Recent Aquisitions

I know, I've been falling way behind in both blogging and Bloglines. And it will probably get worse before it gets better. Annie is moving out and into a college apartment in the next few weeks; I'm working a bunch of overtime; and we are moving Joe's mom into Annie's soon-to-be vacant bedroom. Nana will be 90 this fall and keeping up her house on her own has just become too much. Next week I will be spending a few days in Mesa, helping to clear out closets and cupboards, looking for a moving company, and perhaps checking out realtors as well. Things will probably be topsy-turvy for the next 6 weeks or so, and blogging will probably suffer for the time it takes.

However, knitting still proceeds at a decent pace. (Stress-buster.) I've gotten some new acquisitions, and thought I would post them for you all to see. I have three new sock yarns. On the right is some Trekking, and on the left are two balls of the new Austermann Step, the one with the aloe in it. The two yarns on the outside were vacation purchases, and the one in the middle was picked up in Tucson last week.

Sock knitting has really slowed up right now while I work on the Amazing Lace projects. The only sock I am working on is the Harebell (Baby) lace. It's coming along slowly but I am still pleased with how it's doing so far.

This was also vacation yarn. This is six balls of Butterfly to do a shawl, probably Clapotis. I'm still not going to start anything with wool right now, since it is much too hot and humid right now.

We have been getting some rain in the afternoons for the Southwest Desert monsoons. Lots of lightening and thunder, plus plenty of humidity. No real heavy, overpowering storms yet for us, which is okay. Too much rain in a short period leads to a lot of dangerous flooding in the creekbeds; that's when people get stuck in their cars trying to drive through it.

Then there is the newest obsession, one which is obviously shared by many others these days. I found the Mason-Dixon knitting book at Barnes and Noble in Flagstaff while on vacation. Once I read through it (while sitting under a juniper tree at the Grand Canyon) I was hooked. Since then, I have acquired Peaches and Cream and Sugar and Cream. Here you see warshrag knitting in progress. I've got enough Creamy yarn here to do several warshrags plus try out some of the burp clothes and bibs, too.

I've been lurking lately around the MDKAL site. The projects that are posted are just feeding the passion right now. I tried to find some cotton that I liked to do a Moderne log cabin, but in two trips to Tucson I just couldn't find anything I liked. So I finally picked up some Dreambaby DK. Yes, it's acrylic, but I wanted something machine washable and in the muted colors. I'm quite anxious to start this, but I'm holding so far to my resolve not to start anything new until I've finished the lace projects. And I have a new FO! The Simple Lace Scarf ("Moira LittleLace") was finished last Sunday and finally blocked today! Hopefully I will find a child tomorrow who is willing to take some pictures for me. What I may go ahead and start is a Log Cabin using the leftover bits of sock yarn. I have seen knitters doing this on a couple blogs and it looks like a neat way to use up those ends. It would probably make a nice kitty blanket; d'ya think Big Cat might like a Log Cabin of her own? It might keep her off my WIPs!