Happy Independence Day!

Since we will be camping in the wilds (and the HEAT -- it's supposed to hit 105!) of North Idaho tonight, I will take this opportunity to wish my fellow Americans a happy 4th of July!

The picture is of our great uncle Bill Rosaia, taken in 1914. We never knew him, but Mom says he was a wonderful guy. And I love the picture.

More on the Kauni Cardigan

I thought I had added all the info about the Kauni sweater already, but that must have been the Nyquil talking lol.

The sweater is a gorgeous free pattern from Ruth Sorensen, which you can download here. The yarn is Kauni (and I am using the rainbow colorway same as the original), which seems to be in short supply. If you go to the Kauni Knitalong blog, there are links to some sellers.

As for my own progress, I am really enjoying the knitting, it's an easy pattern to follow. I started out with a yellow/green color combo, which has progressed to green/blue, then blue/purple, and I think the colors are too similar. I just discontinued the blue and have started another ball of yarn with yellow. Hopefully that will give me more contrast. Picture is of what I've done so far.

We are going to try camping ONE MORE TIME (after the no tent debacle, and last weekend's huge storm which sent branches and trees crashing down on the campsite we were supposed to be ensconsed upon, I'm a little leery) on the 4th of July. Pray for me cuz with my luck I am going to stumble into a hornet's nest, eat a poison s'more and/or find a snake in my sleeping bag.

New Project

yep I blew off everything on the UFO list and started my Kauni cardigan last night. Hey, life's short, I'm doing the project that's calling my name first.

I knit 2 cm of ribbing last night during the Mariners' game, 1 more centimeter to go and I get to start on the fun part. So far my cardi colors are yellow and green *not my all time favorite color combo*, but I think a pretty blue is coming up next. This yarn is rainbow colored with long stretches of each color, and by using 2 balls of the yarn, I will get a different color combo with each pattern repeat.

Still coughing and snuffling around, had to send Skyn (that's my hubby's nickname) up to the drugstore to sign his life away for some good cough suppressant. Since Spokane is evidently the meth lab capital of the world, we may be getting a visit from the po-po to see what we're cooking up here lol.

And boy am I glad I bailed on the this week's camping trip! My friend Lorraine called me this morning to say they had a HUGE storm last night with trees crashing all around their campsite. Yeesh, that's why hotels were invented I say.

And a 2nd finished project!

Got Huggable Hedgehog stuffed and sewn up and he now has eyes (they're a little wonky but he's a nice guy and he's not complaining). Pretty cute! This is a felted toy from Fiber Trends (#228X). I think I also have a squirrel kit around here somewhere so I may have to make him a forest friend.

Glad to get this guy off of my UFO (UnFinished Objects) list!

The Princess!

And here is Miss Precious Pup herself! Hadley models the Crazy Daisy Hat I made for her. What a good sport she is to wear Auntie Lowdie's wacky creations! Too cute (the kit is by Debby Ware, comes with all the glitz and glam you need to knit a hat for your own little queen)

One Finished Project!

The cold is lingering, but slowly getting better. At least I'm no longer coughing so hard I pee myself (or maybe that is just one of the things we menopausal ladies do?) Despite spending most of the last two days either coughing or sleeping, or waking myself up from sleeping because my cold has turned me into a loud snorer (some mean people say I already snored but I'm denying that), I did manage to finish the somewhat fugly little cardigan for Hadley.

It's done and I'll send it over to little Miss Hadley, she can wear it to clean up the yard with mom and dad, or change the oil in Ruby or just dress one of her dollies in it. The buttons are cute anyway! It's actually purple and green, though the picture makes it look blue and green.

I also found Huggable Hedgehog patiently waiting to get eyes and be stuffed so I'm going to see if I can finish him today. Here's a picture of him in his present deflated condition. He's pretty cute even blind and flat.

And the mailman just brought my yarn for my Kauni cardigan which is very exciting (to me at least). I said I would finish my other things before I started this project, but my resolve is weakening. Blame it on the meds. I'm not a well woman.

Nyquil induced rants

I (to quote my DD Katie) feel like 'ass' today. Why do summer colds feel so awful? I have been coughing and feeling like crap for 3 days now. boo. Today's post may be somewhat incoherent due to the large slugs of Nyquil I've ingested; I'm now swigging it straight from the bottle, to hell with the measuring cup!

I did manage to finish the little Peace Fleece cardigan and it's laying on the table blocking itself right now. I'm glad I got it done, but this is one of those 'meh' projects. It looked adorable in the pattern picture, but I'm not totes thrilled with it. Hadley, I'm sending it to you, you can use it as your 'dog feeding' coat (this is one of my family phrases -- we have a gazillion of them -- for a coat, hoodie, pair of shoes, etc that you'd only wear out to the dog run to feed the hounds and shovel up poop).

BTW, Megan, I had no idea your hubby was Mr. Harry Potter Fan Club lol. Maybe I will surprise Ry with his very own Wizard cap and/or wand case!

Hot topic on the knitlist today has been 'yarn diets'. A number of listers have declared themselves to be overwhelmed by their stashes and sworn off of yarn purchases for a period of time. I find it an interesting topic. There seems to be a fair amount of guilt involved in 'stashing' yarn, why is that? Do men feel this way when they buy things for their interests/hobbies or is this a women-centric phenomenon?

Personally, I enjoy having my "YRA" (Yarn Retirement Account) and adding to it. I do purge the stash pretty regularly, selling off or giving away things that I feel I'm not going to knit up any time soon. One thing I wish I did better was to keep track of WHY I purchased a particular yarn. Often, I'll see a pattern I like and buy the yarn...but just as often, I fail to put pattern and yarn together and by the time I pull the yarn out of the stash I no longer know what project it's intended for.

The stash has funded several trips and special purchases for me, so it's my little hedge fund against a rainy day. Of course, it would be much more sensible to put the money in the bank and use THAT to pay for trips etc. but where's the fun in that. To mangle a quote from Barbara Kingsolver: "yarn will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no yarn". Knitting has seen me through just about every event in my life since I was 12 years old, both happy and sad times and having a stash of yarn to fondle is one of the small pleasures in life.

and to finish up for today, here's an anonymous "Ode to Nyquil":

O NyQuil!
As red, thou art, as the chilled blood of a cherry bat!
O NyQuil!
You burn with a fire in my throat that could melt the winter sky!
O NyQuil!
You bring upon me a soothing sleep that rests my aching nose!
O Nyquil!
You are far better than DayQuil!
O NyQuil!
Drugs like you that make me sleep are grand!
O NyQuil!
You make me write beautiful poetry!
O NyQuil!
Don't you think that any respectable ode has an excessive number of "O"s?