30 June 2023

Friday Fascination

29 June 2023

Purple Reign

We came within one degree of skipping the next pink on Tuesday! Our first 90 of the year, and it nearly skipped a color in my temperature project!

I also ran out of the next pastel purple that same day. The only substitute in my hand-dyed stash is quite a bit different than the thread with which I started. Got to use that yesterday, too. As much as I'm using the lavender/hyacinth hues in the project these days, I think I'm going to dye again. How can I resist!?!

It gives me something glorious to which I can look forward, and I'll have another purple or two I can incorporate into the 2023 temperature project when I run out again, which I'm certain will happen. Maybe not in the next month, but I don't think my existing pastel purples are going to last through December.

I'll probably be using a lot of pinks now in the next couple of months. This definitely is giving me visualization for the charm square and/or batik temperature quilt I want to make with real fabric (as opposed to the virtual temperature quilting I've been doing all year to make sure I want to make a real fabric quilt). I really like the greens, blues and purples in my crochet project. Not really liking the pinks so far. Perhaps the pinks will grow on me as they get used more and more.

27 June 2023

Emptiness

Twenty-nine years and two weeks and six days ago ago, I took up 7 a.m.-3:30 p.m. M-F residence in a hole in the wall not much bigger than a closet to serve my employer as a proofreader. Three or so years later, I moved up the corporate ladder and became an administrative assistant - or secretary - for the first time in my life. In 2003, we (my employer and co-workers) moved two buildings down and six floors higher. Ten years later, my department moved up one floor.


My Silver Anniversary

In December of 2019, I began working from home while Lizard was recovering from surgery. Four months later, the world joined me in Sheltering in Place, Safer at Home.

Sometime in 2022, I was able to go back into the office two or three hours a week, a schedule I would not mind at all if it weren't for the traffic.

And last week, I spent my last three hours in the "old" office we had occupied for 20 years. My floor was the last to be decommissioned. Our new building won't be ready for several weeks. Everyone is working remotely again, just like back in 2020, except now we don't have to treat everyone as if they have cooties.

In corporate world of 10-year leases, I've seen so many changes. From rotary phones, weeklong postal delivery (and photographic film processing), carbon copies, mimeograph copies, Liquid White, shorthand, and manual typewriters to facsimiles, "bat phones", delivery tracking, overnight delivery, digital photography, zerography, electronic document signing, email, and now, Zoom.

The general manager of the office where I work emailed an hour before we vacated the building, asking if I had good photos of us using the building for memorable events. A memory-filled farewell email was being planned. I went through four (personal) external hard drives, two of which no longer work, and found a handful of digital photos I thought might be suitable. Five were used in that final email. The general manager thanked me. And now, we wait for our new digs.

Twenty years is a long time to be in one building. Two decades of a way of life, and now, everything will change again in six to eight weeks. I don't know yet what to expect from the new location, except that I won't have as much file space. Much of the stuff I brought home won't be going back to the office. I'm thinking I should treat the new building as temporary so I won't have so much to remove and discard next time. But I'm also kind of hoping there won't be a next time... Three office moves in 29 years (and six office moves in 37 years) is more than enough for me!

26 June 2023

Snowflake Monday

We weren't able to visit my mother-in-law in May, thanks to yet one more basement flood the day we planned to leave. We finally made our belated Mother's Day visit, and we encountered flurries on the way home! Eisenhower Pass was not quite as dramatic as Pikes Peak, shown below, yet it was super fun to see falling snow in June!

Ride the Rockies was supposed to traverse Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park this year but had to be rerouted due to snow. Trail Ridge Road would have been the highlight of the ride, had we been able to participate, so the reroute would have been a HUGE disappointment for both of us. Fun to reminisce about the times we did Ride the Rockies via Trail Ridge Road, though. Boy, do I ever miss Ride the Rockies!

Today's snowflake is another of the patterns I wrote on my phone, this one back in September of 2017. This was just shy of one year before life so dramatically changed for us. So I'm very curious what inspired it.

Oh, it is so fun to go back and read my journal! I should do this more often!!! Lizard's joy after his first Labor Day Lift Off in Colorado Springs, watching university cyclists training at the Velodome there, a plethora of snowflake inspiration (some of which is inspiring me all over again!!!), calling my brother in New Mexico to (successfully!!!) coach me through starting my 4Runner when it got stuck 120 miles from home, Lizard promising to root for the Dallas Cowboys to thank my brother for helping me, fresh Olathe sweet corn, a hummingbird checking out the beaded snowflakes on my window, autumn colors, designing and finishing quilts for my new grands, holding a late bus in the rain and mud so others running behind me wouldn't have to wait for the next bus...

And yet, there were some memories on the opposite side of the spectrum, too... Sleepless nights, stinky natural dye jars, political unrest, computer crashes, late trains and buses (probably one of the reasons I had extra time to crochet during my September 2017 commutes), squirrels commandeering my bird feeder, kid woes, too many late nights at work, elbow pain, painful physical therapy, skunks trying to nest in our backyard, getting stuck 120 miles from home after senior portraits because the ignition in my 4Runner broke, getting stung and bit while thinning the garden for winter, having to get the Toyota re-keyed...

