Happy Valentine's Day!

I gave my coworkers valentines that fold up into paper airplanes (and already I've seen one flying down the hall so it should be a good day!)

And tonight PK and I are having a quiet date.  We're avoiding the restaurants that jack up the prices and jam in more tables for the holiday.  After work, we'll hit the book store and browse magazines and books and have a coffee/tea and then go to the diner for a tasty and normally priced meal.

But I wanted to take a moment to say some things about the Love of My Life.  I know that with internet speak LOML has become a much abused phrase but when I use it here, it's with all truthfulness.

Peter Kevin is truly the love of my life and my very best friend.  He's the one I think of when I hear a good joke or a tasty bit of gossip or an interesting bit of news.

Our road has not been smooth and straight, we had a very rough patch in the early 90's and were separated for 2 years.  Looking back, it was the best thing for us.  We both needed time to grow up a bit and we are the stronger for it.

And now at 54?  We are good together and I wanted to share some of the things that make him special in my eyes

-His compassion
-His generosity of spirit
-His willingness to help anyone anytime
-His sense of humor
-He has capable, strong yet surprisingly gentle hands
-He is a great problem solver (wonderfully agile and brilliant mind)
-He can fix things!
-He holds me and I feel loved and cherished and safe
-He gets my jokes
-He has a handsome face that makes me smile
-When he sees me his face breaks out in a huge smile
-He is a great kisser
-He puts me first and makes sure I am safe and cared for (I have to walk on the inside when we're in a parking lot)
-He opens my car doors
-He loves me

Even after 30 years, my heart beats faster when I see him.  He fills me with such joy and contentment and absolute love that I can't put into words.

When we were in high school, he shared a poem with me

I am yellow, You are blue, Together we make green.  Green is my favorite color.

Green is still my favorite color.

I love you Peter Kevin.  Now and forever.

And one week later, we have a pair of socks.  I don't think I've ever made an entire pair of socks in so little time.  (except for maybe during Sock Wars but I didn't enjoy those). 

They're comfortable on the feet and even when worn in shoes, the "bumps" don't feel uncomfortable.  The construction worked out easily and the pattern was really easy to follow.

They'be become Elanor's Feb socks.  Although, I think she prefers knits, she's happy for anything I make for her. 

And Pat?  the woman at work?  When I went in on Thursday, she was indeed ready to give it all up.  "I can't do this!"  I showed her mine and she was amazed and then said she would keep trying.  By the time she left on Thursday, she had worked up to the heel flap.  With any luck, she'll be in on Monday so I can show her how to turn the heel.

Friday night we went shopping after work since we were predicted to have some ugly weather this weekend.   We woke up Saturday morning to some wet snow that was all gone by afternoon. 

We went to my brother's house to help my niece with a science project (we were guinea pigs as she took our blood pressure and had us listen to music and then took our bp again) and it was snowing again on our way home.  It was colder and this morning, we woke up to another light dusting. 

The spring bulbs are going to be confused.  The crocuses will be ok since they're used to this kind of thing.  But I'm worried about the hyacinths and tulips.  They're not quite as hardy.

Peter Kevin says I shouldn't worry but you can see the tulips are well above the ground which is not normal for February here.  The days of warm, sunniness may have done some damage.

I watched The Help this afternoon and for once, a movie was just as absorbing as the book.  The characters were just as I'd imagined them and the acting was amazing. 

Tomorrow we are in for a major inspection at work.  They're looking at money and how it's spent and they'll be looking for us to have to give some back.  We, of course, don't want to give any back.  It's one of the more stressful of the inspections.  Our charts are in line and we're ready to discuss "the good work we do" so now all we can do is take a deep breath and get through.  Cross your fingers for me.  I have enough work to do on a regular week.

Other than that, this weekend was about the cooking.  I made some really good seafood bisque last night and tonight I'm frying some chicken.  I lovelovelove fried chicken but don't make it more than maybe twice a year since it's top of the "bad for you" list of foods.  And no, while baking it in the oven is passable, it's not nearly the same.  I'm going to enjoy this.

Pk and I are going back to the gym.  We feel better when we go and we like feeling better so we'll go.  It's never been about the dieting and losing weight but about the being able to walk up the stairs without being out of breath.  That's our goal and I think we can do that!

Now, if we can just keep it up.

And voila!  I finished one sock in 3 and one half days.  If only I liked the crocheted sock better.  I could be a real whirlwind.

Here's one finished sock with a close up of the heel. 

(and Dianne, they fit inside my shoes so yes, they are wearable)

I think I'd use a smaller hook with this yarn to make a tighter fabric if I were ever to do this again.  These will be fine knocking around the house socks but I don't expect them to last that long.

I followed a basic pattern and just threw in some rows of double crochet for a lacy effect on the cuff.  There's no way to make an actual ribbing.  I tried the instructions for "crocheted ribbing" but it's just aesthetic, not functional.  I kept the cuff short on purpose. 

I don't have much yarn left from the skein I started with.  Crochet does use up more yarn.

So, there you have it.  I'll take it in tomorrow and show it to my client who is determined to make socks.  Maybe it will inspire her to try again.  It really wasn't difficult.  The heel is done with short rows and picking up stitches just like a knitted heel. 

I guess I'm just not a fan of the bumpy crochet fabric.  I like my smooth stockinette socks best.

