The End Already?

Tomorrow is the first day of school. It's hard to believe, even though this was a longer-than-typical summer. Our legislature decided school shouldn't start until 1 week before Labor Day (rather than mid-August), but since the length of the school year is unchanged I have no idea what the benefit is. The cynic in me suggests it is a one-time shift in cash flow so that the state finances look a smidge better going into an election year. But I'm sure it really was about Childhood and Summer and Family Time Together, as our lawmakers suggested. Next summer break will be 10 weeks, just like before, only starting in mid-June.


The boys were on a Boy Scout camp out this weekend, and came home tired and cranky today. E and his best friend had a 3rd boy in their tent who ignored their request to put his bag of M&M's in the chuck box. E retains a bit of his raccoon phobia, but he how has another reason for No Food in The Tent: ants. E came home with 4 or 5 pimply fire ant bites on his face.



While the boys were away, M and I decided to go to a semi-fancy (not kid oriented) restaurant with K in tow. It was almost like going on a real date. While we waited for our order, she read a book and we enjoyed adult conversation. She spoke politely to the waiter, used her flatware appropriately, and kept her napkin in her lap. How wonderful to have proof that we aren't, after all, incapable of teaching children good manners.


I took advantage of the quiet weekend to catch up on housework and to crank out some knitting. At long last, I have finished the front of Josephine:

And holding it up to my front, I believe it will fit as I wanted -- draw cord below my bust, neckline saucy but wearable without an undershirt.

I had been worried that my gage had become erratic, but it looks OK here, even without blocking:

I also frogged the back down to just below the old armhole shaping, and am now in the process of adding some length to match the revised dimensions I used for the front. It's going much faster than I expected, thank goodness. Maybe I'll be able to wear this before it turns cool after all.

Motoring

Despite my long absence from the blogosphere, I have very little knitting to report on.

On Thursday afternoon, we braved the flooding left by Tropical Storm Erin and headed for the airport.

A brief rant: How can some people who live in Houston be so clueless about driving after a heavy rain? Rule #1 of driving a car through water that's a smidge too deep: ONCE YOU START, DON'T STOP. If you stop, the wake you created will wash back up your tailpipe. And then you are stuck in the middle of an intersection, blocking the way of the rest of us who aren't clueless.

Even though it took us triple the normal time to get to the airport, our flight was only delayed by about an hour, and my eldest son and I arrived in Maryland...well, pretty stinking late. And on Friday, my brother and I went down to his bank and transferred ownership of this baby:

Friday afternoon, my son and I began the long trek back to Houston, including a celebratory side trip through Shenandoah National park, where I took the picture.

I had lured R to accompany me on this trip by promising frequent stops for Frappucinos. Two hours into Day 2, I finally spotted a Starbuck's. Why is it there are 7 Starbuck's within 5 miles of my house, but not a single damned one visible along Interstate 81? I thought they outnumbered McDonald's, and there were plenty of those. Next time I will do my research before I make promises I can't honor. But at least we found one:

For some reason -- well, one of two reasons -- R insisted we drive all the way west across Tennessee rather than dropping diagonally across the South. I suspect he was influenced by his dad's worry about driving an unfamiliar car through the numerous storms blanketing the South. But Ryan said he "just wanted to see Knoxville, Nashville, and Memphis."

Spotted from a rest stop near the eastern Tennessee line:

That's a building on the other side of the freeway -- the "neck" is a breezeway to another building. We noted that billboards in Knoxville claimed it was the Birthplace of Country Music. Memphis welcomed us to the Birthplace of Rock and Roll. We spent a fair amount of time talking about guitars and rock-n-roll.

On Sunday afternoon we finally arrived back home. And I'm pleased to report that the MINI was every bit as fun to drive as it looks. It was a blast driving it across country. I'm starting to wonder what other road trips I can fit into my calendar...

Back in the Saddle

Mid-week my new US sz 1 DPN's arrived in the mail, so I was able to get going on the Monkey's again. I got in some time at restaurants and some time while chatting with friends last night, and I am now about 1 repeat away from beginning the toe decreases:

I also worked a few hours on Josephine during the evenings at home and have finished the lace section of the front. Since summer here will last until October, the odds are looking good that I'll get to wear it this year despite the delays and rework.

And our friends whose critters we tended last week returned from Wyoming bearing thank-you gifts. T-shirts for most of us, but this was for me:

A 100g ball of Tofutsies from a yarn store in Wyoming. I think only the best kind of friend helps you build your sock-yarn stash when she is not herself a knitter!

On the music front, 15YO R reminded me of my promise -- that if he worked hard to learn guitar using his dad's old acoustic, then we would buy him an electric guitar set-up. He seems to spend about half his waking hours with a guitar in his hand, so yesterday I made good:

That is an actual smile on his face -- more rare than you could imagine. And the smile stayed on his face for the rest of the day.

And finally, a picture from my garden. Although we rudely transplanted them in the spring and have had freakishly cool/rainy weather for most of hte summer, the birds of paradise decided to bloom after all. So beautiful it makes August in Houston worthwhile:

Knitting Delimmas

It has been a weekend of knitting...disappointments. Not catastrophes. Minor setbacks that may take many hours to fix, but not catastrophes.

On Friday at dinner I nearly finished the heel flap on the Monkeys. The Monkeys have been my carry-along project, worked at restaurants, while waiting, etc. But since picking up gusset stitches takes concentration, I decided to finish the flap and pick up the stitches at home. So, I was picking up the last stitch on the first side and SNAP. Like a toothpick.

Now, with all the extra gusset stitches to work, doesn't seem a good time to start working with 4 needles instead of 5. So...to the internet, order another set of Brittany Birch sz 1 DPN's. AND and a set of US sz 1 steel DPN's. I realize now that having options is good. I will no longer snicker at those knitters who collect needles in addition to yarn.

I can't NOT have something in my purse, but what to take along while I wait for replacement needles? The other small project I have cast on is the Dunes socks. I threw them in my purse. And I remembered when we got to our favorite Italian restaurant why I had not been carrying them along. This particular restaurant is well lit, but I could barely tell knits from purls, and I could only tell bad stitches (splitting yarn, catching the stitch below) by the relative resistance in finishing the stitch. So back to the box under hte Ott-Lite for Dunes. But I am getting close to doing the heel flap -- here's how they look so far:

After dinner I worked on Josephine and nearly finished the lace section of the front. Before I put it away for the night I pulled out the instructions, looked at the revised measurements I had marked in, looked at the back that I had finished, and realized that I had added the "get the drawstring below my boobs" allowance below the drawstring rather than between the drawstring and the armholes.

Surely not, I thought. I held the back up to my front to check. I held the back up to my back. I wondered whether I could fix this with blocking. I wondered if a different bra might hoist things up an inch or two. I tried to convince myself the drawstring across the lower third of my bosom wouldn't really make me look saggy. I considered whether I could cut the sweater and graft in a new piece. I put the sweater away and went to bed and dreamed of bad knitting.

This morning I woke up knowing what I must do: rip back to just below the armholes and rework all of that almost-stockinette. It will be tedious. I need to update my NetFlix queue.

To cheer myself up, I worked up a simple pattern and cast on for E's camo socks. With good ol' unbreakable Addi Turbo's.

Safely Back in the Nest

My darling oldest son returned from Sea Base this evening, full of tales of sea critters and of boy scout dorm room pranks. He is tired and sunburned, but in very high spirits. He even gave me a Real Hug (as compared to the grumbling, stiff-back, arms-at-side lean I get on ordinary days.) Now I can breathe a little easier, after a week of stamping out fear that he'd get sick or bit or worse, and then today a rough afternoon of watching thunderstorms while his plane was supposed to be landing.


One of his favorite things about this camp was that despite being a Boy Scouts of Americal high-adventure camp, they had some decidely relaxed rules around the BSA uniform. Class A uniforms were required at dinner every night, but the green and red socks weren't required if you were wearing flip flops. And the Class A shirts could regular uniform shirts OR...something else, so long as everyone from the troop matched. R and his troop-mates marched to the nearest souvenir shop on the 1st day and bought matching matching t-shirts. Voila, his troop's Sea Base Class A's:

Front

Back

On the knitting front, since casting on the Monkey's in Panda Cotton on Sunday, I've worked just a little bit every night on them. I find I can get a whole repeat of the pattern done while waiting on dinner (boiling pasta, waiting for my restaurant order, etc.) Very, very fast pattern. The sock fabric is coming out very dense and silky and stretchy -- and it feels cool on the skin. Depending on how it wears and washes, I may have found my new favorite summer sock yarn.

Here's progress so far -- 5 pattern repeats, 1 more to go before the heel: