Holy...Yarn

Last year, I was at a Newcomers' lunch and one of the women came up to me and said that she used to knit but hadn't in a long time, and she'd decided that she wasn't going to go back to it, so she wanted to clear out the yarn she had, and did I want it. (I always knit at the lunches, so I am Known as a knitter.)

If you've been reading here very long, you know that my answer to that question is always yes. She said she had to go through things, but she would let me know, and I said no problem, of course, no rush. A few months later, at another lunch, we bumped into each other and she mentioned it again, that she was still planning to get to it. No rush.

Yesterday was the day. She came by, and her vehicle was full of huge black garbage bags.

Eleven of them. Here they are in the garage.

So.

Much.

Yarn.

(Two of the bags were full of project bags, so many different sizes and types, so many bags.)

And it's good yarn! Lots of Baah (La Jolla and Sonoma and others), and Madeline Tosh, some Anzula, a little Noro, Malabrigo, brands I've never heard of, oh, and an absolute shit-ton of Hedgehog. I've been going through it in amazement. I swear, in my life in Massachusetts, this never used to happen to me, and now the yarn keeps finding me in Florida. (This is NOT a complaint.)

The amount I'm keeping for myself would be a huge, huge shopping spree by my standards. It isn't a tenth of what came in. I just can't get over this.

I hurt all over, though. This should count as a workout: lifting weights! Well, my doctor wants me to do weight-bearing exercise, and I just did. So much weight bearing. So happily.

Listening to Books

I enjoy audiobooks, but particularly, for some years I have gone to sleep listening to one, to help my brain turn off. (It has to be a book I know, so it won't actually get my brain more awake.) 

I use the Audible app, and they send a summary at the end of the year with some metrics, which can be very amusing. Last year, they noted that I listen the most at night, which, yeah, tell me something I don't know.

This year they summarized different metrics (or possibly I just don't remember these from last year). For instance:

Two fantasy authors and a hockey writer, yup. I highly recommend The Down Goes Brown History of the NHL: The World's Most Beautiful Sport, the World's Most Ridiculous League in either print or audio, if it's at all of interest to you. He's both informative and hilarious.

Here's another in the 'tell me something I don't know' category.

Yup, every day! Or, rather, every night.

I'm looking forward to doing some awake-time listening on my upcoming trip. Which, eep, two weeks from now I'll be underway! That does seem soon. I know that I'm fairly well prepared for it--but I don't feel ready!

Today's small achievement was about the eye mask with bluetooth speakers that I bought a few years ago: I found it, I charged it, and I got it to play Audible from my phone. I win!

Contrast (another way)

One thing to keep in mind, in running across people's lists and discussions of how many books they read in 2022, is that both of these are books:

I know there are people who track page counts instead, to get around this, but if one reads e-books, and makes the print larger, then that affects the number of pages, so it isn't a perfect solution. And really, even in print books, some books are denser per page than others. It's an interesting thing to think about.

If one is a book nerd, anyway, as I obviously am.

Contrast

Ran across this today; thoughts?

Let Go of the (Book Club Non-reading) Guilt; More Yarn!

My book club meets on Sunday, tonight as I write this; this is the dozenth meeting (we meet about every two months). Of the selected books, one I had read before (Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir), and one was my choice (Small Blessings, by Martha Woodroof), so of course I had read that before. 

Side note: I am fundamentally unable to suggest a book I haven't already read and liked. Because if I don't want to finish it, I don't want to! And if I don't finish the book, how will I lead a good discussion of it? So while some of the others suggest books they've heard about but not read, my suggestions (we do ranked voting, and suggest 3 or 4 books) are always known to me.

The remaining ten books, well. I finished three of them, and didn't finish the other seven (including this selection, The Lost Vintage, by Ann Mah). And I'm struggling with the not finishing! No one has said anything--other people don't always finish either, and I don't think my record bothers anyone. But somehow it bugs me, and I'm trying to let go of that. Because who cares? Are they going to kick me out? We're all friends, I don't think they will. And if they did, well, we'll still be friends. 

Let go of the rule-following, people-pleasing pressure. There's nothing wrong with every book not being right for every reader at any given time; doesn't mean the book is bad, and doesn't mean the reader is either. Ahem.

Annnnnyway! How about some yarn?

Yesterday I was part of a group of ten knitters who went up to Sarasota to visit a store there, A Good Yarn (and we had lunch, at Millie's, which was really good). It was a really fun day, and I brought home these two beauties:

So lovely! More specifically, this one is Miss Babs, Yearning, which is a big ol' skein of their heavy laceweight Yet yarn, 65% merino and 35% silk.

