Via Diagonale

I finally finished it! This is Via Diagonale from knitty.com. It was a real bugger, because of how you make the chevron pattern. It was actually hard on my hands, so I could only work on it a little bit at a time.

I used 5 skeins of Tahki Cotton Classic--3 of the brown (color 3336), 2 of the teal (color 3805) and used size 6 needles.

I lined it with a very cute fabric, but I wish I had used something heftier so it would help the bag stand up even better.

Phew!

Impulse Buy

We were in Newport, Rhode Island last weekend to celebrate our anniversary and we made an impulse buy:













Just Kidding, of course. That's just one of the lovely homes we saw along the Cliff Walk. We also saw Rose Cliff, where The Great Gatsby, True Lies, and Amistad were filmed.






Newport is a beautiful place, and the weather was delightful when we were there. We can't wait to go back!

Final Shipment Arrived!

My secret pal sent me this awesome Moebius scarf as the final installment of the One Skein Secret Pal exchange:














Isn't it neat? Can you see why it's so tricky to knit? The edging is very detailed (I'm not sure if you can see it from the picture).

I especially love the colorway--and Dominique, my not-secret-anymore pal, sent me the rest of the yarn to have fun with!

I'm also intrigued by the Moebius knitting...add that to my list of things to try!

Thank you, Dominique!

Frisbee Golf

Saturday we (J, Krissy and I) went down to Providence to see Marc and Christine and also to play some frisbee golf. Here are some action shots:


In the background of the last shot you can see Bob. Bob was golfing alone and we invited him to join us. He is hard core---see that black bag on the ground? It's filled with all kinds of different frisbees. He also had longer hair than all five of the rest of us combined. I think Marc and J were jealous. :)

Here's the course we went to:http://www.pdga.com/course/courses_by_city.php?id=2208

Patient on the mend

J's feeling better and better each day...but I think he's had enough of mashed potatoes, oatmeal, applesauce and pudding. We did add a milkshake today...how's that for variety?

Down for a while

J's slugging out in front of the TV...his wisdom teeth removal went well for the top two teeth, but the bottom two were real buggers. Evidently there was drilling involved in trying to get them out. He's doped up on painkillers and has ice packs on his cheeks. Poor guy. He did enjoy some chocolate pudding for dinner, so that's good. His doctor also called tonight to check on him...I thought that was impressive.

Did you know that you have to show an ID to fill a perscription for percoset? I learned that today.

On the happy side of life, our garden is FLOURISHING. We've already been enjoying garden-fresh veggies. We even made pesto using our basil. The cherry tomatoes have been ripening these last two weeks....they're so tasty! The first of our "big" tomatoes is turning orange, so we should have a ripe one next week....

Recently Finished Objects

Here are some things I've made lately. Soon I won't be able to post pictures because I'll be working on gifts...

Plymouth or Plimoth?

Well, you saw the Freedom Trail pictures from last Thursday--on Friday we went to Plymouth and visited "the rock" (which is only part of the original rock), and then went to Plimoth Plantation.
Here is the rock:














Here is Dave listening to the nice Park Ranger:


















See how Dave was facing her? Very attentive. Then here is my darling husband "listening" to the park ranger.














Hmm, he's not even looking in her direction, and he's standing about 15 feet away. Erin and Dave are better tourists than we are.

On Sunday we went to the Cape. We got to use our handy beach umbrella from my parents, complete with the original sand auger. (it's quite an amazing thing!) Dave and J got it in the ground, and then J and I posed for a picture for my parents.

loads of fun

So, Erin and Dave left this morning. :( We had lots of fun while they were here, though. See?
Erin reading the Freedom Trail brochure to us:


Dave's first cannoli! (At Mike's Pastry)


Erin at the Make Way for Ducklings statue:


It was HOT while they were here. We went to the Cape on Sunday and loved the sea breeze that cooled things off.
We're sad that they're gone. sigh.

Backfired

Any of you who have been to our house in the last few months have witnessed the "creative" places I was using to store my circular knitting needles...doorknobs and the stair railing, to name a few. So when I said to J, "I think I'll make a circular needle holder" he said, "Great Idea!"

Seriously, he was that emphatic...I guess that the needles rattling on the bedroom doorknob were annoying when he was trying to sleep or something.

So here it is:

I used the pattern from Stitch and Bitch, but altered it near the end to make it easier (it was almost midnight). Those alterations include making one large foldover flap instead of the two flaps (which make it so it could go on a hanger that doesn't have the bar). I also got to use the cool iron-on tape I found on clearance at Wal-Mart for our (I mean mine, J would never admit to having one) Dymo label maker. See, it's useful after all!

It will not hang in the hallway like it is pictured here...I was trying to get as much light as possible for the picture. It is hanging in the guest bedroom closet, near the yarn, so they can talk and become friends before they come together to fulfill their fiber destiny. :)

The one drawback? When I showed J (and it was loaded with the needles), he said, "I didn't know you had so many needles!" Oops. Plan backfired.

Hoorah for Summer!

So, session two of Woodworking ended today, so I AM FREE AS A BIRD UNTIL THE END OF AUGUST. Of course I have an eye doctor appointment and all of those annoying things, but still, that's a lot of time on my hands. I'm not sure what to do with myself without a deck to build or windows to install or a bathroom to renovate. I'm sure I'll find something.

Erin and Dave arrive next week for their first visit to Boston. We want to show them a good time so they will want to come back. Hopefully there will be good pictures to post about our adventures.

