Finishes and starts...

I finished my Freya shawl. It still needs to be blocked- it looks like spaghetti yet and it will grow significantly, maybe even twice it's current size.  This is a fun pattern and made better by being knit off a cone of $2.99 wool from Goodwill.  I still have 3/4 of the cone and a second cone.  I'll have to save that for another project down the road.  It's a very stunning cornflower blue in the sunlight.


With this one done, I started Radiance for my SIL using black lace weight silk (Claudia's hand paint yarns Silk Lace, for those who are interested).  I've heard nightmare stories about working with black but so far I'm not having any problems.  I did work 60 rows before I decided the needle size was too large and I had to tear it all out.  But now, I'm liking how it looks on size 1 needles instead of size 4s.  The silk feels fantastic and the wood needles keep it from being too slippery.    It's a really simple pattern but my SIL isn't a girly girl so simple is good.  There will not be a ruffle at the bottom on it and I may have to repeat some sections depending on the size it ends up on these much smaller needles.  Still, it's good knitting for the evening- not too complicated but enough to keep my attention.

I'm struggling right now with the drudgery of life.  I'm feeling like there isn't anything I really look forward to and sometimes I wonder, "Is this all there really is?"  I think the answer is no, but it is all I can afford right now.  No grand vacations, but quiet evenings at home aren't that bad.  I'm content, mostly, but another 50 years of this seems like a long life of nothing.  Maybe that's just life.  Sometimes, it seems like my knitting is a visual representation of time passing.  At least it gives me something to show for the quiet evenings at home.

In the mean time, my mother brought me about 18 one-gallon buckets of very ripe pears that Marian, Trudi, and I will be making, at least partially, into pear salsa tonight.  They are over ripe- they should have been processed last week but Mom forgot to bring them home. We'll have to do something with all of them tonight but maybe not all into salsa; it will depend upon the amount of other ingredients we have and the demand in our households.  I do look forward to this time we three take to do things together but it's also very tiring after a full day of work, and I know I'm not the only one that feels that way.

I guess I'm in a bit of a funk...I'll chock it up to hormones and weather.  Maybe chocolate is in order, but interestingly, it doesn't even sound good.

Pear salsa....

We made pear salsa tonight--about 30-35 pints.
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And now it's past bed time and I'm pooped!