Eight days free...

This morning my husband and kids left for their annual tractor show weekend. Ordinarily they'd camp at the show until Sunday, but this will just be an overnight since the kids need to be up pre-dawn on Sunday to leave for their week of camp in Michigan with the youth group. Still, if you add it up: two mostly family-free days (today and tomorrow) + six kid-free days (Sunday - Friday) = eight free days for me. I haven't had a block of freedom this long in...forever? Definitely not since before I had kids. Almost forever.

And while my friend Molly exhorted me on my Facebook wall to NOT use this coming week for things like cleaning, cooking, laundry and organizing of any kind, these activities are exactly what pop into my mind first. Do the things that are easier to do without kids present either undoing or whining about having to help. However, the other thing that pops quickly to mind is: how much knitting can I get done in eight virtually uninterrupted days?

I have no intention of using my entire eight days on practical activities, though I will (just because I am me) make a lengthy to-do list of things I'd like to get done. If I get one-tenth of them completed, that will be success enough. I will, however, use as much of my eight days as I can justify to do fun things, such as lunch with friends (have at least two lunch dates scheduled already), probably some knit-shop excursions (even if I am seriously trying to limit my own yarn buying at the moment) and, of course, knitting. Lots and lots of knitting. Inside, I'm squeeing with excitement at the thought of it. ;)

In the mean time, here are some current goings-on, with pictures...

I took big-time advantage of KnitPicks' recent 40% off book sale. (If I can't buy yarn, I can buy books, right?) This book, Shear Spirit: Ten Fiber Farms, Twenty Patterns and Miles of Yarn, is one of the best fiber-related books I've read in a long time. The stories of these ten farms (including one less than two hours away from me!) were so much fun to read, and the photos -- oh, the beautiful, beautiful photos! -- would make the book purchase worth it even if I had no interest in fiber or knitting. A couple of things struck me as I read the book...one, every farm profiled is dedicated to environmentally-friendly farming practices, many of them seeking to be sustainable and giving to the communities around them. I love that. Second, many of the people who started these farms did not do so until later in life, when they were in their 40s and 50s. This gives me hope! Not that I have serious aspirations to be a sheep farmer (I think I am far too lazy), but as I approach that mid-life period where the empty next is not far off and the husband and I will need to decide what we want for the rest of our lives together, it gives me hope that it will not be too late to try new things that are not possible, or feasible, for us right now. (BTW, the KnitPicks book sale goes through August 8th. Just call me an enabler.)

On the needles right now are three projects I'm loving...

This is the Lace Ribbon Scarf from Spring 2008's Knitty. I started this five months ago when I joined in with Amy Singer's "Liberate Your Laceweight" campaign. This is actually fingering weight yarn (Ellyn Cooper's Yarn Sonnets, Fine Merino), but it was one of the earliest yarns I'd added to my stash and thus in the spirit of liberation, I chose to dig it out and do something with it. It hadn't worked for the project I originally bought it for nor did it want to cooperate with anything else I'd tried to use it in. However, it has turned out to be perfect for this scarf. The scarf has been a pick-up project when I'm between other things, which is why the progress has been slow, but I've got the lace pattern memorized now and I'm loving knitting it. The colors of this yarn are incredible...

...photos do not do it justice. I work on this scarf a lot in the car when I'm waiting for kids to get done from various activities, and when the sunlight comes through the moon roof and hits the yarn...holy cow, it just makes it sing. I so cannot wait to get this done so I can block it and be enraptured by its full beauty. But, again, it will be a while, because there are other projects that need my attention. Such as...


...Hey, Teach! (Also from Knitty, one of this summer's bonus patterns.) This is the pattern my mom and I finally settled on for me to make for her. She wanted a light weight black cardigan that she could take with her to restaurants and such for when the A/C is too much. I just started it this week and it is moving along quickly, though I have to say I turned into an idiot at the armhole shaping...just could NOT line the lace pattern up right after that and had to rip back twice (lace, such fun to tink...not!). This should not have been hard...bind off six stitches, subtract six stitches from the beginning of the lace work, be at the right place. Yeah. I'm to the point of ignoring the chart altogether now and just winging it. It's working out. (Oh, the yarn I'm using here is Lang Kappa, cotton with 3% polyester...I'm knitting it on larger needles than called for to get gauge in the pattern, and it is draping beautifully! I think it will be perfect for my mom!)

Also, a sock...


I'm back in sock mode! I made the first sock of this pair back in March as well, when I was teaching a friend to knit socks using the Magic Loop. I went on my sock hiatus after that, and then ended up doing the Hooha Socks (which are both finished now) before deciding I wanted to finish this pair. I love LOVE love this yarn. Zitron Trekking XXL. This colorway? I could just eat it up. It is beautiful. It reminds me of the striations of the rocks out west, specifically at Arches National Park in Utah.

(Ok, this photo does not offer the most vivid representation of the rocks' colors, but you get the idea and besides, it's a cool shot...left to right, my friend Myrna, me and my two kids.)

Anyway, I was trying to be all artsy and creative by taking photos of my knitting outside in the flower beds, a la Yarn Harlot, or Anne Hanson, whose blog always has the most lovely photos of both her knitting and her gardens. My alfresco knit photography efforts yielded somewhat dubious results. The scarf on the azalea worked out ok, but the sock? The rhododendron was less than cooperative and repeatedly tried to eat my ball of yarn and then spit it out onto the mulch below. Which means I will now be knitting with a unique blend of superwash wool/mulch yarn that I imagine will likely feel similar to my unhappy experience knitting with Noro Kureyon sock yarn (sigh).

At least the mulch is the same color as the sock yarn...