Those colors, mmm.

The other is a Florida dyer, KittyBea Knits, and Palma Sola is an exclusive that's DK, and 100% baby alpaca. Mmmm.

Another thing I came home with was a gift from one of the group, who had made a bunch of small project bags as samples for a sewing class she was teaching, and gave them to us as gifts. So neat!

So cute, so well made, just the size for a 100-gram skein or ball.

Sadly, today I've been dealing with a migraine all day, which is unfortunate, but at least it didn't spoil yesterday.

Before Yarn: Yarn

On Saturday I'm going to a yarn store with friends, so before I write up whatever happens there (ahem: chances of coming home empty-handed are very small), I wanted to show what I got in the mail the other day.

In November I showed you the Shibui yarn I got at half off; it turns out that the company is shutting down, which is sad, as they make lovely stuff. It further turns out that the shutdown includes their subsidiary Camp Color yarns, and in fact I heard before Christmas (my friends are such enablers, I love it) that the CC yarns were $5 a skein instead of the usual $15*. Well! I can't resist that sale!

*It's not all gone yet, either...

They have a fingering-weight yarn that I bought last summer, to make the Electric Slide shawl. And they have a bulky yarn. And they offer free shipping if you spend $100 or more.

Do you see where this is going? Yeah. You do.

Five skeins of bulky in this beautiful blue that will make a nice cozy shawl.

And the rest fingering. Some multis:

Random beautiful colors.

And a vague idea for a not-quite-Bruins black and gold project.

That, my friends, is $100 well spent. No regrets at all.

Fuzz Therapy

As I get myself worked about about trip planning, I think I could use some Maggie therapy. Enjoy some views from the last week.

As a break from visualizing every stage of my trip and what I will want to have with me for it, pack-pack-pack, I will visualize this little face.

Three Weeks?

Wait a minute, I leave for Hawaii in three weeks? What? I mean, three weeks from tomorrow, but given the hour I'm leaving, it's basically three weeks from today. Ack. I knew when I was making the flight plans last month that I would have more to do, but I figured it could wait until after the holidays.

Well. It's after the holidays. I had best get to work, hadn't I. 

And I have! 

I made my hotel reservation near SFO, so that's set. 

I also called the person who does car-service-type rides (he has been highly recommended by neighbors), as my flights leave and arrive back to Lauderdale very early, and though my mother is willing, I am not asking her (or anyone I like) to do that for me--I would feel awful about it. And I don't want to drive myself at that hour either, particularly after the red-eye coming back. He's got me on the list, and I'll check with him a few days before, but I should be set there.

I always make a packing list when I travel, to sort out what to bring, what to carry on (and to access on the plane versus carry on just-in-case), etcetera, so I looked to see if I had a saved one from the last Hawaii trip. I did, so that's a good starting point, and it includes this item in the carry-on list: "so many snacks!" Evergreen advice. The cross-country flight is 6 and a half hours, and then California to Hawaii (the next day) is another 6 hours. I am going to need so many snacks!

Next, after:

• a very large amount of moaning, whining, and complaining, 
• one phone call (how on earth did I end up with two reward numbers for United? when is the last time I even flew United?), and 
• one what-am-I-missing-here google search (turns out that in order to get the Southwest flight I have previously booked to show up in my brand-new rewards account [that I created from the link in their email asking if I wanted to sign up for rewards for this flight], I don't add it from the account, I add the rewards number to the reservation), 

I have updated alllllllll my info for the various airlines I'm flying, signed up for the things I need, added my known traveler number, and so on ad infinitum. What an absolute pita that was, but I have all the apps on my phone now and I think it's all set. Pretty please, universe.

I got a new cord so that I can use my power pack with my new phone (because of course it doesn't have the same cord needs as the old phone, ha ha ha), and I also got a little case that fits the power pack perfectly and has room for the cords. Very satisfying. I ordered a travel light for knitting, and hopefully that will be just as satisfying, knock on wood.

What else? I'm sure there's more.

Getting There

I mentioned last month that I was making plans to join my aunt for part of her trip to Hawaii (my brother is also going to go for part of it). I made my plane reservations that week: from Florida to San Francisco nonstop on JetBlue, using miles; plans to overnight in a hotel near the airport (still working on the hotel choice and reservation, the many options are currently overwhelming me); then a flight the next morning from SFO to Kona, on United. 

I'm hopeful that by making the trip two days each way, and only nonstops*, it won't be as hard on me as last time (which ended up being close to 20 travel hours in one day--no wonder I was a wreck by the time I got there, and got home again).

*No more four-airport days, thank you

For the return, I booked a flight from Kona to Oakland, so I could spend the night at my brother's before going cross-country again, though after the recent mess, you can imagine how I feel about flying Southwest for even one flight. Hopefully they'll be straightened out by then? They're the only ones with a nonstop from KOA to OAK, and given that my brother lives in Oakland, getting to him from SFO is much more of a production, which I'd rather avoid.

So complicated. I know I'll have a good time, but right now I'm just tired thinking about it.

Setting the Trend for the Year on January 1: Yay or Nay?

I understand that some people feel very strongly that what one does on the first day of the year sets the tone for the year: they might clean the house thoroughly by the 31st so that they aren't cleaning on the 1st, and cook certain dishes, and be sure to do things that they want to do more of in the coming year.

As you may guess from the start of that sentence, I don't fall into that camp, or at least not fully. I don't think I'm jinxing my year if I have to do some unpleasant task on the 1st, and I don't worry too much about what I do. Well, beyond the fact that it's a vacation day, so I can do what I want! In that sense, I guess my day did set the tone, because I spent time with the cat on my lap, had a little moving-around-in-the-pool time*, watched hockey, and picked up some knitting. But I don't feel that if I hadn't done any of these things, it would impact the coming year.

*Calling it exercise is a bit of a stretch, but it was time I spent moving around, so partial credit for that.

Do you have traditions for New Year's? What do you do, or avoid doing, for this holiday?

Bonus Maggie-on-lap pictures:

Recruited

Every once in a while, I'll have a recruiter reaching out to me about a job, even though I'm not looking for one, and they tend to be fairly off-base: temporary positions, in-person in Delaware, require qualifications I've never heard of, that sort of thing. But today's was so far off base that it's funny, so I have to share.

My phone rang first, and as it was a number I didn't know and just said New Jersey, I cut it off.

It started ringing again immediately, and I cut it off again.

I got a text message at the same moment as the voice mail about it, and then a minute later an email as well.

And the position? Echocardiographer. Hmm. I am dubious that they "have reviewed your profile and it looked like a good match for the job position below." But let's keep an open mind and see what it needs.

"Required Exp: 2+ years of Echo experience with transthoracic echocardiography and dobutamine stress echocardiography. Knowledge of Cardiology, Medical Terminology, basic Physics, Biology and Anatomy"

Well, I have some knowledge of medical terminology! Probably more than your average English major does. None of the rest of it, though. Any more detail?

"The Echocardiographer is responsible for preliminary echocardiographic measurements, summarizing diagnostic data and communicating information to manager or requesting physician. Performs a variety of technical duties using phono-apexcardiograms, imaging duplex and ultrasound equipment."

Nope, nope, nope! Not me. (There's also no mention of pay, if like me you were curious what that job gets.)

Also, loved this part: "Shift: 40h 8:00am-4:30p. weekend and holidays if needed"

I'm afraid I do need weekends and holidays, yes.

Alarmed

Can you believe that this morning I had to get up when the alarm went off? And be at my desk at a specific time?

And wade through 182 emails?

And work on a report in powerpoint? That had three different proofing languages on one slide?

As well as some shorter pieces that included one where the writer had a few sentences lacking a verb?

Sigh. Reality is a harsh mistress. Vacation is great, but it really cements how much I want to not work.

Truth in Advertising

Today, I am wearing a shirt I got for Christmas.

And here is herself, showing why the shirt is perfect for me.

She was sleeping the whole time we were out today (taking my brother to the airport), but still, we were out and she is displeased.

From up close.

Happy Merry!

Merry Christmas if you celebrate, happy Sunday if you don't! Here's the holiday card I did this year. 

Christmas Eve

Look at the calendar, y'all, we made it!

All the pockets are empty, and the top is full.

We are having "I know this isn't cold by your standards but it is frigid by ours" cold weather. This was this morning:

And in two-plus hours, it has gone up one degree. Brrr.

But we're here, and ready to have a low-key good time. I hope all is well with you.

The Light

Yesterday, my brother and I went for a walk on the beach. It wasn’t typical beach weather, but the light on the clouds and the water was beautiful. Can you see the group of birds in some of these photos?

I found a pretty shell, too.

The inside almost glows.

And then the sunset sky.