SKATE BIG!

Tomorrow is the first of several upcoming ice dance competitions for Rachel. Its been a busy time getting prepared. There are many details that sometimes require last minute attention such as, costume embellishment, polishing boots, selecting makeup colors etc. Fun. I am completely confident in my daughter's abilities and I know she will SKATE BIG! And, she always pleases the audience and I am so proud she is my daughter. Now to decide on my knitting project...that will take some time.

Weekend highlight

Life has been busy! We've been gearing up for Rachel's skating competitions. Summer schedule is almost over and the crack of fog wake ups will become more civilized. Last weekend's highlight was a visit from Greta http://gretaknits.typepad.com and the Poodle Princess. Rachel has some photos posted at her blog http://rachelsknitting.blogspot.com Greta and I have know each other close to 11 years. We've raised our children together, and also when we have been apart. Our dreams and desires are much the same. Our children and our animals are wonderful and give us much joy. The children are growing up and now we are both adjusting to new phases in our lives. Sandy, the Poodle Princess is now the baby in our family, only 4 months old. Sandy and Kishka, my standard poodle, who is 9+ years old, became acquainted, and after a few hours were reasonably comfortable with one another. We relaxed, had a nice dinner, talked forever, knit, and visited Yarnings in Skippack, PA. Wonderful shop with a great inventory of beautiful yarns that can send any knitter into sensory overload. Greta and Sandy thoroughly enjoyed the shop. I purchased two skeins of Koigu in a lavendar blue colorway to complement three ocean bluish/purplish skeins to make a "Charlotte" or similar type shawl. Photos soon of this adventure. Rachel has started to wind my navy blue shetland. I'm still looking through shawl patterns and techniques before I dive into these projects. On Sunday I spent the day cleaning and organizing my knitting room. Now I can see the top of my desk and all the unfinished projects!! Today the weather is beautiful. Hope to knit on the deck later today.

Photos

Sale Yarn Hat 


Noro Scarf 


Future Shetland Shawl 

Here are some recent photos of my knitting. I decided on a rolled rim hat for the sale yarn. The colors are really pretty. The Noro scarf is a simple basketweave pattern. The future Shetland Shawl is from my LYS. For months, each time I visited the shop, I would walk by these 13 hanks of Shetland wool for $21 and wonder if I really could turn this octopus into an actual Shetland shawl. Well, I believe I can do it, and have started seaching through my shawl books to read about technique and deciphering the charts. Stay tuned.

Friday

The week flew by with a few rambunctious storms to spice things up. The rain and warm weather has the garden happy and productive. I've been knitting a rolled, rim hat with my new sale yarn and started a basketweave patterned scarf with some Noro in an orangy, pink, purply colorway. There are many works in progress scattered throughout the house. Photos at some point when Rachel sits still long enough to post them for me. She's much better. Fevers tend to recharge her battery. No special weekend plans. Enjoy yours.

Boa finished, replaced by Sale Yarn

Boa 


Sale Yarn 

Grumbling and Nudging

I'm grumbling a bit the past few days. My heart just breaks when my child gets so sick and I can't speed up her recovery. I can be such a nudge. I wish I could stop. Yesterday's rain was relentless. I did knit. Rachel slept for three hours after her first day back on the ice. I sat on the couch just to be near and watched her sleep. Finished the right front of Everyday Cardie, decreased the armholes on the Lime Calipso and even finished a wild orangy, yellow, gold Bernat Boa scarf. Just sloshed around the garden and picked about fifteen cucumbers and a huge bunch of cherry tomatoes. Time to look for pickle recipes and maybe try some homemade tomato sauce. Hope the sun comes out soon.

Improvement

We made it to Friday, fever worries and all. Rachel is much improved, but the next few days she will take it easy.
Garden is doing well. I can't keep up with the cucumbers and the sunflowers are starting to really smile. Glads are are peeking and I have one, very confused, mauve colored, autumn mum that is starting to bloom...but that's what is so fun about Mother Nature...she marchs to the beat of her own drummer. Everyday Cardie front is working up nicely and the Lime Katia Calipso is getting some attention too. Cubetto is getting a rest since my fingers are scratchy from the garden and tend to snag the yarn. Hoping to post photos later if Rachel can get the computer to recognize the little thingy that the pictures are on.

Quiet day

A few days of antibiotics and hopefully Rachel will feel better. Certainly no skating before Monday. We've been relaxing. She snoozes, I knit, Kishka barks. I'm grateful I can be home to look after her.
I'm making headway on the Everyday Cardigan front and am thinking about starting a Charlotte's Web Shawl, but I really should not get too overloaded. Competitions and travel are on the upcoming agenda, so the simple projects may be best for now. Kishka wants to play tug. Gotta go.

Yo- Yo day

I've been out of touch. Yesterday was a beautiful day. I spent a few hours on the deck working on my Everyday Cardigan, Cubetto and another tank that I had forgotten about. Its in a lime green Katia Calipso which is a flat, heavy cotton ribbon. I hope it softens up with washing because its sort of coarse. We'll see. Today sort of backfired on us. Rachel woke up feeling funky and has been running a fever all day. Up and down like a yo-yo. Dr visit tomorrow.

92 degrees makes for craziness

92 degrees out. My energizer cucumber plant is loving it. It looks like some one took a red crayon and is starting to color in my cherry tomato plant. The day was fairly quiet. I worked a few more rows on Cubetto and started the front to my Everyday Cardigan. Uh oh..it was quiet. Time to go. Its very quiet upstairs. YIKES!!!!! Rachel just discovered Kishka attempting to chew up the package conatining my new Oral-B Hummingbird...power flosser. Think we will give him a bath to calm him down. I think he needs a girlfriend or needs to learn to knit!

July 4th Photos

Cherry Tomatoes 


Furz 


Sunflower 


0 Points Cucumber 


Zinnia 

As promised, some photos taken today from the garden. Also a photo of the back of Furz. Happy 4th.

Pretty nice day if I do say so.

Today was a pretty relaxing day. Sleeping in was nice. My daughter and husband were happily occupied and Kishka was in low lunacy mode. Started with weeding the garden, while admiring my moulin rouge sunflowers that are just starting to open, picked some cherry tomotoes and four, very nice cucumbers. The grape tomatoes are a little slow to start, but there are lots of blossoms. Later on during the day I worked on Cubetto and remeasured Furzy'z back and discovered I was 1" short. Photos soon. Best part of my day was talking with my bestest, greatest friend in the whole wide world. Gosh I am so lucky!

Not much here

I have no idea what to write about. Ummmmm, my tummy feels better, especially after eating vanilla custard with chocolate sprinkles! Its Friday night. Everyone has their spot on the couch, including Kishka. How can a poodle stretch across an entire couch like that? Well, as you can see this is not a very informative quack. So, its probably a good idea that I go knit. More tomorrow.

Oreoes

Almost human. Three Oreoes down and I feel much better. After the rink run out and back twice, I did have enough energy to get my glasses repaired, scoot to Yarnings to pick up one more ball of Cubetto, and go to the vet to buy Kishka his foods and meds for the month. That bill set me back. Now I am pooped. Hope to sit down and knit on Cubetto a little later on.