to make poms on the hat. I'm going to call it "Morse Code". I think it will be cute. The picture in my head is cute, therefore it's cute!

In the meanwhile, Rhiannon languishes in my basket, waiting for my eyes to straighten out. It's coming slowly. I took my meds, and I can tell that the sugar content is dropping. A quick blood check...and yes it's coming down. I'll be able to knit soon enough.

Perhaps I'll turn on the news and see what the new governor has to say. Probably more of the "wah wah wah wah waaaah" like Charlie Brown's teacher.

Work A Day World

I'm exhausted. Ready to go home and fall into bed. Friday's coming, but not nearly soon enough for me. If I weren't getting a day off next week for holiday, I would probably take a day tomorrow (or try to), but I want to get off for the period from December 18 through January 3--which is a long time, so I am really watching my time off these days.

I'm hoping to work on Rhiannon this evening, but chances are good that I'll be just too tired to do so. I am thinking about making a headband, and I might think some more on this--it would be a quick knit.

I have some Jacquard dyes coming in the mail soon. I will be dying when they get here, and I can barely wait. The stuff I did a couple weeks ago turned out so nice (even if it was rather pale-brighter colors would have been MUCH nicer), that I decided that I would do some more merino, and might work on some of my own wool as well--sock yarn is ALWAYS in style.

I watched a new show last night called "Circus", about a travelling circus called the Big Apple Circus, and about the people who made up cast and crew, and how they live. It was rather interesting, although I wonder how they can SMILE so much! I mean, it's nice to do things that are so exhilarating and dangerous, but after a while, it seems the excitement would wear you down. Even the stories about the clowns were pretty cool.

I Wonder Sometimes

Well, the republicans took the House, and likely the Senate, too.
I wonder if Obama is going to listen to the American people now?

Frankly, I figure them all to be crooks. So you have to pick the lesser of two evils.

My hope is that the message is clear that there will be no more shenanagins in the White House or else I guarantee there will be a major revolt.

And we thought it was bad when Clinton got caught with his pants down.

****

I've been spinning today. I have a little wool left from the dye workshop two Saturdays ago, so I'm spinning up the rest of that.

I got the 6th repeat of Rhiannon done last night at knit night. I expect another full repeat plus a half and I'll be on the border--so perhaps another week.

Off to finish spinning.
Ravelry and Twitter: drapert/My blog: www.tothenines9.blogspot.com

Scarf and marshmallow

Knit with Marshmallow by Knitting Fever. The pic doesn't do it justice. The scarf is fast, incredibly easy and looks like a caterpillar!
Ravelry and Twitter: drapert/My blog: www.tothenines9.blogspot.com

Selling The Property

Today, we are meeting with a farmer to sell our old property in Fowlerville (25 acres) to a farmer who lives in the area. It's a good thing, I suppose, because most of the property won't perk for a house, and we're both a little tired of hanging onto it. There was a point where I'd hoped to put a house on it, and fence around it, and the sheep could just graze all day all around the house--and trees--there could be lots of trees. I'm supposed to go with hubby to meet the man and set things up for the sale, but I really don't want to attend this. Somehow, I think that the guy is going to screw my husband every which way but loose--and cheat him out of that property. Call it a gut feeling, since my gut is hurting this morning, it doesn't bode well.

But dreams change. All I can think about now is getting heat in the house. The temps dipped down below freezing last night, and we still haven't turned on the stove. We tried to light it, but the flue is plugged. We have to sweep it sometime today. Plugged so badly that the smoke had no place to go except out through the fire-stripping on the door and the ash box. I'm more than a little concerned, since the chimney may need to be replaced. The boys ordered a new chimney for a stove downstairs, and it's been three weeks now since it was ordered, and they said it would be in within a week.

With colder temps, we really need to get these fireplaces started! Since November 1 is tomorrow, I told hubby, happily, we get to start the stove, and tomorrow is the first day of heat in the house! Yay!

I didn't do any knitting on Rhiannon yesterday, having done work on the socks at JoAnn's. I'm told that I don't have any more classes until the 14th of November. That's a long time! I'm hoping all of that changes. A cup of warmish coffee. A fuzzy robe. Slippers on my feet. I'm considering crawling back in bed with all of it on me when I finish the coffee. What's that? Hmm. I hear Rhiannon calling me. I think I will need to get dressed so that I don't freeze while I work on her.