I did take a break yesterday to take the girl to a mountain bike race at the local YMCA. Hubby is a biking nut. He has taken this child on all sorts of rides and loves his bike like I love yarn. Back home he would take her to races in southern Utah. She's been out of the "off-road" saddle for a while, but I'm pleased to report that she won 2nd place in her age group. (the boy who won first REALLY should have raced in the next age group. The kid was BIG and at least 14, racing against the 9-12 year olds. The YMCA staff, though in their effort to make no child feel inferior and therefore lowering the bars for excellence in children yet again, let him race in that group anyways. But enough social commentary.) She stuck it out though and raced in the Advanced group too, she came in third (and last) but in her defense the other boys she raced against were 15 and 16 and she had just finished the intermediate race. A 9 minute mile after all that and in Virginia's lovely trademark "choke a water buffalo" humidity, I'd say she did an excellent job.
The boy amused himself on the playground and picking blackberries for me to eat in the woods. I sat, sweated, and tried desperately to work on clapotis, but the humidity made knitting miserable. How can anyone knit with WET yarn?????
I received a package this week from my One Skein Secret pal. The lovely girl sent not one, but TWO!!! skeins of Noro Silk Garden. I have been dying to try this stuff, but I could never justify it to myself when at the yarn shop. One Skein SP, I could just kiss you. I think I already have plans for it, but it depends on the outcome of a certain personal challenge that I'll tell you about in a minute.
In sad One Skein SP news though, I also received my pals package back in the mail. I have written to her and she did confirm her address, but I feel so terrible that not only did I send late, but that it ended up back here. I'll be trying to resend it this week with her July skein and an extra treat for being so patient.
ooooo! Remember the handspun that I dyed for a swap in my previous post?? The Delightful Purrl from Knittyboard has already woven it up into the prettiest scarf! Check out the results at her blog!
Now the personal challenge I was telling you about. I am going to learn lace if it kills me. (and it probably will.) I have started the Lace Leaf Pullover for Loop-d-Loop as a beginning. So far, I've only had to frog back to the ribbing on the first leaf twice. Sigh. I love lace SOOO much, why, oh why do I have to suck at it????
Here's the progress so far. Sad. I've subbed Berocco Xpress in red for the called-for yarn. The gauge is perfect and this stuff is way soft. It's discontinued, but I got just enough for this sweater in a swap.
Next up will be Branching Out. Everyone says this is the easiest intro to lace EVER. So I picked up some very soft generic luxury yarn from AC Moore to try it out with. I don't know who distributes this stuff but it's a merino/silk/alpaca blend, and it's inexpensive enough that I won't feel bad ruining it by continuous frogging if the experiment fails. It's also soft and fluffy enough to make a beautiful scarf for the Mother in Law if it all works out.
Wish me luck. I'm going to need it, and blog posts will be much less interesting when I pluck out my eyeballs in frustration.
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