What Is She Doing?

I'm pretty sure that's what my neighbors were thinking yesterday while I was wandering around wearing my 2/3 finished Clapotis while taking pictures. I was looking for good light. My yard tends to be shady, even with no trees in leaf, in the late afternoon. I finally found a place to my liking, and proceeded to take pictures. I had to take pictures of myself, which tends to be difficult when you can't see what's showing up on your LCD. I took several before I got an acceptable one. Of course, this would all have been much easier if I had just remembered I have a flip-out LCD on my new camera.

It would appear that the two new skeins of Noro Silk Garden will fit in just fine. I had one and a half skeins of the original, and as soon as I finished knitting the one on the needle, I started with one of the new skeins. I can't tell the difference. Maybe the color gradation is slightly different, but I had that with one or two of the skeins from the other color lot. At any rate, I'm just about to start the decrease section.

Rose Bush 1; Me, 0

Looks pretty innocent, doesn't it? Just sitting there, minding its own business, growing, putting out leaves. Doesn't look too threatening, does it? However, since the weather was nice today, I thought I would trim the dead growth out of this bush. It must have seen me coming with the clippers.

I bought this rose several years ago as a tiny bush in a pink pot. You may have seen them at your local nursery. This one has pretty pink "appleblossom" type flowers. It's pretty tough. It's a landscape rose, which means it grows on its own roots, and survives cold weather nicely. And survive, this one has. The branches root where they touch the ground, so we have at least two more of these growing around our yard, compliments of this big bush. This bush is at least as tall as I am, and spreads out eight feet from the roots. It is currently menacing everyone who walks up my front path. So, I decided to trim it. How bad could it be? Well, 40 minutes later, I found out. I now have 15 new scratches and digs on my arm, a semi-shredded long-sleeved t-shirt, and I'm missing a hunk of my hair!

All the deadwood was underneath, natch, so getting to it was tricky. I was wearing a pair of heavy gloves, but they only partially protected my fingers - the larger thorns pierced them nicely. The eight-foot flexible stems caught on anything - shirt, skin, jeans, hair. I spent quite a bit of time detangling these branches from my shirt sleeves, and putting several holes in my shirt and skin in the process. Then, just as I was nearly done, one of the branches pulled some of my long hair out of the hairclip, and just as I was making that last cut, my hair swung in front of the clippers, and I snipped off a chunk of hair!! Ack!! Fortunately, it's not terribly noticeable when my hair is brushed into it's normal (non)style. As for the rest of me, my arm hurts from all the scratches, and my shirt is now air-conditioned.

I'm going to get some more done on Clapotis tonight. More on that tomorrow.

Saturday Sky 3-29-08

It's March 29 and my maple trees are starting to bloom!!

Furry Friday!

Is ItFriday Yet?

Tonight is my last night in a loooong stretch of work days - 7 days out of 8. I can't tell you how bone-weary I feel right now. I've spent most of the last week taking care of the needs of others, and neglecting my own. I need a little TLC, myself. I'm looking forward to just being able to sit without answering a call bell the moment my butt hits the chair. I want to knit, to refill my birdfeeders (!), watch tv, and shop. I need to get my home life back in order. I have no food in this house. Getting something to eat tonight before I go to work was interesting, to say the least.

Yawn

Way too tired today. I have to be back at work in three hours. Last night was crazy.

No knitting!!


My maneki-neko, which has clearly seen better days!

2nd Anniversary

I started this blog two years ago, right at the end of a major upheaval in my life. I had just graduated from college with a degree in nursing at the age of 56, and had just started my first nursing job. My husband had decided, in 2002, that he wanted a change of life, so he took off and left the boys and me. I knew I couldn't support my family on my current job as a merchandiser, and I had no health benefits, so I needed to find something different, so I went to school. I'm glad I did - it was the best thing I ever did (besides my five sons).

I blogged a lot in the first year; got a camera a couple of months into the blog, and enjoyed it a lot. The second year, I was doing well until last April - my mom passed away; a few weeks later, one of our friends was killed in Iraq; two days after that, my father-in-law passed away. I found it really hard to recover from all that, and didn't blog much for the new several months. Then, in November, I joined NaBloPoMo, and blogged (almost) every day in November. I blogged nearly every day in December, too, and I joined Blog 365. So far, so good. I haven't missed a day.

