Guess What?

Chicken Butt! 

Wait, wait, wait. That response was appropriate in the summer, when I knit ALL THE CHICKENS, but notsomuch now. Still funnier than the "Poopy Butt!" I get from the grandsons, though. 

"Gramma is a Poopy Butt!" is also fun, but I was talking about the knitting. Because, as you know, I knit. I knit quite a bit. As in, I realized I had a bunch of extra yarn from a sweater, 

so I knit some fingerless gloves.

However, before I was finished with those gloves, I realized they were destined to be a birthday gift, and I gave them away as soon as they were done. The recipient loves them, yay!

Then I cast on another pair last Sunday, 

and they are finished today! I couldn't decide where to take my outside photos, so I tried three locations, in a tree...

on a bench...

and on a tempered and textured glass table...

Which is your favorite? I'm leaning tree or table, but the bench ain't bad either. Hey! It only took me 4 years to find my spots, sooo take your time picking a fave and drop a comment to let me know which you like best (if you want to, no pressure). 

As for me, I'm off to the craft room to pick my next project, and I'll be knitting pretty until then! 😘

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

PS - Did you guess? Did you guess that I was knitting? Lol...

March On!

It is March. A couple weeks ago, we had a fairly deep freeze and significant snow...

Followed by some promise-of-spring weather,  where I knit outside on my lunch break, in nearly-60-Farenheit-degrees,

with sunshine on my shoulder and warm gusts of wind strumming background tunes on Ol' Glory, just above me. It was delightful!

Aaaaand now it's winter again, as we all knew it was bound to be, because it is March, which did not come in particularly like a lion or a lamb. Hot Cocoa season lasts a good long time in Ohio! 

So all bets are off for April, and that's ok. I've finished an afghan, 

and made good progress on my new sweater in mystery yarn, 

and I'm ready to March On! to spring holidays and birthdays, including mine! But first, let's turn those clocks forward tonight, in the US and in my state! 

Enjoy that extra daylight in the afternoon, and don't be late for church tomorrow! 

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health! 

Holidays and Snow Days!

Last week was a good week. Super cold, yes, but such a good week! My first weekday minor holiday (not Thanksgiving, Christmas or 4th of July) from work was Monday, and I celebrated with sweet rolls, fresh from the oven!

Because it was so cold, many schools also had "Snow Days" (cold days? temps down to -8°F) on Tuesday and Wednesday, and students stayed home. Do you know who also stayed in, eating sweet rolls while working from home? This Pretty did! 

Holidays and Snow Days are the best!

While I enjoyed not having to drive to and from work, I also found that I missed the interactions with my new co-workers. I was glad to get back into the office on Thursday, and I pulled this mug out of the kitchen cupboard there to celebrate my return.

Being the "new guy," I'm not sure if the mug might actually belong to someone, so I dutifully washed and returned it when I was finished, but not before using it as a photo prop for mittens!

One of my goals last week was to finish that second pair of double-knit mittens. I didn't make that goal by the end of my work week (turns out I take fewer breaks while working at home...well, fewer knit-breaks anyway...). But it looks to my like mitten #4 will probably be complete today!

Another reason I didn't make better progress on the mittens was this test knit,  which I'll post more about on Instagram when the pattern goes live. 

The rest of this weekend will be full of boys! These three giant personalities will be coming for a sleepover tonight, amd we can't wait! 

I'm never sure where the fun will take us with these three, but I know we will have fun, and I can't wait!  I hope you also have good things to look forward to this weekend. 😉

For now, I suppose I'll sign off. After all, I gave cookies to bake and pictures to take, but I'm glad we've had this time together. 

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health! 

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!

January Goals

Yes, goals. Not resolutions. More specifically, this post is about my January knitting goals, which will be met, yay! My goals were to knit a pair of Christmas socks, which are finished, yay... 

...and a January sweater, which will be done by month-end! Again, YAY!

I'm also planning to cast on another sweater, mittens and a pair of socks for me. I'm not sure I'll get those done as quickly, but I am excited to be doing a little selfish knitting before I get back to the roots and kid-knits. After all, the Rainbow Yoshi pattern needs some revision, in my opinion...

...it seems to have an odd shape and the parts seem disproportionate to me, so the plan is a little modification. Or maybe a LOT of modification! In any case, not until after the current projects are done. 

Sometimes the planning is as much fun as the knitting, you know. I mean, Easter is coming, so there should be bunnies of some sort... And there's a crochet pattern out there for marshmallows with dino costumes...ummm, super cute! And it is snowy and cold outside, which is proper winter/knitting-inside weather. So. Many. Plans! 

What are your plans for the weekend? For winter (summer, if you're Down Under)? Whatever you're plans are, I hope you can sprinkle in some joy! 

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health! 

Oh! And we did a puzzle! 

Remember the Hats!?

When I typed that title, I thought, "Remember the Alamo!" Of course, that has nothing to do with hand knits... but it gave me a chuckle! 

So, do you remember the hats I knit for Christmas? These were two of my favorites, and I had grand plans to make matching mittens... but you know what happens to the best laid plans? 

They sometimes work out! Check out these mittens that match their hats AND match each other!

So fun, and the boys love them! If they slow down long enough today, there will be photos of wool-heated heads and hands at the end of this post! 

I'm knitting other things, too...but some of them are secret. Secret and super fun, so I hope you'll keep coming back! 

In the meantime, thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health! 

Is It Really Over?

It's the last day of the year, and I'm not sure how to feel. The excitement of Christmas is almost over (we have one final celebration this afternoon), and the tree is put away, so things are right where they should be on the holiday timeline... but I'm feeling a little "blah."

Last weekend brought the excitement of Santa and presents, 

Holiday food and family, 

and we'll have some of that today, too. But the weather warmed up a bit, the sky is crying, and it just feels a little weird to have rain in place of snow for December 31st in Ohio. 

There's still plenty of Christmas decor in the house, which I'll probably tuck away tomorrow, 

and it'll be nice to have the house back to normal...but I think these guys are hoping we'll get at least a bit more snow this winter. To be honest, I'm hoping that too.

When I wake up tomorrow, what will be different? What will 2023 bring? What do I want it to bring? 

I'm still figuring that out, and if you're doing the same, maybe we can figure it out together. My main goals for the next 24 hours are to find some joy, eat something yummy and maybe cast on a selfish knitting project. 

I think I can, 

I think I can, 

I think I can... 

Now, because I probably won't be up until midnight, I'll end the blog here with a Happy New Year to all, and a Knit in Good Health!