2017 Project 365 – Week Twelve

Yeah yeah yeah – I keep promising pictures of the house & then forgetting to take any. Maybe someday…

Sunday, March 19^th       

Today I actually DID get up in time (barely - I woke up at 9:00!) to go sing with my dad and his sisters at the senior center & then tried a local Episcopal church. I liked it ok – and the rector (a woman, of course – ha!) was arrested at one of North Carolina’s Moral Mondays a few years ago so I was impressed with that.  

Monday, March 20^th           

Dr. M posted some bird pictures from this past week, including this one from today. You should go check it out!

Tuesday, March 21^st                             

Nothing could be finer than to be in Caroliner…

Wednesday, March 22^nd                     

I was all ready for our virtual book club – put on a bra & everything (but not makeup – I’m not that crazy). Then we decided to just do chat instead of trying to video conference. That was fine – we had a great time. (Note: this is a different red shirt from the day before - I think - I have, like, three of them that I wear constantly. The neighbors probably think I'm wearing the same one all week.)

Thursday, March 23^rd                     

Ever since I got my fabulous chair I’ve been trying to talk Dr. M into getting a new chair for himself. Today he finally did – a ridiculously overstuffed large man’s chair. As you can tell, it’s pretty comfortable.

Friday, March 24^th     

Dr. M outdid himself with the bird pictures today!

We had been talking fashion at work & I felt compelled to share my “going away” outfit from our wedding – I thought I was the stuff. Please excuse the quality – these are screen grabs from our wedding video.

Saturday, March 25^th       

My cousin & her husband (of Hog’s Hill Pottery) were at a pottery show today so I stopped by to chat. They are both so talented!

Later, since it was a beautiful day, Dr. M & I went stalking the ancestors – found the headstone for his great-great-grandparents. And some very rackety killdeers!

Have a great week!

In Which the Bug Inches Closer to a Spinning Wheel

Not really. Nope. Not going there. But I did finally invest in a yarn winder and an Amish style yarn swift. It's all the fault of this lovely couple at my church in Xenia - they gave me two giant tubs of Irish wool yarn. As soon as the swift & winder arrived on Saturday I had to play with them (well, as soon as we booted Daddy & Sue out after dinner).

Let's back up a minute. As you recall, I decided to do a temperature scarf for our first year in North Carolina. I chose the colors from my stash of lovely Irish wool and went to town. After 11 rows, I had this:

What a mess! Why was this different than my usual yarn? That yarn comes in skeins, like so:

Ah, the temperature monster palette before I knew how much orange I would be using.

This Irish wool (and most fine yarn) comes in hanks, which have to be unwound before using.

A bit hard to work with! The yarn swift keeps the yarn in the correct shape & tension as you use the yarn winder to make your cake. The swift takes the place of a person who could (if you could get them to) stand there with the yarn draped over their arms while you wind it.

You simply thread the yarn onto the winder & the wind the crank.

And then you have a lovely mess! (Darn woolly wool.)

Oh, wait, then you have a lovely yarn cake!

Much easier to work with, and these fit into that really weird shelf in the hall that must have been made for VHS tapes (too shallow for books).

That one giant blue one is 800 yards! I just wanted to see how big I could go. The purplish color in the upper right is also 800 yards & in much more manageable cake sizes. This project, had I not made a TOTAL MESS of three of the hanks of yarn, would have taken less than two hours. As it was, Dr. M spent about two to three hours untangling one of the biggest messes, and I spent another two hours the next night on the other one.

I'm pretty excited & may go through & wind up all the yarn in the house just for fun. If you'd like to see a video of this particular set in action, go here.

Tonight I got caught up with the scarf. It's kind of unruly at the moment. I made it intentionally skinny because with 365 rows, I didn't think I wanted to add much more bulk.

I think I might be done buying things to support my obsession. Although, now that I think about it, I saw these on Etsy & I might need them...

2017 Project 365 – Week Eleven

I just noted that I promised pictures of the house this week. Oops. Maybe next week?

Sunday, March 12^th       

I had the vague notion of getting up & going to church today, but what with the time change & staying up to read a book until 3:00 a.m. (or was it 4:00 a.m.?) I didn’t quite make it. Turns that was for the best, because we had a little bit of snow. I keep saying, “OHIO QUIT FOLLOWING ME!”

Emptied out some more boxes & corralled all of our bandages. As I said on Facebook – we’re pretty much ready for any wound situation.

