What happened to July?

Sorry it's been so long. July turned out to be a crazy month. I filled in at the Hutch in my old group for vacationers. It took a couple of years to really understand how much employer paid benefits mean to a family budget. I still have every intention to pursue my landscape design work, but I'm hoping to get back at my old job at half-time so that I can get those beni-s again. Of course they are in a hiring freeze right now so I'm waiting; in the meantime I'm doing on call hours. Working basically full time and juggling the day-care stuff meant very little time devoted to blog/knitting/gardening, etc. Especially since every waking moment was spent getting our trailer ready for it's first trip.

We had made reservations last November to go to our favorite Washington coast spot, Grayland Beach State Park. That put a time crunch to get the Airstream ready to go! (If you don't know the backstory, please go to the trailer link...) We were up into the wee hours the week before the trip doing everything we could to get the place ship shape.

And then we got to do this:

















Needless to say we had a great time!



And now? I've finished my Leyburn socks. So yummy. A little big, but totally wearable. I haven't taken photos of them because they're packed in my suitcase. I'm heading down to Portland tonight for Sock Summit! I'm taking a class from the Yarn Harlot, so maybe she'll take a picture of my socks when I show them to her on Saturday. I'll fill you in on all of it when I get back.

Ginseng Socks and Veggie Progress

I'm eager to tell all 3 of you ;) about my latest project. I'm knitting a pair of Leyburns by Mintyfresh.



As you might assess, I'm flying through these. (Remember that I like knitting my socks 2 at a time, so there is a second one this far along as well!) The gauge is slightly bigger than the "mansocks," so that helps, but I think too the craziness of the yarn and the supercool pattern are keeping my interest super high.



This is my first toe-up sock pattern, as well as my first short-row toes and heels. Luckily, I've got some experience with short rows (remember Calorimetry?) or I would have been seriously frustrated as I had to knit multiple toes and heels to get these just right. It's a testament to my love that I'm still passionate for these guys! Maybe I'll finish these by the weekend.

Stats:

Pattern: Leyburn socks by Mintyfresh
Yarn: Madelinetosh sock in "Ginseng"
Needles: size 1, 40" addi turbo
Mods: Knit a 27 stitch short-row toe, increased the instep to 37 stitches for a total of 64 stitches to accommodate my size 9s. Did no further instep increases at the heel. Leg is 72 stitches as written.

Summer is in full swing around here. During Leon's nap this morning, Emmett and I headed into the back yard for some shenanigans with his tennis racket. While we were out there, we picked and ate more snap peas straight off the vine (love that!) and thinned more of the yellow onions growing amongst the corn. Then we had to check out all that was growing:



The broccoli is starting to flower. Hopefully we can harvest some decent sized florets before any heat makes them bolt.



Our Red Zebra tomato. Looking good. The Cherokee Purple also has a fruit growing, and the Princepe is recovering, though I'm not sure it will ever have any fruit.



All of the green cabbage is forming heads now. Good, because they need to get out of the way of the peppers.



And finally for today, an out-of-focus Emmett standing next to the brussel sprouts. (I forgot to turn off the macro setting on the camera.) I wanted to give some scale to these beasts. They're taller than the corn! Anyone out there with experience with brussel sprouts? Do I need to remove any leaves for the little babies to grow?

And what do you think of my dandelion bouquet? Emmett is too much.

And it fits!

The boys can't believe it, and neither can I.



My cardigan is not only complete, but it fits! I completed the knitting on Saturday and the little amount of finishing on Sunday (weave in ends, graft armholes). I did a 15 minute soak in wool wash (Kookaburra) and laid it out flat on the carpet in my room. By Monday morning it was almost dry, so I carefully laid it on the sweater rack in my dryer and gave it a little heat. Perfect. I waited to sew the buttons on until it was blocked and that seemed to work out great.

I recruited our fledgling photographer (Emmett) to take a couple of pictures, and this was the best shot:



Just kidding. The light was bad and I looked awful. I tried again with the self-timer and the result was only barely acceptable. I'll hopefully enlist Ryan and the weather (it's been SERIOUSLY nasty in Seattle this week) to get some more flattering shots this weekend. I cropped one so that I could share:



I also did a preemptive strike on the bottom hem to keep it from folding inward and upward. It involved a crochet hook and more yarn. I'll give details once I can take a detail shot.

Other than that the week has been spent entertaining boys with dribbling noses and ear infections (Emmett, but not Leon). Here's a good moment from Monday:



As for what I'm knitting now; I've picked Ryan's socks back up and will dedicate myself to them until completion. (I swear.) I'm knitting heel flaps now. Yippee!

Socks in progress

My current project is a pair of socks for Ryan. At 8.5 stitches to the inch, it's verrrrry slow going, especially since I rarely have an extended period of knitting time. However, I'm knitting on them alot since the K3/P1 pattern is easy and quick to put down.

They worked great in the car on Saturday on our way to and from picking up our Airstream. Because they are for Ryan, I've chosen a dark color (Cascade Heritage) that makes it difficult (if not impossible) to knit in low light. So I find myself knitting next to our big front window, or with all of the lights on...



I'm hoping to get them done before the 14th? Can I do it?



Last time I found myself in Seattle Yarn working on these socks, a beautiful skein of Madelinetosh sock yarn found it's way into my purse. I swear I don't know how it got there. (Just like when Ryan says he has no idea how a case of Guinness found its way to our shopping cart...)



I think I might knit these into a pair of Leyburn socks.



Last thought: why is this colorway called "ginsing"? Whatever, because I still think it's beautiful.