The Difference Between Liking Knitting and LOVING Knitting

When I wrote about the trip to the yarn store earlier this month, I did show the project I was working on, but I haven't written much, recently at least, about the project itself, and specifically, how much I loved working on it. That is, I did mention it back in mid-December, but who remembers that? (Not me, without searching for it.) Suffice it to say that I really loved working on it. Really-really.

One night at knitting group, I spread it out to see:

Another day, working on it through a meeting (that had nothing to do with my specific job, so I was listening but didn't need to pay heavy attention).

Just so pretty! I was weighing the yarn toward the end, to make sure I would have enough left for the second edging repeat and the bind-off, and the pinkish yarn you see there is where I put in a lifeline in case my calculations were wrong.

Happily, they were not, and I bound the shawl off and laid it out before blocking. Those matts are 2 feet wide, so it was maybe 3 feet wide as laid out here.

Then it went for a soak!

And got pinned out! Four-plus feet now.

And spread out off the matts.

It's so lovely, and I'm so happy with it. The one thing I would change is to have started with the blue end, instead of the red, because I had a small amount of blue yarn left and hate to not have used it. But that's okay. Live and learn. That's just one small piece of a project that I otherwise really loved--not just the end result, not just the yarn, not just that I was knitting, but specifically knitting exactly this pattern.

I loved the pattern so much, in fact, that I got another by the designer, Nim Teasdale, this one called Illumine. I have another long-color-change yarn, from Wendy's Wonders, and I wound it up to use.

A different rainbow this time!

It's growing along and I am just as happy with it. 

So far, so purple.

I picked it up the other day and was amused to watch it twisting on the needle like this:

So, on it goes, happily. 

Bad Word, Bad Word

I mentioned in my menopause post being upset when the elevator went out of order: it wasn't working when we got home Monday, and after the company came Tuesday (Monday having been a holiday), they said it would be Wednesday or Thursday before it would be fixed. 

Then on Thursday, they said the part* would come in on Friday.
*Ominous foreshadowing: "the" part

This morning, word was that the part would be here later today, and they had authorized overtime so that the elevator could be fixed tonight or tomorrow.

Then, late afternoon today, aka Friday (it's still Friday):

"We have received one of two necessary parts for the elevator.  The other will not be in until Monday and installed on Tuesday."

The other part! When did that happen? Who is being incompetent here?

#$*!%&*! Fuck!

I went down yesterday, to take the trash down and bring the mail up, and I had to give myself a pep talk to walk back up the five flights. Listening to my knee grinding turns out to be even worse than just feeling it is.

Also, if they don't stop thanking me for my patience, my brain is going to explode. I was slightly patient on Monday, less so on Tuesday, and by now, I am fully 180 degrees away, at whatever the diametric opposite of patient is.

Meanwhile, Maggie

I appreciate the comments on my recent menopause post; it's good to feel the support of others who have been there or are there.

Meanwhile, is it time once more to appreciate Maggie? We can't do that too often!

Is It Hot In Here?

Sometime in maybe November, I started noticing that I would suddenly be hot for a few minutes, when I wasn't "doing" anything. Sitting on the couch reading, and suddenly sweaty? Was this the start of the mythical hot flashes?

As of mid-January, I am saying yes, yes it is. And while it does somewhat suck, also: I am 55 years old, it's about effing time to get into menopause. I mean, not that I WANT to be having hot flashes! But I have been ready to be done with periods for years now. Let's go, let's get this over with. (I know, I know, no guarantees...let me have the fantasy for now.)

I saw my gynecologist in December, just checking in on things, and she asked if I was having any symptoms yet. I told her that I wasn't sure, because everyone was saying, when you get hot flashes you will know, you will have no doubt! and I just wasn't sure*. She said that there's a range of symptoms and a scale of severity, and that it could be for me, this was what I would get. And I said, if that was all, hey, I'd be giving thanks for that!

*Or as I told her, "I have doubt."

