Vacation, All I Ever Wanted

Here we are in Hilton Head. No more baseball, little work, little (well, no) knitting.

Sr. Jr. had his final all star game on July 4th. They lost, but Sr. Jr. got a hit and scored, so he was happy. Overall, though, we were disappointed in this experience. The coach ended up putting Sr. Jr. in a position where he's weakest (outfield) and completely ignored his biggest strength, pitching. I don't think either of us would have minded that he wasn't pitching if we could see that he was not as good as the kids who were pitching. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The head coach let practically every other kid on the team pitch, except for Sr. Jr. We thought that this might have been because he was the only kid on the team who was not on the two winning-est (yes, I know it's not a real word) teams in the league (the Yankees and the Red Sox, natch). Another dissatisfied parent mentioned that a lot of the more favored kids were also on the head coach's basketball teams. Whatever the reason, it was a disapointment -- not because I'm some mom who has to see her pwecious widdle pookums pitch, but because it would have been in the team's best interest. I think some of the assistant coaches wondered what was going on as well.

It's been nice to leave that behind and just have fun. We stopped off in Savannah to see Mr. T's sister and her family before heading out to the island. They'll join us here for a day or two later in the week.

This morning, Mr. T took Jr. Jr. out to the beach early, while Sr. Jr. and I slept. While they were out there, there was a brief rainshower leading to another double rainbow.



Maybe he's part leprechaun.

I took the opportunity to go for a nice long walk on the beach. Four + miles, barefoot. It felt good, but the soles of my feet definitely felt a bit raw.

Here's a shot of the kids playing nicely together:



For a while, a porpoise gamboled about in the water near where they were playing. It went too fast for us to get a good picture of it. Finally, here's a shot of Sr. Jr., looking contemplative:



Tomorrow afternoon, the guys are supposed to go play some golf, so maybe I'll get a chance to pick up the knitting needles for the first time in over a week! I can't remember the last time I went this long without any significant knitting. I admit, it's been making me a bit crazy.

Before we left I did get the new Knitter's. While it wasn't quite as craptacular as the last issue, it certainly was full of suck. I think they need to retire the "Knitter's Design Team" and their obsession with strapless, two piece dreck.

What I really need to get my hands on is the latest issue of Piecework. Hopefully I can do that before my vacation is over.

Baseball is a Cruel Mistress

All-Star season has begun. The kids have practice for 2 1/2 hours each day, twice on Saturday. They've played two games already, against Vienna, Virginia and Great Falls, Virginia. They lost the first 15-0 and the second 10-0. Not a single kid made it on base in the first game. Ouch. Poor Sr. Jr. has gone from being the star of his team -- starting pitcher, infielder, power hitter -- to being the bottom half outfielder. He hasn't pitched yet (which is a shame, because he's better than some of the kids they've got pitching). His self-confidence went from as high as I've seen it at the end of the regular season to down in the dumps. Luckily, he's not threatening never to play baseball again. Here he is right before the first game:

There was, of course, a thunderstorm in the middle of the game. We waited out the storm for over half an hour to finish the game. The park had a misting station set up because it was so hot. Jr. Jr. availed himself of the misting station before AND after the storm, when he was already soaking wet:

The coaches tell me that these other Little Leagues sometimes wriggle around some of the rules in order to make their all-star teams better. Each area's Little League has two divisions, a National League and an American League. Players are supposed to be selected by a straight draft situation, so that no team has a concentration of the better players. At the end of the season, the coaches choose the all-star players from all the teams, who then come together and practice for the all-star tournament. This is the way it works in Arlington. Sometimes random things happen, and one league is better than the other. This year, the league that Sr. Jr. is in is clearly better than the other (the other all-star team lost their game 20-0). But the other locales supposedly choose their all-star team at the beginning of the season, and put all those kids together on one team. Then, at the end of the season, that whole team is "chosen" as the all-star team. Thus, those teams have had the benefit of playing together all season long, as opposed to the week and a half that Arlington's team has been together. Arlington also has the disadvantages of being 1) a small county compared to the others; and b) split into two different leagues (LL and Babe Ruth), so the talent pool is somewhat diluted.

The last game that Sr. Jr. will be playing in will be on July 4th. I'll be glad when this is over. I think he's learned an awful lot, but I'm not sure whether it was all good, or what the long-term results will be for him.

Unfortunately, my predictions that this will be a virtually knit-free summer seem to be coming true. In all of last week, I managed to knit two (2) rounds on the Fleece Artist sock and 1 1/2 (1.5) rows on the Star of Evening shawl. Mr. T was supposed to do stuff with the kids yesterday, in part to make up for being gone a lot this week, including all day and most of the evening Saturday at a bike race, but that didn't happen.

I hear the Summer Knitter's Magazine will be out soon, and I hear it's going to be just as bad as the last one. What a waste.

P.S. Happy Birthday, Sharon!

Scenes from a Summer

School's out. The kids don't have any camp scheduled until the third week in July, so right now our time is spent either at baseball practice or the pool.

Monday evening's practice started under an ominous looking sky. I decided to stick around, reasoning that if I left, as soon as I got home, the storms would start and I'd have to turn right back around. Storms did start, but the team took refuge under an overhang near the tennis courts until it blew by. The boys reviewed their signs with the coach until the lightning had passed. It started to rain again after practice resumed. More lightning... Coach kept playing... more lightning... kept playing... finally, after everyone got a quick turn at bat, Coach ended practice early, just as a beautiful double rainbow appeared.

Unfortunately, the storms that led to that rainbow also led to this:

This house is around the corner from us, near the kids' bus stop. An older couple lives there. I haven't been able to find out if they're ok. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the tree inside the house through the upstairs window. Neighbors say that the tree fell (taking out two others on its way down) after all the storms had cleared out of the area. Jr. Jr. has developed a bit of a fear of thunderstorms after all we and our friends have been through in the past month, so I avoided this area at all costs until the tree had been cleaned up.

We've been hitting the pool for a few hours every afternoon. The pool club is about 1/2 mile from our house, so we can walk or ride our bikes if we want. So many families in the area belong to the club that we're virtually guaranteed to run into a couple of friends whenever we go.

Yesterday we ran into Sr. Jr.'s friend J., who doesn't go to school with him, but was on his last baseball team. We don't see them much during the year, but see them often during the summer. Every year, the two pick up exactly where they left off, as if they'd only seen each other last week. J. will be going to the same middle school as Sr. Jr., which will be fun.

Today, in an effort to allow the older boys some more freedom and independence, J.'s mom and I allowed them to meet up by themselves at the pool. (We met up at the pool not long after to catch up ourselves, of course.)

