Bliss

Happy Sunday!  I hope you're safe and well on this lovely Autumn day!  We're good here!

I realize we're in the middle of a whole lot of upheaval right now, but I wanted to focus on some happier aspects (well, yarn is always happy, even when it's wrong and has to be started over).

One of the reasons I'm so happy today is that I had QUITE THE AWESOME DAY yesterday.  I ended up with an impressive lineup of virtual and live visits with dear friends!

In the morning I got to spend time with LL and her snoring pug.  LL is the one who connected me with my upcoming gig, although she's terrific for a lot of other reasons as well!

The Ws paid us a live visit that afternoon - although it was bittersweet since it's the last visit we'll have in any form until they're headed back to FL.  But we had a great time talking, knitting, and playing fetch with Benson.  Who, by the way, did not try to eat them at all, and had lots of fun with everyone.

As soon as they left, Oogyhubby began making delicious dumplings and lo mein for dinner.  And this happened:

JW did wear Benson out with all the fetching, but this is the dog who, when we got him 3-1/2 months ago, would not sleep at all during the day, let alone sleep on the floor without his bed, let alone in his deep sleep dog ball position!  Of course it only lasted about 20-30 minutes, but he is indeed making progress.  The Ws did a lot of work helping Benson get used to having other people around us and in our house, which we couldn't have done without them.

Inbetween the dumplings and the lo mein I had a great virtual visit with Neuro, who has (of course) finished her hat and started another.  We toasted each other with Manhattans, and we always have lots to talk about and always have a lot of fun.

So even though today will be filled with more mundane activities, I now carry with me a lot of new and happy memories to cherish.  Lucky me!!

In yarn news - I've started the fourth and final clue of the Casapinka Cowl, and although I messed up one of the stitch patterns I kept it for the repeat because no one will ever know.  I've also made some more progress on the yoga sock.

Casapinka has announced two more KALs in the coming weeks, and I'm planning to do both of them.  I expect both of them will be in her KAL style, which is stripes of various colors and textures (such as the shawl and cowl have been).  The first one, a blanket, starts at the end of October and the second one, another shawl, starts on December 1.  I've, um, ordered yarns for each as a belated b-day gift to myself.

Yes, there's still other holiday knitting planned, and I'll need to figure out how it will all get juggled.  That's part of the fun!

In wildlife news - the deer are still wandering around, and a couple of the cats have been very visible in the last few days as well.  The orange cat was walking across the deck yesterday and if the door had been open there would now be a Benson-shaped hole in the screen!