A Whining Day

Sewing together parts of a sweater --- essential, but essentially boooring!

When folks retire, they are supposed to have tons of time to relax and do whatever.  Somehow, that doesn’t seem to be the case with me.  I never have any spare time, and I also don’t feel like I ever get anything done.  You have probably noticed the scarcity of blog posts telling you of my fabulous accomplishments.  I am always thinking about things to say, but never am able to set aside a few minutes to say them.  Rebecca and I have been running (actually trotting) twice a week, and that takes some time.  But not that much.  I had some Lenten practices that took a bit of time, but again, not that much.  The best of the Lenten practices was macaroni and cheese every Friday with The Twins.  I used a different recipe – none of them very healthy, but all of them very yummy – every week, and am now trying to decide which one I liked best. But that too, didn’t take much time.  One of my Lenten penances – well, to tell the truth, my only Lenten penance – was to give up my computer card game of Skat with the little mousies Rachael and Lillian.  That in itself should have given me lots of extra time, as  I am such an addict to card games. 

I recently told you about my gardening, and sadly, that one hour or two is the only gardening I have done this season.  The grass is now ankle high in the best spots, and knee high in others.  Gaaaaaah!!

One tiny accomplishment!  A year or more ago, a bunch of friends and I (including Rebecca and Ana) all knitted the same sweater – a rather complex Alice Starmore pattern, for those in the know.  Everyone else’s was adorable – sleek, chic, and well fitting. Mine would have fit an orangutan! With horror, I realized that I had made a tragic gauge error.  Major Bummer!  I was filled with envy every time they wore theirs.  I finally started wearing mine to bed, so as go get some use out of it.  Then I decided to make another one, just to show that I could, and this time, use the proper size needles, so as to get the correct gauge.  I knit the body and sleeves of the sweater (i.e., 95% of the project) relatively quickly, but I think that fear of another failure stalled me completely at that point.  I just kept making excuses (Christmas knitting, just have to make this scarf, really need another pair of gloves, Becca needs new socks, etc.) and so not doing the collar.  Finally I knit about half of the collar and then found more excuses.  When I went back to the collar, I couldn’t figure out where I had left off and so had to start it over.  Another reason to put the whole project aside.  Realizing how silly this all was, I put the parts of the sweater in a box, and put the box in the middle of my dining room table where it could nag me.  The nagging didn’t really help. Then my pal Peggy came over for a knitting morning.  The perfect time to do an hideously boring task.  Charming company makes light work of the odious. I got the sweater body half sewn together.  Another visit from a friend, and I got the second half and the sleeves done.   At that point, I could see that the sweater would probably fit.  Finally, I was inspired to do the collar, which I just finished.  Now I am on the home stretch, and expect to have the whole thing done any day.  If the horrible weather holds up, I will even be able to wear it this season.  So, I feel like I have accomplished at least one thing.  Yay!

The light at the end of the tunnel has finally come into view.

I even had prepared some flashback photos of my darling little Easter Mousie Rachael for an Easter message, and then was too lazy busy to do the post. 

Rachael with her chocolate bunny.

Gathering Easter Rabbit largesse.