A long post

First, I've been tagged! Sarah tagged me with:

5 things i miss from childhood.

If you want to participate the chain-letter part works like this: remove the blog at #1 from the following list and bump every one up one place; add your blog’s name in the #5 spot; just check to make sure the links are still attached if you copy n’ paste.

1. Nepenthe's Misadventures
2. dynamiteknits
3. Sassy Stitchess
4. Stitch
5. Cooknknit

1. Summer Camp. From the summer after 5th grade to the summer after 9th, I went to summer camp. A few of those summers were day camp, but the latter summers were sleep away. The summers at sleep away camp were my favorite summers. The outdoors, the smells of the woods, swimming in Lake Tiorati in Bear Mountain, the hikes to Lake Welch for the "beach". The friendships I forged, the smells I will never forget. I treasure each memory and would love to do summer camp again.

2. The innocence. I was a naive child. To some extent, I'm a naive adult. I grew up sheltered. Sometimes I feel like it was a bad thing, but sometimes, I know it was a good thing. I miss those days of innocence.

3. Time. When you're a kid, time goes by too slowly. But you always seemed to make the best of it and find a million things to do. A long, rainy day of coloring. A few hours of riding your bike up and down the alley. Hunting for those strange bugs on the leaves by the garage took up quite a chunk of time. Now? There's no time at all, and it seems to fly by and you've gotten nothing done.

4. Roller skating. Rollerblades are great, but roller skates... My fondest, albeit strangest "fondest" memory of roller skates: I believe it was shortly after my father died, my family went upstate to visit my grandparents. My mom, my aunt and I went to a roller rink. I got my skates on before they did and I was told I could go ahead without them. I was on the rink no more than a minute, when a man came barrelling towards me and knocked me down. There was blood everywhere. I was brought into the rink's office where the manager tried to hold back the blood with a bandaid. Next thing I know I'm in the ER with a blue sheet over my face, with a hole cut out for my chin and holding my mom's hand. The cut went down to the bone and I needed stitches. And all I cared about? Was that I didn't get to skate.

5. My dad. My dad died the summer before I entered 3rd grade. My parents never took a honeymoon so that summer they dropped me, my brother and sister off at my grandparents and headed up to Canada for a real honeymoon. They went out on a lake and the motor on the boat stopped. My dad went under the boat to see if he could fix it, and something pulled him under. I vividly remember the call from my mother, I had just gotten back from the library with a new Babar book. I've had many chances to go to Canada since then, but I've never gone. No offense to any of my Canadian friends, but I can never go. And this is the reason why.

If you'd like to do this one, please feel free to tag yourself. :)

Now, onto happier topics: Knitting!

I've been busy. And I have a lot to show. I've been working on another letter have it bag. This one is for the little guy's teacher. He heads off to Kindergarten next month, and will be leaving day care for good at the end of August. I have the back and the front done, and am working on the middle piece.









The next thing I've been working on is the green striped baby sweater. I've gotten all the pieces knit, and started sewing it up.







Can you see my poor attempt at seaming? The stripes don't match up. Sigh. I'm going to have to take it out and reseam. Ugh.

Next comes, another booga bag. I'm working on the i-cord now, but the body is done.










I took a workshop on Thursday at The Point. It was a workshop using Iris Schreier's new book. Modular Knits. We all learned how to do the Zig Zag scarf from the book, and here's my practice piece:

















And while I haven't given up on Mariah just yet (I've finished both sleeves and started on the back), I've started the next "big" project: I do. It's for a friend who's getting married in November. The yarn is Austermann Mayfair and it was cheap, cheap, cheap from Elann. I can't wait to do more on it.












10 weeks til Rhinebeck!!

Tag, I'm it!

I've been tagged! Jennifer tagged me for this cool meme. Now you'll learn what a loon I am.

id·i·o·syn·cra·sy
Pronunciation Key
n. pl. id·i·o·syn·cra·sies
A structural or behavioral characteristic peculiar to an individual or group.

Write down five of your own personal idiosyncracies. Then, if you wish, tag five people from your live gerbil or friendslist to do the same.

1. When I take out several books from the library, I never know which one to read first. So I put them in alphabetical order, by author's last name, and read them that way.

2. I also like to have my music and movies in alphabetical order, but hubby insists on keeping them in genre order. Maybe one day when he sleeps, I'll put them the way I like them.

