In which I knit four mittens, but only have a pair.

My friend Paula is a knitter, but we don't make the same kinds of things, so sometimes she pays me to make socks for her, and she buys lovely yarns for me to knit with, and this time she asked me to make a pair of mittens for her to give to a friend. She brought some Donegal yarn in a speckly gray, which is very nice looking, and it's okay to work with, not that great, really, because it's kind of lumpy instead of smooth.

So I made the first mitten, but it was too small. It fit my hand snugly, but it needed to be a size bigger, so I ripped it back and reknit the mitten in a bigger size, but I couldn't find my good mitten needles, so I was using a set of cheap bamboo needles. I finished mitten #1, except for the thumb, because I leave them for last, and then last night I went to the yarn shop for Knit Night with Paula, just to get out of the house because I hate being home right now (the Homeless are still there), and while I was at the yarn shop, I bought a lovely set of carbon needles and cast on for the second mitten. I finished the second mitten at work last night, and when it was done, I put it on, and it wasn't right. It wasn't big enough, even though I had made the bigger size. It was because I wasn't using the same needles! So tonight I ripped that mitten out and I'm reknitting it on the cheap bamboo needles. I'm a little tired of these needles.

What I'm reading tonight:

I'm reading Bet Me, by Jennifer Crusie. I love her books, even though they are mostly not mysteries, she writes mostly romance novels, but they are so very entertaining that I don't even care, although usually I avoid romance novels like I avoid musical theater. My favorite book of hers is Maybe This Time, which is based on The Turn of the Screw, and I played the audiobook in the car for Rich and I when we went to Michigan a couple of weeks ago, and then last week I was re-reading Faking It, which is a mystery (!) about art theft (sort of), and then I still wanted to read her books so I'm reading Bet Me. And it's making me want to eat Chicken Marsala.

What I cooked today:

Because I have the Homeless staying with me, I have to make dinner every freaking night, because otherwise they don't know what to eat, so I have been slaving cooking every night. Every. Night. Tonight I made Shepherd's Pie. It was good, I like it, but I am so tired of all the cooking. The night before I made Beef Stroganoff in the crockpot, from a very simple recipe that Sheila gave me, and it was so delicious! Surprisingly, there were leftovers (because the Homeless eat a lot, and don't even get me started on how much milk they drink), so when Rachel came to walk the dog at lunchtime, she ate some of it, and she loved it, too!

And I practiced the piano:

I was down to a half gallon of milk after I made the mashed potatoes for the Shepherd's Pie (see above about how much milk the Homeless drink), and RA is thoughtlessly out of town in Arizona, visiting her Crazy Sister, so I have no one to go shopping with, so I called Rachel to see if she would go to the store with me after Maddy went to bed, and she said she would, and did I want to come to the church and wait for her while she presided over the Young Women? So I packed my piano books in a bag, and went to the church and practiced the piano for about an hour and a half on the beautiful grand piano in the chapel! It was fun!

Another quiet night at work.

We went to Michigan over the weekend.  It was a quick trip from Friday to Sunday, with our good dogsitter at the house with Oakley, and the Homeless went to RA's for the weekend. 


Rich and Kim spent Saturday at the RV and Camper show in Novi, and I went shopping with Sheila.  It was so relaxing and fun.  We went to a couple of craft supply stores, and to Joann Fabrics, and in between the shopping, we did some eating, so you know, shopping and eating, what's better than that?


Sheila took me out to see the property in Dexter where she is having a small house built, on a lot next door to her sister.  The property is beautiful, full of old pines, and her sister's house was great.  I loved it!  I took a picture of the faucet in the downstairs bathroom, that's how pretty it was!


While we were gone, my next door neighbor dropped off a big bag of yarn in pastel colors that she says she bought to make baby afghans, but she's over making afghans now, and she thought I could do something with the yarn.  Well, I sure can! 


I also bought a little bit of yarn while I was shopping with Sheila on Saturday, so I've got a good start on making some things for the new baby!  I started an Auntie's Afghan for the new baby with some lovely blue acrylic (washable!) that I bought on the trip.

So tonight I'm back at work, reading The Cat Who Played Brahms and starting the baby afghan. Ah, so quiet and pleasant, and not in a house full of the Homelsss. I like being at home less and less with those two in the house, but we are definitely moving toward them leaving. It's been almost two months since they came, and I hope I won't be suffering from PTSD when they go.

Glaciers melting in the dead of night.

So, just in case you've been wondering, I still have the Homeless pair, mother and son, living with me, and also?  I'm looking forward to when they leave.  I'm planning on them being gone by the end of February, so let's keep that happy goal in mind.


I'm at work, with a bag of snacks, and that includes a bag of salted caramels, which are not as good as you'd think, since they are SALTED.  I'm not a huge fan.  But I have a Diet Pepsi to wash them down with, so that's a good thing.


This weekend Rich and I are going out of town to visit his parents and Kim, and it's going to be lovely.  I'm going to spend some time with Sheila, and not with my houseguests, so yay.  The dogsitter will be at my house, so the Homeless are going to RA's for the weekend.  We just don't feel comfortable about the Homeless taking care of our dog while we're gone.


What I'm knitting now:  I just finished an angora scarf for RA, that I knitted with angora yarn that she picked out and paid for.  It was shedding like crazy, so I put it in the freezer, because I've heard that freezing the yarn cuts down on the shedding, and that might be true.  I left it in the freezer for a couple of days, which resulted in some funny looks from people in my house who needed something from the freezer.  Anyway, I finished that, and now I'm making a hat from the Lowlands pattern, and I'm using angora again!  It's a ball of lovely dark blue handpainted angora that I bought at the Saline Fiber Fair when we were there in October.  Oh, and that scarf?  I used a pattern from Purl Soho that made a lovely ribbed scarf with no purling!  It was great, and I would like to make another one, with yarn that is pleasanter to work with.


What I'm reading now: An Uncollected Death by Meg Wolfe.  I'm really enjoying it - she's a good writer.  I told Kim I would do the first editing of her third book while she works on rewriting the second book, but neither of us is doing any work on her books.  We are slackers.


What I'm cooking:  Today I made beef stew in the crockpot and it was wonderful!  It made a lot, and was so good.  Rachel stopped by tonight on her way home from her YW program and finished it off while we discussed the program.  I've been cooking a lot more than usual and making casseroles and crockpot (one pot) meals, because I'm feeding the Homeless.  Usually, I cook once or twice a week, and Rich and I just forage in the kitchen for whatever we want on the other nights, but since I've got these people, I feel like I have to feed them.  Ugh.


Looking forward to having the house to ourselves.