Christmas Holiday

Christmas this year had a different feel.  Last Christmas was shortly after my dad passed away.  All of my siblings and I, plus our families, were together.  It was, in a sense, a joyous time.  We were still in the mode of celebrating life and love.  It felt like Dad was with us.  This year was not that way.  Not everyone was able to be together.  The mood was more subdued.  It just felt like there was a void.  I wasn't the only one who noticed this.  One of my sisters said she felt it also.  Usually the party on Christmas night is quite lively with a lot of food and beverages consumed.  This was the year of moderation.  Even the basement where the kids (now mostly teenagers and early 20-somethings) didn't look like a bomb of games and wrapping paper exploded.  Who knows why it was this way?  This past year had more than it's share of grief and sorrow, both within our own lives and in the news. There are divisions in the family now that weren't apparent last year.  And, as I said, we weren't all together.  Another one of my sisters and her husband weren't able to travel to Ohio this year.  Don't get me wrong.  We all did enjoy ourselves and celebrated the birth of Jesus.  I guess they all can't feel the same.  Here are a few pictures.

I don't know why this one won't display portrait.

The kids and I are back at home now.  We woke up this morning to a thick blanket of snow.  It is very pretty outside.  Perfect day for snuggling on the couch, knitting and watching college football bowl games.

I'll be finishing up Trisha's scarf.  She is out of town today at a wrestling tournament.  She keeps the stats for the team.  This should be done by the time she comes home later tonight.

I used one of my Christmas presents.  The girls gave me a couple books, including this one. 

I used one of the decorative cast on methods for a cowl I'm making.  It was the Channel Island cast on.  I think it made a very pretty edge.  I'm going to try to do a bind off that mimics this.  I haven't decided if the cowl is for me or for a friend.  We'll see once I get it finished, which I hope will be this weekend.  I'm using two colors of Anny Blatt Lady Blatt.  I didn't think I had enough of either color to make the entire cowl, so I decided to edge it in the darker color.  It reminds me of hot chocolate with a melted marshmallow in it.  Perfect for a wintery day.

Getting Things Done

Yesterday was my last day in the office until after the New Year.  It was a very good feeling to walk out of there knowing I wouldn't be back for a while.  This had been a very long week.  I've been putting in a lot of extra hours.  Sunday evening I had to go in about 5pm and didn't get home until 3am Monday morning.  I thought I'd be able to sleep in, but someone from work called me at 8am and said I was needed back in the office.  Needless to say, I was very cranky that day.  But now everything that is required of me before the end of the year is done and I am home.  Life's good.

A winter storm kicked off my holiday at home.  The snow was a welcome sight.  I know I am in the minority, but I really like winter as long as there is snow.  Last year was just grey and miserable.  I think we had one snowfall that melted within a day.  This snowfall may be gone by Christmas, but there is another storm predicted to hit a day or two after Christmas.  To go along with the wintery theme, I lit a fire in the fireplace and made a huge pot of ham and bean soup.  A great way to celebrate the start of winter and surviving the uproar over the Mayan calendar.

Here is my first skein of homespun from my spinning wheel.  I'm not sure of the yardage.  It wrapped 58 times around my knitty-knotty.  I think the knitty-knotty is 42 inches around, but I honestly don't remember.  I'll have to measure it.  So this is at least 58 yards of worsted-ish weight yarn.  I washed it in shampoo and hung it in my shower to dry.  It is now soft and smooshy.  There is some roving left.  I'll spin the rest of that up after Christmas.  I'll hang on to this for a while until I decide what it will become.

 This pile is a bunch of scarves I was knitting  up as Christmas gifts for my sisters.  However, my daughters spied them and now I'm not sure who the future owners will be.  Since big infinity scarves are all the rage now, the girls want the entire pile.  The scarves are being knit out of Tahki Yarns Montana.  It comes in natural colors and is really a dream to work with.  I'm not really following any pattern.  It's pretty mindless and great for in front of the television. I just case on 89 or 90 stitches onto US 19 needles, join into a loop and then start knitting.  The one I'm doing now is 89 stitches and is just K1, P1 as I go.  The grey one is also this pattern.  The other cream scarf was  K2, P2 for two rounds and then K all for a third round.  The side you see is the reverse side showing the all purl rows.  The black one has a diagonal pattern.  I started with 89 stitches and then did K2, P3 after I joined the round.  I then knit K3, P3 until I had a width that I liked.  I just knit on all of these until I got a width that I thought was fashionable and gave me enough to bind off with.  I'm accumulating the leftovers.  I might make a remnant scarf out of them if there looks to be enough. 