Yesterday while the boys were playing at the pool, the loudspeaker squawked and the announcer came on and said, "Attention! It is now 3:30. It is time for all members of the Dive Team to meet out in the front parking lot to throw water balloons at each other and eat candy!"

Sometimes I feel like I'm living in 1956. Just with less knitting.

And So it Begins

Summer, that is.

Sr. Jr. had *three* 2 1/2 hour baseball practices this weekend. It's a pretty grueling schedule, but luckily the weather's been nice. In between practices there was pool time. Today is grunt work day (laundry, shopping, etc.), so the boys have been fighting over Wii, fighting over the rules of the board games they've played, fighting over who sits where and whose feet are touching whose... you get the picture.

I did manage to finish the sixth chart repeat of my Star of Evening shawl, but I haven't taken any pictures because they'd all look the same. I also started the second of my Thelonious socks. I know; I'm a fickle sock knitter. I wasn't quite willing to rip out what little I've done of the STR socks, hoping to get back to them later. The design looks nice, but it's not something I like knitting all that much. Perhaps if the yarn were more inspiring to me I'd stick with it, but with so little knitting time, I'm going to stick with things that make me happy. Thus, the Thelonious socks.

Tomorrow, Sr. Jr.'s practice is at a field at the other end of the county. It has a decent playground, so instead of driving all the way down there any back twice, I may bring along the Fleece Artist sock I started and let Jr. Jr. play through the practice. It will depend partly on the weather, of course.

A final word in memory of George Carlin, who died last night, soon after being named as this year's Mark Twain prize recipient. In many ways, Carlin represented some of the big changes of the 20th century. He went from performing in a suit with short hair to his long-haired "Seven Dirty Words" phase to his later, relatively more sedate, observational style. Along the way he smashed through a lot of taboos and paved the way for some great comedians, as well as a host of mediocre imitators who confused foul-mouthed with funny.

I've been wondering lately about the comedy circuit and the state of stand-up today. There don't seem to be as many good, stand-out comedians as there used to be. Why is that? Am I just not watching enough late night television to see them? Is it that many comedians migrate to television and movies these days? Is most of the stand-up talent being used on the "Daily Show"/Colbert juggernaut?

Really good comedians used to make waves. Some made legal precedent, like George Carlin and Lenny Bruce. Remember Steve Martin back in the day? Andy Kaufman singing "Mighty Mouse"? Roseanne Barr's Domestic Goddess?

I think we need a good breakout comic right about now.

Scenes from the End of School

This was from today's pizza party -- a mad crush of fifth graders with sugar rushes:

Here's Jr. Jr., having fun in the sack race at the first grade picnic:

And in his usual position, surrounded by girls (the kid's a chick magnet):

Here's the goofy grad with the other T family menfolk. Sr. Jr. was not amused to have to dress up for graduation, but he looked very handsome!

This week has been a mad crush of activity, with fun and sadness. Most of the kids had a great time with all the activities, but a local 8th grader died suddenly over the weekend. A lot of our kids have older siblings who were friends with her. This has been a really tough year for our little community.

Jr. Jr. cried when he got off the bus today because he was sad that school was ending. ("This summer's going to be so boring!" he said on the way home from the bus stop. "I'm already bored!") I'm happy that he liked school so much. His teacher was new to the school and she was absolutely fantastic. I'm sorry that we won't be able to have her again.

Sr. Jr. is very ready to move on to middle school. Our elementary school splits off into two different middle schools. Luckily for Sr. Jr., most of his friends are going to his middle school.

Of course, they'll all see each other at camps and at the pool over the summer.

I, however, am not ready to be the mother of a middle school kid.

As for knitting, I've been averaging about two rows a day on the Star of Evening Shawl. Between the school activities and the baseball practice schedule, I haven't been home much. I'll have to make some progress soon or this blog will morph from Still Life with Yarn into Tales of a Suburban Madwoman.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Alas, not a very exciting birthday. It's the kids' last full day of school, and Sr. Jr.'s first day of practice for the all-star tournament. That's him in the middle of the picture above at the game on Saturday.

My birthday vow is to knit from stash this year. And none of this "sock yarn doesn't count as stash" crap, either. I hope I can do it. (I reserve the right to spend the $50 birthday check from my MIL on yarn, however.) (This also does not count the yarn that I've special-ordered, but hasn't arrived yet, because that was ordered back around Mother's Day.) (I reserve the right to reserve some more rights, too.)

Now to the sock yarn guessing game: My husband? The man who's lived with me for 17 years and knows me better than anyone? WRONG. Sorry, dude. I wanted to knit with a yarn I hadn't knit with for a while. Ikkinlala was close. She got the right brand, just the wrong colorway. So the prize (which consists solely of being right) goes to Kippi! I picked the Fleece Artist yarn that had a little pink in it.

The last Fleece Artist I knit with was a very light blend of yellows and ivories. It's been washed in warm water a few times, which may have caused the fading. The yarn is very soft, and the colors are pretty, so I'm going to give it another chance, only washing it in cold water this time. I'm not sure what, if any, pattern I'll add to this sock, only that it will be easy enough for me to do without any sort of chart. I want this to be my portable, mindless knitting, after all.

I know this is a short post, but since it IS my last bit of free time for a while, I'm going to go knit now :)

Talkative -- Knitting, Baseball, Literature

Warning -- I'm feeling verbose today.

Baseball Report

Yesterday was the Little League National vs American League intraleague All Star game. Three kids from each team were voted onto the two All Star teams by their teammates, so it was a nice honor. The game was full of Little League pomp and circumstance. The kids were announced by name, and they got to run out onto the field, grab a cool All Star hat, and line up on the baselines. The game itself wasn't too exciting, except for the storm blowing through in the middle. Officials hustled everyone into the parking garage to wait out an anticipated storm. The wind was whipping around, but there was no rain. After about 20 minutes, they called us back out to the field, at which point it started to pour. The kids managed to play one more inning in the rain until lightning shut it down. At the end of five innings, the score was tied at 3. Sr. Jr. was bummed because he was set to be the shut 'em down closing pitcher in the sixth inning.

He will also be on the interleague All Star team. This team is picked by the coaches. I'm not sure how many kids from each team make it, or if they just choose who they want. Sr. Jr. will have practice every day this week, and games start the week after. This is Serious Little League Competition here. He's very proud of himself!

Knitting

I continue working on the Star of Evening shawl. Even though the rows are getting longer, they go quickly because the pattern is easy to memorize and execute. I've finished almost 4 1/2 chart repeats so far.



Once again, I'm too lazy to straighten this picture out. Sorry.

