(mis)adventures of spindlerose

Fall

Leaves under this tree

I feel like that red leaf. Fallen, almost flat. I cannot even come up with anything random for Wednesday. I don't know if it is the time change or just the fatigue after a trip and a long day of meetings. Either way, I may skip out on knitting tonight and just go home to sleep.

Saturday Sky

Sunset Ash Tree, Madison, WI

I spent today in Madison hanging out with my brother, his wife, and their kids. We took pictures of a stunning tree, raked leaves, jumped into the leaf pile, and read Dr. Seuss. And visited Lakeside Fibers for coffee and yarn browsing.

Random Wednesday with cute

1. Sunday afternoon my mom, brother and his family, and I went apple and pumpkin picking. Miss Z had her first apple. I did not make any of the handknits she is wearing. The sweater is from Susan.
2. Wisconsin has been lovely except for the pouring rain yesterday.
3. Mom's raspberry bushes are still bearing fruit. We picked 2 quarts this afternoon.
4. I finished a secret knitting project on the plane Saturday morning. Pictures after Rhinebeck.
5. I am knitting a sweater, but it will not be a Rhinebeck sweater this year.

Sad day

I am flying to Wisconsin early tomorrow morning to say good bye to Grandma. She died this afternoon. I will miss her, but remember her every time I pick up my knitting needles.

I look forward to spending time with my family remembering her and Grandpa.

Random Wednesday with sniffles

Roadside Buddha, Maui, May 2009

If that's not random, I don't know what is.

I have spent the week at home with tea, Kleenex, soup, and occasional kitty snuggles. I am on the mend and plan venture to Knit Happens tonight for some knitting and socializing. Between now and then, I need to finish preparing to teach a class tomorrow morning and drink more tea.

Garden fun

So, we rent our townhouse. Everyone else on our block owns theirs and spend a lot of time cultivating their postage stamp gardens. Last summer, ours stuck out like an uncultivated black thumb. I am unwilling to invest in prettier shrubs or perennials for a garden I will leave soon. I travel far too much to cultivate anything that requires more effort than plant and ignore. Back in March, I took shameful advantage of Mom's visit and put her to work helping me weed, plant a few pansies, and mulch our tiny garden. Then it rained a lot in April and May and the pansies exploded.

I am pleased with the results. Our garden is still under-cultivated relative to the neighbors, but it no longer looks so out of place.

How many socks did SpindleRose knit while on vacation?

So, I have been home for over a month, and I never did post the vacation sock contest results. Work and visitors took over for most of June. I did not travel much for a change, I just spent so much time attached to my computer during the workday that I had no desire to fire it up at night. Then we had visitors in and out for the past two weeks—which also required a fair amount of preparatory cleaning and organizing since kids slept in the wool room. First, my college friends Rachel and Hilary and their three boys visited for a long weekend. Then, my sister and her family arrived for a week. I had lots of fun entertaining all those kids, but I have no idea how their parents can do it all day every day. Just a few days wore D and me out.

To answer the big question, I knit about 1/2 of one sock on vacation. I also added a few inches to the summer shell while we shuttled across central Maui getting from our home base at Kanapali to fun activities. Amy was right—there is just too much fun stuff to do in Hawaii to spend time knitting. I knew that, but for some reason I thought I would spend more time knitting at the beach and pool and less time reading. I think I read about 10 novels on the trip (close to one a day on the days we lazed around). The random number generator picked 1 and 8, so the first and last entrants Susan and Angela win.

Amy wins her choice of blue or pink silk yarn from Japan—I'm keeping the other color. Susan and Angela both win a lovely little change purse (also from Japan) that is perfect for storing knitting notions. I found both the yarn and the purses at Yarn & Friends in Honolulu.

Thanks to everyone for commenting and being patient while I completely ignored the blog during June. And here's a new contest for July: I'm closing in on 300 comments. The 300th commenter will win a prize from my bin of handspun yarn.

Home again

I have over 300 photos from vacation to review, organize, and post to Flickr. I also have a bunch of notes and travel recommendations for anyone else headed to Hawaii. What I have not had is time.

We were home for less than 12 hours when one of my account managers asked me to join him for a 2 day visit to North Carolina this week. We had a lot of good meetings, so the 10 hours I spent in the car over Wednesday and Thursday was worth it, but being home is nice too. Barring another surprise trip, I'm home until June 16. I really do love my job, but the travel for the past 6 months or so has been ridiculous.

Check back this weekend for Hawaii contest prizes and more pictures of paradise. Now I've got to get back to work.

The Ides of March

January whooshed by. And so did February and half of March.

Golden Gate Bridge on a rainy Sunday afternoon, February 22, 2009

I'm not quite sure how it got to be March 15. Maybe it was the January trip to California. Or Mom and B's visit for West Side Story and the Inauguration. Or 3 visits to the dentist in as many weeks. Or being on the road every week in February. Or all the little things I've knit so far this year (three pairs of socks already!). But somehow, it is mid-March, and I'm not sure where the days have gone.

Today is cold, dark and dreary; much like the day 3 weeks ago that I spent exploring San Francisco with an old friend. I cheered myself up with a quick visit to the Knit Happens fifth birthday sale this afternoon. I came home with yarn for three sweaters: Decimal from the new Knitty, a tunic from French Girl Knits, and Donegal Tweed Chunky for Debbie Bliss's Inishbeg. I also found enough manly Shaeffer Anne for a pair of over the calf socks for D. That blew today's yarn budget, so I came home to knit (and do laundry and pack) instead of driving to Savage Mills, MD, for the Homespun Yarn Party.

There is more business travel on the calendar for this week (Dallas) and next (Atlanta). Then Sock Camp! I'm off to start my camp homework. Again.

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year! And thanks for visiting in 2008 despite my sporadic posting schedule.

I am happy 2008 is over. It was a rough year in my extended family and for many people I know. Some good happened (D's airplane, success at work), but when I look back over the year, it is the rough stuff that jumps to mind.

I usually set some goals at the beginning of each new year. This year, I am trying to be more like Claudia. I set a few achievable goals several weeks ago and started acting on them immediately rather than waiting for the magical date of January 1 to start eating better and exercising more.

My only knitting goal for 2009 is to finish 12 pairs of socks. I came close, finishing 10 pairs, in 2008. And I finished 2008 with fewer pairs on the needles than at the beginning of the year.