You see things different when you walk rather than drive. You can stop and smell the roses, you can break into a run to get past the doggie doo. All the little details of the part of town I live in (and the fancier parts I like to walk in) are coming alive to me, and it’s amazing the things I notice. First off a small annoyance – people with fancier cars are much more likely to try to run me off the road if there aren’t sidewalks. I’m just saying. A very short man in a very big hummer nearly ran me over – and I was in the grass!

There are places off the beaten  path – off the main roads – that are just beautiful. Last Saturday morning I walked six miles up into Avondale. It was threatening to storm, but luckily I made it home and only got drizzled on. The pictures isn’t great, but you can see here how the wind is beating the river into a frenzy. I didn’t even know this little cul-de-sac existed!

This beautiful flower caught my attention on Tuesday. I was glad it was still there today. I’ve never seen anything like it!

I notice how people keep their lawns. I say good morning to all the lawn workers. And that old saying about how people and their dogs start to look alike. Totally true. So true. Of course I can’t really whip my cell phone and take a picture of that. They might sic their dog on me!

Today I didn’t get on the road til about 7:45. I walked 5.25 miles and didn’t get back to the house til about 9:15. Not a fast pace, but I’m not really going for fast. I’m going for getting it done. But the last mile this morning was really kicking my tookus. The sun was up, and there wasn’t much shade on this last portion. I was tired, I was hungry, and I was seriously debating how bad it would be to go back to bed when I got home. And then I saw this:

And with a spring in my step, I picked up the pace and powered it back home. I’ve had a proper breakfast and all is right with the world. 26 miles on the calendar this weekend (eek!) – won’t you support me?

The first of September. Would someone please tell me how this happened? The boys are back in school and in full swing. There are fundraisers and activities and volunteering galore. Nearly every square on the calendar has something scribbled on it. Except for Mondays. Mondays are rest days for my 3-Day training. There are no after school or evening activities. I wonder if we can keep it that way?

Speaking of ones, of singles as it were, isn’t this lovely? A single skein of Wollmeise Lace in Amethyst Light.

I got caught up in the frenzy the other day. I just happened to be in the right (?) place at the right time – everyone was tweeting and plurking about the Wollmeise update on the Loopy Ewe. I remember in the throes of it, I asked my dear friend Kristin what color I should get. She said it didn’t matter but I better choose quick! And she was right. By the time I finished my order it was all gone. It was insane.

I think it’s going to be a cardigan when it grows up.

You want interesting, relevant content? Well I got none. It seems like all I do is walk, volunteer, and grocery shop lately. It seems like time is moving in a fast-forward blur but at the same time all the daily annoyances are just more annoying. Right now at 7:57 pm on a Monday night I am catching up on laundry. The amount of laundry I do on a weekly basis makes me seriously consider becoming a nudist. The fourth and final load for today is in the dryer. I did it on Saturday. And I just helped my 10yo tidy his room and found at least a load’s worth in there. So incredibly annoying.

I am knitting. Well actually I am knitting and un-knitting and tinking and frogging and there might be some cursing thrown in there for good measure. All for the love of this.  (By the way, the Namaste snap bags are nothing short of fabulous!)

I bought the yarn at Stitches South. And it’s been screaming at me ever since. Something clever, something cute, and wouldn’t these stitch patterns look adorable together. They do. But because life is annoying my math brain is broken. I have a very good math brain. I do math in my head quicker than most people can do it on a calculator. But this math was giving me gas. I have spent countless hours watching the excel gridlines wave and blur in front of my eyes as I tried to make it just so. I hope and pray it’s just so now.

Oh and the walking. How on God’s green earth do people who have a full-time job train for this 3-Day nonsense? I have 13 hours worth of training scheduled this week. Yes, you read that right. 13 hours. 35 miles of walking and 1 hour and 15 minutes of cross training. To be honest I don’t know if the cross training will get done. I’m considering doing some yoga dvds though. Because my muscles are super tight. Not cool.

And speaking of the walking. I desperately need donations. I’m not even halfway there. I have to raise $2300 to walk in this event and I’ve only raised $829. I have another few hundred coming in from the garage sale proceeds. But the long and the short of it is that to walk, I have to have the $2300. And if I don’t have it on start-day they will let me walk if I guarantee the shortfall with a credit card. And I’ll be honest with you folks, I don’t have $1000 to spare. But the beauty part is this – if everyone who reads this gave a little – $10 even – whatever they could, I would blast by my goal in no time. I really, really want to walk this race. But I cannot do it without your support.

Actually I think we’re having spaghetti & meatballs tonight. But I got winners!

