joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea

Hubby was kind enough to hold up Geoff's quilt top so that I could get a decent picture. It's only got one border on. I still have to cut and sew on the outer border. Then the top's done. I love the way it looks. It's the first time I've used this pattern and I think I'll use it again. Maybe with Japanese or cat fabrics. Hmmm...

Phoebe was just doing her fierce hunter bit. She was thwacking at something by the french doors and she was going to knock over a plant stand. I went over there and she was trying to catch/eat a yellow jacket wasp. Ewwwww! So I got out the wasp catcher, shoo'd her away, and got the wasp. Then I made hubby get rid of it.

Phoebe loves catching bugs. Her favourite is spiders. She doesn't eat them - just licks them until they stop moving. Sometimes this means the poor spider gets a leg (or 6) ripped off. While we were on vacation, my Mom said that Phoebe chased a moth into the laundry room. The moth went behind the washing machine and so did Phoebe. However, there's no way for Phoebe to get out. Mom said Phoebe cried and cried until Mom moved enough stuff for her to crawl out.

No knitting accomplished today. I took a sock to work but I left the 4th dpn at home and if the laws of physics are still the same, I can't knit in the round with just 3 dpns.

Speaking of work, the new cash register hates me. I rang up a sale and it came to $48.81. The customer wanted to use her entire $50 gift certificate. She selected a stitch ripper, I added $1.25 to her bill, put in the $50 gc, and hit subtotal. The register said that I owed her $6.57. Huh? I swear the thing is cursed.

A man wandered into the quilt store today and was looking at the notions. We don't get a lot of men in the store (unless they're preceeded by a wife/mother/girlfriend) so I was paying close attention in case he needed help. By the time I got over there, he was headed towards the register. He bought an Olfa rotary cutter and he was holding a Fiskars rotary blade that he'd brought in with him. It's a little unusual to see someone buying a cutter for a blade that they already have. The cutters don't break easily and since they're big, they're hard to lose. So I was really curious... I asked him why he needed a cutter for his blade. It turns out that his wife is a quilter and he made the mistake of showing her his rotary cutter. She borrowed it for her quilting and is currently out of town. The poor man couldn't find his cutter so he bought himself a new one. That story made me forget that the cash register hates me.

I'm hurting

I spent my whole Sunday in the garden. First, we chopped (literally) at 2 stumps to make them small enough for the yard waste/garbage guys to pick up. Then we tried to dig out a small walnut tree (there's a crazy squirrel that buries his nuts in the ground and every so often, I'll yank out a 'weed' and there's a walnut or hazelnut/filbert shell hanging off the root ball) growing in the middle of a big juniper patch. My hand hurts from using the bow saw. It hurts so much that I can't knit. In the evening, we applied the rest of the nematodes to the lawn. I can't believe how much lawn we have. I knew it was big but I never really paid much attention until we had to measure it into 100 sq. ft. chunks.

So I spent the day not knitting. I watched a lot of Enterprise on DVD. I didn't get to see the series when it was running on TV (we don't get that channel with rabbit ears) so now we're renting season 1. Scott Bakula looks hot in bright blue underwear. Huzzah! Hubby is watching with me and he's not impressed when I start drooling.

I also took pictures of all my sock yarn and updated my stash on Ravelry. That took most of the afternoon. It's good to get it all documented and now I can see exactly what I've got. But it also makes me want to knit it all at once. Sigh...

I spent my evening working on Geoff's quilt. All the blocks are sewn together now. It looks awesome! I'll take some daylight pictures tomorrow. All that's left is to cut the borders and sew them on.

"Can you keep it down out there? I'm trying to sleep." - Ricky

I hate spiders

I really, really hate spiders. I don't care how big they are or how harmless. They give me the willies. I almost dropped my pitcher of iced tea when I saw one in the fridge a few minutes ago. And it was moving towards the milk.
(click on pictures to embiggen)



Can you see it? Ewwwww! Gross! How the heck did it get into the fridge? I couldn't slam the door shut fast enough. Hubby has now dispatched spidey to spider heaven. I'm so glad he's around.

the finish line

Well, the TDF is almost over and all I accomplished is one single lonely sock. And I thought I was going to knit 24. HA! As it was, I ripped the toe out 3 times. My sock mojo is broken and I made the foot way too long (I'm not having any luck with foot length lately). Despite my poor results, it looks like it was a great race for cyclists and knitters alike. Way to go!