This is a hat for Kristin's boyfriend.  It's another very easy project.  I am actually redoing it a bit.  After I finished it last night, I tossed it to Kristin.  She put it on and said it wouldn't fit Alex.  The circumference is fine but she felt it should be longer.

 

So this morning I ripped out the decrease rows and loaded it back onto the needles.

Then I started knitting in the pattern again.  I figure I'll add 2 inches before starting the decrease rows again.  That should be enough to cover his big head.  As you can see in the picture below, I used a Russian join to connect back to the ball of yarn.  I absolutely love Russian joins!  Very easy, strong and virtually invisible.

Frivolous Post

I've expressed my views about yesterday's tragedy elsewhere.  This post is completely frivolous and trivial.

Here is some of my first attempt at plying.  I am having trouble getting the wheel to spin a complete revolution.  I know the trouble is with me and not the wheel.  I just haven't figured out the right cadence for my feet and the correct tension settings.  Practice, practice, practice.

That's all I'm posting for today.  I'm signing off now to go hug my children and do more Christmas decorating.  May peace be with you and your family.

Moving On

My daughter moves out of her dorm today for winter break.  Actually, she is totally moving out because she decided to transfer to another university.  She'll be a little bit closer to home, but I'm sure that isn't her reason for switching.  She didn't fit in at her current university.  She made friends but she didn't like the social life that most of them engaged in on weekends.  She decided to transfer to her #2 university.  Fortunately, that school said they would honor the scholarship they offered her.  That was a huge relief for Ed and me.

On the spinning front, I spun a bobbin of wool and now I am trying to ply.  I only know how to chain ply.  It is not pretty.  I can't seem to get the wheel spinning easily for the plying.  I'll just keep practicing.  A lesson or two is definitely in my future.  Someone on Ravelry mentioned that she saved her first attempt at spinning and plying to use as a comparison of how far she's progressed.  I will definitely do that.

I'll post picture over the weekend.  It's time now to head on down the road to get my girl.

Meet Lina

Yippee!!!  My spinning wheel was delivered on Monday.   It is a Lendrum Single Treadle.  I bought the complete kit from The Woolery.  I've named the wheel Lina.  It is a bit of a pun, since the wheel tilts a bit.  Also, Lina was the Egyptian goddess for weaving.  Yeah, I know this is a spinning wheel and not a loom, but before a weaver could weave, the spinner had to spin.

Monday evening was busy, so I didn't get around to assembling it  until later in the evening.  The instructions that came with it only explained how to put the pieces together.  I had been hoping for a little more, such as how to attach the leader.  Fortunately, my sister was able to talk me through it and I was able to get started.

I had a bag of wool from the drop spindle class I took back in February.  I figured it was a good thing to start with.  I think I'm doing a pretty good job.  I haven't quite filled the bobbin.  I'm getting anxious to try plying. 

Learning how to draft for the drop spindle has helped.  The biggest issue I am having is keeping the wheel turning in the right direction.  I can't seem to get it to do one full revolution easily.  I'm sure it is just that I haven't trained my leg and foot to pedal with the right amount of force.  After the New Year, I want to call my LYS and take a spinning class so I can learn the intricacies of this new toy.

I have a few Christmas presents on the needles.  Trisha as spied one of them and has dropped a less than subtle hint that she wouldn't mind if Santa left it in her stocking.  She actually saved me the trouble of asking.  Now I only need to figure out which one to give to Kristin.

Stick A Fork In It, It's Done!

