Yopping Update #22 - Advent (ure) is here

 

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Good Morning All, and Happy first day of Advent and first day of Hanukkah.  I love it when different festivals line up - more candles!  

I finished my 3rd gansey beanie which I modified to include the planaria motif cause I think it is so cute.  It is hard to see in the picture, but trust me there are four planaria scooting aroung the cap just above the ribbing. 

It is navy despite the camera depicting it as gray

I got quite a few more repeats done on the Samwise socks.  I am really liking the branch motif and thinking I might incorporate it in my next gansey. 

I finally picked my colours for the Advent Gnome KAL that starts this coming week:

I hope to make two - one with the pink and one with the purple #3

I also joined The Netloft this week on Thursday November 25th and found out that it was International Gansey Day.  I learned about an Advent gansey KAL so of course I joined.  I found enough Palette in the Clover colourway and did the set-up so I am all ready for December 1st. 

humble beginnings

I ordered some waterproof sneakers  last week and they arrived just is time for more rainy walks.  All that got wet yesterday were my pants, so today I ordered some waterproof pants.  I am determined to walk this winter like I did last winter.  I can't let all this rain stop me. 

love walking in puddles rather than avoiding them 

Yesterday I stopped to take a picture of the dreaded hill I have to walk to get home. Why oh why did I buy the house at the top of this hill

this picture doesn't do the steepness of this hill justice - just sayin!

I had to put down my grocery bag to take the picture, and looked up from the camera to quickly snap this. 

I think he smelled the caramel apples in my bag

It has been very wet here, and the rivers are flowing quickly. 

so winter is definitely here, but then earlier in the month I was surprised to see this:

A fuschia in full bloom

Nanowrino ends in two days, and I only have 1311 words to go to reach my 50,000 so I will be finished a day early.  Yay me.  I will leave you with an excerpt from Chapter 22

What on earth!” Sarah exclaimed as her mug of hot tea splashed all down the front of Marin’s pants.

In all the excitement - Fred bolted out the door and into the brce.  Marin jumped back and was trying to hold the material of his pants away from his crotch.  

“Jabati” he shouted.  Sarah knew this was some sort of Croatian swear word but didn’t dare pull out her translation app to see how rude it was because she was mad!

“What are you doing here?  Are you stalking me?  You have no business coming to my door?  And now look what you’ve done, Fred has taken off” she was crying, worried about herself, her safety, and now Fred. 

“Ne Ne”, Marin spluttered.  “Not stalking”.  I hadn’t seen you for time and I asked around about Kanadska baka in the village.  Not stalking.  Today I was walking by. I saw yellow cat in window, and had one eye, and I thought maybe Fred so I thought, well I thought I would knock and….”

Marin looked so pitiful as he tried to explain his appearance at her front door, and the now cooled wet spot on his crotch was ill placed for a man in his, well, seventies Sarah assumed. 

Still, there was no way she was going to invite him in - her concern now was Fred and getting him to come home.  

“I will go” “Oprosti , oprosti.”  he apologized.  

“I think you should”, Sarah barked.  “Fred will likely not come home with  you standing outside his door!  

Marin took off his jacket and held it in front of him as he walked away.  Sarah noticed that two of the regulars were in the brce and watching the exchange with some concern.  The two bakas, that often sat outside their front doors in the evenings, had also noticed the commotion as had the next door neighbour.  

Well, thought Sarah, now they will really have something to talk about in this little village. Like the locals ever need any fodder to gossip. As Connie always told her, if they don't know they just make it up.

Yopping Update #21 - another pair of socks

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Well, I did cast on another pair of socks (Vroni on Ravelry), and finished them, so once again I have nothing on my needles.  

How cute are these stash busters?

Well technically I did cast on another pair of socks in undyed yarn, and I plan to dye them once they are socks, but I am not sure I want to tackle the complexity of the pattern at this time. The Ravelry pattern is here. I am leaning towards getting out my crochet hook and starting the Weeble doll and its clothing, so time will tell. 

