President's Day Weekend

I can't believe it's been a month plus since I posted! You'd think it had been really busy and that lots of wonderful things occurred, and you'd be only partially right.

We've had the weirdest weather! Days where the high was 17* followed by 52* a couple of days later. Snow falls, then melts - seems like there have already been 2 mud seasons! Got an inch of snow last night, next predictions now are for snow next Thursday and Friday.

My retirement gifts from my employer finally arrived -  took almost 4 months. I opted for a new watch (it was time, my old watch was a gift from my ex-husband before we got married - thinking 1985 or so) which seems like such an old-fashioned choice. The crystal commemorative "thing" remains in the box. It's lovely and heavy, and I'm not sure where to put it. Finally, the leather-bound certificate is interesting. I don't have an "I love me" wall or area for things like this yet - or maybe never.

Starting Socks

Ever since I can remember (or at least for the last 20 years) every so often I start a bunch of first socks, usually between 5 and a dozen.  This is the year as I'm in the throes of completing the last 2 second socks from the batch started just before we moved, so in 2019.

This time I started 12 socks and 1 is already almost complete and 2 are a couple of inches in. The rest have the 12 row cuff I usually use all complete and they are ready to start the legs. Now anytime I need to "purse sock" to work on while waiting I'll have at least 1 available.  And here they are!

There are a wide variety of sock yarns represented: Opal, Opal Sport, Paton's Kroy, Brown Sheep Wildfoote, West Yorkshire Spinners, Knit Picks Tweed, and Drops Fabel. Also needles: my favorite Crystal Palace 6" bamboos, various brands of metal, 9" circulars, Flexi-Flips, Carbon Fiber. 

The 2 that are further along are in my bag now; I'll add a photo when I remember!

Miscellaneous Stuff

Finally started Physical Therapy for my knees in mid-January, and it seems to be helping. Last week I started using the wonderful heated lap pool for water aerobics type exercises in addition to the work with thera bands, a TENS unit, and kinesio tape. I'm walking better than I have since before we moved, and my knees don't feel like they're going to give way; I would do this 2x a week for forever if possible.

Still unpacking and sorting yarn and fabric. I've given away 2 bags full in the knitting group I go to, and the recipients are actually using it!  Still more to go, but I've passed the halfway mark.

Still resolving some issues with Medicare, 401k, and such but we seem to be on the downhill side of it, finally. Prescriptions are arriving automatically as they should, and PT is 100% covered so I am a happy camper.

Mid-January Update

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the middle of January. It's odd to observe a holiday when retired - the only real difference between today and any other Monday is no mail delivery.

We finally got a good snowfall last week - about 15" over 2 days. Then we had 2 days in the 50s (which wasn't enough to melt a lot of snow!) and 2" of rain on top of the remaining snow. Yesterday we had a snow squall that lasted about 30 minutes and dumped almost 2" of new snow.

There is a river in the center of the photo, and woods on the other side of the river. Glad we weren't out driving when it hit!

Yarn and Fabric

Still going through boxes of yarn, fabric, craft supplies and such. Lots of items that make me wonder why they were moved - 3 or 4 of every tablecloth color because we often had dinners for 20+ people, for example - and yet I know why: the packers packed everything in their path before I had a chance to purge. 

I have found quite a lot of "I wondered where that was" yarn and fabric. Sadly there's also rather a lot of "why did I buy that" and "did I buy that?" which is being taken to knitting group first and then donated to the senior center knitters. One bunch of yarn that I was happy to see again was this brown Boss Tweed from Crystal Palace, and the sweater it was destined to become!

I loved this pattern and the Boss Tweed yarn the first time I saw it, and knew I wanted to knit it someday. In 1994 I had no idea I'd ever move anywhere cold enough to wear a heavy sweater like this, but it marinated in stash long enough to be a viable option.

Started the first sleeve on Christmas Day, during football games, and finished it on New Year's Eve. Started the second sleeve on New Year's Day and finished it on January 8. Back is started, but of course I'm now having "do I have enough yarn" anxiety even though I bought enough for the largest size back in 1994!  It's unlikely I'll be able to find more even on eBay, and I should just get over my fears and push on.  If needed, I can add more braids on the bottom, with fringe only on the last one - there is a plan.

Startitis is rearing its ugly head, and I'm going with the flow. This is a hobby, and I can start as many projects as I want, and if I choose not to finish them that's ok. They can be unraveled and the yarn used again or donated, or whatever.

