The usual summer stuff

Paul and I did some of our usual summertime things this past weekend.  First, we went to see Spamalot at the Washington Park Playhouse:

This is my usual  picture of knitting-while-waiting-for-the-show-to-start-because-we-got-there-an-hour-and-a-half-early-because-I-get-obsessive-about-not-getting-a-good-seat.  Apparently other people do too, because there were A LOT of people already there when we got there.  It was a terrific show - hilarious!   See the below knitting update for what I'm knitting in this picture.

Then we went to the Brimfield antiques show where we got a few things:

That would be:
1) A dolly for a 55 gallon drum.  I don't even know if we have any of those...
2) A Buick hubcap from the 1940's.
3) A Murray pedal car for Paul to restore.  This was the best one we found - in working order with only one thing missing that we could see.  And which we don't know what it is.   There is simply a hole where something should go.  We need to research.
4) Not shown - because we didn't find any - a dress form and a head model, for me to display and take pictures of my knitting.

No pictures from while we were there since it was HOT and I didn't think about it.  And when I thought about it, it was raining.  We got away with no rain for about 3 hours but trudged around for another hour while it was raining on and off.  Good times.  Mostly.

Then, we drove up to Lake George to see the lake and get ice cream from Martha's Dandee Crème.  I would put some pictures here but I took them with my newfangled "smart" phone but I can't find them.  That's not smart.

In Knitting News
Pictures of my blocked Mystic Spiral:

This picture is the best representation of the true color.

 

Like you really need three pictures, right?  The one I took of me wearing it came out terrible, so I spared you.

While at Spamalot, I worked on my latest obsession, the Oak Trail hat from Alana Dakos' latest book, Botanical Knits.  Here's the picture again, because I forgot to get a better one (click on the link for the official pattern pic):

In Book News:
I'm gearing up to do some book reviews, I promise.  However, I must tell you that Goodreads has informed me that "At your current pace, you're 4 books (9%) behind schedule."  And by "informed me" I mean shouted it from the sidebar as I scrolled down the page when I went to my Goodreads homepage the other day.  To remind you, my goal is to read 45 books in 2013.  I have only read 20. ONLY.

Knitting Coordination

Check out this picture:

Notice anything?  The other day, after I had lined up my knit-a-long projects, Paul asked if I was trying to match my yarn to our plates.  I had no idea what he was talking about and then he pointed to the dining room.  Ha.  Guess I like those colors.

Have I ever told you about this most incredibly awesome kitchen gadget ever made?:

My pineapple corer-slicer

I. Love. This.  LOVE!  It's the OXO Good Grips Stainless Steel Ratcheting Pineapple Slicer (click there to get it on Amazon)  It makes the totally annoying task of preparing a pineapple so fast and easy.  Here's a closeup of the end that goes on the top of the pineapple:

Then you just twist it until it comes out the other end.

Then, while it's still on the thingamagig, I slice it from top to bottom all the way around, then dump it into a bowl and wa-la, perfect bite sized pieces.  Did I say... LOVE?!

In Knitting News:
So, I did get to finish one unfinished project.

Full disclosure: I had already counted it as done - back in April -when it wasn't quite done.  Why? Because of the "finishing" bit of sewing that needed to be done of course.  Took me 15 minutes to sew up the spiral.  Seems I'll never learn that some finishing just isn't that bad.  But buttons always will be.

I finished my Gelsomina wrist warmers:

Currently drying next to the fire.  Once it's done, I'll take a picture of it on my wrist.  They are very pretty and I like them.  However, they are slightly snug for my wrists.  I have stretched blocked them as much as I could and they are still snug on me.  They could be made a little bigger, but then the pattern wouldn't match up at the seam.  Some people would be bothered by that.  I wouldn't.  But I'm not making them again.

Knit-a-Long the first - the Downton Abbey one - started this past Sunday.  The first episode of season three was excellent.  love, Love, LOVE Violet the Dowager Countess.  She's got some real zingers.   We now know the project will be some fingerless gloves, based on the ones Violet wears to dinner parties.  Here is my first glove so far:

Provisional cast on and a rosebud lace pattern.  They apparently will go halfway to the elbow.  They also have an eyelet section on the backside the will have yarn run through so you can cinch them up and make ruching (gathers).  Not sure if they will be my style but it's fun anyway!  Each clue will come out on Sundays before the next episode.

In Book News:
Upped my 2013 Reading Challenge goal to 45 books.  At lunch with Paul I was telling him that I was shocked that I had read 13 in 4 months and he looked at me like I was nuts.  He said, "You are ALWAYS reading."  But all of a sudden I feel like the book I'm reading is taking me forever to get through!  Hopefully by my next post, I'll have a review of it for you....