Felt Like Knitting

How do you relax?

I've known for a while that my husband and I relax in different ways.  For S, relaxing usually means completing things on his "to do" list.  While it is satisfying to accomplish tasks, relaxing means something different to me.  It's having the time to back a batch of muffins if I want.  It's knitting.  It's sending an e-mail to a friend or reading a blog post.  It's looking through a magazine or catching up on reading.

This weekend, it became very obvious how far apart S and I really are on the relaxing scale.  He was working on his list and I was preparing grades and sat down to send an e-mail to a parent.  (I just wanted to get to the point of relaxing and I wasn't there yet.  S was off work this week and could have sat around the whole week.  Instead, he was whittling away at his "to do" list.)  As I was typing, S told me what our daughter's BMI is.  I acknowledged that I heard him and kept typing.  Then he asked if I wanted him to calculate mine.

"No.  I just want to get this e-mail typed."

"Just tell me your weight."

"No.  I don't care.  I know I'm overweight and I don't exercise enough.  Knowing how bad it is will NOT help me.  I just want to get this done so I can relax."

Of course, he got irritated with me.  I was irritated that calculating my BMI was on his list of things to do.  I decided his list was way too long and that he needs to learn how to really relax.  You know, play a game, read a book, do something not on the list.

(Later, when I decided to blog about this, I looked up BMI and calculated mine.  It's not as bad as I thought.  And it turns out that calculating my BMI wasn't on his list.  He just figured he'd do it while he was calculating his.)

So how do you relax and how often do you get to do it?

Typing with warm wrists

As I type, my wrists are warm and toasty inside my completed wrist warmers.  I made the ones in Last Minute Knitted Gifts out of Noro Cash Iroha.   This is the yarn the pattern calls for, but I'm not 100% satisfied with it.  I read somewhere that it pills and I can tell that it might.  Plus, every so often there are big blobs of yarn, like it is not spun.  I think it makes my end product look a bit sloppy.  Overall, I am very excited to have a completed, useful project.  I have another skein in this color and might make a scarf.

Update:  I just found this pattern online, so you don't have to have the book to make them.

But, the really exciting news here has been what's been coming to my mailbox.  Look what was here when I arrived home yesterday - a package from Lynne!  We had an informal swap between the two of us and I think what she gave me is wonderful!  Can you believe she gave me handmade  mittens and a handmade apron?  Thank you so very much, Lynne!  (I had pictures of me modeling the apron and mittens, but they're not so great.)

Today's mail brought a great package from Geraldine!  Geraldine recently had a caption contest and I happened to win!  The prize was two signed copies of her cookbook.  Thank you bunches and bunches, G!  Tonight I made Geraldine's Savory Cheddar Cheese Muffins.  They were so, so good!  You've got to try them.

Beth, the naturalist

We returned today from our relaxing trip to Hart State Park.  After a shaky beginning, when I felt a bit concerned about seeing men in jackets marked "state parolee," we had a nice time.  (Not only did we see state parolees at the park, we saw prisoner work crews on the main road each time we were out.  Strange.)

I did not end up sitting on the outdoor rocking chairs because it was a bit nippy.  But I did sit and knit on rocking chairs inside the cottage, next to the fire.  I was able to finish a dishcloth, most of the left front of my hoodie, and 1 3/4 wrist warmers.  (I'll post a picture of the wrist warmers as soon as I'm done.)  I also read 1 1/2 modules of my General Science book and prepared lesson plans up to Thanksgiving.  And I started American Gospel.  (It's very interesting so far.)

We ate good food, played games, and hiked.  On the way back from our hike, I spotted a group of 5 deer with my keen eyes.  Wanting to alert S and E, but not wanting to scare away the deer, I started to softly hiss "Deer, deer."  Apparently I was a bit more excited than I realized and I actually shouted/hissed "Deer!  Deer!"  Of course, the deer bounded away into the woods.  We laughed the whole way back to the cabin while S shouted "Squirrel!" and "Fire ant!" to me.  I am now known as a great naturalist in my family.  :)

It's time for some sleeping now, but tomorrow I hope to post some pictures.

For all of you sock knitters out there

My in-laws are visiting us for a few days and today we took them to the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.  I've been through the museum once or twice before, but never really noticed the sock.  Perhaps that's because I didn't knit when I was there before?  :)

Before we went, we ate at The Varsity (Town Center).  The original Varsity is an Atlanta landmark that most people try to visit while they're here.  They serve hot dogs, fries, onion rings, fried pies, etc.  It's not a place where you can eat often!

