Missouri Star

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Breaking news - I have made yarn:

This is my first official skein of yarn.  The fiber was given to me by the owner of the shop where I bought my Traveler.  She referred to it as Icelandic wool and said it is from a sheep on Whidbey Island.  Local yarn, no less!  I am quite proud of it.  It's a little bumpy and thick and thin, but that's to be expected for my first try.  And not all of the bumps are totally due to my inexpertise.  The fiber actually had some slubs in it, so there was no getting around them.  They do tend to hide my little glitches, though.

This is my second go around and I think I am actually getting a little better:

Not sure what this will end up, but it seems to be at least a fingering weight single (possibly finer in sections).  I'm looking forward to a great time this Saturday when I go to my first spinning get together with my wheel.  My friend is picking me up for a St. Distaff's Day spin-in.  It should be lots of fun.

In other fibery news - I finished both the Nutkins and a Flower Basket scarf:

The Nutkins were given to my sister for Christmas and the scarf to my best friend.  I also finished Sue's Swallowtail Shawl, but it still needs blocking.  This now leaves me with only two projects on the needle, the Reversing Tide scarf and the Creideamh Shawl.  The shawl is getting very close to being done.  See?

Yes, lace knitting is indeed a leap of faith.  Without any way to spread out my work and check it I'm assuming that since each successive row lines up with the one before, I'm good.  It's always worked before and I am confident it will this time.  If all goes well, I hope to complete this before I start the mystery KAL on January 10th.  Retirement has indeed made me more productive!!

This was the first Christmas with the whole family nearby and it was as wonderful as we hoped.  The girls were very excited, but also very grateful for the gifts they received.  One of their favorites was a dress-up box that my sister (with a little help from me) put together.  Two lovely ladies ready to go shopping:

Robes sewn for them by Nana.  And I have to share this picture that hubby took at my retirement party:

Could that not be a Christmas card?  However, don't let the angelic expression fool you:

 

After Christmas I went home with my sister for my birthday treat.  We spent a fun day ice skating, dining out, shopping and a movie (Avatar - a wonderful, magical treat).   I haven't been ice skating in probably 30 years and I managed not to break my 60-year-old neck!

Hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable New Year.  We're meeting the kids for a daytime party at the Children's Museum, early dinner and home by 8:00.  We always have been real party animals.  Happy New Year everyone!

The First Week

I have the first week of retirement under my belt and am ready to determine it all good!  I do have to admit to a little disorientation.  Hubby and I kept thinking every day was the weekend!  We would get ready to do things that we normally do on Friday or Saturday and then realize that it was the middle of the week!  If that's the only downside, I think we can get used to it fairly quickly.

Where to begin?  How about at the beginning?  Saturday was a big retirement/birthday party for me at the original doc's house.  I was so humbled by the amazing outpouring of love and appreciation.  There were about 20 people there, including former employees and my favorite former doc, who attended via webcam.  Ben & Abby and the girls and my sister were there and it was an absolutely wonderful night.  Some of the gifts were even fibery - here's Isobel trying to cop my wool:

And two dozen beautiful pink roses - one for each year:

The week started off with lots and lots to do.  I think everyone is right - whenever did I find time to work??  There was Christmas sewing to do (pictures after Christmas) and even a little leisure time visiting some knitting projects.  I started Sue's Swallowtail shawl and made decent progress - I've finished the body and started the first Lily of the Valley border:

 

Notice the little dog nose.  Maggie thinks she needs to be included in everything.  I decided I needed to get this done before starting the Enchanted Wood Mystery Shawl in January.  And, spurred on by Kris, I started a pair of Nutkin socks.

This is a fun little pattern.  I'm not ready to do multiple pairs, but am enjoying the process.  Work also continues on a Reversing Tide scarf. 

This is a great, almost mindless pattern - very easy to memorize.  The scarf is reversible, but has a different pattern on each side.  The yarn is a lovely handpainted merino that came in one of my Embrace the Lace shipments.  It was intended for knee socks, so the yardage is substantial.  I just couldn't see this as knee socks, but it's making a beautiful scarf (maybe two!).

