Working Wednesday, December 18, 2019

~ Jenny

This week I am finishing things, my Suncatcher shawl, and an Inner Light made from a bag of small balls of what I think was Chroma Twist, and a headband in Paragon that I’m pretty sure I’m going to turn into a hat. Maybe.

What did you make?

59 thoughts on “Working Wednesday, December 18, 2019”

  1. Well, I finally got an editing job (an international history of feminism, which looks interesting), but am now scrambling to decorate the tree and sort the food for my mini solstice feast on Friday.

    Alongside a saga of things going wrong: a part’s just come so I can have a go at mending the shower; a roofer’s coming tomorrow morning to see about the damp above the back door, revealed when it was replaced on Sunday; my car had its brakes mended yesterday, but has to go back on Monday for them to work out where water’s getting into the boot (I complained about having to clean water off the inside of the windscreen, which has been going on for ages and I thought was due to the weather).

    The kitchen’s no warmer for the new back door; which I think is what’s causing my fridge-freezer to run too cold. Next plan is to get the hole for the ineffective extractor fan I don’t use stopped up with insulation. I’ve stuffed some packing foam in it, but there’s still a draught.

    And my tooth broke on Sunday. Going to the dentist tomorrow, but I fear it’ll have to come out – there’s only one corner left.

    Plan/hope for the next week is that despite all this chaos, I can enjoy Christmas.

    1. I’m so sorry about your issues – particularly your tooth! Here’s hoping that the dentist can fix what is needed.

    3. That’s a lot, Jane! Everything does tend to go at once.
      But glad for an interesting editing job. Do enjoy Christmas!

    4. I broke a tooth earlier this month and have been putting off calling the dentist. Sigh. You have my sympathy.

    5. And now, when I tried running a bath before going to a party this evening, the whole hot water supply has failed. So the shower problem is in fact a boiler problem after all. It’s a combi gas boiler (aged 18), and the central heating is still working – but I’m worried that’s going to go. Rang to warn the friend who’s coming to stay Friday night, but she’s hardy thank goodness.

      Here’s hoping it can be fixed before Christmas. Though I have an electric radiator and a kettle. And the forecast is relatively mild.

  2. I’ve been working on PT. The cast is off, and I have a boot and a walker. I’ve got exercises to increase the flexibility in my ankle. Two days in, and it seems to be working pretty well. Of course, I have a lizard leg from 7 weeks of splints and a cast, so I’ve been trying to shed skin without being harmful to the various scars and scabs.

    When I’m motivated, I’ve been working on a crochet blanket. I’m getting toward the middle part, so it’s tough slogging. It would be very easy to pack everything up and finish it “later”. But I will try to persevere.

    Now that I have a walker, I’m tempted to see about sewing again. I’ve got lots of things that need my attention in that sewing room.

  3. I’m knitting mittens and socks for xmas. Luckily people aren’t too judgemental about whether they’re done in time so I can just sit back and enjoy it.

  5. I got all the boxes that the mover brought unpacked and all items put in their place in the new house. Of course, although I’m proud of that fact, that doesn’t include the boxes still in Son’s basement… that’s a January project. We’re starting to feel at home and man, does it feel good to have our own house and our own stuff around us again. Funny, when we started this whole moving odyssey a year ago, I would have told you I was up for the adventure of it all. I wasn’t–it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done outside of losing loved ones. Glad to finally be settled and looking forward to stuff like where to hang pictures and where to get new honeycomb blinds. 😉

  7. I have been working on being a nicer person than I was last week, with some actual success! All this week will be crazy busy, and then hopefully we will leave early Christmas Eve. Then 8 wonderful days off! (well, except for coming in to do payroll on the 26th, and a few (hopefully) hours I will have to spend on a continuing education application for the non-profit. Still, 8 days!!!!!

    1. I saw where you could make baby Yoda cookies by using an angel cookie cutter and taking the head off of the angel. It was pretty cute.

  9. The dotter has (just) gathered the grandkinder and departed for Christmastown, Busch Gardens, Williamsburg. She’s taking advantage of the brief improvement in the local weather. I, alas, have to work today, not having quit my day job yet.

    I’ve mentioned putting out Christmas candy at work? It seems, based on the lack of disappearance, that the majority of last week’s candy was consumed by a single individual, who is enjoying some vacation time this week. The bowls haven’t gone down a noticeable amount in his absence. Huh.

    Nice shawl!

      1. Not at all. Last week, the supply included regular and peanut M&M grab bags, mini-Snickers, Twix bars – sort of a Halloween assortment. This week’s loose M&Ms, Reese’s Pieces and Skittle are sort of an evil combination. 🙂

        1. Hmm, I was wondering if the new combo just wasn’t to folks liking, but the m&m’s overlap. Personally, I would eat the snickers, Twix, and skittles.

