Well, it's that time of year again. Dog days of summer. A year ago this week, we had temps pushing 100. This year, it's not been quite that bad, temps sitting firmly in the upper 80s low 90s, but the humidity is so high, it feels like a sauna. But with the heat of August comes the knowledge that fall is not far off and on the heels of that...the holidays! The girls over at Stash & Burn reminded us this week, it's not too early to start thinking about Christmas knitting. Indeed. I've started giving it some thought and do have a few things in mind to make for gifts this year. Most of my family is sensitive to wool, so I have to be a little careful of my choices. Meanwhile, I've got plenty of projects to keep me going. No progress pictures of the WIPs today. The only one with noticeable progress is the 2nd footie sock. I'm getting very near the end of the yarn, so I must soon be done, I hope! I've knit some on the Montego Bay scarf, but have a long way to go. The other socks, cardigan and vest are all collecting dust at the moment.
I've been reading a lot this summer. Mostly audiobooks and mostly Lillian Jackson Braun's "The Cat Who..." books. My mom and sister have enjoyed her books for some time, I'm so late at getting on the bandwagon. They are delightful little tales of a man and his two Siamese cats. There's always a little mystery to be solved, but mostly it's lighthearted, life in a small town stories. When I found this book, I had to have it.
I love companion books. Especially for a series such as this one with tons of recurring characters. Haven't even had the chance to crack the cover on this one yet, but hopefully tomorrow night. After Doctor Who, of course! Are you tuning in for season 3? Friday nights on SciFi. New time this week...8:00!
I purchased new yarn for the Huck Lace shawl...
Absolutely gorgeous Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in Iris. Imagine a fluffy soft kitten and you'll have an approximation of just how soft this yarn is. And the color is amazing. I'm so glad I went with this color. I had such a hard time deciding. I think this heathery solid will work much better for the Huck Lace than the variegated yarn did. This yarn is fine, really fine. I'm a bit nervous about knitting with it since I've only just adapted to fingering weight and this is for sure a lace weight. But I feel I've grown a lot as a knitter this last year and am a lot more adventurous to try new things.
Mrs Beeton, also newly arrived and waiting in the wings.
These are both Elann yarns. Super Kydd in Ice Blue and Peruvian Quechua (an alpaca tencel blend) in Dusky Lavender. The lavender is much more blue than purple so I'm not sure the beads I had picked out are going to work. I'm making a trip to the craft store this weekend and will see if I can't find something that matches a bit better. I did also purchase a ball of the Quechua in Parchment figuring I might do a hand dye for a 2nd pair of Mrs Beetons, if I like the first pair enough.
Reason for the craft store jaunt this weekend...
Punchneedle embroidery supplies so I can make ANYTHING from this book! Grannie's needles seem to be working pretty good in my little test last weekend. I don't have proper fabric or a proper hoop, so that's my mission this weekend. I can't wait to give this a proper go.
Oh yeah. I'll be doing that and canning more tomatoes! And look...
I found a food mill! Life is good.
OOTP was excellent. I actually saw it twice this weekend. And I enjoyed it even more the second time around. They stuck pretty close to the book. The changes that were made didn't take away from the story at all, just helped it to consolidate things and get the movie length down some. As with GOF and I'm sure as will be with movies 6 & 7, there's just no way to get all of JKR's rich detail into a 2-3 hour movie. But there was lots of great subtle stuff. Like in one scene when Umbridge has caught Harry trying to use her fire to access the floo network and you see boxes and boxes of confiscated Weasley Skiving Snackboxes lined along the wall. And when the DA meets for the very first time in the Hog's Head, we see a goat by the bar with the bartender. I'm pretty sure that wasn't in book 5, but it's definitely in book 7. Fred & George's departure was great. The ending duel was outstanding. One of the few things that didn't live up to my expectations was the house on Grimauld Place. In my head, it was always a single house, the movie had it as a row-home. The inside was much as I pictured it would be, but I just always pictured a dilapidated old house on the outside too. Can't wait for the DVD! I'm hoping they have deleted scenes for some of the stuff that was rushed through.