This weekend was busy with granddaughterly doings.  We met the family at Warm Beach Camp for the Lights of Christmas.  The whole camp is decorated with millions of Christmas lights.  And, of course, the obligatory visit with Santa:

The girls really enjoyed it and we took them home with us for a sleep over, giving Ben & Abby a few childless hours.  The next day we took them home, dumped them off and then went on a Christmas dinner cruise, given to us by the new doc and his wife as a retirement present.

By the end of the day we were exhausted!  Definitely a surplus of excitement, if there can be such a thing.  Today will be a relaxing day.  After church I will be playing with my new toy.  Oh, didn't I mention??  Friday I took delivery of this - some assembly required:

After two hours, this is the result:

It's an Ashford Traveller.  After much research I felt that I couldn't go wrong with an Ashford.  On Thursday I attended a local spinning group and was welcomed with open arms.  I think the ladies were really excited at getting their hands on a newbie!  They've set me up with workshops, spin-ins and offered to give me all the guidance and lessons I could possibly use.  Oh my - when did I have time to work???

I hope all of you have a very blessed Christmas.  This year, especially, we are counting our blessings.  We are so grateful for the good health and prosperity that God has given us, along with the blessings of a family that is near and time to enjoy them.  But most of all we are grateful for the gift of God's Son sent to us.  May His peace be with all of you.  Merry Christmas!

A New Beginning

It's hard to believe that the day has finally come!  This whole week has been a little surreal and yesterday was no exception.  I have to admit the last day was wonderful.  In some respects it was business as usual.  There were still patients to be greeted, insurance problems to be solved and personnel issues to be discussed.  But throughout it all was the constant thought that this time would be the last time that I did each of these tasks.  The day started off very nicely with a desk piled high with cards and a dozen red roses from the original doc and his wife:

The new doc took us all out to lunch to celebrate my and the original doc's birthday (we share the same birthday, but I'm a year older than he is).  I thought I was going to be able to hold it all together until about the last hour.  The original doc's wife came by to bid me farewell and tell me how much my being office manager has meant to them.  Her husband gave me a touching card telling me that I am one of the most competent people he's ever known (high praise in my book!).  Then the doc who just sold the practice called from California.  He told me how much my being his office manager had meant to him.  He said that for 10 years I had kept him organized at work and was truly his "work wife" (our little joke).  He said that he and his real wife were so grateful for how easy I had made his life. 

The interesting thing is that through all of this the new doc remained strangely silent.  Although he took us out to lunch, he does that for every employee on his or her birthday.  He never said a personal word of congratulations or thanks to me.  But this was perfectly ok as it confirmed that I was making the right choice - as if there was any doubt!

Last night I had a defining moment.  I usually wake up in the middle of the night and have a hard time falling back to sleep because my mind is racing with worries and concerns about work.  Last night I woke up and in that half asleep/half awake state I visualized a bunch of folders.  The largest one was labeled "Work".  I opened it up and it was empty!  So I rolled over and went back to sleep.

My random number generator (hubby) picked a number and the winner of the Swallowtail Shawl is Sue - Cody Country Knitter.  Congratulations Sue!  I have already been in contact with her and she wants a white shawl.  Perfect in my opinion.

And now let the party begin:

The Home Stretch

It's really getting close now - only 4 more working days until retirement.  There were a few days this past week when I wasn't so sure it was going to happen, though.  We promoted from within to fill my position and then hired a new person.  This past week she was admitted to the hospital with suspected appendicitis.  She is still in the hospital, though, while the doctors try to figure out exactly what is going on.  As she said, "They've ruled a lot of things out, but nothing in."  This created a real dilemma for me.  Our front office is basically a two-woman operation.  Could I really go off and leave the other one in the lurch?  Thankfully, my problem solving skills kicked into overdrive.  We are entering a very slow season and the schedule is pretty empty, necessitating having dental assistants take unscheduled time off.  This next week I will pull one of the assistants up front and do a crash course on front office skills.  Everyone is happy.  The dental assistant is happy because she doesn't have to take time off, the other lady is happy at not having to run the office by herself, the new girl is happy because her job is being held for her and I'm downright giddy that I get to retire in 4 (count 'em!) days!!