My "quilt queen" friend is helping me choose the my first serious quilt to start.  I have lots of options.  I know I'm not skilled enough to do some of them successfully, others might bore me to tears, There has to be some challenge to the piecing, with a reasonable change of success so it will be interesting to see what jumps to the front of that queue.

Miscellaneous Stuff

All the Medicare plans are finally squared away, with the exception of the one that double billed me in January which will be dealt with this week. I had no idea how much time would be involved in setting up a Part G, Dental, and Prescription plans and getting the dates for Part A and Part B for both of us corrected, but it took about 15 to 20 hours a week for 3 months!  I already reaping the benefits of it - physical therapy for my knee is 100% covered.

Ringing out 2023

2023 was a interesting year, not necessarily in the Chinese curse way of "may you live in interesting times". The times were interesting, and on balance it was a good year.  

* The IRS said it owed me money (not a lot, but I'll take it!)

* I retired after working full time since the mid-70s! Totally strange and disconcerting.

* No resolutions tonight, no customs to guarantee a good year, just hopes and good intentions to make it so.

And now I'm going to do something I haven't done in at least 15 years when home: I'm shutting down my electronics for the evening to spend some lovely time with my honey.

Happy New Year!

 

Some Progress!

I've been retired for 5 weeks now, and can report that last week I started not hating it!  I still miss the regimentation of a work schedule and haven't gotten myself into a new schedule, but some of the irritation of prior weeks is gone.

Last week was huge in the grand scheme of retirement projects. My boxes of fabric and yarn and other crafting supplies are no longer in the unlighted, unheated shed and are instead all over the house.  There are 97 of them, but so far I've found at least 12 that are not crafting at all, and some aren't even my stuff. I am doing a review and purge of each box before moving things into the sewing room, and it's amazing the things that moved with me. It's overwhelming, but I'm trying to deal with 2 or 3 boxes a day.

The first box of fabric had several 3 or 4 yard lengths of 60" wide wool and wool blends, clearly destined to be pantsuits or skirt suits for work in the financial district of San Francisco!  Since that's no longer a priority, and I have plenty of pantsuits, that fabric will be donated. There are several more boxes with similar contents. 

Some of the yarn boxes are filled with single or 1-2 skeins lots bought to knit baby sweaters for my nieces and nephew, all of whom are in their 30s now and who are parents to my grand nieces and nephews, most of whom are already pre-teens. I will be donating that yarn as well although I will be keeping most of the sweater sized lots for the time being.

I have been knitting most nights, and other times too, and I've been invited to join a couple of knitting groups!  These socks were finished in early October and I love them - Opal of some sort, my standard pattern except that I did the heels turns differently because I forgot which one I used on sock 1!  I don't think it matters, and I did want to try different ones at some point. The colors are much more "southwest", more rust or cinnamon than tan.  One of yesterdays boxes was sock yarn; at least 2 dozen Opals, and I know there's another box of Opal somewhere!

The weather has rather suddenly turned gray and cold, nasty really, with strong winds that make it unpleasant to be outside for very long.  I don't remember previous Novembers being like this and neither do my Facebook memories; I hope it returns to the normal crisp autumn days before winter really sets in.  I notice it more now than when I was working because there are things I'd do outside if it wasn't so raw and dreary.

That's all for now - another update with another finished project very soon!

 The More Things Change...

It's been a while since I last posted, and it's time to try again.  This time there's a better chance that I can keep it up because I just retired from my wonderful, crazy-making, demanding job after 15 years!

That's 15 years working for this company, and a total of 55 years working - yeah, it was time. And it's been hard.  I first told my boss I would be retiring by mid-March, then end of June, then August 5, then September 5, and finally October 6.  Difficult for me to stick to a date - there's always something going on at the office, and I loved my team and the work that we did.

So what do I expect to post about now?  In no particular order:

• Knitting
• Piecing quilts
• Reupholstering furniture
• Resuscitating my sour dough starter and making bread
• Learning Italian
• Gardening
• Genealogy
• Unpacking the final boxes from our move
• General sewing
• Needlework (needlepoint, crewel, embroidery)
• Touring New Hampshire
• Getting a Ham Radio License
• Reading more books
• Learning to weave - I have 2 looms, so it's time!
• Finishing the living and dining room, also tv viewing area

I'm sure there are other things too.  Short term things, like getting my office rearranged and turned into an exercise studio/office and organizing my sewing room better.  Cooking more - and more meatless meals - is high on my list.  Getting out to meet people; Covid made it very hard to meet people right after we moved here and making friends has been slow.  

I've been nervous about not working and hoping that all that free time doesn't turn into time spent on the computer.  That would be just like work!

An Anniversary, of sorts

My first blog, Yellow Rose Ramblings, made its debut on January 25, 2003, or just over 18 years ago!  It was followed on December 16 of that year with Furball Farm, which may be a more accurate depiction of my life.  

I think we had 16 14 cats then - who knows?  It all runs together after a while.  I had to check with the old blog, and what a hoot that was!  We'd just found our late cat FullHouse when Furball Farm started.  He was a lovely 14 year old when he died, shortly before we moved to New Hampshire.

At one point, it seems that blogs were topic-specific, hence the separate blogs for cat tales and for the rest of my life. I never pretended to have a knitting blog because I am not a fast knitter, and I don't follow the "flavor of the month" yarn or designer on a regular basis.  The blog has always been more of a diary of what's going on, what I'm making or doing or growing, or even cooking - sort of a slice of my relatively boring life.

I've not been a prolific blogger the past few years - too much work, too little time, not enough knitting.  I blogged regularly on BlogCity, and when they went kaput the blog bounced around quite a bit, looking for a place to call home.  It seems very strange to end up where I started!

The grind of moving is over and now it's time to begin getting back to a normal life, doing the things I love. And along the way, I've begun piecing quilts, in much the same way I knit: too many projects going at any one time, and too many dancing around in my head.

2021 has a different feel to it.  I'm more energized and more ready to share what's going on.  I want to give the blog a little more space, a little more consideration, and perhaps even a little more love.  Heaven knows, the world can use all the love it can get, and KnitsWithCats provides me with the space to spread a little of that love around.

I want a do-over!

I think we can all agree that 2020 was not the year we expected.  It certainly wasn't the year I expected when last I posted - I'd done everything possible to ensure a good year - the food, the rituals, the cleaning - and it just had no impact whatsoever.  We had a pandemic that got longer and longer and still haunts us, we had an election that was contested for no reason, and I'm sure there were other issues that I've forgotten.

At any rate, even if I want a do-over, it's not going to happen, so it's up to me to make 2021 behave and be the very best it can be for me and those I love, wherever they are.

So, at the end of December, I didn't kill myself to have a spotless house (difficult when there's still some construction happening, and boxes to unpack), or to have the perfect "good luck" meal - except for black-eye peas, which are good anyway - or to observe the various rituals.  We had a quiet evening, drank Prosecco, toasted the New Year and watched "Lovejoy" on Acorn for hours. It was a grand start to 2021.

So we can never speak of it again, and so I have a list of photos to post in the coming weeks, here's a wrap for 2020:

1. Spent way too much time working.  The Paycheck Protection Program and other bills targeting COVID-19 economic issues had us (my team and I) working 70 hour weeks for way too many months.  I did manage to take a lot of Fridays off, due to the company policy that limits my vacation carryover to 40 hours.  That has to be taken by March 15, so Friday off will continue.

2.  We did a lot of work on the new old house.  The master suite was finished and we moved into the bedroom and office, as well as a couple of closets.  I love the deck, and the view.  

3.  Despite our excellent timing (ripped the kitchen out starting March 1) we managed a complete kitchen remodel by the end of August.  We changed the orientation of the kitchen, ripped out 4 walls, created an eating area, a den, and a laundry room, and we love it!

4. Knitting and quilt piecing mostly did not happen.  I spent hours sitting at night holding my knitting needles and yarn, totally unable to knit even 1 stitch.  Still, I managed to finish 1 sweater that needed 2 seams sewn for 5 years, and 1 sock.  Embroidery also stood still.  Somedays I was able to stitch 1 length of floss, but not more.

I was so envious of knitters and quilters on social media who posted a new sweater or sock or quilt or other project every week or so.  Due to the issues mentioned above, and the fact that work was more intense when we all worked from home and couldn't go out, I was less productive than in many years.

5. My first New England vegetable garden was a success, much to everyone's surprise.  Tomatoes that weight almost 2 pounds, Rainbow chard that produced until Thanksgiving, lots of lovely basil - I can't wait to plant again in 2021.

So here's to blogging more often, and reconnecting with the self I feel has been pushed aside.  She's ready to come back and be present and connect with people in 2021!