As I posted yesterday, I received my two skeins of Noro Silk Garden, so I decided I'd knit on Clapotis, and try to see if the skeins matched. I was so tired, I think I fell asleep knitting the second row. I'll have to wait a few days to see if they match, because I start three in a row tonight.

I slept late today, because I work tonight. One of the things I've noticed about sleeping during the day, is that I sometimes have vivid dreams. Today I was dreaming I lived on a farm in Michigan. It was summer, and I was watching cloud formations change with amazing speed. I've heard the term "boiling couds", and I think that's what these were. At the same time I was standing in a field watching these clouds change, my son was ice-skating on a frozen puddle in the field, even though it was summer. Right after that, I found myself in a hospital, trying to find equipment and labels I knew I needed for whatever I was doing. It was at this point that I woke up and decided I really needed to get up. Dreaming during the day, I've noticed that if I wake up and fall asleep again, I go right back into the same dream, at more or less the same point in the dream. This doesn't happen if I get up at night. I would think it's weird, except that a few other people have said that it happens to them, too.

Who Gives A Damn?

That pretty much sums up my attitude today. I feel so throughly fried today, I can't think. Four straight days of 12 hour shifts, and it was total insanity there. I was so glad to leave this morning. Unfortunately, I don't get much recharge time now. I have to be back there tomorrow night. Right now, all I want to do is vegetate and watch tv.

The needles I need to finish my sweater arrived. Am I going to work on it? Not on your life. I can see where that would go tonight - I'd spend more time frogging than knitting. My two extra skeins of Noro Silk Garden arrived, and even though they are a different dye lot than the originals, they look pretty close. When I put them with the two skeins I have left from the first dye lot, they look indistinguishable, at least from the outside. With my luck, there's probably a massive color difference inside. Am I going to knit on this tonight? Possibly. I'm really curious to see if I can pull this off, and Clapotis' pattern is a little more brain-cell friendly than the Fair Isle.

Tomorrow is my blogoversary, so I'm going to try to think of a decent post for it. Heh.

Happy Easter!

Saturday Sky 3 - 22 - 08

I Am A Nerd

Yes, I am. It says so, right over there on my sidebar. Not once, but twice. I am a "Nerd God" on version 1 of the Nerd Test; and I am a "Cool Nerd Goddess" on version 2.0. I kinda like "Cool Nerd Goddess" best. How did I get these distinctions? Well, on version 1, I knew who the pictures were, and I knew a lot of the Chem questions. Thank you, Mr. Guiterrez. You managed to make Organic and BioChemistry interesting, and it stuck! On Version 2.0, I did well on the Science&Math; and History. I'm also no slouch in the Sci-Fi department. And, I liked the original Star Trek best!

I always knew I was a nerd. Even as a kid, my interests were different than other girls. Sure, I had dolls, but I also had a microscope. I dismantled unfortunate alarm clocks and sundry other items. I dug up anthills, carefully, so I could watch the resident ants go about their daily business. I peeled apart flower and leaf buds to see what was inside. I liked to go to the pond to see what was happening in the water. Tadpoles were fascinating. I loved watching plants poking up out of the ground. I loved watching seeds germinate. I loved to read. My parents didn't quite know what to do with me, and back in those days, this kind of behavior was not really encouraged in girls. By the time I got to high school, I didn't know what to do with me, either. I always felt like I was on my left foot, while everyone else was on their right foot. I didn't know how to talk to people, and it only got worse through the years. I finally did develop an interest in boys, and any interest I had in being smart went out the window. It took me many years to realize what a mistake that was.

I read "Lord of the Rings" at 18 years old. Way back then, very few people had ever heard of this book, and most of them were boys. Now, I have "Lord of the Rings" on DVD. In print, as a book set. And, as a Books-on-CD. I listen to it when I'm on my treadmill.

When I was in nursing school a few years ago, I adored Microbiology. I loved growing various bacteria, fungi and yeasts in petri dishes. Nothing was better than opening the incubator and seeing my petri dishes all fuzzy and gross. Success!! I also loved the "pond-water" week, where we got to dish out pond water onto special slides and run it under the microscope to check for its various denizens. Our final exam was to identify a "mystery" microbe. Mine turned out to be an enterobacter. There were six of them, and all six were so similiar, it was tricky to figure them out, especially if you had one or two identifying tests come back inconclusive, as we all did. I got mine right. If I could have found a well-paying job in research, I might have gone that way, instead of nursing.

