Stormy's Place

The month of May has proven to be a month of excursions.  The first was April 30th – May 3rd where My friend Elizabeth and I drove to Cape Cod to meet up with friends Librada and Michelle.  Oh what fun we had!  We ate at a wonderful but slightly expensive restaurant on the first night.  I can’t complain about the cost because the food was absolutely delicious! I thought I took photos, but apparently I did not since I can’t find them! The best place we found to eat was a little ice cream shop in Sandwich, MA called ‘The Ice Cream Sandwich.’  They made the ice cream right in the shop and had the most delightful flavors!  My two favorites were Cranberry Bog and Lemon Mousse.  It was so delightful and delicious that we went back there for lunch on Saturday!

                                                                         

The lobster rolls were pretty good too! 🙂

We also went to Plymouth on Friday where the views were fantastic and the gift shop rendered some fairly inexpensive mementos.

We did find one yarn shop and while the premise was fantastic (set in an old barn, behind which was a mill where yarn was dyed), the owner was a bit stand offish and Librada was not even allowed to use the facilities.  What kind of rule is that? Hmmmmm.  We also found out about a place where we could purchase some fiber and we even went there twice, the second time during the hours it was supposedly open but still was not.  While we didn’t get to purchase any fiber, my friends spun a tale that could easily be made into the next Freddie Kruger movie!  Was there really an axe in this wood pile? Was that horse really giving us the evil eye? Or maybe, just maybe, it was the tree! We also figured the bodies must have been buried under those stones —

 

The stuff nightmares are made of……

Librada and I found a veteran’s park that had a memorial to JFK and also a Korean War Veteran memorial.  It was incredibly cold at 6:30 in the morning on Friday and almost as cold on Saturday when we brought Elizabeth and Michelle to see the beach there!

Yes, I did take a selfie of Elizabeth taking a selfie! 🙂 Brrrrrrr It was cold!

We had so much fun and did more than what is in this post, but as usual, I have loaded way too many photos into just one posting!  It’s a good thing that most people have high speed internet these days!

…. Trip number two and a wedding in the next post!

I would like to say that I can’t believe that it has been almost two months since I’ve posted anything here. Sadly, I can’t say that as I know myself all too well! Needless to say, this will be a catching up post!

I’ve been doing well on the sock knit from stash KAL and happily finished April and May’s socks. For May’s I chose a different pattern as the pattern for the month did not appeal to the yarn that was in my May bag.
  

In between these, I also sneaked in another pair knit in some delicious yarn that was a birthday gift from my friend Elizabeth.

I also worked on some baby gifts that I can’t yet post photos of. 🙂  Oh yes, and there was the gnarwledpaw shawl KAL as well.

I started Junes KAL socks yesterday and hope to finish the first sock today.

Tomorrow begins month one of Camp Loopy with the Loopy Ewe in Colorado.  I’ve been placed on to the Lion team in our virtual African Safari>  I will be knitting Rhombus, taking my inspiration from traditional South African Zulu Baskets.

This is enough for one post.  I will post a synopsis of my two May trips in the next post.  Both trips were enjoyable and have provided many fond memories.

Weekends tend to go by in a blur for me.  There simply are not enough hours in the day or days in the weekend to get done all that I would like to get done.  This weekend, however, seems somewhat different.  Perhaps it is because I’ve dragged my sorry behind out of bed between 4:00 and 4:30 am on both days?  I have to admit, that extra 3-5 hours did surely make a difference. (Yes, I usually sleep in way too long on the weekends!)  The floors were all swept, the dishes all done, and the second load of laundry was in the dryer before noon on Saturday!  That really took a lot of pressure off!  I even was able to sort through and remove miscellaneous clutter from here and there.  There is still plenty to be done, but by noon on Saturday, I was feeling fairly accomplished.  Having completed more before noon on Saturday than I typically do in an entire weekend, I’m feeling rather entitled to today’s seemingly lazy pace. I’m feeling as if a nap is in order and for a time this morning, I couldn’t understand why I was feeling so tired.  Of course, I realize that I’ve been up way earlier than what is even normal on week days and have not compensated by getting to bed any earlier.  I really must remember that I am not as young as once I was and sleep is really and rightfully highly rated!

The extra time has also afforded me additional time for knitting more — you … you guessed it ..  socks!  April’s sock pattern is blessedly easy to remember and therefore blessedly easy to knit! It’s called “The Edisonade” and as with all the Knit From Stash 2015 KAL patterns, it is by Heatherly Walker (YarnYenta).

At the same time, I’m knitting up a pair of plain vanilla, toe up socks for Sandy Long of Longmeadow Farm.  This yarn is her first attempt at self-striping and I am loving the narrow stripes.  I am not loving the plain vanilla pattern!  I should have known it would be difficult for me to knit as I know how quickly my attention flits from one thing to the next.  My knitting ADHD is what drives me to knit lace after all!  Lace is more complicated and ever changing.  It’s always exciting to see what the next part of the pattern is going to look like in the chosen yarn.  I digress.  I’m also not sure I like the heel in this toe-up pattern either.  That isn’t saying much though as I have yet to find an easy heel for toe up socks that I do like.  I will keep looking!

I have to say, I’m getting over the sock thing this month.  I would love to finish both these pair this week and knit on nothing but shawls for the rest of the month —  or even baby things!