A month later, I think it's safe to say I have no doubt. I'm having to wear layers so I can cool off quickly, and I am already so tired of taking things off and putting them back on (I often feel briefly chilled right before a flash, so I guess my system is really out of whack). I see her for my annual exam in April, so it will be interesting to see what else there is to talk about, what will happen before then.

What's frustrating to me, as a person who likes answers and rules and to understand what's happening and why, is that there are so many maybes to this stage of life. I was talking to friends last night about how I have to write down everything, and even then good luck remembering if I don't look at what I wrote, and I realized that brain fog could be part of menopause for me. 

And then, what about pointless rage? I remember that from the time when I was on steroids, and would suddenly be livid about something that, even then, I realized was nothing much. I do feel very short-tempered lately, and had been putting it down to, you know, the last six months of stress with Mom's health etc., but it could be the hormones are, if not causing, at least not helping the situation. Who knows?

More generally, I just feel like my emotions are closer to the surface than usual. We got home yesterday (Mom had a doctor's routine appointment, then we ran some errands) and found that the elevator was out of order. After all the work that's gone into it in the last few years! I was more mad and fed up than anything (well, and worried about Mom climbing the stairs, which was hard on her, but she managed). But today they let us know that the company has to order parts to fix it, so it will be a few days, and I teared up. And yes, it's upsetting, but not usually something that would make me cry...I don't know.

They really need a plug-in diagnostic for humans. You know how you take your car to the mechanic and they plug it in and can see what system is the problem? I want one like that. Here's what wrong, here's what you can do to help. Now there's a fantasy.

Hello

Movie, Book, Yarn

Movies: I've enjoyed the commentary on the latest movie ratings post. As I commented there, I so rarely go to the movies, but I love the ratings anyway. And hey, I am going to the movies this month: we're going to see The Wizard of Oz in the theater! Thank you, Fathom Events. 

When I was a kid, we would watch the movie when it was on TV once a year, and I remember bringing my pillow with me so I could hide my face when the witch was on, she scared me so. My mother says she isn't sure she's seen it all the way through--I suppose she was moving around doing things rather than actually sitting down and watching. It will be interesting to see what she remembers. I'm looking forward to seeing it go from Kansas to Oz in bright color on the big screen.

Books: I just read a book that I had heard about via more than one blog, In Love by Amy Bloom, so if you've written about it recently, take credit. 

Warning, this book is very sad. You only have to read the description to know it will be. But it's moving and heartwarming and just so beautifully written. If you can read the precis and not recoil, then try it.

Mind you, I am returning it to my library with a note:

Why is this categorized under her husband's last name instead of hers?

I can't imagine how they came up with that. Her name is on the cover, and I checked, the book is also copyrighted under her name ... so who decided to change that? I'm giving some serious stink-eye to my otherwise beloved library here.

Yarn: In addition to the vast haul I got at the yarn store, I recently got some yarn that I ordered all the way from Australia! Yeah, just around 9,000 miles away, no biggie, right?

I hadn't heard of Birdhouse Fibres before, but I follow some yarn-related hashtags on Instagram and saw a photo from them there, so I clicked on through. 

Mind you, I am very cautious about ordering yarn online that I haven't encountered in person before. In addition to the question of how colors show up in photos, I have been to enough festivals and yarn stores where I have touched something beautiful and found it to be too firm/harsh for me. So the first thing I looked at wasn't the yarn per se, but the info about their yarn bases.

The didn't have a separate page for that (some do, some don't), but I found that, while there was nothing with cashmere in it*, they listed both Ultra Sock and Squish Sock, both of which are 85/15 Merino/nylon. Ultra is described as "bouncy and durable" while Squish is "soft and luxurious"--ding, ding, we have a winner! I'm willing to take a chance on that.

*Always what I look for first; I've never touched yarn containing cashmere, even just 10%, that didn't meet my so-soft standards.

I looked through the available colors, considering this combo and that, before deciding on a set where I felt good about how well they would go together (sometimes I manage that on my own, but sometimes they don't go together as well as I thought they would). For the distance it traveled, it really didn't take that long to arrive, and it is SO soft!