Even now, I'm not a girly-girl. I don't have a "hairdo". so to speak. I wear little to no makeup. I'm so not into fashion. (Thank you Levi Strauss, for inventing blue jeans!) And I'm fine with that. However, once I got married, my mother-in-law was NOT fine with it. She took it as a personal insult, and proceeded to drive me insane about this issue. She gave me make-up as gifts, and insults at various other times in my life, usually when other people were around to hear. Never mind that I was raising five of her grandsons; I wasn't worthy because I didn't look the way she thought I ought to. She is one of these women who never step out the door without a sprayed-in-place hairdo, and full makeup, and fashionable clothing, accompanied by a fair amount of jewelry, and high heels. I didn't have a problem with that; if that's how she felt comfortable, then I was fine. She could never understand that I didn't feel comfortable that way. For a while at the beginning of our marriage, I did dress more fashionably, and wear makeup, but it really wasn't me (and my waist-length hair did not get cut).

Right now, I wear a bit of makeup, get my hair into shape with a curling iron, and dress for coverage, not fashion. I figure if young children are not screaming at the sight of me, then I'm ok. And, I graduated college (two year degree), am working on the four year degree, and a few other things. When my kids see me with a textbook, when I could be doing something else, they sigh, and say "mom, you're such a nerd".

Yay for nerdiness.

Oh, and a clarification here: I don't know if onion grass is an actual grass. However, for as long as I've lived in NJ, that's what I remember it being referred to as. All I know, is it carpets everything, and right now, it's the greenest thing in the back yard. Plus, as weird as this sounds, I love the smell of it! Nothing else says "spring" like the smell of those potent little onions. Trying to get rid of it is a pain in the ass, so I only dig up what is directly in the way of anything else. And, god forbid you leave one or two of those little bulbs behind!! They will start an entire patch all over again. There is a farm not too far from my house, and right now, the fallow fields are just covered in onions! I guess they spread every year when everything is plowed up for spring planting.

First Day Of Spring

Onion grass: it's how we know it's spring in New Jersey!

The Waiting Game

As I said last night, right now I'm waiting for some supplies to finish a couple of projects. I'm waiting for two skeins of Noro Silk Garden so I can work on my blue Clapotis, and I'm waiting for my 40" Inox needles so I can continue working on my Philospher's Wool sweater without shredding my fingers.

So, what did I do instead? This:
This was the Clapotis that I made and finished last year. I made it small, too small as it turned out. I had 3 1/2 skeins of Noro left over from that one, and I really wanted it bigger, so I frogged it. It now looks like this:
I'm working it on size 8 needles this time, and I'm a lot happier with the size. I wanted it to be stole size, not scarf size, but it barely made it around my shoulders. I don't particularly want it wider, just longer, and I think using a few more skeins of the Noro will get me where I want to be. Plus, I've already knit one of these, and most of a second, so I'm zipping right along on this. I've already knitted one ball, and am ready to start a second.

Oh, and I finished my Easter wreath. It didn't come out exactly like I wanted it to, because I didn't have enough ribbon for a bow. Oh, well. Pictures tomorrow. I also start an insane work schedule tomorrow - four in a row, including Easter.

Fast One

This is going to be a real quick one, because I have to be at work in 45 minutes. I don't know if I have to stay or not, but I'm going to post now.

I did some knitting and frogging last night. I'll put it in tomorrow's post. I've kind of run up against a brick wall on two of my projects, so I got the bright idea to frog something I'd finished, but wasn't real happy with. It went kind of well, and I started reknitting, but I don't have pictures right now, and no time to take them.

Bunnies And Eggs

I have more than half of the bunnies and eggs put together. However, I can't find the glue gun so I can glue them to the wreath, and I am still car-less, after a fashion. I'm still waiting for Chris to find the part to his car that he needs to fix it. However, the car is something like 16 years old, so some parts are difficult to find. And of course, this is one of the difficult ones.

I got the teleconverted lens today for my camera. Pretty nifty little item. I have to play with it a bit more.

Didn't take any pictures of the bunnies and eggs, and I'm feeling way too lazy to get up off this chair, find the camera, take the pictures, and upload them. So, I'm just going to randomly pick one of today's pictures and post it.


