Group hug

Keri (and her husband, Joel), who now reside in Portland, Oregon, are here in Wisconsin for a wedding. Our gain! We got to visit with them last night at Knit Night, where we took a group photo whilst we were all decked out in our newly minted Knit Night t-shirts (done by Cheryl--thank you so much!). Joel kindly took the pictures for us.

Front row, left to right: Keri, Diane, Beth, me.

Back row, left to right: Paulette, Ciara, Margaret, Cheryl, Vicki, Gail, Mandi.


This was a smaller group than usual. We were missing a few members for various reasons. The big discussion when we were assembling for the photo was to make sure the "aquas" were not all clumped up in one location in the picture. Quite a change from the first picture I posted of our knitting group on my blog. Apparently it pays to advertise.

Long weekend

Well, I have had another 4 day weekend, thanks to the 4th of July!

Here's what I did:

On Friday I cut the grass and did yard work. I watered all the gardens and plants outside. Also went to the grocery store, etc. And got knitting done. The neighbor guy borrowed our year old lawnmower and bent one of the blades on it when he hit a rock. Gotta love it. It better work when I need to use it again.

My sweater is all done. Yippee!

I have now moved on to another shawl. This time it's the Evelyn Clark Flower Basket shawl, with the yummy laceweight yarn I bought on my birthday.

I'm still waiting for my yarn I ordered from Knit Picks to come. I am going to make another lace sweater with it. This one will be a lot cheaper--the yarn was only $20 for the whole sweater.

On Saturday, well it was the 4th of July. I got up at 4:45AM and then drove to Sheboygan to go to the parade, my cousin's wedding (don't get me started about it) and finally, the fireworks. My review of the Sheboygan parade was that it was kind of a dud. There were only two bands in the whole thing. It usually is much better than that. The fireworks were okay. I am sad to report this, because I really like the fireworks. There must have been some sort of temperature inversion or something, because by the end, the smoke from the fireworks obscured the whole end of the show. I mean, you could hear them, but you couldn't see them. It was weird. I got home around midnight.

Here are pictures of the fireworks before they were obscured:

Here are views from my hometown's lakefront:

On Sunday, I went to church and then hung around the house. It was nice.

Yesterday I had legal holiday from the 4th of July. We cleaned the house, went to the grocery store again, and went to the new Hallmark store. I also watered all the gardens again.

Well, it's a short week this week anyhow. And Tuesday is almost over!

Picture time!

In the week since I have posted, lots has happened. Fortunately, a lot has been captured in pictures!

Here we see evidence that Churchill now likes the outdoors:












He still has a pretty serious face when he's outside. He was enjoying himself, though.



My birthday was this past Monday (the 29th). Paulette and went up to Washington Island in Door County. I wanted to go someplace I had never been before.




You have to take the ferry to get to the island:

You can stay in your car or they have cabins on the ferry where you can sit during the trip. We stayed in the car because Paulette can't get around too well these days because she broke a bone in her foot last week Wednesday and is now in a big velcro-cast thing.

Here are some views from the car while we were waiting:

This was prime knitting time! It took at least 35-45 minutes each way. The water was really choppy and I don't do well in choppy water. The knitting really helped.

We ate lunch at the Washington Hotel, Restaurant and Culinary School. Paulette had a Reuben:

I had a smoked turkey sandwich:

The bread was baked there. It was good.

We also went to shop at the Sievers School of Fiber Arts. I want to take a spinning class there.

Here is Paulette holding her lace sock:

And here I am with my nearly completed sweater. Four more rows today and it's done.

I bought some handspun yarn:

On the way back, we stopped at Red Sock Yarns, a new yarn shop in Fish Creek. It is a very nice shop, with lots of selection and lots of places to sit and knit. The owner said that she plans on being open all year long. The shop is located in the Top of the Hill shops, a right turn off Hwy 42 as you are headed out of Fish Creek towards Ellison Bay. I can't think of a more perfect day in winter than snowshoeing in Peninsula State Park, eating lunch in a restaurant in Fish Creek and stopping at a knitting shop. We'll be back there for sure!

My purchase:

It's Ella Rae Lace merino. I am going to wind it this afternoon to start a shawl this evening. I just have to find a pattern yet.

We also stopped at the Cherry Hut, formerly known as Ray's Cherry Hut on Hwy 42 between Fish Creek and Egg Harbor. Paulette bought me a birthday cherry pie!

We couldn't find any birthday candles in the house, so we used a tea light.

