Scratching An Itch

While I have been busy knitting Easy-Peasy shawl, which is now four feet long and needs to be six, something has been bothering me.  You know how it is when something is in the back of your mind saying, "Listen to me.  I need your attention!"  I usually love it when the knitting talks to me but this is a time when I just want it to be silent and let me finish that last two feet of the shawl.  Nope.  Talky, talky!

It took me a while to figure out what the knitting was saying to me and when I figured it out I realized it had a point.  "What happened to the sleeve of Lace-Edged Cardigan?"  "When was the last time you saw that project?"  "Are you ever going to finish that sweater?"  My answer to all of the above was, "I don't know."  It was alarming to acknowledge that I don't know where a piece of knitting is, especially after finishing  more than 80% of a sweater I could wear all summer.

So, the morning started out with an all out search for the missing sweater and in-progress sleeve.  If I had not re-organized that yarn cabinet a few weeks ago I would be in a world of hurt right now.  It was there, neatly folded on a shelf with the Signature needle still in the half-finished sleeve on top.  I grabbed it and took it to the office with me.   It generally happens that office knitting gets finished first because I knit off and on all day.  Now I will have a new cotton sweater to wear with this:

After which I will carry Easy-Peasy to the office in this:

 

Note:  Update from last post--after many complaints from neighbors the real estate company allowed our neighbor to pick up her belongings and clear the lawn.  She has family who have taken her in.  The City sent a crew to help pick up, mow and trim hedges, and generally spiffy up the place.  We have all breathed a collective sigh of relief!!

Life is good!

Beyond My Fence

There is great beauty beyond my back fence.  I love that the fields are allowed to thrive with wild flowers, grasses, trees and greenery.  The horses run wild and birds sing an irresistible song that lures me into the thicket to search for Killdeer nests and rabbit warrens.  Each breath brings the scent of dew on grass and sun on earth.  I feel fortunate to live in this place and so enjoy sitting on the patio, knitting while I watch and breathe it all in.

 

There is great sadness beyond my front driveway!  It is such a contrast to the fields beyond the back that I have cried what seems like a gallon of tears.  I want beauty there too but life has intervened.  Our neighbor, a single mom with two daughters, has fallen victim to the ugliness of life today.  There are eviction notices on the door and windows and her belongings, all of them, have been thrown on the lawn like garbage in a landfill.  Our neighbor is gone...just gone and she never told us she was in trouble.

 

City Hall says that the real estate office renting the house is, "Making plans to pack up the things and dispose of them."  That certainly doesn't make me feel any better, especially since it rained this weekend.  I asked if we could get together a group of neighbors to pack the belongings and store them for her.   The answer was that we would be arrested for trespassing. 

 

I'm sorry this post isn't about happy knitting and playing with the fur-babies and laughing with the grandchildren.  The beauty beyond my back fence is the best I can do right now.

Half finished:

Blog Award

 

Chan Knits gave me an award recently and I want to pass it on.  I should have done this sooner but I am in something of a disordered state of mind coming off of the 17th.  I go home and sit in my big chair in the corner and stare into space.  DH says I am "licking my wounds" but I don't even have the energy for that.  Anyway....

My five awards go to five of my favorites.  These are blogs that I go to for every post and love these people!!

1.  Irisheyesknitters
2.  Chan Knits
3.  Seducedbyyarn
4.  Celtic Memory Yarns
5.  Loving Comfort Knits

And to complete the award task, here are five little known facts about me that probably should never have been shared but here goes:

1.  I speed read so I read 100+ books a year, about 50/50 fiction and non-fiction.  I enjoy speed reading and I DO retain the information. 

 

2.  I am hooked on The Young and the Restless and General Hospital.  I record them every day and watch, minus commercials, in the evening.  Other than the two soaps I do not watch much TV.

3.  I do admit to being a golf channel junkie!  I don't play golf I just watch it.  When DH plays I sometimes ride in the cart and tell him what he is doing wrong.  He doesn't let me come along very often.  Go figure.

4.  A lot of family secrets surfaced later in my life (in terms of surprise brothers and sisters complete with surprise second families, and relatives who were married to someone other than the person they were said to be married to.  Interesting secrets and a good thing to find out later in life because it doesn't really matter any longer!!    Note:  never let it be said that kids and teens can't keep a secret because all of my friends knew about this and never said a word to me. 

 

Therefore:

5.  We have a rule in our family that whenever anything happens or there is news of some kind, I am  told about it FIRST.  Otherwise, mom gets very, very unhappy and you do not want mom to be unhappy!!  On the other hand, when a week like last week comes along I consider rethinking this rule(both granddaughter and darling daughter hit deer on the road and totaled their cars on two consecutive days).  Sometimes it's just better not to know!!

Knitting news--Easy-Peasy Shawl is three feet long and sock number one is getting a toe.

I'm Being Stalked

It followed me to work and gawked at me from across the office.  It spoke to me in whispers at first then became increasingly loud to the point of being obnoxious.  I guess you can't put a good sock down and this one is a good one.  So I worked on it off and on during the day and ended the day with the heel turned and the foot started. 

 

I think I was getting tired of Easy-Peasy Shawl not getting any longer (except that it is now growing) and wanted to feel a sense of accomplishment.  As the madness at work enters  the last week, and knitting time between tax clients decreases as the time between clients becomes nonexistent, it is hard to finish a single row during a whole day.

 

Soon knitting will come back around to an important position in my free time.  I feel it coming!!  Life will return to peacefulness and I will return to...me-ness.  Until then sock will keep me company at my desk, on my keyboard, on top of the ever present columnar pad.

 

As I was leaving this morning something buzzed by my head and I swatted at it.  Huge dragon fly?  Super wasp?  Then I saw the miracle that is happening on my front porch--wrens in the wren house.  DD bought the wren house for us at Christmas three years ago.  Since that time it has not been inhabited by a single little bird.  Now there is a family and they are so busy that they appear to be remodeling the place.  DH thinks they may even have moved in a plasma TV.  A peek inside revealed several small eggs and a very industrious Mom.  Developments to follow as the babies hatch.

Life is good!