Did you ever have a great weekend, only to have rotten things happen on Monday that ruin the whole experience? Yeah. I hope this trend is not going to continue. I have fun things to do towards the end of the week, including a hair appointment on Thursday. I'd like that to go well. Well, Friday isn't really fun. I have oral surgery, but really I'd like that to go well also.
What happened?
Let's start with the weekend. Saturday was a beautiful day. It was sunny, and hot - but not oppressively humid. Dee, CBeth and I went to a wedding reception for a co-worker of ours. Carpooling is awesome. (If you are going to be late, be late together!) It was outdoors, but in a gorgeous shady backyard. There was a large pond for swimming and kayaking, copious amounts of booze and amazing food. The bride and groom made all of the snacks and salads - mostly from fresh stuff grown in their garden. The event was decorated with homegrown flowers, and veggies, and leaves from all manner of plants. It was very unique and very them!
The hot portion of the meal was catered, and equally as tasty. But, the best part was the cake. Evidently, one of the grooms relatives is a cake decorator and baker. It was three tiers of vanilla goodness, with marzipan inside, and nougat! The bestest best part was the decoration on the cake. Our co-worker has a thing for painting still-lives of cabbages. Her invitations had cabbages on them. The event was decorated in cabbages. The cake had a full size chocolate sculpted cabbage on top!! It had cabbage leaves on the base! It as amazing looking! From what I understand, she made molds from real cabbage leaves ( and kale for better texture) and poured chocolate leaves. SO cool! We all got a pieces of dark chocolate leaf with the cake. mmmm. chocolate......
After the three of us over came our sugar shock, we drove back to CBeth's for tea. Ahh. Much knitting occurred, and I nearly finished sock #2 of the Charity socks! All in all, a good day.
Sunday was hot from the time the sun came up. Perfect day to go to the beach. I called up Dee to see if she wanted to go with Evad and I. We all met at the beach, us with knitting, Evad with book. (even if I could convince him to try it, he wouldn't do it at the beach. I guarantee it.) I sat in the sun trying to take a little of the "pasty" off my legs for about 15 minutes. Holy crap. It was way too hot. You could just tell you were going to get burnt if you stayed in the sun. Thankfully, we have an umbrella. The three of us crammed under the umbrella all afternoon, but it was still nice to be outside, and by the water. As usual, I got a lot of knitting done! I love the beach!
I finished my socks:
Name: AIDS Project New Haven Charity Socks
Pattern: Van Dyke Socks from 'Socks From the Toe Up'
Yarn: Gedifra Fashion Trend Sportivo, 2 balls
Needles: Knit picks classic circs, size 2
Notes: Not much to say, really. The pattern is very clearly written, very intuitive, and has a great finished look, for not much work! Like every book, there is errata, and this pattern has one. Of course, I didn't look if there was any until after I couldn't figure out why my stitch count was off. (duh) It was an easy fix, though, and quite successful after I noted the error in the chart.
I do like this book. It has great info about changing socks to fit you, different types of heels and toes, and changing patterns from DPNs to ML or 2 circs. The Patterns are lovely, too! The patterns are broken down by yarn weight and by lace, cabled, and textured patterns. SO, for example, I knew that I wanted to use sport weight yarn, so I flipped to the sport weight section. So much easier than reading every pattern to see which ones are for sportweight, or could be modified for sport weight.
I chose the red yarn because it is for AIDS Project New Haven's annual Gala Silent Auction. I hope someone will love them and donate lots of money! This yarn has been in my stash for ummm.... 4 years? I think? I got it at WEBS, on clearance, right after I started knitting socks. I knit up the other colors long ago, but this colorway just didn't want to jump on the needles until now. I guess it was waiting for the right reason!
Since I am a smart cookie, I knew that I didn't have enough sock left to make it though an afternoon on the beach. There was no way I was working on an 'all in one piece' WOOL sweater on the beach. I'm crazy, but I'm not insane. I quickly looked though my 'small project' yarn and decided to cast on a lil'un' sweater with some cotton-ease. I photocopied the "Child size Seamless Yoke Sweater" instructions from Ann Budd's "Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns". I'm making shit up as I go along!
I got to the armpits, and one sleeve done last night! I like it so far!
Back to my story.
All was going well. we had steaks for dinner. Mad Men season premier was on. It had cooled down enough to sleep.
Then I woke up this morning to a (personal) leak on the bed (gross, and tmi, I know), a soggy played with ball of yarn (thanks kitten), and a car window that won't go up the whole way. Good. Lord. Let's skip to Tuesday. I'm afraid to knit today. It can't go well!
