The Chocolate Truck arrived!

I had remembered I needed to take a photo of the Knitters Without Borders sock when just as I opened the door the local driver of UPS arrived with a box I had been waiting for. It was a shipment from WEBS.

When I had browsed through a copy of Vogue Knitting a couple of weeks ago, I saw a pattern advertised by Elann.com that looked interesting but not too complex. It was the Voyager Lace Stole. What captivated me about it was its texture. The leaves make a wavy texture due to the decreases uses instead of being flat like some lace. The hunt through the stash produced nothing that would work for a summerweight item, so I hunted on WEBS and came up with this. The colors are stunning and the red I had chosen so nummy that I'm going gaga over it. The swatch next to it is Cascade 220.

When I looked over the pattern, I was thinking that something with a different shaping would work better for covering my shoulders and arms. It was a case of charting the pattern, playing with the main motif, and seeing what I could do to make it a different shape. This arrived as well to help me along.

Oh yeah. The KWB socks. I think my foot's larger than The Yarn Harlot's friend because I really got great stripes out of it. The hoo hah along the cuff is a cable. I thought I'd play with a cable to make it more interesting to knit. So far it's killing my hands turning stitches that small and I don't trust the stitches enough to just let them lie without a cable needle.

Sumer is icumen in, lhude sing cuccu!

And don't forget the sunscreen.

It's assumed by newcomers to the Pacific Northwest that summer begins with Memorial Day weekend (last weekend of May, for my non-US readers). In fact, summer begins after July 4th. The vagaries of the weather shifts have settled and the hot air from the interior of the country has a chance to come in and bake us for a few days until the Pacific air forces it back over to the other side of the mountains. Either way it's not my favorite time of the year. While I equate it to lazy days of reading mountains of books, eating fresh fruit, and sleeping in, I also equate it to sunburns, the stench of lighter fluid from barbecues, and sweaty evenings trying to catch some cool air and being unable to sleep until 1 am. Summer and I are not friends. We came to a mutual agreement when I invested in central air conditioning a few years ago when I upgraded the furnace from a converted sawdust burner to a tidy little natural gas box. At least I can sleep at night and am not a grump by the end of August.

The Fourth was fairly quiet in the neighborhood. Either that or I was so soundly asleep that I didn't hear anything. The city put the word out that fire marshals were riding with police on the Fourth to enforce the fireworks laws. Washington's fireworks laws are not as stringent as those in Oregon's, so folks commonly cross over to Washington to pick up fireworks that they can't get in Oregon. This year law enforcement decided to put more muscle into the laws. I don't know how well it did in other areas but in my neighborhood it did make a difference. The cats as a general rule do pretty well on the Fourth, but last year two of them were under the bed. This year all three were sleeping calmly, though Buster was quite put out that I kept him in the house for a good part of the day.

Whispers

I got word that something good is going to happen to me at the office. I can't say yet what it is because it isn't official yet, but it was enough to leave me a little stunned. I needed something to help me recover so I got this.

Schafer Yarn's "Anne", their fingering weight yarn. I wanted something with softer colors for the swatches I'm going to be doing for some pattern write-ups and I had a birthday discount card from Yarn Garden.

I think I'm okay to drive now.

By request

The Bunny has asked that I post more detailed pictures of my purchases. I'll at least post a few samples and not the whole shebang. I definitely blew my Stash Bust 2007 pledge on this one but I just could not resist. And for some of the purchases I'm supporting small business. So there.

Some folks brought yarn to buy and some were gifts.

Left to right: Alpaca from Alpaca With A Twist (enough for a shawl); leftover fingering weight from Green Mountain Spinnery (enough for a shawl); undyed recycled sari silk from India (hand delivered by Joy; thank you!)(to be dyed to go with the other sari silk I have on hand).

Laceweight (enough for a shawl) and Sock yarn (a pair each) from Knitivity.

For the spinners, Barbara brought fiber. The yarn in the center is my first handspun from a handspindle, coaxed and encouraged by Barbara and Fudge's guidance.

Top row: Angora/Wool/Nylon fingering (enough for a shawl). Bottom row: Wool (enough to make a cabled sweater).

Baby yarn for a few baby sweaters.

Sock yarn for 3 pair of socks (the upper left two skeins make one pair).

Wool light worsted weight (enough for a Rogue sweater for my office buddy Linda).

Did she or didn't she?

Ted had to read my post on camp 4 times to see if I really did give blood. Yes, I did. I didn't intend to but on Thursday when I was with Ann and her daughter Grace one of the things they were going to do was donate blood. A drive was going on that day and the previous day (they don't have an open blood bank like larger cities do). It was a spur of the moment decision but it had been since before my surgery that I had given blood (I donate regularly), so I thought I'd give something to the community. I got a bit of teasing but I gave it back, regaling my nurse with my rendition of "Home On the Range":

Oh put me in a home where the catatonic roam

And the beer and the canteloupe play.

Where seldom is heard a coherent word

And the coffee's not cloudy all day.

Home, home of the strange,

Where the beer and the canteloupe play.

Where seldom is heard a coherent word

And the coffee's not cloudy all day.

The nurse thought he was hearing things so I had to sing it twice. I didn't sing it very loudly the first time. So I really did need that beer at Madison's. Gotta replenish those fluids. I must say though that the volunteers at the drive were very generous with the food for the donors. It was the first time I could get a sandwich (egg salad or chicken salad or a pbj) for replenishment purposes. So if they need a pint again, they can give me a call any time. I'm sure I'm not going to be forgotten with that crew.

Goodies from the Great White North

Here's the story behind the yarn.

He's such a sweetie. Now to figure out what I can knit up with it.