Right now, I need to have an easy sock to knit. I like to have a plain stockinette or other easy sock going for those times when I'm too tired or don't have the time or energy to focus on something like a lace shawl. Easy socks are also good for bringing along to doctor's appointments and other out-of-the-house knitting occasions. The current STR club sock is too complicated to serve, so I went trolling through the sock yarn to see what I could find.

The question for you, dear readers, is which one will I choose, and why? Here are the contenders:

A slightly closer view:

On the left is Dream in Color Baby in Gothic Rose. Pluses: it's Dream in Color yarn, which I love, and the color is gorgeous. Minuses: It's Baby, and not Smooshy. Baby is their "laceweight," although it seems heavy for laceweight. Also, it's more of a Fall/Winter color. In the middle is Duet Skinny sock yarn in "Sailor Sky." It's pros include being a nice light weight and a more summery colorway. It's con is that I just knit some socks from this yarn very recently. On the right is Schaefer's Anne in an unnamed colorway of dark greys, browns, and black. Pros: I love Anne and haven't knit with it in a while. Cons: Mohair makes for warmer knitting in hot weather, plus colorway is definitely a cold-weather choice.



Here, next to the Anne on the left, we have Fleece Artist Merino in a yellow/green/blue colorway. Pros: Springy, plus I haven't knit with Fleece Artist in a while. Cons: In my limited experience with FA, it tends to fade. Second from the right is Sundara Sock Yarn in Midnight Over Blue. Again -- gorgeous color, beautiful yarn, but I've knit with Sundara recently and it's a darker color. Finally, on the right is another skein of Fleece Artist, with less yellow and more pink and blue. Same pros and cons as the other skein of Fleece Artist.

So, what will I choose, and why? (You must be 18 years or older to participate. Persons who live in my house and have direct knowledge of my actions are forbidden from participating unless they do so before I've made my choice. Other terms and conditions may apply. No purchase necessary. Few will enter, only one will win.)

An Ode to the Short Story

I love to read. My book stash is almost as voluminous as my yarn stash, only not nearly as soft. Readers of this here blog will guess that I prefer fiction to nonfiction, and they'd be correct. But what most people don't know is that one of my favorite forms of literature is the short story. Short stories don't get nearly the same attention or readership as their more long-winded cousins, and that's a real shame. Some of the things that have affected me most deeply over the years have been short stories.

(Warning: strange simile and analysis ahead). Short stories are like soap bubbles -- small, self-contained, and delicate, with a lot of color swirling around if you look closely. Because of their brevity, short stories have to communicate a lot in very few words. Points don't get bludgeoned to death, like in some novels. The very best short stories can cut you to the heart in a single paragraph.

I cried harder at the end of Annie Proulx's "Brokeback Mountain" short story than I did at the (also beautiful) movie. Somehow, that image of a man crying over his lost lover's shirt inside a closet was more eloquently captured in a few words than in a 2 hour film.

Ms. Proulx has done it again in the latest Summer Fiction edition of the New Yorker. Again, all it took was one sentence to take my breath away.

It's not always easy to find good short stories. The New Yorker always has one in each issue. There are also a host of smaller literary magazines that print short stories, but they can be hit or miss. Every year I search out the "Best American Short Stories" collection and the Pushcart Prize collections. The Pushcart Prize also has poetry and nonfiction as well. When I note an author whose stories I particulary like, I will keep an eye out for any of their collections as well. Favorites include Alice Munro, the abovementioned E. Annie Proulx, the incomparable but sadly not prolific Lorrie Moore, TC Boyle, Tobias Woolf, and many, many more who practice this overlooked art form.

Coming soon, a birthday!

Bounty

Nature may hate us (see, e.g. blackouts, heatwaves, etc.), but she sure does provide some yummy stuff to eat:

Mmmm. Those are fresh sour cherries and strawberries picked by us at Homestead Farms out in Poolesville, MD. I love cherry pie, cherry cobbler, homemade cherry vanilla ice cream... You get the picture. I may even try to make jam this year. We have far more than you can see in that picture, too. I have a lot of pitting and freezing to do.

Homestead has all sorts of fruit available for pick-your-own. The kids love going out there, too. We're not big on peaches, but we'll go out again in the Fall for Granny Smith and Pink Lady apples.

I continue to work on the Star of Evening shawl. I've done 3.5 chart repeats, but I haven't had a whole lot of time to spend on it. It really is perfect summer mindless knitting -- enough interest to keep me from being bored, but not so much interest that I have to concentrate much. Combine that with a beautiful shawl and you can't go wrong, huh?



(Insert caveats about unblocked lace looking like crap here.)

This weekend is Sr. Jr.'s first All-Star game. It's the game between the all stars of the two divisions. The interleague play starts in July. In the meantime, Sr. Jr. has discovered girls. So cute! He told me that all the boys in his class except one had crushes on girls. The one who doesn't is "just, like, so immature." Alas, the girl he was crushing on is into someone else, but he doesn't seem to be taking it too hard.

Off to go pit some more cherries...

Something Easy and Fun to Tide Me Over

As the end of the school year approaches, my knitting time necessarily slows down. Beyond all the end-of-the-year parties and activities, there are only a few days this summer where both boys have activities at the same time. So I need something easy, yet satisfying, to pull me through the summer without tearing my hair out.

I had been trying to come up with a lace shawl design of my own, with a lot of futile swatching to show for it. I have hit upon one or two patterns that I like, but I really won't have the time or the energy to spare during the summer. So I cast on for Anne Hanson's Star of Evening Triangle. The pattern is quite simple, with an edging that is knit along with the body. Here are a couple of pictures of what I've done so far:

I'm using Melosa lace weight in midnight. It's a singles yarn, so I'm wary of blocking it too hard. It's soft and the color is gorgeous, however. It'll make a nice warm shawl, as opposed to a light and airy one, but that's ok.

It's still really freaking hot here. It's supposed to be near 100 degrees today, and that's without the heat index. Luckily, baseball is over for now, so it'll be a quiet afternoon.

Sr. Jr. made the Little League All-Star team! The only problem is that we're supposed to be away on vacation during part of the time the tournament takes place, so we're not sure he'll be able to play. I hope we can work it out, though, because it will be a lot of fun for him. Apparently, the Arlington All-Stars play other local All-Star teams and lose. Just being picked and being able to play will be great.

I had an interesting encounter this morning at the supermarket. The checkout man asked me if I thought all the storms and earthquakes around the world were due to global warming. I said that I wasn't sure if the storms were a result of global warming, but that I was sure the earthquakes weren't. I also said that I do believe that global warming is taking place. He then informed me that I was wrong. Global warming has nothing to do with any of this. It's all about Planet X, which was foretold in the Bible, not as Planet X, but as something called "Wormwood." He told me to Google this, and I'd learn a lot. I think not.