I finished the first footie sock I'm making with the leftover Opal Cotton yarn. 
I decided to try a short row heel again and it turned out really well. I watched the videos on Knitting Help over and over to make sure I was picking up the wraps correctly and I think that really helped. I've still got a hole at each end of the short rows, but I think I know what I did wrong and hope to correct it on the 2nd sock.
Tonight...
I'm canning tomatoes. The kitchen smells great. I've only got a small batch, but I should get 4-5 pints out of it. This batch I'll just freeze. I'm hoping to have enough to do up in jars by the weekend. And it's supposed to be good and hot the rest of the week, so it's a good possibility.
Mom and I were off to Quilt Odyssey yesterday. Another fabulous show this year. The most amazing quilt on display was a reversible quilt. The front was white the back was black. The design was machine quilted with colored thread on both sides. It won best in show. When they get pictures up on their website, I'll be sure to link it. The vendor mall was great this year. Lots of variety. I was very good, though and bought only a few things.
As I explained to mom, just like sock yarn, fat quarters don't count. Buy as many as you want. The one in the center is destined to be another project bag. I also picked up a new Jim Shore Heartwood Creak figure. One stand was full of them, but I restrained myself. Lunch was at Isaac's and then we went shopping at the Hershey Outlets. The day was lovely and warm and we got home just before a thunderstorm rolled in.
In knitting news, I frogged the Huck Lace shawl. I finished the first whole repeat of the huck lace pattern and the more I looked at it, the more I was convinced it wasn't right. So I ripped it out and rewound the yarn and decided to cast on Montego Bay. This pattern is super easy and moving along pretty quickly. I think the scarf will be lovely.
I haven't given up on the Huck Lace shawl, but think I will end up knitting it in a different yarn. The more pictures I see of shawls that other people have done, the more I like it in a solid color. I'm looking at the Alpaca Cloud from Knit Picks. Should make a soft, warm shawl and be pretty inexpensive too.
Look at what the mailman brought me today!
Back issues of Yarn Magazine, straight from Australia and the new Vogue Knitting (it's another one of theirs with 2 different covers, so don't be fooled if you see a different cover on the newsstand). Alas, I won't be able to read them today as I'm off to see OOTP.
I did very little reading while reading Deathly Hallows over the weekend. But I did manage to finish the Bamboo Socks.
They fit great. I wore them to work today. Very soft and comfy. I love the shine they have. I would definitely knit this yarn again.
Now I'm working on knitting the hem of the V-neck cardi. I'm about half way through the first of the Opal footies. The temperature has been abnormally cool and I'm getting itchy for some sweater knitting. I'm avoiding the siren song though as I know it will be hot again soon. I'm hoping the bits of hand knitting on the cardi will be enough to satisfy the itch.
My collection is now complete.
The book is read and I know how it all turns out. If you haven't read the book yet, stop now and go read the book.
As usual, JKR did a fantastic job. To read a nearly 800 page book in 2 days for me, the writing has to be good. I was a little surprised that 2 characters were killed in the first hundred pages. It wasn't a blood bath, but there were a number of deaths in this one, some expected, some not. As expected, good conquers evil. I was glad we finally found out why Dumbledore so implicitly trusted Snape. His belief that love is the strongest magic at the heart of it, of course. I wish there had been some interaction between Snape and Harry, did Harry forgive and accept Snape's role? I would also have liked more to the end of the story. The battle ends and then we skip forward 19 years, the kids of the trio are now heading off to Hogwarts. So obviously Hogwarts recovered, but how? Under who's guidance? And what finally became of the trio, besides getting married and having kids? Overall, I'm quite satisfied with the book as a whole though. I do hope the rumors that JKR will someday release a compendium type book are true. I would love to read full character descriptions and histories of the places and things in the books from her point of view.
I'm a bit sad now it's over. But I do believe this is one of the best series of books I've ever read. To mastermind such a complex story over 7 books so superbly is an astounding feat. My hat is off to JK Rowling and thank her heartily for her outstanding contribution to literature.