So the winners are trillian42 and Ann!  Winner number one (trillian42) gets this lovely skein of Plum Denali and her choice of any PicnicKnits pattern to go with it. And winner number two (Ann) gets this lovely skein of Olive Denali (seriously I couldn’t decide what color so I got both) and her choice of any PicnicKnits pattern. Yay for winners! Yay for dinner!

So I totally forgot that yesterday I was drawing for prizes. And now I’m scrambling around trying to get a few things done before I head to work at my LYS. So…. I will be picking up two awesome skeins of sock or lace yarn today at my LYS and then announcing prize winners this afternoon. Thanks for your patience!

So for awhile I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a book – specifically an e-book that I might self publish in paper form as well. And the other day I had a fabulous idea for a theme. It plays off something I’ve done before, but I think it will work perfectly for this sort of thing. And I’ve started acquiring yarn for this project.

The other day I spent a birthday gift certificate at the Loopy Ewe and got some Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga in Cotton Stainer, a beautiful rich dark pink. And today I got caught up the Wollmeise Lace Update madness and purchased a skein of Wollmeise Lace in Amethyst Light. Two yarns down,  five to go.

I would love to use five different yarns.  Yarns that are beloved and revered. Yarns that make people go “Ooh, can I touch it?” when they hear a project is made from it.

So here’s the deal. This is shameless research marketing. I need your favorite yarns. I’m looking for different weights, but mostly of the lighter variety – maybe lace to DK. Tell me what it is, tell me why it’s the best. Tell me the colorways that make your skirt fly up.

And on Monday, August 23rd, I will use the comments to choose two folks who will get a yarn & pattern prize from me. Some kind of fabulous sock yarn and a PicnicKnits shawlette pattern to go with it. So 8/22 is the commenting deadline!

So please, comment away – tell me what’s the best – tell me what I’ve been missing. I need to know!

Today we begin knitting the Daphne Ann Mystery Shawl. I’ve already answered a couple of questions and put a little graphic out for a portion that is a bit fiddly. And I’m unreasonably excited. The fact that folks are choosing to knit something sight unseen that I’ve designed makes me feel very happy and very proud.

The one thing I did not think of was a cut-off.  Having never done this before, I’m not sure it will be feasible to still be helping on clue one when the rest of the folks are on clue four or whatever. Although I don’t think that much help will be needed. Hmm… I think I will cut things off just to be safe. The mystery knitters will knit along together for the next five weeks and then afterward I will release the pattern in it’s entirety. So… if you want to get in on the group-thing, you need to do it soon. I’m going to sell the mystery knit until Wednesday, August 18th. And then it will go away until after the knit-along is completed.

So buy now, or be prepared to be patient!

I walked sixteen miles this weekend. And now I’ve got the sixteen tons song in my head. Maybe you are not afflicted with earworm disease. But I have it bad. I just think of a lyric and I have another outbreak.

So there you are. I’m sharing my pain with you this morning. Well my earworm pain. I can’t really share my aching leg and foot pain. Somehow I got attacked by a spider on the walk yesterday morning. I have a little trail of blisters running up the back of my calf. Guess it thought I was a tasty snack!

The thing about the walking is this. On the short walks, I’m fine. I’m a big girl, but I’m pretty strong. So I walk by myself, listening to some music and enjoying the morning. The really long walks are harder though. Saturday was five miles – no big deal. Yesterday was eleven miles – kind of a big deal. We took a break at seven, and it really did a number on me, as I never got my oomph back. But I walk with Eloise. She’s in her mid 60′s. She’s a survivor. She just had her yearly mammogram and we all let out a cheer when she announced that it came back clean. And she walks. She doesn’t complain, she doesn’t even seem to get winded. So at the ripe old age of 38 I need to follow her example.

Sometimes I wonder why I am doing such a thing. I must be crazy. But I feel stronger already. And although I haven’t lost any weight, I measured myself this morning and I’ve lost 4 inches off my waist. Kind of cool.

But the real reason I am walking is raise funds. $2300 to be exact. And I still have like $1800 to raise. And I’m raising this money so it will go away. So no more Eloises will get sick. So I won’t have friends like Kim – my teammate – who is walking in memory of her mom that she lost 6 years ago. She’s my age with 4 kids. When you have 4 kids you need to call your mama sometimes. (Ok lots of times). And she can’t. Her daughters will all grow up without that Grandma. And my sons who never even met my husband’s mother. He will speak of how she would have loved us all – but we never get to have that. And my husband doesn’t get to make his mama proud with the family that he adores.