A really bright spot in the past week has been some intense fiber enhancement.  The Friday after Thanksgiving saw the arrival of two packages.  The first contained my new Embrace the Lace shipment.  It has the softest camel colored wool along with a cute pattern for a matching cowl and fingerless mitts.  

I had momentary thoughts of diving in and knitting these for a Christmas present, but therein lies madness.  I squelched that thought pretty quickly and will address that pattern when I have more time.

The other package was a beginning spindling kit.  Hmmm - was it just a few months ago that I said I wasn't going to take up spinning?  As Lorette says, "Never say never!"  I seem to have become slightly obsessed with the idea of spinning.  I started with the spindle and have managed to spin some incredibly crappy yarn:

I will still keep playing around with it, but this has convinced me that I want a wheel.  I've spent hours poring over the internet, reading Ravelry groups and different articles.  Double drive vs. single drive, single treadle, double treadle, finished or unfinished, Lendrum, Kromski or Ashford?  It seems the more I read, the more confused I get.  However, our LYS sells Ashfords and I stopped in yesterday to talk to the owner.  I have an appointment today to go and try out a Traveller.  I think I'm leaning in that direction simply because she's local and will give free lessons.  She's also available for advice and coaching.  Living in a slightly remote area as we do I'm thinking that is a clear advantage.  In addition, I've been invited to join a spinning group that meets here locally every week, even if I do not yet have a wheel.  Regardless, the actually purchase will have to wait until after Christmas.  I don't need any distractions between now and then.  However, I have already begun buying fiber!  This lovely roving from Corgi Hills Farm just arrived on my doorstop:

This had to be the best customer service ever.  I ordered it and seriously - within 10 minutes I had notice that it had shipped.  Was the postman waiting on her doorstep?  I had it within just a few days and she included some beautiful samples as well.   This is so beautiful that it is going to have to wait until I hone my skills a little bit.

Another package arrived a few days after the first two.  I was a little puzzled because I didn't remember ordering anything else.  Turns out this is a Mystery Shawl group I had joined several months ago.  The mystery begins in January and they were holding off on shipping the yarn until November.  I had completely forgotten about it!  This is the Enchanted Wood Lace Shawl Knitalong.  The yarn comes in gradations and you use them in order (forward or backward doesn't matter as long as you use them in order).  I've never done a mystery shawl and I think it will be great fun.

Oh, and knitting peace?  I think I may have somewhat achieved it.  I am down to three projects, as long as you don't count the Dale sweater that has been hibernating for several years.  I have one lace shawl, a pair of socks and a scarf:

The scarf is for the Red Scarf project.  Not sure if I'll finish it before the deadline of December 15th, but if not I'll save it for next year.  Of course, knitting on it is such a pleasure since hubby gave me my Christmas present early:

 

Dog added for scale. It's a Varilux light and I love it!  No eye strain and it has a perfect little shelf for all of my knitting doo-dads. 

Well, off for a busy day.  I seem to have done something to my serger so I have to run it down to the south of the island for repair.  It will be a nice road trip for me and Maggie. 

Late breaking news - I came home from our road trip to find this in my mailbox:

I'm pretty sure I have The Knitting Doctor to thank.  Thanks Lorette!

Thanks Be to God

We have so many things for which to be thankful this year.  Yesterday we went down to Snohomish and spent our first Thanksgiving ever with our biggest blessings:

Abby cooked her first Thanksgiving dinner and it was wonderful.  It was probably one of the most relaxed Thanksgivings I've had in a long time.  I didn't have to do a thing!

I was also able to deliver some knitted goodies to her.  Her cable and rib jacket was all finished, including the zipper, and I'm happy to report it fit her perfectly:

I also delivered her Coriolis birthday socks:

They turned out just a little large for her, especially in the heel, but I think they'll suffice for keeping her toes toasty on these damp, cool Pacific Northwest winter mornings.