 

March brought us a few hints of spring and a lot more cold and snowy weather. This, I suppose, is nothing out of the ordinary for Rochester, NY. We were able to escape for a few days in the beginning of the month which was something exciting and extraordinary, if not also something a wee bit daunting.  After all, how often do people load themselves in a little car and travel 2,170 miles through 10 states in a mere 6 days?  Our little trip was more than worth the effort!

The first stop of our trip was in Dalton, GA.  There is something to be said for gaining built in family.  Michael’s daughter, Kirsten is a wonderful young woman and she is to be married to a wonderful young man, Stephen.  Along with a daughter and a son-in-law come three awesome grandsons, Roman, Eban and Blaine.  We didn’t get to spend much time with the older two boys, but we did get to spend loads of time with little Blaine.  I have to say, Michael got in the most baby time and you could definitely tell what a proud peepaw he yes.  Yes he was dubbed “peepaw” and I love it!

Next on our journey was Goldsboro, North Carolina to visit my youngest two sons as well as to meet their fiance’s and in Brandon’s case two additional very special soon to be grandchildren.  We had a great time our first night with Kevin and Laura and were able to spend some time with Kevin again on Tuesday.  Tuesday evening was a delightful evening spent with Brandon, Angela and Mina.  Hopefully next time we will get to meet Lili too! 🙂

Yes, the time spent in the car was more than worth our visit with our children and their intended and grandchildren!  I hope we get to go again soon and I hope they can all come visit us as well at some point in the near future.  We love them all!

Ok — now for the socks..  Yes – more socks! Always!

 

I posted most of what follows on a friend’s Ravelry group for a chance to win free yarn.  YES!  I said free yarn!!!  As I was typing, it occurred to me that I hadn’t made a blog post in some time and if this blog is ever going to be even remotely interesting (not that it ever will anyway) at some point in the future, I do need to post, post, post and post again.  So, I fondly copy and paste from one place to another.  So what if it is cheating!

“My first winter in Rochester, NY, was the winter of 2001-2002. Yes, indeed, this was the winter that Buffalo got 8 feet of snow Christmas week. Guess what we got! If you guessed: “bupkis,” “nada,” “nilch,” “squat,” “zippo,” “zilch,” “zero,” or any other term that equates to nary a sad little flake, well, you would be right. This was the year that snow had to be purchased from Buffalo for our snow days celebrations. It was depressing for me, having been away from snow for some 18 years. I cried. Yes, I cried on Christmas. I had been so looking forward to my first white Christmas in 18 years and mother nature robbed me!

There have been a few years that have made up for that first year I was here in Rochester, but none so much (at least so far) as this one. Over the years, I have steadily learned to appreciate winter from indoors. Some years I’ve grumbled and groaned and complained heartily about having to clean the snow off my car several times a day. None of them, however, have compared to this year. This year, I’m done. I’m truly done. I can say with ease, that I regret every stupid snow dance I have ever done. Truly!

Oh wait! What am I saying? Have I lost my mind? I’m a knitter who has an ongoing love affair with anything wool, alpaca, llama, goat, bison, or any other wonderfully fibrous creature that so generously supplies me with soft, warm and luxurious yarns with which to sooth my ornery soul! (Yes, I’m feeling ornery!) My craft demands colder climates in which lovingly created garments, socks, blankets and the like can live in joyous harmony rather than hide away in closets, drawers and bins! I should be thanking winter for giving me a break from outdoor yard chores and allowing me plenty of time to sit quietly in my chair, either watching movies, listening to music or even listening to audio books while the motion of my knitting needles carries me away to peaceful, relaxing dreams of sitting on sandy beaches in the embracing warmth of Helios.”

On a side note. I was particularly frustrated with the extremely slow driver on my way to work this past Monday morning.  I was cussing and annoyed and well, irritated!  Then I made my normal left hand turn on to Maplewood Drive and saw this beautiful rainbow.  What a message!  I wished then, that there wasn’t so much snow so that I could pull over and get a photo.  Also, it wasn’t to be in that moment.  However, when I arrived at work, the rainbow was there, off in the distance and significantly smaller, but, none the less, there.  It was a beautiful start to a new week and a very powerful reminder to slow down and smell the roses. Or in this case, enjoy a beautiful and rare winter rainbow.

My friend Sandy and I have joined a 12 month sock KAL for 2015.  We met a couple of weeks ago at Dairy Queen to bag up the yarns that we chose from our stash.  People were looking at us like we were totally crazy, but we were having fun and really didn’t care!

 

 

 

 

 

And then the wait began for the release of the first pattern on December 31st.  Once the pattern was released, I quickly went on the hunt for the magical brown bag marked “January.”  Inside I found the most lovely skein of Lorna’s Laces Solemate in Meadow Wildflowers.

What is the pattern? Well, it’s called “The Hornet.”  Admittedly, the pattern looks to be designed for solid yarns, which mine is not.  This caused me some worry, but then I had to rethink.  The idea of this KAL is to knit down your stash.  (Yes, I do realize that it would likely take me at least 30 years of knitting one pair of socks each month to knit down my stash, but I’m not going to worry about that tiny detail!)  It is also a mystery KAL of sorts in that you don’t know which skein of yarn is in the bag and you don’t get the pattern until the last day of the previous month. That being the case, I’m going to play along with the grand scheme of the KAL and, unless a yarn truly disagrees with  a pattern, I will knit the yarn each month as marked and in the pattern for that month.

 

Welcome 2015 and the beginnings of a new blog.  I haven’t been very diligent in posting on my other blog, which will soon be allowed to go to blog heaven, if there is such a thing.  Perhaps the new year will provide me with more motivation for posting along with more motivation for a multitude of other things.