Wow, December has been my most pathetic blog posting month yet. Sorry to leave you all hanging! Dan is fine, I am fine, and (most importantly), baby girl is fine. We made the trek to Indiana for the holidays and are hanging out with my family now and Dan's later this week. It's wonderful to be with family at Christmas!
And speaking of family, my dad started a blog! Check him out! Go SnargleDad! :)
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! (Or happy holidays for the non-denominational types!) Now go to bed so Santa can bring you lots of presents!!!
Well, this summer has just been flying by, ne c'est pas? How about a quick recap of what's been going on chez snargle...
1. We finished the portico - caulk, paint, the whole 9 yards.
Welcome!
It took us several evenings after work and the better part of another weekend, but it's so worth it! There's still the ghost outline above the portico, and we need to pressure wash and Dremel it some more, but that can wait for another weekend!
2. Tubing on the Shenandoah
Aaaahhh...
What a relaxing way to spend the day! We went flatwater tubing in the morning, whitewater tubing in the afternoon, and then camped out in a treehouse! It was a great weekend with Jenna and Reid and some other friends.
3. 4th of July
Living just outside of DC, it's tempting to try and avoid the 4th of July craziness. Then again, there's nowhere better to celebrate the 4th than in the Nation's Capital! So, once again, we went downtown. In the morning, we did something we haven't done before - the reading of the Declaration of Independence on the steps of the National Archives. There were two WWII veterans and some historial reenactors to portray Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and John Adams. It was great - it's really emotional to hear the words detailing all of the reasons for the very revolutionary decisions to declare our independence. It also made me want to watch "1776" - one of my favorite musicals - which I managed to find at the library the next day. "There's still nothing in it about deep sea fishing rights!"
After a couple of hours at home, we went back down to the Mall for the fireworks. I love fireworks!
Boom!
Boom!
4. Live Earth
It's Al!
I'm sure you heard something about the Live Earth concerts on 7/7/07. The US concert was in New York. What you may not have heard was that there was also a small concert here in DC on the Mall - a suprise event that was only planned a day in advance. Well, there was a concert planned for the day, featuring Native American bands on the grounds of the National Museum of the American Indian. They just added a few special guests - Al Gore, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood. The venue and the seating would have been perfect for the expected turnout for the Native American bands, but it was a bit overwhelmed by the crowd there to see Al. We had a terrible view of the stage (if you weren't in the front row, you couldn't see at all) but we were able to hear. It was a memory!
We left the concert after the first band and walked over to the Folklife Festival. Lots of great fiber-related things, in addition to the great food and other interesting exhibits. There were some amazing skeins of silk and looms in the Mekong Delta area - this was one of my favorites:
That's skill!
5. the beach
Dan and I headed over to Delaware to hit the beach for a day trip. Well, I stayed on the beach while Dan hit the waves - getting a kitesurfing fix for the first time this summer.
Check him out!
6. Knitting
And finally, lest you think I haven't been knitting... here's what I've been working on.
First, the Doubly Scottish Socks:
Och, laddie! It's a sock!
I cast these on while in Scotland, and the pattern is Spey Valley (the valley down the middle of Scotland) from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road, so these are the doubly Scottish socks. They're Trekking Bamboo on US 1's. I'm a bit farther along than this photo - almost ready to turn the heel.
Next, Coachella.
Blue blob
There's the two armholes and some waist decreases... I'm working on the hip increases now. It's cotton - K1C2 2nd time cotton - that I bought in Alaska. Recycled cotton from industrial scraps (textile waste) - pretty cool. I've tried it on, and the cowl neck is going to be far, far too low (there are similar "problem" pictures on a couple of other blogs I've seen), so I've resigned myself to wearing a tank under it. I've even got the perfect racerback tank. If you're thinking about knitting one of the larger sizes, you might want to cast on fewer stitches and gradually increase to get the correct number of stitches at the bust...
And finally, Mystery Stole 3.
Lace!
Yes, I got sucked in, too. I actually signed up just before Stephanie's post, after having seen so many people signed up on ravelry. I got some Malabrigo laceweight and some size 8 beads at a local store, and the next thing I knew I was knitting lace. This is my progress on July 12th... I'm now through Chart A and getting ready to start B. A minimum of ripping back (loving the lifelines, and especially how easily I can put them in with my KnitPicks options needles! You thread the crochet thread through the hole in the Options needles, then just pass the stitches over it).
And that's it! The first few months of summer in a nutshell. More Scotland pictures to be uploaded to flickr when I get a chance. Another update soon!
Before we say goodbye to 2006, one last post with the holiday knits!
Most of my knits this year went to a swap partner. I participated in a swap on craftster.org that was called the "12 Days of Christmas." The idea was to send your partner 12 things for day 12, 11 things for day 11, and so on - a total of 78 presents. It was a huge undertaking (although the things for some days were small, or store-bought), and I did quite a bit of knitting for it. I tried two new techniques - fair isle and intarsia. My partner said that she was really into goth things - skulls, etc. - so I tried to accomodate that. It was a bit outside of my comfort zone (not too much gothy about me...), but I found that very fun - part of why I do swaps with strangers!
First up, the Arrrgyle Pillow:
ARRRGYLE!
ARRGYLE back!
I used the fabulous Arrrgyle pattern here (links to PDF), but knit it in Lopi and then felted it. I got a very short and wide panel of thick fabric, when I then decided to make into a pillow. A bit of hand sewing and stuffing, and I was done.
And for the "big" project (this was Day 1), I did a winter set, of the Yorick scarf and the We Call Them Pirates Hat:
Skulls ahoy!
The Pirates hat is in Lion Brand Microspun, which knit up very tight and warm, but soft and comfortable on US 3's. However, my row gauge was quite a bit different from the pattern yarn and 3 skull repeats didn't result in a very tall hat. It was very much a "beanie." Rather than taking out the top and doing another skull repeat (which is what I will do next time), I added another bottom band below the provisional cast-on, and then knit the lining band. Basically, it's only supposed to have one horizontal band around the bottom, not two.
Yorick is knit exactly to the pattern out of Nature's Pride worsted.
I knit my sister a neckwarmer out of one skein of the African silk yarn that I bought at Stitches East (and blogged about here) but didn't take any pictures of it... Mom, if she brought it home can you help?
And my other crafty present was one for mom - Kaffe Fassett was at Stitches East signing several of his knitting books, but there were a few quilting ones, too! I picked one up for Mom and had him autograph it... I think she was happy:
Mom at Christmas
Of course, I received some crafty presents, too, including some amazing pillows from my sister, but those are going to have to wait until the new year.
Happy New Year!