I especially want to give thanks this year for my mother-in-law, Ruth.

Despite some very difficult odds, she managed to raise a wonderful, caring son (along with 4 other wonderful children).  She's been a kind, compassionate mother-in-law to me for over 37 years.  On Thanksgiving day she suffered  a heart attack.  At first they didn't think the damage was too great, but further tests showed significant damage to her heart.  She has been declining rapidly over the past few months and her doctor has recommended that she begin receiving hospice care.  She's still in the hospital, but the hope is that in the next few days she'll be able to return to the adult care home that she's been living in for the past few years.  They are set up to care for her there and it will be a familiar place to her.  We are all praying for peace and a comfortable, pain-free situation for her as she enters into the last days of her life.

One of the things I’ve been coming to terms with the past couple of weeks is letting go.  I suppose everyone who has worked at a job for as long as I have (over 24 years) feels a certain sense of ownership.  In my case it was strengthened by the fact that the original doc and I literally opened the doors together.  I was with him the first day he started seeing patients in this office.  I’ve seen the practice grow from only having about 20 patients to having over 3,000.  During that time I’ve been given a great deal of say in how the practice has been developed and have had a great deal of responsibility.  When the practice sold 10 years ago, the new doc was even more accepting of my involvement and made me feel like a real partner.

 

With the new ownership all of that has changed.  It’s probably fortuitous that my plans for retirement have coincided with the change.  I’m not sure I could have stayed on otherwise.  But I’m also having to grasp the fact that the practice I’m leaving is not the practice I’ve spent 24 years building up.  That’s really hard, but I think I’m coming to accept it.  I have to, because I can’t change it.  But accepting it is making my last few days a little easier.  I’m teaching as much as I can, but what the new ownership has the employees do with that is their decision and one that the practice will have to live with.  I can leave with my head held high knowing that I did all I could to make the practice successful.

 

I’m now looking forward to a whole new chapter of my life.  My emphasis will be totally altered – from business/medical oriented to an opportunity to indulge in artistic endeavors.  I’m looking forward to concentrating more on my quilting.  I have a competition quilt that I would like to finish in 2010, along with an embroidered quilt for Abby.  Quilts for the girls’ bedroom are on the agenda and I would like to be more proactive in either altering knitting patterns to suit me more or designing my own.  I hope to have more time to exercise and do yoga.  Maggie and I have started agility training and I look forward to the day when we can compete.  I’d like to take up some new interests – improve my photography skills and learn to use my camera and maybe even eventually dabble in spinning.  And of course, continue on with my scrapbooking.  Whew!  I’m exhausted just thinking about all of the possibilities.

 

A lot of people have asked how we can afford to retire so “young”.  I’ll get on my soapbox a little, but bear with me and there will be a payoff at the end – I promise.  A lot of that has to do with my husband’s defined pension plan.  He was offered a cash bonus for early retirement at age 55 and jumped at it.  But we wouldn’t have even been able to afford that if we hadn’t run across Mary Hunt many years ago.  Mary has a website called debtproofliving.com.  I highly recommend it.  Her philosophy is to give away 10% of your income, save 10% and live on 80%.  She calls this “living below your means”.  The central tool in all of this is to carry no debt.   We began living that lifestyle.  We used our credit card so we could earn air miles, but we paid it off every month.  We made it a goal to pay off all of our debts except our mortgage (and we’re working on paying that off early) and not to go into new debt for anything.  If we couldn’t afford it, we did without or waited until we had the money. 

 

You might think this would cramp our lifestyle, but in contrast we felt very liberated.  When you jump off the great American consumer machine you feel such freedom.  You no longer have to “have it all”.  I like Mary’s quote, “Because I live frugally doesn’t mean I don’t spend money. It means I spend money thoughtfully and with a sense of discipline and purpose. As my life is blessed and my income increases, 80 percent increases as well.”  We’ve learned to manage our money instead of letting it manage us.   When the recession came and we watched our investments tumble, we felt a little concern, but not panic.  In fact, we’ve decided to live off hubby’s retirement and leave mine to sit for a few years and gain back some of the losses.  One of the biggest impacts on our life with being debt free is that we have choices.   We choose where our money will go, knowing that it is not a bottomless well!  When your money is going to pay high interest rates on credit cards, you can’t choose.  The bank or credit card company chooses for you.  And as of now, they can choose to jack up your interest rate at any time and for any reason!  That is bondage!!

