2019: A Bright New Year

As I write this, it is quite gloomy outside.  Very grey, very wet (heavy rains most of yesterday afternoon and overnight), and just a totally blah winter day. I would much rather see temperatures below freezing and white snowbanks than all this almost-40 degree grey and mud, mud, mud. 

Add that to coming out of a frantic holiday season in which we juggled lots of family gatherings (really, must we do the whole extended family thing on both sides--now encompassing four generations--every year?) as well as work schedules and a lingering cold (or is it newly developed pesky allergies and possibly asthma?) on my part, it's hard to feel energetic on this first day of the new year.

However, there is a lot to look forward to in 2019.


First, or might turn out to be second, DD2 will be graduating from college with her Bachelor's in Wildlife Ecology and Management (and a minor in International Spanish) in early May.  That's been on our radar for quite a while, and we all ready have room reservations and travel plans in regards to attending that.

Next, or perhaps slightly before that, our third grandchild will be arriving.  The due date is six days after DD2's graduation, but as this baby's siblings (K3 and Toad) both arrived over a week early, I'm thinking this one probably will too.  We know this new bundle of joy is going to be a boy.  Toad all ready has a name chosen for his baby brother, but their parents have a different one in mind, so won't be using Toad's idea. Given that Toad's choice--Rascal--sounds like an apt nickname for a little boy, I might just use it here.

The third big event, which will definitely arrive third since it is slated for mid-August, is DS2 and Surprise's wedding!  Plans are well underway for that, and it looks like we will be traveling to New Jersey (where Surprise's family is) for the joyful day.  DH and I are discussing taking a week after the wedding for a long talked about but yet untaken New England sight seeing vacation. Once we're as far east as New Jersey, how can we not head on up to Vermont, and possibly New Hampshire and/or Maine?


The year, of course, holds much more than that in store for me, and I think I'm up for discovering all the surprises, good and maybe not so good, of 2019.

Christmas Makings

For the good part of the past two months, when I've been home I've been working on making Christmas gifts.  I've talked about a few of them in recent yarn along posts, like the oodles of dish cloths that manifested on my knitting needles, and the ninja mask that Toad requested. I also found yarn in appropriate shades of orange and purple to make K2 a messy bun hat in the colors of her favorite college sports team: Clemson.

 But there has been so much more than just knitting going on.

I've also been cutting and sewing (and all the ironing that goes along with that).  And DH did some cutting and sanding in preparation for me to do some waterproofing.

What we ended up with was a whole lot of handmade gifts, some of which were planned out as far back as the Spring of 2017.  That is when we trimmed some branches from one of the black walnut trees that grow on our road frontage.

After aging a chosen branch for a good 18 months, DH used his miter saw to cut it into 1/2-inch disks, creating one of a kind wooden coaster sets for each of our kids, and even a set for ourselves.  It was my job to seal them on all sides, to help preserve them.

with first coat of polyurethane

(which freaked me out at first, because it went on milky white)

a finished set, sealed on all sides 

My sewing machine literally lived on the dining room table after Thanksgiving, when I went into full-on sewing mode.  The preliminary cutting had been completed, and now it was time for assembly. First off was a denim quilt for DD1 and Honorary Son.

It consists of 306 6" squares cut from old worn out jeans.  Those squares were then sewn into strips and the strips joined together to make the top.  It is queen sized.

aerial view from the stairs

flannel backing 

(chosen by DD1 this summer, when she though she was helping me choose fabric to repair my own denim quilt)

remembering how to do daisy stitch, 

I embroidered the year on one of the denim squares

That quilt was the largest sewing project I did this year.  After that, I did much faster items.  Like sewing up a plethora of microwavable bowl potholders.  Each child and their spouse/significant other got one, and no two were the same.  I tried to customize the fabrics to the intended recipient.

