Sixteen of Fifty-Two

Pair sixteen of fifty-two for the 52PP, also my September socks for the SAM4 KAL.

Austerman Step vanilla 2x2 ribbed socks with eye of partridge heel over 36sts, toe to 24sts. Sized to fit ladies' large/men's medium on 2.25mm needles. These are going to the store to sit with the Austerman Step display. I didn't try to match them up, and I really doubt I had enough yarn to make them match anyways. (Apparently one of the yarn reps is coming on Wednesday or Thursday with a sample of new sock yarn. It's made by Kertzer and is a sock yarn with aloe vera in it as well. I guess it's their version of the Austerman, and it's cheaper. I hope I'm there when the rep comes!)

If you're a dog lover or an animal lover in general you may want to skip this last part.

Next weekend is the last weekend for camping at our campground. Hubby is in Whitehorse and won't be home to help close the camper up for the season, so he suggested that I get our good friend who camps there as well to bring our bbq home. He came right to my house with it when he left the campground yesterday, so he had his five-year-old with him and their little rabbit hound. Now this dog is notorious for escaping, and she runs like greased lightning. She'll get a couple of feet from you and bolt before you can get her. She won't be caught the same way twice. The Littlest One opened the truck door, and the dog bolted. This was shortly after suppertime. We almost had her a couple of times, I actually grabbed her once but couldn't hold onto her, she didn't have her collar on. We tried hot dogs, I only have cat food so we tried that, he got his wife to bring their daughter up cuz sometimes she'll go to her, loves car rides, tried leaving the truck door open, nothing worked. She took the kids home for supper, and he went home, too, and came back in the evening. He stayed til almost ten, still no luck catching her. She'd lay on the neighbor's lawn and watch us but wouldn't let us near. Once he went home his wife arrived to try and get her.

Shortly after eleven she decided she'd have to go, too, as she's a teacher and had to get up early. The dog was hanging around my yard and the nearby houses, so I said if she came barking through the night I'd get up and try to get her to come inside. The dog had disappeared again, and my friend only drove maybe eighty feet up the road if that, the dog came flying out of the neighbor's yard across the street and right under the tires of the car. I heard her yelp and saw her run into the yard of the house directly beside mine where she layed down on the front lawn and let my friend pick her up. We called the vet, and I felt around her to see if I felt anything broken or dislocated, but she almost immediately started not breathing very well. I grabbed a blanket to wrap her up in, but when my friend went to lay her on the front seat she went unconscious. My friend lost it, and I felt the dog's heartbeat for probably less than a minute, then she died. I feel totally horrible, totally guilt-ridden. He blames himself for not taking her home first or not locking the truck doors, but I'll always feel like it's my fault. I can't imagine that happening with a stranger's dog let alone my own pet.

So that's what happened. Her husband arrived to drive her car and the dog home. He buried her with her blankie, and the kids each put one of her toys with her.

Well, I should go try to start some supper. It's getting that time of day.

Happy knitting!

End of Summer of Socks

Today is the last day for Summer of Socks 2007. I didn't get nearly as many socks knit this summer as I had anticipated. It half seems like I didn't get a whole lot of anything finished! (Not really true. In my sidebar list of FOs of 2007 everything from Step FIL Socks 11 to Camper Dishcloth are summer FOs. Nothing huge, just lots of little things.)

I finished the striped panel of the baby blanket for nephew-to-be. I know acrylic doesn't truly "block", but I am going to try to block them a little before I go any further. They both have a kinda wonky shape because of the yarn (Bernat LuLu), so I feel I need to even them up before I attempt to seam/border anything.

It's my weekend to work. Well, it really wasn't, but I switched with the other lady so I could have next weekend off. It's the last weekend for camping, and the kids have no school on Friday. I am going to the campground tomorrow night after work so I can start packing up some stuff on Sunday. Hubby won't be around to help. He should arrive in Whitehorse tomorrow morning. It's supposed to be sunny and +24C, so we still have some summer kicking around! Its been gorgeous here lately.