 

Ok, so I told you that if you managed to wade through my lecture (and a post with no knitting content and no pictures), there would be a payoff at the end.  To celebrate my retirement, I’ve decided to do my very first giveaway!  Leave me a comment and you’ll go into a drawing for a Swallowtail Shawl, made in your choice of color.  All comments made from now until my retirement date of December 10^th are eligible (except in all fairness I probably have to disqualify any family members – but they can contact me and I’ll do a shawl for them anyway!).   Each comment will be numbered and I will use a random number generator to choose.  Just be forewarned that the knitting will have to wait until January.  I plan on spending the first three weeks of my retirement relaxing and playing with my granddaughters!

 

 

 

Organization

One of the first things I'm going to do when I retire is get myself organized!  Remember you heard it here first and you can laugh at me later.  I decided my goal for this weekend was to finally seam two sweaters that had been languishing in a basket by my bedside for way too long.  At least I thought they were languishing in the basket by my bedside.  I decided to tackle Abby's Cable and Rib Jacket first.  Only problem was - I couldn't find it!  How can you lose a project like that along with about 10 remaining skeins of yarn??  I realize that with everyone living here for two months things were pretty unorganized, but it's a small house.  How far could it have gone?  After about a half hour of searching I found it and successfully finished it except for the zipper:

I had to special order the zipper, but with any luck it will come this week and I can take it to Abby on Thanksgiving.  Speaking of Thanksgiving, Abby is doing her first official family Thanksgiving dinner this year and her menu sounds delish!

Saturday I finished up hubby's Torgeir:

 

Sorry for the crappy picture, but daylight is in scant supply here and the flash washes out the details.  One of the first things I'm doing when I retire is take a photography class.

The sleeves came out a little longer than I had expected - one of the downfalls of a dropped shoulder.  But all in all he seems to be pleased and I'm very pleased to have two projects checked off my list.  In discussion with Marguerite, I am seriously revisiting the idea of only having 3 (or maybe 4) projects going at a time.  Ok, you can stop laughing now.  We call it "Knitting Peace" and I do want to have more discipline in my projects.  I'm thinking that a shawl, a pair of socks and a sweater would give me enough variety to keep my brain stimulated.  The only reason that I would throw a 4th in would be if the other three were not good traveling projects.  Gotta have a traveling project for those trips down to Snohomish.

And, speaking of trips - we popped down to see the kids over the weekend.  Ben needed hubby's help with a project and Abby and I took the girls over to see my sister.  We also wanted to take Maggie down to see how she would fare with the other dogs in a different environment.  She's definitely an alpha female and we didn't know if she would try to assert her dominance on their dogs' territory.  Turns out she did fine - the only scuffle was when she and their dog went after a toy at the same time.

We had a great time at agility tonight and the trainer gave me some tips on handling Maggie's aggressiveness.  She explained that Maggie is indeed an alpha bitch and she considers it her job to keep all the other dogs in line - however she does it by aggression.  We have tried controlling it with positive reinforcement, but it just hasn't worked, so the handler suggested some negative reinforcement - every time she got aggressive I was to grab her collar and shake her while yelling "No!" That's just what she needed.  After just three times she calmed down and coexisted peacefully for the rest of the evening.  I guess she just needed to know I was more alpha than she was!  Just don't call me a bitch!

How Quiet is Too Quiet?