Once those were done, I made two sets of oven mitts; one I had cut out (but not sewn) a few years ago for DD1, and a set for DD2.  I forgot to take pictures of the pair for DD1 before wrapping them, but I did get a couple quick pics of the set for DD2.

front sides

back sides

I also made up a couple of hot pads for DD2, out of some fat quarters she'd admired the day the girls and I were at a large fabric store last summer.

front

back

It feels great to be giving so many customized gifts this year.  It feels even better to not be working on them tonight--I finished the last one yesterday!  Now it's time to relax, concentrate on the reason for the holiday, and to enjoy getting together with my family.

Yarn Along: December

I am joining Ginny today for this month's Yarn Along.

Last month, I had found a dish cloth pattern that was perfect for using up scrap yarn.  Well, it kind of became addictive matching up colors in my (rather large) bag of leftover cotton yarn and turning them into more dish cloths. What started out as maybe making a couple turned into me having to literally rip myself away so that I might actually get some of my planned Christmas crafting done.

At current count, I have eight new dish cloths, all from leftovers.  Most will be tucked into Christmas packages (so I didn't totally waste time, right?).  Depending on how the next two weeks go and how many other projects I get completed, I have color combos for about three more dish cloths picked out.

I have knit little on my Glacial socks in the past month.  Mostly due to getting hooked on making all those dish cloths!  I did finish the first sock and get a decent start on the second one. These will just have to see a January finish date.

Meanwhile, I have started a balaclava, aka Ninja Mask, for Toad.  He's all about ninjas lately, and has been begging me to make him ninja mask.  So, onto the Christmas project list went a ninja mask "in green, because blue isn't my favorite color anymore; it's green now".  I am using this pattern so far, and will make changes if needed now that I'm to the eye part.

I haven't done much reading at all lately.  I've been sick in one form or another for going on three weeks now. So there's been a lot of sleeping (the first 4 days), and some catching up on work and chores, etc, for a few days, then a whole lot of coughing (and a visit to Urgent Care for meds) for past 8 days.  I've either been too ill to read, or, on the good days, too busy trying to get normal things done to spend much time in a book.

Yarn Along: November

It's that time again!  Time to join Ginny at Small Things for the monthly Yarn Along!

There have been a lot of little projects getting knit lately.  I finished Toad's socks, which he absolutely loved and was so happy about when I presented them to him.

My next project was to, of course, make a pair of socks for his sister. K3's socks were of much lighter blue, and the pattern is Mock Turtle from the Artful Arches pattern book put out by Knit Picks.  I made the smallest size.

close up for detail

color is more blue than what the photo shows

After the socks came two hats, for the grandkids, but to keep here at my house so that they always have a warm hat to wear when they come visit this winter (last winter so many hats and gloves and scarves went home or to school with them and never made it back to this little place here).

River  Rush slouch hat for K3

dark blue for goofy boy Toad, 

who pulled his hat down to "see out the holes like a ninja"

(pattern is DROPS child's hat)

Then I cast on a new sock pattern to make a pair for myself out of hand dyed yarn I bought last year while on vacation in Alaska.  The yarn is Sheep Shades in the colorway Forget-Me-Not, and the pattern I am working it in is Glacial.

Since the holiday gift making season is upon us, while I knit my socks, I'm taking a break every few days to whip up a dish cloth to add to the gift pile.  So far I've completed two Slant dishcloths using up leftover cotton yarn from my stash and am making good progress on a third.  It's been fun to pick through my (larger than I thought) collection of leftovers and choose two (or three) colors that go together.

I haven't been reading much lately, mostly slowly working my way through an interesting but somewhat architecturally dry book about the connected farm building style in New England in the 1800's titled Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn by Thomas C. Hubka.

Riding Big, Riding Small

I have been trying to prioritize my riding time ever since extending my lease on the California Horse back in August.  I knew that to reach my goal for our remaining time together:  be able to ride him to his full Third Level potential, that I would have to stop being so flexible about letting my riding time take a back burner to things that other people (typically family members) wanted me to do (typically for them).  And so, since mid-September I have been asserting myself more ("Gee, I'm sorry, but I'm busy that morning and just won't be able to help you out") as well as scheduling riding lessons on a weekly basis.  After all, as DH put it, I was earning those lessons through cleaning stalls, so why wasn't I taking lessons every week?!?

A few things have happened in the six weeks or so since I started back to regular lessons. Things like finding that minute adjustments to my leg, seat, or hands, really has a huge impact on what I get out of my horse.  This I knew, but I hadn't really experienced yet to this degree.

Things like my horse's hind end getting more developed and stronger, with increased impulsion in the gaits. He has a nice butt, LOL.  And it's really cool to dismount at the end of a ride and see veins popped out on his hindquarters.

Things like taking that increased impulsion and learning to channel it into either lighter dancing trot steps (ie much more collection; "Think piaffe!" my trainer encouraged a few lessons ago while working on collecting the trot a little more and a little more) or an honest to goodness working trot and even once (without me intending to ask for it) a huge extended trot--he was being super attentive and generous that day!

There have been some other unexpected perks to such focused riding. I've lost a few pounds doing nothing different in my diet or exercise routine (other than extra riding).  I pushed myself to reach my goal of five rides a week, and then felt really weird on the sixth day when I didn't ride.  Even though it's so dark out in the mornings now, I'm finding that it's a little easier to get out of bed and get dressed because I have arena time at 9:00 a.m. (I love that the barn I work at is totally fine with me riding first, and working later in the morning--such a change from the previous barn I both trained and worked at).  I'm also finding it easier to not be a doormat and politely but firmly tell people no, I'm not available, can't change my schedule (when it's for something trivial or not specifically needing me rather than someone, anyone).

The past six weeks or so could be summed up by saying that I am learning to ride big by riding small, and to ride small by riding big.  Refining my aids; making them lighter and less obvious to the observer, has brought out more expression and power in my horse.  The increase of expression and power then makes it easier for me to refine my aids.  With a more powerful engine--the hindquarters--I have more energy to work with, which gets cycled back through my seat and hands and the horse's mouth, into the engine again to create lift in the forehand and lighter dancing steps.  So when we are doing a big trot, it actually feels not like the horse is charging off, but that he is stepping in time to my commands.  The less I move in the saddle, the more he moves above (suspension) the ground.  We actually hit moments of bliss where it feels like we truly are dancing.  Dressage is, after all, the ballet of the horse world.

What is really cool (to me), is that I ride little with my hands anymore.  Unlike in most horseback riding, my hands aren't for steering any more, pulling the reins this way or that.  My seat does the steering.  My hands keep the connection with the horse's mouth, the lines of communication. Like the string between the two paper cups of a child's telephone toy.  My hands say "Hello, are you there?" and his contact on the bit says "Hi, I'm here, what would you like to do next?" But they don't say "Go here!" or "Stop there!" by pulling or bending the horse where I want it to go.  Steering is seat and weight.  And the legs don't make the horse go forward, banging and kicking.  No, again, it's the seat--with a good connection between my hands and the horse's mouth--that determines go or stop.  I cannot begin to tell you how cool it is to navigate an approximately three-quarter ton horse primarily with my butt (aka my seat, sitting bones, pelvis, hips).

We're going places.  As the weather cools off and winter approaches I'm not reluctant to get out there and ride.  Instead, I'm excited about what winter will bring.  I'm excited to feel incremental progress from one week to the next; I can't even begin to imagine how awesome our rides will be come Spring. 

Trusty Rusty Suburban

Near the middle of last week, my Suburban and I hit a milestone.  We've been together a long time; DH and I bought the Suburban (brand new) in March 2005 to replace our Astro van since our eldest son no longer fit into the third row seating of the Astro very well being 6' 2" tall at age 15 and we were looking ahead to having a batch of tall teenagers to drive around in the future (the other three kids were, at the time, 12, almost 11, and 8).  And drive we did.

In addition to the twice daily run to the Lutheran day school my kids attended through 8th grade, we drove to sports.  We drove to the normal grocery store, doctor and dentist appointments, church services on Sundays (and during Advent and Lent also on Wednesday evenings).  I drove to work at the horse farm(s). 

