Yum!

First of the season berries.








Berries + homemade peach ice cream.








Hopeful eyes...

Summer vacation has now started...

See, More Knitting!

Rarely am I compelled to knit up brand-new yarn right away. Usually it has to tell me exactly the right pattern and then I hem and haw over whether I can afford to cast on a new project. I think about all the other UFOs and other projects that need some concentrated time.

Not this time...
Enter Marta.

I've had her in my Ravelry queue for quite a while, with the intention of using some Malabrigo Worsted (in Mineral Red) that's already in the stash. Blast you, Stitches West! I found some Malabrigo Worsted in Purple Mystery.

[Hello! (Waving wildly) Queen of Purple Yarn, here! Duh!]

That picture is, of course, not really accurate, as purples are notoriously difficult to photograph. Think more of a darker blue-purple: my color, for sure. This is 10" worth since last Friday's cast-on. I'm not even trying to work at it, and it's flying along. Loving it immensely and wanting to work on it every waking hour (nevermind that time suck called "work" ...)

Come on, Kathy, quit blogging so you can get back to work on it. Or go to sleep, which may be the better option.

I'll leave you with a picture of the silly dog who took a plant pot and thought it should be treated like a ball...

Who, me? What'd I do?

More Great Balls...

this time it's a dog toy!

The Dog was given a toy ball that had been used as a prop during the Kindergarten show mentioned before, the one that I made the huge yarn balls for. She seems to really love it, playing with The Dork.










Here, she's playing with the same toy, 15 minutes later. Notice anything missing?



















***********
In knitting content, The Hubby's socks are finally finished and I started The Dork's socks. The Housemate's sweater is actually starting to happen too! Pictures will be posted in a few days when I can photograph them in something resembling natural light.

The Dog doesn't get any socks or sweaters...

Swapping stuff...

I'm bringing approximately 2.5 miles of yarn to Purlescence for a yarn swap tomorrow. I am positive that I will not come home with that much to replace it! Much of it is yarn that I acquired at least 8-10 years ago. Since I no longer have a desire to use it - out it goes!


I'm having a mixed-luck-with-shoes day. Dog got to my slippers this evening and I didn't give her the "Chew" command (see yesterday's post)! The thing that bugs me about it is that I've worn these slippers for the last 2 winters, and she's shown no interest in them during that time. Why tonight? Argh!


On the other foot, I did score a great set of super-comfy clogs today. They're pure Joy to wear! I haven't taken them off since I got them.

Okay, I really need to get off the computer and get spinning, otherwise I won't meet my weekend goals.

Another rainy Friday!

This is how mine started out -- only I didn't discover it until I was already at school. [Okay, quit laughing!] Luckily, it was Pajama Day, to celebrate the donation of pjs and books to The Pajama Project, and I got to wear my slippers most of the day. Actually, no one noticed until I pointed it out - then they all fell over laughing...

Once again, it rained all day, but luckily, not as much water and without the vicious winds of a few weeks ago. But when I left school this afternoon, water was backing up in the parking lot again. I'm glad if I had to be at school, I could at least be comfy in my pjs!

Three goals for this weekend:

1) Finish spinning & ply up the Tobacco Road roving

2) Tear out the neckline shaping on the right front of Twist and redo it. I had decided to make a larger size for the front than for the back, and need to make the appropriate adjustments to eventually match the back at the shoulders. It's only a couple inches, and shouldn't take very long.

3) Finish grading 3 sets of papers that I need to hand back to my students. Hmmm, I think I'll go spin first...

This is a friend's dog, a chihuahua mix, who loves to carry shoes around. The command is "Chew!" and she runs for the indicated object and hauls it around. She made me laugh, so I had to share!

Anyway, I hope your weekend is full of laughter and snuggly stuff!

Update...

Well, the excitement (!) of yesterday evening got even more interesting after 2 AM. Dog, who was not on my good helper list last night, is more-than-ever not on my good-helper list this morning, after she barked and whined for over 2 hours. In her defense, she thought she was doing the right thing in protecting our house from the intruder German Shepherd that we put in the backyard for the night (foster dog).