Mostly this week I have been writing and keeping up with the Nanowrimo challenge.  I am over 36,600 words now, and I feel confident I will get to the 50,000 words by the end of the month.  It will need lots of editing and the story will not be finished so the writing will continue on after the 30th but it won't have the pressure of the minimum 1667 words a day that I have set for myself.  It has been a good exercise in writing discipline for me.  

My writing spot is on the couch with my laptop on, well, my lap!  I usually write before breakfast.  Most of the time between 10am and noon.  It works for me to write first thing in my day, and then get on with my errands and swims or walks.  I have started the process of investigating getting my first novel printed and it is looking possible.  I will get another quotation this coming week. 

As I mentioned last week, I have a free promotion of White Rabbit starting tomorrow and running until the 26th, so if you are interested the price is right!  I think it is only running on Amazon.com and maybe also Amazon.uk because I didn't seem to have the option to change it.   I am definitely learning as I go. 

Thanks to Liz I now have an author's page on GoodReads, and if you have read my book it would be great if you could put up a review on either GoodReads or Amazon.  I am not very good at self-promotion, but I am trying to put myself, and White Rabbit, out there with some hesitation, but also a good amount of pride. 

free Nov 22 -26th

Last night my brother and his wife came over for supper.  We haven't seen each other since the summer of 2020.  It was a great evening.  Lots of laughter and of course HUGS!  

Slowly but surely I am starting to see friends and family again.  I mostly feel safe and confident, but of course if I get the sniffles or wake up with a wee cough I fret that I have contracted the virus.  My husband got the invitaion for his booster because he is older then I am.  I don't expect to get my invitaion until the new year.  

I will leave you with another excerpt from my newest novel.  It doesn't yet have a title.  It started out as one kind of story and then the main character took hold of me and it has gone in a whole other direction.  

Regardless here is a bit of chapter 14:

As she continued on her way she saw that the olive tree was standing stoically and no-one else was around.  She always liked leaning against the great cedars that grew in her yard at home.  She felt they gave her strength and life-force.  She wondered if a 1500 year old olive tree would do the same.  She walked up to the tree and found a perfect niche that she could wriggle her back into.  She leaned back and looked up at the leafy expanse.  Olive leaves were such a different colour of green than she was used to.  The wood felt warm, and the sun dappled as it came through the leaves onto her face.  She breathed deeply.  More  deeply than perhaps she had for days.  She imagined all the history this tree had borne witness too.  How many epidemics, and pandemics.  It had survived.  In fact it had thrived.  So, she decided resolutely, would she.

Have a good week everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers!

Yopping Update #20 - Done and done

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I am not always sure where the time goes from Sunday to Sunday, but I do have two finishes.

Shield Maiden 

and I stayed up until almost midnight to finish my matching toque to my Grace's Cardigan.

This means that at this very moment I have nothing on my needles.  Nothing. Nada.  Zilch. 

I do want to start another gansey, and I also have a few sock patterns all ready to go with the wool and colours picked out, plus that little Weeble Doll is beckoning me, so stay tuned, I am sure something or somethings will be on the go very shortly. 

I have been busy writing all week with Nanowrimo.  I have written almost 25,000 words and most days I get the writing done before lunch.  Further White Rabbit news is that I have scheduled a five day promotion from November 22 - 26th in which my ebook will be free.  I think it only runs on Amazon.com (the instructions were kind of unclear), but we shall see how that goes. 

My sister, brother and I are investigating the cost of self-publishing our books in paperback copy.  Stay tuned, as it looks promising. 

I have managed to get to the pool only once this week.  Tuesday the pool was closed when I got there due to a power outage, but I managed to find a trail that started at the pool parking lot which was quite lovely and for the hour I was walking the rain let up. 

follow the yellow leafed road!

I did manage a successful swim on Thursday though, and the other days I was either walking or raking up cedar leaves.  Oh my, the cedar leaves that I have in my yard are epic. 

As I reported last week I had given away eight handknit shawls, and yesterday I bundled up 9 pairs of socks, 2 cowls, 1 shawl, 3 hats, 1 baby sweater and two adult sweaters to send to my sister who is putting together christmas hampers  on her little island.  It felt good to know my handknits will be going to good homes.  I put another pair of socks aside for a dear friend.  It has been a good week of de-stashing handknit things that just sit forlornly waiting for their turn to be worn.  Of course I already have started a wool order with YarnCanada.  I just have to push the 'pay now' button.  God help me - I don't really need to add to my stash - but oh the colours, and oh the fisherman rib shawl pattern I want to make!