I started the second sock. It's chestnut because I wanted a break from blue fingers.


I've got the laptop back. Yay! The whole sharing the desktop computer with the hubby just doesn't work - even if I have my own bootable HD. I'm just so glad it was fixable. I wasn't looking forward to shopping for a new laptop.

Speaking of shopping, I went out early this morning for some retail therapy. I bought a pair of jeans, yoga pants, a skirt, a t-shirt, and 2 sleeveless t's for only $15 - brand new from Sears. That's the best clothing deal I've seen in a long time.

I've made good progress on Geoff's quilt. I found a solution for the lack of feature fabric. My lqs had a similar fishy fabric so I got a little bit of it. I have 4 rows out of 15 sewn together. I should finish the top this week.

There hasn't been much knitting/quilting during the last few days. I've been working plus we've been busy with lawn maintenance. Our lawn is infested with European chafer grubs and last fall/winter, the birds/raccoons came out and dug up our lawn. We patched it up but we need to get rid of the grubs otherwise, the lawn will get dug up again. I picked up some nematodes (a grub predator) from the garden centre and we've been applying them to the lawn. We have one more batch to apply tomorrow and then we're done until we do it again next year. I was told that after 2 consecutive years of application, the nematodes will remain permanent residents in our lawn. Yay!

"That sounds like a lot of work. I think I'll just sleep through it all" - Ricky

ARGH!

I finished knitting a sock yesterday at work. I'm using the yarn that my KTE treater sent me. It doesn't fit.


You can see that the sock is at least half an inch too short. Waaaaaah! I have no idea what happened. I've knitted many pairs of socks for myself so I know how long my foot is. But not this time. I am so very, very sad. This pair will be someone's Christmas present.

I spent several hours loading stuff into Ravelry yesterday and today. ALL my sock yarn is inventoried. ALL my current sock projects are loaded. I added pictures to my current projects today. I have 2 more things to do - add all my finished sock projects and take/upload pictures of my sock stash. Then I'll be done.

Catching up

I won a contest over at Lilith Parker's blog, and she made me some seriously gorgeous stitch markers. I told her that I'm an SF/F nerd, and she made a set which is SF-themed. One has the Babylon 5 logo on it, another has the Dr. Who Tardis, another has the Ring from Lord of the Rings, and so on (click on the photo to make bigger and see details). I'm so in love with these, and I'm hiding them well because I don't want the kids to get hold of them and lose them for me.


This baby hat and socks are for Don & Ange's new baby boy (Don used to work with Dotty; it's a small world around here). I hope they'll come in handy in a Calgary fall and winter. The socks are the Better than Booties baby socks available for free via the Interweave website. This was in Regia Bamboo -- I need more of this yarn. (Hey Dotty, want to do another order from Astrid's?). It's so soft and silky-feeling.



And this pair is a gift for my cousin's wife. They're Australians who have just moved to Ontario, and I don't think she's going to be prepared enough when winter comes. Hopefully these will keep her toes warm enough some of the time. Yarn is Jojoland Quartette, a merino/cashmere blend. Pattern is garter rib from Sensational Knitted Socks. I made them a little larger because the yarn does felt and shrink, which is probably a plus where they're going.

This pair is in the Wyvern sock pattern, by Marnie MacLean. Yarn is Trekking bamboo, which I found rather stiff and hard on my hands. The sock itself is great, and I suspect will wear really well. I wasn't sure about the ribbing on the bottom of the foot, but when the sock is on, I can't feel the ribbing.

