So much yarn...

My startitis is catching up with me, and I now have so many things going that nothing is getting finished. If I stick to my guns over the weekend, I should be able to finish the fuzzy Suri Dream beret which I'm giving to one of my Monday morning knitting ladies [because I can't stand fuzzy stuff. I just wanted to try out the yarn, and I needed to make up the balance in a Knitpicks order. I don't like knitting with it though, so no more.] I might also be able to finish the orange handwarmers, which are on the third re-knit because I couldn't get them "right". I think I finally have a guage and pattern worked out that will work with the yarn. I did make a cool little lace hat in pale orange---OK, I guess it's peach--- maybe it will work for one of A's friends. Pix of all this will follow.
It's raining, glorious heavy rain, the tail end of Fay. We've had 5 inches in two days and may get a little more before it blows off. I think all of the first 4 inches soaked right in, you could almost hear the trees sighing in relief. A dead branch bigger than my arm and about 5 feet long impaled itself in the back yard, thankfully not punching a hole in the house. We're up on a hill, so no flooding worries, but we do look thoughtfully at all the big trees in the yard when there are high wind warnings.
Phil is home for two whole weeks, so I'm cooking supper every day. Soup today, beef-vegetable-barley, since it's cooling off. The farmer's market won't have too many more weeks of good stuff as we head into fall, but tomatoes and cukes are still abundant. This summer we discovered how good the German Johnson and Cherokee Purple tomatoes were, with just a little vinaigrette and some sliced cukes, or maybe in a tomato-and-mayo sandwich on good bread....drool. There were lots of blueberries, and I made a few cobblers that were yummy as well.

Long time no blog

Yeah, it's been awhile. Phil's been out of town a lot and I've been vegetating and knitting, and enjoying my Monday morning knitting (and crocheting and neadlepointing) ladies. I finished the tan wrap thing which I had to re-knit because it was too short. Did you predict this? It was of course now too long. I have a plan to sort of gather it a bit so it will work, because I'm darned if I'll reknit it again. At least the lace is pretty.

Currently working on a pair of fingerless gloves in Sublime (Sirdar) silk cashmere merino. Not as soft as I would have thought, but it is pretty. When I finish these I have some squooshy pale orange to make a pair for my daughter, and enough leftover black, brown, etc to make a pair with some sort of stripes or maybe some colorwork. They go fast.

I also cabled for the very first time, just a black ear warmer for winter dog walking; it's awkward but not as hard as I thought. So, more cables in my future. The sock yarn scarf is coming along, it's my porta-piece for now because it's very simple and not too large to carry around.

There are still the blue Knitpicks Essentials socks, currently on about the fourth reknit; I just can't seem to get the fit right. Maybe I need to take a class & get some pointers. When those are done, there are two more skeins of sock yarn hanging over me.

Hmmmmm. Do I have too many ongoing projects...... there's also yarn for an afghan, and a couple of partly made sweater vests from last winter when I was learning to knit.........yikes.

The Sedgefield/Wyndham golf tournament is going on as I write, and since it's practically next door I need to go over & see what's up later today if the temp stays below 85. Phil is volunteering to carry a score card and having no end of fun, and since he is, there's a set of tickets I can use. It's all a bit snooty and very hyped up, but still kind of neat to have it going on. You can't wear jeans or jean shorts on the course, so I'll have to dig deep into the closet to find something acceptable.

Gratuitous granddaughter picture:

On my own again....

Phil is off to Ohio this week. Last week it was DC. We're meeting up in Seattle for the weekend, then the 1st week of August he's off to I think Ft. Worth, or maybe it's Kansas--- he might as well be on a book tour. For some reason most of the travel for his job happens during the part of the year when a person just might want to take a vacation. We're hoping for October, as of now.

When he's gone it's just me & the puppies (all right, the puppies and I) and we get a tad tired of each other's company. They'd like longer walks; sorry Jack, it's 93 in the shade. I'd like a night un-interrupted by barking or a slurpfest [trust me you don't wanna know.] On the other hand I can knit for hours, as long as the podcasts and L&O reruns hold out.

Had a knitting defeat last week. I had 99% finished the shoulder wrap, which I so wanted to have to take to Seattle, and had to admit that it was way too small, or short, or fit only for a very narrow shouldered woman, not one built like a horse as in moi. I could not come up with a way of adding length that did not smack of desperation. I frogged. The whole thing. Owwww. I am about 1/2 way through the re-knit-- added five more lace repeats and a seed stitch border and went up a needle size. If it still doesn't fit I will wear it as a hat, I swear.

Also started another scarf, this one to be a very simple lace and quite wide and long, made of pale grey handpainted sock yarn. I walked around the yarn store for about an hour and kept coming back to the Cherry Tree Hill merino sock yarn. It's the right weight, it's a glorious color, it has no fuzz ( I didn't want fuzz-- this is for cool nights in warmer seasons) and you get 400+ yards in a skein. So it's probably some sort of knitting crime to use sock yarn for something other than socks, but pooey. My only worry is that it may not block out nice and flat, if it's washable wool. Even if it doesn't I think it will be cool.

Hummingbirds are all over the feeder lately; I was treated to a serious dogfight yesterday. There was a female determined to keep a male away from the feeder. Divebombing, ramming, swooping, and twittering went on for nearly 20 minutes. He finally got to feed but was so freaked out he kept looking around every sip to see if the demon lady was coming back. So much passion in such a tiny bird!

