Ah, Spring

Gorgeous, gorgeous weather, warm temps, light breezes and crocuses blooming:

But, there is a downside to spring for someone in our household....

Mandy is mad at us....

She desperately needed a bath and yesterday was so nice and warm, so she got one.  We even filled up buckets with WARM water, instead of using the hose (except to rinse her belly).  Now, I think that's pretty considerate of us.   I was soaked, my shoes were soaked, Paul was soaked, so it wasn't all fun and games for us either. But no, still getting the cold shoulder.

But now she is nice and soft and fluffy and smells nice.  I'm sure she'll forgive us soon.

Since it was such a beautiful weekend, Paul and I took the opportunity to take a drive.  Just around.  Nowhere special, as long as we ended up at a Target to run an errand.  We also ended up here:

Giffy's Bar-B-Q in Clifton Park.  Mmmmmmmm...... bar-b-q.

And to Guptill's Coney Express for our first ice cream of the season:

Sorry, too excited to remember to take a picture of the actual ice cream.  It was yummy.

In Gardening News....
Not much news, since it's still too early to do much, but I just ordered these from Amazon:

I'm very excited to have a garden this year!

In Knitting News....
I've been crazy busy this week teaching knitting classes.  Thursday was the first Daybreak session, Friday was the first Car Seat Blanket Session, Saturday was the first 2-Socks-on-1-Needle session and the first Baby Kimono session, and Sunday was the first Sycamore Vest session.  Whew.  I was a little wiped out Sunday afternoon (at which time we decided to tackle the aforementioned bath....).

So for knitting I've been sticking to the Skew socks:

A little less complicated than getting into the Cranberry Capelet which I hope to work on this week.  Yes, they are crooked.  They are supposed to be, hence the name "Skew".

I also started the Swirl Hat which The Spinning Room is doing for a charity knit-a-long:.

Yes, that's my new favorite way to take a picture of my yarn...

These hats will be donated to a local hospital's child and adult cancer centers.  The pattern is nice and easy so it's nice to have that to knit while I watch tv.

In Book News:
I'm reading First Grave on the Right (Charley Davidson, Book 1) by Darynda Jones  (kindle version:First Grave on the Right) on a sort-of recommendation from a knitting friend.  She actually recommended the next book, Second Grave on the Left (Charley Davidson, Book 2) (kindle version: Second Grave on the Left )  but I didn't remember the name correctly when I went to get it.  I didn't mind, though, because sometimes I get a little finicky about reading a book series and I would have wanted to start from the beginning anyway.  At any rate, so far I'm liking it and I will give you more details when I'm done (soon).

Also book related, Paul went on a business trip and I convinced him to take my Nook with him so he could read The Hunger Games (kindle version: The Hunger Games).  It actually did take some convincing because Paul is not really a gadget guy.  First, he sort of wrinkled his nose because I think he was resisting the idea of using a gadget since he thinks there are too many in the world (and he thinks I have all of them, which I don't.  I have a couple.  There are way more people who have way more gadgets than me.), and he didn't want anyone to think he was one of those gadgety people.  Then he was all, "I don't know how it works."  And I was all, "I'll SHOW you."  At that point he was really out of arguments.  So I showed him and he read on the plane.   He couldn't put it down either!!!!  Then, he started reading the second one and is in the middle of that.  We both can't wait to see the movie.

Bench Racing (and a whole lot more)

Last weekend, Paul and I went to an auction at a car repair business in Cooperstown.  He was looking for some ..... car repair stuff.  We had to stand, since it was a full house, for two hours as they went through the list of 400 items.  FOUR. HUNDRED.  Paul was watching for several items on the list but was most interested in the car lifts listed as number 200-something.

Here we are at #67:

You can imagine this was incredibly boring riveting, so the only natural thing to do was:

I worked on my much-neglected, but very simple (garter stitch) fireplace rug.  I made this with two strands of Debbie Bliss Eco Cotton (aran weight) with a size 9 needle, to make a nice, dense fabric.  It now sits in front of the fireplace to catch the wood bits and stray embers.

(with permanent fixture, Phoebe)

It's pretty bland and boring, but functional.

But, while we were in Cooperstown (with nothing in tow from the auction), we had to stop at Sal's for pizza and the lake for a pretty view:

And on the way home we saw this along Route 20:

It's always so odd to see an Amish buggy on the road.  I can only imagine how they feel.

