Who Are You and What Have You Done With My Child??

What happened here????? The whirlwind began at about 7:30 last night. And this was the result!


I did not know this was in the works or I would have made sure to get some "before" shots . . .
But, as my family members can attest - IT DID NOT LOOK LIKE THIS YESTERDAY MORNING!

When she came out of her room with 3 bags of garbage and said, "I need to get the vacuum . . ." my husband and I just looked at each other and said "Who is this and what did she do with our child?"

Those of you out there with 13 year old children know that this is a rare, rare, rare occurrence. I wanted to preserve it for posterity!


Must be that "back to school" thing - I'm not complaining!

Any more takers for "Pay It Forward"? (See previous post) I've only got one - the lovely Ramona from Campanula for the Cure and I have room for two more ;-) Ramona, I've got my thiking cap on - I'm considering something stunning with a dramatic flair!

So Close I Can Almost Taste It!

Here is my first Campanula for the Cure sock! Just a few more rounds for the cuff and it's off the needles! I'll cast on the second one immediately so I don't get sidetracked . . . ;-)


And here's a little something I picked up from The Loopy Ewe - my first skein of HandMaiden Sea Silk. It is absolutely gorgeous! And so soft! It's destined to become a Montego Bay Scarf from Interweave Knits. It will probably end up being a gift - but I reserve judgment on that!

And progress on the Notre Dame de Grace sweater. This is a very easy pattern so far and the stitch pattern is very easy to memorize. I have both sleeves and half of the back finished.

A little closeup of the stitch definition.

And, of course, what happens when you place any piece of knitting down on the couch for a photo? Tiggy just has to investigate and curl up for a little nap!

I've spun up another batch of my Spunky Eclectic roving - love the bright colors - to be a pair of socks I think. I'm enjoying being part of this Roving of the Month club. Not only do I get beautiful roving in the mail every month, but it forces me to keep spinning. I don't like to see lots of months worth sitting around the basket looking lonely! So I hope to keep improving my skills. I'm having fun with all of the colors and sometimes try to get the striping to fall in line. This is a batch of superwash merino, so I can throw it right in the wash!

Well, I must say that this summer has flown by! In some ways I'm very happy to see it go - I won't remember chemotherapy fondly. But I've also had the opportunity to start a new job that I love, I only have 2 more weeks of radiation therapy which hasn't been bad at all, and my hair is starting to grow back ( oh the gray, the gray, the gray . . .;-)! Plus I'm on Ravelry, I've started exercising again and all of the back to school shopping is done! Do you think my energy level is back??

To celebrate all this newfound energy, I thought I'd join Jenn over at Adventures in Knitting and "Pay It Forward". You can also read about this on Allison's blog . During the next year, I'll send something I make to the first three people who respond to this post in the comments section and all you have to do is make the same offer on your blog! Also, the "gift" you send doesn't have to be handmade -- it can be anything you wish to share with another person. My three "gifts" will probably revolve around knitting!

Taking It Easy in the Summertime

Here is Mark and his brother Paul out on the deck watching the grill and shucking the corn . . . I love watching men work ;-) The weather has been beautiful and we've been enjoying the outdoors!


Here's some progress on the Campanula socks! I'm enjoying knitting these socks - the yarn is fabulous. I'll report more later this week - I've been busy at my new job!

Campanula For The Cure

Do you remember that several months ago I test knit a sock pattern called Campanula? Here's a picture:



I really enjoyed this pattern and the author, MezzoDiva, is now doing a KAL with the pattern. Here's what she says:


"I recently took the plunge to publish my very own lace sock pattern, called CAMPANULA for the CURE, and I'm making it a fundraiser for the 2007 Weekend to End Breast Cancer. All I ask in exchange for a copy of the pattern is that a donation of ANY AMOUNT (no matter how small) be made by sponsoring me for this 2-day 60-km walkathon next September benefiting the Princess Margaret Hospital, Canada’s leading Cancer treatment and research facility. Donate any amount you choose! Just put CAMPANULA in the message line or leave a comment here or on my blog. The WEBC site will inform me of the donation and I will email a PDF of the pattern ASAP (if you need another format, please let me know).

In the interest of raising further awareness for this foot-related fundraiser (a sock pattern to sponsor a 60-km walkathon) and the fight to conquer cancer, I’ve decided to start a CAMPANULA for the CURE knit-along!

There will be weekly contests and prize draws (some beautiful hand-dyed sock yarns I recently acquired will be up for grabs, as well as more goodies to be announced) for posting about the project and your progress at the KAL site and for posting on your own blogs (please notify me, it can be hard to keep up with all of you, but I’ll try).

To this end, I am inviting you all to join me in knitting your very own Campanula socks starting this Wednesday August 1st (that also happens to be my birthday!) or as soon thereafter you can begin. And if you join later, don't worry. This KAL is not a race to the finish (though I will give a prize to the knitter of the first complete pair posted). Like my upcoming 60-km walk, slow and steady will get the job done. (If you are one of my intrepid test-knitters and you made only one sock, now’s a great time to finish the pair. If you made a pair, please post them and start another!)

For more pictures of these lovely socks, please see the CAMPANULA flickr gallery

I am also sending out a shout out to anyone with experience doing these things – if you’d be willing to advise me or perhaps even to co-host this endeavour with me, I will be very grateful! And if any purveyors of knitting paraphernalia are willing to donate small prizes, that would be wonderful!

If you are interested in joining, just go ahead and get your pattern by donating to the fight against cancer or RSVP to me at: mezzodiva-at-sympatico-dot-ca,
subject: CAMPANULA for the CURE!"

If you're interested, click the button on my sidebar to go to the KAL website! I'm going to use the Fleece Artist I just bought for mine!