The White Stuff

Oh, oh, oh-oh-oh🎶...oh, oh, oh-oh 🎵...

Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh🎶, the right stuff!

No-no-no...the "white" stuff! Because after I blogged last week, the white stuff came...and came, and came! 

We had tickets to a show downtown, so we did not snuggle up and knit all day. We got on a bus at the YMCA, and headed out in a blizzard to see the most depressing musical I've ever seen, Parade. LOL...

See those smiles? We didn't really know what we were there to see yet, and we were happy to travel with a pleasant bunch of seniors to lunch and a show...especially since we had a professional driver through the snow.

Spoiler Alert: Parade is the story of a Jewish man wrongly accused of murdering a young teenager. Despite the writeup of how hopeful and artistic this revived musical is, recounting the tale of love and devotion between the main characters (which it does well), the story does not end well for Leo Frank. It was very well done, but it was also a very hard watch. 

When we got home, I hunkered down with my needles and took advantage of the snow as a photo prop for the first shock of a pair!

The winter weather has continued this week, and by the time this weekend rolled around, there was fresh powder on the giant snow pile plowed from our neighborhood streets and driveways. It was the perfect opportunity for little (and big) boys to climb and play!

And yesterday, I started a new project, which is always a lift! Just like the weather, this afghan will be mostly white. 

It'll be awhile until it is impressive to look at, but I've finished the pink socks, 

and the afghan was the next thing on my list...well, after the shamrocks and clover (St Patrick's Day is coming)!

There hasn't been much yarnwork today, since this crew has been "in the house" overnight, so I'll sign off here. 

Thumbs down to no knitting!

Thumbs up to pancakes!

Naptime is nearly over, and playtime is just around the corner!

Thanks for stopping by and Knit in Good Health!

Sledding vid here, just for funsies! 

It Is Good

Today is the day I tell you about my new job! I know I said I'd tell you about it "next week" (which would have been last week), but I really didn't have much to tell before I'd even started...so, I'm happy to report today that I've received a very warm welcome. 

With a full five days under my belt, I have confirmed that this was totally the right move. Even though there was (and still is) a boatload of new knowledge to absorb and assimilate, I've been given a sense of autonomy already, and I'm starting to exhale. Having a couple of my favotite things on my desk helps me remember to breathe when I feel overwhelmed.

And the knitting. I've made a mitten or two on my lunch breaks, and having the chance to reset in the middle of my day is good for my mind, body and soul!

I am tired at the end of my day, and it is good. The work is challenging, and comfortable, and it is good. The people I work with are intelligent, helpful and kind, and it is good. My supervisors are interested in my work and in who I am as a person, and it is good. 🙂 My commute has been, well, pretty snowy! 

It's actually not a bad commute, a little less than twice as long as my last commute (which was a whole eight minutes, lol!), and mostly highway. Still, I miss the worst of rush hour, both because of my actual hours and because I'm driving west in the morning and east in the afternoon! (Our "big city" is east of my house.) So, even my commute is good!

Yes, this is a transition. It's actually many transitions: Part-time to full-time; double the commute, surface streets to highway; jeans to more professional dress (for which I've been shopping!); church office to educational service office. But just as I've praised God for so many opportunities to do good work in church (and other) offices and settings, I am praising God again for this change!

What are you praising God for this week? Drop a comment to let me know. I'll be waiting to hear from you, cozy inside, probably knitting and maybe putting together some comfort food for later.

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

Snowy Spring Saturday

Happy Spring, Northeast Ohio! Isn't it lovely that we woke up to a delicate blanket of SNOW this morning? Lol...

It is actually quite beautiful, with the only real hitch being the annual Easter Egg Hunt at church! Despite the white, the egg hunt went on as planned (mostly) with kiddos clamoring for their eggs indoors, rather than in the grass...and everyone had fun. Super yay!

And knitters everywhere in Northeast Ohio are taking up their needles for some cozy stitching to pass the time without getting muddy and cold. Add in a lovely cup of tea, and this weekend will not turn out half bad!

For me, there is also an upcoming birthday, with some grand toy-knitting planned, which makes for a cozy, knitting weekend indeed! Can you guess what I've got up my knitting sleeve? 

Also, it's just one week until we celebrate Easter, so this week will be busy at work. therefore, I'm going to take whatever down-time I can get this weekend...still relishing in a recently-finished project that will make Taylor Swift fans everywhere smile.

This tiny, cabled, baby cardigan is based on my favorite sweater pattern (available as a pattern generator at knittingfool.com), with the cable and twist elements added in. It took about 4 days to knit in fingering-weight cotton, and it's taking about 2 days to dry after its spa treatment (soak and block). Oh, cotton. You love water so...

