Knitting, Sci-fi and other stuff...

    I finished the socks I was working on.  I used up two of the five yarns completely.   I especially like the yarn I used for the heel.  I dyed all the yarns myself at two different times.  The two yarns on the foot I did do at the same time in the same pot.  I think its interesting how those two yarns took the dye differently. I don't actually know the exact fiber content but I know the "toe" yarn was either angora or alpaca.  There are alot of fuzzy guard hair type thingies.  It took the blue out of the pot whereas the other, probably 100% wool, yarn took up the green.  The difference is more noticeable in person.  I don't dye yarn very frequently so I'm still learning many of the nuances.     I did a little reading once I got the socks done.  I'm still making my way through book 6 of the Broken Kingdoms series.     I worked my first weekend last weekend.  I was a little nervous as I was c...

     Not too much to report this week.  I finished the sock I was working on and started the second.  I was too lazy to get out my digital scale to weight my skeins, so I've been trying to use only half of each skein by just eyeballing.  These are intended to be "boot" sock, so I'm really not too worried about how these look.  I'm using 5 colors from my mystery wool stash.      Two weeks ago we got a new air fryer.  We got an over the top Emeril Lagasse one.   With the oven on the fritz we've been using this one instead and its been working really well.  My small muffin tin fits in perfectly so I've made Johnny Cake twice in the last two weeks.  We've also done steaks and hamburgers in it.  Then, of course, normal air fryer type things like chicken tenders, french fries and frozen pizza.  We've had an air fryer before and both forgot how much we liked having one....

    My grandmother passed away on Tuesday.  The calling hours and funeral were yesterday.  I took both the children with me so I wasn't sure if I'd stay for the whole ceremony.  Ronon is only three and we're working on potty training, so I sort of expected we'd need to leave once his attention span ran out.  He did awesome.  He even went potty 3 times while we were there with only a little prompting from me.  This was only the second time we've left the house with him in undies instead of a pull-up.  The other time was a quick trip to the grocery store.  The calling hours, funeral and light meal afterward was a total of 4 plus hours.  It was a nice service.  I got to see some cousins and family friends I haven't seen in years.  Many people commented on how Grandma shared her crafty talents with anyone she met.  I truly aspire to be like her.  Here  is a link to her obituary.     Winter has off...

      I have a few finishes from the past two weeks and a new start.  So first up; I finished  Hum Beanie .  I did a quick steam block as it didn't need much assistance to look good.  I think it turned out nicely. I finally got around to wet blocking the  White Whiskers Hat .  It grew alot.  I may need to toss it in the dryer for just a bit to snap the superwash back into shape.  It evened out very nicely and I wasn't expecting that with this colorwork. I started a pair of boot socks yesterday.  I'm using a bunch of small bits of wool I dyed myself.  A couple years ago I bought a bag of mystery wool suitable for dying from a local thrift shop.  I wasn't convinced it was all natural fibers until I started dying it.  I've done a few skeins each Easter with the left over easter egg dyes and Kool Aid or Wiltons dyes mixed in as well.  Liara has helped me most years and its been really fun for both of us.  I...

     It's been quite the year for me.  New adventures, new risks and very different experiences.  I spent nearly the whole year a travel Medical Technologist so I didn't spend much time at home.  From January to June I worked at Crouse in Syracuse.  I worked mostly in Blood Bank at the regions highest rated Neonatal ICU center.  It was a great refresher and learning experience as I'd never worked in an institution that focused and experienced with infant transfusions.  I also got to work in Clinical Chemistry with Siemens Atellicas.  When I left Samaritan in September of 2022 they were about to transition from Vistas to Atellicas.  I was able to get a jump on that and learn the Atellicas from someone who'd worked on them for years.  Traveling gave me the opportunity to reconnect with people I hadn't worked with in years.  From June to September I worked for Unity in Rochester.  There I worked in Chemistry and Hematolo...

Very short from me this week.  I've caught Covid finally after managing to avoid it all this time.  I was sent home from work on Tuesday and tested positive on Wednesday.  So,  I missed the last three days of my contract.  I've done nothing this week but recover.  The brain fog is real.  I started feeling kind of human just a few hours ago.  I just attempted making challah.  Whew, following a recipe was eventful.  I can't even focus long enough to read.  I was trying for a perfect month of reading on my kindle app this month but thats been blown out of the water now.  Oh well, guess that can be a new years resolution now.  That's it from me.   Until Later.  Happy Crafting. -Q

     I've done absolutely no knitting this week.  I did a little bit of mending though.  A thread in my first  Turnstile  had gotten pulled.  I think a cat claw did it.  I had put it away and not worn it all last season, so I finally sat down and teased the threads back into place on both sides of the snag.  Turnstile is an infinity scarf/cowl that gets knit in the round, then the ends get grafted together.  It makes for a nice warm and versatile scarf.  I liked this one so much a made a second.  Before: After: Its not perfect but its much better than it was before.  I think a wash and block will make it completely un-noticeable.  I wore this scarf this week.  We did get that snow storm.  My home in Carthage got snow on Monday, so if I hadn't left early I would have had to drive through it.  Syracuse got the storm Tuesday.  Driving into my work site Tuesday was a little hairy.  The visibi...