Ravelympics Finish Line Crossed

I finished the two felted totes with a day to spare to the end of the Beijing Olympics. Needless the say, the Ravelympics was not quite as exciting (but it was better than endless hours of beach volleyball almost every evening). I really prefer the individual sports - diving, racing, gymnastics - some amazing performances. I think they could have cut out about an hour of the woman's marathon - the last 1/2 mile would have been enough for me. And the interviews at the end of the races were just funny - watching the winner pant and try to catch his/her breath while answering stupid questions about how it felt to win. I wish I'd watched more during the day - I just saw the women's canoe race at 3:00 PM while I'm writing this. Now I'm watching girls doing amazing things with hoops (how do they think of these things!).

Anyway, enough of this rant - here's my winning entry. The Northampton Vermont tote bags with felted flowers. I think I'll be making more felted bags - this was really fun.

Two of my kids (plus families) have been in the East for the past three weeks, unfortunaly their visits overlapped and they didn't get to visit with each other. They each spent a couple of days with me, and here they are.

First are the California girls, D2 Diane and GD5 Maisie. SIL Greg couldn't get away for this trip.

We went down to Mystic last weekend for a craft/art show, and I found some hand-dyed alpaca yarn to buy from Cold Spring Alpaca Farm.

The following weekend the Minnesota group showed up - S3 Randy, DIL Lynda and the girls, GD3 Allyson and GD4 Emma. This picture was taken at Roger Williams Park in Providence - of course we got lost both going and coming, as usual in Providence.

Next weekend D1 Laura will be coming here from New Jersey for the Woodstock Fair. My favorites are the bunnies and the pony pull. Hubster worked for the Church's Chicken barbeque for the past 30 years, about half of them as "Head Chicken", but he gave notice last year and is happy to let others take over. It's really good chicken though, we always buy extras to freeze.

Ravelympics Totes

These two totes are really a challenge, but not because of the pattern or the felting. I knitted and felted the first tote, then knitted the second one to be a little larger. But I didn’t have enough yarn left for longer straps, so I had to take the straps off the first tote (which were longer) and use them for the larger tote, then make two smaller straps for the first tote because that was all the yarn I had (are you following me so far?). But of course trying to take felted straps off a felted bag made a big mess and I ended up cutting some yarn that wasn’t supposed to be cut, so then I had to patch that up. Then I sewed the straps backwards on the first tote and had to cut them off again. So the picture below shows a felted bag with unfelted straps, and vice versa.

I made a flower decoration for the first tote (that seems to be OK, thank goodness). Tonight I’m going to knit a flower for the second tote, and felt everything again and hope it comes out right. Oh, and I have to sew on buttons.

The Olympics have begun today, and so have the Ravelympics. I've started my Ravelympics project - see cast-on below. In case you don't know what the Ravelympics are (is anyone reading this?), it's a contest which was the brainchild of Ravelry. The idea is to pick a challenging knitting project (depending on your own individual skill level), and then begin it during or after the opening ceremonies and finish it before the Olympics torch is extinguished. My project is two knitted and felted totes (the felting will be the challenging part). I've entered in the "Bagntotebackstroke" category.

This is what it will look like when completed, except for the different color and also I hope to put a large knitted and felted flower on each tote. (Sorry this picture is so small.)

It's just stockinette and garter stitch, but there are about 120 rows per tote, plus the handles, plus the sewing, felting and flowers.

Henley Not So Perfected

I've gotten quite far on the Henley Perfected using very delicious Debbie Bliss Alpaca/Silk. I did most of the stockinette portion of the front and back on a circular needle, then switched to DPs at the underarm. Knitting lace while decreasing for the armholes was tricky, and I had to frog several times before I got it right (the fact that I couldn't keep the lace pattern straight compounded my errors!). But as you can see from the photo, I'm well on my way to the shoulders - this is the back you're seeing. The front will be even more complicated because of the button placket.

I've been dealing with a person trying to pull a scam on me about a necklace she bought from my online Ruby Lane shop. I sold her a beautiful necklace - see below - and she claimed it was damaged when received. It was insured and I told her she could file a claim with the postal service if it had been damaged in the mail, but she said she was returning it and wanted her money back. What she sent me was in my original packaging (undamaged in the mail), and it was the worst disaster of a necklace you could imagine. Broken cord, missing rhinestones, broken clasp, etc. Obviously not my necklace, but a similar substitute she was claiming was mine. I told her this was not my necklace, and I had the photos to prove it. I told her I would not refund her money, and I sent her broken necklace back to her. That started her on an email campaign, ending with calling me a thief. She then complained to Ruby Lane, and I had to explain the situation to them, ending up with Ruby Lane refusing to take her side. I've now blocked her from my email and from my Ruby Lane shop, because it don't want to take any more of her abuse. If she had just returned my own necklace, I would have refunded her money instantly, but right now the situation stands that she has my necklace (and also her own damaged one), and I have her money - and that's the way it's going to stay. I've had almost 2000 online transactions in the past 6 years, and this is the first time someone has been so dishonest with me. I hate this kind of conflict, so I guess I should be grateful the percentage is so low.

Blog Readability

This was a fun test to take. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the icon to act as a link if you click on it, so I've copied the link separately. I'm pleased the reading level is at least high school - some days I feel I can barely write like a kindergartner. Me go now.
http://www.criticsrant.com/bb/reading_level.aspx

Minnesota on the Fourth

We saw two Fourth of July parades last weekend. My Grand-girls decorated their bike and wagon and walked in kids parade - an annual event and it seems every child and parent in the county participated. This is a photo of about 1/5 of the crowd. The grand-girls are in there somewhere.

In the afternoon, we watched the "official" parade.

