A little pronoun work.

 I need to find some yarn.  Should be easy and yet...

I have been wearing the green top that I finished earlier this summer quite a bit.  

Two equally bad photos.  I love how it turned out but for one thing.  The neckline.  I wasn't worried about the neckline.  I worreid about sleeve problems, and length but not the neckline.  The neck though is a problem, albeit an easily fixable one.  

It needs to be slightly tighter around than it currently is.  It is a very open neck and the little band of seed stitch stands away,  It could be a couple rows wider but that wasn't really what I wanted.  It's a worsted weight cotton and a summer top of cotton would be too warm to wear if it fit close to my neck.  

I think the quick fix is perfect for this. I want to crochet a row of slip stiches around the neckline to do the job.  It won't make the band much longer but it will tighten the band up quickly.  The other good thing is that crochet, after the fact is quick to rip and repeat if it isn't right the first time.  Bonus points for crochet.  But I am going to take it off and redo it if i don't like the look of it.  Sigh.  

So that and chasing kids is my plan for the day once I find some yarn.  And, if it all goes fast, then working on the big shawl is the backup plan.  

In other things, I have been thinking a lot about personal pronouns. They have always been these arbitrary words that no one really paid attention to, and yet they hurt some people and I hate that.  I am never going to remember what personal pronouns people want me to use.  I barely recall names and to ask for,or be told what feels like a really personal bit of information from someone who is a casual acquaintance feels like an awkward and stilted way to start a conversation or a friendship. It certainly isn't the kind of information I would be comfortable giving to someone new to me. 

Remembering names are a problem for me and personal pronouns added to the mix, is just not going to help.  I had kind of planned to try to refer to all people by their names even to the point of oddness.   I haven't monitored it here, though I greatly fear that without careful monitoring of my speech, I slip far away from what my goal is (very like knitting familiar things, the comfort factor kicks in).  

It occurred to me last night that there is a solution that is easy and the English language is meant for it.  English, long ago got rid of gender when we refer to things.  A chair, a spoon, a sunset.  Exactly the same even no matter who is referring to them.  The obvious solution here is for the English language to drop he/she pronouns for use referring to specific people and to broaden the use of them/they.  These words already refer to individuals, though generally when we don't know the person at all.  The words are nuetral in every situation I can think of so far.  

So,  up goes a note to remind myself to monitor this and to train myself. "Do note use he/she.Go gender free." If I keep it up long enough I  do believe that I can drop the gendered terms from my speech.  Call me on it.  I need the help.

  

Grandma for the win.

Tougher than Nintendo and Youtube?  Grandma won that contest.  And then I could not get them inside for the rest of the day.  Seriously, children.  Sigh.

By the end of the day they were absolutely filthy.  They stopped at the pizza placeon the way home from their epic adventure, and they bought an ice cream to share.  Of course they picked the blue bubblegun ice cream and by the time they made it in the door, they could have been blue woad covered warriros of ancient times for all I could tell.  The clue to their identity was the spackling of cherry juice on the shirts from earlier on the day.  

Because yes, it is cherry time.  They decided they wanted cherry pie so that is what my spare time was used for yesterday.  The kids picked all the cherries themselves and the pie is quite yummy.  And with the cherry pitter tool that I have, made much less mess then a few years ago.  

At the end of the day, they were so tired they were goofy and giggley and just silly. And dirty.  Dirty in the way that dirt lives on happy choldren who had a wonderful day.  Cassie thought a bath sounded great, though she thought grandma's shower would be even better.  Marucs wasn't having any of that at all.  

He didn't want to have to take his clothes off so he decided that he was not going to have a bath.  Not taking cothes off has been a thing all summer.  He has slept in his clothes.  He has put his pjs over his  clothes to sleep.  He said he felt sad that daddy wasn't here and that if he kept his clothes on, he wasn't away from dad at all.  Aww.   

 This time,  I told him that I didn't think that was a problem.  His pants were filthy and his shirt full of goo so I told him, he should bathe in his clothes. He stormed into the bathroom, his face full of grumpiness and tired little boy anger.  I think, he meant to show me that I didn't really mean he could bath in his clothes.  I am trickier than that.  (Occasionally)  The bath had been filled with the right temperature of water and all the toys were lined up for him and he lost his train of thought and was really confused.  He couldn't figure out how the water could stay the right temperature since his bath the night before.  He knew it wasn't magic but he couldn't figure it out, till I told him that I ran the water when he was eating pie.  That was OK, but he still had not forgotten the clothes thing and he was still testing to see that I was sticking to my word.  He asked me to close the bathroom door, so I did.  He said he had to take his shorts off because he didn't want to get them wet, but that he was now ready to jump in the tub, pants back on.  So I told him to jump in.  

