It's the Weekend, I Finished HP6 This Week, and I Need a New Wand

12" Hazel & Dragon

You scored 87% Elementality, 100% Magic Knowledge, and 83% Goodness!

Your wand is 12" and rather flexible, made of hazel with a dragon scale core. The hazel is associated with feminine wisdom, manifestation, and protection. This wand will be especially useful in spells concerning those issues. Dragons are symbolic of primal energy, strength, and protection of the weak and the dragon scales in your wand will bring those elements to the party. They are also associated with danger, so use caution. This is a very powerful and potentially dangerous combination but, based upon your magical knowledge score, I am not worried about your ability to use it. Or maybe I should be...


Link: The Right Wand for YOU Test written by BarefootBegonia on OkCupid Free Online Dating

It's Too Hot On the Bandwagon!

Okay, I know I'm not the first to complain about the heat, but what is going on? At least I don't have the tragic AC story of Aunt Purl to deal with. Thankfully, our AC is working. We may get cycled off occasionally, but the cool air flowed when I came home this afternoon. I don't mind the cycling as it gives us a nice discount on the bill.

The heat did make finishing up the Kid Poncho fairly miserable. Even with the AC on, I did not want all that yarn touching me. It's definitely time to pick up the socks again. Even Tivoli is getting long enough that it will touch me if I knit it.

Young Man is making it through the heat fairly well. Kids are amazing. He went to Wild Rivers yesterday with his camp and half of Orange County. His towel came back dry because it was so much nicer to air dry than use a towel. He also fell asleep on the bus ride back to camp. Poor little camper. We have tickets to visit the main mouse before the end of the month. I have to say that one of the last places I want to be right now would be crowded in with 70,000 people I do not want to know at The Happiest Place On Earth.

One Down, Three to Go

In response to the recent explosion of new projects that has occured in my craft room, I have signed on with the semi-annual Character Building Exercise (CBE) with the Knit & Chat crew. I committed to finishing the four projects noted in my sidebar before buying more yarn, needles, or patterns (unless the supplies are needed to finish the stated projects). I also solemnly swear not to start any new projects until all four old projects are off the needles.

This promise is already proving difficult. On my drive to work this morning, I found myself wondering if some Cherry Tree Hill yarn I have would work for Clapotis. This is, of course, a direct result of attending a gathering of knitters where two separate samples of the design were in work. The good news is that I have now finished one of the four projects! The Kid Poncho is finished! I have to say, what was I thinking? Boucle and Fun Fur, oh, my! The end result is actually pretty cute. It did take more Fun Fur than the pattern stated (I used 1 1/2 balls). It probably could have stood a thinner fringe, but you really can't have too much fluff on a little girl's poncho, can you?



Just before embarking on the CBE, I cast on for Tivoli. At 25 rounds, this is still fun. I'm just about ready to shape the armholes, so I may not be so happy by tomorrow. I had fun knitting around and around while chatting with the gang last night. It was fun to see no fewer than four socks in work. Last week, my sock was so lonely that it didn't want to come again! Maybe mine will have a mate by next week. All of my knitting was sad to say goodbye to CBear. Her parting gift to me was the source code for the progress bars. I am so happy with the bars, but will miss her wit at Starbucks. I wish her all the best on her move to Iowa. Don't be a stranger, okay?

Knitting and Chatting and Caffeine

I made it to my first ever knitting group last night. The really funny thing is that my friend JJ went to her first group knitting on the same night! It's really too bad that we were separated by so many miles. The group was delightful. I loved the energy and shared lust for yarn. We tempted each other with our latest projects while Starbucks tempted us with samples of their Green Tea Frappicino. For the record, I was far more impressed with the yarn than the drink. I'll stick with my decaf iced mocha.

Unfortunately, my sock knitting resulted in some friendly needling of one of the two guys. Apparently he has several unfinished pairs. It happens to the best of us! During the evening, I knitted through the second to last interesting part on one petticoat sock. Now there is nothing but rounds of straight knitting until I get to the toe decreases. The good news is that the switch to real US size 2 needles (instead of the mis-marked US 2.5s) is leaving me with a comfortable fit. The bad news is that I really will have to take apart the sock knitted on size 1 needles. It is just too small. Pretty, but too small. It mocks me. I'll show it. I'm going to knit on BO. That will fix it!

No photos of the knitting gang yet. I'm not yet a compulsive blogger and couldn't bring myself to start snapping pics of strangers. Maybe if I make it to Sunday's yarn swap..... Of course, before then, I must make it through the Harry Potter release party (Young Man really really wants to stay up until midnight), preparing for a polymer clay demonstration (whatever possessed me to agree to that?), and the usual weekend stuff that must be done (the laundry is busily reproducing in the basket again).

They Say It's Your Birthday..Well, It's My Birthday, Too!

Yes, indeed, it is another birthday. We spent the day wandering through the county fair. I snapped up a pair of fun earings from one of my favorite vendors, Kim Conrad. Young Man hit a new milestone where he not only did not need a shoulder ride from Dad, he actually carried the family backpack for most of the day! It was wonderful. We scratched goats behind the ears, saw baby pigs, and generally had a nice time. I love the fair.

Birthdays aren't necessarily so great, but I got two fun cards from The Man that made me smile and a great handmade card from Young Man that nearly made me cry. I'm a lucky woman.

It is also my neighbor across the street's birthday. She is beautiful inside and out and one of the few people for whom knitting Matrix is worth it. She loved the Matrix Madness and it looks much better on her than it does on either Young Man or his cucumbers.

More Socks!

There are many things on which I would love to ponder, but it's warm, we are going to the county fair tomorrow for my birthday, and I would rather just knit on Branching Out. So I will just post a photo of my latest socks. I love these! The pattern is Feather and Fan from Socks Socks Socks and the yarn is Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Crazy Woman. Luscious!

Home Again!

It has been a long time since blogging, but it has been a welcome break for me. I have been well and truly on vacation for two glorious weeks! Minnesota was the destination and relaxation was the goal. We spent a week visiting family and it was one of the better visits in recent years. As always, there is not enough time for everything, but we did a more even split between the two families than on the previous trip.

The second week of the trip was spent at the fourth annual Engineers Anonymous Lake Meeting. A total of four EA families attended the gathering. No resolutions were made other than the traditional reminder that it is always beer o'clock. Young Man had a fabulous time turning into a fish and testing his skills at catching fish. He spent hours where the only evidence of him was the orange tip on his snorkel and he caught at least 80 fish off the docks.

I completely forgot about work and will have a dreadful time remembering my passwords when I get back to the office on Wednesday. One of the two trips to Amazing Threads was documented in my last post. I had to return to pick up more Silky Wool and Opal Brazil because, well, it was a moral imperative. There was even time for knitting. I am now five repeats into Branching Out and am 3/4 completed with my new socks using the Feather and Fan pattern and Mountain Colors. Crazy Woman seemed to be an appropriate colorway for a vacation project!

My Opal Petticoat socks were a challenge. I finished one sock, but it is a bit small. I did a test swatch with the needles that were marked as being US2s. Note to self, check the size with the needle sizer before believing hand-written size on the package. No, 3mm are not US2. The second sock seemed too large so I searched for needles and found a real set of US2s. A new swatch will undoubtedly confirm that the entire endeavor must be restarted. The socks are currently reconsidering the error of their ways and realizing that I have many other skeins of Opal and Koigu and that they really should be better behaved if they are going to ever see my feet.