Why our weekend sucked, and rocked!

We saw it coming. Our barbecue date for Saturday had been set weeks ago, but as it got closer and closer this week, the weather report did not improve. Words like 'torrential' and 'flash flood' threatened. So on Thursday we put our tent up which we figured would somehow avert the rain, because we figured of course with our luck, if we go through the trouble of putting up the tent, then it probably won't rain right?


But no dice, and we didn't want to reschedule, because what if we rescheduled and then the same thing happened? And we figured well, we could always all just go in the house right? We could make the best of it right? But well, it rained a lot. And it's just not fun to cook in the rain. But the show did go on, and all in all it looks like it went on ok.

Everyone liked the tent! There was plenty of room, and of course tons of food and drink is always a convenient distraction...

And yeah, we've had good barbecues before, and the weather's always been great. But this one we'll remember for awhile. Really, how lucky are we, we still had like 20 people or so show up and we all laughed and ate for hours. And you know these are all really true friends. I mean, I could probably get people in off the street to hang out in my backyard and eat my food. But these guys, in the crappy weather we had yesterday, they not only showed up, but they helped carry stuff in and out, and made me gin and tonics (trust me it rained that much, you'd need gin too) and helped us keep the propane and charcoals lit. Awww....

Knitting content to follow, I promise. This past week was spent cleaning up the backyard, putting up the tent, vacuuming, grocery shopping, etc. Don't worry, as exciting as all those activities sound, none of them comes close to beating out knitting for the favorite hobby position.

A weekend at the lake

Meet the in-laws!













This is Pennie. No she doesn't always dress to match the kitchen, this was a complete coincidence.











And this is Dom. Dom does not like having his picture taken so much. But he's a very good sport!

And this is their summer weekend getaway-the lake house

The lake house is quite idyllic. While it might be simple, it is quiet and friendly and relaxed and there is Satellite TV so I don't have to worry about my husband getting all tantrum-y over some stupid hockey game. Which you know is so stupid really, who wants to watch hockey when you could watch this-

There's also a lot of eating in to country, see that picture of Pennie in the kitchen? Yeah, she's there a lot. Pretty much once the breakfast dishes are cleared away, they start making plans for lunch. After lunch comes ice cream by the pool, then "cocktails" (see how idyllic there is? there is no "cocktail" meal in my dreary daily life!) and of course then dinner, and then snack. Oh and if you get hungry in between there's always something by the fridge. Oh and less you think "cocktails" are only drinks they are often accompanied by copious amounts of finger-food, dip, antipasto and ironically this weekend-shrimp cocktail.

But you know the best part for me of course right? You see this coming from a mile away. Of course the best part of the country is this

and also the fact that Dom and Pennie let me do this all weekend and often in front of their friends! And still to this day, they have yet to file a formal complaint regarding my marriage to their son. Because I totally realize to the rest of the world this probably looks completely bizarre. I don't really even look that relaxed. But I am. It is good. It is a very, very good thing.

Genius!

What was with that spacey post yesterday? I think I had a little touch of cabin fever. I am feeling so much better today. Especially after I heard my new favorite song EVER on Cast-on. "Knitta, please" is an amazing rap by Mike Bryant. Ok maybe not amazing (you do know I tend to get overly excited at times right?), but definitely reminiscent of rap in my high-school Digital Underground/Monie Love/Kris Kross days. And it's about knitting! How cool is that!!!

Ok, I know sometimes people don't want to do the whole podcast thing, so if you only have a few minutes please, please, please go here and if you scroll down on the right hand side of the page you can download or listen to this track for free. I promise you will laugh your butt off! He talks about 'don't take no flak from the crochet b*tches' and actually has the line "I like big needles and I cannot lie..." See? Genius I tell you. Yes, I've listened to it like 100 times already.

Oh and to the Fun-Fur Bandit posse I knit with on Tueday nights- guys I say once we get those new matching shirts in we gotta go and get us some nice high tops and big M.C. Hammer pants (you know, circa about 1990) and find a high school talent show where we can get on stage and lip-sync this song. Dude, we'd be like the coolest knitters in the whole school I promise!!!! C'mon who's with me???

Spaced out...

I missed work today due to a crappy migraine that has lasted way too long lately. I don't know about other people but I find the drugs that are prescribed for this problem particularly harsh-i.e. they usually make me feel kind of like maybe I'm in a coma but I can't be in a coma because I'm awake. Yeah, that spacey. Why anyone would ever take these drugs recreationally you got me, there must be some sick people in this world. Anyway, I'm a little concerned my sleepy behavior is starting to rub off on my housemates.

I swear I walked over him like 4 times before I took this. His ears twitched a little once so I know he's still alive, but otherwise he's pretty much in a kitty zone out session.

One cool thing that happened today? I got the idea to make this. It's a cool necklace/choker thing you make out of a ticket stub. How cool is that? Screw paying $40 for some stupid crappy t-shirt that doesn't fit me right or shrinks down to barbie doll size after one wash anyway? This is so much cooler. Only change I'll probably make? I promise mine won't be for Bette Midler like the one the lady one the show made. Hey there's a time and a place for Bette I promise, she's just not the first artist I'll put in my punk rock choker to show off, that's all...

I started my Christmas knitting...

Can you believe it??? No neither can I, but there it is-the beginning of the Forbes Forest scarf from Scarf Style.

I had originally purchased this yarn for another scarf from that book, Backyard Leaves. But it's not the yarn named in the pattern and when I started to get close to starting and was facing facts I realized the yarn was much better suited to this pattern, and this pattern is actually better suited for the recipient. So it's all good.

I had also bought myself a couple of goodies-the pair of Lantern Moon needles I bought for inspiration will have to wait until the next time I need a size 7. (Aren't those plastic Lion Brand purple needles just so sexy instead? Hey-they get the job done right?) I also bought myself this little tool to help me with my chart reading. (I'll blog more specifically about that later when I have a good picture of myself using it. Hint-it's awesome!) And so far the chart reading has gone pretty smoothly. While this scarf is probably the slowest knit scarf for me ever (what you see took me about 7 hours spread over 3 nights so far) I am really enjoying it and learning so much. Besides knitting bobbles and popcorns for the first time and learning about those, I think I'm just getting a lot more comfortable with chart symbols in general. I'm starting to try to know what cable is coming up by the symbol itself and not just referring to the key all the time. And on the wrong side rows I realized I'm really just repeating the stitches below. So the whole thing just feels very intuitive and I really feel like I'm doing something very new that will help me down the road with other projects. Very, very cool.

Ronald McDonald socks done

As I mentioned when I got back from last weekend's trip, I went back to the needles, hard. Put it this way-the first sock was started April 10- finished May 25. The second was started May 25, finished yesterday June 4. First sock took 46 days, the second sock took 11. Yep. Well that's what the first sock gets for being a traveling project for so long I guess.

Details- The yarn is Knit Picks Sock Garden in Zinnia. Which they don't even sell anymore. I knit them on size 2 bamboo dpns. Regular stockinette cuff down socks. I like the stockinette socks a lot lately. I like the lace patterns I've done, they're pretty and interesting but the stockinette just goes so fast and requires so little attention. It's great for car knitting, which is what my socks usually are. And it's nice that it goes fast, I made these a little longer than other socks I've made. This time I made the leg 8 inches before starting the heel as opposed to 7. I like it that they're a little longer, I figure I can wear them with boots in the winter when it gets snowy and cold and I'll be snug and comfy!

On a blog related note I just wanted to say thanks to all the cool people who leave comments on my blog for me. It's always so neat to get feedback and just to meet you guys and have new blogs to add to my list to read. I really appreciate it. So anyway, I just wanted to say thanks and hi and nice to meet ya! Happy knitting all!