So much for the mojo

All it takes is one night of sleeplessness to throw me off my game, but the past week has been many nights of little to no sleep so I'm a mess again.  I did sleep last night so I hope to get some things done today, including cleaning up the mess I made last night after Hannibal caught a mouse and dropped it next to my stash of knitting and let it get away.  Needless to say, there are piles of bags everywhere that need to find a place to live.  I suspect that will be my project for the day.

But the up side of that is I found some yarn that would be perfect to make up a bunch of hats, scarves and mittens for kids this winter.  The library in Beaver Dam always takes donations for that each winter so I'd better get going on it.  I am burning out on baby clothes but since there is no rush on those, I can put them aside and work on them whenever I feel like it.

I've decided to scrap the cape and frog it because it just doesn't look good at all.  I can use this yarn to knit myself a sweater instead.   But I am making progress on the Greek Key afghan now that the weather is so much cooler.

I'm re-reading the Inheritance series (Eragon, etc) because we got the last book months ago and I haven't read it yet.  Plus he took so long to finish the series that I have to re-read them so I know what's going on.  Still working on Buffy, season 4, plus all the things I dvr. 

I'm feeling the need to start nesting, shutting up the house and getting the vents ready for the furnace even though I don't plan on using it until near Thanksgiving.  At least I hope we can last that long.  I won't let us get sick and miserable over it though.

I should also get my herbs planted today and put on my new kitchen window sill.  At least I can get the little things done today.  And hopefully some knitting tonight.

TTFN

I love having my mojo back

I'm doing very well with my projects, making progress in both knitting and organizing.  I finished up the armoir today and only threw away some packaging.  Didn't have to throw away anything else.  And I managed to find lots of room now.

I'm progressing on the yellow baby sweater although I bought a new Creative Knitting magazine that had tons of patterns in it, sort of a compendium of patterns, I suppose.  And in it is a darling sweater and sock set that will come next.  In blue.  I'm decreasing on the cape, have already turned the heel on the wool sock and am knitting up a cover for my Kindle out of some Lion Brand sparkle yarn in red.  It will use up the rest of it so that's good.

I found a pattern in an old magazine that I intend to knit for Zach, out of the yarn I was using to knit up his striped sweater that I never finished because I was working on a pattern that needed a lot of adjustments and I'm just not a designer so making those adjustments was hard.  It's more of a hooded sweatshirt type of thing with a pocket in front.  He loves the pattern and since I already have the yarn, it's a go pretty soon.  I do want to finish up something before I start something else.

Laundry today, partly to heat up the house.  It got down to about 33F last night so the house is a bit chilly today.  It's been a blustery day as well.  So windy we put the awnings up because I was afraid they would blow off the house.  More light in here now.

I'm also tackling the dining room and putting fans and other summer things away.  I took off the foam from my bed because it had creased and was terribly uncomfortable.  After a while they tend to get flat and since I'm sleeping just fine without it, I've shredded it for the garbage bin.  Little by little I'm getting things ready for fall.  I won't need to rearrange any furniture since the vents are clear in all the rooms.  I just need to pin up one side of the curtain in my bedroom so it doesn't cover the vent and that's it.  Well, I do need to put plastic on the windows but there is time for that.  The days are still in the 50s and 60s with the occasional day in the 70s.  And we will have a relapse of summer temps soon.  But I can winterize some of the windows ahead of time.

I hope to wait until November to use the furnace though.  It's a goal I have every year.

Well, time to get supper ready and put the wash in the dryer and start another load.

TTFN

A whole lot of knitting goin' on

I've definitely got my knitting mojo back.  I cleaned my bedroom, organized all my yarn (and by organize I mean I stuffed the yarn in nooks and crannies and drawers so it wasn't pile in the middle of the floor in bags) and found some projects I had started that needed my attention.  So I'm knitting on a cape I started last winter, working on some baby clothes still, and found some magazines that had been stashed away.  I'm also working on the Greek Key afghan again.

And I started a pair of winter socks. 

I got my birthday gifts a week early and there were two skeins of Fisherman's Wool from Lion Brand in a lovely, tweedy brown that will do nicely for socks.  Some of my socks from last year need mending already so I'm done with the acrylic/wool blend.  The only wool socks I own are still intact after 2 years of wearing.  They have to be hand washed but I'm okay with that.  I know eventually they'll need darning but at least I can get through a winter safely.