Yesterday we went to the special screening of "Public Enemies". And to answer my sister, no, we still had to buy popcorn--it wasn't included in the $30 ticket price. Here's one of the signs from the movie:

And tonight is Knit Night!! I have had a lovely 4 days away from work. Thank you for a splendid birthday, Paulette!

Easily entertained

I guess I am easily entertained. There is a story in the Oshkosh Northwestern today about the pavement heaving because of the extreme heat. (Read about it here) Usually not a funny situation.

One of the paragraphs struck me as really funny:

"Heaving was reported on U.S. 10 in Winnebago and Waupaca counties, on U.S. 41 south of Neenah in Winnebago County and on U.S. 151 near Beaver Dam. No major crashes were reported because of the heaves, however."

Makes one think about the value of reading one's writing before submitting it.

Hot stuff

You know it's going to be a hot day outside when it's already 86 degrees at 10:45AM. If you spend too much time outside today, you'll be sweating like my water bottle:




I was outside on my break knitting when I took this. Only because it is so freakin' cold in the buildings on campus all summer--a constant 68 degrees all year. Which is really cold when you're wearing clothing suitable for the 90 degree weather outside. Don't get me wrong, I like the air conditioning. It's running at home right now, with all the blinds closed. It's pretty cave-like in there when it's hot out. At least Churchill is staying cool that way.

Speaking of the knitting, my summer lace sweater is coming along nicely:



The pattern is Sonata crest of the wave tank top by Michelle Ciccariello from the elann.com website. The yarn I am using is Sublime SoyaCotton DK. It's nice, soft yarn--a little splitty, but okay. The pattern leaves a little to be desired. It has been a real challenge at times to figure out what the pattern designer wants you to do.

I have an adventure to accomplish on my lunch hour to do list. I am going to the hardware store to find new hinges for the kitchen cabinets. One broke on the weekend, and it's proving to be a challenge to find any that work with the existing hinges. Paulette tried Fleet Farm and Menards with no success. Replacing all of them isn't really what I want to do right now, so my search continues. I will be visiting Kitz and Pfeil, the True Value hardware store soon.

On the Churchill front, I took him outside without a leash Saturday morning. I set him in the front yard. Maybe he feels safer there, because his main focus was not being scared--it was eating the long grass, a really normal cat thing to do. He must have had a good time, because when I brought him in and set him in the front porch, he howled to be let back out. There's hope for him yet. I decided I am going to make him a new collar, since all the manufactured ones are either too small or what I think would be really uncomfortable if I were a cat.

Retrospective on the week

Is it Friday already? Well, it has been a long week. I guess Friday just sort of snuck up on me.

Let's see, what have I been up to? Oh yes, there has been knitting:

I finished this last night, blocked it on my lunch hour. Now I started a lace tank top. I've only got 4 rows done, so there's not much to show pictorially.

Paulette got me an early birthday present:

We're going to the early opening of the movie, "Public Enemies" on June 30. It nicely coincides with my birthday on June 29. I am taking vacation both days. On my birthday I want to go to Washington Island in Door County. I've been to Door County lots of times, but have never made the trip all the way to the tip of the peninsula. Should be fun!

We went to the art fair in South Park in Oshkosh this past Sunday. There was lots of stuff, but I only bought these resin buttons to work into my knitting somehow:

I haven't mentioned Churchill in a while. He's happy the windows are open. He's not so happy about the humidity. I suppose I wouldn't be if I were wearing a fur coat all year 'round like he is.

The yard is busy producing flowers.

William Baffin is happily blooming by the back door:

My Sarah Bernhardt peony is finally blooming:

And here's a photo of our first ever clematis flower:

We have had a lot of trouble growing clematis because the bunnies always eat them to the ground. Maybe they have found tastier stuff somewhere else.

Have a good weekend!

Randomness

On Friday and Saturday Paulette and I attended the Wisconsin Democratic Party conference in Green Bay. It was okay. We were out of there by 1PM on Saturday, which worked out well. We could get the yard work done. Anyhow, Saturday was World Wide Knit in Public Day. We have pictures:

Not the best picture of me, but whatever. I am still tired from driving back and forth to Green Bay. We did that from Thursday-Saturday. Enough already.

Nothing much else to report. It's freezing inside at work these days. I think it's really sick when I am so cold at the end of a workday that I am happy to sit in my hot car with the windows closed for a while.

I leave you with this picture of a seemingly contradictory message on this hair salon's window--are they open or closed?