He just thought that was such a silly idea.  He happily played and soaped his entire body and his cothes right along with it.  I was a bit worried that he would decide he still wanted to sleep in them, but I promised him that I would dry them.  He was good with that.  He didn;t think wet pants would be fun for sleeping.

But grandma won the day, more or less.  I wonder if there is payback?

Tougher than Nintendo and Youtube.

What I wouldn't do for a my size dressmakers dummy.  Well I wouldn't spend what they cost, that is for sure, but it would be so nice to have one.  My hanging dummy body was meant to use as the base to make one, but I don't really need one anymore.  I would like one to take photos after things are made and I do not consider that as reason enough to spend the time or funds to make one so...  But it sure would be nice.  

I spent the weekend with knitting and am well on the way with the corner of the giant shawl.  It really isn't getting knit on at all during the week.  It's just too much with all the kid stuff around.  I knit on the little green top as well.  It isn't going fast.  Not really, but it is going reasonably and that is good enough.  You can really see the lines of the clever in this top and all is immensly pleasing to me. Yarn consumption continues to be pleasing.  I might just make it to a reasonable legnth after all!

This week, I planned to focus on my sewing.  I have had a pants and top cut out as well as a red polka dot dress/tunic for a bit now and I really want to get them sewn up.  I started with what was on top of the pile.  

I used everything of the fabric to get the top out of what was left from the pants.  I did not manage to get the facings at all, so I had to dig out some of my stretchy black fabric and went with that.  

A solid black bit of trim would have looked sharp but that would have meant way more fiddling than I wanted on a top that was really just a large rectangle of fabric with a head hole cut in it.  I need to hem it yet but I wanted to try it on and see if I like the way it sat and the way it moved before I decided if I should leave it as is or give it some shaping at the arms.  I can tell you now that it will stay as is.  It is a wonderfully drapey knit .  I already know that it is going to be a favourite thing.  

I finished that before lunch time and after, I started working on the pants.  There were a few malfunctions for grandma to sort out in the real world, so it did not go fast and the distraction led me to an error.

The fabric is this same light weight knit that the top is and as much as I love it and the print of this stuff, it falls into the category of fabric for tights that are not pants. I want pants, so I need a lining.  I am using a very similar plain grey knit  for that lining and I wanted to attach lining to where I need it attached before I do anything else.   These are the Glebe pants pattern from Muna and Broad and they do have a more formal lining with the pattern but my goal is a bit different with this light weight knit.  W hat I need is not a lining but a doubled thickness of fabric.  I particularly want it to be one at the back seam and the front seam so I am attaching them there before sewing the seam proper on the pants. I also want the pieces attached at the waist.  I do intend to sew the outer leg separate. The width of the fabrics is just the smallest bit different and I don't want there to be any pulling.  If this doesn't work, then the parts will be attached later at the side seam.

My sewing stopping error was that I basted the pant leg seam with the back pant lining seam (butt to calf if you will).  Had that not happened, I could have gotten all the major sewing finished.  I started feeling desperate when I was taking apart the problem part and I decided to call it a day.  Feeling desperate always leads me to errors and seriously, I make enough without desperation for no reason errors.

I went and knit and bugged the kids for a while and then it was supper and a movie and then bathtime and bed for all of us.  Today, I am going to start the day by bugging the kids and telling them grandma will keep talking till they go out and do something.  Stay in and listen at their own peril.  That would have scared the willies out of me as a kid.  The power of electronic devices is big but grandma story telling is sufficient.  Or will be.  I just have to keep telling myself I am tougher than Nintendo and youtube.  Sigh.

The green shirt and sports.

This was my tea yesterday.  After coffee of course and before supper, which is right when tea is the perfect thing to drink.

I may have to add this to the thing at the top of the sidebar so that I am reminded of it each and every day.  Far too often, I rush and hurry and worry and stress and build up such expectations of myself, so much so that I could not possibly live up to it, when really, nature and therefore the true heart of all of mankind, shows that things happen and there is no need to rush.  Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. Lao Tzu

And so it will be with this pretty little thing.  I have made huge strides and yet, it looks exactly the same as it did the last time I posted a picture of it. 