I'm sorry for not blogging a lot these days and for not keeping up with e-mails.  Preparing for school is taking me a lot of time.  But, we have next week off and I'm hoping to catch up on all of my lesson plans.  This last week was a very trying (and tiring) week and I'm thankful to have  a break.

We'll be at a state park for a couple of days next week.  See those rocking chairs?  One of them definitely has my name on it!  I want to knit and knit and knit...well, I guess I'll eat a S'more or two.  And I'll do a bit of hiking.  But a few days of mostly knitting sounds really good!

Fun? Fur and hoodie progress

Here it is in all its glory . . . Fun Fur!  I'm going to send this picture to my sister-in-law to make sure the colors are acceptable before I start knitting.

I liked your suggestions on how to make Fun Fur knitting more fun.  I think I'll just "grin and bear it."  Maybe each time I knit on my hoodie, I'll make myself knit some of a scarf first.

Speaking of the hoodie...

I'm really glad that I was advised by several of you to alternate the yarn skeins every couple of rows.  I can imagine that the sweater would have looked blotchier if I hadn't done it that way.

Photoless post

I was going to post when I had nice photos of my hoodie progress or some new yarn from the Michael's Yarn Event.  But, I haven't had time to take any pictures.  So, you'll have to use your imaginations.  :)

Knitting progress:  I've been focused on knitting the Central Park Hoodie.  I have the back and sleeves done and I've started the ribbing for the left front.  I was going to knit both fronts at the same time, but I can't because of the yarn I'm using.  It's kettle-dyed, so I'm having to knit two rows from one ball then two from another.  If I tried that while knitting two fronts at the same time, it would really be a mess.  (I know because I tried this with the sleeves!)

Yarn procurement:  Michael's is having a Yarn Event, with a lot of their yarn on sale.  I had to buy some unFun Fur for my nieces' scarves.   I also bought some dishcloth cotton.  I resisted the Patons SWS and Classic Merino Wool.

Speaking of unFun Fur, I used to not mind knitting with it.  When I first starting knitting, I made several scarves out of it.  I must have overdone it, because I can hardly stand the stuff now.  My sister-in-law said that both nieces would like scarves for Christmas, so I have to make two more.  Then that may be it for good.  Any ideas of how to make it more enjoyable?

Nice Visit

I'm back.  We had a nice visit with my mom.  There are always so many things that we don't get around to when she visits.  The time always slips by.

We did manage to make a few recipes from the church cookbook she gave me.  Here's one I'd like to share with you:

Feta Cheese Ball

1 (8-oz.) pkg. cream cheese

1 (8-oz.) pkg. feta cheese with garlic and herbs (I used 2 (4-oz.) packages of Athenos brand.)

1 tablespoon red onion, chopped

1 (2-oz.) can sliced ripe olives, drained

1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

1 teaspoon RedHot sauce (I didn't have this, so I added more Tabasco.)

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 cup chopped almonds or pine nuts

Mix together all of the ingredients, except the nuts, until well blended.  Chill.  Make into balls and roll in chopped nuts.  Note:  These freeze well for several months.  by Helen P.

If you love feta cheese, I wouldn't change anything.  If you only like feta cheese, you might want to add only 4 oz of feta.  This would be delicious with artichokes or sun-dried tomatoes added, too.  I didn't care for the pine nuts around it, so next time I'll leave it as a spread instead of rolling it into a ball.  I have one ball in the freezer to see how that goes.  If it works well, I may make some of these to have ready for entertaining.

While my mom worked on her cards, I knitted on my Central Park Hoodie.  The sleeves are done (I figured out my mistake.) and I've started the back.  I hope to get some knitting in tonight.  Debby is really coming along on hers and I have to keep up!

We had school today instead of tomorrow, so now I feel like we have a long weekend!  I'm trying not to get lazy.  I really want to catch up with lesson plans so it won't be so hard getting ready during the week.

Oh, something else to share with you.  I've been reading all of your wonderful tips for decluttering.  Thank you!  Katie suggested the 27-Fling Boogie from FlyLady.  While I was reading about that, I noticed The 5 Minute Room Rescue.  FlyLady says to work on your worst room for 5 minutes a day for 27 days.  I've been trying this in my bedroom with good success.  As my husband says "The pile isn't as deep."  :)

I'm off to knit a sweater back!  Hopefully I'll have some progress photos soon.

