It is a gorgeous Sunday afternoon here in Northern NJ. The little’uns are playing on the patio with their ever present sand so I decided to take advantage of the mobile blogging platform (dude got a Dell laptop a couple of months ago – Inspiron 710m – tiny little thing that does me good) and whip out a post. The pictures may not be the best as monitor is competing with the sun for dominance and the monitor is losing. Plus I’m too darn lazy to go inside and do this so we’ll just hope for the best. Good thing I touch type 
Anyway, yesterday we had a lovely visit to Deb’s house to share in the celebration of Chappy’s 5th birthday. Deb’s friend Cindy came over with her two dogs. There were plenty of dogs, sunshine, food and friends which made for a wonderful day. It was even worth the 45 minute meltdown histeria that Alex pitched after having a napless afternoon followed by only a 30 minute nap on the way home. Suffice it to say, it wasn’t pretty. Thankfully a good bit of it took place up in his room while I was in the kitchen with a sleepy, but quiet, Kat making dinner. Deb gave me an early and very cool birthday present: the boxset of the Electric Company. How cool is that? I loved the show as a kid and I look forward to seeing it again, this time with my kids. Thanks Deb!
Sorry had to take a break there. The shorties fell apart and I had to get them in for a nap. I’m listening to them argue about how they aren’t going to nap over the evil monitor. Oh yes they are. Anyway…
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I finished the Lisa Souza Socks! in the What-A-Melon colorway. The pattern was nothing more than my basic toe up recipe with a straight stockinette, the PGR YO short row heel, 2×2 rib and a sewn bind-off. I love the yarn and look forward to digging out the Mahogany colorway sooner rather than later. The socks are definitely fraternal twins, but I have a preference for that variety anyway! Not surprisingly.
I’ve made very decent progress on the Pinwheel sweater. Friday night I completed the last two rounds and braced for the i-cord bind off. I tried it as written, but I just wasn’t happy with how it was looking. I thought it looked a little busy, especially for someone tiny like me. I ripped it out and tried a simple knitted on i-cord edging. I was a little underwhelmed with that as well. It was as I was ripping that attempt out that I figured that it didn’t really need anything. The last 6+" was garter stitch, it could stand on its own without anything else. I bound off loosely. I like it! A few sleeves and this baby will be done. I love the color range and how the thing feels. The down thing is that it is a large amount of worsted weight wool sitting in my lap in July.
[update: all is quiet upstairs as the monkeys are napping. I love the "I'm not tired" complaint. The more they complain the tireder I know they are and the quicker they actually go to sleep. 
]
That brings me back to my lack of focus feeling towards my current WIPS.
- While I’m quite close to being able to finish Pinwheel, I’d rather not have all that wool in my lap now, plus it is too darn big to commute with.
- I have Reid underway, but haven’t touched that in quite a while and realize that I’d really rather not do lace with cotton. It was less than kind to my hands. I’m trying to decide if I’ll ever go back to it or would it be better served made out of something different, like um Rowan Wool Cotton. Now there’s an idea. I’ll probably modify the pattern to make it in one piece rather than four and sewing it. Blech. That’s settled, Reid is DOA.
- I had been going like gangbusters on Wendy’s Lisa, but lost focus on that as well. Maybe it was the gauge. Maybe it was the endless 2×2 ribbing. Whatever it was, I just don’t have it in me to continue it. I should check the yardage of the yarn and see what else it might be good for and redirect that wonderful drape and feel someplace else.
- Ribby? Another bit of worsted wool that just isn’t summer knitting friendly.
What does this boil down to? I’m not too sure. There are two DOA’s where I need to reclaim the yarn. Pinwheel will slowly but surely get done, but only at home and only with the A/C cranking. Ribby will just go into the holding pattern that it has been in for months. I need something to knit (other than the endless progression of socks and whatever lace is on the needles). The two leading candidates are:
CeCe and Sizzle. I have yarn for both of them. Well, in all honestly, going to a yarn store for a SnB has been the death of my SoS, and I picked up some Cascade Sierra in a dark green black for Sizzle on Thursday. CeCe has some gorgeous Rowan Calmer pegged for it that has been aging in stash for a while. I sense that Sizzle would be the quicker knit, but I could get more use out of CeCe.
Such choices. Lets have a show of hands a quick vote here please. In the meantime, I’ll be working on the much neglected Shetland Tea Shawl or the Calla Lily socks (which I ripped out Friday morning BTW and started again using my standard sock recipe – can’t actually tell why).
Craft on!