 As I was taking the photo is looked so similar that I just used the older photo.  I am at the really interesting shaping part though and not to give away the clever little secret, I am having a marvelous time doing it.  I have knit about of third of this increase section and in what truly is the oddest thing in my world of knitting, I am eaxctly on stitch count after the exact right number of rows.  

Inconcievable.

But what I really want to talk about this morning is sports.  We watched the Tokyo Olympic opening this morning and it was lovely, well done in a way that I much preferred over the overwhelming glam fest that opening ceremonies so often are. If you are going to spend the money on sprt, spend it on sport and not all the accoutrements.  The sport is the real entertainment so let that shine.

But like everytime I see sports and the huge committment of the athletes, I alway wonder why of all the things people choose to do outside of the workday jobs  and things of their lives, why sport is glorified so much beyond anything.  It came up too earlier in the week, with the 'opening' of Alberta and kids being allowed to play outdoor sports.  Many sports are showing fewer kids enrolling in this mid pandemic season, and the sports people are wondering why.  I could tell them it is because many kids, many adults, many people were exhausted byt the expectation they tried to live up to, that every child would be enrolled in every sport there was outside the home as well as music lessons and dance and the thousands of other things poeple can do just for fun.  Maybe, just maybe, more people saw that rather than rush to be like everyone else, they realized there was a life outside taking kids to sports and stuff and that life coulld happen at home if they choose, that there were things they could do to enjoy life together, without rushing out everyday.   

My thoughts on sports are defined by a lifetime of the things I love to do having no value in the eyes of the world. 

Only librarians and teachers value kids who read.  Parents and the world in general doesn't assign much of a value to it and often chastises the reader for it.  Get your nose out of that book and do something.  How many times I've heard that in my life.   Embroidery?  Knitting?  Spinning?  Sewing? Quilting?  How many times have the things I have chosen to occupy myself with, been called lazy and busy work?  Why does my love of them mean that according to the world I am not worthy enough. 

And why on earth are sports as a thing to do so fundamentally over valued in society? We spend huge amounts of money on them, federally, locally, in families.  Towns, cities, nations build entire arenas to play them in, dozens of soccer fileds, basketball courts, curling rinks, hockey palaces.  People doing the sports are lauded as heros of the nation.

I was awful at sports.  My feet and my body don't coordinate with my hands.  I am clumsy and not at all graceful, and more than a little myopic as well as the other stuff that has come on as I get older. I liked walking.  I loved biking.   I understand the feeling of doing a physical thing just so, but there was never any thrill in it.  To me, it was all just a way to be embarassed publically, in front of all the kids in school, for the teacher to always be calling me out or pointing out all the ways, I wasn't doing it right, or even calling me out the one time I physically meshed, and did it right.  Praise can be very negative.

But, give me two needles and I an make magic happen.  Give me a thread and some fine cloths and a silver needle and I can make timeless works of wonder.  Give that little girl me a book and I shine.   Give me a needle and thread and I can create.  Give me fibre and a wheel and I can make.

All those things in the world did not make me hate sports.  Not at all.  I love watching and enjoy the competiton.  I love the strategy and the sheer brute strength of them.  What it did make me hate, and abhor is the glorification of sport, the 'pro' sport idea that these athletes are something special in the world, that they are deserving of big bucks for what is just another way of entertaining someone as well as themselves.  

They might have a special skill, but so do I.  And I find myself demanding more people acknowledge that what I do, is just as much of a special skill and adds much more to the world in the long run than some ulitimately dumb game.  

I am certainly demanding more for the little kids who are good at things beyond sports.    It is time that society appreciate and laud much more than sport.

Just a few

Just a few words on the shawl before I talk about the little green top tomorrow.  I am so close.  I took it a few rows closer yesterday and now have only the stitches between these two orange markers to do before starting the corner shaping.  

The blu marker you see farhter away is a marker that is acting as a holder, keeping a bit of the fabric of the edging attached to the fabric of the shawl to take some of the stress off the starting few rows of the edging.  It really doesn't show the start because of how it is pinned but it gives you and idea.  

There is a fair bit of knitting to happen on thes countable stitches since some of the rows joining edging to shawl are doubled with two sets of rows for one stitch off the shawl and sometimes three.  It varies to keep the excess out but gives enough extra rows that the corner can stay shapely and travel fully around the corner without any stress of stretch needed to makle it all happen.  Estonian women were pretty crafty.  

