Beer, Brats, and Lil Belgians - Tacchino CX weekend

This weekend was the Tacchino Cyclocross race organized and sponsored by Squadra Coppi, Mr. T's bike team. The race was a lot of fun for the whole family.

The weather was gorgeous, 75 and sunny. There was live music.


There was interesting food.



I had a brat, with mustard and sauerkraut, yum.

There was a turkey ("tacchino" means turkey).


Oh, yeah. There was some racing, too.

Mr. T did well in his race. He not only came in 4th overall, but he won a 6-pack of tasty Belgian beer made in Upstate New York for being in second place on one of the laps. Other prizes in races included sausages, bacon, and a Tofurkey. The first person who won the Tofurkey "donated" it back to the race to be given out to someone else. I don't know if they ever managed to give it away.


That's Mr. T next to the turkey (James).

Sr. Jr. did the 10-14 race, which went out just behind the women's races. The top junior racers, Sr. Jr. included, would have placed very well in the women's field. They overtook a good portion of the women's field, which I found interesting, because there are some VERY strong women racing. Sr. Jr. took second in his race. He and the first place finisher came in way ahead of the rest of the junior field.






Things are even more fun at the Jr. Jr. level. Two of his buddies from school (in his class, even) both race, too. One races because his dad is on Mr. T's team, but the other just likes to race and his parents are happy to cart him around to races. So we all hang and have fun, and the boys have a blast. D (from the non-racing family) usually comes in first in the group, then Jr. Jr., then C. (from the racing family). But they all have a great time and support each other.






Well, I can't remember the last time I got any serious knitting done. However, the one thing that cyclocross riders and knitters have in common?


A thing for funky socks :)

Cresting the Hill

I have a real love-hate relationship with this time of year. I love it because of the weather, the leaves, the back to school activities, and the sense that a whole new year is open to us. I hate it because every year it goes so quickly. Each year it seems to go faster, too. Halloween seems to me to be the crest of the hill. Everything's fun, everything's beautiful, everyone's excited for Halloween....



And then we wake up and it's November, and before we know it Thanksgiving is here and then Chanukah, Christmas, New Year's, and before I know it, I feel like half the school year has gone by in the blink of an eye.

It doesn't help that one of my favorite holidays, Thanksgiving, has morphed into my least-favorite holidays over the last few years. I don't look forward to it, and I miss how it used to be.

This year I will try not to place so much weight on the holidays and just enjoy each day. Maybe that will help.

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The boys did not participate in any bike races this last weekend! Incredible, I know. So we took the time to cross some things off our house to-do list. We've been mulling over what we can do to the family room to make it more comfortable and welcoming. Do we get a bigger, L-shaped couch? Do we add more chairs? Do we rearrange everything?

We found a great big, leather L shaped couch, one that will hold me, my knitting stuff and every other member of the family. It's very comfy, not hideously ugly, and has serious snuggle potential. I can't wait for it to arrive.

Once we had done that, we decided to decide where to hang some of our artwork. We got some great stuff at one of the local art shows, but couldn't quite settle on where to hang it. Now they're up on the walls and looking good.

To top it all off, I finally decided on some window treatments for the living room and dining room and got those all ordered.

It's only been 5 years since the remodel. Do you think we moved too quickly?

And yes, all that decorating meant little time for knitting. I started the liner for the Fiddlehead Mittens. Here you can see how it's attached and being knit from the bottom of the mitten:


Here's a view of the whole thing:


Here's some pretty yarn:


This is the Plucky Knitter, merino/cashmere/nylon sport weight in Flannel Shimmy.


Plucky Knitter, again, in Honey Wilkes.


Wollmeise, in Jeton.

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Today is the big gubernatorial election here in Virginia. Virginia is an odd state, with city centers that tend to be pretty liberal and rural areas that are very, very conservative. As the population of the city centers has grown and pushed outward, the electoral face of the state has changed. The last two governors were very well-regarded Democrats and Virginia's electoral delegates went to Obama in 2008.

It would have seemed that the Democrats had a fair chance of holding onto the governorship, but a hard-fought primary left us with a pretty unappealing candidate. Creigh Deeds isn't very dynamic or exciting. He's run a terrible campaign. I see three McDonnell ads for every once Creigh Deeds ad. The Republican opponent, Robert McDonnell, is a hard-line Christian conservative wearing sheep's clothing. I remember his past campaigns and his mailings, and they're very different than what he's trying to portray himself as this time around. So, while I voted for Deeds, it wasn't with any sense that I want him to be my governor. It was more that I really don't want McDonnell to be.

