Back for Lunch

Yesterday I went back to my former school for lunch with the “girls”. I guess I’ve been away long enough that it was really familiar but definitely my former school, my old office, my previous job. I still knew all the old buzz words and could empathize with what they’re going through but I’m done – I’m not the one responsible any more. It felt good! Apparently it’s been a tough few months with lots of staff turnover and more than the usual problems involved with running a large school kitchen. And I’m not the one responsible. I’ve gone on to teaching knitting classes, taking classes myself in things I’m interested in, and catching up on stuff I’ve always wanted to do but never had the time. It really is true that I can’t imagine how I found the time for work before. I’m truly blessed.

So what have I been doing? I’ve been spending most of my knitting time on the Hemlock Ring Afghan. I decided that I should keep going beyond the standard size since I have so much yarn left. As far as I can tell from reading other peoples info about their Hemlock the standard size blocks out to about 48” around. I’d rather have a more substantial afghan and so I’m going to go as far as my yarn will let me. I weighed the yarn ball before and after row 57 and it took me 8 gms to knit that row. All 504 stitches of it. I roughly estimated that I should be able to knit up through row 70 and that I should get an afghan about 54 inches in diameter. We’ll see how my estimating skills are! Here is what it looks like now.

I’ve ordered a whole cone!! of Jaggerspun Zephyr wool/silk laceweight yarn. I’ve got two shawls in my queue that I’m planning on making with it. The Orkney Pi shawl, and the Slow Bee shawl. (ravelry link) I’m not sure I’m in my right mind (am I ever?) considering that the cone has almost a mile of yarn on it! That’s a lot of knitting. Of course I have several sweaters in progress, the Great American Aran Afghan, the Charlotte’s Web Shawl, and I imagine several other unfinished objects. But why let that stop me. I have all the time in the world right. And more ideas and projects than can be completed in my lifetime. But I’m having fun and getting a lot done.

By the way my daughter Amy went to see the Yarn Harlot in Philadelphia and Abigail got her picture on her blog! She looks cute as always, and she's wearing a onsie that Amy made for her. And as long as I'm talking about Abigail I might as well show you what she looks like at her first ball game. Taken by Amy in Baltimore and the Yankees lost.