J started his graduate school class this week and boy am I glad that I didn't do graduate work in English...the amount of reading he's already had to do is quite amazing.

Secret Pal Extraordinaire!

My secret pal emailed me last week saying she was going to send me (a relatively new knitter) some of her "extra" needles along with my skein this month....I was very excited, to say the least. The package arrived today and HOLY SAMOLIANS!!! I am a lucky girl...Addi Turbos, Fiddlesticks, HiyaHiya, and Susan Bates. And check out that awesome alpaca yarn from Misti Alpaca! The color is 2050, called LIPSTICK (tee hee hee). I can't wait to make something from it, maybe this scarf or this cable hat. Which one do you think? My pal said that she bought herself some and she keeps petting it...I keep petting mine. :) I agree with her that this is much easier and more cost-effective than having a cat or rabbit to pet.

Remember that awesome feeling in college when you got a package slip in your mailbox and you got to go and get it at the pickup window because it was too big to fit in your box? This was just as exciting! I was on the phone with Krissy and kept exclaiming about what was inside.

Sweater Action Shot

Janine, Glen and Amelia are in Boston for a visit, so I got to see Amelia's sweater in action! This is the first time I've seen one of my bigger knitted projects on the recipient, so it's very cool. Isn't she adorable?

Outdoor photos

I mentioned yesterday that we've done some work outside. Here are some photos:
The new deck benches were made completely out of materials we had left over from building the deck last year (well, except for the cushions, but that's it, really!):




We also expanded (by about 4x) the size of our planting bed in the back:
(The first is a far-off shot, the second and third are two close-ups)

Outside Adventures

We've been doing a lot of work outside at our house, and I'm pleased to announce (on J's behalf) that we have our best lawn ever! Now, I'm not talking 100% grass or anything (let's not be silly, people), but we're definitely at about 85% grass, 15% random junk that floats in and decides to grow. Compared to 40% grass when we moved in two years ago (and I am being generous with that 40%), it's a TREMENDOUS IMPROVEMENT! I can actually walk barefoot without it hurting! To add to that, we were recently gifted a Toro lawn mower very similar to my dad's. It is 20 years old, but in working condition. It was sitting in our neighbor's father's shed and he no longer uses it, so now it's ours.

Besides that, we expanded our back planting bed and built two benches for our deck. More details (and photos) on those two things later. Until tomorrow (when I can photograph said things), here are a couple of photos of the things we've got blooming around our house right now:

Yes, I've been knitting

It's just that I keep giving the stuff away before I can take a picture. These are all projects from Mason-Dixon Knitting, my latest favorite knitting book. The washcloths and baby bibs make great little gifts and they're perfect mindless car-ride (and summer school snack break) knitting. Believe it or not, it's quite fun to clean your kitchen when you've made the washcloth yourself.

First Batch of Birdhouses

Not only do they look adorable holding the birdhouses like that, it protects their identities...are we clever photographers, or what?

We have a total of 30 students in the 3 one-hour sections, so don't be thinking, "of course they can build birdhouses if they only have 5 kids all morning." :)

Take Me Out To The Ballgame!

Well, even though the PawSox lost, we still had a lot of fun at the game. I even made J pose for a cheesy picture since it was a birthday present. I did take that picture early, before most people were there.

It's a great stadium...not too big, but very modern. The first lowest two sections of seats are assigned seats (that's what we had...third row, almost behind the plate...you can tell our vantage point from the photo, because he just walked down in front of where we were sitting), then the rest are general admission--including a cool grassy area in left field where people bring blankets, etc.

It was a very fun night. And besides the tickets being much more affordable than the Red Sox, we got there in less than 45 minutes, had free parking, and didn't deal with traffic on the way out, either. Gotta love it.

Woodworking

Well, the school year is over, which means one thing--it's time for the Summer Program and our (in)famous WOODWORKING class!

Yes, that's right, J and I are once again teaching woodworking to impressionable young students grades 3-8. Yesterday we gave our safety talk and then one of them had the nerve to swing his 30 inch board at someone like he was going to hit them. I gave my best stern teacher look and he looked appropriately ashamed. I've got my eye on him now.

If you're lucky, I'll post pictures of the bird houses. I know that you're very excited to see them.

Quote of the day: "Aww, this is too much math for summer!"

Thursday is the PawSox (Red Sox Triple-A team) game--I got J tickets for his birthday. Then I lost them. (skip over the long story of searching). Then I called and they re-issued them without any questions at all. All that searching and worrying for nothing. Alas. Hopefully it will be as fun as people tell me it is.

Summer of Stash

Hmm. Well, I missed the official sign-up, but I'm committing myself to the Summer of Stash. Don't worry, that is neither dirty, nor drug-related. That means that I will not buy any yarn this summer, but will use only things from my yarn stash. What's a yarn stash? If you have to ask, you probably won't understand. But once you start knitting there's something that comes over you and you buy yarn for future projects and it just doesn't stop. Now, I'm not as bad as a lot of people out there (I'm not hiding yarn in the piano, or in the sleeves of coats hanging in closets), but I do think that I should commit to completing the projects I have already purchased yarn for.

I am announcing this on here because then I will have to be better about actually doing it. And then J will know about it.

The official SOS program allows you to pre-set some exceptions. My exception will be if I need to purchase yarn to complete my project for my One Skein Secret Pal. And that's it. This is tough love.

Wish me luck!