What I will do in July

Okay, get organized.

The thing I must do is stop going off in all directions! I finish one afghan square and think what to do with the last bit of that yarn, and end up making another afghan square. sheesh.



So. Four things for July.

1) And I mean it! I will work on my lovely cotton summer top.

It is a bit farther along than this, but not much. I have misplaced my cable needle, and I have to carry around the instructions, and blah blah excuses excuses.

2) I'm half-way through an afghan square (surprise!) and will finish it off. And not start another right away, no no no.


3) Arthur's second Broad Ripple sock.


I have one done, and am almost starting the heel on the second. I like the pattern a lot, the yarn, not so much.

4) I will find some red and green cotton and make a poinsettia! Like this one. So lovely. I really should do it this week as part of a weekly dishcloth-along, but this week is a bit problematic, as the hub is at a conference and the kids need to be taken here and there at certain times, and Mommy wanting to go shopping falls to the bottom of the list. So, sometime this month!

Sunday sky

The light was really weird this evening, and I looked outside and the sky was orange! Just the right combination of sunset and cloud, I guess. We had a teeny bit of rain, and now it is just dark. Thunderstorms forecast for tonight and tomorrow!

RIP Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett

Michael Jackson, a strange person, indeed. But, hoo, he could sing and dance.

And the fashion sense!



And Farrah, as well:

Luckily, I never wanted hair like that, because it would have been impossible!

Thunderstorms this afternoon

I wanted to get the empty wine and beer bottles off the back deck, so gathered them up to take them up to the beer store to cash them in. A brief walk, just around the corner, really.

It started to pour when we were about half way! We got soaked, but we got rid of our bottles and got $5.30! Whoo hoo.


And it's very hard to take a picture of the pouring rain. It was so dark that the street lights came on. Crazy Ontario weather....

What people did before everyone had a blog

If you were a knitter in the olden days of 2003, and you wanted to share your "hobby (gigantic understatement)" you could put out a zine*... if you were very clever and could draw and had a sense of humour. And Aimee Hagerty did!**


I just bought this at a yard sale for a quarter. It's got a catchy cover, don't you think?




There are articles (one by Amy Singer; is that our Amy Singer?) and cool cartoons, as well as knitting book reviews and actual knitting content, like a pattern for leg warmers that flare at the bottom "to fit over your punk-ass boots."

Plus the all-important lists: seven good places to knit in Seattle, three records to knit by, Kool-Aid flavors I've used in yarn-dyeing... All this for a quarter!

And if one is a complete geek about these things, there is a Facebook fan page!

* I just read Carrioke's 6-year-blogiversary post, so indeed, some people were blogging in the olden days!

** Aimee Hagerty Johnson was also featured, not so long ago, in the KnitKnit book.

The other moms in the park will be so envious!

Look at this wee blankie! This was made by the elementary children at Elaine's school, with a bit of help from parents and teachers, for the principal's upcoming baby.
















I thought at first it would be too wussie, too pale and wan (10 points if you recognize "pale and wan") but now I think it is gorgeous, warts and all.
















We found a crocheter.
















One kid got a bit over-excited and had to be reined in.
















One kid was a bit late, but that worked out well.
















But the really super-cool thing is that they were all willing to part with their masterpieces to make this project together.

The parents, when asked, said, "Oh, but I don't knit," but the kids just learned to knit and did their best. (Note to self: teach beginners how to catch dropped stitches; that they should count every once in a while; and that sometimes it's a good idea just to rip and redo!)

The kids presented it to her yesterday at the graduation event. If I had spoken, I would have gushed a lot more, but it was right at the end and everyone was a bit antsy!

Ta da!

The last of the teacher dishcloths

It's impossible to capture the cool blue of this cloth. The colourway is called Swimming Pool, and I love it! Might have to go get more, to make a stocking-stitch-based cloth.

It's the Knitted Round Lacy Cloth -- how's that for a good name? It's short rows with a few holes at one end -- easy to remember, and fun to watch the lines of colour sort themselves out in the wedges.

WWKIP day

I didn't do much knitting in public yesterday, but I understand that WWKIP day is 4 days this year...

I went to High Park, where some Ravelers had talked about going, but I had 6 kids and a non-knitting adult with me, so I couldn't really deflect the whole gang to go on a hunt for the knitters!

I did manage a few rows on a sock at the castle playground. One of the children asked me, "How come whenever you start knitting you take a picture?" Hard to explain, kid...



I did things to that photo to make the sock a bit more visible. Love this photo-fiddling capability!


And we caught a poppy on the way home, as well.


Arthur's finished school already, so I hope there will be lots of outings to exciting places. Each kid has a couple of scheduled daycamps, but for a lot of the summer we'll do Mommy Camp. This implies activities and expeditions, rather than "Let's sit in front of the computer all day," which is what many of us would do, left to our own devices. We have booked a cottage up by Algonquin Park for the end of the summer, but will be adrift in the big city most of the time. It's an adventure...

Another dishcloth

It's the end of the school year, and the teachers need a little something.

This is for the science teacher, surprise surprise.


I made another one for a swap but neglected to take a picture of it. It's a fun pattern to make, but it won't have the nitty-gritty toughness of a more textured pattern. Cute, though!

Goodies in the mail

One of my little guilty pleasures lately has been watching the Big Bang Theory, that dumb sitcom about physicists -- wow, they've taken down a ton of episodes!

And so I joined a fan group on Ravelry, and then someone thought up a Big Bang swap. And I got my package today:

One of the items in the package had to be handmade, and I got this great hat!


Also a delightful skein of laceweight yarn, which will make a beautiful soft shawl, jewelry...


...tea, chocolates, and some gliders for fooling around in the park. Thanks so much to my partner!

Zipping along

I know I said yesterday I would make a blue dishcloth, and I have indeed started that. I also, however, decided to make a Mason Dixon washcloth as another teacher gift, and whipped it up in no time at all. It's a bit gaudy, eh! I sort of like the swirl of colours in the middle.


That gives me 3 weeks and 6 days to finish 3 more things!

52 projects in 52 weeks

Perhaps foolishly, I have joined a group planning to knit (or crochet, dye, spin) 52 things in 52 weeks. Finishing UFOs counts, and you can count an afghan square as an item, or one sock! Even a sleeve, I suppose...

So now each Monday I might just start something, and by each Sunday I should have finished something. Not necessarily the same thing.


This week, we start off with a blue dishrag, which I think should pose no difficulties. Let's see how many weeks I can keep this up!