Estonian you say?  Yes.  It is a shetland shawl in that it is being made of shetland yarn from the Shetland Islands, and the lace border and centre are Shetland based things.  The edging is undetermined origin but is very much in keeping with the Shetland Tradition.   It is only the way that I am attaching the edging to the lace border that is after something I found in Knitted Lace of Estonia, and which I am sure would have been used by Shetland women had they met an Estonian knitter back in the day.  

I did not knit on the green top yesterday.  In truth I did not do much of anything.  the air quality from fires all around us is bad and I felt headachy and sluggish all day.  It affects the kids too.  We are all just a bit on edge, and yesterday, grandma did not have the strength to find something to keep us busy.  The only person in worse shape than me was Uncle Keith and he was wiped from work.  So that is all I am going to say about the green top.  It looks like a no nothing little top, but seriously, it is very clever in the way it gets to look like a little nothing sort of top. Very clever.

Continues

Made it through another week.  And that is a good thing.  But I have not managed to carve out time to do more than the basics around the house.  I cnnot compete with the me when my kids were small.  I did all the things then and still had time to cross stitch and sew and read paper books extensively.

Ah well.  By three p.m. my sidekicks will be heading home for the weekend.  It seems to be working for all of us even the cats, who miss their little boy a lot when he is gone.  Marcus said this morning that it was not so many days that he hardly miss me at all.  He did admit that he missed dad a lot everyday, but he was happy to be home lots and at grandmas lots.  That is what we were hoping for because wouldn't it be awful having to spend long weeks only at grandmas all summer?

I am looking forward to a lot of knitting.  I plan to knit and watch a nw Icelandic show on Netflix called Katla.  It looks interesting, not quite my usual thing so I will give it a go.  All the Icelandic things I have watched have been really great TV and they are marvelous for knitting.  The pace is parfect, slow like real life would be but also enough going on that you are engaged utterly in the moment.  

This weekend, I hope to be cutting out a few more tops to sew too.  The last batch of fabrics I ordered just for tops should be here this afternoon and they will go directly into the wash after which they can be cut out.  I will hope for some sewng next week.  It is a good plan.  I know that I did not get to sew this week, but both fabrics that are waiting are a bit challenging to sew.  A very slippery rayon dress and a thin knit are not easy.  I want them to look good so I need to take time to do it all right and the amount of time I need in a chunk isn't quite there.  I expect both to be done this weekend.

I did not have a garden I lived off of all winter for many years and I found that a lot of work when we restarted that.  I was hoping to find that having some chickens and some pigs for summer was more work than I thought.  I know that knitting takes longer than I thought and it is easier than I thought too. Doing for yourself takes a lot of work, no matter what it is.  

And yet I find myself completely taken off gaurd by how much time the sewing takes.   I am surprised at how long it takes me to sit and sew something.  One pair of pants takes a  whole afternoon.  four seams, and some hemming and a bit of elastic wizardry.  It just doesn't seem like it should take so long.  Well, five seams really.  I was forgetting the one at the waistband.  But still.  I don't have an industrial machine, just an ordinary home one.  I could have had a faster sewing industrial machine very like the one I did buy, but I am not planning to do lots of sewing, just sewing for me. What I have will do what I need and it has a really surperior needle threader.  So there is that.  The industrial machine wouldn't have been all that much more money but I doubt that I would have gotten the sewing done faster.

My sewing continues, the knitting continues, everything continues.  It is the merry middle of it all and you know what?  That really is a very nice thing.  

Finding out feet

This is a handcraft house.  Crochet items are used like this in the mornings, 

please note the boy under the blanket.  His toes occasionally stick thorugh and I ply little piggy with them just to bug him.  He loves it.  Really.

And though there is no knit or crochet in this picture, there is the girl of my heart

being just as goofy as her brother.

We are three weeks into this gig, and we are all adapting.  They miss mom and dad and their cats more than I can say, but two nights at grandmas, then a night home, then a night at grandmas and home for the weekend seems to be a decent balance for me and for them.  It isn't just one long stretch at my place, they don't get tired of my cooking and they don't fight because they just miss mom and dad and are expressing their unhappiness that way.  It  does mean grandma has to drive early a couple mornings a week but hey, it is only gas and I am not paying for it and I get to sleep every few nights without subconciously worrying about them.  I may not be getting quite so much knitting and sewing done as usual, but the kitchen is tidier, a tryuly sad pay off.  

