Elegy

Oh, iPod. We had such a good run. Sure, you were old and obsolete, but I loved you anyway. You made me happy. We had such good times together--in the car, on airplanes, in the house, on vacation--and I'm trying to remember those times, instead of your bitter, bitter end in the hands of the Best Buy Geek Squad guy.

I'll miss you, even as I'm placing the order for my new one. A moment of silence.

Ahem. So yeah, the iPod died on me during the trip up to my dad's last week. I had to drive, at ten at night, with everyone else asleep, and no music. It wasn't fun. Then we had the additional two hours up to the lake on Friday, on windy hilly roads that prevent reading or knitting. I could've used it then. And of course on the trip back. Sigh.

But. Our trip was fantastic. We go up to Table Rock Lake outside of Branson, Missouri, every year with my dad's whole family. With my granddad, all my dad's siblings, their kids, and their kids, we had 43 people present. We spent hours in the pool, on the lake, playing games, at Silver Dollar City, and well, drinking. Good times, good times. (But naturally I have no photos of that stuff, just the dead iPod. Go figure.)

The bad news is I didn't knit a stitch. I couldn't get gauge on the surplice bodice camisole with my yarn and I couldn't muster up enthusiasm for my second sock. I did, however, read Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. It was actually pretty good--much better than I would've anticipated, honestly. I'm going out to by the second one in the series today.

It's hot.

To celebrate our first three-digit temperature yesterday, I made a cowl. Logical, no?

cast on: July 21
finished: July 21
yarn: something random from Tuesday Morning that's now been discontinued; it's 70% merino, 20 % alpaca, and 10% silk
needles: US 11 addi turbos
pattern: the Dolores Park Cowl
mods: none

I'm slowly becoming addicted to cowls. Every time I see one on Ravelry I end up adding it to my queue or my favorites. They're just so great. This one knit up in just a few hours, and it was seriously easy--it's mostly knit rounds and knit at 3 sts/in. (The photo shows it before blocking.)

Unfortunately, it's not for me. The Books and More swap has a handmade item requirement this go around, so I made it for my swap partner. I will be making one of these for myself soon, however.

Also falling under the category of "ooh! shiny!" (i.e., distractions), is my surplice bodice camisole. I have some gorgeous lavender linen/silk yarn that's been calling to me for months now, so I wound it up last night and am swatching today.

You know, instead of starting that second Spring Forward sock. Or those minis I'm supposed to be doing. Or ...

Babes, socks, and too much driving.

I finished the doll from Knitted Babes for Monkey last week. She's extremely cute, and I love all the little details like the felt facial features and eyelash stitching. Of course, all those little details are what made it something of a bitch to finish, but all that's over now. The hair is still a work in progress, however.

Wednesday night we headed up to my dad's, and I started working on a dress for Annika (as Monkey named the babe). I got most of it done on the three-hour drive and finished it up at Dad's house. As I was seaming up the back, though, I realized there was no way the dress was going to fit the doll. Absolutely none. And sure enough, the dress is a little bit snug even on a Barbie. Grrr. I suppose knitting the dress out of DK on size 5 needles when I knitted the doll out of worsted on size 6s should've been a clue, but hey, I was in knitterly denial. (Kinda like when I try on those size 6 clothes in my closet that I think still fit. From now on, I'm going to think of them as DK, and I'm a worsted.) I'm going to finish seaming the straps and give it to Monkey for her Barbies anyway. Annika will have to wait and get a dress at a later date.

Saturday we got in the car and headed for Ponca City, Oklahoma, where my dad grew up. My granddad still lives there, and all of his grandkids and great-grandkids made the trip to surprise him. That was another three and a half hours in the car, which got me started on the Spring Forward socks from Knitty. So far I'm loving this pattern, but the jury's still out on the Jojoland Melody. I want to like it a lot, because a) it's cheap--$14 for a pair of socks!, and b) I have two more balls of it in purple, and it's not like I can not use it. But it's a little splitty and rough. We'll see what the finished product is like before making a final call. I worked on them all the way home Sunday--six whole hours of drive time. With two kids. Fun, fun, fun ...

Oh, and I bought two more books from Interweave Press's hurt books sale. It's a disease, I tell you, a disease! (I got Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush and Favorite Socks from Interweave Knits.)