        2. I used to keep a wooden shoe of candies on my desk from St. Nicholas to Christmas. One year it was all kinds of kisses — that was when the number of flavors exploded, and everyone enjoyed sampling the different ones.

  11. The @Ohioana Library is doing a “90 Books for 90 Years” series, citing notable books about Ohio and/or by Ohio residents. You’re in the 1990s.

    http://www.ohioana.org/90-years-90-books-the-1990s/

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B6OUtniAH4S/?igshid=19a6rpm3i28j2 The dishwasher went wonky ten days ago. After two visits, tech fixed it on his third. The stove is fine but the oven gave up the ghost four days ago. It’s over ten years old so, it is the spur to prick the sides of my intent to get a gas and electric combo. Electric stoves are the norm here but we’ve had a spare single gas burner for years and have relied on it more and more. Time to change!

    1. Yeah, I was prolific in the 90s. Thank you for that, it’s nice to know Ohio still keeps me around.

      1. Someone in Cleveland loves you. Cleveland Public Library has all your titles in ebooks again. Including Sizzle.

    2. That turned out to be heavier than I thought. I know some of those people. David Citino was one of the best people I’ve ever known. Damn.

  12. I was taking time off from crafting, but it’s not working. I needed something to do besides resist, clean, and read. So I dragged all of my yarn bits and pieces (some inherited from my baby sister’s MIL) and am crochetin granny squares. Eventually, I will join them into an afghan. For now I have something easy to work on.

  13. Jenny, the colors in your shawl match the colors of a pendant I bought many years ago at a bead store I used to frequent. I just went rooting through the craft box to see if I could come up with the name of the stone with no luck. I think it is something like Sunrise quartz. But Suncatcher works just as well. The colors went from yellow to orange to deep pink. I remember it was very pricey and I put it back a few times till I gave in and bought it. I made a necklace with it as the center piece.

  14. I am working on keeping my metaphoric head above water. My depression is particularly bad at this time of year, especially this year since we’ve had very little sun for the past few weeks (you’d think that if we only have 7 ish hours of daylight, we could have some sunny days but noooo, it’s all been overcast). Mix into the lack of sunlight my forgetting to take my antidepressants for a few days every week, my still-healing knee that the dogs took out in the beginning of October, and hardly any work and that’s a recipe for a very down December. I’m normally a Christmasy person so this is unusual for me as I can usually push through on holiday adrenaline alone. I think it’s time to break out the vitamin D pills.

    I’m trying really hard to keep up on things but I feel like I’m failing miserably. I’m waiting for the bounce, when my depression hits rock bottom and my brain “bounces” back up to normal. The best part of the bounce is that it happens over night/almost instantaneously. I don’t know why, I just go with it.

    Other than that, I’m trying to hang 2 window wreaths and do something to make the house look festive.

    On the up side, Fred the dog is sleeping beside me and letting out these long breaths that sound just like a balloon deflating. It’s pretty funny.

    1. Hoping the bounce comes soon. Vitamin D sounds like a good idea – maybe a sun lamp? I am clinging to the edge until the solstice this weekend – then the days start getting longer! Yay!

  17. I’m working at not losing my mind, trying to juggle 50 artists and a lot of bad weather. With limited success, I might add. I should put up more pictures of jewelry, but I’m too tired. Also, plumbers.

  18. Call me “Pincushion.” On the way to work, I swung by the Walmart pharmacy to pick up my Furosemide prescription. All my prescriptions used to be synchronized – now it seems like I pick up something every week or so.

    Since I was early, I asked for some vaccine. A flu shot and the first each of two pneumonia and shingles shots. I haven’t minded shots in years and years, since a Navy Corpsman gave me an overseas series before the family moved to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (1966). He was amazing. Today’s shots were just okay. Second shingles shot in March, second pneumonia this time next year, and “this will last you the rest of your life.” I’m not sure that’s reassuring.

    1. I can’t believe they gave you all the jabs at the same time. That’s not protocol, as far as I know. I hope you don’t have the kind of reactions I had to the shingles shot.

      1. I’ve had all of them before, though the pneumonia and shingles shots were strictly singles back then. When she asked, “How long since you got them?” and I answered, “I’m not sure, but it was at the Ukrops pharmacy,” she figured it was more than long enough. The pharmacist at Ukrops was as good with a needle as that long-ago corpsman.

        She put the Pneumo and Flu in my right, the Shingles in my left, and warned me that if any arm was going to hurt, it’d be the left. Neither arm hurts perzactly, but I’m very aware of them.