Came home the other day to find Simba and Pumba flaked in the kitchen window together. Meatheads. But cute meatheads!

Have a good weekend everyone.

Happy knitting!

What To Do on a Windy, Rainy Day

Yesterday was a terribly windy and rainy day. Wasn't fit to do much of anything -- well, except some knitting!

The satellite tv rained out a couple of times, but not for very long. When we lose reception we know that within a few minutes it's going to absolutely pour!

So the kids did lots of this, causing the living room to look like it had exploded.

I made chili.

Simba did lots of sleeping in a toy box. This cat is so stunned. I love him, but he's a little on the weird side. Can't see how laying on a bunch of hard, plasitc, pokey toys is comfortable.

I started the first panel of the baby blanket on Friday night. This was the progress around noontime Saturday. I am using discontinued Bernat Lulu, but it's along the same lines as Sirdar Snowflake. Could probably use Patons Be Mine, too.

I had a fair bit more done by suppertime. I need to knit 210 rows, and I have 150 rows done now. I should have this panel finished today. I have some more yard work to do, and we have to start looking for pictures tonight for the Oldest One's social studies project, but I still think I'll get it finished. Before I start the next panel I will finish the Austerman socks. Twenty more rows to go to the heel, I think.

I picked this project to start soon, too. It is for the impending November nephew. I will make size 6-12 months. (Pattern is from this book. I'd also like to make him this, maybe for Christmas.)

We didn't have much selection left in the yarn, there were only three shades of blue left. This was the only one that had three skeins, the rest only had two skeins each.

So that's about it. No FO yet but hopefully soon. The baby blanket knit up a lot quicker than I thought it would. I'm thinking about some modifications to the original plan. I may put a border around it and a small strip in the middle between the two panels. I was just going to knit two panels and join them, similar to this one that I saw, but now I may fancy it up a bit. (If it turns out well I will post the pattern.) I will have another blanket to make, too. I keep forgetting that one of hubby's step brothers and his girlfriend are expecting. Not sure if I'll make one the same style as this or do something different.

Hubby left for Whitehorse this morning. I see the weather is getting colder there this week, of course! As long as there isn't any snow yet. After what happened last time he doesn't want to see any snowy mountains! According to our local forecast it's going to be quite hot and sunny, especially later in the week. I see lots of outdoor knitting to be done yet!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,

Happy knitting!

Long Time, No Post

I've been getting a little bit of knitting done, just enough to have one Austerman vanilla 2x2 ribbed sock finished. It's sized to fit a men's medium. I haven't cast on for the second one yet. That will be tomorrow. Now that things should be getting back to normal then regular knitting and actual knitting-content posts can resume!

I really need to start the baby blanket for the nephew, too. November will be here before we know it, and he may decide he wants to come early! (You never know...) Plus I need to start more Christmas knitting. Plus there's a ton of socks I want to start. Plus the shawl... So many projects. I need to learn to knit faster!

My best bud went home today. I found her a great price on a flight (she's on the plane as I type.) Direct flight from Halifax to Calgary for $247 taxes included. One of her brothers left yesterday, and the other one who lives out there, too, changed his flight to Sunday. (I did go get her Sunday morning, plane on time at 6:30am. We were in the airport and out in fifteen minutes. We stopped and had breakfast on the way home.) They're all doing as well as can be expected. The service was Monday afternoon. There were so many people, they were standing down the sides of the church, in the entry way, right out the front doors down the steps. One of the brothers had his laptop set up projecting a slide show of pictures during almost all of the service. I'd seen the slide show at the house the day before, and I didn't know they were doing this. It was beautiful but hard to watch at the same time. One of the sisters said the eulogy, and she did really well. Her daughter said a poem after that, and she did a great job, too. The minister said some things that I found quite interesting. One thing she said that really struck me for some reason was not to blame God for what happened because His heart was the first one to break. She got quite emotional at the end.

