How time flys…

How did this happen?

First Day of Nursery (Fall 2006)

First Day of PK (fall 2007)

First Day of Kindergarten (fall 2008)

End of Summer Wrap-up

My classroom is ready.

I know what I’m going to teach.

I have clean clothes.

School starts tomorrow… Ready or not, here we go again!

But for today, I’m thinking back to the summer!

I competed in the Ravelympics!

And I won two medals!!

Surprised that I managed to start and finish two projects during the Olympics? Me too. Of course, there was a trip across the country and a cruise so there was penty of knitting time!

My projects were Elisa’s Nest Tote and Children’s Felt Clogs. Both were great fun to knit and I’m already planning repeats of both. I think I better start stocking up on feltable yarn, I see a lot of clogs come Christmas! Didn’t The Loopy Ewe say they would have Cascade 220 soon? That could be dangerous…

Found the moon

Staying on the high desert was an experience, and I still think the landscape looks like the moon… but today we drove to Palm Springs past a giant and magnificent wind farm. Hopped on a puddle-jumper and landed in LA. Diner on the Santa Monica Pier, and I found the moon, over the ferris wheel!

Is this the moon?

I am now in the high desert of CA, in Twenty-Nine Palms to be exact. The landscape is so different from anything I have seen before. They were complaining that it’s been so humid here this summer, almost 20% most days they say… I just had to laugh after life in DC I’m getting dehydration headaches here! Also, you know what, even with no humidity 105 is hot!

One good thing about repeated cross-country trips is knitting time! This is the Elisa’s Nest Tote knit in Hempathy. It’s one of my Ravelympics projects.

Today I move to Santa Monica, should be more humidity there! Don’t forget about my contest…

Contest!

Time for a contest! Answer the three questions below and be entered to win the answer to question 3.

1. Where did I spend the night on Monday August 4, 2008 (city and state)?
2. What band did B and I see live in concert last night (Wednesday August 6, 2008)?
3. What book did Interweave send me by mistake?

Need a little more help? Here are some clues:

View from the hotel window on Monday

Really bad photos from the concert

I ordered a bunch of books from Interweave at their hurt book sale. Six of these are ones I ordered, one is not.

So, leave me a comment with your answers by August 15, 2008 and if you are correct you will be entered in a drawing to win the book I got, and don’t want! I’m sure I’ll throw in some other goodies as well.

Have fun!

Finished Hemlock Ring

I was pleased with myself that I actually got the wedding gift knitted and blocked days before the wedding! I finished the crocheted bind of (thanks to JulieFrick for the convincing that crocheting was much easier than the crazy knitted bind off in the pattern) on Wednesday evening. Washed and blocked Thursday morning and it was dry in time for bed Thursday night. Folded neatly with a card and delivered Friday morning. Heck the wedding wasn’t till Saturday so I was way ahead of the game.

I can see why so many people are knitting this, it really is a fun knit and gets to be sort of hypnotic.

Details: Hemlock Ring throw as detailed by Brooklyn Tweed with help from The Rainey Sisters. Knit with Alpaca with a Twist, Baby Twist in brown using size 8 needles. I used all of one jumbo hank and some of the second. There is still plenty left on the second to make something else. I kept going till there were 75 stitches in each section. It blocked out to about 46″ in diameter. I think now I should have made it bigger, but this way I got it done! Ravtails here.

Details on the wedding tomorrow!

You’re doing what?

Once upon a time I used to sew clothing instead of knitting it. In fact, while I didn’t sew my wedding dress, I did sew things that I wore at both the rehearsal and at the party the evening after the wedding.

In recent history (we just celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary in June) I haven’t done much more sewing than putting the patches on Bunny’s Tae Kwon Do uniform. Oh, and I started a quilt last summer, but that’s a whole other story.

The reason for sewing today comes because my brother-in-law is being married on Saturday. Bunny is the ring barer and a cousin is the flower girl. The cousin in question is long and lean so finding a sun dress long enough would have required major alteration. I offered to make it rather than face the altering. I forgot how fun (and fast) it is to make clothing. After pre-washing yesterday, today in about two hours I got it cut out and have most of the top (and thus the fiddly parts) finished. It helps that I picked a super easy pattern and the only modifications I’m making are to make it size 6 with a size 8 length. I have high hopes that she will look particularly adorable!

In other news the yard sale was a success. We made $134.50 and only had to put $70 of gas in the borrowed minivan, so an actual profit! I didn’t bring back nearly as much as I took so that’s the real gain. There are a few things that I’m going to try to sell on Craig’s list or Ebay, we shall see how that goes. After the sale, I found some real treasures in my parents’ basement. Relics from my mother’s by gone days of crafting… but those will have to wait for another post!

What I collected before yarn

Why I needed three strollers for one child is not completely clear to me anymore, but I remember at the time I had good reasons. Off to the yard sale they go, perhaps I can buy some more yarn with the proceeds!

Flowers, Food, Floods, Fireworks, Fourth

Our day yesterday…

We started the day yesterday at beautiful Mount Vernon. While B played in a concert on the lawn Bunny and I explored the out buildings and gardens. Bunny decided that we should photograph the insects in the garden. I’m not sure I always got the bug in the picture, but there were some pretty flowers nonetheless! There were also costumed soldiers, a replica of the Liberty Bell, and people passing out birthday cake!

After we got home there was time for a nap for me (yeah!) and then it was off to Fairfax High School for another band concert and fireworks. We got onto the field and staked out our space. B went up front for the sound check and Bunny and I hung out and tried the moon bounces. Bunny’s dinner was the all-American meal, corn dog and kettle corn! I had the all-American Pad Thai and chicken skewer. It was great and there was plenty for me to save half for B.

As we were eating, the clouds got thicker and thicker. The scene around us soon looked like this. And the rains came. The band played on. The rain continued. The band finished, the rain let up. A Jimmy Buffet tribute band played, the rain started again. The 1812 Overture was canceled. B packed up his horn. The rain got harder. The fireworks went off as the rain poured down. Soaking wet we trudged back to the car. We had some blankets in the car so we stripped Bunny, wrapped him up, and he was asleep before we were out of the parking lot. At home I dumped all the wet stuff in the tub and have been washing today. This may be the end, however, for our NeatSheet, it had puddles on it last night…

Socks Done!

For the second entry in the Sock Knitter’s Pentathlon the socks were Berlin Muster. To say there was a pattern overstates things a tad. Really it was just a lace chart, and a tricky one at that. While my socks don’t match (I changed my mind about which stitches to keep on the foot and which to use on the heel between socks) I am pretty pleased with the results and feel like I have grown as a sock knitter!

In a burst of speed, after working on these for six weeks, I turned the second heel and finished them up in four days. The fact that we were at the beach this week-end helped. Bunny hung out with his grandparents, B slept, and I knit each morning. Not a bad way to start a day!

Ravtails here.

Next up, Hemlock Ring… I wind the yarn tomorrow!