I’m nearly to the end of September on Ali’s panel for the Temperature Blanket.
Ali’s panel as of 4pm yesterday.
Closing in on the half-way mark!
There’s not much to show yet, and I don’t remember exactly when I started, but this is the current Colourwheel Musselburgh for Maddy/Viv.
I’m very excited about making them both the same hat with the same yarn, but different…
Had a quick little chat with Maddy over the long weekend, too, and they are narrowing down their “dates in the States” for next summer… likely Maddy from about the middle of July, and Viv joining her for the first 2-3 weeks in August before heading back to Australia. They won’t be “here” here the entire time, as there are many places to go & people to see, but I’ll be happy for all the time we get!
READING:
Reading is just, like, super slow & the same… Meryl Streep reading Tom Lake. I’ve been exhausted at bedtime, so there’s been no reading there. I need the sleep, I guess.
Oh yeah, I’ve been enjoying the first long weekend of my new work schedule. There’s been a fair amount of puttering, including a Pajama Day on Saturday — the first of 2024!
And I finally set up my new desktop situation! My old HP was showing her age and was agonizingly s-l-o-w to get going. Since I’m currently using both an iPhone and an iPad, it seemed logical to mover over to iMac… though that wasn’t as easy as it sounds, since I’m about as loyal to my electronics/brands as I am to my work!
I’m thrilled to be rid of the giant tower on the corner of my desk… my messy, messy desk that will be cleaned up on a future long weekend (along with the rest of my workroom). And to have lessened the cables/cords/connections situation — happily printing to my (HP) printer wirelessly! I used to have two powerstrips in here to handle all the stuff, and I’m down to one… with two things plugged in.
After running a couple of errands on Sunday, we stopped for lunch at a place called Waverly Beach — I don’t think I’ve ever been there in the “off season,” but it was beautiful! It’s right at the north end of Lake Winnebago and we had a great lunchtime view. It’s about 30 miles south to Fond du Lac as the crow flies… or the boat sails.
We have have winter storm warning in effect today (until 6 am tomorrow), though the total accumulation is a bit less than originally forecast, there might be gusting wind and freezing drizzle… I wouldn’t really know because I’m not going outside… it’s just gray & yucky.
Knowing that there’d be weather today, Kate & I took another turn about the nature center yesterday. We witnessed a little scuffle between a muskrat & a river otter, and it was late in the day so we ended up surrounded by deer as we made our way to the exit — at least a dozen, all told. So yesterday I roasted a chicken and today we’re going to warm up the house and make some chicken soup.
I finished the latest Imagined Landscapes MKAL just under the wire to make it my last FO(s) of 2023!
It was a two-fer! Aren’t they adorable? The snowman was knit first and I’m sure many participants were scratching their heads when they knit that carrot nose (I rarely follow along in chats, so I’m only guessing).
The pattern called for US 1 and 1.5 needles but I couldn’t find any 1.5s… so it was 1s all the way! This knit-along is always a lot of fun, and very do-able as the project is small. I wasn’t able to keep up this year, and that turned out OK as I was able to knit some of the clues out of order — sometimes all I had time/mental capacity for was knitting a “little bit.”
Sarah sends a little something everyday during the KAL but it’s not always a knitting clue…
…sometimes it’s a coloring page! Obviously, I’d finished the snowman portion of the program by this point (the Christmas weekend sleepover) and I love that Malina has him sitting there with the MKAL gnome project from 2021. There are a few shared recipes during the month, and a story thread that goes along with the KAL, too, though I barely read a word of that.
KNITTING 2023:
Since that was the last FO of the year, it seems like a good time to take a look at what else I finished in 2023.
Doesn’t look like much, does it? Just like last year, there was a whole lot of knitting but it didn’t add up to a lot of finishes: one sweater, one hat, one blanket, one Christmas stocking, and two “gnomes”! Details of all on Ravelry; I am knitorious.
I knit a fair bit on the Family Temperature Blanket last year and, as mentioned yesterday, it’s back in rotation! It would be pretty great to see that project on my list of 2024 FOs. I also have another Musselburgh underway for portable knitting.
READING:
Goodreads tells me that I read FOUR books last year. I’m pulling myself out of the slump, and resumed listening to Meryl Streep read Tom Lake on the way to work this week (sped up a little bit). I received Wellness in the Jólabókaflóð exchange this year and I’ve noticed it at the top of a number of “best of” lists recently, so that might be next.
For the past few years I’ve been more intentional about beginning [the new year] as I mean to go on, so with that in mind, I slept in yesterday, went for a walk, had a leftover lobster tail for lunch, cleaned out the fridge, started a new donation bag, cleaned up my knitting area a bit, and worked on my Temperature Blanket!
This photo is from a walk on New Year’s Eve… same place as the New Year’s Day walk, though, and same as the one on Christmas Day, too! This is Heckrodt Wetland Reserve, a place we’ve known of forever but only first visited during the pandemic.
Not enough snow for snowshoeing yet!
Christmas Day
New Year’s Eve
We’ve had a very gray winter so far — snow on Halloween and then nothing until New Year’s Eve. It was barely an inch, but a little sticky.
You notice different things when there’s snow.
We almost always see wildlife at Heckrodt, like this young red-tailed hawk spotted on two of the last three visits. On Sunday there was a pileated woodpecker and a little downy — pretty close to the path and fascinating to watch. We’ve seen owls, deer, and many other birds.
We learn stuff, too.
With my new work schedule (that starts THIS WEEK), I’m going to get out walking/hiking more and looking forward to “discovering” some more “new” places.
