Week 26?! Do you realize that we are now at the halfway point for the year? I don’t know about you, but 2020 has been just horrendous so far. I do hope that it decides to straighten up and fly right for the second part of the year…
There has been a lot going on for me this week, but I think that I will just start out with the Hannah update. Hannah, who is almost certainly the last kitten that I will raise, is turning out to be the perfect mix of all the cats I have loved in the past. She is affectionate and attached to me, easy to distract and train, smart, talkative, and fearless. She ignores the plants and hasn’t gone after my knitting all week!!
Okay, it isn’t all sunshine and roses. She climbs into the refrigerator and dishwasher every time I open them. She started climbing the screen door and curtains today. She pestered me to wake up this morning because she wanted me to turn off the oxygen machine so she could play downstairs… I’m hoping that that doesn’t turn into a thing! Still, I am so happy to have my little buddy now that it appears that Covid-19 won’t be going away any time soon in my part of the world.
Knitting
I’m making some progress on my socks! The first sock is done, and now I’m cruising through the second sock. I’m focusing on small projects that I can quickly stuff into a project bag because… kitten!!
I love the stripes so much that I’ve been daydreaming and trying to work out how to knit tipless gloves by adapting my usual fingerless mitt pattern to put on the half fingers. Wanting to maximize the amount of leftover yarn I dug through the stash and located the purple yarn that I’m using for the heel and toe portions of the socks. I’m pretty pleased with the look, and now I’m wondering how to incorporate the purple into the gloves. My Ravelry notes are here.
Garden
The week has been one of gloomy afternoons and thunderstorms. Luckily I haven’t had damaging wind or hail, and the roses continue to strut their stuff. My Princess Alexandra of Kent rose in particular continues to shine.
Books
I finished The Mirror & The Light this week. I hardly know what to say. This is a rich, rich book that will continue to haunt me in the weeks to come and I may need to read the entire Wolf Hall trilogy again. Maybe it is because I am entering my fourth month of isolation, and I have lots of time on my hands to reflect on things, but the richness of the characters and the subtle connections of the past to the present as the story plays out, but never really ends, are just astounding. Cromwell ponders on how images painted in the past bleed through new paint to show in the present as he remembers violent actions in his past. Memories of his years as a soldier rise as he marches into meetings and dinners. Near the end of his life, imprisoned in the Tower of London, he recaptures that transformative moment, broken and bloodied in the street, when he abandoned his childhood to launch on the path to who he was now. At the start of this book one of the standout lines is, “if you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?” At Cromwell’s own beheading there is a sense of truth and transition again; I was dreading the end of the book, but you know what, it was actually hopeful and a befitting closure to a great life.
After a book like that, what next? Science fiction, of course! I launched right into a fun little space military opera that is a three book series and I’m happily working my way through it.
Quilting
Look at this! A new category just appeared again. This week has been kind of tough on me joint-wise, and I have finally made myself admit that I need to lay off the knitting for a while. Okay, my joints are really kicking up a fuss, and my shoulder is the biggest complainer. Sigh. It’s like all of the tendons and ligaments are under attack at once, and my drugs aren’t keeping up any more. I’m already on a lot of drugs, and in the world of Covid I’m fearful of getting steroid injections into the worse joint complainers because it increases my immunosuppressive load. Scleroderma, you need to behave yourself!! Anyway, I need to lay off the knitting, so I dived into my endless stash of “projects that I want to make someday” and…. pulled out a really cute art quilt!
This is the first block to build “Calling Me Home” by McKenna Ryan. The picture is built by tracing the pattern onto little bits of fabric that are then fused together. No sewing at all until I get the whole quite top put together. I’m thinking that my shoulder can handle this…
It’s like an adventure! All I have to do is figure out which little fabric bit goes with what. Luckily I have that picture to help guide me. This is going to be a little like building a jigsaw puzzle! I hope that Hannah behaves herself while I’m cutting all of the pieces out.
Have a great week, everyone!!
Read a little, knit a little, and garden like your heart can’t live without it.
Yarn, Books & Roses 
You do beautiful work. I love the colors in your socks. Tell Hannah I said ‘hi! And finally, YES, your fences need climbing roses. That’s an order!
Thanks! I’m hoping to go to the nursery this week when I turn in my ballot and I will definately look at the roses!
I love that you pulled out the quilt! Hannah is going to love “helping.” My dear Scamp loves to lay across whatever I’m working on next and helps arrange blocks and pieces of blocks often if I am not careful… Cut Hannah a few strings, and give those strings lots of attention before you hand them off… trust me;-). Good luck…bring some of the mice in for Hannah when you sew and squish them as well, too. Have fun. I love those cute socks, too!
I’m happy about the quilt too. It is a little embarrassing that I have so many projects stashed for the future. I changed jobs in my late 40’s and began to work like a maniac for years and years. I had money, but no time, and I kept buying stuff that I told myself that I would do in my retirement when I had time and no money. It was a good plan, but I didn’t anticipate that I would develop auto-immune diseases that ate away my energy. Now, in the pandemic and self-isolation, they are there waiting for me. 🙂
Here’s the best part about Hannah… she runs around like a maniac and expects me to play with her when I’m up and about, but just goes to sleep when I’m sitting down to read or knit. I’m thinking that she will sleep while I’m cutting fabric and fusing pieces together. I can bring toys into the sewing room with me if she gets too involved. It’s also embarrassing how many toys I have for her. I ordered more stuff from Chewy last week and she went wild when we opened the box!
I get it…sometimes my kitties sleep thru cutting and piecing…sometimes they love to sleep on the project or a needed work surface. Do watch those needles and pins carefully-more small zippered pouches are recommended. And yes, my best sewing time is their nap time…at certain points though…i have to find other ways to keep busy. But they’re quite fun, too.
You aren’t a total sop, as I am: I couldn’t read no. 3. I even found no. 2 tricky ! Basically, I would’ve been happy with just no. 1 written.
Hannah’s arrival into your life is exactly like Boodie’s coming into mine – a kind of compilation of loved moggies.
I’m not knitting again for a while, but gone back to crochet. Temperature blanket starts next Wednesday ! 🙂
Your roses are heavenly, Marilyn – put ’em everywhere. You seem to have green thumbs (is that like having blue lips ? – no ! [grin]).
Fused together ? – how ?
I do think that Wolf Hall was the best book of the trio, but The Mirror & The Light kind of recaptured the Wolf Hall feel and reconnected to it. I have to admit that the middle book was a little bit of a slog to get through. I would have finished this third book faster but for the absolute perfect sh*t storm that I’m living through at the moment.
Isn’t it wonderful when the perfect cat arrives. I’d like to believe that I’m a perfect owner for the cat, too. 🙂
Crochet! I love crochet, but I had to give it up because I can’t hold the crochet hook with these bad hands and wrists. Knitting works for me (mostly) because I can push the short circular needles with the heel of my palm.
I have that kind of green thumb that makes some plants look pretty good; what you can’t see are the ones that were failures. I keep trying out different types of planting strategies and if something doesn’t work I move on to another plant. Eventually I find something that works!
By all the gods, you’re a battler .. Hang in there; you’re winning so far.
Attitude is all!!
Wowza! I of course love that self striping yarn!! Love the purple heels and think yes for your plans on the gloves. I’m so pleased Hannah is settling in well and mostly being good, if she didn’t have some strong spirited ways she’d not be a cat…or certainly no cat I’ve ever met. The first quilt panel reminds me of when I was in Colorado. I stayed with a friend’s brothers for the week and one of the brothers took me to Vail to ski and on the way we stopped at a river and there was a fly fisherman on the bank. That particular brother became my first love! So it took me right back to being in my early 20s
I saw that yarn in my LYS and I just had to get it to see how the stripes would work out. I haven’t knitted with a self striping yarn for ages and I’m so glad for this impulse buy. 🙂 I’m thinking that the fingers of the gloves will be really cute as the smaller circumference should make them different colors with this yarn.
You were in Colorado! We have some fly fishermen in my family, and when I bought the quilt I was thinking of all the fun things in our mountains. I’ve never skied Vail, but I’ve been there several times for conferences. There is a moose in the trees in a later quilt panel that I’m looking forward to.
Yes just the once but we have some other friends out there so Allistar and I will go there one day…who knows when though with this crazy world
Someday when Covid-19 is gone; it came here to Colorado through a visitor to the ski resorts. What a mess that was as those hospitals up in the mountains were pretty stretched handling an outbreak and patients had to be airlifted to Denver. I miss trips up to the mountain towns, and this year there was no Estes Park Wool Market for me to go be silly at. 😦
I’m in love with your kitty. We’ve decided after our cat had to be put down we wouldn’t have another cat. Just to heart breaking for us.
Your are so busy. I love the color of your socks and the quilt block is so pretty. I love the out doors .
Be safe and take care
I also had decided to not get another cat after having to get my last one euthanized, but now that I’m looking at months of isolation to come I broke down and got another one. She is such good company that I’m glad that I did.
I am a big believer in lists to keep me going, and having the deadline of the Saturday blog post helps keep me working towards a crafting goal. Actually, I have so much stuff to get done I have to make long range and short range goals so I don’t bog down. I brought an alpaca fleece in last week and I’m eyeing it and wondering what I can knit if I spin it up DK weight…
I love the outdoors, too!!
Be safe and take care too.
The socks and roses are fantastic!!
Hannah sounds like a perfect companion:) Sometimes what we don’t know we need is a crazy distraction to love. She’ll keep you busy and laughing I’m sure:)
Thanks! Hannah is just what I needed, I think. I don’t know if she will be a good “blogger” as she isn’t all up in my business the way MacKenzie was. Still, I hope that people don’t mind that I give updates on her.
I like your quilting work. Anyway, keep you healthy and stay safe. xoxo
Your knitting and garden are just lovely as always! Hannah is just so incredibly cute – so happy hearing you two are settling in together so well 🙂 I can’t wait to see how you do with your art quilt – you will do wonderful things with it!
Thank you!
I can’t believe we’re into July and halfway through the year already! I thought time was supposed to fly when you’re having fun…
Your socks are gorgeous, I can see why you want to make gloves with that yarn as well. I’d want one of everything in that pattern!
The quilt looks like it will be fun too.
Thanks. I’m working my way through a practice pair of gloves now. So many mistakes yo get put of my system..
I noticed no week 27 Update, so hope you are well. I hope you had a good 4th July weekend.
I am well, but exhausted from my 4th of July. I spent the day recovering and should get the post up tomorrow.