Distraction

My week has been distracting my way through the impeachment trial. I feel that it is my respectful duty to at least watch it since I have the opportunity to. I have seen most of it. But I was in luck that one of my not so impulse buys arrived in the mail on Monday.

I have been wanting to get back into doing some counted cross stitch. I know that as an art form, even a craft form it is considered outdated and not highly valued. When it was popular back in the Eighties it was my craft of choice. I loved making patterns made by the colored x's. I loved the pictures made by the subtle patterns. It filled a need to create beauty around me. I was captivated by it again back in November when I found an old Good Housekeeping pattern book at my favorite thrift store. My fingers and soul long to work with it again.

It was an affordable hobby back in the day. Floss, fabric and all other supplies were easily had anywhere you buy craft supplies. The price was fair, most of my project required only minimal financial investment. I was surprised to discover that a skein of floss that I could have bought for twenty cents now costs nearly a full dollar. And most stores only have the barest of selections. There isn't much demand for it anymore.

My brother bought me a good selection of floss for Christmas. But every project that I was interested in doing required ten or twenty colors that I did not have. I was getting discouraged until I saw a Facebook ad for Wish. Generally, I do not like wish. The prices are excellent, but you get what you get and it takes a long time. I also have grave misgivings about the origin of the products too. Still, this was an almost complete collection of the floss that I prefer to use for my product and with shipping, it was less than ten cents per skein. I knew that at best I'd be getting factory seconds, but it's a good start. So I caved and purchased it.

As I said above, it arrived on Monday. It was packaged in a small, see-through, clear plastic pouch. In that form, it was of little use in a project. I needed to organize and store the floss in a manner that I can find the skeins I need of the projects that I'd like. I had anticipated it and bought some plastic boxes and cards to do it. As I watched the sad spectacle of the worst of American politics take place in living color, I wound each skein onto a spool and placed it in numerical order into the storage boxes. I finished this evening about the time Rep. Nadler usurped Rep. Schiff's final answer for the evening and the end of the question and answer phase of the trial. As happy, thrilled even, as I was to be finished wrapping all of those spools of floss, I was even happier to be finished listening to the long throng of useless and leading questions asked. I am equally saddened by the lack of simple moral character I have seen. So many people not willing to stand up and call out what is wrong. They simply don't care about right and wrong. I give up. The man is made of Teflon. He will never be held accountable for any of the evil he commits.

Why Do I Let It Bother Me?

Yesterday I posted this picture of the socks that I made here with my blog post. I'm rather proud of the socks that I knit, so I also posted the picture on Facebook. I got a lot of nice comments both here and on FB about how nice they are. I really appreciate them. But I also got this comment:

I know, it's a nice comment, but that is part of the burn. You see, I used to be married to the man who made it. I'm glad that he finally acknowledged that I do have talents and that I do nice work. But while we were married all those many years ago, he complained about each and every sewing project that I did. It didn't matter if it was knitting, sewing garments, quilting, embroidery, whatever. He did not like that I did it. So when I saw his comment this evening I wanted to say something hurtful, like "Glad you finally noticed". But then, what would be the point?

They say that forgiveness is for the person who forgives, not for the person being forgiven. And I want to say that I have forgiven him. But then things like this pop up and I realize just how far I am from truly forgiving him. I know that it's not good for me to hold on to those hurts, but honestly, until things like this pop up and remind me, I don't even think about them. I probably should go to counseling, but this is cheaper.

I Make Pretty Things With String

I started knitting a pair of socks after Thanksgiving. I was hoping to get them completed to give to my sister for Christmas. That shouldn't really be much of a problem. Some people can complete a pair of socks in a day if they are doing nothing else. I, however, am not some people.

It took me a week of knitting to master Judy's Magic Cast On, and then some to decide that eight and twelve stitches per needle were simply too pointed of a toe. I need fourteen to make the toe comfortable. then I knit the eight and three quarters of an inch to complete the foot only to be stumped at creating an acceptable heel. I want a heel without holes that looks at least comparable to what can be bought in a store. I've made other socks with a flap and gusset heel, but I was not at all pleased with the look or the feel of it. To add to the dissatisfaction of it, I do not enjoy the fiddliness of trying to pick up stitches on the sides of the flap. I knew that I didn't want that. I had planned to use a German Short Row heel.