3. My house could look like a tornado hit it, but my bathroom would be spotless. I love a clean a bathroom, and it's the one room on the house I like to clean.

4. Pink is my favorite color. This may not sound strange to you, but if you knew me 2 years ago, you'd be surprised. I'm a tomboy at heart, and wore very little color until the last few years. I own more skirts than pants now, and more color than black. I've turned into a girly girl. Now that I think of it, it's not really an idiosyncrasy, is it? Oh well.

5. I'm a magazine whore. I subscribe to Parenting magazines, & knitting magazines. I also pick up on the newstand gossip mags (US Weekly is my fav), girly mags (Marie Claire is my fav), & home/cooking stuff like Martha's mag. Not to mention I read the stuff that hubby gets, Stuff, Maxim, Blender. I also get from work ToyFare and Wizard World. I am a magazine whore. Whomever gets my house on recycling day must hate me.

Whom shall I tag? Let's try: Sarah, Karma, and PurlPower.

Onto the knitting content. I started on Mariah # 2 last week. I got thru 7 or so inches of the first sleeve when I noticed I did one of the cables backwards, and I was tempted to leave it. But the perfectionist in me said RIP! So I ripped it out. And started anew. Here is the finished sleeve:






Ain't it purty? I started the second sleeve last night and hope to finish it by the end of this week. I'm planning on altering the pattern slightly, and adding pockets...something I've never done (altering or pockets!). I've got time to play with it...it's for a friend for Xmas.

I think I will need to join Sock Knitters Anonymous soon. I have sock yarn coming out of my ears, and I just purchased some more. Granted, the new yarn is destined for Xmas presents, but still! Wanna see the colors I got? I bought Toasty Toes by Interlacements in:











Aren't they just yummy?

In other knitting news, I started my second Mariah, in Knit PicksMerino Style in Hollyberry. I got 7 inches into a sleeve and notice 2 big mistakes. No lifelines here, so it got frogged this morning. On the train into work, I did about 3 inches, so I didn't lose too much. And tonight is knitting night...I'll have the rest of those 7 inches back in no time.

Insert creative title here

I think I'm in a knitting funk. I don't have a major project at the moment, just doing small things that get done quickly. I have a major project on the list, but don't have the oomph to get the yarn out and do it. I need the oomph. Someone push me in the right direction. Wish it was something I could order or pick up in a store.

So, onto the finished projects:






That's the Ribbon X-back, and the butterfly socks that my sockapalooza pal is getting. Someone last post asked what pattern it was. It's a Fibertrends pattern, called Butterflies and Blossoms, or Blossoms and Butterflies. Something like that.

WIPs:






The baby bootie is from 50 Baby Booties to Knit, made in Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino. And the stripey goodness is a baby cardigan for my hubby's cousin's son (2nd cousin?) for Xmas. Pattern is from Family Circle Easy Knitting Spring/Summer 05 and is in Manos Cotton Stria (in olive, black and mint). And that thing that the baby bootie is resting on? Don'tcha know? It's a bongo to play Donkey Konga!

I would like to learn how to do entrelac. Any one have a fairly simple pattern, maybe for a scarf, that they can point me to? Maybe that will give me the push I need to get out of the funk.

Non knitting content:
I got out of the shower this morning and found my son in his room playing his game boy. It was just after 6 am, and this is how I found him...

Socks!

Over the past week, I have thought a lot about socks. Must be because of Sockapalooza 2. I have finished my socks for my sock pal. The picture isn't all that great, but I think they came out great, even if you can't see the lace pattern too well.


One of the girls at my knitting meetup was selling a bunch of Koigu. She bought it all to make Charlotte's Web, but decided she didn't want to and that she had many other projects to work on first. So she sold me all the Koigu for $50. See what I got?

I have no ideas on what to do with it yet; suggestions?

Onto the Koigu that I bought while in Boston. One sock down, one more to go:


And this is what's become of the Lang Jawoll that I bought in Boston:

The color is WAY off, but hopefully you can see the little butterflies in the pattern. It's SO cute and SO easy to do. I'm on the heel of sock number one.

Once the socks are done, I will start on Mariah number two. This one is for a friend and I may just make it her Xmas present.

Happy Fourth of July folks.