And beautiful.

Time for More Movie Ratings! November, December, Start of January

It's been a while since I did these! If you're new, though I live in Florida now, I still read the Boston Globe, and I discovered at some point that their movie reviews add often hilarious notes to the ratings of new movies, so I started sharing them here.

Onward!

1.

Okay, okay...what?

2.

I'm pretty sure I don't want to know.

3.

My goodness, PDA in a Trolls movie?

4.

In this one, the notes aren't really funny, but my eye fell on this sentence in the review itself:

Oof!

5.

This one isn't funny either, but they could just have written "No, this is not the movie for you, ccr" and stopped there.

6.

Another one that isn't really funny, but the review, whoa:

I don't usually read the reviews themselves, but that's some kind of scathing.

7. This one isn't from the Globe, but the headline in my local paper caught my eye.

Another oof!

8.

I understand why they want to specify which version they reviewed, but I don't think that should be part of the rating--I assume that the subtitled and dubbed versions would get rated the same. Wouldn't they? Thoughts on that?

9.

Vocabulary word! And what a word it is. Ahem.

10.

Around the world?

11.

That's one where the rating is good but the headline might be better.

12.

Watch out, there's language!

13.

Unless that's a typo, wow, half a star! Not even one star, but half!

So...have you seen any good movies lately?

Road Trip! Yarn Store!

I'm getting used to living in a seasonal destination, and that a lot of my friends who are snowbirds are only here for "season." My group of knitting friends is about 80% not here in the summer, but while they are here, we have weekly meetups, a monthly lunch, and once a season, we travel to another city to visit a yarn store. Yesterday was this season's trip, and we went over to the east coast to visit the wonderful Sheep Thrills. Details:

To start, it tells you how much I wanted to do this that I was willing to set my alarm on a weekend, particularly after last week being full of rude awakenings. To be up and out of the house by 8, well, you see.

There were nine of us traveling, so we went in two cars, meeting up by geographical grouping. I was delighted for some sitting and knitting and chatting time--next time it has to be my turn to drive, but oh, I appreciated not driving this time. We met the others, and one more friend who was on the east coast already, for brunch at First Watch (yum), and then headed to the store.

I had such fun shopping! Most of the group is much more disciplined than I am about buying with a purpose--for this pattern or that, they look for the yarn they need--whereas my purchase "plan" is pretty much, look how pretty! Feel how soft! And since I was fresh off Christmas and Mom's go-have-fun-money gift, I went wild. As you can see.

I made my own rainbow!

(They gave us a discount, too, which was super nice of them. And in case you're wondering, of the group, I bought the most--I win!)

Funnily enough, the only photos I took at the store were in the bathroom. How you know you're in a yarn store's bathroom:

We stopped at a Dunkin Donuts before heading west again, and were tickled that they have a conference room for rent. How funny to have meetings there!

The drive home featured some weather, yuck.

But we got through it and home safely. And I made a lot of progress on my shawl, which I think is beautiful even from the wrong side and crumpled into the knitting bag.

Someone was unimpressed by my being out all day.

But she came around.

Talking About the "Ten writers of whom I've read more than five books" Thing

Recently on Bluesky*, I ran across people listing their "Ten writers of whom I've read more than five books" and of course had to look at my bookshelves to put together a list. 

*Are you on Bluesky? I have some invite codes if you want to join. I'm trying to get myself off Twitter, but it's hard, as most of the Hockey People I want to follow are still there. And yet the site is such a disaster...

I started to pull together a list, and realized that I could very, very easily--pretty much without trying--make it a list of all women, so I did.