I wore my mittens today.  They are warm (all that double layers of yarn) and beautiful.  I'm going to leave them alone for now.  The pink yarn is superwash but the brown is not and I have a feeling they would not look good if I threw then in the dryer and only the brown shrank.(shrunk? shrinked?)

But, today I want to show you something I found interesting.  Backstory:  One of my knitting group members wants to make socks but is intimidated by "all those needles".  It doesn't matter than I have shown her over and over how you only use two needles at a time.  She's afraid.  She has no self confidence.  She has crocheted so many things including a Christmas stocking out of red and white cotton but if it doesn't come easy, she's afraid of it.  "YOU can do all these fancy things but I can't". 

So, I decided to help her make a pair of crocheted socks.  I found a pattern with a lot of instructions that seemed fairly easy.  She bought some yarn and a hook and we tried to figure it out together last Thursday.  She was not enjoying it because it took too much concentration.  (She likes things where she can just crochet along and not pay lots of attention).

I found a ball of yarn and my small hook and tried the pattern myself yesterday afternoon.  This is what I have so far.   It's a little thicker than if I had knitted the same yarn.  It's Knitpicks Felici self striping yarn.  It's light fingering.  I'm using a size F (3.75 mm) hook.

I'm halfway down my foot and starting to read the directions for the heel (they sound interesting). 

I generally like the way crochet looks but I'm not sure I like these.  Maybe if I used a smaller hook, it might be a tighter fabric.  The F was the only one I could find at the time and I didn't feel like going out to buy a smaller one on Sunday afternoon.  I'm going to finish at least one of them (although I should probably finish a pair). 

What do you think? 

I haz mittens!  They took a while but the weather has cooperated and been actually warm enough this past week so I didn't need mittens at all. 

The pattern is Hansa Mittens.  I used September's artwalk club yarn  (White over Red by Mark Rothko was the painting) and some Knitpicks merino/silk sock yarn.

The pattern was not hard to follow and I haven't decided whether to block them yet.  Maybe next weekend.  If I do it now, they won't be dry to wear them tomorrow. 

They are a bit big (also a reason to maybe not block them, I don't need them to grow any).  The tips of my fingers come to the part where the decreases start.  I wonder if I wash them and throw them into the dryer for just a bit if they'll shrink.  I'm not sure if the yarn is superwash or not. 

But I'd hate to ruin them after all that work.  I'm going to weigh the yarn and see if there's enough for a pair of footie socks with contrasting heels or maybe a hat.  I still need a hat since the beret I made was big enough for two heads to wear it simultaneously. 

Pk and I are having a Harry Potter marathon.  I know, you're all jealous over our glamourous and exciting existence.  8 movies in 3 days.  Today we have the last three.  When I finish here, we'll start and finish by 9 or 10 tonight.  It's good for plain knitting and maybe I can finish my scarf, too.  I mean, winter's only half over after all.

Handle with Care went well on Friday.  Just a few achy muscles and a jammed toe.  I was taking someone down and the toe of my sneaker got caught on the wood floor.  It's not too bad and I don't wear pointy toed shoes to work so I'll be fine.  Just a bit of a bruise.   And now we have three new trainers and have to gear up to start the training sessions in April.

It's February already!  Pk has a birthday this month (he's a Pisces) and we'll take a long weekend for it.  That'll be our holiday that gets us through until Memorial Day.  Work is good but vacations are necessary.  I can usually tell.  It's when I start getting irritated at my office mate for putting papers all over his half of the office (table, desk, floor, vent).  I'll have to remember to take a photo.  One person we were interviewing for our program noticed that half of the office was neat and half was a disaster area.  I would find it frustrating to have to look for things all the time. 

Is your work area neat?  Or are you a 'creatively messy' person?

I thought I'd share a few photos from the past week. 

First,  Broad St (aka The Avenue of the Arts) with City Hall in the early evening sunset.  Those green awnings there on the left is the restaurant where we had dinner.

Elanor's January socks.  Just plain cuff down socks made with some yarn from a fellow blogger who brought it back from London when she went to Wimbledon.  It's a wool/bamboo blend.  The colors are grey and blue and yellow and white.  El loves the pooling and stripes.








My swift doing its thing.  The yarn is for El's Feb socks



The start of El's Feb socks.  The colors remind me of berries and cream.  I didn't think it looked like much in the skein but caked and knit, it's beautiful.

Just a bit of end-of-the-week randomness.  I'm getting ready for bed so I can be rested for Handle with Care training tomorrow.  It's the one day a year I get to wear sweatpants to work!  

In honor of the Seventh Annual Brigid in Space Silent Poetry Reading, I offer you another of my favorites from one of my favorite poets. (and I had a lovely image to add but I'm at work and our filtering system doesn't play well with others)


i love you much(most beautiful darling)
more than anyone on the earth and i
like you better than everything in the sky

-sunlight and singing welcome your coming

although winter may be everywhere
with such a silence and such a darkness
noone can quite begin to guess

(except my life)the true time of year-

and if what calls itself a world should have
the luck to hear such singing(or glimpse such
sunlight as will leap higher than high
through gayer than gayest someone's heart at your each

nearness)everyone certainly would(my


most beautiful darling)believe in nothing but love


ee cummings