    2. Check back right at two months for the second shingles vaccine; they’re so popular that the pharmacies often can’t keep the stuff in stock. I kept checking every time I was in the place, and eventually they told me they had to reserve a shipment for their follow-up folks — but it was five months after the first one. They gave me a window of two to six months for the follow-up.

    3. The pneumonia shot is only good for the one, or thirteen, strains of bacteria in the serum. Since pneumonia is a symptom caused by a wide variety of critters, you should take the “this will last you the rest of your life” with a very large grain of salt.

  19. Wow! Do you have a link to the pattern for that shawl? The yarn you used is amazing!

    I’ve been working on getting over a cold and on some watercolor sketches in my journal.

      1. Thanks! I’m on Ravelry and have bought the pattern.

        I’m sure I’ll be able to find some perfectly lovely multi colored yarn.

        And I’ll revisit crocheting… I mostly knit, but hurt my right wrist recently. But I crochet with my left hand.

  20. I made bread. I’ve got this lovely new job, and 2 hours a day commute. It’s not really a hardship, but boy it cuts into errand time. The weekend was full of fun events, brunch, concerts, company. So I needed to work from home a couple of days to give myself back that couple of hours. Yesterday was a snow day, so I made rye/oatmeal bread, and anadama bread. I kind of make it up, I go for the consistency of the dough. Success!

    Shopped today, major bookstore visit, Trader Joe’s, hardware store. Feeling much more caught up.

  21. I completed a scarf. My goal is to work through my stash so I can shop for more with abandon. Currently no room for more.

    I’ve been making a small pile to give to the homeless when it gets cold for the last several years (and only like four scarves, sadly). Turns out a friend in my new department regularly collects winter clothing for just that thing! So I was happily able to actually put them to use! The scarf i just finished is for the new pile, I have new motivation to continue making them now!

    In other news, I crocheted with embroidery floss for the first time and made a king’s robe, part of a crown, and half an egg to go with the duck I made my friend the other year. Think I’m going to have to start over on the egg and crown, and I need to glue sequins to the robe. After that, a crocheted Tsum Tsum. This is holding up shipping my last christmas present. >.>

    Two present boxes to go, then done! And scrubbies for everyone for Christmas. Balls, not even close to done.

    But, cards are in there mailbox to go out tomorrow, and the christmas lights haven’t completely fallen off the patio yet! I’m gonna call it a win!

  22. After swearing that I wasn’t baking cookies this year, I baked a batch of Cranberry Coconut Chews and distributed them today. The best part was that I got to take some for the first time to the wonderful woman who sold me my mattress. Since not many people have the time to look at furniture at this time of year, the timing of my visit really made a difference. It took me an unbearably long time to get to the furniture store, but the visit with my friend was far sweeter than the cookies.

    I also made good on my resolution to part company with the ” true believer” I’ve been seeing for the last 6 months in an effort to jump start my regular therapy. I managed to do it very calmly, which was definitely a first that I found very satisfying. My regular therapist apologized for referring me to this guy in the first place, but it wasn’t really her fault. She couldn’t know that his answer to every question was to tell me that he assumed I was covering it with the other therapist. Of course, he never asked either me or her what we were doing because that was therapy and he didn’t “do therapy”.
    I feel much lighter.

  23. Knitpicks also has some gorgeous yarn named after streets and neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon. I think I need to stop perusing this site for the sake of my budget. I’ve gotten down to almost no yarn stash at this time. No point in growing a new one, right? I almost wish yarn wasn’t so pretty. Almost.

      1. I can certainly see why! I’ve got nine skeins in the Shopping Cart and am trying to talk myself out of completing the purchase. I haven’t ever been a real online yarn shopper, and oh boy, it’s a huge temptation, isn’t it?

        1. Stay away from the Knitpick’s Lovers group on Rav. They find out about all the sales and coupon codes early and we talk about the yarn all the time. Addictive.

  24. I know that Jenny has said that inter-character banter would eat her creative process if she let it, but, well, I let that just happen, and got my first novel out of it after more than 40 years of chasing.

    The book is called, “Fiddler’s Rose”, it’s a medieval fantasy/romance, and it’s 112,000 words of 99% dialog. (Dead tree on Amazon, electronic versions in lots of places.)

    Jenny, as someone who greatly appreciates the way you tell stories (and loves the way you do banter), I would love to give you a copy if you want it, just give me a destination and a format (PDF, MOBI, EPUB, or, for you, dead tree).

    And by the way… The Dempsey Five-Step Swindle has become a household idiom. It’s that kind of household.

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