I'm coming down with something in my head/sinuses in spite of my allergy meds.  I keep getting stopped up and general achiness that is probably not the fibromyalgia this time around.  I was going to go to the store today but I just don't feel well and as I have to take Professor in the Animart for their vaccination clinic tomorrow, I can wait.

Tom also build me a new window sill over the sink so I've got room for an herb garden.  I've also got a rack under to hang my dishcloths on.  I need to knit up some nice looking dishcloths now.  I used some old ugly cotton yarn to make the ones I have but I might dig out my cotton yarn (that I found when cleaning) and knit up another, pretty one.

Oh, and I got a Kindle, too.  I love it but feel so guilty as we couldn't really afford it.  I'll have to make adjustments to the grocery shopping to account for the money but Tom surprised me with it and he really did want me to have one.  I'll admit that I didn't think about returning it because I really did want one.  I had already bought some free books (which is what I will use it for primarily) so now I can read them.  Yay!

Well, off to get some work done.  Or maybe lie down and take a nap.  I'm really not feeling well today.

TTFN

Feeling the call of Autumn

The weather is all over the place.  Yesterday it was 86F and today I'm in a sweater and jeans.  The temps will go back up again by the weekend but Autumn is in sight so I'm happy about that.  I'm going to tackle the dining room, finish up the laundry and probably tomorrow start shifting summer things to winter things in the dresser.  I can get by with one pair of shorts but since I wear my t-shirts under my sweatshirts in the winter, they can stay.  I also need to find my slippers.  I use flip flops in the summer.

I finished up the blue sweater and it doesn't look bad at all.  Seems a bit big but the baby will be around 9 pounds or so.  I don't know why but when I knit for pleasure I have few problems with the finished product but when I'm knitting on consignment or for someone specifically I always mess up.  This time the neck ended up too small for a head to poke through so I had to find the ends I had woven in, rip back an re-bind it off with needles 4 sizes bigger in order to get the stretch I needed.  I didn't have that problem with the other baby sweaters I knitted.

I finally picked up the blanket again last night but I had been working on a new sweater.  This one out of baby sport in yellow.  I have a yellow blanket ready so I thought I would make a blanket to go with it and maybe knit up blankets to go with the other sweaters as well.  I won't have much to donate at this speed but I'm not a fast knitter. I'll probably do more knitting in the winter since I tend to nest during the colder months.  I also hope to get back to other things, like spinning and drawing.  Maybe even some writing again.

In the meantime, I feel a need to do some organizing and cleaning before I have to winterize.  I've decided to keep my bedroom the way it is since we never get any company anyway and the room will be too small if I turn it back into a living room.  But I have to do some organizing since I brought those bags of yarn upstairs.  I have no idea where I'm going to store them.

I've been sleeping pretty good lately, about 10 hours a night.  It takes several of those in a row to start feeling the energy and usually there is one night of sleeplessness to ruin it all, which happened two nights ago.  But I'll try to take advantage of what I've got and get as much done as I can with the miniscule amount of energy I've managed to accumulate.

TTFN

Rearranging my priorities

I've been doing a lot of knitting lately and trying to spend less time online.  I'm slowly easing off the sites I read daily and am limiting the time online to 2 hours at most.  Sometimes that 2 hours seems too much.  Facebook is the time-sucker that leaves me little time to read blogs and such so I'm merely skimming for the most part.  I'll just read blogs a couple of times a week to catch up on them.

I've been doing fairly well with sleep although last night was mostly intermittent sleeping.  I woke at 1:30 p.m. and decided to just stay up.  I'm feeling more energetic, little by little, but I'm not getting a lot done.  I'd settle at this stage for just keeping up.  But I have hopes that by continuing to force myself to stay in bed, the energy will come back enough to have regular days again.

I found three bags of yarn in the basement over the weekend.  My cotton yarn was in one of the bags so I can knit some more dishcloths.  I also found some Caron Simply Soft that will make some nice sweaters for kids.  Not enough for an adult.  I already had some yarn set aside for my older son who is living in Montana right now so I can make him some mittens with flaps and a hat.  He might be moving soon but even Kentucky gets winter so they will do him good no matter where he goes.

