Good Morning to you!
Good Morning to You!
Okay, when they look at me in the morning, do I look this funny?
Hello, all of Ethel’s friends! It’s Friday, and I’m glad! It’s been a slow week, and Ethel thinks she’s coming down with a cold, so it’s pajamas and knitting this weekend, and little else.
Daughter the Elder developed strep throat Sunday and was not excited to visit the doctor Monday morning for the dreaded strep throat test. Once it was done and her prescription filled, she knew she was on her way to feeling better. Apparently strep throat is going around the schools now. Yuck. Better than stomach virus though.
Daughter the Younger has been feeling her Independant Wheaties lately. She called her father “Dummyhead” and stuck her tongue out at me. I, of course, was aghast. I only did that to my parents behind closed doors. My sister, however, was brazen enough to do it to their faces. She was mean like that.
I thought I would entertain you with the scenes around my home…
Here’s the area called Behind My Recliner…
No one is allowed here, except for the cats- and only them because they don’t care about my rules. You can see everything that indicates knitter- Knitty printouts, a copy of Fitted Knits, basket of assorted trashy yarn (the pie safe to the left holds my good yarn), unfinished projects (see the Knitted Babe in the background…she needs hair and limbs). The big wooden thing is the beginning of my handcrafted dough bowl, which was a Christmas present from my Husband Dear, and crammed behind that is the Madame Alexander doll I stole from Daughter the Elder. The doll’s name is Tutti Frutti Pussycat. Really. That is what was on her tag. I love her.
I am so happy to see some of the Lesser Known Skeins from Ravelry come by! It’s nice having someone read. I will be visiting those blogs as well and hopefully adding them to a blogroll soon.
And hello, my pregant friend Sandra in Croatia! I can always count on you to be around!
Okay, Ethel has to go now. There’s work to be finished before the weekend.
Hello friends! Ethel’s still here, and she’s wearing her thinking cap!
Actually, this is my Martin Luther King, Jr/ Inauguration Day hat… I think it’s very becoming, if I do say so myself, what with the giant flower and all.
My mother in law bought me this hat years ago… it’s from a hatmaker in West Virginia, and I fell in love with her stuff after seeing it at the Tamarack near Beckley. The Tamarack is a wonderful place where West Virginian artisans and craftspeople sell their wares- all kinds of things from blown glass to quilts to hats. Usually there are craftspeople actually crafting on site. It’s worth the time to stop and pick around- I always try to make it out there when I go to West Virginia.
We had snow this week. Ethel DOES NOT like snow. Nope, not any. It’s okay, I guess, if I don’t have to be anywhere, which used to be the case before I started working. Now that I work, I have to worry about if the girls are out of school and if I have to be to work. Luckily, Ethel’s employer is a generous and kind man who would rather Ethel be at home in the snow than FREAKING OUT about driving to work in it. So, you see, that’s what I did- stayed at home (school was cancelled- whew!).
That was inauguration day, so I sat in my recliner, knitted and tried to identify Very Important People hiding behind Aretha Franklin’s big bow.
I took pictures of the sweater I started this weekend, but since I’ve frogged it in the meantime, I won’t post them. The problem was this: I didn’t like the way the neck looked. I did six rows of seed stitch before starting the raglan, and the six rows kind of bent over funny, not to mention it was too small up around my neck. It fit fine, but I like a wider collar.
So, I’ve started over again. This time I’m trying something different from a Stephanie Japel pattern- Bad Penny. On Bad Penny, Stephanie starts out with a really wide “collar” and then adds back some sort of other collar after finishing the sweater (on her’s it is a ribbed collar). It seems that would be a better way to get the neckline to fit. I may have to add after I get a decent portion of increases done, since I don’t want to knit the whole darned thing only to find out my theory was stupid.
Ethel has to go now. I worked on taxes today at work and the majority of my brain power is depleted.
Until next time-remember, stop by and talk. Ethel loves talking.
Hello from Ethel’s desk! It’s Friday, and Ethel is covered up in appraisal report papers, still she has a few minutes to talk, as usual.
I am so glad that we have absolutely NO PLANS this weekend. Nothing. That means Ethel can sit in her recliner, watch “House” reruns and knit. Oh, and clean up some more from the holidays.
I am getting ready to frog the sweater I have been working on… it’s a top down raglan tunic, but I have grossing misinterpreted my size. I think I could fit myself and two of my friends in this sweater. And Ethel’s friends are no small-potatoes. So, this weekend I hope to re-calculate and start again… this time I’m going to change the deep v neck to a boat neck- still mostly tunic shaped, but not quite so tent-shaped.
So, anyway, Ethel will talk with y’all Monday. Maybe I’ll have a new sweater started… Have a great weekend, and come back by- you know, Ethel loves to talk.
STORM OVER THE MOUNTAINS
Hello, friends! Ethel is so glad to see you all here today.Another thing Ethel loves is a weather-watching, which DOES NOT make her an old lady… it makes her a reasonable person who is concerned about what could possibly blow her house over/cause her to slide off a road in a car/ bring general dismay to her life.
Take for instance, the storm in the picture above. This is the storm just north of Ethel’s office Wednesday afternoon. Two days of rain had just pushed out of town, and Ethel and everyone around was reveling in the sunshine like no one had seen it before. Then Ethel and her friends and co-workers looked North, and lo and behold, a storm was swirling up.
This one was so pretty, so STORMY looking, that Ethel couldn’t help but take a few pictures of it. Soon afterwards, the proverbial bottom fell out and Ethel’s office was pelted with hard rain and hail. Ethel and her Dear Co-Worker Woman stood with their faces pressed against the window glass, marveling at the idea of a rainstorm in January. That’s no usual for here, even though winters here are fairly mild.
So, Ethel has been up to nothing lately… working, cleaning up after Christmas and trying to determine exactly how big to make the neck on her new topdown sweater project. She’s still not sure, as she likes to pretend she has a cute, tiny head.
So, Ethel’s about talked out, and she knows you have things to do. Please do come around again, as everyone knows, Ethel loves talking.
Kim, in the New Year
Hello, everyone! Ethel has made it through the holidays and into the New Year with only a few scrapes and bruises!
Here is the first picture Ethel took of herself- and it doesn’t matter what it looks like, Ethel looks happy. This is how Ethel hopes tolook most of this year, but it’s going to be hard work. Ethel so loves to grumble and complain and be a general worrywart. So maybe Ethel can worry less and be happy more.
The first worry-less action Ethel took was to overlook her appearance in this photo and be happy with the fact that her eyes came out as blue as they are. There. There’s some general happiness.
So far this year, Ethel has avoided any sort of housework, which makes her relatively happy, as long as she stays in the bathroom, the only place that is completely clean and uncluttered. There aren’t even a great number of shampoos and potions on the side of the tub. The living room, the kitchen, the office- all look like a tornado, or two tornados resembling Ethel’s children, whirled through. But, Ethel’s still happy, despite the general feeling of a garage sale.
This year, Ethel is going to pick up her fiddle and learn to play. Really. And she’s going to write. Definitely. And Ethel is going to be happy with these things and not be afraid to do them… even if her instrument sounds like a screaming cat and her pen only scratches out gibberish.
That’s the New Year, folks… Happy with what is. Truly.