So, there are socks on the needles, and surprises for the soon-to-be Birthday Boy (our youngest grandson turns TWO next month), and the weekend has provided the perfect weather for knitting. Are the planets aligned, or what?!? 

Tell me something that is going RIGHT for you today! I hope there's more than one thing, but even if things don't seem to be going your way, I hope you can find one good thing to celebrate on this cozy Saturday.

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

I Got Your Back!

My quest for the perfect self-striping sock yarn for my Bright Axis sweater took me to an unexpected place this week. The land of canes and steroid packs for hip and back pain...

Don't worry about me too much, I'm fine...but I am moving a little slower. I'm not sure what I did exactly, but that hip pain that concerned me (please let my hip replacement be okay, and it is, whew!) was determined to be muscular, lower back pain. It was severe for a couple days, and I am eternally grateful to good friends who "had my back," so to speak! (Thanks for the fancy, flowered cane, Ruthann! It is just what I needed for physical and emotional support this week!)

With my extra down time, I shopped all the self-striping yarn dyers I love, and happened upon a perfect match sock set in the "Sesame" colorway from Must Stash Yarns! I've been lusting after this colorway for years, and just happened upon it this time...super yay! I mean, just look!

Some of the girls at our Thursday CKW Knit Night were having a "winding party," so I brought my new yarn (and my cane) with me, and look how perfect it's going to be: 

While I waited for Thursday, I worked on a new sock for one of our granddaughters in KP Felici. Sunset is the colorway, stunning is the sock!

All that knitting and planning has been therapeutic, and I am getting back to my old self! I am also getting ready to find my way to Sesame Street on my Bright Axis! Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street? These boys are excited to help me, as long as Sesame Street is at the bottom of this snowy hill! Lol...

Hahaha! One of them is way more into winter sports than the other, but they both love to be outside, in general! Pop Pop loves to be outside, too, so he's got their backs! 

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

Snow A-Plenty

Well, they said it would happen. We know that living in Northeast Ohio pretty much guarantees that we will see snow in winter, so we were prepared, pretty much planning to just stay home on Thursday. Still, when Wednesday wandered in, I wondered if the predicted snow had been blown out of proportion, as it sometimes is.

But I had a significant project to work on, and that kept my mind off the snow. Access to almost endless hot cocoa, paired with mindless garter stitches, kept me calm and carefree as the snow approached.

And even though it was calm and cozy inside from sunrise (top) to sunset (bottom),

the predicted snow came. It came, and it kept coming,

and coming, 

and coming, 

and coming!

We even got a little fresh powder overnight last night! It sure is pretty out there!

So pretty, and so cold! Good thing I have a fresh shipment of yarn, in all the colors, to keep me busy indoors! 

How are you staying warm today? If you are Pat and Don, you are just living your life...in Florida! (Hi Pat and Don!) But for those of you who live a little more north, like me, I hope you have yarn and warm treats to keep you toasty and occupied!

Before I go, may I share a bit of wisdom from a friend? Franklin posted this as part of a longer post, and I see so much wisdom in it that I wanted to pass it along (with his permission, of course): 

"Let people enjoy their moments of happiness, y'all. Let them have their little victories.

If they don't ask for notes, don't give them any. Don't suggest how they can do it better next time. Just let them have the moment." 

I share this, having been on both the advice giving and receiving end of those notes. I tend to always think that my advice is helpful...but when I get unsolicited, "helpful and corrective" advice after achieving a small victory, that's just annoying. I'm going to try hard to be better at not giving advice like that, and I am NOT going to tell you the best way to shovel your driveway, or knit your sweater, or cook your dinner today. I'm just going to be glad that you've cleared the drive for my visit, so we can knit and break bread together, and I hope that you will do the same. 

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

PS - Franklin and I are social media friends only. He lives faraway, I've never known him in a face-to-face way, and I am sure our opinions differ on many things. Still, I like him a bunch, and I think he is one cool cat! As with many of my online friends, I am glad that we are friends, even though I can't call him to borrow a cup of sugar. Shipping that sugar would surely be cost prohibitive anyway!

Inny or Outy?

This is the weekend we have waited for! The springtime Knitters' Weekend at Lakeside! I covered myself way ahead of time for both work and church duties...it is going to be the first time I can stay from beginning to end and not miss any of the shenanigans! 

So, you see, coronavirus is clearly my fault. 

Isn't there some saying about "best laid plans" and "impending doom?" I mean, that might not be exactly what the quote is, but it feels that way today...waking up in my own house...having breakfast alone in the front room, and not in the bright kitchen of the lake house...knitting all by myself until my hubby wakes up and takes his place in the other room with his coffee.

For what it's worth, we are not socially distancing from one another, he just likes his own space. As a matter of fact, he kinda digs social distancing in an "everyone is finally just getting out of my way!" kind of way. Yes, the introverts are doing mostly ok.