And this pair of little angels (false advertising, I assure you) went strawberry picking and had a great time. I don't know if you can see Geoff's chin, but I can tell you that it was totally pink with strawberry juice. It's a good thing this strawberry place likes kids, and doesn't weigh them before and after the picking!

some serious yarn p0rn

Lookit what arrived this morning -


Yummy, yummy sock yarn. This is my order from Astrid's Dutch Obsession. It was a pre-order so I've been waiting for this since May!

All of the yarn is for me, me, me with the exception of the two Mirage skeins on the bottom right. Those go to my co-blogger. Astrid included a matching postcard and a Garnstudio Drops candy. I bought 2 skeins of every Landscape colour (there are 6) plus a Trekking Pro Natura and a XXL (do you recognize the colour, P-La?).

I can't wait to start knitting some of this!

alert the media

I have a FO!


Pattern: my own
Yarn: Lily sugar'n cream in Robin's Egg
Needles: 5mm straights

I made it quite long (29") because it'll shrink a lot. It'll look great in my kitchen!

The laptop... I got a call this morning from the technician and the right hinge is completely broken. A new hinge is only $41.50 but it's recommended that both hinges be replaced so that the tension is the same (don't want to crack the lid). Plus labour, it'll cost us $250 to fix it. Sigh... It's still cheaper than buying a new one. So the hinges have been ordered and they'll take 2-3 days to arrive plus installation. If I'm lucky, I'll get the laptop back early next week. I miss surfing the net in front of the TV.

I managed to input my TDF sock project into Ravelry yesterday (my id is yarnfloozy). It took me awhile to figure out the Flickr picture linky thing. I had a look around at other people's stuff and put a few sock patterns in my queue. I am trying to decide what I want to use Ravelry for. It may be too overwhelming to stuff all my knitting into it. Perhaps, I should just use it only for socks (for now).

TDF Update

I'm still plugging away at the first sock. I should be on sock #12 by now but I'm just hoping to finish at least one pair before the last day.


At the end of the evening, I noticed that my fingers were blue. I emailed Trish and she said that she used natural indigo dyes instead of chemical dyes and that's why I'm turning blue. I had knit her a pair of indigo socks before and the dye didn't rub off so I was kinda worried. But it's all good now.

uh oh

That's what my niece says when something happens that shouldn't happen. I said it a coupla times this weekend.

I broke the laptop. Yep, I opened the lid and CRAAAAAAAACK! The metal screen over the right speaker popped up and the lid has only one "open" position. If it's not in that position, it flops backwards or slams shut. Oops! It's currently at my local "authorized Toshiba repair centre". If it's too expensive to repair then we'll buy a new laptop. Sigh...

After I got home from the birthday party on Sat night, I turned on the night light in the kitchen so hubby wouldn't trip over a cat when he came home. I accidentally bumped my favourite Christmas ornament and it broke into 3 pieces when it hit the floor. *sniff* *sniff*


I also lost (and found) my sample knitting for Indigo Moon. I completely misplaced the whole project bag and I couldn't find it even with hubby's help. It was eventually located and the sample is now finished.

And uh oh - I got into Ravelry! Ya know that's gonna suck up a lot of time that would normally be spent knitting.

TDF update

It was a big TDF week. Locally, it's BC Superweek - a series of cycling events that coincide with the "big" Tour. There are 4 major events - Tour de Gastown (road race over cobblestones and it was rainy too), Tour de White Rock, Giro di Burnaby (hubby watched that), and the Tour de Delta (we missed it because of the birthday party).

And on the knitting front, I actually got something done.


I'm just a few inches from turning the heel. It has been rainy and miserable (I think we broke a precipitation record on Sunday) and we stayed inside all day yesterday watching movies - The Curse of the Were Rabbit and Superman Returns.

In the evening, I started cutting fabric for Geoff's quilt. I didn't get very far because there was another uh oh moment. I had started buying fabric for this project before I sat down and did the math. Of course, the first fabric (and one of the best ones) is short 4 squares. I do not have enough bits from that fabric to piece together 4 squares and the quilt store doesn't have it anymore. Hmmm... what to do.