Anne Bishop

Patricia Briggs 

Sara Donati

Victoria Goddard

T Kingfisher

Anne McCaffrey 

Tamora Pierce

DE Stevenson 

Shanna Swendson 

Martha Wells

I stopped myself there, but looking at the shelves again, and at my Kindle and books-read spreadsheet, I could easily have listed more:

Lois McMaster Bujold

Frances Hodgson Burnett*

Elizabeth Cadell

Gail Carriger

Dorothy Gilman

Elizabeth Goudge

Charlaine Harris

Georgette Heyer

Sarah Monette/Katherine Addison

LM Montgomery 

Elizabeth Moon

Dorothy Sayers

Patricia Wrede

*Not just kids books, she wrote a number of adult books--in the sense of not-kids, not in the "adult" sense.

Nothing against Ben Aaronovitch, or Douglas Adams, or Dave Barry, or Dick Francis, or AA Milne*,  but that list is considerably shorter for me.

*Not just kids books, either: he wrote plays and novels before the whole kids thing got started; I particularly enjoy Two People, and Four Days Wonder, as well as his autobiography.

I was actually kind of impressed at how unbalanced the list is, considering that I don't make an effort to read more women. It just seems that, these days in particular, women are writing more of what I want to read.

How about you?

After the Holidays: A Little Looking Back

This sums up my main hope for the year:

Or, wait, how about this one, too?

Yes, please. 

My five-year journal has a space at the end of the year to write anything more, and at the end of 2022, gods help me, I wrote, "Another not-the-best-year done. May next year bring better health for Mom, and no surgeries! And better coping skills for me." Ha! Ha! Oh, past me, would that that were funny. 

Our holidays were in fact peaceful and quiet; believe me, this is not a complaint. Of the 10 days before this one, I didn't have to set my alarm for eight of them*, which was bliss. The alarm going off this morning was both literally and figuratively a rude awakening. And then to find out that someone else won the Powerball! Humph.

*The holidays, weekends, and a couple of vacation days.

While I have enjoyed reading the various summaries some bloggers are doing about their year, whether it's books specifically or about their year overall (though I did not keep up with commenting), I am not pushing myself that way, not this year anyway. Maybe I should make my motto for 2024 be The Year of Not Pushing Myself. Well, that needs workshopping. I don't usually do a motto/word/whatever of the year anyway, so why start now of all times?

General life update: Mom's health continues to improve, but very slowly and not in the perfect linear way of improving every day the way we would like. She is having less constant/debilitating pain in the post-surgery hip or in the also-messed-up-by-falling shoulder, but she is frustrated by how little energy she has. She starts PT next week, and I'm hoping that will help her.

Exercise not-much-of-an-update: I basically haven't been exercising, with the slight exception of the online stretch classes that I learned about through Engie. It cracks me up that a healthcare system in Wisconsin lets me log in to this class from Florida, but they have been completely welcoming, and a few minutes of stretching a few times a week is very much better than nothing. Even with all the craziness of 2023, I still attended more than half the classes, and that honestly does feel like an accomplishment.

Reading update: I finished 113 books last year (I don't keep track of ones I don't finish). Since I don't rate them*, I don't have a definitive list of 5-star reads, but I can say, looking over my list, that I really really liked (in chronological order by when I read them) Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander, by Victoria Goddard (though you have to have read The Hands of the Emperor first**); Love & Saffron, by Kim Fay; Nora Goes Off Script, by Annabel Monaghan; the Digger comics, by Ursula Vernon; the Saints of Steel series, by T Kingfisher; Thornhedge, by T Kingfisher; and the last two that I read in 2023, in the Ladies Occult Society series, A Magical Inheritance and A Ghostly Request, by Krista Ball--it's basically Jane Austen but with magic, and so so so well done. I can't recall the last character I was rooting so strongly for, and please tell me at once if you read them because the third book comes out March 1 and I am really hoping for a scene where Elizabeth gets to tell her father, in front of others, just why she (redacted redacted spoilers argh).

*But maybe I should: it would save me from looking over the list and trying to decide in hindsight if something was a 4 or a 5.

**I don't know if anyone else reads Goddard's books, but I love this series and would be happy to discuss them, suggest reading order, etc.

Maggie update: She continues to be practically perfect. Of course.