Pundits on the right are trying hard to paint this election as some kind of referendum or harbinger on the Obama presidency. Nonsense. If Creigh Deeds loses this election, it's not because people are upset or unhappy about the Obama presidency. It's because Creigh deeds was a terrible candidate who ran a terrible campaign.

It's times like these that I'm thankful for Virginia's odd law limited governors to a single term.

And Now For Something Completely Different

I've briefly abandoned my other projects. Briefly. That's all.

Several weeks ago, the book Haapsalu Sall arrived here. It's an Estonian lace book. In Estonian. The lovely Annejeanne (Anneli) arranged to have the book sent to a bunch of us here in the States, working with the European publisher to get them out in batches to middlemen here. It was Ravelry in action at its best.

Not only did Anneli spearhead the purchase and shipment of the books, but she's also undertaken to translate it for us. Anneli translates for a living, but this was just for us, an amazingly generous thing to do.

Luckily, the lace is in chart form and the chart symbols are translated into English in the book, so I had to knit a couple of little swatches of these lovely patterns:


Here's a close-up of the crappy looking unblocked swatch:


It's been a while since I knit with fine laceweight yarn so it took a bit of adjusting. But it's making me want to knit lace again, and not just swatches.

Since I finished my Candy Goth plain stockinette socks, I had to cast on for another pair of plain stockinette socks:


This is OhMyGoth!, the cashmere version of Gothsocks, in Business Time. The cashmere makes the socks sooooo soft, and the grey is gorgeous.

And Now For Something Really Familiar

Bike races, of course. This weekend was the DC Cyclocross race, which is unfortunately the same weekend as the Marine Corps Marathon. This means it's very difficult to get from our house to the race site because of all the road closures.

All three boys raced. Mr. T came in 7th in his race (out of 125), Sr. Jr. came in 2nd in his, and Jr. Jr. came in third, behind his good buddy D. Here are some pictures. Apparently it was really muddy from all the rain on Saturday.

First up, soccer -- Jr. Jr.'s team lost again, but Jr. Jr. had a couple of spectacular saves in goal:


Here's Jr. Jr. with his buddy D (between school, soccer, Sunday School, and bike races, they see each other every day) at the start of their race:


And during the race:


And some Sr. Jr.:


The guy on the end is 14, as tall as Mr. T, and racing in the wrong age group, so unfortunately, he got disqualified.





And some pretty Fall foliage:

Look! Another FO!

OK, so it's only a pair of socks, and a pair I started way back in August at that:


These were my "waiting room" socks - the ones I knit in waiting rooms and in carpool lines. Plain stockinette, toe-up, short row heel. The yarn is Rainy Days and Wooly Dogs' Gothsocks, in the Candy Mountain colorway. This yarn is great for plain stockinette mindless socks because it's self-striping. I've already cast on for my next pair of waiting room socks in OhMyGoth! Socks (same as regular Gothsocks, but with cashmere, yum). The colorway is Business Time, black and grey. I will cast on for those when I finish this post.

My other projects are in about the same place they were when I last wrote, since I haven't had too much knitting time.

Yesterday was the big Ellis Island Demonstration day at Sr. Jr.'s school. The kids developed identities, wore costumes, brought props, and acted their roles as they made their way through the immigrant experience, from getting on the boat:


to going through all the different stations at Ellis Island. They had "medical" exams, were evaluated for intelligence and job aptitude, etc. Some kids had to get innoculations. Some girls were pregnant or carrying their babies. Some kids had to face an appeals board and some were even deported!


The kids were great. They really got into character, talking in accents, telling their stories, etc. Sr. Jr. was Klaus Mullerstup, a young man from Germany whose mother died in childbirth. He had little schooling because he was "drafted" into the army when he was about 9 years old. He had to go through the appeals process because officials worried that he wasn't educated enough.




I worked in the "Welcome to America" section, so I missed most of the fun stuff, but I enjoyed seeing the kids and how much work they put into this project.