Kristin's blanket is finished.  As expected, I had to be creative with the 5th repeat of the colors.  I kept the color sequence, but not the row pattern.  Kristin said she wanted it bordered in the blue, so I decided to use that as the end.  It took a lot of knitting during football and movies this weekend to get it done, but I made it.  After a steam blocking, it measures about 52 inches square.

I did an applied I-cord as the bind off.  It had been a while since I had done this, so I looked up instructions on the internet for a refresher.  There seems to be two means of attaching the last stitch of the I-cord with the first stitch from the body of the work.  The first said to do a ssk.  The second method said to knit 2-together through the back loops.  I started using the ssk but noticed that a bit of the lighter yarn from the body of the blanket would peak through.  I then tried the k2tbl.  That hid the lighter color nicely  so I continued with that for the remainder of the bind-off.

Here it is in use by its new owner.  I'd say it works.  When she wakes up I'll have to remind her not to wash it in the washer.  It isn't superwash wool.

Next in the knitting queue...Christmas gifts.

Frosty Morning

This isn't the first frosty morning of the season.  We have had a number of days where car windows had to be scraped in the morning.  But this is a big swing from a week ago.  Last Saturday was warm and sunny.  As I mentioned last week, I cleaned my windows.  This picture is proof.  I took this from inside my kitchen while my tea was brewing.  The windows must have been terrible because even my kids have commented.  These are the kids that don't seem to notice a pile of dirty clothes on their own bedroom floor.

Since Thanksgiving is 5 days away, I should be grocery shopping.  I am cooking this year, but I also have to work a lot this week.  At work we are converting our financial systems from one database platform to another.  This weekend is a dress rehearsal.  I have to work 7pm Sunday to 1am Monday.  Then after doing my regular shift on Monday I get to stay until midnight.  I'll then go home for a few hours of sleep and then be back in the office on Tuesday at 6am.  I will need to stay Tuesday during normal business hours.  Once I leave on Tuesday I won't have to be back at work until the Monday after Thanksgiving.  The wonderful project manager for this effort scheduled another dress rehearsal about a week before Christmas.  I just love his timing!!!

So, to survive this week and still be able to cook Thanksgiving dinner, I am assigning jobs to my family.  Kristin came home from college and will be staying until after Thanksgiving.  She's going to be given a grocery list and sent off to the store.  She said she'll help me with the cooking.  Honestly my menu is going to be simple.  The most complicated items are the homemade pumpkin pie and the stuffing.  I would like to make homemade cranberry sauce, but we'll see.  I'm the only one that eats it.  I just love the tartness with my turkey and stuffing.

Kristin's blanket is about big enough to cover her from chin to toe.  She was laying on the sofa last evening while we were watching a movie.  I tossed it on her.  With a little stretch it covered her.  I will continue to knit rows on it until Thanksgiving Day.  At that point I am going to start the I-cord edge, weave in the ends, steam block it and declare victory.  I'm going to suggest to Kristin that if she wants to help make it bigger, she is welcome to pick it up and knit on it.  At this point the row pattern has been broken.  I only had enough yarn to do one round when I should have done 5.  I have enough of the current color to do 8 rounds.  When I pick up each subsequent color, I'll decide how many rounds to do.

I haven't heard a peep about my spinning wheel yet.  Getting worried that my Thanksgiving weekend plans for spinning won't come true, I ordered a pile of yarn to have Christmas gifts to knit over the long weekend.  When I checked yesterday, that yarn hasn't been shipped yet either.  I'm getting totally bummed.  I do have a number of UFOs to work on.  I guess those will be my third string players if the first two fall through.

Sunny Saturday

This is the first weekend in a long time that I don't have to be anywhere.  I got to sleep in this morning and now I'm enjoying my tea.  Today is supposed to be a beautiful day.  I might actually be motivated to clean my windows.  Don't ask when I did them last.  I'd be embarassed to answer.

Our church recently had a Stewardship Fair.  All of the volunteer organizations had tables set up in the school gymnasium to recruit new members.  I joined the Prayer Shawl Ministry.  The group meets in the morning on the first Saturday of each month.  I missed last week's meeting, but I am hopeful I can make it to December's.  Members are not obligated to attend but are encouraged to work on a shawl for at least an hour a month.  I started my first shawl using some old acrylic yarn I had stashed in a cabinet.  Since it is acrylic, it will be machine washable.  Here it is.

