I Wish To Thank The Academy

Ladies and Gentlemen...thank you for your kind praise. I am humbled and awed at myself for finishing the first clue in the Casablanca stole--BEFORE the 2nd clue comes out. It was a challenge, but with the help of many people in my life (most of whom don't have a frickin clue who I am), I have succeeded.


First of all, I have to thank Wendy at Knit and Tonic. Without her help with the Long Tail Provisional Cast On, this project would have never been started. Provisional cast ons always terrified and confused me, but Wendy's tutorial made it easy.

Next I have to thank Debi at FluffyKnitterDeb, who's excellent tutorial taught me how to add beads without stringing them all up at once.

I was not only excited when I read her very easy to understand tutorial, I was shocked and amazed when I did it and IT ACTUALLY WORKED! I felt like when I did my first cable: "Holy crap that was easy! And it looks like it was hard!"

(BTW as an aside note--both these blogs have INCREDIBLE patterns, for free and for sale, so you should check them out!)

Of course I have to thank the amazing CatLady2 who, with her sister thought up and created this KAL. It's a real treat!!!

Last but not least, I have to thank my friend Thora, who taught me that circular needles don't have to suck, in spite of Karola ripping out my entire sweater for Anna I worked on for HOURS on a train to New York. I swore I'd never use circular needles again. The second time I went out there Thora was making socks--on circular needles--and I figured they deserved a second try. So thanks my Knitting Friend.

BTW Karola, if you stumble across this: I forgive you and love you for what you tried to teach me. I just wasn't ready to jump that far ahead in the lesson yet ;)

I now await the second clue. AND if anyone has a good way to do a circular cast on that does not involve 9 tiny stitches slipping off dpn's and lots of swearing, I am ready to be a good student. I am 2 clues behind on my Goddess Knits Anniversary Mystery Shawl and every time I try to figure it out I am ready to scream

Happy Summer Solstice

Yay, it's summer! We started it out by going to a drive in movie of all things. Seriously, I haven't been to a drive-in movie since I was Anna's age and saw Clash of the Titans. That one and Star Wars were the ones I saw at the old 41 Outdoor in Appleton. I remember the playground, and going in your jammies in case you fell asleep in the backseat. I remember driving by going somewhere, and the screen faced the highway--and turning around and straining just to keep watching the movie going by for a few seconds, even if you couldn't hear it. Life was so much easier than. Joys were a lot more simple to find and covet (even if the rest of it sometimes scarred you for life....)

Anyway....

So we went to Field of Scenes. It was a nice atmosphere, and we saw Kung Fu Panda and Iron Man for $16. The food of course was expensive, but ah well. Nicholas and Anna (we left Emily with Grandma) stayed up through both movies (!!!) and we didn't get home until 2am. But it was really neat. Next time I hope we get the mini-van fixed and we can just open up the back flap, put the seats down, throw some blankets in and hang out and watch the movie.

I have been working on my sock--the green garden one. Emily says that my one sock is lonely and needs a buddy. So I am working on the buddy:


I am also a little disappointed in my Knit Picks order. I ordered Shadow Lace yarn in the color Snorkel and some Gloss Lace in the color Aegean. If you look on the website, the colors are different. Still blues of course, but the Aegean definitely looks darker to me. Here is the Aegean as taken with my camera:


And here is the snorkel:


And here they are side by side:


Not much of a difference huh? They FEEL different. And there is a little difference, but not as much as it looked like when I ordered. Glad I like the color--but still. I expected something a little different anyway. Even for monitor variations they look different on the monitor--so shouldn't they be different in real life?

Anyway, there is my complaining. So I have some shawls to make. I have some "sock buddies" to make. I still haven't finished my Obama charity knitting for the month. And of course we are trying to get ready for a rummage sale next month (because my friend Leslie, who is a kind soul, put it off a month for me since I still have so many boxes to go through) and clean the garage and the basement--that leaked more than we thought. Brian cleaned a lot of mold. And yarn that had to get thrown away because of mold. And my nice (expensive) knit knack sack that had to be thrown out because of mold. It was my first "real" knitting bag. It cost a fortune for me, but I was so proud of having an ACTUAL knitting bag (instead of plastic bags. And later tote bags which work fine. But this was a KNITTING BAG!) Don't get me started--I am glad that I don't have all my yarn cataloged, because I don't know what is missing now. Ignorance is bliss.

So that's what is on the agenda for the next few days. Glad I had a day off today. Work on Wednesday was less than stellar. I'm only there 2 hours a day, 2 days a week. You'd think I could avoid Drama. It just finds me.

MIA

I know I've been missing, and I have no good excuse really. Just life catching up with me. I've been trying to knit a sweater, but I am not enamored with the yarn (it is some acrylic/wool mix I had in my stash...that I was in love with years ago when I bought it in NYC...now I am not so in love). It's going slowly.

I did manage to finish the baby sweater for Anna's teacher.

We also rode on Thomas the Tank Engine! It was expensive, but worth the money. There are so many activities at the railroad museum, and they have so many "Day Out with Thomas" activities, it was worth it (even in the pouring rain). I made Anna and Nicholas' shirts. Are they cool or what? (If I do say so myself!)



We are fortunate to be up a hill from the Fox River, so we are not in danger of flooding, although our basement is getting a wee bit damper than I like it, and the dehumidifier is running overtime. But the river is moving VERY fast:


Other than that, I have just been knitting charity washcloths and hats for our Knitters for Obama charity project. I need to sit down and work out my 2-at a Time Socks one of these days. And the yarn for both my Mystery shawl KAL and my Casablanca Shawl KAL is on the way, so that should keep me slightly busy I think!

And I'll leave you with this completely awesome picture of a hawk. I think he thought Emily looked tasty. He was SO close, and directly above us: