I have lots of pictures to share, but no time right now, maybe tomorrow or the next day. I went to the San Diego monthly Knit-together in Balboa Park last Saturday. It was a great time and I learned to spin! I even met a couple fellow bloggers. Links in my next post! Then my cousin and her family came for a visit and I had a mini vacation and showed them the sights. We got terrific sunburns and wore ourselves out, but laughed and had fun the entire time. I even taught her and her daughter to knit. Ha! Two more converts :o). Three exclamation points in one paragraph! Oops, I mean four. Is that a major grammar faux pas? It was all exciting stuff, believe me.

This weekend I was a lump on the couch. I think this past week is one of the hottest we’ve had since moving here two years ago, and our air conditioning conveniently went out. That’s right, it’s been 88 degrees in the house, at 7:00 pm. Lovely. The needed replacement part has arrived, however, and is scheduled to be here tomorrow. Bless you, air conditioning repair man!

I made a cousin for Mort, for a new neice (sceduled to arrive sometime in October), her name is Sally Bean (Mort’s cousin, not my neice), and that is one of the pictures I will put up here shortly. She is purple and a bit more serious than Mort, because being purple makes you that way, I guess.

Man, where does the time go? I haven’t knit much this past week, here is a progress photo:

I just have to finish sewing up the booties and they’ll be done. I’m up to the cap shaping on the Salt Peanuts sleeve, and the sock is just for when I want a little project. I think Salt Peanuts is going to be a long-term kind of project. I like the yarn, but my hands get tired, because I have to pull it pretty tight in order to stay on gauge. I’m using birch needles, maybe it would be easier with plastic or metal needles? I may give that a try.

Lately I’ve felt more like sewing than knitting. Last weekend I made myself a blouse:

I used a pattern, but made some minor alterations, inspired by my Anthropologie catalogues. Maybe someday when I’m not quite as large as I am now, I’ll take a picture while wearing it :o). It is actually very flattering, so maybe I’ll be brave and take a picture despite my current plumpness.

Monday’s big project was to take Bear to the groomer for a bath and a haircut for the summer. I feel so terrible, he was so excited to go for a ride in the car, and then I left him with the groomer, where he stood at the door on his hind legs and watched me drive off. No dog has more pitiful facial expressions than that dog. It took five hours, what with all the nervous peeing and shaking. I came back for the last half hour, and I’ve never seen a dog tremble with fear like that. He finally made it, though, and we went to Wendy’s for hamburgers after that. He’s very happy with his short hair now:

A lot has been going on since I last updated, but because I’ve been so busy I’ve also been just way to tired to post anything. And because some of that busy-ness involved working on computers, I really didn’t want to sit at the computer and write an entry.

I didn’t making it to the spinning class, it was nearly 6:00 when I left the pharmacy with some drugs that ended up making me into a groggy zombie. The next Wednesday I had to finish up editing the Valley Views, so I couldn’t go then either. I decided that spinning will have to wait until the Fall session. And I decided that I need to eliminate some stress from my life. So I think the next issue of the Valley Views will be my last. Last October I had Shingles, which is just an unpleasant experiance, and it seems that whenever I start feeling a lot of stress and don’t get enough rest I still get some residual pain in the areas where I suffered the most nerve damage. For me it’s mostly the back of my left hand, the left side of my forehead and the left side of my back where the rash was. It’s annoying and I don’t have time for that kind of crap. Stupid Shingles. /end of whining.

In happy, creative news, I finished the blanket! Hallelujah! I’m never making another one. It is nice, though. Now to try and make it to the post office to send it off. There exists a ‘late-mailer’ gene, and it’s dominant in my family. We are never able to mail gifts and things in a timely fashion. I’m trying to overcome this gene, but I’m afraid it’s a losing battle.

Now that I’m free for other things, I’m back to working on Salt Peanuts in earnest, as well as a pair of baby booties and my first ever socks (using Wendy’s Toe-up pattern). I’ll post pictures later.

Since I have ADD, I also decided to make some quilts this year. I’m well underway on the first one:

It’s just a simple patchwork for the guest house. I just want a small quilt to fold up at the end of the bed. I’ll hand quilt 1/4″ inside each square, and that will be that. It may be plain, but do you see how nicely I matched all my corners?

The other quilts in the planning stages are for the living room, which is going to be my next decorating project once I finish the kitchen (I just have to paint those darn chairs). More on these two quilts later. I can say that I just got this fabric to slipcover my two wing chairs, which are currently white (2 cats + 2 dogs + 1 husband who likes to work in the yard + white furniture=not a good idea).

I love it!

A local adult education program has a spinning class starting tonight and for the next 5 Wednesdays! And the fee is only $22! I so want to go, but I pinched something in my upper back, and I’m not sure if I’ll make it. I have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon in the hopes that I’ll get some good drugs, because right now this sucks. The pain is shooting up my neck and down my right arm and I can’t really get comfortable or accomplish much. Blech.

I was extraordinarily productive this weekend. I was on such a roll, I wish I’d had another couple days. First I made a friend for my nephew:

His name is Mort, and he will be in the mail tomorrow along with the sweater. I’m thinking I’ll make a few more of these, I sketched a bunch of different ones, and he came out just like the sketch I chose. I love it when that happens. He’s made of wool felt and a little embroidery floss and a couple buttons. Simple and fun to make!

I also finished my last kitchen curtain:

The one on the right is the one I finished Saturday, the one on the left was finished some time last year. I procrasitinate occasionally. It’s so good to have the hideous mini-blinds out of there, real curtains make such a difference. And these were the bargain of the year, since I got the floral fabric from the remnent pile at Calico Corners. Original price? $49.95/yard! My price? 75% off! ($12.50 for the math-impaired). It’s a linen/cotten blend. I love me some linen.

I also scrubbed the kitchen clean, saw “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkeban” and knitted more of the boring blanket (I’m about to start on skein 5 of 6! Hallelujah, the end is in sight).

I did not, however, get my giant pile of laundry folded. It wasn’t my fault, however, as Gigi, the cross-eyed kitty was guarding it for most of the weekend (here she’s on top of the boring blanket as well):

And lastly, I spent a some time outside, puttering in my little garden:

The man is in charge of most of the yard, but I have my little corner and my big pots of herbs. Bear likes to stand right next to us when we work in the yard. Even when it’s 90 degrees out, I have warm dog leaning in to me at all times.

Today’s title brought to you in honor of Carrie. There was controversy in the knitting blog world yesterday, which is not a phrase I ever thought I’d utter. People are silly and it’s too bad some of them need to be just mean. Didn’t their mother’s ever tell them that if they can’t say something nice, just keep yer trap shut?

I have big projects planned for the weekend, so come back soon for lots of pictures. Meanwhile, I’m finally getting myself together and packing up the nephew sweater to send. I didn’t want his big sisters to feel left out, however, so I made them some funny hats from the Mission Falls ‘Just Kidding’ book:

I also picked up some yellow-gold wool felt yesterday, and am working on my own version of an ugly doll for my nephew. Boys are fun :o)