Honey, You Smell Great

The street repair thugs came with their truck that makes loud beeps and has super bright flashing lights to remove the road barriers and cones this morning at Five Thirty. AM. Ask me how I know. Still knitting Sidelines. I'm hoping to watch some STNG dvds and knit more tonight. I got alot done on Sunday watching several hours of dinosaurs and dinosaur-like shows on the Discovery channel. I got much flack from the guys about it, but there's just something about those animatronic/cgi creatures that fascinate me. I especially like the more recent ones where they have the creatures interact with the camera (the giant centipede that stikes the camera and cracks the lens, and then they have some lumbering thing that bumps into it).
I also got some goodies today! Julia at Knitterly Things sent me some rovings I bought. YUMMY!

Their pictures don't do them justice! So much more beautiful in real life. The Hot Tamale Superwash (Left at top) will become socks, and I have something special in mind for the rest of it. I thought I'd bought her out of all the sale rovings, but I see one escaped me. If no one else grabs it, it's mine next week! And I might need to get something else, because you know it's more efficient to fill that mailer box all the way up with fiber...
And finally, while I was cooking dinner tonight with Younger Son (he's my cooking protege) I knocked the garlic powder against the wall to loosen it because it was clumpy (it's been a bit humid here lately) and the lid flew open and I was showered with garlic powder. YS helpfully tried to brush me off, but I definately have a certain, let's say Italiante air about me. I'm hoping that this makes me extra appealing to Dave. Who knows? I might get lucky.

The Odd Couple

I finished this pair of socks for me on Saturday. They were my travelling knitting last week, my secret knitting having gotten to a point where it was no longer convenient to schlepp around. Felix there, on the left is knit with an oddball Heather gave me because it reminded her of baby poop so she couldn't stand to have it in her stash. Oscar, on the right, includes some of a generic self-striper oddball left over from my first pair of Socks-in-Socks. I like these, though, and will wear them with my tan and chocolate skirts. Oscar's mess will be, as it was in the show, hidden behind closed doors in my shoe.

So then, instead of going back to my secret project for the finishing, I answered the siren song of new yarn and cast on for Sidelines from the lates IK. (Don't you love how the yarn matches the magazine cover?) The yarn is Comfort DK, and as I said to CQ today, it's knitting up into a nice comfy sweater. I'm hoping that this will come out to be wearable. Cross your fingers for me. In other news, I cam home on Friday to this:
A big hole in my street. That's our garage/driveway there on the left.

Here's a close up of the hole. I don't know if you can tell, but it's a good six inches deep, and almost as big as a car. I don't know what the issue was, but why would you dig a hole like this and then leave it all weekend?? Older Son was home and said there was nothing with the water on Friday. Whatever the issue, it was filled in when I got home today, but it's still quarantined off with the cones and barriers.

WiPs and Wants

I'm currently working on a kind of secret WiP so I won't show it here (I debated, because it really is beautiful, but decided against it) . It's funny, I've become somehow by default a monogamous knitter. Lately I've found that if I put a project away at all, I tend to abandon it. Even if all it needs is just a finishing touch. I have at least two pairs of socks that only need the toe grafted to be finished, and four, make that 5 baby sweaters (no, it's six!!) that just need some small finishing (three only need buttons, and three need trim/collar finishing and buttons). What's up with that? Anyways, I have about a gazillion things I want to knit, there's yarn and projects, and books and magazines stacked everywhere in my bedroom. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. And old. Don't know why or how that snuck up on me, but I'm really feeling my age and then some this week. Whatever.

Let's see if I can find a pic that doesn't give away the store on this surprise... Ah, here's one of my latest Spunky Club -- "Thermograph". Very hot, hot, hot! I'm trying to think of what I'm going to do with all of these. I'm thinking spin to a consistent grist and start another hexagon blanket.

Road Trip

I took a road trip this weekend to Ligonier. Dave and the Sons were staying at a local camp (it's sort of a G family & friends reunion thing.)
I opted out for the whole weekend this year, but drove up on Saturday to pick up Dave and we drove to the nearby town of Ligonier. Of course, I visited Kathy's Kreations. Kathy Zimmerman was super nice, and this is a great shop! I was too shy to ask for a photo (Do you think that having Dave take my picture outside the shop was a tip-off that I'm a blogger, though?) I enhanced my stash with these purchases: Purely on impulse, some wonderfully fluffy rainbow yarn for a purely decorative feather and fan scarf for me! (I'm such a sucker for rainbow yarn. But I think it will look nice with my black coat.)
Enough of this yarn to make the sweater pictured. (A toddler's hooded cardi.) This is a new to me yarn called Jeanee, which is a cotton/acrylic blend. Less than half the price of the Bamboo yarn called for in the pattern, machine wash/dry, and softer, too! I'm interested to see how it works up.

With lunch and yarn shopping out of the way (Dave didn't actually go yarn shopping, he did enter the shop, but then left to go browse the photography store.)
we proceeded to the fort. Have fun storming the palisades, Dave!

And a word to the wise, they have these mannequins in the fort buildings. This lot in the Officers' Mess just about gave me a heart attack when I walked in. After our tour of the fort we drove back to camp, I said hello to all my in-laws, and then drove back to Pittsburgh to meet CQ and the Celtings for dinner.

At dinner I added to my stash (from my fave yarn shop Bloomin Yarns enough of this Comfort DK to make Sidelines from the latest IK. (CQ and Heather were there on Saturday and CQ picked it up for me.) I'm envisioning this as a great all-season "Go To" sweater that will go with all my wardrobe staples (black, navy, chocolate, denim, tan). We had a nice dinner, and then it was home and bed for me. (Another tip -- the Key Lime pie at Outback isn't worth it. I speak as a connoisseur of Key Lime pie. Go for the Chocolate Thunder Down Under.)