A pre-holiday account

Books for the airplane? Check. (Yay, I got my new VK the other day!)

Beach towels and sunscreen? Check.

Pirate flag? Check.

Knitting projects for airplane, car, rainy days and general hanging around...? Uh...


I have been knitting the hexagonal Basalt Tank, but it requires paying attention and carrying around a big book and a page of errata. I could write out simplified instructions and ditch the book, but I think I'll just put it aside till I get back.

I have a sock on the go, and another sock of the same yarn which I will have to frog en route. Small, portable, easy... and I should get the wooden needles on the airplane, don't you think?


But just in case, I'll take another ball of sock yarn and some plastic needles. I'll be frogging that lone pinkish sock, too and making some socks that fit...

So, that's two socks, which would certainly occupy my time, but could get dull. So, I'll take along this new Mission Falls cotton which will turn into Jack, a Rowan kids' pullover, for Arthur (scroll down a bit). The yarn is not quite the right gauge, but what the heck, it's a rectangle with sleeves.


We'll be back in a couple of weeks -- at least one of which will be internet-free! So, see you in September, or close enough!

Arrr!

Arrr, matey!

We're getting ready to meet relatives with a boat. So, we must supply a pirate flag. I hope they have their own plank for walking....

We started out meaning to pierce the heart with the dagger, but this seemed better. Not so fierce, but with no drippy bits, either.

My sewing is not elegant. Finishing ends of knitting is not fun, but it is much more fun than finishing ends of teeny weeny thread! And there are no stupid bobbins in knitting, unless the knitter chooses to use them, which I don't, because anything called a bobbin is just a big frustration to me! Throw 'em overboard, I say! And where's the rum?

Saturday sky, and a deck update

Here's a sky for you, complete with blimp! No idea why it's there...


The deck is progressing. It's too hot to work up there a lot, and also so hot we wouldn't really want to be sitting up there anyways. We'll get the rest of the walls up before the end of the week, I imagine. And the whole thing will be ready for coffee in the morning by .... September, October?


While working on the deck this morning, Stephen found this little guy. A cicada, our very noisy summer bug.

And that's all for now!

Things for Afghanistan & the fate of the Rockpool

Thanks to these folks, I can drop off items at a LYS and they will get picked up and delivered to afghans for Afghans. Deadline is next week, so I'm working on that.

I will send them my two Baby Surprise Jackets (darn, one still needs buttons!) and several angora hats, wee size. I am working on another green one, which might end up with a red stripe, depending on how the yarn lasts. The white one might just go to a baby I know here. (Next time I'll brush the crumbs off the couch before taking pictures!)

These hats are soooo cute. Tiny, because that's what's wanted, and so warm! Put your hand in an angora hat, and you'll know it's going to keep a wee baby's head warm because your hand starts to sweat!

I tried this Adrienne Vittadini pattern with the Rockpool yarn, and got frustrated early on by a little one-stitch twist up the side of the cable. It was an organisational problem more than anything else: you have to zig on the left and zag on the right, but instead of giving you two charts, they just say, "Start at row 1 here and row 5 there," and before you know it you are .... messing up! I also might just have realised that I don't really want to knit a big thing! Hmm, perhaps another baby hat would be the way to go....


Right now I'm trying this yarn on a hexagon from the Basalt tank in Knitting Nature. (Thank heaven for errata!) As you can see, I'm not very far along. I'm not sure such a top would look okay on me, but it is so cool! I've seen a lot with half-hexagons at the side, but I would do the whole hexagons. We shall see. I'll finish my first piece and .... what, hold it up to my body? Dunno, but it's fun so far.

And now I just have to wait patiently for my new VK to arrive. I've seen it in the grocery store already, but my sub copy has not come yet.

A treat in the mail

A while ago, I won a contest at Alison's blog! Imagine!


So, yesterday a package arrived in the mail, containing this lovely pinky, purply, bluey sock yarn!


The colours are really rich and intense. You know there's sort of a green cast to most of my knitting and yarn purchasing, so this is a bit of a departure. Not sure if I want to make socks, to get stepped on and worn down, and of course a lacy scarf comes to mind! I'll just watch it for a bit and see what happens.

I'm contemplating a couple of things: ripping Rockpool and making it into an Adrienne Vittadini pullover from Vogue Knitting 1994; and making a denim jacket for a baby, but much smaller than the one I made last year, since I'm down to 3 or 4 balls of the yarn. Got some socks on the go, the big sweater, stuff like that.... Oh, to be organised.....

PS! Vogue Knitting has got together their 25th anniversary issue, and are offering some free patterns on their website. Some, ick, but some -- Wow!