What do you do on the hottest day of the year??

So let's talk about Saturday... Saturday was almost 40 degrees Celsius WITH extreme humidity and no breeze whatsoever. That kind of weather makes you want to melt. That kind of weather makes your clothes stick to you and your hair look like something a bird might call home. So what might an enterprising young Canadian woman do on such a day you might ask - surely she headed for the beach? Surely she didn't spend the day seaming and felting wool?? What can I say - I'm a sucker for punishment...

This is the Tab-Top Tote from Felted Knits - knit up in Briggs and Little Heritage wool (Red Heather) - I added 10 stitches to the cast on and about 3 rounds to the increases to make it a bit bigger. If I were to do this again, instead of adding extra tabs to account for the extra stitches at the end, I would space out the existing tabs as the top came out a bit busy. My favorite part of this project was the double-bottom. The second bottom panel was knit seperately, then you pick up the purl rows from the bottom of the bag and connect the bottom of the bag to the second bottom panel with a 3 needle bind-off. This made for a wonderfully smooth and sturdy seam.

Pre-felting...


Post-felting...


What's inside?? Felted Knits of course! And a swatch for Rowan Peace Cardi...


So, that's the end of the knitting content for today but I do have a self-deprecating story and some cute pet pictures to come for those of you who are interested.

Self-deprecating story first. We do not live in town - our house is out in the country and because of that we've got a pretty large backyard. Large enough that we don't mow with a "push" lawnmower. We've got a "ride-on" mower. This weekend, I decided that I would like to learn to ride the "ride-on" mower. It sounds like a very simple thing but there are lots of intimidating little knobs and levers that could cause much confusion for someone who has never done such a thing. Brad was very patient and explained all of the knobs/levers - I hopped on the mower and off I went! Now, a "ride-on" mower is not exactly a speedy machine so I did a huge slow circle of the backyard and as I was coming up the far side - I see Brad yelling something to me but I can't hear over the noisy engine. He continues to yell and then starts striding purposely toward me. I can't believe it - I'm sure he's being incredibly chauvanistic and is on his way over to tell little ole me how to "properly" mow the lawn. I'm getting ready to roll my eyes and tell him I'm a grown woman and just because this is the first time I've been on a "ride-on" mower, it isn't the first time I've mowed a lawn so please just let me do it my way. He's gets close enough for me to hear and before I can get a word out, he shouts with an amused grin "PUT THE MOWER DOWN!" Oh. Crap. Apparently, I'd just been driving around the yard - wasn't mowing a darn thing. Blush.

And now the cute pet pictures. Remember how I said Saturday was a make you melt sort of hot day? Well, you would think that the "boys" would want to have lots of space - maybe even spend the day in the cool basement? You would think so but this is what they did instead...

First, we've got Bigsy and Niblet. Understandable - cats generally enjoy warm places and although I thought it was a bit much for the heat, I didn't really think twice about it.


But later that day, I see Bigsy and Otis sharing the dog bed. This is much stranger since Otis does not enjoy the heat at all.


Finally, I walk into the room and see this! haha! Apparently Bigsy makes a better pillow than the pillow.

That's a Wrap...

Mary is all wrapped up. Heh - sorry I couldn't help it but I promise that is the last of the "wrap" jokes. The pictures don't exactly do her justice - I had just pulled her out of a bag at SnB so I'll try to take more once she's washed and blocked. I was a little too excited to get them posted.

I'M NOT READY YET!!


The front view...


The rear view...I'm gonna shorten those ties - they're ridiculous.


Side View?


Whirling Dirvish View...


So with Mary finally finished up and languishing in the closet (far too hot for this type of sweater at present). I was wrapping...er...I mean wracking my brain for a new project (groan...I know that one was bad). I decided it was time to stop putting off a knitting bag so I'm making a felted tab top tote from Felted Knits - it's about half way up the sides so shouldn't take long to complete at all - a red tweedy color. Believe me - it's nice to do some mindless knitting in the round after all that k6,p6 ribbing. After that probably Honeymoon Cami - tis the tanktop season.

