Full Moon

I went out to move my car into the driveway last night and see what I saw. There hovering above the bare branches of Lee and Susie's maple tree was the Wolf Moon. I love seeing the full moon up there pouring its cold blue light down on me and the rest of the quiet world. Do you ever stop to listen when you go outside at night? You can hear the murmur of traffic in the distance but you can also hear the rustle of leaves as they tumble by on the wind and the groan that branches make as they sway in the wind. I learned not to overfill the crockpot today. I put all the chili ingredients in there, set it on High, and it wasn't bubbling after 3 hours, and we could hardly smell it, so I ladled it out into a Dutch oven and put it into the oven to cook. NOW I can smell it. Good thing the ground turkey was browned so it hasn't been sitting in there all day raw. Eesh, that would be bad.


I tried to take the day off yesterday and ended up sorting my knitting needles and crochet hooks, but that isn't a big, sweaty job so I didn't count it as a chore. I did happen onto a scarf pattern that intrigued me so I unearthed some super bulky yarn and US19 needles and cast on. I got about 6" of it knitted before I realized that it was hurting my hands and I didn't like the way it was looking. I frogged it and put all the parts away.


I've been knnitting my 2 daily rows of garter stitch on my Maple Tree Scarf and here's how it's looking. I'm happy with the brown because it has a bit of green to it and there's a green furry lichen that grows on the bark of my tree. I was looking for some greenish sock yarn to add in on days that it's especially lichen-y but I didn't see any. Maybe I'll go look again. I was hoping that we'd get snow every once in a while so I could add in the white but I'll be patient and not cheat.


My Red Marl sweater front's coming along. I still can't knit with one color in each hand, when I try I end up with the right hand yarn stitches on the needle backwards. At least it's been quiet at work so I can knit Fair Isle there, even one row is good, right?










I'm way farther than this on the first Brangelina mitt. I finished the thumb gusset last night and am on my way up the finger part. This is an excellent pattern.








Today was the first day of my resolution to clear out a part of our crap once a week all year. I guess last weekend when I redid the craft area was really the beginning but that was a necessary redo to work in the stuff I brought home from Mom's so this weekend was the real start of the clearing out of stuff we don't need/use. I organized the liquor (I know we have a lot and I'm not sure why), sorted through 2 banana boxes and a tote of bathroom and toiletry things we moved from the old house and haven't touched since. I have a satisfying pile of trash and a small (but growing) pile of donations. Most exciting is the space that appeared on the shelves under the basement stairs. I didn't get quite as far as I'd hoped so I might put in an hour or so on Tuesday afternoon, but it's a good start.