It's A Little Bit Scary

So..... I'm trying to decide whether to retire or not.  My employer has been very generous in granting me a leave of absence to clear my brain and make the decision.

After 16 years of being a nurse as a second career, I'm getting tired.  Although I absolutely love my work, it seems that it's time for the young chicks to move up. I have so many interests that I would like to pursue-- and I would seriously like to get a handle on this whole housekeeping thing.

As I get older, it's apparent to me that I need to take advantage of the time I have, while I still enjoy good health.

I look forward to continuing my knitting endeavors.  It's given me focus, comfort, and an outlet for creativity. I started making jewelry-- first beading, and now metalworking, which I love-- cutting, hammering, soldering, finishing--- and I'd like to work on getting good at designing.

Meanwhile, I hope to travel and share more experiences with The Husband.

Monday might be my last day at my job.... we'll see.

April 16th

We Remember

We Remember

Actual Knitting Content- Believe It-- or Not

The Bunting and Hat

The Daughter's bestie had a babe, so of course, I needed to knit something.  Since his mom and dad are Hokies, it needed to be something of the Hokie persuasion.  I've always been a fan of buntings, so figured that would be a plan.  I used superwash Shepherd's Wool,  knit it in the round, and took my first crack at steeking (eeeekkkk!!!) and it turned out pretty well.  I inserted a zipper, and a bottom drawstring, and there it was. (The top zipper edge wasn't completely finished in the pic above)

Isn't he unspeakably cute?

And it almost screamed out for a coordinating earflap hat....

The 2/3 Shawl

We had some sadness in the extended family. What do knitters do?  We knit.  So I knit a shawl for the primary person.  At the same time, I was struck down by what I think was a strain of the flu that wasn't covered by my annual flu vaccine. Being out of work for 2 weeks, with a round-trip to Blacksburg in the mix, I was able to make great progress on this: (Yes, I know it's sideways.  I've rotated and saved it a bunch of times, and no joy--- but you get the drift). The pattern is the 2/3 Shawl by Wendy Johnson, knit in Schaefer Heather in the Willa Cather colorway.  I quit at the end of 2 skeins, not completely finishing the pattern, but since I used size 8 needles, it is plenty big.  I ran out of enough yarn to bind off, so ended up doing a sewn bind-off, which took forever, since it was the entire outer edge of the shawl, but it looks nice, and I had 18" of yarn left.  I love the colors, which remind me of crocuses blooming in the spring.

Color me productive. 

Happy New Year

Pretty tatted star from a friend
I met on the Panama Canal cruise

Well, I got my "winter fix." Living where we do, winter is frequently pretty wimpy, with feeble attemps at snow, which completely paralyze the greater DC metropolitan area.  I spent most of this week in the City of Big Shoulders- Chicago--where people know how to drive, the public works people know how to clear snow, and everyone shovels, scrapes, and acts like this is normal. It was great.
We had a wonderful time with the family, and it is always amazing to see how the 26 cousins pick up where they left off.
The snow caused some travel problems, as The Daughter and I had a flight canceled last night, but it meant another night at my Dad's, and a chance to see the Oklahoma-Alabama game. Since we had to leave for the airport at 3 a.m., we hit the sack at halftime, and saw the score this morning.
The flight was fine,  but had to wait over an hour for the gate-checked luggage. If (Small plane, full flight.) What the what? Then the scraping and snow removal from the car. 2 hours after arriving at National,  we finally got on the road.

In other news, the DNA Helix scarf turned out quite well.