I think I'll whip up a big pot of chili to ward off the heat :)

This Interruption Brought to You by Mother Nature

... Just another way in which Nature says, "I hate you."

Big storms with tornados slammed through the DC metro area on Wednesday afternoon and evening. Before the storm even really got here, our lights went out. This happens. Usually, they come back on pretty quickly. Not Wednesday. They stayed off. And stayed off. Wednesday night we bailed the sump pump manually to keep the basement from flooding. (And I had just told Mr. T that we should get a battery back up for that pump, too.) We spent several hours filling buckets and dumping them. By 10:30, the storms abated, so we went to bed, expecting that power would be restored sometime in the night.

No such luck. Power stayed out all day Thursday. We scrupulously kept all refrigerators and freezers closed, trying to save the food. Luckily, it cooled off enough at night to make sleeping comfortable.

Not so on Friday, when the heat wave began. The electric company predicted that power would be back on by 10 pm Friday, so we sucked it up for one more night, eating out yet again. However, it was hot and sticky, and nightfall provided no relief. 10 pm came and went, and the power was still out. I struggled to sleep in the heat and humidity.

At about 3 am, the power finally came back on. We ran around the house, shutting the windows and firing up the air conditioner. Saturday morning we emptied the refrigerators and the deep freeze, because nothing was salvageable. We went to the supermarket to replace as much as we could.

Fun times.

In other news, Sr. Jr.'s team lost in its second playoff game. The team played well in the field, but couldn't get any offense going. I think they felt good about how they played the game, even though they lost, because their opponents were very good. One season, finished (except for the All-Star game, if Sr. Jr. makes the team).

Jr. Jr. had his final game yesterday in the searing heat. Temps got up near 100, with a heat index around 105. After the game we went to the pool to cool off, and then to the Nats game to get all sweaty again.

I'm sorry that there's no knitting content. It's hard to knit in the dark. The school year is ending, which means that there are many school activities packed into the day -- the first grade play (adorable!), class picnics, etc. Once school ends, knitting time is pretty scarce. Maybe I'll get some socks done this summer, but probably not much else. Either way, I'll post about it.

Now that our power's been restored and life is slowly moving back to normal, hopefully I'll have something more interesting to show and share as the week moves on.

Playoff Fever! Mojo with Nowhere to Go(jo)

This was a very busy, full weekend. Baseball started Saturday morning at 9 am, with Jr. Jr.'s game, and continued on with Sr. Jr.'s playoff game at 11.

Little League playoff games go for 6 innings, as opposed to regular season games, which can go for 5, but often end earlier. Playoff games must be complete -- all 6 innings must be played. We started off the game with hot, sunny weather. Sr. Jr. was the starting pitcher. He pitched for four complete innings -- his longest ever, and the maximum allowed at his level. During those 4 innings, he also hit a triple and a single and drove in 5 runs. By the end of his pitching tenure, the team was up 9-2 and feeling strong. In the fifth inning, another of our pitchers, J., came up. J. can pitch well, but is sometimes inconsistent. Unfortunately, this was one of his off days, so the other team scored the maximum 6 runs (aided by some errors in the field, including one by Sr. Jr.). The weak part of our batting order was up, so no runs scored. So there we were at the end of the fifth, with our team holding on to a tenuous 9-8 lead. It was hot and the boys were clearly getting tired.

And then the skies opened. I don't mean that it rained. It POURED. Lightning flashed perilously close by. The winds were strong, with tornado watches out for the whole area. Little League policy requires teams to wait 20 minutes to see if the rain will let up. We all stood, huddled under the little overhang by the snack bar, until some Little League official came to his senses and realized it was too dangerous for us to stay there. We were hoping that they would call the game official and complete, but no, we had to go and play that last inning.

So we all gathered yesterday afternoon for one more inning of baseball. When we left on Saturday, it was the top of the sixth. Our team was up at bat. One runner had been walked and was on first. The top of the order (our strong batters) was up, so that's how we resumed. The first up, B., hit a nice shot to move the man on first to second, but was himself thrown out at first. Now it was Sr. Jr.'s turn at bat. First ball he watched go by for a strike. Then there was a ball. Then a foul tip for another strike. Then he hit the patented Sr. Jr. zinger down the third base line that the third baseman can never get. He gets to second and bats in one run. The next hitter, J., hits it strong, so Sr. Jr. scores. Then A. gets thrown out at first and O. strikes out to end the inning. Now the score is 11-8.

A. comes up to pitch for our mighty Giants and finishes strong, allowing only 1 run. We won! I was very happy that we got to say that we won a playoff game. The coaches gave Sr. Jr. the game ball for his excellent play, which made him very proud. Next up is the second place team, to whom we lost pretty soundly a couple of weeks ago.

After the final inning was the "post-season" team party. Today there was a playgroup mom get together which lasted most of the day.

So....

There was pretty much no knitting this weekend at all. Sorry. I started the toe of the new STR club sock, but realized pretty quickly that the size medium I picked was going to be too large, so I frogged it. I did get the toe restarted last night, but I haven't even started the patterning yet.

The first Mystic Meadows shawl KAL clue was released today, and I'm debating whether I should cast on, or wait until I see someone's version knit up. I have an idea for a design of my own that I'd like to swatch for, but...

There's more baseball tonight. Jr. Jr. has a game. And tomorrow I have to do all the stuff that I didn't do today, like laundry and shopping. I'd really like to get a bike ride in, too.

So, there's mojo. It's just got nowhere to go :(

Not Much, Including a Meditation, with Bad Pictures

I finished the first of the Thelonious socks early yesterday. I kept going with the traveling motif on the top of the foot until the two lace panels were closer together. Just felt like it.

Here's a more pulled back shot, although it's really hard to get a good photo of a sock on one's own foot.

I liked the pattern (from Cookie A.) and the yarn (Shibuiknits sock). Looking at the yarn in the skein, I didn't expect it to stripe the way it did. I'm glad the color tones were so close, or I wouldn't have liked the pattern in this yarn at all. I had a feeling that the new Socks that Rock club package would arrive today, so I didn't cast on for the second Thelonious. This left me pretty knit-less :(

I dealt with this by doing some spinning. I finished the first bobbin of my merlot merino a while ago, but hadn't started on the second. It took me a while to get the mechanics correct, but I think I finally managed. (Getting the wheel tension and brake tension right was tough today for some reason.) Here's a picture of the bit that I've done so far today:

Still, with the bad pictures. I took one without the flash that would have been better had it actually been in focus. I'm still not completely satisfied that I have everything right for spinning this the way the first bobbin was spun, but I'm making a singles that looks like the first, so it'll have to do.