It is about 24 inches wide.  I'm crocheting it using a cluster stitch I found in an old stitch dictionary. The lady who leads the group told me that the finished shawl should be a 'wing span' in length.  "Big enough to give a hug" is another way she put it.  I have several skeins of this yarn.  I'll just keep moving along with it until I either get it to be a wing span wide or until I run out of yarn.  I'm hoping it is the former because I'd like to add fringe to jazz it up a little.

Kristin's blanket is moving along.  I'm into the 5th repeat of colors and know I will not be able to finish them in pattern.  I told Kristin that I will work on it until her Thanksgiving break.  However big it is by Thanksgiving, that is what it is going to be.  I'll bind off and she'll get to take it back to college with her. 

I'm hoping to have a new toy by Thanksgiving weekend.  I ordered a Lendrum spinning wheel but it is on back-order.  I was really bummed when the lady from the shop called me to tell me that.  Their website said they had them in stock.  I guess I should have called first. 

Perfect Weather...

...for staying home and knitting all day long.  Not so perfect when you have a job to go to every day.

Weatherwise, Saturday was an interesting day.  I was over in Dayton for a funeral in the morning.  It was rainy and miserable as I drove over.  While inside for the funeral mass and luncheon, the skies cleared off.  From Dayton I drove over to Oxford to spend the afternoon with Kristin.  We walked around campus, painted plates at a pottery shop, and then ate lunch.  The skies were clear with a little breeze, but I felt comfortable outside.  While driving home (heading east) I noticed a not-quite-full moon.  I thought how nice it would be to have that as my guide home.  Shortly after that thought, the moon disappeared behind the clouds.  It occurred to me that it was strange because there hadn't been any clouds passing over me.  Our weather always comes from the west, right? What I didn't realize then was that the clouds were coming from the east.  Sunday morning was rainy, windy and miserable.  The weather we had had early Saturday morning tried to move eastward, but got pushed back over us because of Sandy.  That front has merged with the leading edge of Frankenstorm and seems to have stalled out over top of us.  According to the the forecast, we are not going to see the Sun until Friday.

I would love to stay home and make serious progress on Kristin's blanket.  My motivation is waning on that project and I need something to force me to get it done. 

My thoughts and prayers are going out to everyone affected by this massive storm.  I know several who are right in the thick of it.  My oldest sister lives in New Jersey.  It was her mother-in-law's funeral on Saturday.  She and her family drove home Sunday.  I haven't heard how their trip home went, but hopefully they made it home without too much trouble.  I'm sure they are hunkered down for the week.  My sister and her husband are teachers and the schools have been cancelled.   Another sister lives in Virginia.  It looks like she is not going to get the full force of the storm, but I'm sure it is still going to be bad.  Hopefully she and her husband will be able to stay put for the week also.  A friend of mine lives outside Raleigh, NC.  I'm sure the storm is the last of her worries though.  Her mother is gravely ill in the hospital at this time.  Someone who works with me is stuck in New York City.  He went out there for a long weekend, which has turned into a much longer weekend trip.  His flight home is cancelled and he was told the earliest that the airports would open is Thursday.  Further up the coast in the Boston area are a couple more friends.  Nor'easters are common for them, but this one is going to be a bit more for them. 

Here's praying everyone stays safe while Sandy passes over.

Let's See How Far I Get

Kristin's blanket is now 48 inches by 48 inches unblocked.  I am finishing up the fourth repeat of the colors.  I am currently working an 8 row section of dark green.  I am absolutely sure I will not have enough yarn to finish all six repeats. 

Last weekend I asked Kristin about finishing the blanket.  Knowing I was going to run out of yarn, I offered her several  options. 

Option 1 (aka OCD Option):  Stop when I no longer can follow the sequence. This will occur sometime during the fifth repeat of color.  There will be yarn left over with this option which will be put back into my stash.

 

Option 2 (Frugal But No Mind To Order Option):  Once I reach the point where the sequence cannot be followed, continue in color order but knit each yarn until used up.  This will result in a random looking border, but no leftovers.

Option 3 (Middle Ground Option):  Once the sequence cannot be followed, knit each color one row at a time in order until colors are eliminated and not enough of a color remains to complete a round.  This option will still have leftovers, but possibly not enough to worry about. It also mean that I may tink a lot, which doesn't sound thrilling.

Kristin chose Option 4:  None of the above...buy more yarn.  She wants a blanket big enough to wrap around herself.  Fortunately she is only 5' 1" but that means I still have a ways to go.  After a heavy sigh, I explained that this may not be a viable option.  All of the yarn is Cascade 220 and it all was purchased at my LYS.  However, some were purchased over a year ago and may not be available any longer.  I have some labels, but possibly not all.  And since Cascade 220 doesn't put nice names on their labels, but only numbers, I will have to sort through the selection at the LYS to figure out a match.

I don't know what I'll end up doing.  I really don't want to buy more yarn.  I certainly will not buy 11 more skeins.  We'll see how big it is when I get to the point where I'm forced to make a decision.  I will end up buying at least one skein.  I want to do an I-cord edge in the orange.  I'll need a full skein for that.

Roses and Trees

Any photo of Kristin's blanket would look very similar to the last one, so I'm not posting an update for a while.  Since my last post, I didn't work on it very much.  There was a family crisis which consumed most of last week.  What little knitting I did was in the car Sunday while taking Kristin back to her university.

Before tragedy struck, Ed and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary.  Since our anniversary was on a Sunday, and we both needed to be at work Monday morning, we decided to go out for Sunday lunch instead of dinner.  We had a very nice meal and then walked around a nearby shopping district.  It was a beautiful afternoon with nice autumn temperatures.  Here is a close-up of some of the roses he gave me.

I took along my camera when we returned Kristin to her school on Sunday.  In front of her dorm is a very old tree.  The tree is very interesting.  I'm sure it has many, many stories to tell if it could.  This picture really doesn't do it justice.  I'm not a very good photographer.  I'll have to take my camera back another time and get more shots of it.

One last thing.  A couple friends from work were in San Francisco last week for a conference.  They brought me back the most yummy yarn from Art Fibers.  It is a silk/wool blend called Casanova.  It's name is very appropriate because I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it.  I need to find a suitable pattern for it.  Gotta get that darn blanket finished before I start a new project!!

Plowing Along

According to my original plan, I am halfway through the row count for Kristin's blanket.  The pattern had each color repeat 6 times.  I've completed 3 sequences.  It is measuring 18 inches from the center.  I seriously doubt I have enough yarn to get me through another 3 sequences.  If I can get another 8 inches or so out of the yarn I have left it should be big enough for my daughter to curl up under.  If she wants she could have it diagonally over herself, which would provide more head to toe coverage.  Fortunately, she isn't very tall.

I don't want to have to buy more yarn, which is why I don't think I'll make it through the entire 6 sequences.  Some of the balls are getting noticeably lean.  I will make one exception to my 'no buying' rule.  I will get more orange to do an I-cord edge. 

If I were to do this over again, I would resequence the colors so that the blue and the orange weren't following the same pattern.  These two accent colors are only going to have a single round near the edge.  Hmmm....maybe I'll buy an extra blue also and do something 'special' for a border and edge.  Stay tuned.

Illusion of Progress

Here's how far I've gotten on Kristin's blanket.  

I am now up to 80 stitches on each side. I figure it will take about 220 stitches per side to get it to a nice throw size. This project feels like it is moving along nicely, thus the illusion of progress.  My progress will slow significantly because I am adding 8 stitches every other round.  Each pair of rounds gets longer to do. I am glad that I decided to use the Fibanocci pattern.The rounds where I switch colors after only 1, 2 or 3 rounds keeps it interesting. It is only until I get to the 5-row or 8-row colors when it gets a little tedious.  Halfway through the 8-row section, I'm looking forward to the 1, 1, 2 and 3 sections.

Here's a little money saving tip.  Last year I bought one of those foaming hand soaps from a retail chain that specializes in fragrant soaps and body sprays.  I liked the foaming soap because I wasn't using as much each time I washed my hands but still getting my hands clean.  After the bottle ran out, I filled it with hand soap from the local grocery store.  But this didn't work out as well because the thick soap didn't come out nicely.  Then I had an idea.   I remembered noticing that the foaming hand soap wasn't as thick as the kind from the grocery store.  Maybe cutting it with water would help. Here's what I do now each time the dispenser needs refilling.

Fill the dispenser no more than 1/3 full with liquid hand soap.

Add water until almost the top.  You need to leave al little room because the pump takes up volume in the bottle.

Screw on the cap and shake vigorously to mix the water and soap.  It will stay as a nice homogeneous mixture in the bottle.

And there you have it!  The $4 refill bottle of liquid hand soap is lasting almost a year.  The original foaming hand soap retails for over twice as much.

Long Weekend At Home

The summer is essentially over with the arrival of Labor Day weekend.  The equinox isn't for a few more weeks, but most everyone considers summer over with the start of football season and Labor Day weekend.   Kristin came home for the weekend.  I drove over after work on Thursday to pick her up.  She spent about 15 minutes in the house and then left to see her boyfriend.  Today we will be celebrating her birthday.  Her actually birthday is later in the week while she is at school.  I'm going to make her a cake for dessert tonight, but then also bake cupcakes to take back to school to share with her friends.

I finally settled on a pattern for Kristin's college blanket. She loves the color green. I had a stash of Cascade 220 in greens and browns left from a buying binge last year. I thought I'd use those colors for her blanket. After many stops and starts I settled on a simple stockinette square. Using 11 different colors, it will be striped with a Fibonacci sequence. She chose an orange and a blue to contrast with the greens and browns I had picked. I showed her how far I've gotten. I hope she likes it. She had a puzzled look on her face, but I think it was due to my explanation of Fibonacci sequence. At least, that is what I hoped it was about. I'm at the point where I need to move up to circular needles.

Since I finished the mystery shawl, I've adopted the Pi Shawl as my 'take-along' project.  This project goes with me to work every day.  When I have time over my lunch hour, I'll knit a round or so.  I've wound another ball of the yarn.  This particular ball is going a lot farther than I thought it would.  There is still a substantial amount of yarn left in this first ball.  I'm curious to see if this project takes the yardage that the pattern states.

 Two weekends ago, a couple friends and I went out to the Mid-Ohio Fiber Fair.  It was a nice gathering with a lot of yarn and fiber that I hadn't seen before.  My only disappointment was not getting to see many spinning wheels.  Every other booth had roving or fleece, but there was only one spinning wheel dealer.  I'm not quite ready to purchase a wheel but I would like to get more familiar with the various brands.  I did, however, find something for which I have been searching.  No vendor at Stitches South had a Turkish spindle, but I found one at this fair.  Ironically, the vendor who had it was the lady from whom I took a spinning lesson back in February.  I guess like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, I should have looked first in my own backyard.  I love this little thing.  It is so pretty.  It is 26 grams and made of Blood wood.  I forget what wood the center dowel is.  I'm spinning some alpaca I bought a few months ago.  This was probably a bad choice since this alpaca is very smooth.  I'm have a bit of trouble with it breaking when I get too thin.  It is a learning experience.  I just wish I could spin faster because I'm loving how the fiber looks on the spindle.

Mystery Solved

Before I get to the mystery, I want to share a picture of the evening sky from last Sunday. A small thunderstorm rolled over the north side of town just around sunset.  These pictures don't show it very well, but the sky was various shades of baby blue and pink.  This particular cell also had lightening which I wasn't able to catch on film.

I love watching the sky. I inherited this trait from my Dad. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of the two of us looking up, whether it was clouds or stars. Every time I look up now, I think of him and I wonder what the clouds and stars look like to him from Heaven.

Now, here's the solution to the mystery.  I finished the 5th clue of the Through The Loops Mystery Shawl.  Since Kristin is now off at college, I used her bedroom floor to block it.  I didn't measure it's wingspan, but it is quite large. 

