I am a JRR Tolkien fan.  I have been since I was in 7th or 8th grade.  In those days we had "reading groups" within an English class.  Kids were divided up into groups depending on their reading ability.  My reading group read The Hobbit. 

I was in love.  It had adventure and swashbuckling and arrows flying through the air and a Dragon and gold and greed and lots of other human emotions.

That was the year I had my appendix out.  In 1972 this was a stay-in-the-hospital-for-a-week procedure and then I was home for 3 more.  My Language Arts teacher at the time bought the other three books in the series and brought them to me in the hospital so I would have something to read.

And thus began another lifelong love affair.  These have become my favorite books and the ones I probably have read the most. I have made knitwear from patterns based on these books/characters.  I made my first round shawl (Evenstar), my largest beaded shawl (In Dreams) and a cowl from LOTR based patterns.

So it shouldn't surprise anyone when I saw a pair of socks called Architect of Rivendell.  The design on the toes and the clean lines up to the design around the cuff.  It called to me.  It's a toe up pattern which didn't bother me, I've done toe up socks before and I'm not afraid.

But it's a different cast on and since the pattern is dependent on this cast on, I was determined to get it.  After 12 tries and probably 12 more starts, I have come up with this.  It has taken me 5 days to get this far.  The toe looks a a bit flat/square but I am convinced it will round off as I move on.  It's filled with twisted stitches and I had to relearn how to cable without a cable needle (or go crazy). 

If this time goes south, I may put it in time out for a while.

This is the view down our street last night.  You can see the edge of the clouds as they turn pink.  It was a very welcome sight.  Most everything around here is grey/white/black right now.  This may change as the temps rise to a balmy 40 degrees this weekend.

The program update continues at work.  People are having some difficulty adjusting to Win7 and then our new program goes live on Monday.  By the end of the day, I'm exhausted. 

This cold weather is tiring.  It takes a lot of energy to keep yourself warm!  I have to keep reminding myself that it's WINTER and is supposed to be cold.  I'll appreciate the memory of my cold toes when it's August and I'm too hot. 

Peter Kevin is having some issues at work and they are under a lot of stress.  He's putting out resumes but it's hard when you're in your mid 50's.  It's easy to become discouraged.  Fortunately there's a wood show coming up in February.  That will lift his spirits somewhat.



Fair

11°F
-12°C

This is the image in my mind of what the weather people are calling a Polar Vortex.  It's what's keeping our temperatures in the low double digits (and it's rather windy this morning so it's cold). 

The snow we got the other day was (still is in some places) beautiful but it was tricksy snow.  It got very cold right after the snow fell and so there is a nice layer of ice that only looks like snow on the ground. 

All of this is leading to the fall I took yesterday.  I am starting to feel like a real klutz.  I stepped off the curb onto what looked like snow but turned out to be ice and I must have looked like a cartoon character.  My feet went out from under me and I landed on my (fortunately well padded) butt and my right wrist. 

As I was laying there in the street in the snowy slushy wetness, a nice man tried to help me up but he began to lose purchase and was in danger of landing down right next to me so I thanked him and got my self up.

Needless to say, I am sore today.  I am so very lucky that I didn't break anything and am only left with a sore wrist/arm, back and neck.  Some ibuprofen helps and moving a bit slower also helps.  I love snow, I really do but I am getting too old for this falling down nonsense. 

Work is busybusy.  I am part of the user group that is responsible for the upgrade to our computer program.  Our "go live" date is Feb 3 so at this point we are running around trying to get things saved that people need and re-imaging all the computers.  It's really not that difficult if people would just read the directions (but we all know how that goes!).

I finished another pair of socks but I'm not sure if I want to put them into the Christmas pile (I have to start early-I hate deadline knitting) or keep them for myself.  I have a drawer full of hand knit socks so to put them into the gift pile is probably the smart thing to do.

I am taking part in a research study on walking.  I have an app on my phone that keeps track of all my movements all day including my travel to and from work.  It keeps track of my steps all day.  There is no "goal" for the day, it's only to see how much I walk on an average day.  My job is rather sedentary so I don't have high numbers most days.  I wonder if they are counting on the competitive spirit for us to increase our numbers so that we can score higher.  It is interesting to see how many steps I take on a given day-way more than I imagined but still not nearly enough.

Well, it's time to get to work.  I have to help some people fill out the form for their computers and actually do some of my real work.  I have let so many things slide this week because of the weather and then this upgrade.  Have a good weekend!

A finished pair of socks!  I bought this yarn in Rhinebeck because it was colorful and fun and at the time seemed to reflect the fun we were having.

And then the reality of finding a pattern that would allow the colorful yarn to shine without looking goofy.

I remembered Monkey socks which are made for this kind of hand painted yarn and it didn't fail me.  These will make my feet feel like they're having a party. 