And now, normal activity can resume. I'm off to knit!
It's here!
See you in a few days.
It's 8:30 am, Saturday July 21. Deathly Hallows has been officially out for over 8 hours. I'm waiting, rather impatiently, for mine to arrive. I don't regret my decision not to attend a midnight release party, but I'm anxious to start reading nonetheless. According to Amazon's tracking, my book is being delivered UPS. Last time (HBP) it came USPS and I had it by 10. We rarely get UPS delivery on a Saturday and whenever we have, it hasn't been until late in the day. I just checked UPS's little tracking thing and it does not show "Out for delivery" yet. Argh! I hardly slept last night, such was my excitement. Rather than waste the morning pacing the floor, I'm going to try to get some work done. Dinner is in the crockpot so when the book does come I won't have to stop for such trivial things as feeding my husband. I've got the last load of laundry washing now. Maybe I'll try to squeeze a nap in so I can read into the wee hours. And yes, there's always knitting. I realized I didn't plan a project to knit while reading this time. For HBP I worked on the Landscape shawl. Lots of mindless knitting. Today, I have a bunch of stuff on the needles.
Some might work...
Footies in the Opal left from the Horcrux socks. Look! A short row heel!! 
The V-neck tank, still working the stockinette back.
The bamboo socks, which appear to be in black hole status right now. Seems no matter how much I knit, they aren't getting any longer.
Some that won't work...
The Huck Lace shawl, finally past the boring garter stitch and into the pattern. But you have to knit into stitches below the live stitches which means looking at your work. Not book knitting.
The tube socks, haven't knit a stitch on these in probably a month. The pattern shifts a stitch every two rows and I find if I'm not paying attention, I forget to shift.
The V-neck Cardi. It needs to be seamed before I can finish the hand work. Although if the book doesn't come by lunch, I may get some seaming done this afternoon.
While I'm at it taking pictures, here's some yarn porn for you. I haven't bought much yarn lately, but Carodan Farms had a really good sale last week and I snagged a ball of Regia Java in color 1177. It's another cotton blend sock yarn.
And here is a tiny ball of the new Treadsoft yarn that I dyed. I was aiming for a 50 g skein, but there was a knot in the hank so it's only about 40g.
This was kettle dyed by laying the skein around the perimeter of the pot and adding just enough water to cover. Then you pour the dye directly into the water over the section of yarn you want to dye. The colors sort of blend a bit more and its way less precise than hand painting. I got the idea here (although she used kool-aid rather than acid dye.) It was super easy and I might try this technique again. The results here were a bit iffy, but I think it will make fine socks. I'm hoping there's enough for a pair of footies.
It's now after 10. I had to run an errand and take all these pictures. Still no book.
Glorious! I absolutely love these.
I can't wait for fall to get here to wear these. The yarn is from Elann. Super Kydd in Ice Blue is the whisper soft mohair and Peruvian Quechua in Dusky Lavender is an alpaca tencel blend. I ended up getting blue 11/0 beads for the top cuff and used the purple 8/0 for the bottom cuff. You can barely see the beads in the picture, but they are a great subtle accent and definitely worth the effort to do the beading. Some people leave the beads off, but i think they make the cuffs so much more elegant. I did not enjoy knitting with the mohair at all, but once past that point, these were a super easy and fast project to knit.
I'm very pleased with the results. This is a super easy craft and the results are impressive. But I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. Probably frame it. I've just found that DMC makes a wool floss (this was done with standard DMC cotton embroidery floss). I've got to get my hands on the wool. I think it will give an even more folk feel to the designs.
On the right a batch of lavender with my own dried lavender adorning the tops and on the left a highly experimental batch of almond soap made with the leftovers of all the oils I had. I weighed the oils and plugged it into a soap calculator to determine how much lye to use. The bars are really quite nice at this stage. I'm going to let them cure for a few weeks before giving them a try. I just placed an order for more oils. I've been having a dickens of a time finding oils at a decent price around here lately. I decided to try this place since their prices seem good and they were recommended on a podcast I just listened to. I'll let you know how I make out.
