Piffle!

I have such a long long list of WOTFT, and I need to do it all. Growl. And, there's nothing fun about any of it. Piffle.

I told the Hubbo yesterday that I want to go on vacation every month for a week, and I don't want any responsibility. Period. He snorted. Piffle.

My house is going to be condemned because of all my yarny mess, but I like being surrounded by all that goodness, and at the same time, I crave order. Piffle.

Oh, piffle upon piffle.

Gotta go and do those things to be done. PIFFLE!

Isn't piffle a grand word?

andrea - I'm glad you like it. Piffle upon those who don't.

Scrabblequeen - And to be able to afford it.....Yes! And these would not be staycations, either. We go away, right?

I'm hooked!

Not my fault. My sister made me do it.

I was an innocent knitter, happily motoring along on my gazillion projects, and then! my sister started crocheting. Uh oh. Her crochet bug bit me, and now (pun intended) I'm hooked. Resistance is futile; I've been infected. My poor knitting.

Yesterday I was a wee bit under the weather, and had about as much energy as a sloth. So I spent much of the day on my favorite couch surrounded by yarns, crochet books, hooks, and other paraphernalia. It was a sad moment, I tell you. Innocent little knitter me parked on a very comfy couch and in great light and those dratted books, hooks and yarns. What was I to do? My pretty little shawl just sat in her bag, totally ignored, while I hooked by the hour. I hooked and frogged just about the entire day, and the net result is pathetic. 4 bits of projects, one of which is going to bite the dust. What you are not seeing are all the frogged stuff. Lots of it. This hooky business is an addiction.

Here is a winner. I hooked the first square, went "meh", gave it a wet block, and then made another and attached it as I went along. Hmmm. I rather like it. It's interesting to hook.



This motif was done in 4 different yarns and mostly in one color, and then Mandarin Petit appeared at my elbow, and voila, a motif was born. What I'm going to do with it is anybody's guess. I'm thinking of doing another round in white, maybe, just to offset the unbearable preppiness of the colors. I don't know. I don't want to do a blankie all in cotton. It's very pricey, and will be heavy. I'm thinking of maybe some Baby Ull. I wouldn't have to dye it, and it is a lovely yarn, and skinny. Hmmm. This takes some serious thinking here. But I like the idea enough to play with it some more. That'll be attempt #6 on this baby.



Here's a yarn that's driving me crazy. I love love love the colorway and can't seem to settle on a pattern. I'm not wild about this little scarf so far: I love the pattern which is autopilot, but I think the colors get in the way of seeing what I've hooked. So, back to the frog pile yet again. Any brilliant ideas on what to do with this yarn? I'm pretty good at figuring out variegated yarn patterns, but this one has me stumped. I suppose I could yet another pair of Roundabout socks; I know that would work well, but I really want something different. I think a little shawl might be possible. Stay tuned; this yarn WILL be used in something pretty, but what I don't yet know.



Now this one is a keeper. Yet another zigzag crochet scarf, with a different pattern than the others I've done, but very soothing to work on, and the yarn is not too crazy so that the pattern can be seen. This one is in my new Bambi yarn, and I like it very much indeed.



If only I had taken pics of all the stuff I frogged; then you'd really be impressed with my activity, but I didn't.

Today is a vertigo day. What can I say? Sometimes it just arrives and I have to deal with it. Blech. At least I got tons of work done on Mon and Tues. Elder DD is coming out for a visit, and is arriving this afternoon, so I'll have lovely company. I was going to visit the Mommie, and the farmers' market, and some errands, but the world is spinning and I'm not great for driving. Not to worry, it'll go away sooner or later, hopefully sooner.

So, back to the couch and the hooks and the yarns and the books. If you're not feeling up to par, this is not a bad way to spend the day. I think my WOTFT (what's on tap for today) is a bit of laundry, making a bread, and taking it easy. I can handle that. But tomorrow, I want to dye, so this better be gone and soon.

Totally off topic, I'm embarrassed to admit that I can make a pretty mean loaf of bread in the bread machine. Hey, I'm a real bread baker from way back when! I use the machine to knead, and that's all. I love the mixing, the shaping, the smell, the whole 9 yards, but the other day, I had a yen and we were out of bread, and it was really hot, so I thought I would actually bake in the machine. And you know what? The loaf came out very very nice. I used buttermilk, lavender and lemon in it, and a medium crust. OK, it came out as a very light crust, and the bread looked like something that kids would eat: not dark and crusty the way I like it. But, oh the taste! What a bread! So today, in my dizzy spell, I'm going to do it again. Same ingredients because the taste was amazing. Shhh, don't tell anyone.

