End of an Era

The company I formerly worked at for seven years, TVWorks, will be closing its doors June 25th.   This week I was in London with Sandvine, my current employer, as part of their job fair for recruitment.  It was a strange occasion for me.  I was delighted to see my former co-workers, many of whom are also my friends.  It was like I'd never been gone.  But I'm sad to know that the place is closing down.  Being there in person brought it home to me. But I'm hopeful that I'll end up meeting some of those good people again, in other times at other companies.

Fortunately, this weekend the weather has been a huge pick me up, with blue skies and warmer temperatures.  Garden centers were packed with happy people picking out plantings.  I know, because Jim and I were there too.  We got our front garden weeded and put in a few new plants, something we do every year.  We're not the smartest gardeners.  We plant, and hope.  That's about it.

When we moved here, there was one spindly clematis planted by the garden shed, in heavy shade.  I transplanted it to the front of the house where it roasted to a crisp in dry sandy soil and full light.  After two years, it still wasn't dead, so I gave it a try again over by the side of the house.  This year it has fully recovered and is going gang busters.  I'm seeing lots of growth and many buds.  Brave thing!

And now for the knitting.  Here's a progress pic of my Lizard Ridge:

It's coming along great and still lots of fun to work.  I decided to divide my 20 balls of Noro into three packs of mostly reds and two packs of mostly blues.  This was my little way of putting my personal stamp on a ubiquitous blanket.  I like it fine.

 I'm looking almost halfway there and thinking about casting on a shawl.  It's such a treat for me to knit with Noro, I feel like savouring it.  Plus a shawl is great summer knitting, and there are so many beautiful free patterns out there.

I've lately come to the conclusion that so long as I have yarn and needles there's really nothing to stop me from casting on and abandoning as many WIPs as I want.  I generally get around to finishing them eventually.  Radical thinking I know, but as the song says "If it makes you happy, it can't be that bad..."