Summer Flies

Sorry to have been so MIA for so long, but it's been a busy, and wonderful summer. More to come later but here's a few snapshots:
Good times.

It's like I'm cool enough to have a life

I mean, I never have stuff to do. Plans and what not. But the past few weeks... I have. And a whole bunch of them. Crazy.

So I'll go back - Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, I was off with some knitting pals to the Great Lakes Fiber Festival in Wooster. Well, that's what the day was supposed to be about, anyway. Instead, it seemed as though we ate our way through Stark County. But it was such a great day.
Funny that the only picture I took at the festival was of the biggest fluffiest angora bunny they had. Seriously - I'm really thinking that my niece and nephews might enjoy a few of these.... just sayin....
Rebecca demonstrating the enormity of the onion rings at dinner.
Bad lighting - but that was the whole group of us.
The best part of the day was getting to meet a pal that I've known on Ravelry for the last couple of years - Michelle - who was actually my "mentor" when I first started the Harry Potter craziness. It's awesome to meet virtual friends - and it seemed like we had known each other for ever. Can't wait to get together with her again, maybe with some actual knitting.

After dinner, we were on a mission to find the sometimes elusive Lerch's Donuts truck. Alicia and Beth both lived in Wooster and had been going on about how we just had to have some donuts. These particular donuts.
Lucky for us, it was where it was reported to be, and the donuts were excellent. I was even nice enough to bring some home with me. And even after that, we ended up at an ice cream/dairy place. And it was excellent as well. So not WW - but so good.

Last Saturday morning was the last soccer game.
Good times. Poor kiddos were so hot though. I mean, if a bunch of 4 year olds start asking for breaks, and not wanting to run and play because it's too hot, you know that it's hot.

Tuesday was Mom's birthday. Charlie happened to be in town for business so we made our way to the Indians game.
Can you see that?
Is that better? Yep, texted a message to be on the big JumboTron. So cool.
See how close we were to Grady?!
Am I the only one that finds it awesome that the Ketchup Hot Dog wears the Wild Thing glasses, complete with skull and crossbones at the bridge? Love it!
There wasn't a whole heck of offense, but the Indians got just enough for a 1-0 win over the Twins. And yeah, my brother caught not one but two BP balls out in right field.

And the plans continue this weekend, today Mom and I are off to the Riverfront Irish Festival (so excited!) and then tomorrow we've got Broadway Series tickets to "Next to Normal". Not to mention the fact that it's an all-girls weekend because Dad is off in NJ living it up.

I'll do a knitting post sometime in the next few days, even though there doesn't seem to be a lot of that going on right now. Too engrossed in George R.R. Martin books right now (seriously, I couldn't put "Storm of Swords" down!), not to mention I've got way too many projects going to make noticeable changes.

Odd

Odd. That basically sums up this entire spring. Between work and the weather and the fact that May is nearly over (how did that happen?), it's just been odd. No other way to put it really. Softball lost last Friday. Baseball had it rough - due to the weather, the 2 first round games were postponed, so they ended up finishing game 1 on Thursday, playing Friday to finish the first round, then had to play Saturday before prom, then again Sunday (when they lost 6-5). 4 straight days of playoff games with minimal pitching - it's just rough. LAX plays today, I don't have a good feeling about it. Too many of the guys just don't care because it's not hockey. Oh well.

I have entirely too many project going as far as knitting right now. Something else that feels odd - half the time I just don't know what I want to knit. And then I don't want to let myself start anything new because I already have so much going. Seriously, it's not a good thing. Need to buckle down and finish some stuff already.

I did finish my April socks - the Seussical Socks. And they are awesome.
So I did let myself start another pair of socks. Pattern is Pointelle, from knit.sock.love - and they are hand knit art for my feet. Seriously.
The pictures don't do them justice. And looking at them makes me think that I could really use a set of sock blockers. But I don't. That might just take it all a little too far.

I started a new spinning project. A lovely bump of Polwarth from Woolgatherings, that I had originally purchased with a mind to spin it for St. Patrick's Day, but that didn't happen. And I'm kinda happy now, as it's less green, orange and white and more citrus-y.
A nice spin, and the colors are very cheery and summery - which is good after all the rain.
I only managed to spin half of it so far.

I've made decent progress on the Strafford Tee - not sure if I've mentioned that here on the blog yet. Oh well, it's a lovely little summer top out of Hempathy - which is an interesting yarn, to say the least.
That's 9.5 inches, in case you couldn't tell. Only 6 more inches to go before the fun lacy part.

And then there's a little lacy shawl that I absolutelyhadtostartthisveryminute that finally looks like a big lace blob.
Annoying how lace does that - it looks ugly until it's blocked and then it's gorgeous. It's the Rock Island pattern - and it has reminded me why I have stayed away from patterns that have you knit the edging and then pick up stitches. Seriously. 71 repeats of 8 rows that were only 12-15 stitches. Ugh! And it's not good tv knitting, so it doesn't get much time.

So I started an easy peasy shawl that barely requires thought. The Eiki pattern - all proceeds of the pattern sale went to Earthquake relief.
Not much to look at right now, but check out the awesomeness that is the yarn:
It's gonna look so cool when it's done. I promise.

Saturday, I went out to soccer again, with Mom and Ellie:
I learned that Elliott is really really good at cheating at soccer. But it's hilarious.

I'll leave you with my other recently finished object - another monkey. This one won't live here for long.
Seriously, so cute together!

Picture Pages

The last month, in pictures.

Easter presents for the kiddos:

Easter with the kiddos:

First of Elliott's soccer "games":
Mitered Crosses blanket, complete with the square that I accidentally cut too close to the knot, and now have to rip apart:

First of the Seussical Socks, before I ripped out the leg and re-knit it:

Finished yarn from the blue Water roving:

Finished Harold for a pal, she gets to choose the mouth:
Derby Day silliness:
Yeah, I knit an octopus to put atop some tulle for my fascinator. And I totally rocked it, I have a feeling that Philip Treacy will be calling soon.