I do not know who made the yarn since it had no tag on it other than the fact that it is a merino/nylon blend and it was 22 dollars.  It is not particularly soft and fuzzy and it is rather thin. I thoroughly enjoyed working with it and lovelovelove the results. 

This pair (well, one is done and one is started) is made from one of Zen Yarn Garden's Artwalk choices.  It's a merino/silk/cashmere single.  No, these socks probably will not last as long as some, although the silk will give them some strength as well as help them shine.  But (and this is a big but), working with this yarn was a constant pleasure.  It is soft and these colors are pretty true so it's beautiful.  It's just a plain sock pattern because in this case, I really just wanted the yarn to be the star.  The inspiration was Andy Warhol's Pink and Blue shoe. 

He did a series of shoes in different colors and this is one of my favorites.  The yarn is so evocative of the painting.  Next month is Monet's Irises.  (I can't wait!)

Our weather here has been so weird.  The temps have been up and down and there has been lots of precipitation.  Lately it's been in the form of rain but we have had two snowfalls.  One of them came after we put up the outside lights and it buried our snowmen.  You can see the stars (and in the front right corner, the rosemary bush which is hanging in there despite the cold), the bright spots in front of the stars are the snowmen.  Their little hats are just peeking out of the snow.  It took about 4 days of melting for them to make themselves visible again.  It's a good thing they're water resistant.

We took down the Christmas things and put them away for the year on Sunday.  It's a chore but this year I cleaned out the boxes and got rid of decorations that have seen better days.  I did keep the construction paper Santas that the girls made in Kindergarten (even though El tells me every year that it would be OK with her if I got rid of them) but I got rid of some things that held no sentimental value and were just broken or worn.  We carefully wrapped things in paper and put it into containers and Pk will put it all on shelves downstairs.  He wants to straighten out the rec room shelves and make them organized. 

What is it about this time of year that brings out the urge to purge the clutter?  I think it's partly due to the fact that we can't get outside as much as we might like but whatever it is, I'm glad for the feeling to be kicking in.  There are some closets that really need a good purge.

It's hard to take in that it's January 15 already.  We are two weeks into the new year and things are moving quickly.  We have 2 weeks until our new computer system at work goes live and I have been working hard to help get everyone trained and up to speed.  I still anticipate some issues but hopefully (as long as the system works) everyone will adapt quickly.  We are a building of social workers and we don't tend to be early adopters when it comes to new technology.

Pk has been enjoying the availability of soccer games now that we have a television.  He gets up early on weekend mornings to catch his favorites and plans his weekend chores around the matches.  I will admit it makes me smile to see him enjoy it so much.  I put on an audio book and spin while he yells at the players and rants about coaching. 

So, not much new here.  How about you? Is 2014 treating you ok so far? 



It's been almost 2 weeks since I last sat down to my computer.  This is the longest vacation Peter Kevin and I have had in years.  And we are enjoying every last minute.  There has been napping and eating and spinning and some going out (but not very much). 

How about I share some photos?  There have been Tardis sightings in the Christmas tree. 

And Tyranosaurs eating sheep (Peter Kevin can always be counted on to make colorful cookies....)

 Peter Kevin and Elanor made sausage.  This is their first attempt.  It's Italian sausage and I have it on good authority that it tasted just fine (but they need to work on the texture a bit). 

There has been some knitting.  It took me hours to find a pattern for mittens that Peter Kevin felt was sufficiently manly for him to wear.  It's coming out great (and will be nice and warm).  It's the first time I am using an electronic pattern without printing it out.  It's actually nice to use the Knit Companion app now that they've made it easier to set it up with a project.

 We had a Christmas tree that fit in the room without scraping the ceiling. We had lights all over the house both inside and out. 

We've made trips to the Russian store for pierogies and kielbasa. 

We went to the movies and saw the Hobbit (better than the first one but still disappointing to me). 

Peter Kevin was asleep before midnight on New Year's Eve.  We were home and he was tired so he went to bed.  I was in bed shortly after.  Party animals we are not. 

Today we ventured out to the bookstore to sit in the café and read magazines before the SNOWSTORM hits.  Yes, we are predicted to get 8 inches of snow and very cold temps tonight and tomorrow.  I am so glad we're not going to work.

I think we've managed to do what we planned.  We spent enough time with other people to feel social but enough time alone to finally let that core of exhaustion melt away.  I realized just how tired I was on Christmas Eve and then Christmas day.  I have taken a nap just about every day we've been off and sleeping a full 8 hours every night.  The last few weeks at work were mentally stressful and it's taken me all this time to feel like I am recovering.  I know Peter Kevin feels the same.  He's been playing games and overdosing on soccer games. 

And chocolate torte.  He does love his torte.

I hope you all are having good holidays and that the New Year brings you peace and joy and most of all contentment.

This year's goals are to continue to live in the moment and to learn to be contented with what I have.  I will cultivate patience and peace and remember to give other people the benefit of the doubt. 

And in the spirit of Penguinski,