Week 37 - More Yarn Fun

There was lots of yarn fun this week so it was a good one. Input – it’s a strength! I also made some pre-surgery progress, including some Ireland stuff too.

It was a cleaning lady week and I’d done tons of cooking on Sunday right up until bedtime so had dishes galore to do. But did I do them Monday after knitting like an adult? Nope. I had screwed up the heel I was working on at the library so just had to fix it immediately and did that instead of dishes when I got home. I did get the entire kitchen picked up on Tuesday before sitting down to dinner, which was a 600 calorie day meal of grilled chicken and green beans. Despite not losing much in last week’s 3 600’s, I was doing 600’s again Tuesday and Thursday in hopes that I’d drop more and be able to continue with this 3/600 plan until surgery. Alas, it didn’t work, despite eating judiciously on my non-600 days so I’m going for 3 600’s in a row next week.

On other pre-surgery things, I called and made all of my appointments except my pre-surgery/annual physical. I have to decide whether I’ll take whoever’s available at the clinic or follow my old doctor, who was my best doctor ever, to her new office in Fremont. I need decide soon so I can get the appointment done in early October before Ireland. And speaking of Ireland, I finally bought our Dublin to Belfast train tickets and paid Anne for my plane ticket. All that’s left is the shuttle bus ticket from Belfast to Dublin airport but I think we’ll just buy that there since they leave on the hour and we’ll have plenty of time the afternoon we need to take it.

Wednesday night was a 40 year work anniversary party for Diane, one of the accountants, at Mary’s after work. I went after swimming so got there a bit later than most. It was fun but made for a long day since I didn’t get home until after 9:00. The end of the week was quick and uneventful. After lunch with Tammie on Friday (Layton had cancelled), I swam Friday night and then headed home. I was happy for the weekend but it was going to be a busy one.

Saturday was our spinning group’s annual retreat, which was basically a yarn dyeing day since Andrea and I were opting not to sleep over. It was in Belden – a tiny town a 2 hour drive north of Wahoo. Andrea was picking me up at 9:00 on Saturday so I pulled my yarn and made my cranberry cole slaw on Friday night. Our plan was to have a bit of time to shop in Wayne, a cute town on the way where Wayne State College is. They have a wonderful thrift shop, which we hit first and scored all kinds of fun stuff for dirt cheap. From there we went to the bakery because I love a good small town bakery. This might be one but it was pretty cleared out by late morning, yet I still managed to buy 2 cookies and a crispy to have with tea on Sunday. We then walked down the main drag to check out a little antique store (too pricey for us) and then an antique/consignment/thrift shop. I headed right to the thrift part in the back and found bags and bags of good quality yarn. Clearly someone had cleared out their stash so I bought most of them, spending $35 for all this yarn. Score! It’s got some for my sister, Anne and the NYC lady plus a bunch for me, mostly for my will trade of sell stash. We only spent 5 minutes in the last shop because we were running late so headed to Belden rather than explore more. Next time, we’ll have to allow more time in Wayne.

The retreat was fun. We got there just in time for lunch, which was a yummy hodge podge of potluck fare. Then the yarn dyeing started. We began with a math lesson on how to calculate dye amounts to adjust shade with the mission to create a gradient of mini skeins that would go to one lucky winner. Luckily I got the easiest one because I had no interest in the math and just wanted to get dyeing. When we were done with the gradients, which were gorgeous (they're in the top middle of the pic), I was the first one up to dye my skein. Of course I measured nothing, opting instead for winging it. My first skein was gorgeous and since I was the first one done, I dyed a second one, which was less elaborate but gorgeous nonetheless. Mine are the blue/green and orange/yellow/green ones in the 2nd row from the bottom on the left.

With the dyeing done, I had time to knit some and enjoyed watching Patty’s 2 5 month old boy kittens cavort all over the yard. The people who were staying over were going out to dinner at the bar in the next town but Andrea and I headed home when they left at 7:00 since we didn’t want to get home near midnight. It was storming on the way home but we stopped at the super market in Fremont (It was the only place milk was on sale and I refuse to pay full price for milk!) so we got home just after 9:00, which made it a 12 hour day but it was worth the drive and the time.

Sunday was typical – TV and relaxing in the morning and then chores and cooking in the afternoon. I made cheesy baked cauliflower for supper, a loaf of whole wheat bread and chopped salad, which wasn’t complete when Ken Burns’ Vietnam started. I’d been waiting to see this so stopped everything except yarn winding to watch it. The salad could wait. It was sad but interesting and it’s on nearly every night for 2 weeks. It perfectly dovetails with the book we’re reading for book club on the 28^th – Death Zones and Darling Spies about a woman who was a war correspondent in Vietnam. It’s a lot of war but all good. As Andrea pointed out, at least it’s not Nazis. : )