And I was correct: the STR package arrived today, with some very purple yarn. It looks very pretty in the skein, but that's never a predictor of what the final fabric will look like. The sock pattern that came with it looks interesting. I'll probably wind that up and hopefully get a chance to cast on tonight.

Obligatory Baseball Report

Last night was Sr. Jr.'s last regular season game. His team was set to play the team that was currently in last place in the league. At game time, we only had 8 kids. There was one kid who showed up for a practice and a game or so, then we never heard from him again. Another was still away for a Memorial Day getaway. Two other kids, brothers, didn't come because the game was starting late (7:30) on a school night, and Virginia kids are taking SOLs this week. SOLs are those stupid tests that schools use to measure progress under the stupid No Child Left Behind Act. Since the tests mostly measure the school's progress and not the child's, I don't put any pressure on my kids to do well on them. (Sr. Jr. does well anyway.) I guess that was the long way of saying that we were on the verge of forfeiting, which would have given us a loss to this team and put us in last place.

Luckily, there was a family there from the previous game that had a younger kid who could be "called up" to our league and play in the game. The game didn't start well, but it finished nicely. Our team won, 10-7. Sr. Jr. didn't pitch, because the coaches want to save him for the playoffs. But he made a couple of good fielding plays to help out the team.

Tonight is Jr. Jr.'s game.

A Meditation on the Evening News

A lot has been written about the "demise" of the evening newscast as it currently exists on network television. Fewer and fewer people are tuning in at 7:00 pm to watch the roundup of the day's news. Blame has been cast at the 24 hour news channels, at the Internet, at the short attention span of today's youth, etc. I'd say all of that could be true. But part of it is the changing nature of the news available today. As a whole, we have breaking news available to us 24 hours a day through the cable channels and the Internet. Why would we need to tune in for a half an hour of 90 second blurbs on what we already know? Nothing in the evening newscast gets covered in depth (not that it does on cable, either, but with 24 hours to kill, they have the time and the ability to provide more information). It's the video equivalent of just reading the headlines in the newspaper, without reading the full article.

Add to that the way the press has fallen short of doing its duty during the Bush Administration. No in depth reporting was done during the run-up and aftermath of the war in Iraq. Very few people, and none in the mainstream media, dared to investigate whether what the Administration was telling the American people was true. The press let questions about its patriotism cow it into submission.

Pundits complain that more and more people get their news from "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," but they're ignoring that those shows do something that the mainstream media does not -- question the crap that comes out of politician's mouths. Those shows may be "comedy" shows, but they take the time to find the contradictory statements and changes of position. In short, they have a bullshit detector that the mainstream media needs to get. A news broadcast shouldn't just report on what a politician says in a speech, but should also tell us whether there's evidence that the politician means what she says, or if that politician is playing fast and loose with the facts. In its attempt to be nonpartisan, the press shies away from challenging anyone.

Personally, I want to know more about what's going on that can be provided in a 30 minute broadcast (less commercial time). I value newspapers and magazines like the New Yorker, which can give depth and breadth to the issues they cover. I'd love it if the cable channels could be more like that, but they seem to be very personality-driven these days. I watch a fair bit of cable news, but stay away from the likes of Larry King, Chris Matthews, and Anderson Cooper. (I'm fond of Keith Olbermann, though. Ooh, and CNN's hurricane hottie, Rob Marciano.)

Problem is, I don't think there's a way to "fix" broadcast news. The economics just don't favor it. There's little money in the news, so budgets get slashed. The more budgets get slashed, the less in-depth reporting can be done, and the more viewers turn away. Competition from cable ensures that people who turn there during the other 23.5 hours of the day will generally find what they need. Networks have absolutely no incentive to support the news. Maybe it's just time to accept the inevitable.

Good Impulses; or An Addition to the Family

We had a lovely Memorial Day weekend. For the first time in forever, the DC area managed to string together three beautiful days. (Back to the gloom today, however.)

The weekend started out on a nice note with Sr. Jr.'s call-up to the M1 game Friday night. The kids on the team were 12-13, all very nice. The coach was big and gruff, but good with kids. He was particularly welcoming and encouraging to the two M2 players he had that night. His son was the team's starting pitcher and he was enormous! He actually hit an honest-to-goodness over the fence home run in the first inning. Sr. Jr. was in awe, I think. SJ played in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th innings out in right field. Nothing came to him, but he showed good hustle, and ran to back up whoever needed backing up. He struck out once and walked once, but he looked really confident in the batter's box against much stronger pitchers than he's used to. He swung at strikes and let the balls go by. Even though he didn't do anything spectacular, he looked like he belonged out there. I think he'll take that confidence back to M2, as well as knowing that he'll belong in M1 next year.

As I noted in my last post, I finished the Dayflower camisole. As predicted, it did stretch out a bit during washing and blocking. It's a little bigger than I would prefer, but I think that a wash in hot water might help. Before you gasp at the idea of a hot water wash, you should know that I've swatched and abused this yarn this way before, so I know it holds up well. Here's an on-the-bod shot:

I still haven't decided what to knit next. I didn't knit much this weekend, and I certainly didn't have time to really mull over what to do next. Commenter Kippi and I have both been looking at the North Roe shawl. (Apologies for the Ravelry link.) Others under consideration are Anne Hanson's Casino Shawl and her Star of Evening shawl, both available at the Knitspot pattern shop.

Impulsive Addition to the Family

As many of you know, both Mr. T and Sr. Jr. are avid cyclists and racers. They race road, cyclocross, and mountain, which covers about 10 months out of the year. Until recently, Jr. Jr. showed very little interest in riding a bike, but this Fall, he finally managed to make the transition to a big bike with no training wheels. When he did, he decided he really like it! He's also decided he wants to race bikes like the other guys in the family.

Whenever we went to races or bike team get-togethers, people would ask me if I rode, too. My standard answer was always that I was the one who stayed home with the kids while Mr. T rode. Now that Jr. Jr. is mobile, however, there's no reason for me to be sitting on the sidelines. I had an old bike that I got for myself when I was young and poor, but I'm told it was a piece of crap. So we toodled off to the bike store this weekend and got this:

That's a Cannondale Road Warrior, carbon fork. The rest of the family bikes are all by Specialized, so I'm a bit of a rebel. I just liked this one better.

So Sunday morning we all went for a nice family ride. After a few miles, Jr. Jr. and Mr. T headed home, while Sr. Jr. and I went on. No longer needing to keep it slow, we got our speed on. In fact, we not only kept going, but we turned around and made it home before the other two! It was quite a lot of fun. Arlington (and the DC area in general) has a great network of bike trails. I could probably ride out to West Virginia if I wanted to.

