07.11.07
Musings from a Taxi Mom
Unleaded $3.49 (no change in 5 months) Who says the price of gas is dropping?
Temperature 68 degrees and overcast. What heat wave?
It seems summer is a catch 22 around here. If I have the kids take swimming lessons, dance, girl scout events, go to baseball camp, and piano someone has to get them there. If I don’t have them ‘doing’ something they sit and bother me. So I’ve opted for the doing things this summer and the transport, therefore, falls on me.
I remember years ago watching the ‘accross the road neighbor’ drive up and down the road several times. (Living in a small rural town on a private road there isn’t much to see beside watching neighbors, birds and bugs.) Where could she be going? Why doesn’t she combine these trips to avoid so many trips into town.Well, I now see why. Everything my two kids are doing does not happen at the same time. They have totally ruined my theory of only driving in a circle. Yesterday I drove up and down the road 10 times. TEN times. That means ten times the amount of dust going into the neighbors house (he waters the road in front of his property to avoid dust. I think his wife tells him to go outside or else!) I did not drive in anything resembling a circle…more like a rombus (or however you spell that one.) I’m sure the neighbors now say about me…why does so go into town so much? Why cannot she combine her errands to avoid driving down the road so many times? What comes around, goes around.
Knitting update
I also go sucked into the MS3 knit a long shawl challange. I posted the link but sign ups closed last Friday. You will be able to purchase the pattern after the knit-a-long though.
Basically what happens is she posts a part of the shawl each Friday and you knit along. I like to knit lace. I enjoy doing something other than straight knitting. The joy in knitting lace comes from the fact that there are only two, yes for you non-knitters, TWO stitches in knitting; Knit, Purl. Add a few yarn overs (which is basically just making a stitch) and you have all that is needed to knit a lace shawl. If you can count (now counting much higher than 5 sometimes is a problem for me).
I’ve shown you how I mark my grid patterns. I make every 5 rows in yellow highlighter and use many place markers along the way to be sure I don’t get off track on the knitting.
This shawl is easy. How easy you may ask? Well I’ve decided to start on my second one. I knit up the first two weeks worth of instructions in 2 days and still have 6 days left until the next instructions are posted. I did not choose to add the beads because why complicate my life further.
Shawl #1 is knit with Merino Superwash sock weight yarn.
You can see it is much further along the #2 but I am up to date until she posts the next part of the pattern on Friday.
I plan on dying the outstanding patterns with a light pink or blue dye. But I’ll make that decision later because, you see, I have no idea that this will look like when done. That is part of the fun.
Shawl #2 is knit with Bamboo/Silk/Merino. I love this yarn, in fact I just ordered two more cones and will be putting some up for sale in my EBAY store on Friday.
It is silky, has a lovely drape will will make this shawl look really good.
The miracle of knitting lace is in the blocking. Right now it looks like a jumbled up pile of crap messy yarn, but block it and Oh my, a miracle happens. Just like a butterfly, it comes to life.
Socks - 68 pair ready and waiting for homes.
Need socks? Boy do I have your size or what? I know, I know, why would you want to wear wool socks when there is a heat wave over most of the country? Just think winter, rain, snow and Christmas gifts. Now is the time people to start thinking about these.
Here is some of the inventory of socks completed getting ready for the summer vending spree. Most are also listed on my internet store here but I do take orders and knit socks from you stash yarn. Keep that in mind too.
Finally, I received my Ah Kimono! shippment yesterday. 
These silk fat quarters are reclaimed from recycled silk Kimono. 
I also knit up a swatch of felting yarn yesterday on my flat bed knitter. I visited the local discount store today to purchase small zippers. I will be making up silk/wool felted zippered bags. I’ve been working on this project in my mind for a while. I’ll post pictures when they’re done. The elk horn buttons and chinese coins will be use for decoration. Won’t they be cute?
That’s about it. How could I get so much done when tootling the kids around town? Well, we do only have 6 stop lights and it takes me 8 minutes to drive to the otherside of town. I just love living in rural America, come visit some time and be sure to email me first.
I’ll meet ya at the Denny’s.