I am still working on the green top.  In the heat, it is far better knitting the very large shawl.  The sewing is what I most need to get done and that is the last thing to be done and that is leading to a bit of trouble, in that most of my clothes are just not built for this heat.  Even my cotton knit tops are a bit warm for this intensity.  We are doing better that way, as the heat lasts.  It is almost bearable, but mostly because it gets lovely and cool at night.  

I did discover a wee hiccup in my plan to start the raglan part of the shaping.  There are nine plain rounds to do before the raglan kicks in.  I am kind of glad I decided to mark where I was on this pattern.  Thank heavens that Adobe has added the comment stuff to the reader!

Yes I use Adobe Reader and not Knit Companion.  Maybe Knit Companion works for some people, but I would be willing to bet that 80 percent of the users were apple people.  It only wants to work with my tablet in portrait mode and for me that is a deal breaker.  It also means smaller type and that is not going to happen.  I just found that the kind of tools and the way I wanted to use it just are not there, or are not there in the free version, and why pay for it when I can use what Reader does for free in any orientation?

I sit here beside my cabinet, as I get ready to send the kiddies outside for a few hours, and I am looking at all my yarns, my lovely colourful so pretty things and I am just aching to start something new.  The Quoddy Blue sweater, Olga's green sweater, the simple cardigan made of lacewight alpaca, the cones of red spootweight that I don't quite know what will be yet.  Sigh.  I will, in time knit it all.  But first the shawl. It really wants to be done first, needs to be don e first.  Time for all the rest later. 

Going green

We had a really great day yesterday.  The kids played outised at the park in the morning and it was even hard to get them to come in for lunch.  Then in the afternoon we watched a movie and some colouring math was done (you had to be there to know just how much) and then we played some games and it was magically suppertime.  In the evening they were very busy buiding some new lego sets for grandma.  They promised to keep the books and all the parts for each set in a bag so that even if the builds fell apart, they could rebuild.  They were pooped and fell to bed easily.

Today so far, no one has wanted to do anything.  Even me.

But I am knitting.  There is always that.  

After the rush of work on the shawl, I felt like picking up the green top.  

I am working on the last of the round yoke section.  After this, it goes into a raglan shaping.  I am not sure why, but I have to say, it will make a nice change.  The increases every 8 or 9 rows and then many increases sure works nice but gets a little numbing to knit.  But, if Rav peeps are saying it right, they all love the way the top turns out.  So, I will stick with the pattern, pretty much as is.  

I am a wee bit concrened about the width of the neckline.  I hate necks that slip off the shoulder so I am debating what to do.  I don't have to decide or do any try ons just yet.  The green skeins have a long way to go before I need to know if I have to save some metres to add more at the collar, or to make little shoulder pieces of some sort. 

I really like the way the skeins are working together and I love where it is going with the next skeins of yarn I have on hand.  It's a good thing I like it.  Sweater knitting at this gauge takes a lot of stitches. 

No Time for Boredom

I had a lovely weekend, though for a moment on Saturday morning it was much too quiet.  I missed the kids and their charging racing pace.  Of course this morning things are back to the summer usual and there are fruit loops all over the floor.  Don't ask.  As Marcus said, 'Seriously?' As they spilled for the second time.   

I had a marvelous weekend.  I got so much done that I wanted done.  

I cut out another pair of Muna and Broad's Glebe Pants.  I made a bunch of leggings and they were fine for winter, but in this summers heat, they are too much.  Every chance I get, I have been wearing my 2 pairs of these pants.  The wide legs are wonderful for hot weather.  They catch air under them and shade your body without the fuss and worry of skirts flying in the air.  I need more of them.  

This pair is a really lightweight knit.  Almost too light.  I am lining the significant parts with another layer of really light knit leftover from a long ago lining on a sweater.  The only change I made to the pattern was to go full width of the fabric on the legs.  It was such a small amount and extra gathers on a Glebe are not a bad thing in this airy fabric.  

There was just enough left to make a top.  I cut it simple.  The width of the fabric that remained, folded in half on the width and then fold in half to establish where the neck ought to be, a few snips to cut out the v neck and away we go.  I may take a bit off the sides over time.  It is quite wide but it is so light a fabric that I want to see how it wears first.  If it feels like it is in the way, then it will be trimmed.  

That was the work part of the weekend.  The joy part was knitting.  

I knit my heart out.  I knit early.  I knit late.  I knit long, but I also took breaks.  It was lovely.

I am well past corner 3 with a countable number of stitches left.   I do have one sad thing to mention though.  

