Wooly Saturday

Today has pretty much been about yarn, except for when I was exercising and checking out B&B websites for our Maryland trip.

 

I joined the Genesee Valley Handspinners Guild this morning and then spent nearly 6 hours with about 40 other spinners. My spinning teacher saved me a seat near her and I got lots  of encouragement from her as well as all my questions answered. There were several vendors at the meeting selling fiber in various stages of preparation and my teacher, Deb, was also helpful when I wanted to purchase some new roving. It was great fun and I got the rest of my Icelandic fiber spun and plied, so I feel like I accomplished something. I was made to feel very welcome and everyone I spoke with was friendly. I cannot attend the April meeting because we will be in Maryland. I will look forward to the May meeting. I've included a photo of some of the spinners. 

Most of the rest of my day has been spent on knitting. I have worked some on my Pi Shawl and am including this photo, taken last night after almost 2 hours of work.  Jim put the postage stamp in the picture to give you a size perspective of what I did in 2 hours! I got lots  more done tonight. 

This afternoon we had Happy Hour so I knit on my striped scarf while drinking wine! That is an easy project that I don't have to pay much attention to, plus it is on good sized needles. 

Jim is getting ready for his trip to France tomorrow afternoon. He will be back on Thursday. He is out of town for almost 4 weeks between now and the end of April. 

I have a question for you. This morning I was riding my bike in the basement, watching the Today show and they did a story on saving money around the house. They quoted a statistic that the average household uses 12, count 'em, 12 rolls of paper towels a week! I was astounded! I would be lucky to get through 12 rolls in a year! What are these people doing with them? How many rolls do you go through in a week or year? 

Jim noticed that the town has started to work in the jewelry store parking lot behind us which means they will be in our yard in the near future. The town engineer said he would call us before they dig up our property so we'll see if that happens.

 

Tomorrow is the 2nd anniversary of our house being robbed. I remember this date because it is Liz's birthday and it happened as the college basketball teams were gearing up for the NCAA tournament. One of the things that was stolen was our big TV and we haven't replaced it so I will once again watch the basketball games (which  I love) on our tiny TV!

Tomorrow morning we are planning on going to church because it is the first Sunday that our new minister will be preaching. There is a great deal of excitement around his arrival. Guess I had better pay up my church pledge!

Hope all is well. 

Knitting Stress

I knit because I find it relaxing. I knit because I like the mental challenge. Tonight the mental challenge has completely obliterated any sense of relaxation and my shoulders are tied up in knots after sitting and trying to cast on for a new project. Let me back up and explain what is going on. I read a knitting website called Ravelry which is like a message board for over 70,000 plus registered knitters and crocheters. It is really so much more than a message board, but I won't get into that. Well, one of the threads on Ravelry had to do with starting Elizabeth Zimmerman's famous Pi Shawl on 3-14 (today), since pi is the math equivalent of 3.14. Get it? This is a pattern that I have wanted to do for quite awhile and reading about all these knitters who were going to cast on today, got me inspired. I got some yarn, lots of yarn. I think I will need about 1500 yards of this wool/silk string-like stuff. This shawl is circular and has increases that go along with the theory of pi. You start knitting in the center and there are several different ways to cast on for this type of start, none of which were familiar to me. So I have just spent over an hour with 2 knitting books open, 4 double-pointed needles and a ball of yarn. A couple of times I referred to some sites on the internet for more help. The toughest part was keeping the 9 slippery cast-on stitches from twisting or falling off the needles. I had to take a break after knitting 3 rounds. Once I get going, the going will get easier and I can be as creative as I want with how the pattern works up. This shawl can be lovely, so I want to do it justice and not screw it up right from the get-go.

The 4 inches of ice on our driveway is finally starting to melt as temps have risen above freezing. I think tomorrow is supposed to be another "warm" day, so maybe we can re-claim our driveway. 

This has been a fairly typical week (some might say, boring) in terms of blog-worthy news.

I've been flipping kids all week as they try to learn the backward roll. It really is rewarding to have a kid tell me they can't do it or are too afraid to try, and then to have them come up with a big grin on their face after they do it. Between a wedge mat and me helping them, there are very few kids who cannot do a backward roll. 

Terry and Kenn were supposed to come tomorrow (after the weather kept them away last week) but Terry has a bad cold so they will head back to Virginia. They were on a college tour and I wonder how that all went. Terry, let me know about the trip. 

Tomorrow I am going to the Genesee Valley Handspinner's Guild meeting. It is held the 3rd Saturday of each month in the Victor Presbyterian Church. My spinning teacher called me yesterday to see if I was going and will save me seat near her so she can continue to help me and answer all my questions. I am very excited about going to the meeting. I will take the rest of my Icelandic fiber and some other fiber that I bought in San Diego and see how much I get spun. 

Jim is busy planning out our Eastern Shore biking trip, which is about a month away. We have some maps and have requested some more info from some internet sites. 

Here is a photo of my beautiful daffodils. One of our school secretaries was selling them as a fundraiser for the American Heart Association (I think) and she delivered them to me on Wednesday. When I got them, they were a dozen tight buds, which have opened beautifully. I won't see my daffodils in the yard for another month or so.

Good Luck to Liz as she moves into an new apartment this weekend.

Hope all is well.

Plans and Schedules

We have enjoyed a third sunny day here in Rochester and that is a real spirit lifter!

No blog yesterday because I was out late with 3 of the 5 other Women's Weekend women, trying to come up with a time that we could go to Jenny Lake for the 15th annual Women's Weekend. As all of our children have left the nest, we have all gotten busier than ever and finding a weekend we can all go away for all that fun stuff we do was a real challenge. Hopefully our latest plan will work out. 

While I was out to dinner last night, Jim and Corey went to see the movie, 10,000 BC (I think that is the correct title). They enjoyed the movie, especially all the special effects. 

Being out late on one school night was not enough for Jim, so he decided to go out to a local coffeehouse with Corey tonight to hear Corey's former Jazz Band teacher play a gig. This "college lifestyle"is going to catch up with Jim real soon! 

Have I mentioned that we are going to the Eastern Shore of Maryland for a biking vacation during my April break from school? Well, we are. I contacted our Jenny Lake friends, Robin and Joe, who live in Baltimore to see if we could spend a night with them on our way down there. Robin got back to me and we are on their calendar for dinner and overnight accommodations. It will great to see them again and catch up with their lives and the lives of their 2 daughters. 

I am including 2 photos of the wonderful dinner I made on Sunday night. Wegmans publishes a Menu magazine about 4 times a year and this salmon recipe was in the most recent issue. My final presentation looked just like the photo in the magazine and it tasted great! 

Corey went to the doctor's yesterday to see why he is feeling less than 100% and is not running as well as he used to. He had some blood work done and we should get the results of that tomorrow. He goes back to SU tomorrow and is hoping to have some idea of what to do to get his mojo back! He has done lots of sleeping and eating while he has been home. 

Corey took Jim's car into a repair shop today to get the windshield fixed so the new one should be good for another 126,000 miles. 

I started my gymnastics unit at school and I successfully executed my annual forward roll. Every year in the early morning quiet of my gym, I put a mat along the wall where no one will see me and I squat down, curl up my body and attempt to do a forward roll. I am happy to report that it went quite well. Now in a couple of weeks I can make my annual assault on climbing ropes and try to dazzle the kindergartners as I climb up to the rafters! You think it is easy being an almost 53 year old PE teacher! There are pressures you cannot even imagine!

Hope all is well.