Summertime!

I love summer. Okay, maybe not the heat, but the feeling of freedom. That's what you get when you work at school. 2 months of freedom!

The freedom to not wake up at 5:45 AM every morning.
The freedom of no grading.
The freedom to travel.
The freedom of unstructured time (that is quickly becoming structured)!

So, we've been out of school for the last 10 days. What have I done in that time?

Finished the retirement shawl for my friend Linda, although it's not yet gifted.

Pattern: Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl
Yarn: Dream in Color Baby (laceweight) in Pansy GoLightly, approx. 1/2 skein
Needles: Size 6 (4.0 mm)


Knit Shakespeare-themed socks (completed 4 out of the 6 that I wanted to do)
Socks that Rock:
Midsummer Night for The Hubby
Korppi for The Dork (couldn't find the right color for him)
Peaseblossom for me (toe-up Monkeys), but I only got to the heel turn by Saturday evening.


Went on vacation to Ashland, Oregon for the OSF Shakespeare Festival. Fabulous! We saw 5 shows (Comedy of Errors, Coriolanus, Othello, Midsummer Night's Dream, The Clay Cart), all of which were wonderful. This was our 5th year, and we have never failed to be amazed with the quality of the shows. We are lucky enough to have a son who also enjoys watching live theater, especially Shakespeare. He's been a tech theater kid for years, so he looks at staging, lighting, fight choreography, in addition to enjoying the plot and acting.


Let's just say the character of Peaseblossom of Midsummer Night's Dream did not match at all the socks I'm making! Combine the 70s Disco Queen fairies with the 50s Jersey Duke/Hippolyta, Hermia/Lysander and Helena/Demetrius couples, throw in the 60's VW bus with flowers painted on it for the earnest performers of "Pyramus and Thisbe", and the audience was screaming with laughter.

Knit lots during shows - Shepherd Sock in Grumperina colorway. Learned to be careful about trying to pick up dropped stitches in the dark. Spent lots of time in the evenings fixing the mistakes I made, even though this was supposed to be plain ol' stockinette! This sock is almost finished.



Knit during WWKIP day with The Hubby (waiting to see Midsummer)







Ate delicious food! We always stay at a motel just off the downtown area that has a kitchenette. There is a market directly behind the motel, a great place a couple blocks away for freshly made ravioli, and Rogue Creamery about 20 minutes up the road. Smoked chicken and cheese ravoli with gorgonzola cream sauce, swiss chard on the side. But we also ate a great meal here, too! Oh, and don't forget Lillie Belle chocolates either. Darn it (snapping fingers), they opened a retail shop right next to Rogue Creamery, so of course we had to stop in! And ice-cream after the shows at Zoey's Cafe (no website).

Got stuck in stopped traffic on I-5 (not freedom!), due to this tragic event, with a subsequent almost 3 hour delay and detour. We didn't get home until 3 AM, after sitting for an hour, then turning across the center median and using much smaller roads to try and get around the closure. Part of the detour we were directed toward was several miles of unpaved road. Thank goodness they caught the perp about 10 hours after the original incident, but the highway was closed so they could try to find him and the rifle he used.

Need to finish the Montego Bay scarf by Wednesday night so I can block it on Thursday for gifting on Friday! It didn't go to the original recipient, because there was no way to finish it before school let out. So it's going to our head fencing coach who is leaving to work on her PhD out-of-state. Our club has now merged with another one a little further north.

Whew! I've done a lot already...