Scottish Highlands

Scottish Highlands Shawl

I feel like all I ever do is apologize for my photos... but please, accept my apology for this one.  I finished my Scottish Highlands shawl and celebrated by spending the rest of the afternoon sunbathing with a bottle of wine and I didn't think to photograph the shawl until the sun had gone down.

Hopefully I'll get the ends woven in and get it blocked today.  I'm looking forward to the lace section looking like lace instead of crumpled up, wrinkled fabric.  The yarn is So soft and squishy and despite it being only June 2nd, I cannot wait until fall gets here so I can wear it.

I guess I need to apologize again.  There are no links in this post because I'm working with VERY limited internet.  I barely had enough to open Blogger so that I could write this.  I'm afraid if I attach links, I won't have enough left to publish this post.

And with that, please note that it may be a few days before you hear from me again.  I've got a week to go until my Hotspot resets.  Yikes!

Three random things

My apologies, I've missed a few blog posts recently.  I think the isolation is beginning to get to me.  Well, not "beginning to" but has.  It has gotten to me.  I'm sure it's a form of depression but I can not make myself do anything other than knit, read and eat chocolate covered almonds.  At least those almonds are covered in dark chocolate.  Dark chocolate is supposed to be good for you.

Anyway...

Three random things for today's Three on Thursday:

1.  I lied.  Between mouthfuls of chocolate covered almonds, I managed to eat some Memorial Day dessert.  Thankfully it didn't take much persuasion to talk Sarah into making the Strawberry Blueberry Trifle.  We did have trouble finding something to put it in.  I'm going to have to add trifle dish to my shopping list because she ended up using a giant, clear mixing bowl.  No matter how it was served, it was delicious and she will be making it again.

2.  I've finally reached the lace section on my Scottish Highlands shawl.  There is absolutely nothing to dislike about this project.  The pattern is written so that you have the option of A) two different sizes, B) knitting the shawl in one solid color or using two colors, C) with or without eyelet rows, and D) the lace has both charts and written instructions.  Obviously I'm doing the two color version with eyelets.  It has been great.  Just when I get sick of garter stitching, there's a change of color and an eyelet row.  Then when I got sick of garter in general, I hit the lace section.  I Love, love, love this pattern and unless something goes Horribly wrong with the rest of the lace instructions, I plan to knit quite a few more of these.

And then there's the yarn.  Oh. My. Goodness!!!  I am obsessed with this yarn from Cozy Color Works.  It is SO soft and squishy and I could easily spend $10,000 Sandy's shop.  I want All the colors.  Heck, I want all the skeins of all the colors.

Hayden, 10 weeks old

3.  And just because she's adorable, a Memorial Day picture of Hayden.  Love the shoes!

Three on Thursday - OTN

For today's Three on Thursday, I wanted to show you the three things I'm currently knitting.  Or not knitting.  Instead of knitting, I'm just picking one up, putting it down, picking up the next and putting it down, picking up the third and putting it down....

But before I show you my knitting, I'd like to threaten someone.  Many someones actually.  I'm going on record as saying I would like to kick the butt of every single blogger and person I've seen on any form of social media since the lock-down began who has mentioned doing jigsaw puzzles.  Good Grief!

Although I don't do them often, I've always enjoyed doing jigsaw puzzles.  Ever since we moved in with my mother-in-law, I've had the urge to do one but that urge was never strong enough to go out and actually purchase one.  Until last week.

I knew there was something I was leaving out of the other day's Drama post.  I'd finally found a puzzle for under $20 and was so traumatized by it, I completely forgot to list it along with the other drama I've had going on.  It was that traumatic! 

That &%^$^%&%*&^$ Queen of Hearts puzzle was the last puzzle Target had on their shelf.  And it about kicked my arse.  All those frames!  And half the pieces fit perfectly with other pieces that they weren't meant to fit with.  It was Horrible. It didn't help that the available lighting I had was horrible.  I may never do another jigsaw puzzle as long as I live.  If any of you are local and would like this one, I would be most happy to pass it on, but I take no responsibility towards your mental state once you start working it.

Now for the knitting....

Rambling Rows Afghan

My Rambling Rows afghan is the project I want to be knitting on.  Besides loving the frequent color changes and the chance to use up some of my scrap yarns, I have this urgent sense of needing to get as much knit as possible before it gets too hot to hold it on my lap.  But this project has no deadline and is going to take forever.  It should be my back burner project.

Scottish Highlands Shawl

Of the two shawls I'm currently knitting, this Scottish Highlands shawl is the bigger of the two.  It also has no deadline.  But the  yarn is divine and I'm anxious to get through all the garter so that I can start the lace border.

