final opam for june

I have not been the most motivated person lately and I have been seriously slacking on my blog. When I logged into my blog reader today I had almost 400 posts to read. It has been raining here for weeks and weeks with the odd half sunny day. All that rain really starts to work on your mood. I think I have decided to move to Seattle to get away from rain. ;D
Here are the finished socks from my last post. They only ended up taking me about a week and a half to complete. I'm about 5 inches into another pair. I had a Microsoft Roadshow presentation to go to for a full day 2 weeks ago. I debated with myself if it would be appropriate to knit while they were presenting. I decided that if I could do it discreetly I would give it a shot. The coworker I was with and I found seats not right at the front but still with a good view and knit while we were waiting for them to get started. I then looked a couple of rows back and there was another woman knitting mittens. I felt so much more comfortable about it. I actually find it easier to pay attention when my hands are busy and the presenters didn't seem to mind at all. I felt like I had accomplished a lot at the end of the day. I had some work questions cleared up in my mind and I had knit about 6 inches on my socks. I love multitasking.
Despite all the rain my garden is looking pretty good. It loved our mostly sunny Saturday this past weekend. Other people I know have had their entire gardens rot because it has been so wet. I think mine is saved by being raised. I have 1 of those Topsy Turvy planters on the far right in the tree. We only bought 1 because we didn't know how it would do. I planted a tomato in it and it is doing much better than the seedlings I planted in the garden from the same pack. If I had known how well they would do I would have bought a couple more.

the knitting zone

I finished my first project for June. I just love this yarn and can't wait to wear the socks. As soon as I finished this pair, I started another. It will probably be my second finish. I'm doing 2 at a time and going like crazy. I have always knit in spurts and I seem to be in the knitting zone.

I find knitting a great stress reliever. Our lives have been very stressful lately. DH was in New Jersey all last week. His 86 year old mother had emergency surgery to repair damage caused by a colonoscopy that perforated her colon. She was fine right after she came out of the anesthesia, but within a day her lungs filled with fluid and she had to be put on a ventilator. When they took her off she was breathing on her own, but then her lungs collapsed. She went downhill rapidly from there and died early Tuesday morning.

Poor DH was exhausted when he got home. He had been up nights at the hospital and picking up catch as catch can meals. Not terribly nutritious. The first thing he did when he got home was to have a big salad for dinner. After his pneumonia earlier this year the Dr. told him to he had to get his blood pressure and cholesterol down. He told him he should read the book Eat to Live and drastically change his diet. He immediately lost 30 pounds, dropped his blood pressure and his cholesterol levels are way down. He had been doing so well that he really noticed the difference when he wasn't eating right. We are both desperately in need of some down time. We were hoping to go for a motorcycle ride this weekend, but now it looks like rain all weekend. Bummer. We'll have to come up with something else fun.

i'm a farmer

Here is a picture of the new little farm in my kitchen. I have started a worm composting system to both fertilize my garden and avoid putting compost material into plastic bags and into a landfill. DH had a problem with having a compost pile in the yard (more of a problem having it on the counter until someone took it out). He's not terribly thrilled with this either, but it doesn't smell bad and I guess he decided it was a lesser evil. I am excited and hope this works out well. I'll keep you all informed.

My stashbusting seems to have come to a standstill. I haven't even been into my sewing room all week.

fabric in this week: 0

fabric out this week: 0
fabric in ytd: 21.75

net fabric out ytd: 6.125