Taking things for granted

The past couple of days have contained several reminders for me of how blessed I am.  Today's reminder was the Anne Frank exhibit at Kennesaw State University.  Our tour started with a movie about Anne's life and the world around her during her short life.  I remember reading her diary when I was young and feeling bad about how her life ended.  But now that I'm a mother, watching the movie really made me think.  Mr. Frank and  Mrs. Frank were sent to different  concentration camps than their daughters.  What would it have been like to have their family ripped apart?  How must Anne's parents have felt to have their two daughters shipped off to concentration camps in train cars, knowing they would most likely never see them again?  It's just too hard to contemplate.

  On a more uplifting note, we have a chance to help people in need.  Lynda has organized an effort for knitters to knit small gifts like hats and scarves for homeless people in Los Angeles.  If you'd like to help, more details are available here.

Thank you for all of the nice comments about my mom's visit.  We're having a nice time together.  It's hard to believe that her visit is more than half over already! 

Let the visit begin!

Thanks for all of your comments about decluttering.  I'm pretty good about getting rid of things that I don't use, but I do have trouble just throwing them out.  Then it takes me forever to get them to a charity.  But what really stops me in my tracks is sentimental things.  If a family member has given me something, made something for me, or even touched something, I have an urge to keep it.  I think Gracie's questions will be helpful to me in the coming weeks as I declutter:

1)  If I was moving tomorrow, would I want to take this with me?

2)  Have I used this in the last year?

I'll let you know how it goes.

My mom got in today and we're enjoying a nice visit.  I knew there would be a little bit of waiting time at the airport, so I tucked a ball of dishcloth cotton and needles into my purse for this dishcloth.  I've already made one and I really like to use it, so I'm making another. 

We're hoping to visit a couple of museums while my mom's here, make rubber stamped cards for her next Kairos weekend, and play some Scrabble.  It's just nice to hang out some, too.  Mom brought me a cookbook from her church - the church in which I grew up.  Maybe we'll try a couple of new recipes.  If I find a winner, I'll share it with you!

Musical rooms

Tuesdays have become one of my favorite days of the week.  I have a couple of hours to myself after my last class and some time in the evening, too.  Lately, on Tuesday evenings, I've been catching up on e-mail and blog reading.  Tonight I'd really like to be doing some knitting.

What would I be knitting?  Well, I'd knit some on my Central Park Hoodie, of course.  But I'd really like to sit down and read my new sock book.  Then I'd figure out if I can knit a pair of socks (footies, actually) by the end of October.  If so, I'd consider jumping on the Socktoberfest bandwagon.

But, I can't sit down and knit because I've been playing Musical Rooms.  Have you ever played this game?  It's sort of like the childhood game called Musical Chairs.  You know the game - there's one less chair than people and when the music stops, somebody is left out.  The left out person is removed from the game.  At the end of the game, one person is left standing and is declared the winner.  (You know, really, what fun was that game anyway?) 

Now Musical Rooms is a bit different because there is no winner.  To play this game, you start with several bedrooms and lots of accumulated junk, which you store in the guest bedroom.  When you get a visitor, you have to move your junk.  Then when the visitor leaves, you can put it back.  (Usually it's customary to grumble a bit about all the junk in this stage of the game.)  To make it interesting, you repaint and clean one of the bedrooms, thus taking it out of the game.  So the next time you have a visitor, there is one less room for storing the junk.  This goes on and on until you are out of rooms (and/or space in general) and a visitor is coming the next day.  Then "the winner" is stuck sorting through the junk in order to let the visitor in the guest bedroom doorway.

That's where I am right now.  I have several boxes of E's old schoolwork, guitar stands, and boxes of old odds and ends like this.  Really, it's hard to get in the room.  And my mom is flying in tomorrow morning.  So, I guess this "winner" had better get upstairs for some cleaning.

Update:  Okay, I admit it.  I gave in.  I didn't sort through all the junk like I wanted to.  There was just too, too much of it.  (Why am I keeping Tickle Me Elmo?  Will my daughter really want it for her kids?  Will I really use all of those candles?  I do have electricity in my house and only light candles once in a while.  Am I teaching my daughter to be a packrat, too?  Unfortunately, yes.)  Instead, I threw boxes into my sewing room and master bedroom.  I thought both were full, but I found a few spots for more.

I am now on a quest to get rid of the junk.  Nothing bad is going to happen if I throw things away, right?  Right.