Ah, it's Thomas, my sweet and shy tabby cat. He is gorgeous: big green eyes, beautiful thick brown and orange tabby fur. He's still a bit semi-feral, though, even though he's lived with us for a while, but I love him dearly.

Stash Reduction??

Over the last few months, I've put a lot of time into organizing my stashes. Fabrics sorted into three tubs, by color and/or type; yarns sorted into other tubs, and another tub for various other projects. However, I've noticed that while I was pretty ruthless (I gave away a lot of stuff), I inadvertently created a need for more stuff! I finally finished sewing together all the eggs and bunnies for my Easter wreath, only to discover that I don't have any fiberfill! (Flash back to two months ago: small bag of fiberfill remnants spotted in closet; I think "Eh, I'll never use that", and toss it in the give-away bag). So, now I am the proud owner of an industrial sized bag of fiberfill, the smallest I could find at Joann Fabrics, to replace the small amount I tossed, which incidentally, would have been a perfect amount to stuff these effing bunnies. And, let's not talk about the acrylic yarn I gave away, because I am making an afghan with, guess what, acrylic yarn. And, for some of those colors, I only needed a small amount, which I had to buy, because I don't have them in my stash anymore. Well, I do now, because I bought every frickin' ball of yarn the pattern called for.

I worked on Clapotis last night, and I bit the bullet and bought two more skeins of yarn. Not the same dye lot of course, but I'm going to be optimistic here and pray that they at least sort of match.

It was fairly nice in these parts yesterday, so I got a lot of yard work done. I raked out the flower beds near the front door - a big job all by itself, and started work on the bed on the other side of the driveway, which used to be known as "lawn". Until the trees got really big. Then, the grass started dying, so I gave up, and planted it as a shade garden. I have lots of hostas, a hellebore, several groundcovers, a mystery plant, lots of bulbs, violets, and assorted other goodies there. All in all, a very satisfactory substitute for grass.

When I had come in to the house, I noticed a squirrel peeking out from under the root of the tree in my backyard. Thirty seconds later, I realized why he was hiding. A harrier hawk swooped down, snatched a bird from the bird bath, and zoomed off. Aargh!! To make things worse, about an hour or so after that; I was once again shooting pictures through the sliding glass door, when all of a sudden the birds and squirrels took off like their life depended on it, which I guess it did, because the hawk swooped through again - very fast, and coming low to the ground. Didn 't get anyone this time.

Saturday Sky

Yawn

It's been a long day. I had to be up at 6:30 this morning so I could get to my class on time. When you're used to working nights, and going to sleep in the morning, getting up in the morning tends to feel weird. Even with the help of an industrial size coffee, it was a long day. Eight hours talking about infant blood pressure, chems, iv's, airway, is a lot of information. I can't really complain, though, because it was all relevant to what I do for a living, and it was really useful information. Just a lot to pack into eight hours.

So. Now I get a few days off. I need to spend at least part of this weekend cleaning up my yard. I need to rake out flowerbeds, and clean up the eight million branches that fell in last weekend's storm. Right now, I'm sitting here wondering what I'm going to do tonight - Clapotis, Philosopher's Wool, afghan, or vegetate. Personally, I'm leaning towards the last.

Catching My Breath

I have that class tomorrow, so I haven't been able to do too much. And to top it off, I forgot to order the circular that I need, so it will be a while before I can work on my Philosopher's wool sweater. I might go back to the other one, and knit the other sleeve.

Wordless Wednesday??

Feeling Better!?

Well, at least I feel functional today, which is a vast improvement over the last few days. I even crocheted enough motifs last night to finish 21 of another combination. I think I have about 68 to finish now.

I'm heading back to work tonight. I'm not sure if I'm up to it, but I didn't call out, and it's too late now. I'm just praying it isn't too busy.

I bought a new camera last month, as I think I mentioned. Canon S5 IS. It's a really nice camera, and I'm in love with the zoom. It's classed as a "point and shoot", but it's really a lot more than that. I don't use the "auto" function so much, so I've been learning about aperture openings, and shutter speed, white balance, etc. It's made a lot of difference in my photos. I've also been getting used to the focus on this one. It takes a bit sometimes to get the focus where I want it, and when I put the picture on the computer, I can see I could have done better.

I have a tripod that I want to use. I'd like to take moon shots. We had a great sliver of a crescent moon the other night, but I was feeling like crap, and it was freezing, so I think that'll have to wait a while.

Also, while trolling ebay last night for Inox 40" circular needles (love inox - no Addi's for me!), I found a teleconverter lens and the adapter, plus some filters for the camera at reasonable prices. If I like them, I think I may invest in a wide-angle lens next. I don't think I need a macro lens - this camera does amazing macro and super-macro shots all on its own.

More Of The Same

I still feel rotten. Somewhat better than yesterday, but still pretty bad. I didn't even pick up a knitting needle, crochet hook, or yarn this weekend. I'm thinking maybe tonight I'll work on the afghan a little - maybe. I haven't been this sick in a couple of years. I rarely call out of work, and I rarely run a fever, or get to the non-functional level I've been at for the last few days.

Once again, blogger is giving me a google error when I try to upload. Crap!

Finally got something to upload!!

Blech

Still sick and feeling awful. I couldn't sleep last night. It's really hard to sleep when you can't breathe.

Amazingly enough, all of my trees behaved themselves last night and stayed put in the ground. Thank god. I was really certain I was going to have one or two of them in the house with me. The winds were so high that my house was howling. It was making these really creepy moaning sounds. Just what you need when you're sick, right?

As is usual after a huge storm, today was beautiful, but downright freezing. I shot some pictures through the window.

Dammit all. Once again, blogger is giving me error messages when I try to upload pictures. Is it me, or have they gone downhill since being taken over by Google?

Saturday Sky

Grey and rainy, which is an understatement. We've had about three inches of rain. All the streams and rivers are over their banks, including the Delaware. Second photo is behind my house - not my yard; my neighbors; and not a pond, but a backyard.


???




???

Alrighty, then. Several attempts to upload pictures resulted in a polite error message from blogger. Since I'm sick, and running on a short fuse right now, I'm giving it up for the moment and will try later.

Success!!

Huh?? Is It Friday Already??

A very busy night in the newborn nursery, with a lot going on. I'm pooped, have to go back tonight. Looks like I'll need a boat.

Have a couple of pictures in lieu of any intelligent or semi-intelligent posting today:



Good grief, it took me three tries to post those pictures. The first two times, I hit cancel instead of upload.

Must find coffee....

Hard To Believe It's Still Winter

The thermometer says it's only 51 outside, but I don't believe it. I've got my windows open, and I went to Target wearing shirt and jeans, no coat! The sun is warm, there's a nice warm breeze. I feel spring fever coming on, with is not a good thing, because my work schedule is a killer for the next several days. I have a gap of about six days off after that, so I hope it's nice then.

The goldfinches are completely nuts right now. I have a never ending chirpfest at my nyjer feeder. That stuff is expensive, and they go through it like there's no tomorrow.

Crocus are coming up. For a warm winter, they are blooming a bit later than I would expect.

Wonder why there's no knitting content? Unfortunately, there hasn't been any!

I Need More Than 24 Hours In A Day

Sheesh!! I've been off work for three days in a row now, and I thought I would have more done by now. I'm not only talking about my crafts, I'm talking about life in general. There's always so much to do - clean up after the cats, vet appointments, grocery shopping, shopping in general, cleaning, you get the idea. I got some sewing done today, and noticed my room is a wreck again. I had everything straightened up during my week off in February, but once again, things have crept in and landed where they don't belong.

I sewed some of the bunnies and eggs that go on my wreath. The fabrics are from my stash, all of the lace and the ribbon on the right are from my stash, too. The other three ribbons and trims on the left are from AC Moore. We're lucky enough to have two Michael's and one AC Moore within 20 minutes of us. I stopped at Michael's yesterday to pick up the ribbon that winds around the wreath, and is also used for the bow. I couldn't find anything usable at AC Moore. I'm not sure about the bunnies. I don't remember what I used for the original, and being that it's nearly 20 years old, would probably not be available anyway.

I spent most of last night studying my STABLE course. There is a pre-test of 40 questions that need to be answered before the course; I have about 27 of them done. As for the rest - I'm going to have to look a little harder. I will say, that this is interesting, and I feel that I've learned a lot of new information, and I'm still nine days away from this class.

92 Bottles Of Beer On The Wall

Heh. Not bottles of beer (but that got your attention, right?), but 92 motifs for my afghan. 76 left to go. However, I'm coming down to the wire on my STABLE studying, and I work eight out of the next eleven days, so I don't have much time to study. Time to go crack the books.