Anyhoo, here's a picture of my BF (third from the right, jeans and grey t-shirt) and her family minus three boys who weren't home when the pictures were taken. The guy in the white t-shirt beside her is her biological brother. Since these pictures are plastered all over Facebook I'll post one here, too.

Off to get ready for bed. I feel a cold coming on. I woke up this morning with a slight sore throat, and it's been lingering all day.

Happy knitting!

PS -- I got a comment from The Harlot on my last post! Woo, hoo! Happy, happy, joy, joy! (I don't get out much. Sad but true.)

Socks That Rock

Today I went to the post office, and lo and behold there was a package for me! Something to perk me up, I needed it. Socks That Rock lightweight in Rose Quartz won from Pat's Knittng and Quilting for her blogiversary contest. She also sent a box of chocolates and this cool card.

This is the closest I can get to the actual color of the yarn. Very pretty! Can't wait to use it.

School started here on Wednesday. The Oldest One is in Grade Two, and he went to a new school this year. His bus is supposed to come at 8:35, but the first two mornings it was half an hour late. The first day they put him on the wrong bus coming home. The driver they put him with was the one listed on the paper I got the end of last year, but they had called last week and changed it to someone else. I called the school, and now I don't know who his regular driver is supposed to be. They have several "overcrowded" busses, so they didn't know who his regular driver will be. Then this morning he almost missed the bus, it arrived 8:30. He was on his way down the road and had to run to catch it. I can always drive him there if he misses it. And yesterday he came home minus his lunchbox. He says he put it in his bookbag, so I don't know what happened to it. The teacher said she'd have the maintenance people keep an eye out for it.

The Littlest One doesn't go to "big school" til next year, but Wednesday he started his second year of preschool. He goes Wednesday, Thursday, Friday from 9:30-11:30.

It's been a hectic week with school starting again, and last night wasn't a good night at all, not much knitting done. I've been plunking away on the Austerman socks and have the first heel turned. Anyhoo, my best friend I just visited in Alberta -- well, I didn't think I'd see her again this soon. I have to go to the airport and get her Sunday morning at 6:30 (yuck, not liking that). She is part of a large foster family, been with them since we were in grade four or five and was officially adopted at 16 or 17. Anyways, her parents have two biological sons and several others that have been adopted and/or in their care since they were small kids. We've always felt like my parents are her second set of parents, and her parents mine. Last night her 12-year-old foster brother died a tragic accidental death. I can't even begin to imagine what her family is going through. They've had him since he was about two. Her brother flew home last night from Alberta, and she can't get a flight til tomorrow night. She's staying with me since her parents' place is pretty packed. I just wish that she wasn't having to come home under such terrible circumstances.

Hope to get some knitting done this weekend at work. It's my Friday night and Saturday to work. I hate it when the summer student goes back to university.

Have a good weekend everyone,

Happy knitting!

Pretty Non-Productive Long Weekend

Didn't get much knitting done this Labour Day weekend. We went camping on Saturday, and the kids and I came home last night. Hubby went to work. The only FO I managed was this dishcloth for the camper.

Bernat Handicrafter in sage green using this pattern. I thought my camper had more green in the interior, but it's mostly taupe. Oh, well. I did work some on a pair of Austerman Step vanilla 2x2 ribbed socks for the store, but I didn't get much done.

School starts here tomorrow, thank goodness! I have most everything ready to go for the morning. I have to get back into my routine. The Oldest One goes to a different school this year, so he needs to go a little farther down the road to the bus stop (I can still see it from the front window), and the bus comes about ten minutes earlier than last year. Have to get him out the door at 8:25, as the bus is scheduled to arrive at 8:35, and I know he'll dawdle down the road! Plus the bus could be early. They recommend being at the bus stop five minutes early. The Littlest One also resumes preschool tomorrow. Next year he'll go to "big school", then I'll have 5.5 hours to myself on school days! Woo, hoo!

Should really go do the dishes. Have to assemble school outfits for the morning, too. The more I do tonight the less I have to do in the morning.

Happy knitting!