It is amazingly quiet here!  No toys to trip over.  No baby locks to struggle with when I try to get in a cabinet.  I can leave my knitting lying on a table and it's still there (and on the needles) when I return.  I don't have to worry about my hot coffee sitting on the edge of a table.  However, there also are no little voices calling, "Nana! Nana" first thing in the morning and no hugs and kisses to greet me when I get up.  But those hugs and kisses are only an hour and a half away.  I'm not saying that the past two months have slightly fried my brain, but when I was getting laundry out of the linen closet today, I found a cup of coffee in there!  I don't know how long it's been in there, but I'm thinking weeks.  I know it was mine because I'm the only one in the household who takes cream!

Ben & Abby finally moved into their house last weekend.  We kept the girls for the weekend while they got things organized.  Since we had the girls for Halloween, we took them trick or treating.  A local church had a great festival and even had a professional photographer doing free photos:

 

On the way down to deliver the girls to their new home I told Isobel that we were going to their new house.  I told her that she would be living there with Mommy and Daddy, but that Nana and Yeh-Yeh could come visit her often.  She said, "And you can watch me grow up!"  I got a little teary eyed at that one.  Out of the mouths of babes!  Poor Ivy was so sad, she cried all the way down.  Not screaming, just quietly sobbing.  I think she was tired and missing her parents.  When we drove up to the house and she saw Abby, she was SO happy.  And when she walked into the house and saw all of her familiar toys, she was grinning from ear to ear. 

So life is settling back to normal.  We are enjoying the peace and quiet so much.  I have begun knitting again and have started two new projects:

 

These will be Abby's birthday socks - she chose Coriolis.  I think it's a good choice - she wanted something fairly plain, but I wanted something interesting to knit.  Oh, and don't freak out Abby - the yarn really is grey - it's Dream in Color Smooshy.

I also started on a  Flower Basket scarf to go into the Christmas basket:

 

I'm using a lovely fingering weight alpaca/wool mix, but I'm too lazy to get up out of my chair and check the ball band.

I also got a goody in the mail this week.  Lorette had blogged about a neat little container for stitch markers and what-not.  I love little containers almost as much as I love tote bags and ordered one immediately.  How cute:

 

I ordered it here, but who knows if there are any left.  I imagine Lorette caused a run on them!

The countdown to retirement continues - only 18 1/2 working days!!  Are you tired of hearing about it yet?  It just seems that the drama is such a large part of my life right now.  Every time I turn around I discover yet another boneheaded move by the computer guys that makes my work more difficult.  Starting tomorrow, though, I get to do one of my favorite things - teach.  Our new employee starts and I think I'm really going to enjoy the training aspect.  

Speaking of learning, I've spent most of this weekend learning myself.  I got my new copy of Photoshop Elements 8 for the Mac and have been going through Linda Sattgast's marvelous tutorial.  I can't say enough for her video. I made four scrapbook pages, but they'll have to wait for another post.  I'm debating whether to start another blog just for scrapbooking.  What do you think?  One all purpose blog or two specialty ones?

The Light at the End

Two lights are emerging at the end of the tunnel and neither one appears to be an oncoming train!  Ben and Abby are moving into their house today.  Yesterday Abby and hubby (mine, not hers!) went down and cleaned the new house to a fare-thee-well.  Ben stayed here with me and helped with the girls and attempted to get things on this end organized.  This morning they loaded a 17-ft. U-Haul and they were off.  We will keep the girls for the night and deliver them down tomorrow.  We almost hit a major snag when we realized that they had taken off with both keys to their car with the car seats that we were going to use to take the girls home tomorrow!  Thankfully, Ben's friend's parents are there and coming back here tonight, so they're bringing the keys.  Whew!! 

Of course, this means we get the girls for Halloween for the first time.  We really weren't going to do anything, but Grandpa couldn't resist some cute costumes he saw at Wal-Mart and came home with them.  He is such a softie!

 

Currently Mei-Mei is napping and Yeh-Yeh and Isobel are carving a Jack-o-Lantern.  Isobel is especially fascinated by the "pumpkin goo".

