I’m sitting on my front porch writing this blog post, after neglecting my site for many weeks. I have been on vacation, aside from three days of work, since early June. I really have no excuse for not blogging aside from the major distractions caused by knitting, some gardening and social media. I’m really enjoying the routine, but why do I feel a small sense of guilt because of all the things I’m NOT doing? Rhetorical question.
I did some very timely gardening work in June, which bore fruit! My roses are doing much better this year (maybe it’s the plentiful rain, not my soil amendments that did the trick, but anyway!) Most of the other plants are doing well, too, and the beauty of the garden brings me such joy. Dave and I tend to stay at home a lot when we’re off work and by that I mean, no trips to the Jazz Fest, no visits to museums or bike rides, etc. I find I have tons of things to do here and find a lot of enjoyment in the daily activities of home. Next week at this time we’ll be in Venice and then Edinburgh for our daughter, Erica’s, wedding, so that’s when we’ll be out and about plenty!
Today is Friday so it’s Knitting Circle at my Local Yarn Store (LYS), Espace Tricot, this afternoon. I always look forward to it as a nice social time to catch up with my knitty buddies and see what projects they’re working on. I finished my wedding present for Erica, which is a long, zany scarf known as The Scarfy Thing. It’s the perfect name for it. I had such fun knitting it and I hope Erica ends up using it a lot. We’ll see. The colours might not be her favourites, but I bet she’lll get lots of comments when she wears it! Now I’m working on a blue linen shawl that I plan to wear at her wedding, which is coming up in three weeks(!) Very exciting. Despite my arm pain, which makes me take many breaks during a long row of knitting, I’m making decent progress on it and I should be able to get it done by then. I’ll add a few pictures to this post to give you an idea what these projects look like.
I’ve been tossing around the idea of starting a video podcast. It would be about knitting, mostly, because it’s the best medium to connect to other knitters around the world. Many knitters (myself included) watch knitting podcasts (inviting gentle ridicule from their husbands!) while knitting. It makes sense! You don’t have to watch every second in case you miss something, so you can concentrate on your knitting (as long as it’s mostly stockinette or garter stitch!). It’s also inspirational because the podcasters show what they’re working on and what challenges they’re facing, what is new in the yarn world,etc. Plus, it’s fun to get a little window into regular people’s lives, because the people who do these podcasts are mostly just average Joes who love to knit! Some might own yarn shops or are yarn dyers, but many are just doing it in their spare time because they love it. I’m definitely in the latter category, so I figure, why not? My main obstacle is technical; I’m not great in front of the camera (I’m a “low-talker” as my husband says) and I have no idea how to edit. I tried it a bit on my iPad but the learning curve is a bit steep. I’ll have to figure it out bit by bit, I guess!
So, next time maybe I’ll add an introductory video to try out on you! We’ll see!
Happy Knitting and Gardening, my friends! Xoxo
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