Off to slave away.

itsJUSTme - I also started doing doilies when I was a kid! Can you imagine? Now my eyes would need magnification for all those tiny holes, but it was fun to do. I put a bread up in the machine again. It's way too hot to put on the oven, no?

Leedra - Yep my head is really really dizzy and the hot flashes don't help much either. Sitting, knitting and hooking are my speed today.

Jadielady - I hear you. My poor knitting is languishing while I try out a gazillion crochet stitches.

The Yarnarian is Mighty and Powerful!

I did just about everything I had on tap yesterday! Maybe it's because I've actually put it in print and now feel somewhat accountable to you. Whatever.

So today, I mailed out all my many packages and just had lunch and am about to tackle the mystery project. Whadda woman! It's almost done. Just a few more inches and then I have to write it up.

Important and exciting news! It's raining and it's not hot! Finally. I thought we were living in a desert for a while. Yippee!

Back to work. I'm such a rotten taskmistress.

Vaughnde - Today we're making up for the 100 deg temps we had. OK, I'm now ready for early fall. I think I have a long way to go.

Scrabblequeen - Yes, well today I made up for all that activity. Had a very non-sleep night and really felt crummy, so I napped a bit and crocheted. Not a bad day at all.

itsJUSTme - Isn't it nice to be able to do that? It rained most of the day and is soooo humid, even though it's only 73 at the moment. I put the AC on just to get rid of the dampness.

The Yarnarian is busy as a bee.

The Linus Blankie

I'm not sure exactly how busy a bee is, but that's how busy I am going to be today. What's on tap for today is lots of work, but mostly enjoyable, so that's good.

I do best when I have a WOTFT day; I seem to like a certain amount of organization. You'd think that at this stage of my life, I'd have it all together. Not. But anyhow, today is a good day!

1. Dyeing up the yarn for July's sotm. This is gorgeous yarn and gorgeous colorway, and I'll do an extra yarn for me, or if one turns out weird, which sometimes happens.

2. It would be nice if I mailed out my packages. My poor customers know that I'm beyond slow here, but when I actually get it together, then I'm good to go.

3. Work on the mystery project. I got the yarn a couple of weeks past when I thought I would get it, so now I'm hustling. I can't work as quickly as in my youth. Crummy hands and wrists, but I'm making good headway, and ought to get a good chunk done.

4. Write up the pattern for the mystery project. OK, this is stretching things a bit. I have given up on doing a lot every day. I'm in some sort of retirement mode, here, you know. On the other hand, I could do the charts; they are pretty easy this time. I love charts that do not show how the pattern will look. All the increases and decreases and such are in the proper place, but you actually have to knit it up to see the effect of those stitches.

I might even make a decent supper. Nah. That's going too far.

Yesterday the Hubbo and I went to New Hope, PA. We go every once in a while, but haven't been in probably a year. We tend to get sidetracked at Stockton, or Lambertville, or such, but this time we actually made it. The entire population of NJ and PA, plus a bunch of New Yorkers were there. Crazy busy, but we got a good parking spot in the shade, and had a very nice lunch. We browsed through some wonderful gift shops, where I mentally made at least 20 wish lists, none of which will actually happen. But still...

Sometimes I wish we had a 10 room house. Then I could decorate each room differently, but the fact is that we don't decorate. I'd like to, but the Hubbo is so not into it, and gets cheap on me, and frankly, I don't have the energy to fight him on it. I know this is wimpy of me, but I'd rather fight other battles. Unfortunately the result is that I don't much care what things look like, and that is really not me underneath it all. When we moved here, I had grand ideas, none of which have worked out, except that I did get a very nice kitchen. But otherwise, the house looks confused and not put together, and because I've stopped caring, it's also gotten beyond sloppy. Not good. One of these years......

Well, I did finish a project. One that I started maybe last April: yet another of my crochet scarves.



Do you recognize the pattern? It's the same one as the den blankie, which is about half done. Very very relaxing to do, pretty much mindless, and it was a great travel project.



The Linus Blankie is coming along nicely. This might be my favorite crochet blankie stitch. It really is so auto-pilot and soothing to do. I may have to buy more yarn, and it may not be the same dye-lot, but it won't matter here since the colors are all separated from each other.



OK, I have work to do. The yarn has been soaking for a good long time, and it's now ready for some dyeing. Needless to say, there won't be pics of it tomorrow. We have to keep those sotm folks surprised.

KV - It just isn't worth the energy, or is it? I don't know. Living in beauty used to mean a great deal to me. It still does but I'm just not into major battles any more. Ah the wimp in me.

DJNL - I think it must bother me a lot underneath it all because last night I dreamed that we lived in a beautifully decorated house. Hah. Ah well, I would rather knit or crochet or whatever anyhow, so I'm with you. Life is too short to worry about such things. Or is it?

