Skip to main content

Phew

Retirement in my mind has always been the stereotypical relaxing days of sleeping in, lounging around in your pjs til noon or later, and just plain chillaxing filling days with things one enjoys doing.  The shoulders move away from the ears with less tension in life, the pace of life may be a bit slower and, well, you get the picture.  I'm really, really ready to get to this state because the pre-retirement wrapping things up phase isn't anything remotely close to relaxing.

Perhaps I've put a bit much on my plate.  There's a new person to train at work, a house sitter to get up to speed with the responsibility of keeping Mike, the cat, happy, files both physically and electronically to move, a car to pack up with extras from our home, all the financial and personal paperwork to complete and that's just the past week.  At times it can be both physically and psychologically draining, but at this point this labour is so short-term.  I have 4 days of work left with one statutory holiday, Canada Day on Tuesday.  Friday, July 4 is my last day of work.  For those who may wonder, yes this is my personal Day of Independence from holding a full-time job.

Things are pretty well in control today so I decided to start a new project that I found perfectly lovely from Knit and Crochet Now 5th Season, Mock Plaid Scarf (click on name to get free pattern).  It is very simple to knit and looks beautiful, as far as I'm concerned.  Here's the sample scarf




The miracle of this scarf is using two balls of variegated yarn and the special trick is to start each ball at a different spot in the sequence of the variegation.  Since I needed a break from the Fisherman's Pullover and wanted something rather mindless, this looked like a great option for the week.  I am using some recycled yarn purchased by the pound at a local discount store.  I purchased it because the colour combinations include all my favorite colours.   Here's my version so far



The simple slip stitch causes the lovely vertical colour line.  This yarn is light enough in weight that I think I'll be able to wear it even during the summer.  It will be the last working knitted item I will make.  Bring on the new chapter of life, I'm ready for it!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time.  One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock.  So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep.  Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot.  And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms...
2 comments
Read more

Ode to the Cat

It has been six months since Mike, the cat's, passing.  I think of him every day and miss him especially when Paul is away.  Mike was a being in the house with me and we were close.  Grieving his death has been muddled with my Dad's passing and sometimes I feel guilty about that happening.  As time passes the ache becomes less hurtful for both and I am starting to get mostly good memories in its place. Recently I helped celebrate Pablo Neruda's birthday with Jami, my poet and overall very creative friend.  Guests were asked to select one poem written by Neruda to read to the small group who gathered for the celebration.  I picked this one: Ode To The Cat -- Pablo Neruda There was something wrong with the animals: their tails were too long, and they had unfortunate heads. Then they started coming together, little by little fitting together to make a landscape, developing birthmarks, grace, flight. But the cat, only the cat turned ou...
1 comment
Read more

Knitting-Related Guinness World Records

I had to share some of the Guinness World Records connected with knitting.  It is amazing to me the type of skill, stamina and unique characteristics these record holders have in common. How about trying to knit with these SPNs?? Ingrid Wagner and her large needles and knitted swatch The largest knitting needles measured 3.5 m (11 ft 5.8 in) long and had a diameter of 8 cm (3.15 in). Ingrid Wagner, a rug and art creation artist, from the UK used the needles to knit a tension square of ten stitches by ten rows at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, on March, 10 2008.  (And I complained about getting certain SPNs stuck in my clothes.)  See how this swatch was done with merely 5 people managing the needles.  And what about the yarn?  It is truly ex-bulky.  It looks like they're knitting in a warehouse, but with a wingspan of almost 24 feet or 7 m, you'd need all that space.  Or h...
1 comment
Read more