It shouldn’t be that way. Everyone deserves a lifetime. That’s the Komen motto. And I agree. I want to be around to spoil my grandchildren rotten. That’s part of my life plan. And I need a good amount of time to do that in – every woman does.

Every little donation helps. Five dollars helps. Sure, $500 helps more, but if you know me online and you like me – maybe you could spare 5 bucks? If you’ve been touched by this disease like so many of us have please consider making a donation.

Also, if you are local – we are having a big ole fundraising garage sale/bake sale/lemonade stand. Saturday morning, starting at 6:30 am. If you are a garage sale junkie this is an awesome way to support our walking team. It will be a six family garage sale – at least – as we have donations coming in from other families.

Ta-Tas Are Sacred Team Garage Sale

Saturday, August 14th, starting at 6:30 AM

8086 Shadwell Court * Jacksonville, FL 32244

When I went to Stitches South, I bought all kinds of pretty yarn. But my favorite by far was the Tomato Frog Bugga. So absolutely luscious. It’s an MCN blend – merino, cashmere, & nylon. And it’s really just love in the form of yarn. And it’s red. The most beautiful semi-solid red with so much depth. And I made it into this:

One skein of Bugga, size 7 needles, and lovely lace patterns to edge the top and bottom worked side-to-side in one piece.

This knit up crazy fast – even for me. I think it was that the yarn was just that nice to work with. And even when I soaked, there was only the faintest tinge of red in the water – which is just unheard of. At Sanguine Gryphon, they do it up right.

Needles: Size 7 needles (4.5 mm)

Yarn: Sanguine Gryphon Bugga in the Tomato Frog colorway, 113 grams, 412 yards

Size: Sample blocked to 74″ wide and 18″ deep

Gauge: 18 stitches and 26 rows = 4 inches in blocked garter

Notes: Worked from side to side. Offered in charted and written format.

The Renita Shawlette on Ravelry – $6.00 USD

First up, a friendly (and totally self-promoting) reminder. The Daphne Ann Mystery Knit price will increase from $6.00 to $9.50 on Friday. So today and tomorrow is all you got if you want the cheaper price. We start knitting on August 15th!!!

Second on the agenda is a tutorial. It’s been awhile since I’ve done a tutorial. But here’s the thing. ALL of my lace patterns will look better, get bigger, and be nicer if you give them a good, rigorous blocking. That sounds a bit um, yeah. But it’s the truth.

Today I blocked Renita. It will be for sale just as soon as my fabulous tech editor finishes with it and I get some proper pictures. So we’re gonna do this step by step – how to block a triangular shawl.

SUPPLY LIST

• Knitted piece, with ends woven in, but NOT trimmed
• Water and a big bowl or basin, and some sort of wool soak if desired
• Listening material – you can’t watch TV and do this properly
• Pins and/or wires and/or cotton string
• Blocking surface – I use a 6 foot square styrofoam block. Some folks block on their carpeted floor or bed with a towel underneath. I also have those nice garage foam blocks that interlock.

STEP ONE: Time for a bath!

You need to soak your piece for a minimum of 30 minutes. I use warm tap water and a squirt of Soak or Eucalan. You don’t need to rinse out the good wool washes. And you need the time to make sure all the fibers are fully saturated. After the bath you need to use a towel or somesuch to carefully squeeze the excess water out of the knitted piece.

STEP TWO: Establish an edge. You can do this with pins or wires or string. This shawlette has a shallow triangle shape, so I establish the top edge first.

This shawlette has a nice picot edging with eyelets along the top. So I begin by threading my blocking wires (I used three long ones) through the eyelets. This gives the shawlette a straight edge to pull against.

After I have the wires in, I use some pins to hold the straight edge in place.

STEP THREE: Stretch out the other two sides. You can use wires or string for this, but I like pins.

I do the points a few at a time. And I do them well spaced apart so I am stretching things as evenly as possible.

STEP FOUR: Fix the details. Again, I’m using pins here. You can run a wire or string through all the points, but I like this method better. Although I did run out of T-Pins this go-round.

You can see how the picot points are nice and even. I usually remove the holding wires I started with. I want the eyelets to form naturally from the points – not from the wire.

STEP FIVE: Straighten up the edges.

This is kind of wonky here as you can see. So I use the pins to stretch the points out into a straight line. When I’m finished fixing it, things looks more like this:

The points are lined up (to my satisfaction) and the entire stockinette portion of the shawl has opened up and grown.

All that’s left to do now is let the beautiful finished object dry in place – at least 24 hours – and then you can trim the woven in ends. I like the styrofoam block because I can stand it upright and not take up as space in my little house. This is not the *only* way to block, but this is the way I do it. Hope it helps you on your next lacy adventure.