Living In Fear

It's been almost a year since my mother died. She died in her sleep; she had had Alzheimer's for over 10 years, and I'm pretty sure that's what led to her death. She was 78 when she died; that means that she was in her mid-60's when her Alzheimer's symptoms started to become apparent to us. That's pretty young, and that makes this even more frightening to me. Early onset seems to be the worst form of this disease. For her, we noticed a different kind of forgetfulness, a slight personality change; just enough to make us wonder what was happening. She had just retired from her job, and her beloved 16 year old cat had just died; so we first thought she was having a hard time making these transitions.

What happened to her was so terrible, and so frightening, and so out of our control that I shudder to think of it. The progression of this disease was like a freight train slowly picking up speed, unstoppable. We tried Aricept, Exilon, Reminyl, whatever it took. For a while they helped, but eventually we would begin to see changes again, so it was off to the next pharmeceutical. We even had her enrolled in a trial of a new drug; but by that time she was so far gone that we all, researchers and family alike, agreed it was pointless.

I'm 58 now, so anytime I forget car keys, someone's name, anything really, my blood runs cold. I'm afraid this can happen to me. No one in our family has ever had this before; my mother was the youngest of seven children, most blessed with long lives; my grandmother died at 87, in full possession of all her faculties; my great grandmother died at 94. What happened to my mother? How did she wind up with this? Who knows. Her surviving sister and brother, ages 82 and 89 were at her funeral, and I was struck by the fact that even at their ages, their memories were probably better than mine is.

Where am I going with this? Well, allaying my fears for one thing. I graduated from college as a nurse at the age of 56. The nursing program is daunting for younger people, much less someone my age. 50% of my class dropped out or flunked out. I was thrilled to graduate, for a lot of reasons. Financial security, good job, a challenge to my brain cells. Right now, I have a busy time coming up. I'm working on the STABLE course I mentioned a few weeks ago, I intend to start working on my national certification, and I have my NRP (Newborn Resusitation Provider) recertification coming up. That's a lot of studying. It's reassuring to me when I can plow through this difficult material and understand it. It's kind of a "phew, my
brain cells are working" kind of thing. Someone once told me it's ok to forget where your car keys are, but it's not ok to forget what they're for.


Eat like a bird, my ass eye.

I went to Michael's crafts today to get ribbon for my wreath. Heh. That was supposed to be an in-and-out job; turned out to be an hour. Another stop for birdseed - fifty dollars later, out of there. What exactly does eating like a bird mean? Mine eat like truck drivers. Tomorrow, I have to wait for Roto-rooter. Our sump pump drains into the street through an underground pipe; the pipe was disconnected for a while, and something is blocking it, so the water backs up into my basement if we connect it. Fun, huh?

Worst. Night. Ever.

Yes, I know I'm crazy!


I don't know what was wrong with Gremlin last night. He usually sleeps with me, curling up and conking out for the night. Occasionally, he will need to use the litter box during the night, so I let him out, he does what he needs to, runs back in, I close the door, and that's it for the night. Last night, every 2 hours or less, he was running around on the bed to get out. 20 minutes later, he'd be back, meowing at the other side of the door to get in. I couldn't ignore him. This cat is loud! So, not much sleep, and I'm working tonight.

Nice day today. A bit on the cold side, but I have the door in the laundry room open for some fresh air. The sun was shining in, and it was actually not bad. It's nice to feel a breeze and listen to the birds at the feeders.

I'm zipping along on Clapotis, but it's really starting to look like I will not have enough yarn to finish this at the size it is. I don't want to make it smaller, so I might just have to get another skein or two and pray the difference isn't very noticeable.

And this is my other project. It's not knitting or crocheting, but sewing. What does it look like? Bunnies, eggs? Good, because that's what it's supposed to look like. Once they're sewn together and embellished, they'll get glued to a wreath. I made one of these wreaths over 20 years ago, and it's finally looking a bit tattered, so a replacement is in order.

March 1........

In like a lion...

Snow, sleet, rain, freezing temps, warm temps, we've had it all in the last 24 hours.


My Philosopher's wool sweater is on hold until I can get another 40 inch size 8 needle. Knitting with the current needle is like knitting with razors! i have it bunched up on a 29 inch needle, and I may be able to use that. In the meantime, I went back to work on Clapotis for a while.