S is for Seascape

When I last left off, I was deciding how to fix my Seascape. Thank you for all your supportive comments. They helped a lot. I decided to rip it out and do it again. First, a life line.



Then scissors. Very scary. After picking up and re-knitting, back to the blocking. Looking pretty good.



And the final results:






Maybe not as perfect as I wanted, but pretty good considering the terrible blow.

OMG, OMG, OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I'm done soaking and rinsing my Seascape Stole and I'm laying it out to start blocking and this is what I see! I must have caught it on something, I have no idea. But I'm not freaking out and screaming calm now and I have a little more perspective on this.





I can try to fix it, but the yarn is really thin; or I can undo it and knit that part again. It's just the sixteen repeats at the end so I think that's my best option. Of course I'm open to any ideas, now that I'm calm.

The Talented Mr. Truck

I've been away for a bit, and I really don't like the "I've been a bad blogger" explanation but we've had a crisis here. My Mother-in-law was involved in a serious car accident and we've been totally focused on her for over a week. She's fine, or she will be soon, but it's taken all our time and energy making sure of her care. So that being said, back to blogging.

I talk a lot about all the things I do and I've mentioned things other people make but I've recently realized I haven't said anything about how talented Mr. Truck is. He makes things out of wood and I thought I'd show you some. I tell him what I want and show him a picture and then I get it. Amazing. This is a bench for the bottom of our bed that I saw in a Crate & Barrel catalog. I need to get a cushion and some baskets for the cubbyholes, but it's just what I wanted.





And this is a TV stand that I saw in a store. All it needs are the glass in the doors. Mr. Truck wants to learn to cut glass but I think we'll just buy it. Sounds dangerous to me.




And this was one of a few hot plates he made for Christmas last year. And no we didn't drink all the wine, we were collecting corks from everyone for quite a while. I have to claim the credit for gluing them, though. I'm the one with the hot glue gun.




This makes all the tools I've bought him (and I'm not even sure what they all are) so worth it.

R is for Raspberry Jam

When we first moved to our house, the garden had gone wild. I don't think anyone had pruned the shrubs since it was first built. I inherited some very strange plants and most of them had to go but one thing I got was raspberries. I've gardened since I was very young, my grandma was an incredible gardener and I seem to have inherited her green thumb, but I'd never grown raspberries. Mine set fruit twice a year and are determined to take over the vegetable garden no matter what we do, but look what we get!



One thing I do with them is make freezer jam. It's the recipe off the Sure Jell package and couldn't be easier. Mash the raspberries,




Add the sugar, and it always seems like such a lot.




Boil the Sure Jell,




stir it all together and freeze.



So good, but a little messy.

What to do in a Hurricane and Some Exciting News

Hurricane Hanna was on her way and we were expecting heavy rain and some wind with a flood advisory, so what do we do? Go to Ikea. I've been reorganizing a bit (and that's a really long story for another time) and I wanted to get a new cupboard for my knitting. So we drove through the rain and wind and found what I wanted. And ate the meatballs. I bought this bookcase with these doors, and Mr. Truck got to play with his tools and put it all together. And now it looks like this. I can't show you the rest of the room because I'm painting the bookshelves and it's all topsy-turvy. But my stash and needles and books are all organized now.





Now for the exciting news: Maryeb has nominated me for a Brillante Weblog Award. I'm so flattered. Thank you so much!


Now it's my turn to pass it on to seven bloggers. I think I'm going to pick seven people who have commented recently since there are so many amazing blogs to choose from. So here, in no particular order, are my nominees:

RedScot
PrincessPea
Aim
CCC
minding my own stitches
pdxknitterati
marie

Go check out their blogs if you haven't already. They all have so much to share.

And more in the exciting news category I won a prize in the Ravelympics! Woo hoo! I was picked for a surprise prize and I can't wait to see it. Actually, I don't even care what it is, I've never won anything before, so I know I'll love it. I'll let you know as soon as it arrives.