Introverts who live with extroverts? Yeah. Pray for them. Pray for them a lot!

I know there are lots of posts all over social media about "A List of Things I've Learned by Staying Home," but I have my own list. Like, I think the cats, or at least Black Cat is actively stalking me. I mean, she may have been doing this all along, but today she is just lurking around every corner...

I am pretty sure she was planning to take advantage of my hands being full of clean laundry to knock me down the stairs this morning, until she saw the camera. 

Even cats don't want to leave behind photo evidence.  Look at the "innocence" in her eyes as she lurks behind me even now...

I foiled her plans on the steps...which is good, because there were cookies in the oven.

Yes, it was 10am, and there were cookies in the oven. By 10:15 I had eaten three. 

I wonder...if I bake all of the cookies (I usually freeze some of the dough), will any last until Sunday? I suppose it doesn't matter. I should fit into my stretchy pants for at least the next 20 or 30 pounds...and with April snow, the extra "fluff" is good for insulation, sooooo Cookie Me!

At least I have the knitting. I have finished three bunnies, a couple of sweaters, three gnomes and two pair of socks...

Thankfully, I am nowhere near running out of yarn, but I did manage to do a teensy bit of online shopping last night...and there was yarn involved. Please don't judge...I have a gnome for that.

So, friends, how are you holding up? Are you an "inny" (Introvert: I kinda like staying away from people anyway; I'll stay in, no problem.) or an "outy" (Extrovert: I WILL HUG THE STUFFING OUT OF ALL OF YOU WHEN THIS IS OVER! I MISS MY PEOPLE!!!) in all of this, and what are you doing to cope? 

If you are looking for a hobby, yarn and needles are available online, and there are learn-to-knit classes all over YouTube! Whatever you do to cope, I hope that you are coping well, and remember that it is a good time to relive your teen years by talking on the phone for hours. 

Thanks for stopping by, from the comfort of your home, and Knit in Good Health!

Life Together

There has been a lot of winter lately. Snow...

and ice...

and more snow...

Because of this, and because I know that there is a lot of winter yet to come (even though it should hit 40 degrees this afternoon), I am glad to see the stripey sweater steadily springing forth, stitch by stripey stitch!

I am also glad for hot coffee, and indoor activities, like blogging and knitting!

Something else that I am thankful for is a reminder I received at church last weekend. It goes something like this, from Hebrews, chapter 10:

In short, the highlighted verses tell us to do life together. We were created to do this thing called life on earth, and to do it in the company of others, helping each other along the way. But although I am a pretty social butterfly, doing life together is difficult for this Pretty. There are some parts that come pretty naturally to me, like being a safe place for others to land when the storms of life rock their worlds. Empathy, sympathy and quiet support come naturally to me, and I have held hands that were wrought with grief, shaking with uncertainty and bound with anger. I have a much harder time putting my own hands into the hands of a friend when I am the one who needs to be held, and I know that I am not alone in this. 

I would like to say that I have gotten better at doing life together, in the interest of bearing one another's burdens, as the Bible also instructs. Maybe I have improved a little. Mostly though, I have convinced myself that I am content to help others, but that I am ok on my own. After all, nobody wants to hear my sad stories. Even if they did, how safe is it really to share my struggles? If I tell you what is going on, it might make you think less of me. If I tell you that I am struggling in the wake of a friend or loved one who has disappointed me, that would be gossip (notoriously bad, according to the Bible, right?), and it might diminish your view of that person. If I let you know that I am not ok, and you understand, does that give me permission to stay not ok? 

I don't want to stay not ok, but I am just there sometimes. These last few years, "not ok" seems to have been my default setting, but this week I am working on it. I had dinner with a good friend, one who knows more of my struggles than most. She "gets" me, and I get her, we are on the same page in so many ways. We have held each other's hands through some pretty hairy stuff in the past few years (job stuff, family stuff, church stuff, life stuff), and I can be vulnerable with her, so this week I was. And she was vulnerable with me, and it was good. We both came away encouraged and loved. I need 1 or 2 friends like this in my life, and I really need to make my time with them a priority if I ever want to change my default back to "ok."

We all need a friend or two that we can be completely vulnerable with, even when it is ugly. I often wonder what would be different in our lives if my brother-in-law had had someone to do life with, rather than feeling so alone in his grief and despair. I wonder what would be different in my life if I had been better at honestly doing life together before our season of great loss began. What would be different in your life if you started doing life together? Would it change things to know that 1 or 2 good friends have your back, and will encourage you to do good and to love well, no matter what? 

Life is hard. It is better with friends. It can be spectacular with friends and Jesus. My prayer for you is that you find your tribe, and that you can live life abundantly by doing life together. 

Also, if you don't already know how, you should learn to knit. ;o)

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health.