Hodge Podge

We're getting ready to head out of town for a visit with the family, and so far everything is going amazingly smooth. No brush fires shutting down interstates, no husbands with legs rotting off. I almost don't know how to act. Let's hope that the rest of the trip goes so well.

I finally got my ravelry invite the other day. To be honest, I haven't even really had time to play with it much, but the little I have has me loving it already. I've uploaded a few things and done a whole lot of browsing, and I can see how it could be come majorly addictive... if only I had the time.

I spent part of today going through my stash cabinet and organizing things a bit. I guess that's a byproduct of ravelry, too. How can I inventory my stash when I can't even remember what's lurking in there? Of course, there's not a whole lot worth mentioning to be found in the cabinet anyway, but it's always helpful to know what you've got and where. On top of organizing the yarn, I also pulled out and frogged about 10 separate projects that were in various stages of unfinishedness. It was oddly liberating, and not heartbreaking at all. I got to reclaim some yarn from projects I know I'll never finish, and I also got to eliminate the guilt associated with casting on something new when there's so much already on the needles.

As a treat for my hard work I allowed myself to cast on something new. Besides, I know good and well that I won't get a chance to work on the mystery stole at all during my trip. It's just one of those projects that requires complete concentration for me not to screw it up, and I know I won't have that at any time. So, I needed something else in the works, and something fairly easy. The newest project is Shimmer from the Knitty archives. Confession time: Since I have nothing in the way of a yarn budget right now I'm knitting it out of some stash yarn. In fact, it's the first yarn I ever bought. Any guesses? It's Caron Simply Soft. Yeah, acrylic crap... blech. But I'm not looking to impress the pants off of anyone with this if I ever finish it. It'll be my at the computer shrug. You see, my desk is situated in the only spot in the house where the a/c actually cools. As a matter of fact, even when the thermostat reads 78 just a few feet away, it's arctic right here, so I need a little something to cover my goosebumpy arms. So, scoff if you want, but my arms will thank me for it, and the dog and the kid aren't really yarn snobs.

Have you ever noticed that blowing bubbles is one of those things that still seems magical no matter how old you get? I took J out in the yard this evening, just before sunset and we blew bubbles and chased them around the yard for about an hour. There's nothing quite as magnificent as his squeals of delight as he "catches" them, or the way he chants "bubbles! bubbles! bubbles! BIIIGGG bubbles!" while racing around after them. Fabulous fun, and so stress relieving.

And I'll leave you with a picture of the munchkin enjoying a dip in the frigid water of his very own, shiny new kiddie pool. (Thanks Aunt Heidi and Uncle Tom!)