On the reading front, I recently finished The Girl Who Played With Fire, the follow-up book to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which I read last year. Both were very good (gory, violent, but good), but the second one was even better than the first, in my opinion. They're not deep literature, but they are several steps above your standard mystery books. The author died shortly after the first book was published, but had the second and a third already completed at the time.

After a Terry Pratchett palate cleanser (Unseen Academicals - as always, enjoyable on many levels), I've started Audrey Niffenegger's new book, Her Fearful Symmetry. I'm not very far into it at this point, but I'm already reminded of how much I love her writing.

And now, since today is an early release day for Sr. Jr. (home at noon), I'm going to go cast on for those new socks.

Fall Color

I like to mix up my knitting so that I don't get into a rut. A spate of shawls will be followed by a sweater or two. Cables follow colorwork. Plain socks are always on the needles for waiting times. Every now and then I throw in a plain sweater as a palette cleanser. This keeps things nice and fresh, so when I come back to a technique I have fun with it.

Right now that technique is colorwork. The colorwork I'm doing is small-canvas colorwork, too -- a pair of socks and the Fiddlehead Mittens. Colorwork seems to go more quickly for me than other knitting, maybe because there are definite goalposts to shoot for, like knitting until the next color change. But then I get mesmerized by the pattern developing in my hands and before I know it I almost have a pair of mittens:


I took this picture this morning and then went back to knitting, so I have even more done now. I love this pattern. First you knit these cute, colorful mittens, then you pick up stitches around the bottom and knit another mitten in the other direction, using a solid colored yarn. When you finish that mitten, you squoosh it up into the colorwork mitten, for an extra-warm double-layered mitten.

Speaking of colorwork, here's where I am with the Dark Isle socks:


These got pushed aside a bit while I focus on the mittens, but I'm anxious to get back to them. I love the pattern and I love how they feel on my feet.

I'm also still working on the Squoose merino/cashmere easy sweater. I've gotten to the point where I separate the arms from the body and start knitting them separately:


I'm still quite in love with the yarn. In fact, I bought a bunch of Squoosh's merino/cashmere sock yarn to make the Pas de Valse sweater from the last issue of Twist Collective:


It's pink! With grey, but still pink! I'm moving out of my dark-color zone with this one, but I think it will look nice. I'll start that after I finish the pullover and the sooper seekrit knitting which is on hold until I receive the yarn.

But the Big News here in the T household (at least for the female member of the household) is this:


Dun Dun DUN! Yup, I took the plunge and got a sewing machine. I'm scared of it. It's intimidating. I mostly got it for steeking sweaters, but I do intend to learn how to use this on some small projects (for now). My immediate goal is to make myself an apron. I don't know why, it just seems like a good first project. Kippi has been graciously sharing her extensive sewing expertise with me via pm on Ravelry. I wish I knew someone around here who sews.

I plan to go to G St. Fabrics later this week to pick up some essentials and give this baby a test-drive. I will not, however, get into quilting. Nope.

In other family goings-on, the weekend was a big washout. It was actually a relief not to have soccer and tennis on Saturday, to be able to get some errands done and relax a bit.

On Sunday, Mr. T and Sr. Jr. went off to do a new cyclocross race out in Winchester, the Winchester Apple Harvest Cross race. Reports were that the course was nice, the race well-run, much fun was had by all, and they hope this becomes a regular part of the circuit. Mr. T broke his 11th streak by coming in 6th in his race, and Sr. Jr. won his race for the second week in a row. Congrats to both my guys!

Octoberfeast

The cooler weather always brings me a spurt of energy. I get lethargic in the heat, but a nice chill perks me right up. (Except first thing in the morning, when it's very hard to get out of the nice warm bed.) After I finished the Moses sweater, I started on the Dark Isle socks, picked up Aestlight II to keep working on, and cast on for a new sweater.

The Squoosh merino/cashmere worsted won the day. I'm just doing a basic top-down raglan sweater, simple, but comfortable. I love working on and wearing complicated sweaters, but it's also nice to have a good basic, both for the wardrobe and the knitting sanity. This yarn is soooooo soft and heavenly to knit with, and it softens up even more after a wash. This will truly be a comfort sweater:


I am almost at the point where I divide the body and the sleeves and start knitting them separately.

I've turned the heel on the first Dark Isle sock and am working my way up the leg. I'd show you a picture, but I don't have one yet. You'll have to wait until it's done. It looks fabulous and fits amazingly. I recommend this pattern highly.

