The Yarnarian Loves Being Retired!

But only for the next week or so. It's really tough to take time off when you work out of your house. But I'm a smart cookie occasionally, so I put Etsy into vacation mode, and now can relax.

So what does a retired from retirement person do all day long? I knit, went to the dentist, bank, knit lots more. Trumpets here: I actually made a good supper. From scratch. On time. Even early. and, Enjoyed it! And I knit some more, watched House, knit, computed but only a little bit, and guess what, I knit some more. Finished a book. And, you got it, KNIT!

I even contemplated dyeing up some yarn to take with me, but nah, I have tons of yarn from my pre-dyeing days, and there's a skein of Schaefer Anne in reds that's calling me. It wants to be a lacy scarf. Told me so. And for reasons that I don't understand, there are 2 skeins of Tofutsies that somehow crept into the stash bin, and they are calling me too.

And by the time I get back to reality, I'll be really ready to come back to my little business. Time off is good for the soul, and for the knitting, too.

Warning: Rant ahead. Read at your own risk.

Soapbox Rant: A couple of months ago I ran into a crank on Ravelry. We are talking an opinionated, cranky, pain in the butt. OK, that describes me, but no, this isn't me. This is a real grouch. Bad Hubbo, if you're reading this, it's not me. NO, no no!

This is one of those people who always contradicts you no matter what you say. You say red; she says blue. And she's vocal about it. Very intelligent, but so are all Rav people. Knitters are smart people. And she voices her opinion from on high. If she says it, it is the truth. Because she Knows. Those of us who do not agree with her are mere plebeians (sp? I think it should be spelled Plebians, but spell check doesn't agree).

So what am I ranting about? I was thinking the other day that people like her, with negative opinions about Everything, must be unhappy people. When all you can find in this glorious world is stuff to complain about; when you are high and mighty and know it all and the rest of us are stupid, well, I just don't think that you can be happy within yourself.

Don't get me wrong; healthy dissent is obligatory to a democracy, good for the soul, challenging, but do you have to make it your total persona? Is there nothing that pleases you? Are you so well-educated that the rest of us are below your feet? Hey, we have Ph.D's, M.D.'s, all sorts of Big Brains in the family. They are up there on the intelligence scale, but they don't set themselves up as being the experts on everything.

End of rant. That was good. I haven't had a good rant in a long time.

That brings me to the topic of happiness. I'll spare you that lecture today, 'cause I'm going to the gym and I'm, ahem, knitting. I am on vacation, you know!

Knitting news: My little scarf that I started the other day is motoring along. It's so easy peasy once you get the count established. And me, being me, already knows what's next on the needles.

Here it is, over 22" long and growing. Click on it to get the full picture.



Here are my yarns to maybe take with me. The skeined one is from Fleece Artist. It's been gently aging for about 3 years. The Anne is the balled up one, and the one on the far left is some cotton/wool thingie that I like.



Skeppie - Nope you don't know the object of my rant. I don't want to know her either. Hah! Aren't these quizzes the goofiest things going?

Henya - Ain't it the truth? I think there are professional grouches out there; they live to complain loudly and often. Feh on them.

The brain in my head goes round and round!

I have vertigo. As in, the brain in my head goes round and round! The room doesn't spin, inside my head does. Plus the gut is not happy. This is not a rant; this is a qvetch, a whine, a complain. On the positive side, I don't have to go to work. Oh frabjous day, calloo callay, I chortle in my joy! From Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky.

In the olden days of yore, when I felt like this, not sick enough to stay in bed, but certainly not well enough to go to work, I'd have to go to work anyway. You know, coverage, meetings, schedules and all that stuff. So since I've retired, I've felt quite healthy, and I forgot about the yuchiness factor. Well, today and yesterday, I've been under the weather, whatever that means. How can you be under the weather? Under the covers, ok, but the weather? In my reference librarian mode, I'd look up that phrase, but I'm feeling poorly, so I don't have to do it. This is a reverse qvetch: I'm finding the positives of the other side of grousing. Oh, Piffle to it all. It's mighty boring. There was a point to this paragraph, but darned if I remember what it was.

On the good news department. The computer is ready!!!!! My sweet Hubbo will pick it up tonight. As soon as everything is installed, I'm going to load up my new Knit Visualizer program.

I wanted to dye up some yarn today. If I feel more human, I'll try in the afternoon. I'm thinking of the following combinations:

1. teal, pink, blue and green.
2. yet another stab at recreating Rainbow Brown. Uh huh. Maybe.
3. green, white, brown
4. something with a dark lilac, because I have a new dye that I want to play with.
5. all of the above, none of the above.

Sock Club news: I have #2 of the socks almost finished. This one is a humdinger (do you hum while you ding?). Very easy in graph form. And then you start to knit it. You have to pay attention because the visual clues are not apparent. But whadda pattern! So, all of your non-clubbers get to say: "When do we get to see a pic?" Sometime after the second pkg has been mailed out. I have to tell you that this is a seriously lovely and irritating pattern. I finally had to resort to the scratch mark method because I couldn't tell where I was in the rows. But, wow, is it worth it.

Update: Do you think that my brain has gone south for a bit? I finished the above sock, cast on for the second one, worked about 1 inch when I discovered that somehow I had twisted it. OK, this hasn't happened in a gazillion years, but ok. Cast on again, counted my stitches, joined my stitches, worked the first round only to discover that I had cast on 2 few stitches. Did the same thing again only to discover that this time I had cast on 2 too many. Sigh. OK, it's time to put the needles down and do something else.

Good Morning!

HI,
This is my first blog so I'd like to tell you a little about myself.

I'm a newly refreshing librarian with a passion for knitting and dyeing. Why am I refreshing? Because retirement means retiring from the world; refreshing means diving into new things. I've been knitting for over 40 years, which makes me a well-seasoned knitting broad. I started dyeing sock yarn this summer, and am totally obsessed with it.

I see color everywhere. When I go to an art gallery, the first thing I see in a painting is the overall picture, and then immediately I notice the colors. When I'm outside or driving, I see color. Now that I'm dyeing yarn, I get to play with my color interactions. My poor husband gets to hear me say: "Oooh, look at those colors. I bet I could reproduce them in yarn."

The dyeing has gotten to the point where I can't keep up my knitting with my dyeing. So, I opened an Etsy site:

http://fritzl.etsy.com

to deal with the overload. This way I can dye as much as I want and someone else can knit the yarn.

I have to tell you that I'm emotionally attached to the dyed yarn. Those skeins are my babies. Hey, we all have our weird moments.

What do I like to knit: Socks, sweaters, lace shawls. I like everything except intarsia. That I hate with a passion.

Please join me as I embark on this new, exciting time of my life.