I also wanted the bike for some errand running. There are a lot of little errands that I do -- post office, bank, quick visits to friends or school -- that really don't require a car. I like the idea of leaving the car in the driveway and using less gas. I'm afraid to count up how many bikes we have at this point.

The rest of the weekend was just lovely, with barbecue, home-made pizza, and a quick trip to the very cold pool club.

Life is Good (for now)

It's been a nice 24 hours. The medical thing I mentioned a few posts back turns out to be benign, so there will be no death or dying for me right now :)

I finished the Dayflower Lace Camisole. Here are some shots, including a close up of the lace pattern, a picture showing the straps, and a bad picture of the whole thing blocking. I don't have any on-the-bod shots because none of my little helpers is around to take one and, well, it's been pretty cold.

This was a fast and fun knit. The specs on it are: Dayflower Lace Camisole, size small and a half, knit with Knitpicks Shine Sport in the Cloud color. I think I used 6 skeins. I lost count somewhere along the way. I really liked this pattern. It has some nice designer touches, such as using a bind off/pick up method of creating the decorative horizontal bands across the underbust area. The medium was a too-large 37 inches (and the small was too small at 33 inches), so instead of increasing 24 stitches after the underbust band, I increased only 15. Or rather, first I did the pattern as written, discovered that it absolutely fell off me, ripped out that band (easy because of the aforementioned cast off/pick up feature), and reknit it with fewer stitches. The pattern was easily memorized. It was far more interesting than plain stockinette, without requiring too much attention. A perfect balance. It looks cute when it's on, but you'll have to take my word for that for now.

Also part of the Life is Good report is Sr. Jr.'s baseball game last night. His team is young and inexperienced, so they've had some rough games this season. Not too many blowouts, but a lot of games where they blew large leads or came back from behind only to lose by one run. Last night Sr. Jr. was the starting pitcher, and he pitched three stellar innings. He allowed only 2 men on base in those three innings, didn't walk anyone, and made a great play throwing a guy out at first that left the first baseman shaking his catching hand in pain. Needless to say, no one scored off him. He went 3 for 3 at bat, too, with a spectacular hit to the left field corner that allowed two men on base to score. They won 8-1, very pleased with themselves indeed.

Sr. Jr. has been "called up" to play in an M1 game tonight. M1 is the next level up (in which Sr. Jr. will probably play next year). They maintain a list of good players from the M2 league who they can call up if they're short players. It will be fun for him to play with the bigger kids. What's more is that our next door neighbor's son, N. is on that team! N. plays pick up whiffle ball with the Jrs all the time. It will be nice for him to know someone on the team. I just hope he plays well, and learns that he'll do fine when he gets there next year.

So, again, what to knit next? I'm still working on the Thelonious socks, pictures coming soon. Sweater? Vest (it's still chilly here. A vest would be useful.)? Lace? I'm not sure what I'm in the mood for. Cables? More lace? Fair Isle? I can't decide right now.

We are not doing anything special for the holiday weekend, so I'll have time to think about it.

What is that Glowing Object in the Sky?

The "sun," you say? Is that what it is? It's been so long, I forgot what it looked like. Yes, sarcasm aside, today it is bright and sunny in a way that it hasn't been in a long time. Yesterday we sat huddled in the rain, watching baseball. I was wearing a sweatshirt and a jacket. And it's the middle of MAY. Usually by now it's well up into the 80s here. This weekend is Memorial Day, and the POOL is supposed to open.

Anyway, here's what the Dayflower Lace cami looked like before the weekend (don't know why blogger rotated the picture and I'm too lazy to figure out how to fix it):


And here's what the Dayflower Lace cami looked like after the weekend:

Now, you may say, "Why, Loren, there's no discernable difference between the two. Does this mean that you didn't get any time in between baseball games to knit?" Au contraire, my friends. I took the version in the top picture to try on and it was waaaaaay too big. I'm knitting the medium size, which is 37 inches around, and my bust is 36 inches around. Gauge is accurate, but I think this sweater really needs a closer fit around the bust. (The small is 33 inches at the bust, which would be too tight for me.) So I ripped it back and increased 10 fewer stitches. I'm afraid to go try it on in case it's still too big. Since I have to get the kids from the bus stop in a little bit and rush through homework and dinner before yet another baseball game, I'm not sure I'll get to it today. Finding out it's still too big is something that can wait for a time when I can throw a good tantrum in privacy, so as not to reveal to my children that I can sometimes be not quite as mature as a mom should be. Shhh. Let's keep that our little secret, ok?

Because of all the rain, we must make up all missed baseball games before the playoffs start. Playoffs start next week! So we have games today, tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday. No games over Memorial Day weekend. I'm sure someone will pop a game in on Wednesday, just to even it out.

On a braggy note, the coach on the opposing team we played this weekend, the team that's undefeated and ran right over us, told Mr. T that he was very impressed with Sr. Jr.'s playing and pitching, and would be voting for him to be named to the Little League All-Star Team! (More baseball....)

And the Rain, Rain, Rain Came Down, Down, Down

In rushing, rising rivulets. Once again, the DC metro area was awash in rain. We got nearly 8 inches in two days, just several days after being inundated. There was nowhere for the water to go but into our basements. Yay. Much time was spent mopping. Mr. T got soaked trying to rig up an irrigation and diversion system (which eventually worked).

For the last two days, Jr. Jr.'s first words upon getting off the bus in the afternoon are "Is the Wii here yet?" Isn't it sweet how he just wants his mother to get a new video game system, so he can sit quietly and watch?

I've finished the "skirt" portion of the Dayflower Lace camisole:

I thought about making it a half or a whole repeat longer, but decided against it. It feels heavy, and it's a cotton blend yarn, so I think it will stretch out lengthwise. If I leave it alone, it should end up the right length. I don't want it to end up around my knees. After this, there's a bind off/pickup thing that goes on to make an underbust ridge. It's a baseball night, so I'm not sure if I'll get to that this evening. Otherwise, I'll just keep working on my Thelonious socks:

The pattern is fun and the yarn (Shibuiknits sock) is divine.

I'm resisting the lure of the lace yarn. I signed up for the Mystic Meadows shawl KAL, to see if I could rid my metaphorical mouth of the bad taste of the Mystery Lace KAL. The Mystic Meadows KAL is being designed/run by a woman 1) who's run KALs before; 2) who's designed pretty shawls before; and therefore 3) this shouldn't be a fiasco. So I'll wait to see how I like the design before I go casting on willy nilly for something else. A swatch has been promised for sometime next week. Hopefully that will give me a little hint about the pattern.

