worrisome creatures

I'm back from our garden/cable ordeal. Thank you all for the commiseration and laughs! The lovely cable company came out and "fixed" the line, by which I mean they came out and strung an entirely new, bight orange, line across the backyard. Oh, whatever.

The 17 year cicadas are coming to Illinois, and this scares the bejesus out of me. I hate em, and they make me want to curl up in a little ball in my house and not come out. I also hate that I hate them, because I know it's lame. We dealt with them when we lived in the DC area 3 years ago, and they were soooooooo bad there. Like, heaps of decaying bodies bad. Friends here are trying to assure me that it doesn't get that bad here, and that this brood might not even be as far south as I am. I hope so. Uhg.

The shirt is Beebs' from the DC brood. Elie, super dad that he is, screened one of these for each kid in Beebs' preschool class. Awesomeness in the face of adversity.

no so connected

Hey there. I hope you all are having a wonderful long weekend. I won't have any internet until Tuesday, so I'll miss you. Why? We cut the cable while expanding the garden. Nice.

Have a good one!

Dorie

schnitzels: the fabric of my life

We've just finished a round of housely things that required the house to be in very neat condition. I am so happy that that is all over that I am leaving tiny fabric schnitzels, complete with dangling threads, all over the downstairs.

Seriously, I thought that I would be able to get through the doll quit thing without feeling the desire to participate, but I'm afraid the whiplash challenge might do me in. They are too darn cute! But, I have too many other projects seeking my attention, especially the redwork quilt--the one I started 6 years ago and only need to finish quilting before I have it complete. I though I might have it done for Beebs' birthday, but given that that is on Wednesday, I really don't see it happening.

Speaking of which, we had a fun kid party at our house on Saturday! Here is the cake. I went yarnstorm-style and bought jellybeans for decorating. It doesn't quite look like the Chinese parasol we were imagining, but we opted for more jellybeans rather than elegant simplicity. Plus, this way every girl got the flower on the cake. :-)

One more thing. Doll quilts and redwork reminded me of this. I think it's completely awesome.

I knock off Boden (again) and become a duck hero

The mini-boden catalog is so fabulously cute I just can't stand it. They come to the house and I look through them again and again, but I have yet to buy anything from Boden. It's not all because of the price, because I'll buy the occasional pricey item, and it's not because I think I can make it all, because I have no desire to try some things, such as tailored pants. I think it is this--I can't really narrow down all the things I like in the catalog to just one or two things. Rather, when I do narrow it down, the one or two items don't look all that special by themselves. What I really like is everything all together. It's the same with the J Crew catalog. If I buy one t-shirt, I know it will not be as satisfying as looking at all the colors of t-shirts lying together in rumpled layers inside the catalog.

But, I did think the apple tshirt was very cute, and worth recreating when Target has these t-shirts for $6. I had to buy some more red fabric. Oh, how it pains my to buy more red fabric. Not.

Also, I'd like you all to know that I saved some ducklings today. Beebs got strep throat, so I left work and was driving around to the dr, pharmacy, whatever. I was stopped at a light in front of Meijer on the road that has all the big box stores when I saw on the side of the road a mama duck and five little ducklings walking toward the street. If you are a person who has ever shared the story, Make Way for Ducklings, with someone special to you, there is no way in heck that you are letting a family of ducks face getting run over while trying to cross the street. I think the people in the car in front of me felt this way too, because the woman in the passenger seat started yelling and shooing the mama duck away. Unfortunately, duckling #5 was a little daft and went on the road anyway. Her mama called for her to come away, but she couldn't because the curb was too high. So mama went to try to rescue her, but of course all the other ducklings followed, and then all the ducklings got stuck on the street. And mama duck could not help them. Oh. So much empathy for the duck mother here. By this point the light had turned and people behind me were beeping and the people in front of me had given up and driven away. So it was up to me to save these ducks. I grabbed a manila envelope from my car (good thing I always have some crap in my car) and used it to scoop the little ducks onto to curb.

Now, it's true that they may have found a way up, but it's also true that ducklings are very dumb and would probably have gone into traffic. And sure, they're just ducks, and sure, they'll probably do it again, but I'm happy that my daughter got to see me save the ducks.

P.S. Ducklings are really cute up close.

in boxes and packets

Back a ways, petulant feminine was looking for brave volunteers to help her by taking portions of her stash so that she would have less to transport in a big move. I kindly volunteered. Her packet arrived from very far away and was full of these beautiful fabrics! The plum is so cool and there is some of the softest brown linen in there. How nice is that?

The mail also brought me a big box of yard from my grandmother, Honeydew. (Her real name is Dorie. I am her namesake.) Honeydew does needlepoint, and she had built up quite a stash of extra tapestry yarn. When she asked if I could use it I said, Oh Yes! I'm not sure exactly what it will be, but it will be something. Honeydew still has an origami lily I made her when I was 10. It's sitting next to her chair where she reads mysteries and needlepoints and watches golf.

Love to you all,
Dorie

casting on with old yarn

Summer is coming, so I though I'd knit myself a sweater. Kidding! Kinda. It's really a tank and it's made out of a linen blend yarn, so I think that makes it perfectly acceptable for summer. I'm using the Lutea Shell pattern from the newest Interweave, and the yarn is from the mother of all yarn garage sales. It wasn't the pattern I had in mind when I started, but it's cute and it worked with the yarn and the gauge. If I actually succeed in completing this top, it will be my first ever knit top. (If you are wondering about what happened to the Grace sweater, I will tell you that it is still in ill-matching pieces on the bookshelf.)

The first row went pretty well.

swap happy

Remember the nesting bowls I made to swap out? Well, I received my swap item from Jeanne this week---pretty awesome, no? It's soft as anything (baby alpaca and and cashmere will do that), fits perfectly, and is made using my best-ever colors (gray and blue). The pattern is adorable (or should I say "hip"?) and suits me very well. This is what it looks like on, though pardon the blurry shot.

Plus I got an extra! I love it so much. Maybe you know why--simple, beautiful redwork. It hangs from a silk cord that Jeanne spun, and has a very appropriate poem on the back. It's hanging in my front room.

I feel like I'm going to make out like such a bandit in this swap. All the other girls are much more accomplished knitters than me. Jeanne was doing cables when I was still learning to cast on. Lucky me! This swap really needs a name though. I'm getting tired of calling it that-swap-that-I'm-doing-with -knit-night-girls-from-way -back-and-the-present. Preexisting Friends Swap? Why'd You Move Away Swap? I don't know.