But soon I will add another project to the list, since I got my Fiddlehead Mitten kit today:


The mittens are knit in a gorgeous swirly pattern with a plain knitted lining for extra warmth. My hands get very cold, very quickly, so another good pair of mittens will be great.

Wouldn't it be nice to have 27 hours in a day? Sometimes I wish I were a person who could get by on a lot less sleep, so I could get in some more time.

Family Life

We're back in full swing here after a lazy summer. The schedule is crazy, with piano, soccer, tennis, bike racing, Sunday School and N'Tivot. The only day we don't have things scheduled after school is Friday. It's crazy, but good. Jr. Jr. is really enjoying soccer. He's already asked if he can play again next Fall. He scored his first goal this weekend, too! He has the potential to be very good at this, since he's pretty quick on his feet and very aware of what's going on on the playing field. In bike racing news, Sr. Jr. took first place at Sunday's race, while Jr. Jr. took third in his, and Mr. T came in 11th, as always. I joked that he doesn't even need to race, they can just start penciling him in at 11th in every race.

I love Halloween, so when I stopped in at Party City the other day, I couldn't resist increasing the Halloween decorations stash. I'm going to wait until next week sometime to put them out, but we do need to get some pumpkins soon.

Jr. Jr. wants to go as Bon Jovi. Listening him sing "Living on a Prayer" is pretty frightening, I'll give him that.

Just Meh

I finished the Moses non-hoodie. All it needed was buttons and crochet loops. I went to Uniquities, bought some wooden buttons, sewed two on, and decided they didn't look good. Then I went to G St. Fabrics and got some more buttons. (Made the mistake of taking Jr. Jr. with me. He's a little magpie and kept asking for beads and buttons and candy corn fabric.)

Again, went home, sewed them on. Crocheted the loops. Ah, done. Went upstairs, put the sweater on and eeeeew. Didn't like it. The buttons and the loops looked awful. Decided that the sweater would look better without them, so I snipped them off. Better.


Yes, it would look better with a different shirt underneath. But I still don't love it. I've gained a few pounds in the middle and this sweater seems to highlight that. Now I feel fat and gross. Here's a picture that Sr. Jr. took:


Sigh.

At the moment I'm still working on the Dark Isle Socks. I've also picked up that second Aestlight that I started way back in August. I'm waiting for the yarn for a super secret project, but that won't take too long.

So what to knit next? I have several options. I could knit something using all that lovely MCN worsted I got. I could knit Pas de Valse using more Wollmeise. Or I could knit something using that nice bulky eco wool I got from Fibre Space.

So - (1) Squoosh worsted dark green simple sweater; (2) Pas de Valse, probably in Neptun (blue/teal) or Merlot (deep winey color); or (3) comfy sweater in lighter green eco wool?

Voting in the comments, please!

Progress!

I finished the knitting on the Moses sweater, finally. I bought some buttons, blocked it out, and it's long. My stitch gauge was right on, but my row gauge really changed, even though I washed my swatch and everything. I started sewing on the buttons and realized that I don't like them, so I have to run out to get more. I got the original set at Uniquities, but I think I'll go to G Street Fabrics next. They have a huge button selection. I'm holding off on trying it on until I have the buttons sewn on. Maybe I shouldn't wait. We'll see.

Meanwhile, some pics:


It doesn't look so great on the blocking board. I used the same yarn I used for my Aeslight Shawl as the contrast trim on a whim. I just thought it would add a little visual interest.

Since I was done with the sweater, I moved on the next project in the queue, the Dark Isle Socks that I linked to in the last post. This is a FUN project. It goes so quickly, because you just want to keep knitting to see the next color motif form.

I meddled with the pattern just a little, to account for the difference in gauge between the Wollmeise that I'm using and the Regia that the designer used in the pattern. On Saturday night I cast on and knit the toe, and then by the end of the day yesterday, I had this plus the heel turn (which I did after I took the picture):


Not the best picture, color-wise, but you get the idea of what the sock looks like. I love it.

Saturday was sports day. Sr. Jr. had his first day of actual matches in the county tennis program and he won both! One was singles, one was doubles. Jr. Jr.'s team lost another soccer game, but they looked sharper than they did in the last game, playing more aggressively and doing some actual passing. I think that they play better in the Saturday games than the weekday games, when they're tired after a long day of school. I remember this from baseball, too.