Holy Hellacious Junta, Batman

The situation in Myanmar gets more and more distressing every day. Apparently, the state-run goverment told the people to expect rain and 45 mph winds, so very few people understood the seriousness of the situation. It is inconceivable to me that the rulers of the country would refuse international aid in times like this. The people are suffering from lack of food, shelter, safe drinking water, medical aid, and more. People across the world are willing to provide as much help as needed, but the government is refusing it. (Even slower on the ball than Bush with Katrina, eh?) It takes real paranoia to let so many of your people die rather than let other nations get a glimpse of how you rule. My normal instinct in these cases is to donate to Doctors Without Borders. They're also seeing what they can do to aid the victims of the earthquake in China. It appears from their website that their supplies have been getting into Myanmar, which is heartening news. If you haven't already done something to help, please do.

Unclear on the Concept

Today is Mother's Day, a day to bask in the love of one's family, to be appreciated for all that I do, etc. blah blah blah. We all went out for a nice dinner last night to celebrate. The boys woke me up with gifts this morning. Jr. Jr. gave me a great plate that he'd made from a "decorate your own plate" kit that says "Mom's a star." It's really cute. Sr. Jr. went with the tried-and-true Godiva truffles. Mr. T gave me a nice card with a certificate inside letting me know that he'd ordered me a ...... wait for it ...... Wii. Yup. A Wii. I'll have hours of fun watching the boys play! Yay! (Later, they were outside playing with our neighbor's basketball hoop, and I suggested that we get one of our own, and we could make it my birthday present.)*

As I said in my last post, I've finished the STR sock club socks, and since the next installment hasn't arrived yet, I was getting itchy to start knitting some socks. I wanted to knit with a sock yarn I hadn't tried yet, so I rooted around in the stash and found some heavenly looking and feeling Shibuiknits sock yarn in Peony, and cast on for the brilliant Cookie A's Thelonious sock.

Not much to look at yet, but I am alternating between this and the Dayflower Lace cami. The yarn is buttery soft and the color is so vibrant! I love semisolid sock yarns, because they satisfy my love for hand-dyed yarns and visual interest without overwhelming whatever patterns I want to knit. Mmmm.

Speaking of brilliant, Anne Hanson over at Knitspot has just released a beautiful shawl pattern, the Star of Evening Shawl. I fell in love with this pattern as soon as I saw her first little swatch, so I snapped it up as soon as I realized it was available. I think THIS is what I will knit with my Lanas Puras Melosa that started out as the ill-fated Luna Moth shawl from a week or so ago. Her blog is one of my favorites, too.

I finished the book I mentioned in the last post (After You'd Gone, by Maggie O'Farrell), and it was every bit as moving as I thought it would be. I cried at the end. Must go find more of her work, or find some way to encourage her to produce more!

Happy Mother's day to all the moms out there!

* Don't worry about the gift situation. I'm very happy to have something that will make the boys happy. Plus, I did order some special stuff for myself that should arrive in 4-6 weeks... just in time for my birthday ;)

Finished Objects; Progress; Book Report

I had some minor medical stuff done this morning, leaving me sore and ouchie, so please forgive the lack of sparkling wit and erudite insight today :)

Meanwhile, as promised, I finished the Fitted Tank, but haven't blocked it yet:



I also finished the March installment of the STR sock club:

I don't love them. They're a little big. Also, they're knit with STR mediumweight, which is a bit thicker than I typically like my sock yarns. They'll make good bed socks for next winter, I guess. I also made some progress on the Dayflower Lace camisole:

So far I'm enjoying this pattern. It's easy enough that I don't have to pay too much attention to it but interesting enough to keep it from getting boring. I also finished up the first bobbin of that burgundy merino, so I can start the other half of that when I'm feeling a little better.

Book Report

For some reason, my reading has slowed down a bit over the last month or so. I finished reading Person of Interest by Susan Choi. This book centers on a mathematics professor who gets caught up in a Unabomber-type bombing investigation. There were parts of the book that were slow, but I was glad I didn't give up on it. It turned into a fascinating portrait of a difficult man.

Right now I'm reading After You'd Gone, by Maggie O'Farrell. I really enjoyed The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Farrell's most recent book, so I went back and got a few of her older books. She had me hooked into this one, too, from the beginning. She creates wonderful unconventional women in her work. I'm eagerly reading to find out what happens.

Politics

Longtime readers of this blog (of whom there are two) will remember that I vacillated for a long time before voting in the Virginia primary. At the time, I had a hard time choosing between Clinton and Obama, feeling that I'd be happy to support either one in the general election. Not any more. I've come to truly despise Hillary Clinton. I'm not quite sure why she's still fighting, tooth and nail, for a nomination she will most likely not get. Is it delusion? Does she really think that she's the only Democrat who would make a good President? Is it a messiah complex? Is it a sense of entitlement? Either way, she's wrecking the Democratic Party right now, perpetuating racial and class divisions, and virtually handing the election over to McCain. When Mitt Romney quit the Republican race, he had a far greater claim to stay in the race than Hillary does now. It was still early enough in the primary that he could have amassed a significant number of victories. But he clearly valued something more than his own ambitions. Sad to say that I can't say that of Hillary Clinton.

To the Woman with the Golden Retriever

CLEAN UP AFTER YOUR DOG. It's the law. Kids play in my yard. And don't try to claim it wasn't your dog, when I watched the whole thing from my study window.

The Earth Moved for Me, But Not in a Good Way

After lunch today, I was sitting and doing some spinning, when all of a sudden, the whole house shook and rumbled. The shaking and rumbling went on for about 20 or 30 seconds. The cats freaked out. I ran outside to see if a tree had fallen near the house or if there was construction going on nearby. Nothing. I ran downstairs to see if the washing machine had exploded or something. Nope. Turns out we had an earthquake that measured 1.8 on the Richter scale. If that was a 1.8, I really don't want to see a 5 or a 6, so no matter how much I love San Franscisco, I'm staying here, thankyouverymuch.

I'm still working on the burgundy merino. I've only got a wee little bit to go before I finish the first of two bobbins:



That's a penny on the right, for scale. I want to get this spinning done so I can start on some of the other gorgeous fibers I've gotten recently!

I've also been working on the Dayflower Lace camisole. It's an easily memorized pattern, so it's fun knitting. I've gotten through 4 repeats of the pattern so far. Here's the long view:



Hmmm. I see I got a bit of camera strap in that photo, too. Mad picture taking skillz, yo. Here's a close-up of the pattern:



And still more camera strap interference. Good thing I'm not a professional!