Q is for

I've got no Q. I've wracked my brain, read every q in the dictionary, asked for help and I have no q. I thought Q is for quilt but I don't quilt. I bought this in the Amish country. It's a teeny tiny quilt in a frame. It's all I could afford. The Amish quilts are amazing and worth every penny but way over my budget.





Evan and Olivia's mommy has made some quilts but they're hers. She made this one for me for Christmas. A quilt and a matching pillow. I love it, especially because she made it.




It has a pocket for my feet.




And then I realized I do have a Q. Actually, a queue, bigger than most. I have 243 projects in my queue and I keep adding. I want to make everything but probably I won't. I keep saying that I'm leaving my queue in my will.




If you look closely, there are nine, count 'em nine, pages in my queue. Is that a record?

So I do have a Q after all and it was staring me in the face all the time.

End of Summer of Socks 2008

My KAL mania is drawing to a close. Ravelympics is done and now it's September, so Socks of Summer 2008 is officially over. I didn't win a prize but I had a lot of fun and I knit five pairs of socks. Two are Christmas presents and that's convenient. One is a toe up pattern, that's new for me. Three are for me and I like that.


So now I'm moving on to the swap stage. Have you read the Outlander Series? I read the first one in the early 1990's and I've been hooked ever since. There's an Outlander Group on Ravelry and we're having an Outlandish Swap. So this may become my new addiction, you never know.

Friday Night Cruise

Friday nights all over America people gather for Cruise Night. Mostly, from what I've seen, it's men with midlife crises. They bring the cars and trucks they idolized in their youth and open the hoods so you can see all the chrome on their motors. They paint them crazy colors and they all have do not touch signs on them. We take Mr. Truck's truck, go out to dinner and then stroll around and look at everyone's cars. Some have accessories.



Some remind me of the man that used to sell vegetables and fruit from his truck when I was just a very little girl.




Some are very strange. This car belongs to



this man. He likes to sing with the DJ.



Some are from the fifties





and some are very new.



Mr. Truck always likes a nice GTO but he's very careful to keep his hands off them.



What he really wants is one of these. I have no idea why.



I like the Model A's

That's because I learned to drive in one and no I'm not that old.

I'm also partial to Minis.


What has this got to do with knitting? Well, I always knit on the way there in the truck but it's very bumpy. A 1954 Chevy pick-up is the reason for the saying "rides like a truck." And Friday night I dropped a bunch of stitches going over a big bump. End of knitting until we got home and I could fix it.

The Finish Line

I've reached the finish line and I'm officially a Ravelete. I had my doubts, but my Swallowtail Shawl is done! I've been on the Podium and I've gotten my medal. It took fourteen days from start to finish, I think that may be a World Record, at least for me. Mr Truck has been alternately cheering me on and teasing me. He swears he's finished an afghan for an elephant on very little needles before I finished my shawl, but he has no pictures to prove it.




Here it is before blocking




And after blocking

Project specs: Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark

Cherry Tree Merino Lace 900 or so yards
Size 4 needles
Started 8/8/08 8:00 AM ET
Finished 8/21/08 just before midnight ET
Blocked 8/22/08
72 inches wide x 33 inches long

The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of the Nupps

I've heard stories about these nupps, I've read a lot about how to cheat, I've seen others use beads instead of nupps, but I was determined. I found out quickly that I cannot purl through the back loops of five stitches. So I came up with my own method. Although I may have read about it somewhere I have never seen it done. I use a very little crochet hook. It looks like this.










You have to slip the crochet hook through the stitches and pull the yarn back through and then get it on the right hand needle. I need about four hands to do this but it has been working. Not fast, but working. And I am on the last row of the nupps. Sixteen rows of the peaked edging and then the bind off.




I think I'll finish just in time to get a medal in the Laceweight Long Jump.



And to celebrate, I ordered this:



from Beaverslide Dry Goods. I'm going to make the Apres Surf Hoodie while I'm in the lace mood.