One day on the train in September of 2017, I wound up careening down a rabbit hole of unpleasant movie synopses while trying to research our solar system. One of the planets or moons led to a movie link, which led to another, and soon I wasn't searching the solar system anymore. I ended up removing a handful of movies from my watch list that day and was still uncomfortable hours later because of some of the plotlines I'd read. This is what I wrote to myself:

"Trust me; do not read trash. You can't get it out of your head. Read scriptures. Listen to wonderful, uplifting music. Focus on blessings. Make snowflakes."

I am SO grateful I didn't include details about whatever disgusted me in my journal! I am so grateful I always try to keep my entries upbeat!

You may do whatever you'd like with snowflakes you make from this pattern, but you may not sell or republish the pattern. Thanks, and enjoy!

Finished Size: 6.5 inches from point to point
Materials: Size 10 crochet thread, size 7 crochet hook, empty pizza box, wax paper or plastic wrap, cellophane tape, water soluble school glue or desired stiffener, water, glitter, small container for glue/water mixture, paintbrush, stick pins that won't be used later for sewing, clear thread or fishing line

Cold Snap Snowflake Instructions

Make magic ring.

Round 1: Ch 2 (counts as 1 dc), 1 dc in ring, [ch 1, 2 dc in ring] 5 times; 1 hdc in 2nd ch of starting ch 2 to form 6th ch 1 point of Round. Pull magic circle tight.

Round 2: Ch 5 (counts as 1 sc and [ch 4), 1 sc in next ch 1 sp] 5 times; ch 2, 1 dc in 1st ch of starting ch 5 to form 6th ch 4 sp of Round.

Round 3: Ch 2 (counts as 1 dc), 2 dc over post of dc directly below, [in next ch 4 sp work (3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc)] 5 times; 3 dc in next ch 4 sp, ch 1, 1 dc in 2nd ch of starting ch 2 to form 6th ch 3 tip of Round.
If you're not reading this pattern on Snowcatcher, you're not reading the designer's blog. Please go here to see the original.

Round 4: Ch 5 (counts as 1 sc and [ch 4), 1 sc in next gap between 3/dc shells, ch 4, in next ch 3 tip work (1 sc, ch 12, 1 sc)] 6 times, omitting last sc of final repeat; sl st in 1st ch of starting ch 5.

Round 5: Ch 2 (counts as 1 dc), [1 sc in next ch 4 sp, ch 3, 1 sc in next ch 4 sp, in next ch 12 spoke work (8 dc, ch 8, 1 dc in 6th ch from hook, ch 8, 1 dc in same ch, ch 5, sl st in same ch, ch 2, 8 dc)] 6 times, omitting last dc of final repeat; sl st in 2nd ch of starting ch 2; bind off. Weave in ends.

Oh, joy! Time for my first Easter egg pattern in a long time! Don't you just LOVE this revised lacy (and spacy!!!) version of the original?!?

Cold Snap II Snowflake Instructions

Make magic ring.

Round 1: Ch 2 (counts as 1 dc), 1 dc in ring, [ch 1, 2 dc in ring] 5 times; 1 hdc in 2nd ch of starting ch 2 to form 6th ch 1 point of Round. Pull magic circle tight.

Round 2: Ch 5 (counts as 1 sc and [ch 4), 1 sc in next ch 1 sp] 5 times; ch 2, 1 dc in 1st ch of starting ch 5 to form 6th ch 4 sp of Round.

Round 3: Ch 2 (counts as 1 dc), 2 dc over post of dc directly below, [in next ch 4 sp work (3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc)] 5 times; 3 dc in next ch 4 sp, ch 1, 1 dc in 2nd ch of starting ch 2 to form 6th ch 3 tip of Round.
If you're not reading this pattern on Snowcatcher, you're not reading the designer's blog. Please go here to see the original.

Round 4: Ch 5 (counts as 1 sc and [ch 4), 1 sc in next gap between 3/dc shells, ch 4, in next ch 3 tip work (1 sc, ch 12, 1 sc)] 6 times, omitting last sc of final repeat; sl st in 1st ch of starting ch 5.

Round 5: Ch 2 (counts as 1 dc), [1 sc in next ch 4 sp, ch 3, 1 sc in next ch 4 sp, in next ch 12 spoke work (1 dc, ch 7, 1 dc, ch 9, 1 dc, ch 7)] 6 times, omitting last dc of final repeat; sl st in 2nd ch of starting ch 2; bind off. Weave in ends.

Finish: Tape wax paper or plastic wrap to top of empty pizza box. Pin snowflake to box on top of wax paper or plastic wrap.

If using glue, mix a few drops of water with a teaspoon of glue in small washable container. Paint snowflake with glue mixture or desired stiffener. Sprinkle lightly with glitter. Wash paintbrush and container thoroughly. Allow snowflake to dry at least 24 hours. Remove pins. Gently peel snowflake from wax paper or plastic wrap. Attach 10-inch clear thread to one spoke, weaving in end. Wrap fishing line around tree branch (or tape to ceiling or any overhead surface) and watch snowflake twirl freely whenever you walk by! Snowflake also may be taped to window or tied to doorknob or cabinet handle.

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