sorry for the long, silent spell

I have been trying to get posting to work again. I've not done a lot with this site, and think that maybe it's time to get it going again. Stay tuned.

back again!

I am trying to drag myself back to the knitting world. My life seems to have stabilized. The new man in my life is a keeper. I can't tell you how much happiness he has brought to me in this difficult time. But somehow, I haven't brought fiber back into my life. It's strange somehow. I haven't been spinning or knitting. I have a pair of socks on the needles, for me. I've brought them out a couple of times, worked on them briefly and that's it.

I have been inspired this week by Ravelry and the shawl fashion show. If nothing will pull me out of a knitting slump, a good shawl will. So I think I will pull out some fine yarn and see if I can't find a short shawl to inspire me. It would do me good to knit and spin again. It's been a part of my life for a long, long time now.

Working fiber into my new life

I am in the midst of a new life. I've moved in my with new boyfriend. That is an amazing concept, for someone that was married for 37 years. We met in the ICU and he lost his wife of 21 years the day before Jeffrey died. It is a wild and crazy relationship for a couple of geezers, but an extremely happy one. The problem that I am seeing, so far, is that I've done no fiber work at all. I've tried to knit a bit, but that's about it. I've taken the spindles out a few times. And the boyfriend is totally unfamiliar with knitting and spinning. He is willing to learn, but it's going to be tough to teach him if I'm not doing any work. I think that I will do more of this, as I settle into the relationship. For now, it's on the back burner.

A long time coming

I can't begin to tell you all the changes in my life, between the last post and this one. My husband of 37 years died in October of pnuemonia. I had to give away all the animals, except my dogs and cats. I've moved from the trailer to a house for the winter. My life has been in a state few people can imagine. In the midst of this, I met a man who lost his wife on the day before my husband died. We met in the ICU. We've been in contact through it all and have become romantically involved. It is a strange, yet wonderful thing.

I haven't been doing a lot of knitting or spinning. I have a pair of very precious, partially finished socks. I knit them in the ICU, measuring them against Jeffrey's feet. Some day, I need to rip back enough I can make them for my feet. I can't bear to have anyone else wear them. The new man in my life is going to have to learn about all things fiber. I'm already starting to teach him about spinning a bit. I would not have changed my old life for the world and I miss Jeffrey every day. Yet, I'm grateful to have this new love. We've become so very close in so little time.

Hopefully the next post won't take so long and will contain more fiber stuff.

Finished braids

I think I even have this on in my new profile picture. It has been really tough for some reason to log into this blog to post things. I will try and take a better picture of the sweater later, plus maybe pictures of the other projects I am working on.

no, it's not abandoned

Sorry to be so long between posts. Yes, I am still knitting and spinning. I'm working on a Braids cardigan using some old Brown Sheep yarn. (If you remember the old "Can this sweater be saved" pages, it used to be on that.) I've got one arm started and the body is complete. I'm also working on some socks for Jeffrey. I'm using Opal for these. I'll have to see how it wears. The pattern is not as clear with this yarn as it is with Regia. Wish I could have bought sock yarn yesterday. Speaking of that, I went to Oregon Flock and Fiber with a co-worker. Didn't buy a thing but it was fun anyway. She is not a spinner so I was able to give her too much information about all things spinning.

As for my spinning, most of it is done by spindle these days. The wheel takes up a lot of room in the trailer. I'm making progress on a sock yarn project. I think I may take the wheel over to a house we are caretaking and do some spinning this week. I need to do some thick singles for a Cowhichan sweater that I want to make for a friend.

I've joined Ravelry, so I hope that it will encourage me to put some effort into this blog. Really, it needs pictures badly. I'll see what I can do.

Knitting update

I've not posted much on this blog. Mostly, it's because I haven't done much fiber work. I've got a sweater in progress, the Braids cardigan from Cabin Fever. I'll try to take a picture of it this weekend. I haven't been spinning at all. Things will likely change as the seasons do. I've got some sweaters I want to make that require some bulky singles. I'll need to dig out the wheel and get started on that. Maybe next month.