Can You Smell It?

That’s the question my friend and her husband ask each other across the dinner table when it’s been a particularly rough day. The kids think the “it” is bedtime, but actually “it” is the gin they’ll be getting out to mix up some gin and tonics after the kids are in bed. Right now, I’ve got two teaching days left in this academic year—and boy can I smell “it.”

I have a whole set of to-do lists lined up: knitting projects, book lists, household chores, baseball dates. I may even engage in a quilting or embroidery dalliance or two—just don’t tell the stash! In the week before summer break starts, all things seem possible.

If you are in the Santa Cruz or Oakland areas, here are some yarn alerts:
The Golden Fleece has a new shipment of Malabrigo in and a buy ten, get one free deal.
Article Pract is having a big sale with lots of yarns at 25% off and many wonderful full bags at 50% off. I used part of my Big Read pay to pick up one bag each of Classic Elite Miracle (color 3385) and Classic Elite Inca Print (color 4675). That’s twenty balls of yarn for about $85. I’m thinking shawl for the Miracle and am desperately hoping to find a cardigan pattern with 3/4-length sleeves that will work for the Inca Print. If need be, I suppose I could pair it with some trim in solid black wool to make the yarn go further. (Does it strike anyone else that it’s hideously unfair that one can’t knit any pattern whatsoever out of a full bag of yarn? A bag! You’d think it would be enough for anything.)

Last week, Melissa met a friend and her just-about-to-turn-one-year-old daughter for lunch. Baby Natalie looked very cute in the roll-brim soy wool stripes hat I’d made for Melissa.

And if you want more baby cuteness, be sure to check out my Child’s Sandia Sun Hat on the new MagKnits.