The fabric requirements and cutting instructions have been mailed out for the 3rd Poirow Mystery Quilt. I have some fabric in the stash that might work. Or maybe I should buy new stuff. Too bad that I just missed out on a big fabric sale.

The fall IK preview is up. I love the Tangled Yoke cardigan, Dickinson Pullover, Leavened Raglan, and all the socks! Must knit faster!

vacation souvenirs

You can't go on vacation without buying a few souvenirs. I bought a lot of souvenirs.

After 5 days at the beach, the city girl in me demanded a shopping trip into town. There are a string of antique stores on the highway into Salmon Arm and we stopped at a few. I bought a steel cable circular - British size 10 (3.25mm). I've never seen one of these before. Does anyone know how old it is? One tip is stamped "10 Made in England". The other tip has a patent number. The join is incredibly smooth and the cable looks like a coiled spring. I also picked up an old issue of Vogue Knitting and a sock booklet at a used book store.


My next stop was a quilt store called The Sewing Basket. I bought some fabric, a quilting template, and a Buggy Barn pattern. I love Buggy Barn. Their patterns are easy and so much fun.


I heard that there was a yarn store in Salmon Arm but I couldn't find a current address for it. I asked at the Sewing Basket and they told me that the yarn store only opens during the winter months. Humph.

I picked up a few books at the used book store and then we headed back to the campground.

On our drive back home, I wanted to stop at a quilt store called Di-Versity Quilt Shop in Pritchard. What a surprise! It's in the basement of a house but it's incredibly well stocked with all sorts of neat stuff. Every bit of wall space was covered with samples. The pattern and book selection was very unique. It was very hard to walk out of there without spending a ton of money. In the end, I got some black and white fabric, some Misty Fuse (a new lightweight fusible), and a Quilt Poetry "Phoenix" pattern. I love that Phoenix pattern so much that I've already bought most of the fabric to make it.


After we turned off the highway at Pritchard, a young black bear darted across the road. Hubby stopped the car so I could get a picture but the bear disappeared into the trees and we couldn't spot him anymore. It was my first black bear sighting!

I was in yarn withdrawal so I conned hubby into stopping at a yarn store. I originally wanted to visit Aunt Debbie's Knit and Stitch but we already passed the freeway exit before I figured out where we needed to turn off. Luckily, its sister store, Woolaroo Yarns was still in front of us. So we stopped there instead. I only bought 2 skeins of Cascade Fixation. They're having a big sale next week so I didn't want to buy too much. A few doors down from Woolaroo is a quilt store - Countryfolk and they were having a big sale. I bought some kitty cat fabric.


And that concludes the souvenir tour of 2007. I'm off to bed. I am pooped. It was my brother-in-law's 40th birthday party today and we went over early to help set up. I'm home now but hubby's still at the party playing poker. I left just after watching my father-in-law win a $100+ pot. All 3 players had 2 pairs but my father-in-law had the highest one so he won. Everyone was completely shocked. I hope he kicks butt.

a week of fun

Before I show you some vacation pictures, I wanted to update you on my knitting. First up is my TDF socks.

I wound 4 skeins of yarn (2 brown and 2 indigo) yesterday and I cast on. After a few rounds, I decided that it was too messy knitting 4 socks on 2 circs so I'm going back to knitting one sock at a time on dpns. Not very exciting but I want to keep my sanity.


I took this hand towel on vacation and I'm almost ready to cast off. It kinda looks like a scarf from this angle.

And my Rhapsody sample for Indigo Moon is almost ready to cast off. I just love the colours.

Here begins my vacation pictures. You can skip this section if you want to.

It was very very hot and we spent the first 5 days on the beach by the lake. Here are my nieces with their Daddy:

We rented 2 Sea Doos for 2 days. Hubby got Sea Doo hair after a few hours of riding:


Hubby looked pretty cute with his hair all sticking up.

Yes, I did get to drive one a few times. Sometimes solo and sometimes I let hubby drive.



My niece fell asleep eating cheezie poufs at the beach and when she woke up, she didn't want to eat the one that was in her hand so she put it on her flip flop - saving it for later, I guess.


While we were gone, Ricky found a new place to sleep - partially on the big armchair and partially on the ottoman.

"Wake me up when there's food" - Ricky

Tomorrow, I'll post about the loot that I came home with. So come back.

wow

What a vacation. We had the best time. I don't have much time to blog this morning so I'll post more pictures and stories over the next few days. For now, here are a few stats for you.

41 - degrees Celsius (or 106F); the hottest it got and it felt hotter
53+ - number of mosquito bites on my poor body. Next time, I shouldn't wear my low cut bathing suit because mosquitoes will bite any exposed skin.
3 - quilt stores visited
1 - yarn store visited. I had hoped to visit one other but apparently it's only open during the winter months.
2 - days of Sea Doo'ing. Yahooooooo!
20 - inches knit on my hand towel
1 - inch knit on my sock
50 - percent off at a craft store. I bought lots of 6/0 seed beads. I might use them for a shawl or socks.
5 - quilts made by myself were at the campsite. That's the largest gathering of quilts outside my home. I'm impressed.

TDF KAL update
We did stop at Lac le Jeune for lunch on the drive out.



The little dock is used for fishing. One little boy ran back towards shore dragging his fishing net behind him and yelling, "Mom! Mom! I caught a fish!" When he turned the corner, the fish slipped through one of the net holes because it was so small. It was funny.

My sock yarn has arrived and I will be winding it all up this morning. I hope to make a good start on the socks this weekend.

PS. For those of you who live in the Lower Mainland, Woolaroo yarns (Abbotsford) and Aunt Debbie's Knit'n Stitch (Chilliwack) are having their summer 40% off sale (all reg. priced yarns) starting next Tues and running til Aug 4th.
PPS. Countryfolk quilt store (a few doors down from Woolaroo) is having a 50% off sale on lots of quilt fabrics.

aw shucks

Thanks for the compliments on my niece's quilt. It was fun to make. I'm currently planning my next quilting project. It's a twin size quilt for Geoff - my co-blogger's youngest son (I've already made a quilt for her oldest son). It's going to be sea/ocean themed. I have a selection of fabric on hand but my lqs recently got some new bolts and I'm going to see if any of them are suitable. I work there tomorrow afternoon so I'll take my big stack of fabrics with me and check things out.

It was really hot today so hubby and I veg'd out in front of the TV and fan. We watched a gory chinese movie this afternoon. I finished a monkey sock while ignoring the bloody scenes.

My gauge is different somehow. The sock is harder to pull over my heel. And I only did 6 repeats for the foot. On my Koigu pair, I had to knit 7 repeats.

TDF KAL
I still haven't crossed the start line yet. I got an email and the yarn was just mailed yesterday! Eeek! If I'm lucky, it'll arrive tomorrow and at least, I'll get to touch it before I go camping. Speaking of camping, we'll be driving past Lac le Jeune so I hope to convince hubby to stop for pictures of me knitting. I think knitting at a place with a French name counts as participating in the TDF, don't you? Besides, "jeune" (young person) is pretty close to "jaune" (yellow).

In the comments, ck asked me where I bought my new jelly shoes. I bought them at Winners - a discount store in Canada. It was the very last pair and I was lucky that it was my size.

a quilty FO

I finally finished my youngest niece's quilt.





Here are the specs -
Size: 90" x 80"
Pattern: my own; inspired by the Serenity Quilt made by Theresa

It is machine pieced and I machine quilted it. The flannel backing has little chinese girls wearing traditional clothing. It is the same flannel backing that I used for her older sister's quilt. I really love that flannel and wish I had more. At the time, I bought the entire bolt (we're talking 18m) and I've used it all up on my nieces' quilts. I ran out of fabric for the top and had to improvise for a couple of the blocks. I also had to use other fabric for the pillow cases so they don't exactly match the quilt top. Oh well...

I hope my niece likes it. I'll be giving it to her this week.

if the shoe fits...

Whaddya think? Should I keep 'em? They're not big enough to wear with my wool hand knits - just these ones (Regia Cotton Surf on the left and Tofutsies on the right). Is it wrong to buy shoes that I can only wear with 2 pairs of sox? (I have more Cotton Surf and Tofutsies in the stash) Hubby was less than enthusiastic when I showed them to him. Are jelly shoes too 80's? Do I need legwarmers, P-La?

Please comment and let me know what you think.

it fits!

It fits! (blogger won't let me type in a title for this post)

Yesterday was my best friend's birthday. And she did me the honour of wearing the Indigo Ripples Skirt to her birthday party. It fits well considering that I only had her waist measurement plus all the mods that I made. She loves it and has already worn it to an interview (for a film that she's making).

The party was at her parents' place on Barnston Island. It takes me about half an hour to drive to the ferry. And then it's a 5 min ferry ride to the island. The ferry isn't a real 'ferry'. It's actually a tugboat strapped to a 4 car capacity barge.

Her parents have a small hobby farm with sheep and 2 donkeys. The sheep were in a far away field but the donkeys came up to the gate when I walked over to say hello. Buster is on the left and Dorothy is on the right. They are guard donkeys - used to protect the sheep from predators (coyotes & wild dogs).

A close-up shot of Buster - Dorothy moved just as I was taking the picture.

Their faces are covered with a see-through mesh to keep the flies and mosquitoes away from their eyes. And the mosquitoes were plenty! We were going to eat outside but we lasted about 2 mins before dragging all the food back into the house.

There was no knitting yesterday. I spent about 4 hours in the garden deadheading my peonies and delphiniums, cutting back my catmint (again!), trimming the cranesbill geranium and salvia that had flopped over (from the heavy rains), and doing some light weeding. Surprisingly, I don't feel too bad today. I thought some part of me would be sore after filling 3 large garbage cans with yard waste.

Off to have a look at how the Tour de France knitters are doing after day 1.

ETA: fixed the title. Thanks for the hint, Rete!

Tour de France: DNF

(DNF - Did Not Finish)


Notice anything wrong with my knitting pannier? Maybe the yarn is missing? It's getting late and the yarn has not arrived. I am ready - my equipment is packed, my support team has their orders, my bike is ready to go, and I don't have shoe laces? (Actually, hubby's cycling shoes don't have laces or velcro. His shoes have a cord that runs into a plastic knob. As you twist the knob, the cord gets wound up and the shoe closes. If you push the button in the middle of the knob, the ratchet mechanism is disengaged and the shoe comes undone. Weird, eh? What do you expect for $400? Yes, hubby spends more on shoes than I do.)

Canada Post does not deliver on Saturdays. This delay confirms that I will get a DNF. It was already tough going because of a camping trip but now my yarn is late. So much for getting a good start to the race. Sigh...

Yesterday was hot so there wasn't much knitting. No knitting today either. I'm too scatterbrained to sit down and knit.

"Can you stop moving around? You're making me tired" - Phoebe

too hot to knit

Man - it's hot outside. The thermometer says 27C in the shade (90F for those who are metric-challenged). It is too hot to knit with wool. So I hauled out some kitchen cotton and started a hand towel.

I love robin's egg blue. I lived for weeks in this house without a working dishwasher, no kitchen sink (dishes were done in the laundry room sink), and no kitchen counter while I waited for my decorator to find the very last piece of discontinued robin's egg laminate. She had sent over some other samples for me to look at but I was determined to have the robin's egg. I am very glad that I held out because I love my counter top.

I'm taking the hand towel knitting when I go camping. I'm leaving my TDF KAL socks at home (the yarn didn't arrive today so I hope it's here tomorrow). I may take another small project with me just for some variety.

I can see by the lack of comments about my new watering can that no one's as excited as I am. Or maybe everyone's on summer vacation and/or recovering from 4th of July celebrations. I'm very much in love. I used it this morning to water my baskets and planters. It takes a long time to fill from my rain barrel because it's so big but then I don't have to make as many trips.