You know you're in the Upper Midwest when you see a line of bright and shiny tractors in a parade - lots of farms out there.

And here's a group of supporters for one of Minnesota's finest - Al Franken (remember him from Saturday Night Live?) He's running for Congress.

We cooled off with a dip in the huge pool at the Fitness Center. Again, tons of kids, but in this shot are only GD4 and S3. From the way he played in the water, you'd think he was another Grand-kid.

Here's a quiet moment - sunset on Lake Minnetonka.

And yes, I did get some knitting done - mostly on the flight and waiting in the terminals. I just missed my connection in Cleveland - I could actually see the plane moving away from the jetway - my incoming flight from Providence was stranded on the tarmac for 20 minutes before they could park the plane and the connection didn't wait. That was the last of a bunch of cumulative delays beginning with a late takeoff in Providence. Yuck! Anyway, here's the knitting, a lacy mohairish scarf which will be a Christmas present for a good friend.

2 FOs, 1 more started

I've finished the small pair of socks, and I've started a matching (sort of) large pair. I'm really pleased that I was able to match the patterning across the ankle. This will be a joint Christmas present - yes, I've started early because I'm hoping to knit something for everybody and this will take some time!

I've also finished the pink linen tank top. It's just the same as the natural linen one I did last year - same yarn, same pattern, but I modified the lace border at the bottom. The neck looks a little loose - if it feels wrong when I wear it a few times, I might redo the crocheted edging and make it a little tighter. But I really like this pattern, and the top looks good under an open blouse or over a turtleneck. I won't wear a sleeveless top by itself - gotta hate those arm wings. How come some women have lovely slender arms until they're 90, and other like me get wings when they're 40? And I'm not really overweight either - well, maybe 5 pounds or so.

I started another lacy scarf. This is the same pattern as the rose Rowan Silk Haze I made a few months ago. The pattern is easy - only one lace row in every four. This is a good project for traveling because it's on circular plastic needles and there's no problem taking it on a flight.

I'm going to Minnesota to see S3 and his family over the Fourth of July weekend, and this will be coming with me. I wanted to get a small head start on it so I could get the pattern memorized again before I leave. I'm taking a ball of colorful yarn, some needles, and an easy pattern for a headband, and maybe the grand-girls will knit with me. I also hope to get up to Excelsior for an hour or two to do some antiquing. Big doings in that area last weekend - the LPGA US Open was held on a golf course not too far from S3's house.

Butterflies and Socks

This is the lace butterfly made for me by D2 for Mom's Day. I have mounted it on a piece of floral tapestry and framed it in an embroidery hoop, and it hangs in my bathroom. The tapestry actually looks better in person, and why is it the butterfly looks off-center in the picture when it looked perfectly straight when I framed it. Must be the camera.... I love it, and it looks perfect on my trellis wallpaper.

I have made a sock! This is the first sock I've knitted since I made a pair of argyles for my first husband about 45 years ago (yes, really, and I think he wore them once.) It was fun knitting with the variegated yarn, and now I have to make another one. I think everybody is getting socks for Christmas. Family, beware of the dreaded Sock-Grammie!

Vermont Ferry

This past weekend Hubster and I drove (well, he drove) up to Vermont - almost to the Canadian border) to visit with his daughters. I took my camera, but forgot to take pictures. The only pictures I took were on the ferry ride across Lake Champlain from Vermont to New York. Here they are. It was an absolutely beautiful day - sunny, breezy, warm.

We made a few stops along the way so I could shop for antiques. I could have stayed longer in Hudson, NY, but Hubster was hungry and didn't like any of the cafes that we saw in the antiques/art district of Warren Street. We got home in time to watch the last few holes of the US Open - there is a playoff today between Tiger (who else) and Rocco Mediate (he's really cute, but it's such a silly name).

At the Knitting Guild meeting on Thursday, I won about 20 magazine issues in the raffle, and managed to scan through almost all of them on the drive. I tore out the patterns and articles I wanted to save (quite a few, actually), and tossed the rest. I'm not in "save everything" mode anymore. I also did a few more inches on the peach scarf, and helped Hubster's daughter with her knitting project too. She's a passionate knitter, and it's fun to share the passion. I gave his other daughter the "Learn to Knit" I won at the KG auction - we'll see if that catches fire with her.

Not Much New

I still haven't started the Sunrise Circle Cardigan that I bought the beautiful Debbie Bliss yarn for. I think it's because I still want to have it to look forward to. In the meantime, I'm through with the knitting for the pink linen tank top. I have to sew the side and shoulder seams, and crochet an edging around the armholes and neckline. Maybe tonight while watching Antiques Roadshow. This is what it looks like so far.

Since I'm procrastinating this tank top sewing, I started a scarf for a Christmas present. My friend Beth loved this color when she saw me making afghan squares for Warm Up America with it, so I set it aside for a scarf for her. The pattern is from Debbie Macomber's knitting booklet that corresponds to her novel "A Good Yarn". It's called Vera's scarf, a character in the book.

And here's a picture of our condo lawn with the grass finally starting to come in. Hubster is out watering everywhere almost every day - luckily we've had quite a few days of rain lately so he's gotten a break. He's the condo association president so he has taken on the responsibility of grass growth maintenance. Very few of the other 23 owners have a sprinkler/hose or the desire to water their own patch of lawn - they're happy to let someone else do it. You can see a hose in the picture below, and the rhodendrons are in bloom.

I know that's why people buy condos - so they won't have to do maintenance - but a few others (like me) have small gardens and still love to get out and dig. I'm very happy today to see that my peonies popped into bloom overnight.

And finishing off with a view of the hostas I planted all down the side of our unit. Big ones, small ones, all shades of green and white. This gets shade almost all day, and the hostas love it here.