Monday, July 28, 2008

Lazy Days of Summer

The camps have ended and the kids are sleeping in. They actually were looking forward to a week with no obligations, and they have advised me that it is my job this week to take them to the pool as much as possible. They want to see their friends and they want to stay in their PJs as much as possible as well. So, I'm wondering, the ideal week would be one in which they could meet their friends at the pool and swim in their PJs? I dunno. We'll see what we can do, I told them.

The play for Catgirl's drama camp was adorable. When we come to the big family wedding in a couple of weeks, we will bring much video for everyone's viewing pleasure: we have the play and the 95 degree piano recital from June.

New socks!
I'm working on these for this week's deadline in the Summer of Socks:
Fern Leaf Lace Sock #1
This is the first sock; the second is almost done as well. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in the Baltic Sea colorway, and it is wonderful to knit. It is very soft and the colors are gorgeous. I don't know how well the yarn will hold up over time, but right now I am in love with these socks. I used the Fern Leaf Lace stitch from More Sensational Knitted Socks, and the sportweight heel from Wendy's standard recipe.

In other sock news, I finished the first and am chugging along on the second Boyfriend Sock. It looks great, but the dark color of the yarn and the small needles make it a little less attractive to work on at times. I did forsake it for a while, turning to the Fern Leaf Lace socks, but I do want to finish it soon. I ripped out the Lotus Toes toe. Couldn't make it work for anything. I'll try again later. The Seaweed socks are proceeding very slowly because the yarn is really not my cup of tea.

The Jungle
The garden has reached that point in the summer where it would be more accurately described as a vegetable jungle.
Garden in JulyTomato bonanza!
The tomato plants have gone crazy and the zucchini plants churning out a zucchini every day. Even the broccoli plants still are giving me little florets here and there. I need to rip them out, but the guinea pig is enjoying their continued production for the time being. I planted bush beans, but the same varmint that ate all my chard in the spring is eating the bean leaves. As in the spring, said varmint is eating only that one thing and nothing else. Why?!

"Put on the Murder, Mom."
I downloaded the audiobook version of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express to listen to in the car with the kids and they are really into it. They make me pause the playback every few minutes so they can update me on how their theories have changed in light of the new evidence Poirot has obtained. It's a lot of fun. It's interesting for me, already knowing the ending, in that I am hearing a lot more real clues early on in the book than I remember noticing when I read it all those years ago. I loved Agatha Christie books when I was younger, but I became angry with her at times because it seemed like there was no way that readers could solve her mysteries. We just did not have all the onformation that Hercule Poirot had--at least until he would hold his big "this is how it all happened" conference at the end of the book. But I must admit, there are a few little tidbits of information dropped early on in this book, if you know what you are looking for.

I just found out that I was one of the winners in a contest on the Mason Dixon Knitting blog--I'm going to get a signed copy of their new book when it comes out in September! I am very excited; I loved their first book. And I won something! Woohoo! Ok, gushing over. :o)

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Random Summer Thoughts

Putting the "Sport" in Sport Utility Vehicle.
I wanted to show you a picture of the back of my car, but I keep forgetting to take one. You'll have to imagine it. On any typical day, we are carrying supplies for softball, tennis, karate, golf and possibly swimming. It's crazy, I tell you.

The Summer of Socks
So far, I have completed 2 pairs of socks in the past 4 weeks, which is pretty darn amazing for me. Here they are:

Basic 2x2 rib socks in Apple Laine's Apple Pie yarn, Blue Bayou colorway:
Still life with socks and cat
Aren't they pretty? They are sooooo soft. Wow. And here are my Peace socks by Wendyknits, done in Schaefer Lola:
Lola Peace Socks finis
These were done in thicker yarn on a bigger needle so they flew by.

I am cruising along on the first sock of a 3rd pair:
Boyfriend sock #1
Boyfriend Socks in Spindle City Yarns' Camouflage colorway. This is truly yummy yarn, by the way--very soft and lots of sproing! I love it. I started these for Rich, but the spiraling of the colors is a little less subtle than I think he would appreciate, so these are going to go to Mathboy instead. The benefit of knitting for Mathboy is that his feet are nearly the same size as mine, so I can use my feet for measuring. Plus Mathboy has been clamoring for more socks. Rich? Not so much.

I also had a Moment of Craziness the other day and cast on 2 more toes. I was looking through the yarns I have had hanging around for a while and I guess the yarn fumes took over. Before I knew what was happening, I had 2 toes: one in Tofutsies on size 0 needles and one in Zen String Lotus Toes Sport in Boreal, on size 1 (2.5mm). The problem was figuring out what to do with these toes. I tried a few different patterns, but the size did not look right, even though the gauge was supposedly correct, so they have both been ripped back to the toes a couple of times. Currently, I am trying Wendy's Seaweed Socks for the Tofutsies and Coupling from Knitty for the Lotus Toes Sport (which is pretty light to be labeled "sportweight," IMO, but I don't mind). This is how they look now:

My Lotus Toe:
Lotus Toe

And my Seaweed half-foot:
Seaweed Sock #1

Summer Camps
Silly Hat Day at camp
(Silly Hat Day). Catgirl is having the Best Time Ever at her Drama Camp, even though her group made some weird choices for their skit for the end of year show--choices she and her friend don't like. Apparently, the group has voted for a story about people who don't like waffles, and wanted the set to represent "Waffleworld." Catgirl's suggestions were rejected by the group, even though the teacher apparently liked them and supported her. Oh well. Sometimes democracy stinks. She's still enjoying it, though, thank goodness.

Mathboy is doing a half-day golf camp this week (hence the bag of clubs hogging the back of my car, see above), and really enjoying it. Next week, he has full day camp at the Y, which will include golf as well. I wish I hadn't signed him up for that, though; I think he would have been fine with another week of this half-day camp at Ramblewood. Oh well. Sometimes moms make mistakes. And, who knows? Maybe next week's camp will be great and we will be happy he did it. We'll have to wait and see.

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Adamas, he is done.

The last couple of repeats seemed to take forever. There were over 400 stitches on the needles by the time I was casting off. Finally, it is done. I give you ADAMAS:
adamas porch
Adamas slouching on the porch railing.
adamas chair
Adamas relaxing in the chair. All he needs is a mint julep, don't you think? (This was a tricky shot, by the way. Wicker and lace are not really the best of friends, if you know what I mean.)

It was hard to photograph this shawl. So much of our furniture inside and out on the patio is dark-colored, so the shawl did not show up against it. I had to take it to the porch instead. The color of this yarn is more interesting in real life: it just looks like a flat purple in these pictures, but in reality it's got some heathery-ness.

So now I can say I've done laceweight yarn. Been there, done that. Not going to do it again. I can also finally say I've done a triangular shawl--this was my first. I'm not quite sure I know how to wear it, but I will give it a try. Actually, after admiring the FO, the kids asked me, "So what do you do with it?" I hemmed and hawed. Then we all played around, wrapping it around ourselves. We all agree that the over the head method of wearing it is not the most flattering. Wish I had thought to get the camera out for the modelling session we had!