Wow! I thought summer was supposed to be relaxing and easy going. Not a care in the world. Right. I’ve been working quite a bit this summer and, as a result, I don’t want to spend my free time in front of the computer. Thus, the huge gap since my last real blog entry. So, let’s play catch up!
Like everyone else in the civilized world, I spent last weekend reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
To some, this would mean a complete loss of knitting time. However, when you just have something in plain stockinette in the round like….oh, I don’t know…. a Wonderful Wallaby, you can make a surprising amount of progress while reading 759 pages!
I’ve worked on it a little since finishing the book, but the bulk of the knitting was completed while reading. If you choose to knit while you read, I have one word of caution. Pay attention to what color yarn you are picking up when you are ready to knit stripes. If you aren’t careful, you’ll end up with this:
Those aren’t two different dye lots of green. They are two completely different colors. Silly mistake, but at least it isn’t glaring. At least they are both green. 
Other knitting I’ve been doing: The MS3:
I haven’t started Clue 4 yet because I’ve been busy reading. However, that’s on my agenda for this weekend.
Yesterday, I started this:
It’s the Stag Bag from the current issue of KnitScene. If you want to make one, but you’re a little intimidated by it, I’ll be teaching a class on it at River Knits this fall. Come join us. (BTW: I’m in love with this yarn! It’s the new Ultra Alpaca Light from Berroco. YUMMY!!!)
Finally, I’ll leave you with something….um……interesting. Last week, I went to the library to pick up a book that was on hold for me. While I was there, I decided to look at crochet books. I *always* look at the knitting books, so I thought this would be a nice change. Well, I found this:
Yes, that’s a man smoking a pipe and crocheting. Inside the book, there’s this picture of the same guy:
Isn’t that a riot?! The best part is that this book is REALLY great! There’s tons of good info and excellent illustrations. As well as the standard bizarre garments. (Warning: All of the instructions are British, so if you decide to check out this book sometime, be forewarned. The terminology is a little different than what we use in the States.)
So, that’s what I’ve been up to. Now, I better get back to work!
I know it’s been a few weeks since I last posted. I wish I could say I’ve been spending my time playing on Ravelry. I haven’t. I’ve been busy busy busy. And I’m just posting a quick note to say this: I promise a full post detailing my latest fibery fun as soon as I finish reading the latest and final installment of the Harry Potter story. It may take a few days, but I promise.
So, I received my Ravelry invitation this morning, and I couldn’t be happier. Except that now, I can say with great confidence, I’m not going to get a darn thing accomplished for the rest of the day today. Forget work. Forget doing the laundry. I just want to enter my stash, knitting library, WIPs and more into Ravelry!
My username is gaeacreations, so if you’re there, drop me a note!
I’ve been tagged by Laura to do the Birthday Meme. The rules are: Go to Wikipedia, look up your birthday and post 3 events, 2 birthday and a holiday; then tag 5 people. So, here goes (except I’m not tagging anyone because Laura already tagged everyone I would have tagged).
August 5
1305 - William Wallace, who led Scottish resistance to England, is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London for trial and execution.
1861 - The US Army abolished flogging.
1957 - American Bandstand debuts on ABC television.
Birthdays:
1850 - Guy de Maupassant
1930 - Neil Armstrong (and here I thought we just shared an alma mater)
Holiday:
Independence Day in Burkina Faso. (10 points to anyone who knows where Burkina Faso is without looking it up)
Fun! I’m sort of partial to This Day in History on the History Channel’s website. It doesn’t list all the births and deaths and holidays, but it does give good in-depth info on the big occurences on that day.
This morning, while Tim was reading a book, Aaron was playing a game, and Victoria was at a friend’s house, I finished Clue 1 of Mystery Stole 3. This is what I had after 15 minutes of knitting Friday morning:
And this is what I have now:
Obviously, it isn’t blocked, so you can’t really see how lovely it is. I would have to put it on a longer circular needle or slip all the stitches to scrap yarn to stretch it out to really show it off. But I’m sort of willing to wait until it’s completely finished to see what it will really look like stretched out. According to Melanie, the last clue will be posted on August 17….do you think I can wait that long?
You can’t really see the beads in this picture either…I decided on “gunmetal” instead of silver. I’m quite happy with the decision and am really enjoying adding the beads as I go (as opposed to stringing them all on first).
Just FYI, in case you are now thinking about joining MS3, Melanie is planning to close membership on Friday, July 6. So, if you want to join, you better click your mouse on over there right away so you don’t miss out!