Kippi of the comments reports that she's finished her doily! Kippi, if you want to send me a picture, I'd be happy to post it here for you. I can't wait to see it. I WILL get back to mine. Really. I've just gotten to a kind of tedious part, so I just have to power through it.

Sheep! Wool! (Lots of pictures)

Yesterday I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, which I described on Ravelry at some point as being "heaven, nirvana, and happy place all rolled into one." The last time I was able to get to MDS&W was in 2003, I think, so I was really interested to see how attendance has changed, especially with the rise of Ravelry. I took my friend Lori with me. Lori's a knitter, too. She's gotten her invite to Ravelry, but as of yesterday, hadn't actually gone to check it out. She'd heard about MDS&W, but never been before.

The weather started out a bit cloudy and cool, but the sun came out and it warmed up nicely. All in all, it was perfect outdoor festival weather.

There were far more people in attendance than I remember from a few years ago. The last time I went, I had no traffic getting to the fairgrounds, and parked relatively closely early in the morning. This year, we left Arlington at 8:30, thinking that if we arrived at the fairgrounds at about 9:15, we shouldn't have too much trouble. Ha! Traffic was backed up on Fairgrounds road for 20 minutes. The parking lot was already two thirds full when we got there. All this is great news for knitters, of course. This is the view down one concourse at lunchtime -- bear in mind that this doesn't account for all the people inside the buildings, down the other concourses, or watching various fiber-related shows such as the sheep shearing demonstration or the border collie demonstrations:

Lori was amazed that there were so many people there from so many places. She was also pleasantly surprised to see so many men.

Unfortunately, by the time I got to the Ravelry gathering, they were out of buttons and I couldn't find my Ravatar, so I went anonymously through the crowd. Casey and Jess were there in person! I strongly resisted my urge to go all fangirl and squee at them. I can't even begin to estimate how many Ravelers were there. The gathering place was packed. I'm sure that there were many more wandering around, too.

We saw many cute fiber bearing beasties, such as this gorgeous guy and the two cute alpacas to follow:

Look at this sweet face!

We didn't just spend our time shopping. We watched the sheep shearing and the border collies. Loved the border collies chasing those sheep around!

That little sheep let out an occasional blase "Baa," but seemed nonplussed by his undignified display to the crowd.

But shopping there was, so here's the fiber p*rn. My first purchase was this gorgeous Merino top in the "thistle" colorway, from Stony Mountain Fibers:

I also got some of this beautiful handpainted Wensleydale from the folks at Flying Fibers. The owners and I embarassed their poor daughter with all our talk of stubborn, know-it-all 10 and 11 year olds while she very professionally rang me up and made my change. That's what parents are for :)

On the left is a skein of Suri Elegance laceweight in "morning mist" from Uncommon Threads. They had some beautiful stuff. On the right is a skein of "Primero" mohair yarn from Brooks Farms Yarns. Their booth was mobbed. I hadn't seen their yarns in person before and they were stunning!

Last, but not least, was my stop at the Misty Mountain Farm booth on the way out. I've gotten an lot of fiber from them at MDS&Ws past, and this year was no exception. I got some Finn combed top in a gold/green colorway:

and some heavenly soft baby alpaca:

I love seeing the things entered into the Festival's various fiber judging contests. There was a beautiful square shawl that the knitter had designed herself. I think we were most impressed by some of the felted/fulled entries. There was a stunning coat, an adorable pair of boots, and some beautiful wall hangings. Lori was inspired to get a couple of felting books.

By the time we got home, I was worn out, but very happy. And Mr T had managed to deal with a typical Saturday afternoon of baseball pictures and simultaneous baseball games without losing any of the children!

Misery Lace

I have to admit that I was rather restrained when I wrote about the implosion of Susan Reishus's Mystery Lace KAL. I had many choice words for how I felt about the whole situation and her behaviour/delusions of grandeur/personality. The more I read about subsequent events (she thinks people are hacking into her Yahoogroups???), the happier I am not to be involved with that any longer. But the hashing she's taking over in the Misery Knits group on Ravelry has been fun reading.

Coming soon, to a blog right here, more Dayflower Lace, and a book report or two.

Old Business and New Business

I can't believe it's May already. This school year is flying by. But it's still cold!

I've decided to turn away from the shawls temporarily. I can't find the exact right fit of pattern and yarn right now, and I don't want to force it. I ripped out the Luna Moth that I had started because I think I would prefer it in an airier yarn. There are a couple of patterns I like (Anne Hanson's Casino Shawl, another shawl that she's blogged about but hasn't finished the pattern for, and the Spring Things shawl), but not with the current crop of yarns in my stash. Fortunately for me, this weekend is the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Hopefully I can find yarns to inspire me.

Meanwhile, I remembered a shell that I had been working on last year, but dropped when I got sick and then too busy to knit. It's the Fitted Tank from the Summer 2007 Knitter's (I know, but occasionally there's something inoffensive that slips past the powers that be). I was using Knitpicks Shine Sport in cream and sage. I discovered that I'd finished all the knitting, grafted the shoulder seams, and left it to age.

I think I might have been concerned that it would be a little shorter and more fitted than I like. Tonight or tomorrow, I'll finish the seaming, weave in the ends, and block it. It's going to be tank weather soon, anyway (I hope; it's chilly here now), so I might as well have it. Hopefully it will fit.

I really like Shine sport yarn. It's very soft and holds up well. I did a lot of swatching with it over the past two years, sometimes ripping out and reknitting the same yarn five times, and it never pilled or looked worn. I have a lot of it in my stash, so.....

I trolled around Ravelry looking for something lacy to tempt me, and I found Knititude's Dayflower Lace camisole. It's a really cute pattern! I got out some more Shine Sport, this time in the Cloud color, swatched, and cast on:

Not a lot to look at yet, but I think this will go quickly.

I do still want to design my own lace shawl, but that will have to wait for more time and inspiration. I'm sure I'll come back from MD S&W this weekend with lots of the latter. Plus, the Summer IK just arrived. As for the former, well, that's never a given.

In the non-knitting realm, I can offer a movie recommendation. Mr. T and I watched "Lars and the Real Girl" this weekend and it was great! The premise makes it sound like it could be a farce, or a very dirty Farrelly movie, but it was quite heartwarming and sweet, with a low-key humor.

On the WTF? front, there's CNN's new t-shirt business. I noticed that next to some of the headlines on cnn.com, there's a little t-shirt symbol. If you click on it, you can order a t-shirt with that headline on it. Do people really want t-shirts that say "Mom-to-be charged with another DUI"? I could understand an Onion headline, but that? Really? Why? Are they that hard up?