I have to go back to where I started the edging and take out a few motifs.  When I started I wasn't thinking about corners so it is simply knit plain.  Had I knit the first section as if it was on a corner, I wouldn't be doing it now.  Note to self:  Self.  Be aware.  

It's  not bad really.  Starting as I did gave me time to think while I worked rather than stopping till I had all the details sorted and having it sit for months.  A sort of design on the fly, if you will.  I am so thrilled to be at this point in the knitting that none of that extra bit if work matters.  

So a really great weekend and a week filled with kids and water parks and playgrounds and sewing some airy summer wear.  Absolutely no time for boredom here.

I made it to the corner.  Just to the corner.  And not a stitch farther.  

We have been out and about a lot the last couple days and I have found that the shawl, though portable and memorized is not particularly knittable in a car seat.  I will have to just go with the Breezeway tee for car knitting,

But, I am at the corner and I do feel pretty comfortable that I will get around it today and a good ways down this last side.  The kiddies, much as I love them, go home tonight for the weekend and I am kind of looking forward to a quiet evening of knitting.

Nuthin to see here.

I am working to get the giant shawl done and work is progressing on the Breezeway  Today my knitting goal is to work steadily on the edging to get past the corner.  I am hoping for a photo though I may have to negotiate for help from the kids.

I did however, do what I said I wasn't going to do, and I bought more fabric. I know.  Shoot me now, but I am enjoying the sewing so much and really, looking at the tops and tshirts I own, really looking at them critically, they are awful.  I ought to have no idea why I did not replace them sooner other than all my clothes were 'good'  Be aware though, that this 'good' is coming from a person who is only barely past clothes having two stages, 'good' and painting pants.

I bought four really nice pieces for tops.  Two are the lovely madras cottons that my wonderful dress is made of but with much gentler colours, 

                                        

and two are rayon poplin prints, one a strongly coloured black, red and white, and the other a brilliant blue and orange plaid. 

                                          

The red, white and black plaid is a bit of an accident.  I thought I had taken it off the list, but I think I must have back arrowed instead of updating the order file.   It isn't a big deal, since the three meters only cost $15.30  and with three metres, I will be able to make a Torrens Box Top and if I cut carefully and save all the bits to make the straps, the Nullabor cami.  If I use black for interfacings and sleeve bands or straps on both, I will even have enough to do a collar for Box Top.   

I did order some more pants fabric, but this is a wee bit special.  Most of the fabric I bought so far has been with the thought of casual pants for 99 percent of my life.  This fabric is purchased in the hope that I can make a pair that is dressier.  Really, I ought to have one article of clothing that I could wear anywhere including those occasions that simply demand it.  I do have one really good sweater, my Lipstick sweater, 

and having something to wear with it might be wise.  I used to wear my linen pants with it but the linen I have on hand now is woven with a white warp and a black weft.  It looks just a bit too casual for dressy wear somehow.  Plus, I have that saved for a pair of pants to wear with some lovely striped linen for a shirt.

To take care of that problem, this order had some deeply black rayon polyester.  It is a fabric which should drape wonderfully but stay crisp looking and that will be easy wash and wear. Perfect for summer and okay for winter with tights.

The other thing that was on this last order was elastic.  Yup tons of elastic.  The elastic was the most expensive thing on the list!  But I need a fair bit of it for new undies that are on my list.  It seems you always need elastic.

So, lots to say in a very move along, nuthin to see here sort of way.  

There has been a bit of sewing these past few days.  There has even been knitting the last two, but with kids around it is hard to even get laundry done.  How did I do it all when my kids were little and I did everything with them around my feet in our tiny farmhouse?

But it is getting done and that counts.  If it stays normal hot rather than going all stupid hot, I plan to take something to knit at the park, at the skate park, to wherever we go.  

The yarn for the shawl came and I have been working hard on that.  I am just about to start the third corner and with a bit of luck, by the end of the day, I ought to have that complete and be going along the last side.  After that, it is one final corner and then a graft to complete it all.  Hardly nothing yet.

I am going to try to take a picture of it.  I have to get the kids to hold a corner each and go stand by the bookcases.  We tried a bit today but one corner holder lost interest.  Gi.  Nor.  Mous. 

It makes me happy though.  After intense heat last week, it was lovely to sit with the mass of this shawl draped over my legs.  Yesterday and today was delightfully chilly, just barely breaking 20 C.  

I may or may not get to writing again.  We shall see and I may or may not have much to say, but I am sure that if I finish something, I will talk anyway.