Easy like Sunday Morning

Hey Everyone!

Sundays have become my favorite day of the week.

Beings that Saturdays are my friday at work, Sunday means getting to sleep in, drink all the tea I want, knit, and watch shows.

I had started the pair of “Kate” socks last weekend after I finished the “Santorini” socks. I had only knit about 5 or 6 rounds on the cuff, and then it sat my entire work week. I finished the cuff of this first sock and started the leg portion of it.

The song Easy (Like Sunday Morning) had come to mind as I was knitting and drinking tea yesterday morning.

Mondays can be busy. This morning I had a few things I needed to do. I took my vehicle through the car wash and vacuumed it out after (most of the sand is now gone from the beach trip I went on a month ago, which is sad), I took my bottle drop bags back. Here in Oregon, our cans and single use drink bottles have bottle deposits that we get back when we return them. Several years ago, they started the green bags, where for a small fee, the employees, as the bottle drop locations, will count the cans and bottles in the green bags for you. I got coffee from Black Rock, stopped at the pharmacy, made an appointment, and then came home. I thought about going for a drive but decided not to because I needed to use the bathroom, and I didn’t want to spend money on more gas right now. I also wanted to spend more time knitting.

After a couple weeks of very hot weather (in the 90’s for highs), the last couple of days have been dramatically cooler and cloudy which I have loved. It has made me wish it was Fall all over again. When it’s hot, I literally have no energy (which is in short supply anyway), and don’t feel like tea, or knitting. Any of you who have followed me for any length of time know that I am all about the tea and the knitting. This weekend has definitely made me want to knit like nobody’s business and has inspired me to want to do more craft projects.

I would love nothing more than to get out of the city rat race and spend more time doing the things I love. Those include knitting, being outside, growing a garden, cooking, canning, reading books, all the things that an introverted homebody enjoys. Then I would throw in coming into the city every so often to go to yarn stores and for supplies (can anybody say Smith Teamaker and Bob’s Red Mill).

Beach Day

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A few weeks ago I had put in to take PTO this weekend to make sure I got my storage unit moved. With some help I got it done a couple weeks ago.

This was all before this weekends weather forecast was even a thing. It turns out that Friday was almost 90° here in the valley.

Beings that I already had requested the weekend off (Thursday – Saturday shifts) to use rain or shine, I got paid for the days I was off and did not accrue any corrective action steps for going to the Beach on Friday. And yes, I was laughing at my coworkers who were stuck at work, the whole way to the beach and back.

It was 63° and perfect right on the beach, and about 67° on the highway, which was a few hundred yards up from actual beach. It was a perfect summer (in spring) day at the beach.

Thursday I had worked on my first sock from the passprt Mediterranean mystery kit I had ordered from Forbidden Fiber Co, part of the time while watching Mamma Mia. The colorway of yarn from this kit seriously gives me Mamma Mia and & Santorini vibes.

I always seem to have a hard time coming back from the beach, even if I go for a day. I don’t know why leaving the beach affects me so much, but it does.

My beach day, and going through the towns I lived in while I went to college on my way to and from the beach have definitely made me think about my life and the direction I am going. I never would have thought I would be where I am today, and each day I want to be a better person and to make a difference. I am still trying to figure out how.

Vintage Santa

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Today, I finally finished up the pair of “Vintage Santa” socks I have been working on for a couple of months.

The yarn is the “Vintage Santa” colorway from Forbidden Fiber Co, and the yarn base is the Pride base. This yarn is from a previous Christmas / holiday palette the company had put out.

While working on the second sock, I have had the Friends of Big Bear Valley eagle cam running in the background on my computer. It’s kinda cool to watch Jackie and Shadow when they come to the nest as I am working on my knitting.

Knitting has unfortunately taken a backseat lately as life and work have been keeping all too busy, and tired. Since life has hopefully calmed down a little bit now, and I put in for a few days off from work this week, I will hopefully be getting some more Knitting done and possibly go to the beach. Summer Weather is supposed to hit later this week, just in time for my anticipated beach trip. I am so not ready for summer.

How are you all doing? What projects are you working on? Reading any good books? Watching any good shows? I am wating for the copy of season 7 of Shetland that I ordered to arrive.

Christmas Break Knitting

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I hope you had a good Christmas!

This year, I got a nice break off work, between how I was scheduled and not being able to get into work due to inclement weather.

Having a few extra nights off has been great. I had finished up that pair of socks and started another one. I am already on the foot of the one I started while I have been off. I had ordered one of the Christmas sock sets from Bumblebee Acres recently and it just showed up not long before I finished up the believe socks. I wound it up pretty much as soon as it arrived and cast it on. It is called “Nordic Noel” and it is on the coquette base.

The yellow accent color really adds to the main colorway. If it weren’t a sock set, and I was just working with the main yarn I probably would have been bored with it already.

Rhinebeck Is Goals

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This morning I finished up the first sock in the pair of “Road to Rhinebeck” socks I am currently working on.

This was a sock set with a main variegated hank and a smaller contrast / coordinating tonal hank for at least heels and toes. I have gone on the conservative side and not tried using the contracting tonal for a top rib in the cuff. I may kick myself later for that, if I end up with a decent amount left over. I just wanted to make sure I had enough for the heels and toes for two socks.

This sock, seriously evokes all things fall for me. Cozy Sweaters, Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes, turning leaves, fires in the fireplace, Gilmore Girls, Mel in Virgin River – the scene from the first episode or two when she is walking down the street in Virgin River talking to her sister on the phone in the cute sweater and boots.

Yes, one sock made me think of that. Well, it did have the help of visiting two local yarn shops yesterday. Those made me think of rainy Portland October days, with a cup of tea, hunkering down in a cute yarn shop working on a knitting project, or squishing the yarn. For me, Starlight Knitting Society was the coziest and most inviting of the two. It also really made me miss Happy Knits. Happy Knits was a yarn store here in Portland, on SE Hawthorne Blvd, that I fell in love with. They closed a few years ago (Pre Pandemic) they had a very light, airy, welcoming shop that wasn’t super crowded but had an amazing selection. In the back, they had a large table to sit around and work on projects as well as a couch that faced the natural gas stove. It was amazing in the colder wet months to go hang out, look at yarn, squish yarn, get inspiration, work on projects. I miss that space.

I have known about the Rhinebeck sheep and wool festival for several years. It is the big festival. I really want to go, and I want to try to make it happen next year. This year isn’t going to work for me, since I have other things I need to deal with first. Rhinebeck is one of things that I feel like I should experience at least once.

We don’t have many fiber festivals out here on the West Coast, and the ones we do have aren’t on the same caliber as the ones that take place back east.

All the smaller indie dyers I follow and typically buy from are from east of the Mississippi River, and the “better” fiber festivals are part of the circuit that most of these dyers go to.

Which is why I would love to go to Rhinebeck, especially, as well as some of the other fiber festivals back East and find more small, Indie, US based dyers who have amazing yarns.

Portland Yarn Shops

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Welcome to the Tuesday after Memorial Day. Here in the US Memorial Day Weekend is the “Official start of Summer”. So everyone who works a typical M-F job has gone back to work now after the long weekend. I worked this weekend, like I have been doing every weekend for over a year. So now it’s my weekend.

I have been wanting to go do some yarn shopping at some local yarn stores, so I finally went to a couple today. Both were in Portland proper (aka in city limits).

I went to Starlight Knitting Society on SE 52nd Ave – a few blocks south of SE Woodstock Blvd.

The other was CloseKnit on NE Alberta St at NE 22nd Ave.

I had been to Close Knit once before, this was my first time stopping at Starlight. I had driven by Starlight so many times but had never stopped, I decided it was time to stop there and see what they had to offer. I really liked Starlight Knitting Society.

I bought some sock yarn at both shops.

These are the three sock yarns I bought at Close Knit. Teo are a lighter weight sock yarn, and the one on the right is a medium weight sock yarn.

These are the five hanks of yarn I bought at Starlight Knitting Society. The two purpley-pink hanks are the same yarn, I would just need to hanks to make a pair of socks. The blue and greens are all a lighter weight sock yarns and will make great summer socks for getting back into hiking.

Not only was I looking for pretty colors, I am also amazed at the wide variety of weights that are all considered to be “fingering weight” which is the weight most commonly used for socks. The lighter weights require a smaller gauge of needle and more stitches to make a sock, where as the heavier weight yarns require a slightly bigger gauge needle and fewer stitches.

One of the yarns I bought is from Paris France, and another one is from Germany.

I love supporting American Indie Dyers, I also enjoy working with yarn from other places.

Unicorn Night Mares

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This evening, I finished up the pair of “Unicorn Night Mares” socks that I started right before I interviewed for my new job. This pair of socks has taken me about three weeks to knit up, since life has happened.

The colorway is: Unicorn Night Mares, the yarn base is: Fingering, and it’s from KnittedWit.

My first week of the new job went well. I am definitely looking forward to life after my first paycheck. This fall and winter, I am definitely going to be checking out some yarn stores and tea shops. This is going to be an awesome fall and winter

I am also waiting for my knit picks orders to arrive this week.

Project Bag On The Go

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I had an interview this morning, across town. I knew where I was going as it was right on the route I took to one of my old jobs. I left early as usual, and took the sock I had cast on last night with me in my new sock project bag.

I got a couple rounds done while I waited for my interview time to get closer before going in. I have found that being early and getting a bit of knitting done always helps me be a bit calmer and not as nervous.

I started keeping a “purse project” with me when I went places I might have have to wait, or have down time where I really couldn’t go anywhere back, like a decade ago when I worked for a short time at a daycare. Days where I worked 6 hours or more, at that company I had to take a mandatory hour lunch. State Law only mandates a 30 minute meal period for 6 hours+ worked, but the company scheduled us such that if we worked over 6 hours we had an hour lunch. So I had started taking a dish cloth WIP with me to work on. Having knitting to work on helps pass the time.

Now that I am into working on socks, it is definitely my “purse project” or “on the go project”.

As I mentioned yesterday, I definitely want to try out different brands of yarn, besides for my own curiosity as well as for content. I have been looking at local yarn shops to see what they have. I know it takes money to buy the yarn, which is part of why I want and need a better job.

Safe Harbor X 2

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Work slowed down about a month ago. With more time to do my own thing, and work on my own projects, I am able to get more knitting done.

I had most of a hank of Safe Harbor colored yarn left, so I used it and made a second pair of socks with this particular yarn.

This pair, I finished up in under two weeks, and the second pair I have finished already this year.

With the exception of the two hanks of yarn I ordered recently, I am trying to knit through my stash, and stash bust my sock yarn collection. I have more than enough sock yarn to keep my busy for a while, which is a good thing.

Beings that I still live in the city, and a lot of places are still closed or have a very limited capacity, I am spending a lot of time knitting and cooking / baking. I am trying to get as many pairs of socks knit up in this process, especially with the yarn ai have ordered from places other than KnitPicks.

Earl Grey Socks

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This past month has been crazy. Work started winding down after the new year started, so I have had more time to spend on my knitting.

Last night I finished up a pair of socks that I have been working on for a month now.

The Colorway is called Earl Grey, it’s on the Babel Yarn base, and it’s from Forbidden Fiber Company.

I loved working on this pair, the color was easy to look at, and the Babel yarn (70% superwash merino, 20% nylon and 10% yak) is one of my favorite bases to work with. It is so soft.

Since work has slowed down, I am definitely spending time knitting. I binged watched Bridgerton in one day, and I have been watching Grey’s Anatomy as well while I have been home knitting.

Today, I also ordered a couple hanks of yarn from Bumblebee Acres. The two I ordered were from the Bridgerton collection.

Stay tuned for more socks posts.