Here a close-up of the edge.  I love the flared detail.  I didn't bind off as loosely as I should though.  I tried.  I used a stretchy bind-off method and a needle 2 sizes larger.  As you can see below, the outer few rows got pulled rather tight when I blocked it..  Oh well,  I rather like the shading effect it give to edge.

Here is a close up of the center section.  As my son pointed out, the ribs are a little crooked.  ("Thank you, dear, for noticing and pointing it out.  Now go take your shower and get to bed.")

He did legitimately need to shower and get to bed because school began the next day.  Here he is heading off to his first day of high school.  It took some coaxing to get Blake to smile with his mouth open.  In 2 weeks after the braces come off, I'm sure I won't have to remind him.

Trisha was all set for her first day as a junior.  She made her scarf from an idea she got off of Pinterest.

Here's to a productive school year for all!!

Hoping This Is Temporary

For the past few months I've noticed that my right wrist hurts when I flex my wrist 90 degrees back.  I only seem to do this when I'm at my trainer's and he has me doing something like push-ups or planks.  With the other pains in my body (screaming thighs!!) during my workouts, I usually forget about the wrist.  Unfortunately, my wrist is making its presence know at other times during the past week.  If I knit for more than 15 minutes, I get a shooting, intense pain that goes from the wrist up to the ring finger.  My doctor has me taking some meds to relieve any inflamation.  I sure hope this does the trick.  If I can't knit, I will be a very unhappy person.

Given the above handicap, my progress on the Through The Loops Mystery Shawl has slowed considerable.  I'm on Clue 5.  My goal was to finish this during the Olympics, but I'm not sure I will make it.  Here's the latest pictures.

July was busy with a couple trips out of town.  Our first trip was the annual Norris Lake outing.  This year we took one of Kristin's friends, who is going to be my niece's college roommate.  The two girls met for the first time and got along fabulously. 

This year the kids got to swing on a rope into the lake.  I was a bit nervous because the cliff was high and rocky.  Blake was the first of my children to accept the challenge.

 I was worried Trisha would forget to let go of the rope.

Kristin seemed like a natural.  She has a lot of upper body strength.

The tubing was great fun.

Until this happened. 

As my dad used to admonish us, 'It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt!' Anna, in the center below, somehow cut the side of her head during this wipeout. In this jumble of bodies, it is hard to tell how it happened. The only innocent one is Kristin, who is still clinging to the raft at this point in time.

After our trip to Norris Lake, I took a few days off work and relaxed at home.  The following weekend, the girls and I, along with another sister and niece, headed to New Jersey to visit our oldest sister.  While there, we ventured into NYC for the day.  I'll post pictures of that trip later.

It's Hot!!

It is predicted to hit 104 deg F today.  It is too hot to do anything outside except for in the extreme early or late hours.  My car smells like a sauna when I get in it after work and it takes half of the ride home for it to cool off.  I wish there was relief coming soon, but it doesn't sound like it.  I am trying to control the heat and light in the house by opening and closing certain blinds.  If I leave all the blinds closed all day, the house is too dark to knit.  And my plants aren't happy.  My kids are being to wonder if I am a bit OCD.  This behavior will pass with the heatwave.

I'm still chugging along on the Through The Loops 2012 KAL shawl. I'm halfway through Clue 4. My goal is to do 4 rows a day. At this rate I should have it done in less than 2 weeks.  I really wish I hadn't lost the label for this yarn.  I remember buying it years ago as a now closed LYS.  I think it was around 1000 yards.  I'll have to weigh the shawl and the remaining ball to estimate how much I have left. 

 

The design is playing out to be a plant.  The first clues made what look like stalks.  Clues 3 and 4 are leaves.  The pattern has the option to do a finished edge after Clue 4 or continue the leaves for another 40 rows and then do the edge. 

I am also getting a little spinning in.  This is the roving that my sister gave me from one of her sheep.  It is so nice to work with.  I want to double ply it.  It should work up to be fingering weight when finished.  Waiting in the wings is 12 ounces of black alpaca roving that I bought.  I've been avoiding thinking about a wheel, but I probably should invest in one soon since I'm accumulating more roving.