Promises to Keep

Last December I was in a tizzy trying to find some holiday themed cotton to knit some washcloths out of. I finally found some, but did I ever make those washcloths? Of course not. This job is going right to the top of the queue. Today. Seriously.

Snow Days

No, that is not one of my Christmas Cards. Better. It is one of the fat eighths that just arrived from Connecting Threads.




I also bought some 2" diamond paper pieces in hopes of one day having enough free time around the holidays to start a winter themed quilt. I am such a dreamer.

Sock Dork

I just had to post this picture after I read yesterday's Yarn Harlot post. I thought I had a mental defect when it came to insisting that patterned socks COMPLETELY match up. I go through lots of agonizing mathematical calculations and ripping back of Miss Second Sock in order to have the satisfaction of those little matching toes. Toes that will be hidden inside of shoes I might add. I was very happy to see that I am not the only one with this disorder. Someone needs to start a support group.

Stash and Trash

First we have The Trash. When the family saw what I was doing, someone went and got me the BIGGEST trash bag in the house in anticipation of some serious down sizing. I just inherited some nice plastic bins and some cabinets from Daughter's NYC move so I decided to finally get around to organizing my mountain of yarn. In spite of all my best intentions, I only managed to part with some partial skeins of yucky stuff that I have no idea why I own in the first place.





Now for The Stash. This is JUST my sock yarn. I have enough for 40 pairs. I have no excuse other than it was all over the house so I had no idea how much I actually had. It seems I can put that sock yarn obsession to rest for a very long while.

New Arrivals

I have been in panic mode over the idea that a day may come that I won't have the funds to fuel my fiber hobbies. Sock knitting in particular has been my main obsession as socks wear out often and make great gifts. You just can't knit enough socks to go around. Sock yarn is not cheap but Knit Picks sock yarn is pretty reasonable when you consider I spent $20 on one skein of Socks that Rock at the MD Sheep and Wool Fest last May. At the moment I am finishing up a pair in Imagination for a gift which I fell in love with, so I ordered a few skeins more for myself along with some inexpensive self striping yarn. Now that I have a sizable stash to last those hard post retirement years to come, I need to organize it all so I can find it.

As Good As Gold

Closing in on retirement age, I find myself hoarding my favorite things in anticipation of my departure from the workforce. I can't live without heaps of sock yarn and good tea. I found this 3 pack deal on Amazon during some midnight surfing this past week and low and behold it was here within days. Every afternoon I make it a point to sit down with a pot of this addicting blend and settle my brain. I've got plenty of the tea now. Enough that I don't have to worry for a long while. I even have a teapot warmer, but I have searched the world over in vain for a decent pot to brew it in. I have a Brown Betty, in fact I have two, but I am looking for a clear glass infuser type that lets me watch as the tiny flakes create the clear amber liquid that I just can't live without. All the ones that I have bought recently drip and I hate a messy cup and saucer as that is where I like to park my cookies.
Now about that sock yarn hoarding, let me just say that I am expecting a package...

Happy Thanksgiving

Being of a certain age, it seems that every holiday, I feel like Ebenezer Scrooge being visited by holiday spirits from the past-but in a good way. I have so many wonderful years to revisit in my daydreams that I never know where to start. The years when my grandparents were alive are among my favorite. My grandmother could put out a Thanksgiving feast that would knock your eyes out. Notice I said "put out" and not "cook". My grandmother, Meme, was no cook but she could shop. She brought home jars of strange things that I can't even name but that always looked so pretty in her beautiful cut glass dishes. She dabbed mayonnaise on EVERYTHING in such an artistic manner that you never even realized that you had just eaten mayonnaise on jello. She put out hors d'oeuvures with frilly toothpicks on those folding TV trays that my 12 year old self believed was the epitome of sophistication.

My goodness. I am really getting carried away with this and I have not even come to the point. The point being that I found this old, very old, magazine in my father's garage last month. It is the 1980 Thanksgiving issue. It was 59 cents. Reading it brought on a flood of memories and surprises. Inside the magazine, along with the ads for home perms and 8 track players, cigarette ads took center stage with giant 2 page ads every few pages.

Meme died in 1989 on Christmas Day due to complications from chemo during a very brief battle with lung cancer. I am going be thinking of her today as I always do when I top my orange jello salad with heaps of mayo. It's good. It really is.