nautie me

i WAS going to write about how hot it was and how what we needed was a great big thunderstorm to break the heat.

but just as i was photographing a tempting iced coffee to illustrate that, the thunder rolled over and brought a cool wind and a storm in so quickly, i had to run around and close everything up before it hit. the rain helped a bit for an hour or so, but now it’s just as sticky and muggy as before—maybe even worse.
thank heavens for ice.

you know i sometimes get sidetracked, right?

i love that song about something being someone’s favorite wasted of time . . . i think this might be MY new favorite waste of time.
meet Nautie.
normally this is something i would not knit. i would look at it several times in the magazine, pausing every time i flipped though to look, and maybe chuckle. i would say “oh, now that’s cute!” and i love that this wonderful scientist designed it.

but this weekend, i found out that my girl melissa has the same birthday as my niece and my goddaughter, and she almost let it go by without a mention! and i remembered that she showed me this item a few weeeks back from knitty spring ’06. and said she wanted one (she doesn’t knit, but, get this—reading knitspot has made her go back to crocheting. not sure whether to be proud about that . . . but i do like her making things). anyway, she wanted nautie.

so last night, around 1:30am, i grabbed some leftover handspun sock yarn, and sat down to start. next thing i know it’s 6 am and i am holding a completed nautie and making it talk to itself.
him: don’t you think we need another nautie?
me: i do!, oh yes, i dooo, you cutey-wooty, you!
him: what color should we make her?
me: oh! let me run RIGHT over to the yarn closet and see what i have in maybe a blue??? waddaya think?

i won’t continue—i think you get the gist. this is what it means to be my friend, for better or worse.

i did get a good head-start on my new skirt

and as you can see, i also managed to finally photograph this strawberry red yarn as its true color self. this skirt will be an alloveer lacy mesh pattern this time. i tried a few different ones (restarted a few times), and finally settled on the same stitch i used for the sleeve of the blue shrug i did last week.

speaking of which, i spoke to both girls last night and they loved all their gifts. the doll shawl was a huge hit as was the swim wrap. the shrugs fit!
i sent my niece a great project to do as well. i made a chart that included each family member and a list of all the measurements i wanted for each (hands, feet, chest, head, etc.), color preferences and any special requests. she ran with it and is busy filling it all in for me. this will be a great help when my christmas knitting commences. and since all the kids are around two years apart, i expect i can use it for some time to come in estimating sizes.

i also worked on some sox that you haven’t seen since i cast them on, about a month ago

whoopee.
i know you are wanting the lace fix. i’m working on that too, but it is still in swatching stage and i’m not satisfied yet. soon, soon, i promise.

while i thought about the lace, i also started spinning some silk interlacements roving sent to me by the fabulous monica of Two Left Needles.

i never spun silk before, and i was a little nervous, but not to worry! it’s gorgeous—sooo silky, sooo shiny, ooh. and monica’s been spinning the same roving, so go look at hers, too!

i had been thinking i would spin a fine singles, and ply it around a fine wool singles, either in a pale greeen, or a pale lilac, so the shiny silk had a matte background to pop off of, and then the color changes would show up nicely too.

i haven’t started the wool one yet; we’ll see. i’m hoping to get into that tonight or tomorrow. it’s so darn humid, that i’m afraid of loosing my twist, but it can’t be helped i guess. i can’t drop everything right now, and spend all day spinning just to keep my twist alive . . . course, that doesn’t mean i’ll stop wishing i could spin all day . . .

well, now i have to go off and start cooking all the stuff i brought in from the garden this morning. beckie and mark are coming for dinner and i am offering lots of homegrown food tonight!

one last thing; i did this graph of my website with this cool web app last weekend. each color dot represents something like a link or a photo, or a piece of code. i love it! i want T-shirts!