On Sunday, Sr. Jr. and Mr. T went to yet another cyclocross race. Sr. Jr. came in 3rd in his race, and Mr. T remains a consistent 11th. But there's some fun video, if I can get it to load properly.





And some more:




And more:




Yup, nutty sport.

So Much For That

Soooooo, I remember saying that I would try to blog more often. And then I disappeared, apparently. Truth is, I got the flu or something that knocked me out for about a week (while Mr. T was out of town, so I was still doing all the mom stuff on my own). I've been playing catch up, and now I can sit down and fill you all in.

In the midst of my ick, I did manage to work in my Moses Not-So-Hoodie. In fact, I just now bound off the last stitch. Here it is, in pieces, because I didn't want to wait any longer to blog:


Now I have to do all the seaming, the neck treatment, and the little button loops, and this is all the yarn I have left:


I think I will rip out my swatch and use that yarn for seaming and try to use this yarn for the neckband/button loops. The sweater, the swatches, and the little yarn ball total three skeins of Wollmeise. I have another skein of this yarn, but I have a sock pattern I want to use it for, so I'm hoping to squeak this sweater out without breaking into it. Wish me luck.

Even though I swatched, washed, measured, calculated and recalculated, I'm still worried about whether this sweater will fit properly. The sleeves look long, among other things, but I find that a lot of sweater patterns lately are a bit long, sleeve-wise.

To take a break from knitting a sweater on size 2 US needles, I'm going to knit a pair of socks on size 1.5 (I think). For these socks, the Dark Isle socks, I'm going to use black and Dornroschen, a pink/red mix:


I originally planned to use this combination, but then I thought I'd use the black with a blue yarn. After spending all this time knitting a blue sweater, however, I'd like to look at another color for a while.

I will also be working on the second Aestlight shawl, done in Sanguine Gryphon's Eidos yarn. I started this one back in August while we were on vacation, but I've been working almost exclusively on the Moses sweater since then.

Now that the weather is getting brisker (yay!), I want another sweater, too. I have two options for a nice warm sweater that I need to think about for a little while. Once is a beautiful dark green/blue merino/cashmere yarn from Squoosh:


(not a good photo, color-wise) Option two is some big, fluffy Eco-wool type stuff that I got at Fibre Space. Time will tell.

In news from the rest of my world, both boys are settling into their respective grades fairly well, as far as I can tell. Reports from Mrs. Meanie are that Jr. Jr. "wants to answer every question I ask and sometimes gets frustrated when I don't call on him. I love his enthusiasm."

Jr. Jr. is playing soccer this Fall, after years of refusing to play. I think he could be a pretty good soccer player. He's quick on his feet and pretty nimble, but he hasn't had the years of play that other kids have had. Nonetheless, he seems to be doing pretty well. His team, apparently, stinks. They've had one game, they were blown out, but Jr. Jr. was the only one who almost scored. Too bad almost doesn't count :)



Sr. Jr. is doing the Saturday afternoon tennis round robin, and he's still bike racing, of course. On Sunday, he took second place in the 10-14 race at the Ed Sanders Memorial Cyclocross race. (For fun: if you Google "Ed Sanders Cyclocross" you can see video of some of the races, including helmet cam video. I believe Mr. T is in some of those.)



Jr. Jr. did the Little Belgians race at Ed Sanders this weekend, but apparently was hobbled by an inferior bike, a circumstance that I'm sure Mr. T is already plotting to rectify.

And so, barring anymore unforeseen illnesses or calamities, I do plan to blog more often...

I'm Alive. Really

I'm here. I'm alive. I need to get back into the routine of posting here or I'll never get back into it.

The end of the summer was nice, with golf camp and hanging out. Jr. Jr. got the teacher with the worst reputation in the school in terms of homework and hard-assedness, so we'll see how that goes. So far, so good. She's very nice in person, but he likes to talk a lot, so I hope he doesn't spend a lot of time getting yelled at. This is kind of a funny picture of him, looking apprehensive as he waits for the bus on the first day of school:


Sr. Jr. seems to be doing fine, too. Seventh grade is old news. He's used to the whole middle school scene now. He will be trying out for the tennis team tomorrow afternoon, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for him. He'll also be playing in the local Fall tennis league here in Arlington. Jr. Jr. will have soccer three days a week, too, so it'll be a task to coordinate.