Lazy Summer

Haven't entered anything in here in a while, I see, but then nobody reads it anyway so who am I trying to please? I've been knitting great guns since we got back from the Blue Ridge trip. There's a wrap I really want to get done to wear to Seattle, if I can, in Sublime soya cotton--- they call the color "cinnamon" but I think it's exactly the color of brown paper bags. This is what I picked up after returning the evil Noro Silk Garden. I've also shifted my current socks onto two circs each, which seems to be working well, and I worked out a design based on a ripple pattern in the Knitter's Bible. There are three other sock yarns whining at me to be started, and a cardigan languishing on the shelf, so if I start anything else I need to have my head examined!
The heat has been eating into my exercise time, which means more time in the gym is called for. The dogs just don't warrant much of a walk when it's over eighty and humid as a rain forest, nor do they really want to go out. It's too buggy and wet to go to the driving range, due to the lovely thunderstorms we've been having every night (no sarcasm intended; I really enjoy thunderstorms and we need every inch of rain.)
Sunday's golf game was an exercise in living with embarassment. I hit a few decent drives and of course I can chip and putt pretty well, thanks to all the minigolf Phil & have played, but by the back nine I just could not get to the green. I got so blitzed by the heat that Phil urged me to sit out a while and I skipped the last three holes in favor of sitting in the cart. Dave, Phil, and Holli seemed unaffected by the sweatbath conditions. Guess I'm meant to be a spring and fall golfer. I need a few lessons, too, to get me to the green in less than five or six shots! I was using SPF70 sunslop, and missed a space on the front of each shin for some reason--- it's still sort of pink. I was pretty ticked at myself because I try to be very careful about sun exposure, having skin that turns red if I even think about the sun.
Got to go catch up on the Tour de France. I'm following the Chipotle-Garmin American team (since we're consumers of both products---ummm, veggie burritos.)

less than infinite wisdom

OK, so I'm having about 12 people over for brats and whatnot tonight-- something I foolishly volunteered myself for-- why do social interactions always seem more attractive in the abstract? Phil has a work thing going on with folks from out of town, and we've done this before, so I figured we should do it again. It's really very simple, except for the shopping, making of brownies and cookies and coleslaw, and oh yes, cleaning all three bathrooms. And the rest of the house. And relocating all the bits that have taken up residence in odd places all over the house. They will creep back out in the dead of night, probably within 48 hours, but one has to make an effort. Of course it will be fun in the end.
I had been working on making a wrap out of Noro Silk Garden, and I gave up yesterday. The yarn has seductive colors, but it's abysmally constructed. It had knots, bits of straw, places so thin they broke and places so thick I could hardly knit them. And it sheds. I took two skeins back to the LYS and actually threw out the one I'd been working on, and it wasn't cheap. Lesson learned. With the return credit ( and a few wee bucks more) I got some nice consistent soft soy- cotton and a little merino for later in the year. Both beautiful and well behaved, and cheaper than the Noro disaster.
It's a little cooler this week, a real relief since I seem to have been revisited by the Furnace Fairy, a creature that comes around to bother women of a certain age by heating their entire bodies to boiling at awkward moments. I thought I had gotten rid of the FF several years ago, but here she is again. Huh.
Only 3 weeks until I get to go see Andrea & Jeff and baby Cate again, whoo-hoo!! I'm looking forward to reading cate "The Piggy in the Puddle". Must practice.

Blue Ridge

Got back Thursday from five days up in the mountains. It was blessedly cool, down to the forties at night, and clear. Holli, Dave, & Phil rode bikes three days, we played golf one day, and I did some hiking and some knitting & read two J. D. Robb mysteries. Other people fed us the whole time-- B&B breakfasts and restaurant dinners-- pretty sweet. I gained a few pounds I have to carve off this week. Didn't take a single photo the whole time; I just wanted to be there.
Have to get ready now to go up to Rhode Island on Saturday. Working on two more pairs of socks and maybe a wrap.
The hummingbirds have been coming to the feeder regularly, or one hummer comes a lot-- can't tell. Things are very dry here, which I'm sure makes my sugar water more interesting. We badly need a small, polite hurricane!

Rosie's Got her Wag Back

Well, mostly. She is recovering from [Ewww Alert!] impacted anal glands. I don't even want to think about what that feels like and I am grateful humans don't come with those accessories. The vet also tested and warned me to keep an eye on "Rosie's benign fatty masses." Well. I've got those too, but in my case they're called hips and thighs. Anyway the Rose is on the mend & we're glad. At nine years old I guess we can expect more doggy decline. Hmmm-- they're just about my age in dog years. Oh, dear.

The socks are done, see pic, and I'm trying to put another pair on the needles. This time I'm doing toe-up socks, so I can make the ankles a little longer without worrying about running out of yarn. This calls for starting with a curved toe geometry that is giving me fits; also, the yarn is finer and the needles smaller than the first pair. One needs very bright light. I want to start them so I can take them up to the Blue Ridge with me next week, when Phil & his friends go on bike rides and I get to knit to my heart's content and do a little hiking. It will be cooler up there, and I'm so looking forward to that. 96 degrees F yesterday (and the thermometer is in the shade under the eaves.)