I got email today that my big Kaffe Fassett sock yarn order has been shipped! I hope it arrives before we go camping. I am so excited!

birthday shopping

Well... I made a big decision this morning. I went out and bought myself a present using the birthday money that I collected. My destination - Lee Valley Tools (not just a tool place, they sell all sorts of neat stuff). I came home with this:

Inside the box is the sexiest watering can in the world.


British racing green, handles like a dream, 8.8 litre tank (sounds like I'm describing a sports car). Sigh... Everything that a gardener could possibly want. I am in heaven. I've been lusting after one of these babies ever since we installed a rain barrel a few years ago. I've always wanted a good watering can to water my hanging baskets, planters, and seedlings. And now I've got one. Yipee!

There has been some knitting progress on my pink and purple Trekking sock.


We've been watching Memoirs of a Geisha the last 2 nights (it's a loooong movie) so I had to put down my Monkey sock in favour of a plain sock.

I am getting ready for the Tour de France KAL. I made 4 provisional cast-on crochet chains. I picked up the required stitches onto 2 long circs (yes, I plan on knitting 4 socks at a time). I made a cheat sheet detailing # of rows for the picot cuff, leg length, foot length, how many short rows for the heel, how many sts to decrease for the wedge toe, etc. I originally planned to knit all the socks toe-up but the idea of tacking down the picot cuff was just too time consuming (24 socks x 56 sts per sock = a lot of work). So instead, I'll knit them top-down and I just need to kitchener 28 sts together for each toe. I also went out and bought $100 in wine/ciders/beer to keep myself hydrated during the race.

I have a knitting "pannier" containing all my supplies so that it's easy for me to take the socks with me wherever I go. I am still waiting for the yarn to arrive. Trish said she'd ship it either Sat or Mon but the post office was closed on Mon so it's possible that she didn't post it til Tues. I don't know how many colours/skeins she's sending me and because I'm knitting 2 pairs at a time, I want to get all the yarn weighed and wound before Sat. I still haven't decided if I'll take the socks camping. Our young nieces will be there, too and it's hard to tell how much knitting time I'll have. On the other hand, I don't want to lose an entire week...

And hubby has been warned to stay out of my way this weekend. He has his list of chores to work on. We'll probably be ordering in so that I don't have to cook. And hopefully, the weather won't be too hot for knitting (like it is today). I can't wait for the race to start!

recovering from too much fun

I am officially having a lazy day. Yesterday was crammed full of Canada Day events. The Monkey sock was having a great time, too.



There was lots of jazz. We sat outside on the "mound" and listened to the Laura Crema Quartet. She was awesome - such great vocals.



We ate a lot of cherries. I gobbled down a chocolate filled croissant from my favourite bakery. We bought 2 different kinds of foccacia bread and a lemon poppyseed mini cake for lunch. Double yum! As you can see, the weather was absolutely perfect. The sun was out and there was only the tiniest bit of cloud. Since we were by the water, there was a nice breeze so we didn't get too hot sitting in the sun.

We hung out with my best friend and her boyfriend until he had to go to work. She and I exchanged birthday presents and I was thoroughly spoiled.



I got three (3!!!) books, rooibos chai tea (I love rooibos and chai tea but I've never had it together), and Murano glass earrings. I have already finished reading the Tumbling Blocks book. I knit her the Indigo Ripples skirt from the Spring 2007 IK. The colour is more accurate in the first picture.


Here are the details...
Yarn: 5 skeins Lana Knits allhemp3 in Deep Ocean
Needles: 2.75mm for the stockinette portion and 3mm Addi Lace for the lace section
Mods: I used the sssk for the mirrored decrease in the lace section. I changed the M1R increase to M1L in Round 25. Since I was using fingering weight yarn, I changed the rate of increases for the hips. But I used the instructions for the largest size to achieve a finished waist of 28" with the stockinette portion being 13" long and the overall length measures 21". I used 4 strands of yarn to crochet the waist tie instead of making an i-cord (it just wasn't working for me).

"I'm having a lazy day, too" - Ricky