The Sea Silk Stole is about 4,000 stitches away from being done! Which is only 48 or so rows, which really, isn’t a lot. It just sounds like a lot. But it isn’t a lot! I’m on the edging.

I’m so excited!

The girls are sewing beads and buttons onto squares of denim that we’ll sew into little purses later today.

They’re having fun, and I’ve told them that if they can figure out how to do it without needing help every other stitch, they can make beaded and buttoned purses and such to their hearts’ content, all summer long.

Weird story…

At 3:30 am Sunday morning, I awoke to Nate’s car alarm. I looked out the window and his dome light was on, so he and I got flashlights and went outside. The streetlight in front of our house has been out for a few weeks, so it was pitch black out there. Nate shined the flashlight on an abandoned suitcase on wheels on the sidewalk at the end of our walkway. His car door had been opened, but not damaged, thankfully. They must have had a slim jim or something.

My house/car keys had been left in plain sight in his car, and fortunately, they got spooked off before grabbing them. That was the only thing in the car, so nothing was stolen. We called the police and on the way to our house, they arrested some car prowlers 10 blocks away, that turned out to be the same guys because they had a bag with them that belonged to the same person that the abandoned suitcase on our sidewalk belonged to.

Totally weird, and creepy that some hoodlums on a spree got that close to my house keys.

What’s weirder is that I had a funny feeling that night, so we left our front lights on, and I prayed specifically that our home and family would be protected that night.

And that’s awesome.

Hi all.

I actually weighed myself this morning for the first time in weeks, and was pleasantly surprised that I was only 221.2. I haven’t been exercising outside of softball last night and this morning, and some physical therapy on Monday. I haven’t been watching what I eat more than half heartedly.

I want a pep talk. I’m going to talk to Nate and sort through my thoughts and try to figure out what’s holding me back because honestly, I don’t mind doing the diet. I feel great when I do, I like doing it, I’m still able to eat the things I love… there’s no reason to not do it, other than my own laziness.

And that’s a stupid reason.

So, that’s my week. I’m still thrilled beyond all reason that I can run the bases and field balls without passing out. My quads have felt like they were going to give out on me a couple times (weak, not pain), but my lungs and heart have been up to the exertion, and it’s felt great.

How y’all doin’?

Last night, Nate and I stayed up really late. He skimmed through the 5th and 6th Harry Potter books,

and I finished off the beautiful roving.

It’s gorgeous, almost velveteen in feel and look, and I’m really sad. I only have 314 yards, out of 8 ounces. I was going for a worsted weight yarn, because I thought the colors would get muddy in a thinner one, and it came out as I had hoped. I sectioned it off and spun the colors deliberately, going for a combination of stripes and splotches. I have a scarf pattern picked, (Fiona Ellis’s school scarf from Scarf Style) which I’m still planning to knit it into, but I don’t have enough yarn. I really thought 8 ounces of roving would give me more than this.

Sigh.

So, I’ve spun everything I bought at Black Sheep.

(Hee hee. I think it’ll be years before Marie can say that)!

I’m dying to start knitting with my new yarn but I think, for now at least, I’m going to make myself plow through the Sea Silk Stole first.

It’s hot. It’s 83 degrees in my house right now, which is a cool breeze compared to what it is outside. By tonight, my house will probably be over 90 degrees.

I, however, am not complaining. I enjoy the heat when there’s nothing I have to do. But it is too hot to clean my house. It is too hot to go to the beach. It is even too hot to knit. As I sat pondering what I could do in the heat, my wheel came to mind, and I’m thinking that it isn’t too hot to spin.

Besides, if you’d been walking by this

(which maliciously snuck out of it’s own bag to lay in plain sight and sing its siren song) for the last few days, would you be able to resist?

I think not.

I am hindered by a sewing injury.

It’s rather deep. I didn’t expect sewing to be a dangerous activity. Aside from the ever present possibility of sewing over my finger, which I didn’t do, I wouldn’t have thought it hazardous. But a random blade on a bobbin thingy bit me, and it hurts.

If it does, in fact, end up being too hot or painful to spin, I’ll muck out my pond.

Actually, I think I’m going to do that first.

Yes, I’ve been sewing. Yesterday, I made Abby a pair of Capris with fabric she chose from my humble stash.

They turned out well, but a bit tall in the waist.

Today, my friend April came over and together we sewed skirts for our girls. Abby is the one in need of clothes, as she’s growing like a horse, so I made my skirt for her.

I. Love. My. Serger.

I serge everything I possibly can and it’s so fun!

It is the strangest thing, seeing fabric that has sat in bags on the shelf in the form of “yardage” for over a year suddenly running around a park on the bottom half of my kid as clothing. It’s very gratifying.

Liv is beside herself, bouncing off the walls to know when I’m going to sew for her. It’s cute. Particularly since she’s my fashionista, so I’m flattered she wants me to make her clothes.

I wonder how long that will last.

Finally, Clark was looking completely cute the other day, and I took some pictures.

He has this little curl that stands straight up on the top of his head, and sometimes, he gets a little curl on either side of his head at the same time. A little triangle of curly, blonde cuteness.

I’ve also been knitting on the stole, but it looks pretty much the same as a few days ago, just longer.

Hi all. This week started out great, didn’t end up so great, and I don’t feel very well. Plus, I’m cycling, so I didn’t even get on the scale today. But my pants are still nearly falling off. And I played softball today for the first time, ever. It was really fun AND I wasn’t winded running the bases! But I won’t play again with saggy pants. That’s not so fun.

As Nate was following me up the stairs earlier this week, he put his hands on my hips and said that my waist looks smaller and more accentuated.

Heehee.

And earlier this week I did drop back down into the “teens”, but I’m sure I’m not there now with the cycle and everything.

How was your week?

Tho’ my spinning wheel is seriously calling, but I’m liking pushing out some Finished Knits and getting them off my plate.

The Uptown Boot Socks are done!

You can’t really see that they’re totally cabled everywhere, but I like them, and as I said awhile ago, I want to knit them again in a more appropriately patterned yarn.

And I’ve picked up the Sea Silk Stole again and am cruising along.

It’s so lovely.

I started cleaning out my garage yesterday, and we’ve got ’em. Dangit. I’m so grossed out. It’s our first time, in nearly 14 years of marriage that we’ve had a problem with rats. Hopefully, this will get us bulldozing the blackberries out of our backyard sooner. Most of our property is covered with them (being blackberries, hopefully not rats), and they go right up to the garage. Dangit, dangit, dangit.

I’ll leave you with a pretty picture.

I was taking a late afternoon shower on Saturday, and looked up and saw this loveliness. This is what I had hoped to see when showering in my bathroom. The truth is that the glass usually fogs over with steam and I can’t see anything. Plus, the sky doesn’t always look that blue, even when it’s blue. But I looked up and it was gorgeous as the sun was streaming in and the maple tree was rustling.

So I turned off the water and shouted to Olivia to bring me the camera.

She was very confused.