 

The other light is, of course, retirement, which looms ever closer.  Things at work have been especially difficult and I decided this week that I really needed an attitude adjustment.  There is so much that I cannot change so I need to really focus on anything positive so that I can leave in the best light possible.  The wife of the older doc, who was the first owner of the practice, asked me the other day if I would be coming back after I retire as a consultant.  I told her that I hadn't been asked and I would have to make a decision depending on the circumstances.  The only thing, is that so far, they haven't asked my opinion on much and when they have asked it, don't follow my suggestions.  It's hard to believe they would want me back after I leave, but I suppose it depends on how desparate they get.

I'm really looking forward to getting back to some more challenging knitting projects.  Everything has been in such turmoil for the past two months, I simply could not focus on anything even remotely intricate.  Plain old stockinette has done it.  I have, however, finished two Wonderful Wallabies:

 

 

And I also made a contribution to our Thing 1 and Thing 2 costumes:

 

Yes, those are Hallowigs!

So, tomorrow, things get back to "normal", whatever that is.  I will, however, miss coming home to Mei-Mei running up to me, wanting a cuddle and saying, "I missed you Nana".  And, of course, sharing spaghetti ala Lady and the Tramp:

 

But all of that is only an hour and a half away!
   

Foot for Thought

No, that's not a typo.  Recently Marguerite and I were chatting about Cookie A's book, Sock Innovations.  When it first came out, we both expressed our intentions of knitting every sock in the book - we were so in love with them.  Marguerite has come a lot closer to that goal than I have, having completed several pairs.  I haven't even completed one.  We were discussing her experience that while the socks are indeed lovely, they are not quite as well fitting or wearable as a lot of the "Plain Jane" socks we love and wear almost every day.  Which begs the question, "Why knit them?"  The case could be made that they are works of art.  As I explained, I could knit shawls for the rest of my life and never wear a one because I consider them works of art.   But socks?  If they were works of art, you'd only have to knit one!  So this is indeed "foot for thought" and I am reconsidering my goal.  Of course, it's an entirely moot point now because my knitting time is mostly engaged in completely mindless stockinette stitch sweaters for little bodies.  I did complete Isobel's and I don't think it's been off her body except for a quick trip through the washer:

Note the blueberry face!  Given her love of blueberries, I think the choice of yarn was perfect.

Mei-Mei is currently wearing the Wonderful Wallaby I made for Isobel when she was a baby:

It's a little snug but does the trick.  Her new one is in the works and I just finished fusing the pocket to the body.

Wonder of wonders, I did manage about an hour of sewing in my sewing room yesterday.  I asked hubby if he would help Abby keep an eye on the girls and snuck in there for some solitude and quality time with my sewing machine.  It was a challenge - all of Ben & Abby's luggage is there, but I managed to clear a little hole for myself and finished the blocks I've been working on for a mystery quilt I'm doing with friends:

I can't remember if I've mentioned this group or not, but it's a small group that's alternated between 4-6 members.  We've been meeting for over 10 years.  At times we do a Round Robin project, other times mystery quilts or just help out on blocks for each other.  We've done some pretty mind boggling projects, and others that are just simple.  Regardless, they are a wonderful group of ladies and we so enjoy our time together.  Next time we meet I'll try to remember to take some pictures.

I'm plugging along at work, literally counting the days (down to 60!!).  Things have not been easy.  I think I finally figured out why the new doc and I are a little like oil and water.  The two previous docs have always treated me like an equal partner.  The new doc treats us as if he is the captain of the ship and we are his crew (not surprising - he is a former Navy Captain).  Don't get me wrong, he's a great human being and a great doc and is kind and compassionate.  But there is no question that I am just an employee.  Many administrative privileges that I had have been taken away.  This is not necessarily wrong, but just a different management style and one that I am not used to.  I've tried very hard not to make waves because it really doesn't make any difference.  However, I do think it is good that I'm retiring and making way for someone who isn't used to the previous regime.  We will be promoting someone from within to my spot, but she's only been with the practice five years and will not expect, or even desire, the amount of responsibility I was accustomed to.  Tomorrow I start interviewing candidates for her replacement.  With any luck we will have someone by the end of the week and I can start training.

I leave you with more granddaughterly adorableness: