We're Keeping the Cat!*

(Click pic for bigger image)

This summer we've been befriending this cat, whom we've dubbed Guy Noir. He has half a tail, a tough-guy swagger, and a heart of gold. On Monday we got him to the vet and had him neutered and since then, he's showing all signs of being a great pet. He's still pretty jittery and rarely relaxes completely. But he's getting there. He prefers to spend his nights outside still, but I expect that to change in the fall when it starts to get chilly at night.

In other news, I've been working on getting Knitcircus #7 ready for the printers between battles on the domestic front. It's all coming together nicely!

Don't forget, Alt Knitting Camp happens August 2-4, at Devil's Lake State Park, campsite #110. We still have room for 6 more overnight campers, and day visitors are welcome, especially if they bring some goodies to share with the pack! Just email me at elizabethmorriso (at) gmail (dot) com.

*The Ravelry Rubberneckers will understand what this means.

Some Spinning, Some Garden Pics, and a Broken Appliance

First off, this brown yarn hanging out to dry on the clothesline is part of a very long term project to make myself a sweater from my own handspun.

This is three-ply, probably something like sport weight, and I think (would have to dig in my archives to verify), from a merino/romney cross fleece. This fiber came to me in a tremendous Craigslist deal a couple years ago. (Was it actually that long?) I'm sure this will be a very favorite sweater when I eventually finish it. But it's a lot of plain brown spinning.

This is a 7 gram mini skein of two ply yarn from Sarah's yearling lamb Spooky.

I bought this fleece from Sarah's recent sale. I have a bit to learn about processing a raw fleece for spinning, but I'm excited about this. It is next-to-the-skin soft! I'll probably make a nice three-ply yarn out of it eventually.

Next up, a bunch of nice flower images, taken over the last couple of weeks.










And finally, a broken appliance:

This is what a washing machine looks like without the big rectangular shell. Last week mine started making an ominous noise and yesterday I realized that it was no longer spinning out the water. It pumped out the water that sank to the bottom, but it was hard work moving all that sodden laundry out. I decided to hang it on the line, rather than stress my dryer because I think the dryer is next to go. Mr SABLE, being the handy guy he is, ordered the necessary part online last night, and should get it working by Wednesday or Thursday of the coming week. There might be one laundromat run in my near future.

Tempis Fugit and all that...

I feel like I'm so far behind, I must be ahead, or something...

Anyway, I've been knitting, but I can't show you that stuff quite yet.

I've been muddling along. Trying to keep the most basic of needs met for my family: clean clothes, milk in the fridge, and something to eat every evening around 6:00.

School ended June 12. My folks popped in for a quick visit last weekend. Owen left for a school trip on Monday. We helped out a friend with her day care crunch on Tuesday and Wednesday (her son gets on well with my younger one, in general). Took the little guy to the dentist on Thursday. Skipped book group Thursday evening. Went to the airport late Thursday night to pick up Owen. Found out the plane was delayed due to weather. Found out the plane returned to its last departure point when it couldn't land in Madison. Found out the plane would not, in fact, arrive in Madison until 8:30 the following morning. Then, left the airport around 12:30 a.m. Friday, drove through some of the most scary heavy rain I've ever driven in, got home a bit after 1:00, set the alarm to get up and be at the airport again by 8:30. Fortunately, this time the plane did land, and the 28 middle-schoolers and two teachers were able to get home. Owen slept for seven hours yesterday. I crashed on the couch before 9 last night and made it official by going to bed a bit before 10.

That's the recap in brief. I omitted all the tantrums and whining that I've mostly ignored.

This weekend, I hope to get a few patterns written and make a serious dent in laying out the next Knitcircus. And move my computer to the basement, where it's cool and quiet!

Garden Goodness!

The strawberries are ripening! I think in a few days, we'll have a whole bunch at once. This was the first one:

I ate it two nights ago. It was so good!

For some reason, we have this one solitary great big dark purple iris:



It's not a Siberian Iris: it's a way more substantial flower.

I was strolling around my neighborhood the other evening and I was quite impressed with all the big stands of irises in bloom. There must have been some great bargains on iris corms last fall, because I don't remember seeing so many around in previous springs. They sure do look nice, though. I think I might need to buy a dozen for Mr. SABLE this fall and see what he does with them...

Garden Pictures

Here are a few images I took in the garden this afternoon.

The Russian Siberian Irises



The Strawberry Patch



Fernland

Celebrity Sighting!

Yesterday Jaala & I trotted on down to The Knitting Tree to meet Ysolda Teague and give her our big Wisconsin Welcome! We may have slipped her a few copies of Knitcircus, too, while we were at it. She has a new self-published booklet of patterns, Whimsical Little Knits, and it's really cute. The projects are indeed, whimsical and little: hats, toys, slippers, accessories. Give it a look.

In other news, I've finished the main body section of one of my big secret projects. On to the sleeves... It's pretty realistic to count on getting this done by mid-June if I'm diligent. I realized that the other big project I hoped to get done for the August Knitcircus will just have to wait until the October issue.

By the way, if any of you have any nice patterns for fall garments for adults that you would love to see in print, send them along! We could definitely use a couple more to round out Issue #7.

Yarn!

I've been working on lots of quasi-stealth knitting lately, so not a lot for the blog. Also, I've been writing an article for the next Knitcircus that actually took a bit of research, so that had most of my attention last week. The knitting is a race to the end of the school year, after which it's a total crap-shoot whether I can get much done until September.

I did get a pleasant little treat in the mail the other day: two sample skeins from The Green Mountain Spinnery. They've agreed to give us a bit of yarn support for Knitcircus. I'm going to design something from one of these yarns for Issue 8, which will come out in October. Not sure yet what, as I'm knitting frantically for Issue 7 right now.

This is Yarn Over, which the Spinnery creates from various left overs in limited edition colors. It's a 2 ply heavy worsted wt, mostly wool with a bit of mohair.


This one is Cotton Comfort. 80% wool, 20% organically grown cotton. It's a 2 ply DK weight.

I'm eager to get my fingers into both of these, but have to stay focused on the projects already on the needles.

Injuries on my mind

Monday afternoon the little guy convinced me that a little bike ride around the neighborhood would be fun and good exercise. I should know that nothing good will come from exercise, but I'm trying to be a good example.

Off we went and it was great for the first two and half blocks. Then the little guy made a reckless move, cutting me off. My front wheel grazed his back wheel. I attempted to stop and correct and maybe a few other things all at once and the result is that I hit the pavement. On the way down, my, um, delicate parts got slammed onto the bike frame. My left elbow and knee both got a good scraping. The little guy was very contrite and when we got home he got the first aid stuff out and set about bandaging the elbow and knee. Since then, I've had some generalized aches and pains, but it mostly responds to ibuprofen.

On Monday evening, I was catching up on Molly Bee's blog and read all about her sudden impact. Must have been something in the air.

So, last night, I do one last email check and my chat window opens on gmail. My friend Kathy leads with this, "I have 22 stitches."
I responded with the first, most natural thing I could think of.
"Ow!"
Then her second line appeared. "Row 2, k5, kfb 3 times, k5."

"OH," I think. "Those kind of stitches."

I guess I just assumed that if injuries were in the air, Kathy would be joining in the fun. Thankfully, her knitting problem was a pretty quick fix. Much faster than a wound involving 22 stitches would have been.