So, as a result of standing up for two hours with a knitting bag on my shoulder, and knitting for two hours (a physical therapist's nightmare scenario), I not surprisingly ended up with some sciatic pain.  Love that. (not)  In addition, I caught Paul's icky cold!  Let me tell you, it was a fun week.  Hence, the reason for the delay in blog posts.

I didn't knit much all week until yesterday (which I'll tell you about later...), but I did read some books!

The Jaguar (Charlie Hood) by T. Jefferson Parker (click there for the book or here: The Jaguar for the kindle version):  This was a recommendation by my mom and is the latest in a series with the main character Charlie Hood.  This is a book that starts out with a kidnapping -- a ransom request follows and the search for how to secure the release of the kidnapped woman.  She is being held in Mexico and the story revolves around drug cartels and her husband's involvement with them (whom she did not know has this secret other life).  Charlie Hood is a friend of the couple and is involved in helping with her release within a certain time frame, faced with the very real threat that if they don't get there, she will be skinned alive.  Overall, I was definitely drawn into the story line and I enjoyed the book, reading it fairly quickly.  However, the topic of drug cartels and military/political-type issues is not my usual interest, so I would look forward to the parts of the story that involved the kidnapped woman and her experiences (as opposed to the parts of the story that involved her husband and friend getting to her in armored cars, killing the enemy along the way).

Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games), by Suzanne Collins, (click there for the book or here: Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) for the Kindle version) was the next book I read.  Oh. My.  Gosh.  AGAIN, couldn't put it down for the life of me.  Lots of excitement and the end (AGAIN!) leaves you with a cliff hanger that makes it nearly impossible to wait for the next book.  I am waiting, though, (and I've already read another book), because I like to let books in a series sit with me a little bit before I move on to the next one so I can think about them.  And enjoy the feeling of having read a really great book.  I love that.  Also, I don't want to risk feeling on overload by the story line, or worse maybe getting bored.  But, I must say with this one, it's more that I don't want them to be over so I'm dragging it out a little bit.

Heft: A Novel, by Liz Moore (click there for the book or here: Heft: A Novel for the Kindle version) was the last book I read.  This was a recommendation of Jennifer Weiner, an author whom I follow on Twitter.  I like her books (Good in Bed, In Her Shoes and more) and, usually, her book recommendations (not to mention, I like supporting someone that came from my hometown and whom I graduated high school with !).  She described this book as She's Come Undone (another great book by Wally Lamb) meets Anne Tyler.  I haven't read Anne Tyler but pass along the description for those of you who may have.    This was a really great book, centering around the lives of two people (mostly), a man and a teenage boy, and how their lives eventually intersect.  Definitely not a light-hearted book, and there are lots of heavy emotional parts, but really a nice story of overcoming hardships in life.  Another one I couldn't put down.

Yesterday, I went to the yarn shop for some knitting time with knitting friends.  I was telling Paul what a nice time I had, chatting with everyone not only about knitting, but books and food and that I was also telling them about drag racing things since a couple people had asked when he was starting (April, by the way).
Paul: "You were BENCH RACING???"
Me:  "Ummmmm. I don't know."

Apparently, if you talk about racing when you are not racing or are not at the race track, it is called bench racing.  Since I was talking about racing times and speeds and what you need for fast racing (a parachute), this qualified as bench racing.  Who knew?

What am I knitting you ask?
I finally got back to work on that project I was stringing you along about:

This is the Cranberry Capelet, which clearly in my case is not cranberry in color.  Mine is a pretty blue/gray.  After 8 inches of knit one, purl one ribbing (ugh), for the turtleneck portion, I'm ready for some more interesting knitting with the increases for the shoulders and cableing.  I think it's a very cute pattern and can't wait to see how it turns out.

Also, I started a project that I've been dying to do for some time, the Skew socks (that link is to Knitty.com, the free Ravelry download is only for non-english instructions):

This is a toe-up sock pattern with unusual shaping, for which you have to use one long circular needle or two shorter circular needles.  Because of the shaping techniques you cannot use double points, and at one point you have up to 102 stitches on your needle.  I'm using one long needle and the magic loop method.  As you can see, I'm only a few rows in, so stay tuned.  The pattern is 7 pages long, so it might be a while.  And I'm breaking my recently adopted policy of knitting 2 socks at the same time, since I have no idea how this pattern will go. Maybe as I get into it, I'll buy another needle and start the second one.  Don't you love those colors, by the way????? (Colinette Jitterbug in "Fruit Coulis")

Whew!  Hopefully you are still with me after this marathon blog post.  It's a beautiful day today (Sunday) and we are going for a drive.  More beautiful weather is in store for the upcoming week and I'm so hopeful for Spring....