Daily Posting

I have a goal to make this a blog that gets posted to daily. So far I've averaged once a week, which is not anywhere near daily. The problem, I think, is that I don't get enough done in a day that a) is worth noting and b) is worth reading about. A typical day for me includes working 8-9 hours, commuting 1.5hrs (but only a couple days a week) and then spending the evenings knitting or spending time with Mr. Monkey or playing Bunco with my mother and her gaggle of friends. That is what is on the books for this evening, knitting group and then Bunco. I'll also be picking up an angle grinder and a 12' x 12' canopy...because that's how I like to have fun.

The angle grinder is to finish off the fence project. There are 2 big metal thingies (they were holding up the fence posts on the old fence) that are in the concrete pad and need to be removed before I attempt to park on the pad...as I have the skills to run them over and do something awful to the truck. And then we need to make a dump run and the fence project will be officially complete...except for the sagging gate Mr. Monkey wants to rebuild because it's difficult to open. But after that...and we finally have a backyard plan, so I see sod ripping in my future. I want to get the planters and everything set up for the garden for next year, so i'll just have to make the soil lovely and plant stuff.

The canopy is for the booth my knitting group is setting up at the Proctor Arts Walk on Saturday. On Friday all the shops on Proctor have a sidewalk sale, and then groups set up booths on Saturday and sell stuff. Our booth is selling Barbie knitted clothes, baby clothes, some knitting supplies. I'm going to attempt to sell little drawstring bags. I use them to hold my yarn and projects. I don't have a good picture of them anywhere, so I can't show them off. If they do well, I might open an etsy shop, but I don't know. But I've been busily avoiding making them, because I'm a nut.

I have been working on my mermaiden socks, I'm now past the heel. And the cardigan is coming along nicely. That will hopefully be done by the end of the month. And since August is my birthday, I've decided to buy myself some birthday yarn (shocking, I know). There is a specific project in mind for it. The cardigan seen here knit out of Skacel Divine. I'm thinking green. It feels like heaven. And it will make a great fall sweater...for next fall, given my current rate of completion. Sigh.

Environmental Smugness

Whenever I do laundry and hang said laundry outside to dry, I always feel a little smug about it. As though I'm not sucking down unnecessary electricity to dry things (towels and sheets in this instance) that the sun, who happens to be out and shining anyhow, can dry for me. Now it amuses me to be smug, because I don't buy into the whole global warming crisis (yes, I'm a fundamentally bad person and a skeptic, so shoot me. Besides, regardless of what the US does policy-wise, China screws us over). I do not, however, think it is at all a bad thing to take action to reduce my carbon footprint. So I'm a little AR about recycling, and harass the male monkey in the house to recycle, and I try to walk instead of drive, although that doesn't work that often. So taking the 50 minutes of drying time out of the dryer and into the sunshine makes me feel warm and fuzzy.
There are drawbacks however. Pretty much since I started college, I've done my laundry with dryer sheets instead of liquid fabric softener. Since I haven't been drying things (see where I'm going here), the line dried items, at least the towels, have the texture of rough grit sandpaper. I get to exfoliate twice when I shower. What makes no sense to me, is that the towels feel all scratchy, but the sheets come out crisp and not scratchy. As do the other clothing I hang out to dry. Is it because of the weave? Do sheets and jeans and shirts have a weave tight enough and not fuzzy so that they don't have the opportunity to get scratchy? Inquiring minds want to know.

You'll also notice in the above picture construction going on. We're building a new fence and tearing down the old one so that we can park more cars on the backside of the house. And have a place for sand and bricks to be put (and not block the alley) for when the rest of the backyard is redone. Mr. Monkey and I aren't yet in agreement on the attack. We just know that we'll be tearing down the deck and building a patio and putting in a large garden. So far, the deck garden seems to be working ok.
I've been looking up ways to freeze basil, as I have a ton of it and it will go to waste if I don't do something with it...of course freezing it means that I need to cook once in awhile. I'm also planning on making pesto, as it's super yummy, but we'll see if that happens. The last time I had a garden I did this too...loved planting it, loved watching it grow, and then was too lazy to harvest anything when it became time. Totally retarded.

In knitting news, I'm about to do the heel on my mermaiden socks. They are knitting up gorgeous and are definitely my favorite Lucky Lurker colorway so far. Although the one I got in the mail yesterday is right fine as well. I'm also translating the Tangled Yoke cardigan into my pattern measurements, since I cast on about 56 stitches less than the pattern called for. Huge difference in gauge. I'm about 2/3 of the way on that. Then I can print it off and knit like there's no tomorrow.

Summer...the love/hate relationship

It's finally summer in the northwest. The holiday of big booms has passed with only a sprinkle of rain. We had some disturbingly mid-west weather with evening thunderstorms (some which had no rain). And a smacking of muggy-ness. Ick. But that's all past, and it's been a gorgeous 75-85 degree spread with sunshine over the last several days. That's the love part of the summer. Teaching the dog not to fear the water (bought a kiddie pool...he's finally comfortable getting his prissy paws wet), sitting on the deck reading a book, building a fence. Simply enjoying the nice weather.

But along with summer seems to come more commitments. Classes to take, BBQ's to go to, a general lack of sit on the butt and knit time. I seriously feel like I'm never home, and when I am, the dust buffaloes make noises in the corner and I have to take the vacuum to them. They revel in the dog hair Riley's been tossing their way (apparently the only part of German Shepherd he got was the shedding part. He's got short-hair....everywhere).

I finally finished one of the two pairs of socks I was making my dad for his b-day/father's day (yeah, i know that was mid-june...i can read a calendar).
It's Socks that Rock mediumweight in Obsidian, which I like quite a lot. I will likely make a sweater out of Woobu (blend of wool and bamboo) someday...hopefully before they discontinue the colorway/fiber. I started May's Lucky Lurker socks on the train yesterday and have been working (starting over) on my orange cardigan while at home. Now that it's warm out and I have no need for a sweater, I want to get it done (logic? what logic). Wedding plans haven't really gone anywhere. We are madly hunting for a ceremony site, and either running into size issues (again) or the places don't do just a ceremony. I'm hoping to avoid a church ceremony, as they tend to want god involved and force you to use their pastor (which I understand...it is a church). But I want to write out a ceremony that means something to the man and me and use someone we actually know. I know...novel concept. So it's being difficult. In fun news, I get to order my dress next Wednesday. Now I just have to figure out what type of stole/shawl to knit for it :-)