Wrong thing to do. Dog was not happy with this other dog in "her space" and kept barking. Even when foster dog was taken away to another venue (thank goodness for Motel 6 that has pet rooms), Dog kept barking, thinking FD was still out there. At 3:15, I had to let her outside to see for herself that the intruder was not around - she wasn't satisfied...and kept barking!

Neighbors - I'm sorry if FD woke you up. We'll try not to let it happen again!

Needless to say, I haven't been fully awake today, even with coffee, 3-1/2 hours of sleep is not adequate. Yawn!! Thank goodness for the student who had a birthday today and gave me a doughnut to celebrate.

Catching up!

All right, so it took me longer than "tomorrow" to get pictures taken of my recent projects. In my defense, this "school has started, you have to work full-time" thing has taken all the daylight hours where I'm actually coherent. When I get home, even if it's still daylight, I haven't had enough brain cells to do more than eat, stare blankly at my blog feeds and fall over asleep.

Anyway, here's the info on the Kiri shawl:

Specs:

Pattern: Kiri shawl from
All Tangled Up (love this shawl, Polly!)
Yarn: Jaggerspun Zephyr (wool/silk)
Needles: size 5 (3.25 mm)
Started: 4/2/07
Finished: 6/21/07

Here's another view of Kiri, with Katja-the-goofy-dog and one of her favorite toys: In a perfect dog's world, balls would grow on trees. Our neighbor has a lemon tree and an apple tree which overhang into our backyard. We have permission to pick any fruit we can reach. But sometimes, lemons or apples fall off. Katja loves to carry them around, roll them at us using her nose, and eat them. There's not much that's funnier than watching her thought process..."I found a ball!" "hmmm, it tastes funny when I bite down on it" (Looks quizzically at it with her head tilted and the eyebrows raised) "but it's a ball!" Pounce...repeat.

Some Current WIPs:

The Pretty-in-pink sweater, crocheted in purple (of course!). This is the second try at this. The first was ripped out due to a delusional belief that it would be long enough. My gauge is different enough from the stated pattern gauge that I had to recalculate a bit. Because it's crocheted on the diagonal, with the bottom border integrated, it was a little deceptive about the length when I held it up to myself. I kept thinking that "it'll lengthen when I block it"... Who was I kidding? Myself, obviously. When I finished enough repeats and pinned it on myself to check, the border fell right across the middle of my stomach. NOT a good look, at all! So this is being redone, adding 3 inches to the length, which will work out just right (I hope).


Gemini Vest (from LaLana Wools). I love working with this silk! Soft, smooth, great color. According to the pattern, if I do this in silk, I have to go one pattern size down. But I'm adding a little extra length to it. Hope I have enough yarn to make it through, otherwise, I'll have to rip it for the 2nd time...

Ribby Cardi -- I need to redo the sleeve caps on this one, because my upper arms are not that slim. I really should get that done, then I'd have a new fall sweater. Rowan Yorkshire Tweed DK...This was started (eek) almost 3 years ago...

Sweater for A., our housemate. Really should get cracking on this one, as I'd like to have it done for Christmas. But she's a large-size gal, and I'm going to have to redo all the maths on the sweater style she chose. Sage-green Encore, mostly stockinette.

Oh, and I'm coordinating an afghan project for Chloe, AKA one of the Purl Girls. She's had a rough time of it lately, and I really want to send her hugs from everyone. If you can, make an 8x8" square with any yarn you have, in any pattern, knit/crochet/felted - doesn't matter, as long as it includes some red). Drop them off at Purlescence Yarns, or give them to me when you see me. I'm hoping to give it to her by early October, so any squares I can get before the end of September will be very welcome!

Lastly, here are 2 pictures of The Dork.
Here, he's dressed for the first day of 10th grade, which included Matriculation ("I promise to be a good student and citizen and to be nice to the new freshmen, even though I really hate having to wear formal clothes...").




The fencing dork at practice. "Mom, don't take my picture or I'll use my epee on your camera!"

Later!
-K