So that's my week, writing and knitting, knitting and writing, with a few walks, some raking and a swim thrown in for good measure.  

I hope your week has been good as well!

I will leave you with an excerpt from my latest novel.  Working title is "Letter to my Granddaughter".

“I did finally hear from Ante”, said Connie.  “They are off the coast of Africa, and the work is going well.  It seems like this virus has not affected Africa the same way it has Europe. They are at sea for another month or so and then he should be coming home - six weeks at the most. He laughed at our dilemma of you being there and me being here.  He said it was typical of you and I because we don’t communicate clearly enough! “,  she chuckled.  “I think it is just that he doesn’t understand the whole concept of doing things impulsively - he hates surprises!”

Connie continued to chuckle, more to herself than to Sarah, and Sarah could see in her daughter’s eyes and hear in the softness of her voice how much she loved Ante.  Their angels had certainly brought them together - a chance meeting at a pier when Connie was busking - and the rest, as they say, is history or herstory.  They had married in a small seaside village just south of where they are living now, and Sarah was glad she and Tom had been able to attend.  That was eight years ago.  Eight years!  Where does the time go?

Yopping Update #19 - Socks and Beanies

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Halloween Night - wearing two ganseys to stay warm (and the fire pit helped too)

Hooty Halloween

Halloween was a big success and the neighbours down the way had an amazing firework display that we enjoyed for almost an hour before coming in to have a late supper and warm up!

This week I  finished my Portwenn socks:

and then cast on my next pair

Shield Maiden by Belly Button Knits ready for the heels

I started a beanie to match my navy gansey cardigan - Anne of Green Cables by Imagined Landscapes.

I have been writing this week.  I joined NaNoWriMo to write a novel in the month of November of at least 50000 words.  As of today I have 11,844 words!  I work this process by aiming to write 50000/30 which is 1667 words a day.  It is a very rough first draft - I am letting the characters and landscape write itself and direct me where each day's writing should go.  It was not fully fleshed out before I started, since I just decided to join very last minute.  The important thing is I am writing and it feels good to have set myself a goal and so far, seven days in, I have met my goal. The story is about a woman who gets stuck in a foreign land because of the CoVid 19 lockdowns. She needs to make a life for herself while living alone in a place, for over a year, when she doesn't speak the language, or know the culture. Stay tuned. 

I did try to go for a swim today but when I got to the pool I was told the pool was full and it would be at least an hour to get in.  Needless to say I went back home.  It is very cold and pouring with rain - I guess everyone decided (with the extra hour thanks to the time change)  to head for a swim.  Nevermind, I will go tomorrow, and if it stops raining I will go for a walk in the woods today. Even if it doesn't stop raining - time to drag out my wet weather gear - as my mother always said - "You are not made of sugar, you won't melt."

Yesterday I attended a wonderful 65th birthday event for a friend.  Her daughter had planned a self-care afternoon, and besides the good food and conversation we were treated to a group reiki healing session for one hour, and then a flower reading by this wonder intuitive gentlemen from San Diego.  My reading was very profound, and he will be sending me a zoom transcript of the reading so I can re-watch it and really take in what he said to me.  There were eleven of us and we had all been asked to bring a flower that we had chosen and felt connected to.  He didn't know who had brought each flower which made his observations all the more astute and astounding in their accuracy. 

It was my first time socializing since February of 2020.  I got dressed up, put on earrings and even a wee bit of mascara.  It felt amazing to be with a wonderful group of women celebrating another wonderful friend.  

On my facebook memories this following photo popped up. 

My great-nephew modeling a sweater I made.  (He is in grade one now!)

I will leave you with this.  My daughter and granddaughter were chatting with us the other night.  I realized my granddaughter had gotten very quiet.  "What's she doing?" I asked.  My daughter chuckled and showed me this picture. She had asked her ta-ta to make her some popcorn - and then this happened. 

I love how she fell asleep with her hand in the popcorn bowl.