I've been rapt, watching the matches at the US Open. Great tennis this year, and great stories -- Kim Clijsters? Love it! Since we saw Del Potro play here in Washington over the summer, we feel a personal connection with the finals this year.

I just finished a wonderful book, A Gate at the Stairs, by Lorrie Moore. She is one of my favorite writers, someone who can layer theme upon theme, meaning upon meaning, and make silly yet deep puns while doing it. The book has a big gut-punch in it, too, which I won't discuss in case Sharon hasn't gotten there yet.

But one of the parts that really stuck with me (and I'm not discussing much of the plot here) was when Tassie discovered that her boyfriend was not at all who she thought he was. She said to him something to the effect of "All of your rage and all of your anger... the world is so much smaller than you think it is, and so much bigger than you think it is." That's so very true, no matter what the source of your anger or sadness or worry, isn't it? I won't get all philosophical on you, since Sr. Jr. is on his way home.

Now that school has started again, I'm trying to get back into the exercise routine and the knitting routine. Doing one, however, means doing less of the other. But I'm happy to get my butt moving again.

This morning Mr. T consented to stay home and get the kids ready for school so I could get out early. I left the house at about 6:45 and enjoyed a nice, long and hilly walk. About a mile from home I saw two foxes frolicking with each other, just playing and tumbling along. Very cute. At the end of the walk, coming up to cross Lee Highway (a very busy main street), I saw a guy riding a unicyle up the street in the middle of rush hour traffic. Never dull.

The knitting is going. I've finished the back and front of my non-hoodie sweater, and have started the sleeve. Here's the front (before it was finished):


And here's the sleeve:


The sad thing is that I actually do have a lot to say, just not enough time to say it in, you know? Maybe when things settle into their routine I'll post more substantive crap.

Summer Slowdown

I know I haven't been blogging as much this summer. There's a lot going on and nothing going on, and I often feel like I have nothing interesting to share. Vacations are good, but there are only so many vacation pictures I can put up! Knitting slows down a lot in summer, too. Once school starts, I bet I'll have more things to post about and more time to post, too.

One part of our vacation that I didn't talk about in the series of vacation posts was our family kayaking trip. We didn't bring our camera along, for fear it would get wet, so it didn't go into the picture-heavy post. We went out with a guide and several other kayaks full of people. Mr. T and Jr. Jr. went in one kayak (therefore, Mr. T did all the paddling), and Sr. Jr. and I were in another. It was a lot of fun, but got even better when a pod of dolphins decided to hang out with us. We saw 3 and sometimes even 5 dolphins. They played with us for about half of our trip. They'd surface near us -- sometimes it felt like they were close enough to touch -- and then swim a little bit away for us to follow. It was really magical :)

Now we are home. I'm watering the new plantings and taking the kids to golf camp. The transplanted veggies are doing pretty well. I planted more broccoli, pea, and lettuce seeds, and they're all popping up quite nicely. The Roma and grape tomatoes and pole beans are producing yummies for salads:


Absolutely delicious. I think we're spoiled for supermarket tomatoes now. When we were on vacation, we got a pack of grape tomatoes from the supermarket and Sr. Jr. complained about how tasteless they were compared to the ones from our garden. Very true.

In knitting, I've finished the back of the Moses non-hoodie sweater and started the front. Knitting on size 2 needles is pretty slow, but I'm cooking along now. I did a lot of the re-designing and tweaking on the fly while I was knitting the back, but now that all the details are worked out, the front should go quickly. When I get a chance to knit, that is:


Here's a close-up of the diamond pattern:


I used all that driving time to work on the Gothsocks. I finished the first and started the second, which now awaits a short-row heel:


Last, and apparently least, I did get a little bit done on the second Aestlight Shawl:


I can't wait for school to start again, so I can do more complicated projects. On the other hand, I have a lot of things that I've been putting off doing over the summer, like dentist's appointments, eye appointments, and so on, so who knows?

Hilton Head, Part 3, with Sharks!

Friday of our trip was Sr. Jr.'s 12th birthday, so his present was a fishing trip with his father and brother (I bowed out of this one). Here's the birthday boy with the bait fish:



Little brother, psyched to go fishing again:




The first catch, a Bonnet head shark:


Jr. Jr. caught one, too.