We drove to Walt Disney World in Florida.  We drove a few hours east and north into part of Ontario, Canada.  We drove to Oregon and back in 2008 pulling a 30' camper (and yes, I piloted that long vessel during about half of the trip, as DH & I took turns driving the 3000+ miles from our house to our destination via a few places like The Badlands, Yellowstone, and Glacier National Park along the way).  We drove to South Carolina and back several times during the couple of years that DS1 and family lived there.  We drove to the far northern edges of Michigan in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan's Upper Peninsula many, many times since September 2010 when DS2 had his first college visit at Michigan Tech (which became his alma mater, and then once he was graduated, DD2's alma mater). We drove to Pennsylvania.  We drove to Minnesota when DD1 briefly attended college over there.  It's hauled tractors, and hay, and other vehicles.  It's even been group transportation to a high school prom with a high schooler in the driver's seat!

That Suburban and I, we've been places together.  That driver's seat is, to me, like a pair of comfortable old jeans.  As the years have gone by, and four teenage drivers have all taken their turns behind the wheel, it has collected a few dents and dings.  It's getting a little rusty in the rocker panels.  It is now, now that the 2019 model year vehicles are available for sale, officially 14 years old.  It has a lot of miles on it.  A LOT.  Like, this happened on Wednesday afternoon:

This mileage has been my personal goal since the odometer rolled 150,000 during DS2's junior year of high school (2009/2010); at which time DH assured me that Suburbans had great engines and transmissions and ours could easily make it to 250,000 miles.  So, that became my goal.  I would not even consider replacing the Suburban until we hit 250k.

And do you know what?  I'm still not ready to replace it.  Because it still runs like a scalded dog.  It still starts up the first time, every time that I put the key in the ignition.  It might squeak and rattle a little, but that's all the aging body--hey, I am starting to squeak and rattle a little too!  Mechanically, it is fit as a fiddle.

So now my Suburban and I have a new goal.  We are going for three.  Three Hundred Thousand Miles, that is.  By my rough calculations, based on my current driving habits (and the fact that we now have our pick up for long distance trips), it should be a good two or three years before that number shows up on the dashboard display.  

Yarn Along: October

I am joining Ginny for this month's edition of the Yarn Along.

Apparently my knitting for the past month has a theme:  socks.  Not a huge surprise, since socks are the reason I wanted to learn to knit in the first place.  But, looking back on the weeks since the last Yarn Along, I find that I didn't knit one single project other than socks.  I thought about a dish cloth or two, I contemplated casting on a shawl, but it turns out all I knit was socks, socks, and more socks. In that time frame I finished DD2's surprise UP Socks (which are in the mail to her right now, as her birthday is this coming weekend)

One of DD2's UP Socks

I also started and finished a pair of Crystalline Socks for me; doing them as anklets, since I only had a small skein--231 yards--of this lovely soft squishy yarn that begged to be made into socks for my feet.

my Crystalline anklets

(yarn is Knit Picks Stroll fingering in Sprinkle Heather)

barely enough yarn to make them

(but now I know that for sure I can make myself anklets out of 50g of yarn)

And I am 3/4 of the way through a pair of Ribbed Socks for Toad.

Toad has been dropping hints for another pair of Grandma-made socks off and on all summer.  Recently he informed me that his favorite color is no longer red, it's dark blue.  Since I made red socks this Spring when his favorite was red, I guess he's hoping I will made a new pair in his new favorite color.  Lucky boy, I happened to have a partial skein of dark blue sock yarn in my stash that is more than enough yardage for a pair of socks for a 4 year old.  I also happen to have a soft spot for knitting requests from my grandkids.

Toad's dark blue socks in progress

I also did quite a bit of reading, getting in three entire books in September:

The First Love, which is Beverly Lewis's latest novel.

Bad Housekeeping by Maia Chance and also Come Hell or Highball by Maia Chance.  She may be a new favorite author of mine; her books are funny fast reading mysteries without a lot of gore or sex.  Thanks to my local librarian for recommending her.