Joy of Yarn

Whatta Walk

Took a drive on Saturday up to Millerton, NY with the pups. Chloe chose to stand in the car, on the entire ride up, excitedly looking out the window. We walked 7 miles on the Millerton Rail Trail. What a great place to walk and what a beautiful day we had, blue skies and cool breezes. Sydney was exhausted when we finished. Chloe was tired too but both dogs were extraordinary.

Here is our family portrait:   

As we were walking back to the car, I noticed a cute little yarn shop and had to stop in. Twisted was a great little shop with a large sectional in the front of the store. Women sat busily knitting and talked with each other. It was the type of shop that I'd love in my town.

Eeeeeeek!

Look who's living on the door to our deck (photo courtesy of my husband) And yes, it is as large as it seems:

School

A pic of the dogs and me - hair not blown out, no make-up, relaxed as can be during the summer.

School started. Well more work started. I came home feeling like normal people with normal jobs must feel, tired, yes, but not utterly spent and fall-into-bed exhausted. We did not have kids today so I had the full day to set up my room (a bit), plan for tomorrow (a bit more) and talk with my missed buddies (a bit too much perhaps). I ended up staying later to make copies as we didn't find out who our kids were until later in the day and I couldn't plan much without knowing levels. Oh yes, we need to make copies of all the work because we do not have enough workbooks for the kids. Anyway, I feel pretty set for tomorrow. Many of my more problematic kids have either been moved to other classes or been discharged, thank goodness, and hopefully the ones I have are manageable without a great deal of stress. I knit a bit on my sock during lunch.

I've also gone meat-free and I'm trying to eat better. Taking care of a puppy in the kitchen, this summer, put on a few extra pounds. I baked and baked and baked.

I'm trying hard to manage my stress better. After work my husband and I walked the dogs in town for about 45 minutes, and Chloe walks at a pretty good clip. It feels so good to walk them and see their wagging tails.       

Winning

OK, I didn't win. Big surprise.

But I'm still knitting! Big surprise there too. Happily working on the Mitred Quilt out of Plymouth Boku. That pattern is really a fun one. And working on Wendy Johnson's Diagonal Lace Socks using Dream in Color Smooshy in the Butter Peeps color, another fun one. I missed working on socks. Pictures soon. Gotta get outside for this bee-u-ti-ful day!

Lotto and Retirement

So it sounds so desperate to say, "I really hope that I win Lotto!" I mean, how many other people are saying the exact same thing? And isn't it similar to saying, "I hope while walking in the street I find a bag of money that someone dropped after robbing a bank." Or, "I hope I find a diamond in the street worth millions." Or, "I hope that the bank makes a million dollar error in my favor and never finds it." Of course, if I suddenly saw my bank balance a million dollars over what I had, I'd be too afraid to spend it anyway but that's another story. Anyway, it does sound desperate and unrealistic, but it does happen to some people, so I'd like it to happen to me.

I talked to my husband today about what I'd do with the money. How many people must do that. Number 1 - I'd quit my job, yeah big surprise. And we'd move to that place in the country that we want, nothing big, a small house on a lot of property, where we wouldn't hear leaf blowers and dogs barking and Gina, our neighbor, cursing and yelling. And maybe buy some electronic gadgets. I'd like to try a Kindle and get a Mac and do some traveling. And buy two new cars. My husband would like a mini Cooper and I'd like maybe a Honda Civic or a Prius, I guess. We don't have these major wants, no, I can't say I'd buy a huge ring or a huge house. Just these little things. I'd donate to some causes I believe in. And I guess I'd invest the rest. But I'd really like to win.

My friend Linda and I knit yesterday while sitting by some local stables and she told me about someone she knew who met a man who won 47 million dollars. The man bought this woman a car and a house and a diamond. 

Well Thursday, I spoke to a person over at the Retirement Department of the State to see if I could get some concrete ideas of when I could stop working at this stressful job and how much money I could get from my pension. He didn't have many answers. Actually he only had one answer. I will have 20 years with the state in 2 1/2 years. That brings me to March of 2012. And then he went on to tell me how I really should stay until I'm 62, to which I replied, "Do you know where I work?" And he suddenly recalled some horrible kid in his high school who flipped out and spray painted his name around the whole school and he was sent to the school I teach at. And I replied, "Well I have 8 of that kid in my classroom." And he became quiet and said, "I understand." But like I said, he couldn't tell me how much I would be getting. I had to fill out a new form for that and the form should take about 6 months to process. Welcome to working for New York State. But at least it gives me a date to aim at and I've already been thinking of steps I need to take to do some things in the house before we sell it. I also think about moving to the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania as my husband and I really liked that area. I looked at some houses on-line and the prices are reasonable. Maybe keeping my eyes on this prize will make the days at work, the days that feel like five days long, more tolerable.    

Buford

A friend of ours just lost Chloe's stepbrother. It has shaken me badly. Buford was a wonderful dog, as red as an Irish Setter. He is the boy who made me get Chloe. It was ten years ago that I walked into a local carpet store and met my buddy Buford. The owner of the store told me that Buford's mom was having another litter and next I was flying to Omaha to pick my girl up. Chloe has been the best dog I could ever ask for. Buford, like Chloe's mom, had Lymphoma. I think he was diagnosed a few years ago and had a few rounds of chemotherapy as the cancer had come back. We last saw him about three weeks ago when we brought Sydney down to the store. He seemed to be doing well and looked healthy. He always snuggled up to me and nudged closer and closer as I pet him. I find it so hard to believe that he is gone and it makes me feel, even more, how vulnerable Chloe is. She is just two years younger then Buford.   

Aestlight

Aestlight is done. Yes, she is pretty. No, I wouldn't knit another.

A Day at the Beach

The impact of weather. I walk on the boardwalk and see someone that I see walking there often. Warm sun and cool breezes. "Isn't the weather glorious?", we say. A distant memory. The weather has not been glorious. The weather has been awful. The Weather Channel said this morning that 10 out of the past 14 weekends were considered to be bad weather. Well this weekend was another one. The squash blossoms are filled with water and rotting on the vine. August was so hot and humid that I often didn't want to venture outside. It was too hot to walk even at 7:00 PM.

Well today was another one of those days. And after being cooped up for so long, we said -no more- and headed to the beach. Actually we have been at the beach for the past two weekends, not to sunbathe, no, you can't sunbathe when it is raining. We were there to watch the big surf brought on by the hurricanes. 

The undertow is severe. But a few brave souls, daredevils, lifeguards, were out surfing today and I had a ball photographing them.

The birds were happy on the beach and  are always fascinating to watch.  

As we were leaving and my husband was rinsing off his feet, a bird approached the faucet we were using. We helped him out.

On the knitting front, I finally finished the edging on the Aestlight Shawl. No, it was not fun and I've made many shawls that I consider fun all the way to the end. I just didn't like this one. I never got my rhythm going with the edge pattern and always had to refer to the chart and lordy it was slow-going. Finally Friday night I made it to the halfway point and knew I just had to keep persevering. Saturday my Boku yarn arrived for the Mitred Quilt I will be making. OK, I admit it. I started it before finishing Aestlight, but I told myself ~~focus on the shawl~~finish the shawl~~ (insert hypnotizing music here). And this morning I finished it. She is now soaking in the sink and I will block her tonight. Relief. I think I'll take a break from making shawls as this is the third one I've made this summer. Phew. 

School is quickly approaching. I don't forget this for a minute. I wish school for me was just a transition to another arena, another place to spend the day. It is not. School is the source of much anxiety. Of trying to make 8 disturbed children happy, or at least happier so that I can be happier. School is doing too many things at once and constant interruptions. School is like having 8 children and never feeling that you are giving any one of them enough. So now that I've totally psyched myself up for the start of school, I think I'll knit.   

Trying to Patronize Local Shops

It was a busy weekend. Saturday my friend and I decided to do a yarn shop road trip, Not that we needed anything of course, but there's something heartwarming about going into yarn shops. Not that I need to tell any of you.

So we headed to our first stop, Granny's in Islip. Granny's shop is just the best. Along with more glitzy yarns, she has all the old workhorses, the old favorites. There are many interesting samples scattered around the store and Granny or Kathleen always seem to be there to offer their knitting wisdom. They are real knitters, knitters from way back, Not the quick-gratification scarf knitters that you find in so many who own shops. Their pattern selection is great too. My friend makes a lot of intricate baby projects and she bought about a dozen patterns at Granny's. I got a pattern for a mitred quilt.

Next we headed out to a shop in Sayville named Rumpelstiltskin. I had never been to this shop and I was eager to see it as it had spinning supplies too. I thought I may have to show much restraint and not buy roving. There were a few wheels in the window and a tiny bit of roving, nothing much at all The yarn supplies were so limited. We asked if they had any patterns as we did not see any. They brought us a large loose-leaf filled with very quick women's sweaters, nothing enticing or intricate, almost all made in stockinette in worsted weight. There was a large group of women, sitting at a table in the back of the store, taking a class. It was a "Square of the Month" class, I was told. Disappointing in general. We did not buy anything.

Next we headed to a shop in Amityville. I should add that the day was oppressive, hot and humid. The first thing I noticed about this shop was that there was no air conditioning. The magazine covers were curled. We did not stay long and my friend bought one Dale pattern. I could not wait to leave there.

Next we were off to Infinite Yarns in Farmingdale. The shop is very spacious, nicely laid out, and attractive to look at. They have a beautiful supply of yarns there, not as many of the workhorses, but a large assortment. Most of the patterns were on shelves and you could not see their covers easily. It felt like it would have been too much trouble to take each one out of the bookcase to look at its cover. There were only Debbie Macomber knitting patterns easily viewed on a rack. They did not appeal to me but seemed to be the ones she was highlighting. Many sample sweaters, supplied by Knitting Fever, Were on counters throughout the store. There were so many "soakers" In the front window. These are little knitted baby pants to be worn over cloth diapers. Seems odd there would be so many in the window. Are these soakers that popular that they draw customers into the store? Are that many young mothers using cloth diapers and knitting too? We looked a lot but did not buy anything as much as we would have wanted to.

So that was our whirlwind tour of yarn stores. My favorite of course was Granny's and Infinite Yarns came in second. We are trying to keep our local yarn shops in business but sometimes, as hard as you try, It is hard to find anything to purchase. Know what I mean?

Dreaming

A dream. The deck is filling up, small cup by small cup, with snow. A man talks, something about hockey.

I hear a huge boom in the background. A room shaking boom. And then Chloe's face is in mine. Her warm breath on my face, her feet on my chest, on my face. She settles into my pillow as close to me as physically possible without laying on me. The thunder then stops except for distant rumbles. I feel her heart beating fast against my body. It is 5:30 AM.

She had a full day yesterday. Driving out to the end of the North Fork, we found our blackberries quickly at one of the many farm-stands. Chloe and Sydney sat eagerly waiting in the back seat of our car, both standing up looking out the front window waiting for my husband to return to the car. Once we start moving again, Sydney curls up in the corner of the back seat. Chloe stands, her warm breath coming out in gusts, her face between our front seats, staring out the front window. What is going through her mind, I wonder. She remains standing for most of the trip, not nervous but excited.

We arrive in Greenport, a small town at the end of the island. We drive through the town and notice that it looks a bit more polished up. We do not stop. We are on a mission. Chloe continues to be our sentry eagerly looking out the window.

We turn down a road. Could this be it? We drive to the end. A dead end. Circling back to the main road, we drive a little further. We try another road, one with a beachy sounding name. We drive down, turn, and we have found it. A beach without lifeguards. Without "no dog" signs. With few people to object. We leash up the dogs, throw our camera gear in the trunk, and head onto the sand, of course not before some other beach-goers and visitors from Italy ask us questions about the dogs. "How old are they? Are they mother and daughter?" We hear these questions over and over. And they comment about Chloe being old, sadly, and Sydney being young.

Sydney steps on the sand for the first time in her short life. She pulls me down the shore, finding some tasty morsel on the beach, a cluster of snails and seaweed. We arrive at the water. Chloe walks in so the water is halfway up her body. Sydney is curious and wades in cautiously. A small wave laps at her side. She jumps and turns her face trying to see what touched her. Chloe goes into the water eagerly. Sydney, not as much. We walk down the shoreline, the sun hot on our faces, Sydney's nose sniffing the sand. My husband skips some rocks into the water. Chloe chases them until she is halfway covered with water. A man walks over to us. "How old are they? Are they related", he asks. And as usually happens, he tells us about his dogs. We let Chloe off the leash. She walks ahead of us frequently looking back. And then we return to the car with wet sandy dogs. We dry them off as much as we can and help them into the back seat, Chloe entering the car eagerly, Sydney needing a bit of a boost. We begin our drive back home. Chloe, stretched out on the backseat and Sydney is curled up in the corner dreaming their sweet dream of the beach.