Dad got in on the shark-catching action, too.



Jr. Jr. caught the big one of the day. It was almost as tall as he is. He as a bit scared of it, apparently.



Everyone had a great time. All sharks were thrown back to live another day.

The drive home was pretty long and painful, with traffic in North Carolina and the usual black hole of driving between Richmond and Fredericksburg. But we were welcomed home with a rainbow :)


Glad to be home, but the usual grind awaits.

Coming soon -- actual knitting and new landscaping! No more white trash yard.

Hilton Head, Part 2

Here we are at the fireworks that are held every Tuesday evening. Straight from the beach, so no makeup, still with the sunscreen, hair up, looking very au naturel:


Golf action shots! Here's Sr. Jr., chipping onto the green:

This is my favorite, a golf-mag worthy action shot of Jr. Jr. hitting out of the sand:

The obligatory wildlife photos:


These are the Baynard ruins, the remains of a plantation that was destroyed during the Civil War. We biked up there and poked around. It was interesting, and strange to think of all that must have happened on that spot over the years:


This is the pool at the house we were staying at:


These are a bunch of pics from our evening walk on the beach when the tide was up waaay high and very wild, perhaps from Hurricane Bill way out in the ocean:










Stay tuned for part 3, which has sharks!

Hilton Head, Part 1

I have a ton of pictures to post from our Hilton Head trip, so I'm going to break this up into several different posts. This one covers the first couple of days of the trip. Not all of the pictures will have captions.

Here's an early golf trip, with Jr. Jr. addressing the ball:




Gator!


This is where our house was, according to the GPS in the car -- you can see how close to the beach we were:




An early morning bike ride on the beach. The sand is very hard-packed, so riding on the beach is easy and fun.


Boogie boards!


Golf can be tiring, apparently.


Always a goofball :)

The One Thing I Forgot to Pack

We are here in Hilton Head after a relatively uneventful 9 hour drive. The nice thing about driving is that I can pack more to take with us than if we were flying. So I remembered my tea, my laptop, the mouse for my laptop for when I'm stalking Wollmeise and don't want to rely on my iffy touchpad, and all the DVDs for the car. I packed three different knitting projects, some of which are good for working on in the car, and one of which requires more concentration, plus all the little implements that go along with the knitting. I've got the Kindle and the current issue of the New Yorker. Sunscreen? Check. Toothpaste, floss and everyone's brushes? Yup. Bathing suits, flip flops, beach towels and boogie/skim boards. Golf clubs and bike helmets, too.

But the one little, teeny, tiny thing that I forgot? The cord that connects the camera to the laptops, so that I can't download pictures and upload them to the blog.

I'm sorry. I know wordy posts without pictures aren't fun, so tune back in next week for more interesting entries.

But -- Happy Birthday today to my darling husband, and on Friday to Senior Junior, who turns 12, and can finally call shotgun.

Summer Blahs

It's that time of the summer when the novelty has worn off. It's hot, it's humid, there's not much to do. The kids are home, bickering and whining. There's practically no knitting.

But there's some fun stuff going on. Last week the kids and I got out the ice cream maker and made banana ice cream. It was yum. I like making ice cream -- it's not too difficult, we can pick our own flavors, and it's all natural. I used 1% milk and half and half instead of whole milk and light cream, so it wasn't as fatty as regular ice cream, but still very rich. Here it is, a bit brightly, in the machine:


And in the bowl:


On Friday I took the kids down to Old Town Alexandria for lunch and a little side trip to the new yarn store, Fibre Space (very cute). It was a gorgeous day, in the low 70s with no humidity. As we walked down the street, I talked about what a perfect day it was, weatherwise. Jr. Jr. piped up, saying it was too hot. His preferred temperature range is apparently between 58 and 62 degrees. Sr. Jr. complained that it was way too cold and he didn't like it. Very Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

On Saturday we went to the Legg Mason tennis tournament. I like this tournament, though I question the wisdom of holding a tennis tournament in Washington in August, when the heat and humidity can reach really oppressive levels. The venue is small enough that you have great views of the game and the players. In early rounds, players are very sweet about signing autographs, too. You can walk out onto the practice courts and watch some yummy tennis players practicing, shirtless:


I thought about telling Mr. T to take the kids into the arena and leaving me to watch the shirtless action :)

We saw the del Potro/Gonzales match, the south of the border attraction. Lots of Chilean and Argentinean fans in the audience, rooting for their men. It was very, very hot, and both players had just flown in from South America, where it's winter now. It was clear they were not used to the heat. The first set was a tight race that ended in a tiebreaker, but it was clear in the second set that Gonzales was finished. After a display of temper in the first set (he threw his racket in the first game and broke it), he lightened up and became a bit silly when he realized he didn't have it in him to fight for the match.

