I'm melting

Wow! It is seriously too hot (34C on Wed & Thurs and setting new temperature records) to do anything. I've got a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the evening for chores and the rest of the day is spent downstairs in front of a fan watching TV. So far, I've watched Coraline and season 2 of Pushing Daisies. I've also been surfing the net. Here are two cool things: Catcerto and Maru videos on YouTube.

My garden is suffering, too. I've pulled my hanging baskets down and they're in the shade now. My begonias on the shaded front porch are wilting even with twice daily waterings. I am worried that my new maple tree will fry.

I've been trying to keep the cats cool - pointing fans at them as much as I can. Ricky was looking very wilted this evening so I picked him up and put him in front of fan that was blowing over a block of ice. He stayed put for quite awhile and his ears felt much cooler when he jumped down.

Today is much cooler and I finally got some knitting done.


Pattern: Ivy's Cowl by Misty Wade (Ravelry download only)
Yarn: Rowan Rowanspun Aran; 1 skein; col 973 red
Needles: 5mm circs
Notes: I probably have enough yarn for another repeat of the chart. Another Christmas cowl done - check!

As you can see, Ricky was less than co-operative with the photo shoot. He was kinda hoping I'd feed him supper instead of stuffing him into a wooly cowl.


Ricky sez, "I have escaped the dreaded cowl! Time for a snooze."

what I did on my summer vacation

Here is a cute picture of the nieces towing uncle around by his sandals. He was sitting in a floatie (which you can't see because he was a little over the weight limit) and they thought it was fun pulling him around.


I read a whole book and started a sock.


Tom Holt is very funny and you can see the British humour poking through. As usual, the plot is twisty and almost demands a second read if you didn't get it the first time. The sock is a potential Christmas present. I'm going to steal an idea from Sharon - knit the leg & most of the foot. When you need a gift, whip it out and rip/knit the foot & toe. Voila - a finished pair in one evening.

One morning, we headed into town to buy more food and I stopped in at the quilt store.


I got this great applique kit, one of the new metal tipped rubber thimbles, and a little sock yarn (the store has a small yarn corner).

I've mostly recovered from the sewage backup disaster. After the plumber left, I had to wash out the laundry room because the clean-out access point for the main line is located there. Pulling the snake out caused a bit of a mess. I'm glad we had a clean-out otherwise, he would've pulled a toilet off and gone down that way thus generating a much bigger mess. The plumber found roots, grease, and lots of hair. There's nothing much we can do about the roots but we need to be more vigilant about putting grease in the garbage and keeping my hair out of the shower drain.

Today is a scorcher. 20C/70F when I woke up at 6:30am. I think it's around 32C/90F right now. It's one of those days where I wish I had air conditioning in the car. The poor kitties are hot, too. I haven't dunked them in water yet but I put a fan on the floor and they have been flopping in front of it. All this heat means that my Rose of Sharon shrubs are blooming earlier than expected. This one is Blush Satin.


This one is a double called Bluebird.


Only 10 more days til Sock Summit!!!!!!!

I need a vacation

I'm back from a week of camping. It was hot and lots of fun. We rode wave runners again and this time, my 7 year old niece wanted to drive. At one point, she yanked on the throttle and nearly knocked hubby off because he wasn't hanging on. She's quite the speed demon! I'll post pictures when I get around to yanking them off the camera.

In the meantime, I'm busy looking for a used SUV. Hubby's Jeep died on the driveway just before we left. I'm thankful that it croaked before we took it camping with us. And there's a plumber in the laundry room with a 100 foot snake running through our main drain. There's a clog somewhere and sewage is backing up into our downstairs shower. Very smelly and very icky. It's sooo hot & humid, I need a shower, and driving to the gas station to pee is making me a little crazy.

Christmas in July

I never knit 6 rounds of the Anemoi mitten chart. I never found out on the 7th round that I "lost" 4 sts somewhere. I never spent time trying to figure out where those 4 sts are. I never ripped apart 6 rounds of stranded sticky shetland yarn because I never knit them. I will deny any involvement. Luckily, the cats won't tattle on me.

I'm taking a break from Anemoi knitting. A looooong break. In between a little sock knitting and a lot of frogging, I started my Christmas knitting.


Pattern: Ridged Lace Cowl by Elinor Brown
Yarn: Hempwol(65% wool, 35% hemp); one skein in colour Riviera (#46)
Needles: 5mm Addi Turbo circ
Notes: The yarn is a bit sheddy and as expected, the hemp feels rough. The yarn had some definite thick & thin spots.

One down and many more to go. I immediately cast on another cowl.


The next one is red. I think the blue one looks better on Ricky, don't you?


Ricky sez, "What is this thing?!?!?!"

flora & fauna

Playing around with my new camera - a Nikon Coolpix S560. I love my old camera (also a Nikon Coolpix) but the battery door is a little broken.

Some gorgeous red begonias that I grew from corms:


An active beehive on the front lawn:


I think it fell out of the big maple tree. Not sure how I'm going to get rid of it. I can't leave it there.

A pretty dragonfly in my garden:

cuff me

Look - it's more than 9 rounds of knitting.


I knit the last few rounds of the cuff at knit night. The next instruction said to switch to larger needles. Hmmm - I didn't bring the larger needles with me. Doh!

I've been doing a bunch of other knitting - a heel flap and an un-grafted toe. Neither of these are attached to a sock. They're for a sock knitting class that I'll be teaching in Aug. I've been getting my samples knit for the class and getting my notes typed up.

Gladys (Queen of the pooling stoles) managed to snag me some Wollmeise yarn.


It's fingering in the colour Arlene. Isn't it great? I fell in love with it the minute I saw it. I have a plan for for the yarn but it's a secret :)

My sister and the nieces came by the house yesterday afternoon. The girls didn't want to leave so my sister left without them. Eeek! We spent the afternoon playing in the backyard - they went crazy with the sidewalk chalk, bubble blowing stuff, a horseshoe set, and some Winnie the Pooh parachute toys.


I fed them supper and we watched the Little Mermaid while we waited for Uncle to come home from work. The movie finished so we took Ricky for a walk. The little one complained that Ricky is slow. LOL!

They wanted to stay overnight but I decided to drive them back to my Dad's place. Hubby needed time to get organized and packed. He and Tony (plus many others from their cycling club) will be joining thousands of other cyclists as they ride from Seattle to Portland this weekend. I hope they have fun!

wash cat

The Anemoi mittens are kicking my butt. I had to rip out half the cuff when I realized that I made a big boo boo. I thought I'd have some pictures to post but 9 rows of knitting really isn't that exciting.


My nieces have arrived for a fun filled week of harassing their Auntie - me. They're actually staying with my Dad so I can escape to my own home at the end of the day. We took them out for dim sum this morning and they were so crazy at the restaurant.


My sewing room is still a disaster. I've pulled out about 5 garbage bags full of stuff plus one old computer tower (that doesn't actually have any computer bits in it) which belongs to hubby. I've installed a new shelving unit for the new computer. The wall shelf idea isn't going to work without some major construction so that's a problem because I need to get stuff off my desk to make room for the monitor to swing in & out. I probably need to throw more stuff out.


Ricky sez, "I know that I'm not supposed to sleep in the wash tub but I'm washing!"