Today will be laundry day and possibly clean up the dining room.  It gets so cluttered so quickly.  Then maybe tomorrow I'll work on my room.  I'm thinking of turning it back into a living room but keeping the couch turned into a bed unless we have company or something.  I think that arrangement will work better for winter, opening up the room so the vent will be more open.  Still at the pondering stage though.

I need to get a load of clothes started so I'm off.  I thought about hanging them outside since it's cool with lovely breezes but that takes extra energy I don't have so...

TTFN

Not a bad weekend

Tom got a lot of work done on the house this 3 day weekend.  Hopefully he'll have more Saturdays off so he can do some catching up instead of having only one day to try to catch up on sleep.  We watched Cowboys and Aliens last night.  I thought it was a good movie.  Not great but definitely entertaining.

I'm getting more sleep but my energy levels aren't improving as much as I would like to see.  I managed to get some things done this weekend but it was like working underwater.  Or working in slow motion.  I did re-plant my evergreen tree into a bigger pot.  It was root bound and no longer growing.  I have no idea how big this thing will get but in another few years it will be our Christmas/Yule tree.  A tiny one, but a holiday tree nonetheless.

Tomorrow we plan on planting some herbs.  I'm going to ask Tom to make me a shelf for my kitchen window.  It's the only other Southern exposure I have and I would like to have more plants, especially in February when I put my seedlings in.

I'm making  progress on the baby blanket but I'm getting bored with it.  I plan on finishing up the sweater this week and maybe the blanket.  I've been eying my Greek Key afghan but it's still a bit to heavy for the weather.  I should finish up the size 6 sweater.  I'm halfway done with the sleeves, working both at the same time.  I'm about to give up on the swing sweater.  I hate the sleeves and can't figure out what to do with an alternative.  I think I'll just finish up the sides and knit up a mini sleeve and make it a vest-type thing.

I've got to get the laundry folded so I'm off to do that and then go to bed and knit some more.  I'm watching Buffy, season 2 and have gotten to the point where Angel goes back to Angelus.  Not my favorite part of the series.  I usually skip it but I decided to watch it this time.  Nearly finished with the James Herriot book but I decided to read some things I have here instead of getting more from the library.  I'll re-read the Eragon series since I haven't read the final book yet.  Plus I have some books on Norse Paganism to read as well, including on on Runes.

But for now...finish up my chores and then to bed.

TTFN

Anticipating Autumn

My favorite time of year is Autumn, followed by Winter...but only until February.  After that I get bored and tired of the slush.  But Autumn is a very short season here so we have to start it early to enjoy it.  Usually we have leaves turning in mid August but not this year.  Everything is still very green.  But it wasn't as warm an August as we were used to so I'm not sure why the leaves aren't turning yet.

I took my air conditioner out yesterday because I haven't used it in a month and I prefer my fan in that window anyway.  I slept like a log last night with the fan blowing air on me all night long.  Professor loved it as well.  My room had been rather warm all week because I wasn't using the fans so taking the a/c out opened up the northern breeze I like so well and my room cooled off immediately.

I knit about 2 inches on the blanket last night and finished up the last Sookie Stackhouse mystery.  The very last book will come out next spring so I'll just have to wait on that.  In the meantime I'm re-reading James Herriot's books and might look into the Nicholas Flamels series. Trying not to run to the library all the time.  It's closed until Tuesday anyway but I have books here at home I can read.  I probably should re-read the Eragon series since I haven't read the last book to it yet.

I'm getting ready to go watch some tv and knit more on the blanket.  I might finish up the sweater this weekend.  I found my crochet hooks.  They were in a drawer I had looked at 3 times in a very prominent place.  It must be the car key fairies.  They do like to move things around.  So now I have extra hooks.  It's just as well as I misplace them all the time.

It's overcast today, a remnant of Isaac.  We won't get the rain but we're getting the skies.  I wouldn't mind the rain because we're still below our average.

Well, off to knit.  I'm not cooking supper tonight as we didn't eat lunch until around 5 p.m.  No one got up before noon today.

TTFN