Approaching the Finish Line

Finishing Noon and NIght—The Quilt—is not the end of that project. Finishing Noon and Night—The Pattern—is the end of that project. I’d say the pattern is about 85% complete, but it’s that last 15% that seems to take forever as it involves chasing down all the details. Right now, finishing the pattern is the only item on my to-do list for next week.

I finished and bound off a prayer shawl last night while the husband and I were watching the latest Unloose the Goose episode on YouTube. The shawl still needs fringe, which I’ll probably attach tonight so I can take the shawl to church with me tomorrow. We keep 3-4 shawls out on a quilt rack in the foyer so that anyone who needs one can take one, and the rest are in a storage bin in the sewing room. I also picked up more Lion Brand Homespun at Joann’s yesterday. I usually stock up this time of year because it’s on sale (it’s 40% off right now), but the stock has been limited for months now. (Some of it stays here at my house and some is kept at the church for the other knitters to take as needed.) I need four skeins for one shawl, but lately, Joanns has only had 2-3 skeins of each color in stock. I was able to find enough of a dark blue in the same dyelot. We try to keep good mix of bright- and somber-colored shawls on hand. The shawl I just finished was hot pink, so it’s time for something more sedate.

[I have another shawl on the needles, but it’s in the knitting bag I take to church so I can knit during the sermon. I work on that one until it gets too big and unwieldy and then bring it home to finish it here. That shawl gets replaced in the knitting bag with a new shawl. I like my system—it’s all about keeping stuff in the pipeline.]

I did a Costco run yesterday. I have been checking there for Mechanix work gloves. The husband watches a YouTube channel called Den of Tools with—I kid you not—some guy dressed up in a bear costume doing tool reviews. Sometimes, I also watch Den of Tools (and try not to giggle). The husband tells me that the guy who does Den of Tools lives in Bozeman. A few weeks ago, the Tool Bear mentioned that their Costco had Mechanix gloves for sale. I really like the Mechanix gloves when I can find them in my size, but our Costco hasn’t had any, in any size. They did, however, have these:

These are the same “gummy gloves” I bought at the quilt store last week. They are billed as gardening gloves and come 10 pair to a package for $9.99. I am going to keep a couple pair in here for quilting and put the rest in the greenhouse as I never seem to have enough gardening gloves. I was able to try these on at Costco. They only come in one size but they fit my hands nicely.

Given the problems we had last spring, I put my seed order in early. The seeds arrived this week:

This will be filled out with the seeds I saved from the tomatoes last year. I plant the same things year after year, sticking to what I know will grow and produce well. Gardening here is enough of a tightrope walk that I don’t need to add to the uncertainty by experimenting with anything unusual.

Cathy texted me the other night to tell me that the meat processor we both use—she raises Dexter cattle—is closing. They called her to ask if she could move up a butchering date. Apparently, their building has been sold. (I wonder if that was a surprise to everyone involved except the seller and the buyer.) I’m hoping they can find another location, but just in case, I’ll need to start calling around to see if we can get on the schedule at a different processor. I am so unhappy about this. We really liked that processor. I am mostly annoyed at the federal government (which is nothing new) for making the barrier to entry so high that no one can come in and start a meat processing plant in an area that desperately needs one. But hey, a giant corporation will be happy to sell you meat raised in China.