Onete

Of course, the Onete shawl will be the quickest of the three projects to knit, I do have a deadline for it, and I love the yarn.  But it's got M1L's and M1R's (make one left and make one right) which are driving me insane.  Yes, eight rows in and I'm already insane.  It's not like the M1L's and M1R's are complicated.  It's just that my needle is rather blunt tipped and my memory is horrible so every time I take the shortest of breaks, I forget which is stitch is which and have to dig out the directions.  If I could just focus on this one  for an uninterrupted hour or two, I'd be able to memorize the difference between left and right leaning increases and it would be a much more enjoyable project.  But... that Rambling Rows keeps calling me back.

I'm caught in a vicious, vicious cycle.  A knitter's life is never easy.

I'm not 100% sure Carole will be hosting a Three on Thursday link up today.  If you follow her blog, you know her husband was hit by a car recently.  Thankfully he is home from the hospital and on the mend, but Carole may be too busy taking care of him to host today.  But if she is hosting, please join me over at her blog for today's Three on Thursday party.  Meanwhile, lets all wish Dale a speedy recovery.

Drama, drama, drama

What a week!  Actually, what a two weeks!  They have been drama filled!  Nothing drastic or life ending, just drama, drama, drama.  There's been so much drama, I don't even know where to start.  Let's see if I can try to put things together in timeline format...

First, as of last month, I now have an endocrinologist.  I've been having some thyroid issues for a while and the day before the hospitals got locked down and no one could enter except on a stretcher via the emergency room, I had an ultrasound.  The ultrasound showed that I have several nodules on my thyroid, one of which is bigger than my thyroid and it's pressing on my trachea.  Well, that explains why I can't breathe properly if I put my arms up over my head!

So, my GP sent me to the endocrinologist who I absolutely love.  She ordered a biopsy but because the hospitals are still closed....  No biopsy yet.  

There have been a few dementia developments that I won't go into detail about, but they have certainly added to the drama.

The washing machine broke.  The washing machine that's located on the second floor.  Thankfully Lowes is still delivering and brought us a new one and even installed it.  They even installed it on the second floor!  Unfortunately, in the process, an old pipe behind the wall broke in the process and the entire washing machine full of water dripped through the ceiling on the first load washed.

The pipe got fixed and the refrigerator went on the blink.  We noticed that the milk didn't seem that cold yet the just brought home from the store on a hot day ice cream was hard as a rock after only 10 or 15 minutes in the freezer.  You know how ice cream gets a little mushy on the trip home from the store?  Yeah, well, our ice cream was so hard we couldn't scoop it.  We couldn't even cut it with a knife.  We had to microwave the whole container in order to melt it enough to even stab it with a knife!  

The next day was my birthday and after waking up to find the refrigerator wasn't even sort of cool (although the freezer is still freezing things solid) I went off to another visit with the endocrinologist.  Maybe I don't like her so much after all.  That's a joke.  I really do just love her.  But she diagnosed me with Hashimoto's and pre-diabetes.  On my birthday! She also put in another 'emergency' request for the biopsy because I'm now feeling like I can't breath properly when I lay on my side or tuck my chin to my chest.  

 I have never felt so old in all my life and I'm now taking more pills than Grandma.  But hey - at least I have a partial excuse for all the weight gain.  

Daddy giving Hayden bunny ears.

The birthday wasn't all bad though.  Hayden came for a visit and I got to snuggle with her for a bit.  It was her two month birthday so we partied hard despite her fussiness.  Poor baby - she had an ear infection.  And, as it turns out, she's already teething!  At her two month check up the next day, the doctor confirmed it.  Holding her head up And teething at two months!  Those poor parents are in for a wild ride!

The next day, the heat soared and our air conditioning wasn't blowing cold.  My brother-in-law worked on it and got it working thankfully.

The next day, we woke up to the air conditioning fiercely blowing ICE cold air while the radiators pumped out hot air although the heat was set on 68 and the a/c was set on 72.  (They are two separate systems.)  If you weren't near a radiator, it was painfully cold.  We turned the a/c up to 74 and the heat down to 64 and sat outside on the deck where it was warmer.  Mid day, the house was still freezing and the radiators were still cranking and the a/c was still blowing... so I turned the a/c up to 78 and the heat down to 60 and went back outside where it was hot.  After dinner there was still no change in the house's temperature so we turned the a/c completely off.... And it kept on running!  The a/c continued to run for over an hour after we turned it off.  It was like something out of a Stephen King novel.

So now we don't have a/c. 

But once again, a visit from Hayden saved the day.  We still don't have a/c but I got to snuggle with Hayden a little more so all is right with the world.  

Check out Hayden's shirt.  It says "I still live with my parents."  My blogger friend, Carole, made it for me/Hayden.  Thanks Carole!

Rambling Rows afghan

Meanwhile, thankfully, very, very thankfully, my knitting has been drama free.

Scottish Highlands Shawl

Well, mostly drama free.  I want to knit all the things and I want to knit them all at once.  So of course, I'm not making much progress on any project because I keep putting one down to knit on the other.  Five minutes later, I put that one down and pick up the other... and the cycle continues. 

Drama, drama, drama!