October Means Orange

I'm not a huge "orange" fan, but, of course, during October it seems like orange is de rigeur. I've usually knit some little felted pumpkins near Halloweeen-time, but this year all I had was a little bit of orange yarn, maybe enough to knit one pumpkin. So, I decided to knit a little knitted bowl instead. I don't remember what brand it was, but it was not very thick, maybe sport weight at the most, but it felted well. I ended up having enough for two bowls, and I think they look looks cute, holding my seed packets that are waiting to be opened, so I can start my winter garden.

I had my latest bunny packed to take on my trip up to my mom's, but I wanted to pack light, so I left him home and brought another pair of fingerless gloves to work on since they took less space. It didn't take much time for me to finish him up. Now, I just need to send him up to Melissa, so she can give him to her nephew. Very happy with him!

I took a little side-trip on m way home from seeing my mom to visit Paige. She biked over to the train station to meet me. Davis is a big bicycling town, and for now, Paige's only mode of transportation is her bike, which Russ "made" for her. He wanted it to be dependable and comfortable, but not too tempting to bicycle thieves, since there are a lot of bicycle thefts, along with all of those bikes. She loves it!

 She was very happy to see her mama, I'm sure, especially since we stopped by a local Asian grocery store, so she could load up on some of her favorite treats. I laughed when I saw her refrigerator because it was a mini version of ours, full of Trader Joe's spicy red pepper hummus, parmesan cheese, baby carrots, and spring mix lettuce. U.C. Davis has a good meal program, but Paige think it's cheaper to just feed herself.

I had to post these pictures because I thought they were so funny. U.C. Davis is about fifteen minutes from Sacramento and an hour from San Francisco. It's an agricultural school, so there are some wide open spaces nearby, but still it's urban....and Paige's apartments have a turkey problem. They're loud and wander through the walkways. Funny!

Home Again!

I took the train up to see my mom for a few days this week, and had a good visit. She's in a rehabilitation hospital for at least another week, but the nurses and doctors seem optimistic about her "recovery." My mom has been in poor health for years, so "recovery" is a relative term.. We have to just be grateful for small victories. She still enjoys life a lot of the time although she could do without the pain and inconvenience of having to always use a walker. I've posted part of the reason for her heart attack above...my spinning wheel. My dad was out in his shop working on it, and my mom thought she's just kneel down and pick up an earring she saw on the floor by her bed. She got lodged in the space between their bed and a wall and was stuck there for an hour. My dad checks on her constantly, except this one time, of course. That's kind of a sad legacy for my beautiful spinning wheel to take on, but my mom doesn't hold any ill will toward it, and I don't either!

Making It

Besides a very nice husband and two comparatively easy-to-raise kids, I've had two constants in my adult life: knitting and running. I don't exactly like running, but I like being finished each day with running, and I like how it makes me feel. Knitting is different because I like the actual knitting process. It's both fun and entertaining for me as I do it, and sometimes I'm even happy with my finished products. I was kind of sad for the nearly six months this year that I didn't really feel like knitting. I'd try to start projects over and over, and I just couldn't get into it. This past month I've been enthusiastic about knitting again, something that I've been especially grateful for this past week.

My mom had a heart attack a week ago. She's nearly eighty and has had innumerable health issues for basically the last thirty years. She has also been one of the most health conscious people I've ever known, so that makes her poor health suck all the more. Anyway, I've been worried about her this week. Even though she is doing amazingly well, I know that she has to be discouraged, and, well, she's eighty; there's no cure for that. We live about twelve hours away, and I couldn't just take off work to be with her right away. I've been distracted about how she's doing all week, and running and knitting have helped me from being too distressed. I'm going to go spend a couple of days with her and my dad later this week, which means a twelve hour train ride.  Once again, knitting (on the train) and running (once I get there) will come in handy. I won't mind the trip because I'll have lots of time to knit, andI love running in Northern California, where they live, because it's so cool up there.

 My main project this week has been to finish Paige's friend Melissa's bunny. I had a problem that I hadn't anticipated, but which I've had numerous time. I started running short on yarn! I was smart enough to make him have "pants," so that didn't take too much of the brown yarn, which I was running out of.

 This is a pic of his second "hand." That little, tiny blob is all I had left. I had to cheat, and make part of his arm blue, which won't matter once I get his sweater done.

Made it! Now, all I have to do is knit up a little sweater for him. I'm going to knit him an aran sweater out of some cream yarn I found in my stash, and I have enough blue left  to knit him a little cap.

I tried so hard when my daughter was young to get her interested in knitting, or sewing, or stitching, or anything remotely related to domesticity. She didn't bite. She does know how to knit, and she's even knit a couple of nice hats and half of a scarf, but she's never been that interested. Her best friend, Melissa however, show a little bit of interest, at least for a while. Melissa decided last year that she wanted to knit her new nephew a little blanket. I, of course, jumped at the chance to help choose the yarn at a LYS. We found some beautiful Venezia merino silk that was on sale, and Melissa spent close to $50 on what we hoped was enough for her to knit a blanket. After a year, the blanket hadn't materialized, and one day Melissa showed up in my classroom, hoping that I'd finished her project for her. I was happy to give it a shot but soon discovered that we hadn't bought nearly enough yarn. My solution was to unravel what Melissa had knit and start over, knitting a little pillow cover. Melissa is away at U.C. Davis with Paige, so I figure she'll enjoy a little decoration for her apartment, and I'm hoping that I have enough yarn to knit a little bunny for nephew. It's going to be a close call. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.