T.V. to knit to

I rarely get hooked into t.v. shows, mostly because I watch something once, say: "I must remember to watch that again"...and promptly forget about it! But I have come across what is, very unfortunately, going to be a short lived series. Not because it's not good; but because it's one of those quickie PBS shows.

My Sunday night knitting had been along to Diana Rigg and Neil Dudgeon in The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries. It's been a perfect hour of fun for the past three weeks. Sadly, there's only one more show left. I guess I'm just going to have to find the books! I forsee a little less knitting getting done once I do find them.

As it is, this has been a reading summer for me, and it feels very strange to say that, because I use to do nothing but read! I did, of course, read the most recent 'Harry Potter' book...in one 12 hour marathon! (Tony bet me that I couldn't do it in one day. I got a nice, home made, seafood tempura dinner out of it!) I read 'The Alienist' by Caleb Carr for the sixth (seventh?) time. I raced -pardon the pun- through Seabiscuit (who knew a horse could be that fascinating?)(Yes, yes, yes! I know it was about a heck of a lot more than a horse!). And yesterday was for Kate Remembered, which reads like nothing less than a love letter to a great woman.

Next up, I believe, will be The Six wives of Henry VIII, which also goes along with a PBS series. After that...I don't know! Any suggestions?

(Goodbye Bob...and Thanks! It took me many years to *really* understand what you were.)

Need a little help?

That's what Himself was asking as I was trying to get my armoire sorted and organized.

Took a nice little two hour nap he did. After all, it's not like I have anything better to do than wait for him to move, right? Heh.

And, in the time honored tradition of Knitbloggers who have finished socks, I present a picture of my foot:

I'm refering to these as my candy socks because they remind me of nothing more than chocolate and mint non-pareils. Is it any wonder that I get hungry knitting? Everything reminds me of food! (I thought about buying some non-pareils to take the picture, but then I'd have also needed the chocolate, and then...Well, I couldn't let it all go to waste now, could I?)

The HORROR

I just survived taking Irina to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's.

A million kids running around screaming.

It's going to take me a week to stop twitching...

It's a Flying Peeping Tom!!!

That's what it looks like, anyway ;-). The landlord has masons working on the outside of the building, and they have to use a cherry picker to get to the higher floors. Nothing like looking out your window (which is considered the second floor, but is actually the third on the back of the building), and seeing someone float by in midair. Veddy Stwange.

It's been a long week since my last post. Irina's been going through something, some sort of growth or maturity spurt, and it hasn't been easy on any of us! My Baby required lots of babying, poor kiddo. Fortunately she seems to have reverted back to her normal happy, energetic (i.e. exhausting) self. Six weeks to kindergarten, yah!

I haven't been doing a whole lot of knitting, though I am almost finished with the first sock from my newer Opal yarn. Another inch worth of ribbing and it will be done (I'm doing toe up). I just have to make sure that I finish it when I can immediately cast on for the second sock, or I'll keep finding excuses for not starting it.

Instead I've been doing some quilting:

This is what's called a whole cloth quilt, and it's only going to be about 16" square when it's done. Someday I want to do a bed sized one, when I live someplace that can accomodate a big quilt frame. It's lap quilting at this point for me. Oh, and when I'm done with the quilting, I'll soak it in cold water and those white lines will wash out.

I've also been working on a Fimo clay tile:

That's what I get for being home to watch the Carol Duvall Show. Yup. Another cool, hobby-ish thing to do! I worked on this so long last friday that I gave myself a serious crick in the neck that took two days to work out. And do you think that I could have started with an easy pattern to do? Naw! Why on earth would I want to do something like that? *Grin*

Score!

I did indeed make it out to the new lys on friday, with Mother in tow. There's not much there yet, but what I saw has me very, very hopeful that it's going to be great. Nice light and airy feeling. A big difference from the lys that I'm use to, which, while a good place to check out, is very dark in comparison. I did treat myself to some birthday sock yarn:

I admit it, I'm an Opal sock yarn fan, and this sock is going quick! I had to redo the heel, but it turned out to be the best short-row heel that I've ever done, I think. It's like while I was working on it the lightbulb came on over my head and I was blinded by the flash of insight. (The heel looks funky in the picture because of the way it's bent, but it's beautiful, really. And the keyboard isn't blue, but the colors of the yarn *are* accurate, oddly enough)

I've also been working on Tony's sweater:

Stockinette. Exciting, I know. At least I've been doing something. And I was right, I can't get the color to show right, but I tried!

Cake anyone?

Yup, another year down. Not quite sure how I feel about this, my 7th annual 29th birthday. A gray, rainy day too. Ah well, I have the day off to myself, Seabiscuit to read, and knitting to work on. If I feel the crazed urge to get out of here I might take a ride out to the new yarn shop in Needham that Amy has mentioned, but a yarn shop in quick walking distance of a quilt shop? I don't think my "won't power" (nevermind my will power) is quite that strong!

I finally picked up the Virgin sweater again. After screwing up the same row three times I was a little disheartened by it and tossed it in a pile to glare at for a while. ::note to self: reading an intricate chart and dealing with a 4-year-old do not mix:: I'm about one third of the way up the bodies of the lower figures, but not far enough to be worthy of a picture yet. It's too dark to take a decent one today anyway.

I've also been working on a sweater for Tony out of some of the wool I picked up in Vermont (Ah, the glory that is air conditioning, to be able to work with wool on 90 degree days!) Nothing fancy going on there, just straight stockinette on size 9's. It's the color that's going to make it fantastic, a dark blue tweedy purple, red, almost aqua color "Wow" of a color. I doubt that any picture of it could do the color justice. And because it is on big needles it's going quickly, which is a nice change of pace from the Vigrin sweater. That on feels like it takes me about 20 minutes a row! Sheesh!

I'm hot, hot, hot!

And no, I don't mean my knitting! Today I may actually get some done, if I can force myself off of this computer. It's been too hot to sit here the past few days, so now I'm trying to catch up on what I missed. Today is *still* hot, but made bearable by an early birthday present, a new air conditioner for the livingroom! With the one in the kid's window they actually cool this place down to a reasonable level!

The early gift was prompted by the fact that one of our neighbors was burning incense yesterday morning, which resulted in me getting a major migraine! (I missed going to the fireworks with Tony & Irina because of it. Loud noises and flashing lights during a migraine? No thanks) The incense is becoming a weekly problem. I don't enjoy having every Sunday, our family day, ruined because my head hurts. I don't know who it is, so I can't tape an anonymous note to their door asking them to have some neighborly courtesy and please not burn it quite so often. Who knows if it would have worked anyway, and starting a feud with neighbors is nowhere on my to-do list. So now we can close the windows without and ignore it! Hooray!

As a result of a late night and much excitement Irina has stayed home from day care today. Why she hasn't crashed yet, I have no idea.

I still want to be in Vermont. Wimper, wimper, whine.

Ah, blogging ennui continues...

*Chapter Next*
In Which Our Intrepid Traveler Returns Home

And I really do want to be back in the green, green mountains of Vermont! Coming home was rough. Going back to work
today and cleaning up the mess left by the folks who worked in my office while I was gone was tough. Ah well, to be expected I guess!

So, Thursday my friend Margo and I lit out of here, bound for places north. The five hour drive to Montpelier felt like it only took about two it went so smoothly. Once there we checked into Betsy's bed and Breakfast. To our delight we discovered that we had access to a full kitchen, so that made meal planning so much easier! A trip to the grocery store and we were set for the weekend.

Friday was spent at the Quilt Festival! We got there at 10. We left about 4, brains completely fried! My favorite quilt was by the artist Christine Fries (which, unfortunately, is not shown on her site yet!) The pictures of her quilts do not do them justice! Not even remotely close! I could have stood in front of her current quilt for days.

Saturday we consulted our schedules ("Schedules? We don't need no stinkin' schedules! We're on Va-caaaa-tion!"), and decided to take the hour trip to Shelburne and the Shelburne Museum. Granted, our main motivation was the fact that a quilt exhibit was going on up there too, but the place was so much more! Easily the favorite was the Ticonderoga. Walking around a hill I honestly did not expect to be coming face to bow with a 200+ foot long boat! In the middle of a field! Very cool.

Dinner Saturday was at a Montpelier favorite (and I don't think I'm giving any secrets away here. This place is popular!), Sarducci's. If you ever get the chance to go there, do. Just go. Wait however long you have to for a table, it is worth it! Two words: Lobster Ravioli. Ohmigawd, was it good!

Back to the quilt show we went on Sunday, trying to figure out what we missed the first time around. We had only planned to stay a short time, but ended up spending another four hours gawking. The creativity and imagination was just stunning.

And then it was home again on Monday, a five hour drive that felt like it took ten! We really were not ready to come back to the real world, but what can ya do? But I did do dome shopping, and picked up some quilt patterns and souviners. And, no, I could not go to Vermont without buying one local product near and dear to this knitting fools heart:

That's thirty (yes, 30) skeins of yarn at 220 yards each, and two 1750 yard cones of lovely Vermont wool! I was happy that the people I had bought the yarn from that I had used for Irina's Kokopelli sweater were back this year in the Vermont vendor's tent. And before you think that I maybe went a little nuts with the wool, it all cost me *under* $200.00! Ok, yes, maybe I did go a little nuts. But at that price, wouldn't you? (Like I have to explain! You understand, right?)

So now I'm trying to catch up with life, but I'm not pushing it too hard. I'm still moving at that slower pace that is Vermont.