Sunday, July 31, 2011

Back From DC

I hope that you will pardon my absence, my knitterly friends. We spent our summer vacation with Mr. Batty's Dad and his wife, in one of their timeshares in DC. It was great fun. We visited some of the obligatory attractions, like Abe Lincoln, for example. He's huge. Definitely worth seeing.


Across from Abe, you usually see the reflecting pool. Except... there is no reflecting pool! Not sure what's going on there, but they drained it completely. Hypothesis: politicians sending their staff to pick up all the coins people tossed in for good luck in an attempt to balance the national budget. Yeah. I bet that's it.


Because it was not too hot yet, we walked over to the World War II memorial, which is also really neat. I like the more recent memorials; they're not just something you look at, you can walk around, read plaques, watch the water... I like this approach to monuments much better than the old-fashioned 'come and look' -- it's much more participatory, for lack of a better word.


We did a lot of walking, but then, the weather changed... no, it didn't rain, it was 104 F outside, heat index: 117. So we got stuck at the Smithsonian for a couple of days in a row. Every single one of these museums is awesome, and they're free. We had so much time, we'll definitely be back.

Once we returned home, I went on a cleaning spree. Look at my fridge! It's clean! Every shelf, drawer and bottle was removed, washed/scrubbed/dried, then returned. I love my clean fridge. Bonus: we cleaned it before we picked up the cats from their boarding place. It's amazing how quickly you get things done without feline interference.


I was sick for 2 days, so knitting did happen. More on that soon!

Friday, July 15, 2011

Return of the Mojo

After the AC fiasco (87 degrees! Inside!), my knitting mojo seems to be returning. As does my willingness to make a spectacle of myself in front of the neighbors by contorting myself on the blistering hot deck in order to get a better picture of handknit socks.
The pattern I frogged in the last post was Dawnsinger from Janel Laidman's Illuminations sock club. I've signed up for that and her Art and Sole club this year because both offer pattern-only options. Way to work through some of that stash yarn!

The FO below is Charleston from the Art and Sole club. They took a long time because of all the twisted stitches. Twisted stitches hurt my hands but are so pretty.


The sordid details:
Pattern: Charleston
Yarn: Knitpicks Essentials in colorway Prairie
Needles: US#0
Size: small
Comments: Knit exactly as written. Fun but took forever on account of the twisted stitches.

Next: a whole bunch of new projects. Here's my summer knitting yarn pile.


And some roving that made me think of Jaws. You know... people swimming along, cue the shark music, blood in the water... just the kind of inspiration one needs for summer spinning.


We're not going to the beach this year. Maybe it's better that way.