German Short Row Heel  (I didn't knit this sock)

But as I was knitting it, I realized that the short rows were leaving a lacy line on either side of the heel. It's fine, but I didn't want the holes. So I decided that instead of German Short Rows, I should try to do a Wrap and Turn Short Row. It wasn't much of an improvement in closing up the holes. At this point Christmas had passed and the new year was approaching. I didn't want to bring the frustration of the project into it. So I switched yarns and tried again to create a sock that I can knit without tears and wear proudly.

Forethought Heel (I did not knit this sock)

After several attempts with the new socks I gave up on the idea of a short row heel and decided that I should attempt a Forethought Heel. That in the least keep me from wanting to pull the needles and throw all of my sock yarn to the curb. I have been afraid of this heel because it requires that you mark the heel location with a length of scrap yarn and pick up all of the stitches around it when you are ready to work the heel. I knitted what looked like tube socks and finished them off with two by two ribbing and Elizabeth Zimmerman's Stretchy Sewn Bind Off.  Then it was time to return to the heels. Picking up the stitches was fiddly, as I had expected it would. But I much prefer it to picking up stitches on a heel flap. After getting all the stitches back on the needles knitting the heel was a breeze and left no holes to have to patch up on the sides. I Kitchener stitched the final 12 stitches of the heel and I was done. I had not started with the intention of having a seamless sock, but after all was said and done, that's what I have.

I've washed the socks and have them laying flat to dry and started to knit the original pair of socks, that I will give to my sister when they are done. But now I have my own "How I knit my socks" pattern. It's only taken me two months to come up with what some people are accomplishing in a day. Gratefully this second pair is going a lot faster. I expect to finish them within the week.

Snowy Day

I am in my room with the lights off and only a few candles burning. The electricity is still on, but I don't want the light in the room to keep me from being able to see the beautifully peaceful scene outside my window. It started snowing in the late evening hours last night. I had tried to wait up to see it, but it got the better of me. I woke up to a snowscape that lasted only long enough for me to get my shower. Again I waited all day and then as soon as it got dark snow came back. We have had showers of it since 5:00 pm. The yard is covered once again. The forecast is for the showers to continue through the day tomorrow and take a break for the night. I've heard that more snow is expected on Wednesday.

The cats freaked out about it yesterday. They roamed the house crying to be held and given treats. All of our cats are rescued cats who either started out feral or cast off by someone. They don't like change and I think the weather made them feel vulnerable. Tonight they have all settled down, finding the warmest place they can and staying put there. They do not like the snow. On the other hand, the dog is loving it. He has been running outside all evening chasing snowflakes and then coming in to be toweled down until he is no longer cold. It is fun watching him play, but I am more like the cats than him. I am happy to stay in and watch from the vantage of a warm couch with a hot cup of tea in my hands.

Bombshell

My sister announced on Monday that the three kittens were coming over for New Years. But she said that she was going to take them home really early so that she, Nora and I would be able to spend the day shopping and got to the movies to watch Bombshell.

I didn't mind that the kittens were coming over. We didn't have any real plans and it freed their mother up to be able to celebrate with her friends. What I mind is being voluntold that we are going to watch them. It may have been an in the minute decision she made when Carley asked her if we could watch them, but still.

The weather here didn't comply with anyone's plans to ring the new decade in. Rainy and very windy, even the casino cancelled their fireworks display. It didn't stop the people who decided to use the alleyway behind our property to shoot off fireworks by the rail road track. They had nice fireworks, but I was glad that everything was soaking wet due to the rain. In the summer, I would have worried about them setting fires. Still, they had nice fireworks, the expensive ones that shoot colored explosions into the air.

The kittens tried hard to make it to midnight, but were asleep and had no interest in waking up to drink sparkling grape juice and yell Happy New Year! This year the television was bigger and I watched the Space Needle light up instead of the Giant Peach drop. I went back to my room and smoked legal pot. I watched the same fanatics who were wringing their hands over black eyed children last year quake on about men preaching at the temple mound this year. Did you know that they found the Arc of the Covenant? Depending on who you believe, it's either in a cave in Ethiopia, under the north side of the temple mound or on top of Mount Sinai. Only they don't seem to know where the mountain is. I stayed up until 2:00 am to find that out. I also instant messaged with a friend from Glasgow.

Karen may have taken the kittens home early this morning. I wouldn't know. I woke up at almost 1:00 PM. I know that I stayed up late, but not that late. I think that my lack of energy is probably an effect of the arthritis that I have been struggling with lately. There are a lot of immunologics that have come out in the past few years, I know this. But after my bout with cancer I don't trust anything that can lower my body's ability to fight it off. I'm taking aspirin and ibuprophen. It works as well as anything else. Which is to say, not well at all.  It didn't really matter that I woke up so late. Nora went home after midnight and didn't come back until shortly before I woke up.

We went to see Bombshell, which is a movie that Karen has been wanting to see. I, not so much. It is an excellent movie and very worth the money paid to watch it. But it put me back into corporate America, and I'm not ready for it. It also put me right back into the stench that is politics today. All of the Me Too rebellion and this country is still being held hostage by a group of larcenous reprobates. It's even all of the same actors. Nice way to start the new decade isn't it? Being smeared in the same muck from the old.

My brother had wanted black eyed peas and collard greens for dinner tonight. It's his superstition. I don't care for it. But I was willing to buy it and cook it for him. Then Karen announced that she's done for the day after the movie. There was no shopping like she'd promised. I'm off the hook unless I want to go out and buy the food, which I don't. If Ken goes out, I'll cook it for him.

Now I'm home. I need to eat something besides the barrel of popcorn that I had at the theater. Protein would be a good option. I've put a pot pie in the oven. Tomorrow I will go out to the store on my own. I will buy the some nice steaks to make up for the collards and peas to Ken. I am also going to buy some fly spray. The damned things don't die here. In Georgia, flies hibernate after the first freeze. Here they don't, they just fly in circles in your house forever.  Karen doesn't like pesticides. I'm not a great fan of them either, but I'm getting rid of these flies.

Lately, I've been hard on Karen. She is a lovely, giving person. She just doesn't seem to understand the effect she has on people sometimes. It's not that she wants to break promises or disrespect Ken's traditions. She just fails to see that it's important to him. Unfortunately she can also claim that if it were that important, he'd have gotten the collard greens himself, and that is true. So for myself, I think that I'm going to have to understand that. Accept Karen for her good, and ignore when her intentions try to box me in. That is where my disappointment comes from.

May Your 20's be Roaring!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Decade!

No matter where your road takes you, may you enjoy the journey.

The Drive

Karen and I did finally make it out today, and not to the movies. I was being kind of a brat and went to my room to write of my disappointment rather than get dressed for the movies. I think that Karen really wanted to go. She wants to see Bombshell, but given the news climate we are living in, I don't know how much more I can stand.

Karen came into my room shortly before 2:00 and asked if I'd like to take a drive. It sounded good, though I would have still liked to go to Roslyn. Instead we went on our familiar path toward Enumclaw. The lighting was perfect. Mount Rainier was glorious today. So often it is covered by clouds, or the lighting almost blends the mountain into the sky. It is a rare day that we get the breath taking views of it that we got this afternoon.

Karen and I both want to move to Enumclaw, though neither of us has done much to find housing there. I have a feeling that it's going to be a bit more expensive than where we are. But there is something about that town that calls to both of us. When we go there, it feels like home.

Small Disappointments

It's a pretty day here, and warm for the time of year. My sister said, "Let's take a ride, go explore something." I said, "Yes, let me get dressed. How about if we go to Roslyn? We've talked about going there."  She said, "That's about an hour away. I have a coupon for the movie theater." Sure, why not?  It's a beautiful day, we should go sit inside a dark theater. Why not? These small disappointments are common here. She makes a small promise and then reneges on it. Not a big deal really, but the constancy of them is a bit soul sucking.  I could go to Roslyn on my own, but now I can't because this is a place she has claimed for us to visit together.  I should have said, "Let's walk to Zola's and have tea." That she would have gone for. Now that seems like such a better plan than spending a beautiful afternoon at the movies. 

Honeysuckle and Lavendar

I love honeysuckle, I always have . In the early spring after a long winter, I could open up my windows and smell it's heavenly fragrance. It gave me hope that it would be warm again. That with the coming of spring and summer the world would come alive again.

Honeysuckle doesn't grow naturally here. We have a small patch of it. If this had been the south, that thing would have already taken over the fence and the yard. But here we have to encourage it to grow. On the other hand, lavender doesn't grow easily in the south. It doesn't like the humid temperatures or the clay soil. People get it to grow in gardens, but they have to nurture it like a miracle child. But here, everyone has it in their gardens. It grows in the cracks of the sidewalks. It will take over a field and I've seen it growing wild on the side of the road with wild foxglove. I had never actually seen real foxglove before I moved here. It's prettier than the cross stitch motifs that I sewed decades ago.

I like lavender too and over the past several years I have begun wearing the fragrance a lot. I like Dr. Teals Lavender and Epsom Salts body wash. It's awesome stuff for aching joints and the lavender oil soothes eczema like nothing else. The smell is nice too. I pair it up with Yardley's English Lavender Soap. It makes me feel like I'm being extravagant.

A few weeks ago I was talking with my niece about Bath and Body Works. She asked me what my favorite fragrance was and I told her that it had been the Wild Honeysuckle, but they had stopped making it. I hadn't gone into one of the stores for many years; probably since Mollie was a teenager. So for Christmas, Nora got me a bottle of the Wild Honeysuckle body spray. I love it as much as I remember. She said that she cheated because she had a coupon to buy so many and get so many free. She was able to get the Lavender spray that she loves.

I had gone to Pier One with my sister, really to look for a mug for her stocking. I didn't find anything that I thought would work, but they had a buy one get one sale on the candles. I bought a lavender one for my niece and got a honeysuckle one for me. It seems we shop well for each other...and ourselves.

I'm still using Dr. Teals. It would be awesome if he'd come up with a honeysuckle fragrance. But the two go well together. I come out of the bath smelling like flowers. The cats don't like it much. They have quit jumping up on my bathrobe the minute I take it off and throw it on the bed. In fact, I'm burning the candle right now and none of them are in the room. I think they prefer the sandalwood incense that Karen is burning.

It's getting cold. They say we may have snow on Saturday. Saturday is a good day for snow. We can cook a stew and relax in the house.

Frosty

Not an actual picture of Frosty, but this cat looks like him.

I forgot to tell you about Frosty. Remember the abandoned cat that was left by the railroad tracks shortly before Thanksgiving.

Turns out that he was a male cat and a timid one at that. After several days he became hungry and cold enough that he came through the cat door and into our laundry room. We leave dry food in there for the cats and I found him in there eating one morning. As soon as he saw me he ran out the door and into the bushes.

Later that day, I saw someone poking around the fence outside our property. I asked if he was looking for a cat and he said yes. He said that he'd left his cat, Lucas with his girlfriend while he'd gone home to Bellingham for Thanksgiving. She told him that Lucas ran off while he was gone. I said that Lucas had been coming into our house to eat, but wouldn't let any of us near him, "Oh and by the way, Lucas brought his carrier and toys with him when he ran off. They are by the tracks. " But when we went to look for them, they were all gone. Easy enough for someone to take them or the City to clean them away. I'm sure he can verify that his girlfriend doesn't have them.

I let him in the yard where Lucas ran and jumped into his arms, happy to be found. I let him take the cat without giving him grief about it. But I hope that he has a talk with his girlfriend, and that all will end well for him and Lucas. I should have gotten his number in case Lucas ever decides to pack his carrier and run off again.