At one point he fell down and stayed down. When del Potro went to the net to see how he was doing, he feebly raised a hand, asking for help. del Potro climbed over the net to help him up. It was cute. In an interview after the match, del Potro admitted to a fleeting wish to just lie down with Gonzales, but realized if he did that, they wouldn't get up and finish the match.

I just wrote a lot of words to say that there's nothing much to show you knitting-wise. I have done a bit more on my Moses sweater, but I'd like to be a little further along before I show you a new picture. I'm planning my vacation knitting, however. We have a 9 hour car ride, so I need something easy. I'm going to bring the Gothsocks, but I'm also going to cast on for another Aestlight Shawl, this time using Sanguine Gryphon's Eidos yarn, in the Alcibiades colorway (link because I'm too lazy to take a picture for you, sorry). The garter stitch triangle at the start is great car knitting. Those two and the Moses sweater will come with me to South Carolina. Is that enough?

One last thought: I'm totally jealous of everyone who got to go to Sock Summit this year. It sounds like it was Woodstock for knitters, between the classes, the people (Barbara Walker!!), and the market. I had some really generous Rav-friends shopping for me in the market, some as their end of swap deals, and some out of the kindness of their hearts. I asked for more Gothsocks, because I love the yarn and it's so hard to get in her updates. I've heard from some of them with what they got me and I'm thrilled :) Pictures to follow, someday. But I am truly grateful that Ravelry has so many kind people who do these things for their fellow knitters. I hope I can do the same for others someday.

Waiting Rooms (Tim Burton Club spoiler warning)

I've spent a lot of time in waiting rooms recently. Nothing bad - a car inspection here, a child's dentist appointment there, a check on a possibly punctured tire. That's a good amount of sock knitting time, to turn something boring into something good.

Here's my latest sock, a plain toe-up stockinette sock in GothSocks Candy Mountain. I love these yarns in the skein, but this is my first time knitting it up. I love it! It knits up very nicely, soft and sproingy, with lovely stripes:


It's actually a bit longer than that now, after this morning's waiting room stint.

The dyer has a sock club going right now based on Tim Burton movies, and I'm so glad I signed up for this. I liked last month's installment, and this month's, based on Sweeney Todd, is fantastic! It's called How About a Shave? and avert your eyes if you don't want spoilers:


I love how it looks like it's had blood dripped on it. I've got a couple of very sweet Ravelers shopping her booth at Sock Summit for me, too :)

Also on the knitting front, I've cast on for a sweater using some dark blue Wollmeise (Moses). I must be some kind of crazy to be knitting a sweater on size 2 US needles at 7 stitches per inch, especially since I've had to do a lot of math and adjustments to get it to work for the sweater pattern I'm using. It's the Soft Linen Hoodie by Pam Allen:


I'm making it without the hood, because hoods annoy me. I'm also adding a small garter stitch border on the bottom -- you see how the model is holding down the bottom edge of the sweater? I don't want mine to roll up. I thought about doing a stockinette hem, but I didn't think it would work very well with the lace pattern.

Here's mine, as it stands this morning:


We'll see how long this takes me!

The raised veggie bed is in, and I transplanted a bunch of our veggie plants. The broccoli was finished, but I planted some more seeds, which are already sprouting. The grape tomatoes seem to have adjusted pretty well. We got our first red Roma tomato, too! No more bottom rot. The cutest of all is the yellow peppers, which are starting to turn orange:


I love having this bed. This year is obviously not going to create some great harvest (especially since something keeps eating the pole beans), but we'll be up and ready for next year. Sr. Jr. and I have great plans for next summer.

This week and next we are hanging out and relaxing, getting ready for our trip back to Hilton Head Island. This year we're driving, so we can take more stuff. We're staying in the same house we stayed in last year, which was in a really beautiful location, right off the beach. The boys have plans to golf and fish, and one day we'll take a family kayak trip, too. I can't wait!