Started working on the new temperature scarf, and boy did I make a MESS! This yarn is in hanks, which is different from skeins & really (really!) should be wound into cakes before trying to use it. If all of that was Greek to you, don’t worry – I’m planning a blog post this week about it. In any case, I stopped my work immediately & ordered a yarn swift & yarn winder. Crocheting will recommence once I get this yarn into some semblance of order.

Monday, March 13^th           

This year’s March Madness bracket. It is already rather sad (stupid Villanova), but still makes the tournament more fun for me.

Tuesday, March 14^th                            

This is really terrible – humor at about the 12 year old boy level – but I couldn’t help it. After all of the microwave spying on us kerfuffle, I read this on Andy Borowitz’s Facebook page, “Question: can you be spied on by a Hot Pocket? Asking for an idiot.” And immediately went to take a picture of this box in our freezer (Dr. M’s emergency rations). Should I be worried?  

I’ve been reading Water to Wine, by Brian Zahnd, & had to laugh at this sideways reference to Guns, Germs & Steel, a documentary I may have watched more than once as the wife of a historian.

Wednesday, March 15^th                   

Turned on the TV & there was a Cincinnati Reds spring training game. Also, it was in the 20s most of the day. I’ve got my eye on you, Ohio – you just stay up there north of Kentucky, ok?

Thursday, March 16^th                    

My weekly visit to the post office.

Friday, March 17^th     

Worked on a new dish cloth pattern today. Frogged it about four times, and it’s still not exactly right. But I might try it again. If I do, I’ll make it much smaller – it’s about 10 inches square, which is MUCH too big for a dish cloth in my opinion.

One of the things that didn’t make the move with us was our ironing board. We ran out of room, and I iron about 3 times a year. But here I found myself ironing a tablecloth because we invited my dad & Sue over for dinner on Saturday. Ha!

Saturday, March 18^th       

Dr. M stalked some birds today while I got groceries & cleaned the house.

Then later, he cooked a fabulous meal. We had a great time with Daddy & Sue, but of course I didn’t take any pictures of our lovely table or the food, or of the people. Here’s a picture of the aftermath. We had so much fun we might do it again!

Have a great week!

The Bird Man of Hog Hill

Fear not, Bug's Eye View readers, there will be no lack of birds in our new location. Dr. M put up a new feeder the other day & we're already seeing a wide variety of activity: robins, juncos, goldfinches, grackles, nuthatches, tufted titmice, chickadees, cardinals, plus the occasional squirrel. Stay tuned for better pictures once the days are warmer & we can sit outside, but for now, here's a taste.

P.S. I don't know if we actually live on Hog Hill, but it is nearby, & it's the name of my cousin's pottery place just around the corner from us.

2017 Project 365 – Week Ten

We are digging ourselves out from under the boxes, and next week I hope to show some pictures of the house. But things are still rather unfinished around here so I might hold off. We shall see!

Sunday, March 5^th       

I finally (FINALLY!) finished the temperature monster! I was going to post a picture of the completed blanket, but we need to do it outside & the weather hasn’t cooperated (high winds, rain, SNOW, sigh).

Monday, March 6^th           

My first day as a full time home office employee! I got 3,100 steps that day – obviously I need to figure out how to get more active again (it will most likely involve getting to the Gazelle that is boxed in right now – get it? Boxed in? Heh.). Anyway, the only picture I took was of a pen that fell under my desk, so instead, here is an offering from Dr. Indiana Jones.

Tuesday, March 7^th                            

Miss Rita – still a blooming fool.

Wednesday, March 8^th                   

The moon!

Thursday, March 9^th                    

Dr. M has a new toy – self-propelled this time. Hmm – I can probably increase my activity if I steal this from him.  

My weekly trip to the post office. I do not know why I didn’t take a picture of the terribly cute post office building, but here are a few pictures from my trip.

Friday, March 10^th     

You already saw most of this day’s pictures. Here’s one that didn’t make the cut – Ill Penguin watching over me as I get ready to go to sleep. Someday Ill Penguin will get stowed with the Christmas things…

Saturday, March 11^th       

Nice cozy evening in front of a fire, crocheting on a WIP (work in progress) that I’ve been working on a while. Was I satisfied? Nope – I was bored…

So I dove into my stash of Irish wool that someone from church gave me & figured out yarn to use for a temperature scarf for our first year in North Carolina. It’s a sickness, ya’ll. Ha!

Have a great week!