You're Gonna Be Jealous if you Read any Further... (just sayin)

So I get to SnB last night and Michelle had a surprise for me - check it out!!

(start drumroll please...)

My Brand Spanking New Hand-Crafted by Michelle Needle Roll

Here it is casually splayed open to reveal the goodies within.



Another shot with my new (did I mention it's dark pink on light pink?) needle roll partially rolled up - showing just a hint of needle slot (naughty roll indeed)...



All rolled up...



Then we've got the standard half fold pose...(did I mention I love my new needle roll?)



And finally the full fold which in some ways looks even neater than the full roll...I may have to call this my new needle fold instead of roll. Hmmm...



Thanks Michelle! I clearly LOVE it.

So that was my excitement last night. Oh, and I've finished the sleeves for 'Mary' finally - now I'm working on the ties which are 30 inches long but only 3 stitches wide so not so bad. THEN I can start blocking/seaming. I suppose I should start reading the pattern fully so as not to get surprised by 60 inches of "tie" at what I thought was the end of the project. Although, why the ties would be a surprise I can't say, since they're quite clearly visible in the photo...oh well...that's another discussion altogether.

I actually spent today working from home - will be free to knit very shortly and get those darn ties finished up. So, for anyone who has ever wondered what your pets do while you're at work? Here you go...







They nap. Some prefer shoes, some the sofa, some specially designed pet tent beds but without a doubt they are napping. Actually, I don't think napping quite captures it - by definition a nap is not meant to last upwards of 8 hours - let's call it hard core sleeping. Otis has been squeaking out sleep barks all day - hilarious!!

Knitting on the Water...

Well, I did not finish 'Mary'/ribby wrap - still have a bit to knit on the second sleeve before I can start blocking/seaming. The sleeve WILL be finished up tonight at SnB though - in fact, I'm not leaving Michelle's house until Mary's sleeve is finished. Maybe I should have brought a sleeping bag...

Anyhow, Brad and I went out in the canoe this Saturday afternoon. And while he did this:



I did this:





The result:



Special thanks to Bigsy for allowing the use of his tail to demonstrate the scale of the campfire sock.

A few items of note:
1. It's not the greatest picture so I wanted to stress that that is not a teeny-tiny fish dangling from Brad's line. Well, actually it is a teeny-tiny fish albeit a plastic one. Just a lure...no fishies were harmed in the taking of these photos. Actually, no fishies were harmed at all on Saturday. ;-) We had hotdogs, watermelon and smores for supper.

2. In the first photo of me knitting, that teeny spec you see behind me is our house across the river. I was really, really, really sore Sunday morning after that paddle.

3. For the more "eagle-eyed" among us, I will confess that my campfire sock knitting was sitting in a nasty plastic Jumbo Video bag. However, given that I was in a canoe, I think this can be forgiven.

The Home "Stretch"...

Well, I'm on the home stretch and I do mean STRETCH with 'Mary' or, as Anna has termed her, the Ribby Wrap (try saying that 5 times fast). Just one sleeve to go - can I finish it up this weekend? I'd sure like to.

Check out how the rib springs in once it's past the needles...this pattern and yarn have got some serious stretch factor.



I'm not really sure how to go about blocking it though - at first I was thinking I'd block it to lie flat but I'm not sure if that is the right thing to do or if it should "cling" a bit - I don't want it to lose it's "sproingy" quality entirely. Oh well, maybe I'll seam and then block so I can get a look at a before and after - hmmm...maybe that is tempting disaster, it's definitely going to need a block of some kind. I'm sure it'll all work itself out. Has anyone ever blocked giant, sproingy cotton angora rib before??

I haven't been posting much recently since I didn't think anyone would be interested in seeing 1/4 of a sleeve - oh wait, there's 1/2 a sleeve - 3/4s done... ;-) Even I'm getting to the point of wanting the rib to end. Hopefully, there'll be some finished photos early next week.

I did get a couple of new books recently. I've been browsing through and they're quite informative. The Craft Night Girls are going to start doing a lesson in something the first Monday of every month. When my turn comes around to be the "teacher", I'm definitely going to do kool-aid dying (the sock book has great instructions). Nice and messy!!