Happiness is air conditioning!

Ah, Air Conditioning!

I love it when people say that they don't believe in air conditioning. We would get customers like that all the time in my library days. They'd come into the library and stay for a long time. Then, on the way out, they would dramatically sigh and complain about the heat. So, me, being a kindly soul, would ask them if they had AC at home. "Oh, NO! We don't believe in air conditioning!" What I didn't say, being somewhat nice, was: "So, if you don't believe in AC, why are you in the library?" I didn't even roll my eyes. It seems to me that if you don't believe in AC, then you should avoid it like the plague. But I didn't say that, 'cause I am a kindly, gentle, lady-like person.

We're heading towards 96 today, which is a far sight better than yesterday's 102. And in the spirit of total optimism, I dyed woolly yarn yesterday. The yarn is my new Bambi, 80/20 SW merino/bamboo, so it's not all wool, but still. The basement, AKA my dyeing studio, was relatively cool yesterday morning, so I did my thing, and after it cooked, I let it dry out in the heat. I guess that temp is good for something.

So here we are, and the colors are really very very nice.

Berry Buckle




Corn




Eliza




Dilly




Felicia




Redwood




Peacock




You like? You want? email me at fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com

I'm going to make myself some iced tea and have a bit of lunch. What else can you do in this heat? Just relax, enjoy the AC (and no, I don't keep the house cold, but yes, I use it), and think of January. In 6 months, we'll all be complaining about the cold. So it goes.

Jen - Thanks. I had a good time dyeing them.

Scrabblequeen - I think you're correct. I often wonder if the same people who don't believe in AC, don't believe in heat in the winter.

itsJUSTme - I knew someone who bought a car without AC, but had the open sun roof. She bought it in winter, and then regretted it in summer!

Pretty new bamboo/merino yarns tomorrow!

Did you have a nice weekend? We had such a lovely one. Saturday we trooped into Manhattan to see my niece's art at her first gallery showing. She's mighty talented. The show's over, otherwise I'd give you the address. Well, it was on 21 Ludlow, down in the Canal Street area.

We met my sister, the artist's boyfriend's mom and her daughter and friend, and elder DD. Chatted non-stop. The poor Hubbo was totally outnumbered. Poor guy. Had a nice lunch and then went on our separate ways. We got into the city early, so first we went to Kinokuniya, where I got yet another crochet book. That store is very dangerous to knitters and crocheters and all sorts of crafty people.

Sun, we did the Fourth of July barbecue thing with our dearest friends and elder DD. Great food and company, and we have leftovers. Yes!

And yesterday we futzed around and went out for lunch. We found a Ruby Tuesdays, and we were soooo smart. Before they seated us, I asked for the nutritional info on the dishes. That's my new tactic for chain restaurants. Am I glad I asked, too! You cannot imagine the amount of sodium these dishes have! Some of them had way over 3000 mg of sodium. Nobody needs that, nobody. It's totally unhealthy! I settled on an appetizer and added the salad bar, and that worked very well. My dish was pretty reasonable in calories, fat, and salt, and the salad bar was great with fresh veggies and stuff. And I didn't starve, and wasn't deprived.

Off to hang out the skeins to dry in the heat. We've hit 100 degrees now. Blech.

Pretty yarns tomorrow.

The Yarnarian is trying to be organized. HAH!

What's On Tap for Today!

Wotft (what's on tap for today): bank (as in I'm walking around with $7!); visit the Mommie and bring her her nice clean clothing (poor woman is down to not much); post office (sigh); butcher (I need ground meat for the 4th of July barbecue and also some chicken); and, if I have time: the Farmers' Market!

Exactly how much will I actually accomplish? Who knows. Oh, and I may bake bread today also. It's cool and I need to bake while the temps are low because we're heading into the 90's again.

Projects: I worked on the den blankie as usual. This thing is getting heavy and big. It's going to be the perfect cuddle blankie when I'm done with it.



More work on the Project Linus blankie. I think I'm going to have fun playing with blankies for this group. Small sizes, and I get to experiment. No wool at all, so I'm using nylon and acrylic. The trick is to find it in DK weight. Snuggly yarn is perfect for this. It all has to be machine washable and no wool, but Snuggly is soft and pretty.



And a bit of blankie knitting. I have ideas for this one. Big ideas. If they work, then I'm going to do some sort of wonderful adult something-or-other with it. Anyhow, here is the very beginning of the project. Snuggly yarn and size 6 knitting needle (I think. I just grabbed something and it seems to work)



OK, I have objectives to accomplish. Off to do them. (I'd rather knit and crochet.)

itsJUSTme - It used to work. Now to get it in gear again. That's hard for me.