I did something I thought I would never do! And I did it for such great reasons, and now I'm really glad I did it.
I knitted some dishcloths.
As Miss WoollyKnits knows, I have admired hers among many people's dishcloths but never done them myself. Maybe it's because DH, who regularly pulls kitchen cleanup duty, is a sponge kind of guy. Maybe it's because I never saw the fun in knitting letters or pictures into a square.
But then I attended a conference the other day (interesting! How to Deal with Employees' Unacceptable Behavior--wow, what an earful I got!), and while I was mindlessly doing my 2x2 ribbing (on Super Secret Project #1), I got through the whole morning's fascinating information, presented by someone who doesn't believe in reading PowerPoint slides. Woot! Stick with me here--I am getting to the point. As I was getting up to go to lunch, I saw that a few chairs over from me was a woman knitting! So of course I asked her what she was knitting, and it was a Grandmother's Favorite Dishcloth.
It was pure white, and those lacey YO holes along the edge were so elegant. She and I talked briefly, and I really GOT something that Miss Woolly Knits has said before, but I guess I needed to hear it in person--this is a method by which you can learn many more complicated knitting techniques in a limited and quickly-finished project. For me, this time it was increasing with YOs and decreasing with K2's (while creating the corresponding hole with another YO).
So now I have knitted up four of them in just a few days. And it was a serendipitously perfect week for sales at Michael's--$1/skein for Sugar and Cream. While I've discovered I don't really like the white striping colorway, I love the ombre (reminds me of autumn). And the solids are also rich--yellow especially.
After a really nice dinner on the patio last night (something you can't count on being able to do in the Bay Area in summer--the "A/C" usually drops after 5 p.m. with the arrival of cool winds from the coast), I sent our friends Connie and Greg home with two of them, with strict instructions to USE them and let me know how they work, how they wash up, if they get straggly. I foresee fiddling with the pattern, trying other patterns, getting what size works best (start decreasing at 40? 44? 50?), and then knitting them up whenever I'm in meetings this fall, and giving them in sets for Christmas to a few of my favorite relatives who still do dishes the old-fashioned way. ;^)
I am still working on those other WIPs of course, and also have cast on a Super Secret Project #2, which is here for you to view, without any other real info except that it's Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf done in a lovely thick tweed (Rowan's Soft Tweed) I got on sale from Herrschners.
That was also the order that included a bunch of maybe my favorite wool to knit with when it comes to stitch definition--Bazic. I now have it in several coordinating colors and am prepared for the knitting of baby items (it's superwash!) as the need arises, and it surely will. Our school seems to be a . . . I was going to say "hot bed" and then was going to say "breeding ground," but both just sound so . . . wrong. Our school is experiencing a baby boom among faculty and staff (thankfully none of our MS students has found herself in that state, to my knowledge!). I already know of at least two buns-in-oven.
Here is a bit of lovely yarn from Gingerknits--a handspun skein of wool and metallic thread (destined to become a scarf for someone's Christmas gift)--ordered along with one of Meg's really cool cloth bead necklaces. When DH saw the PayPal purchase, you may remember that he said, "What did you buy, half a sheep?" (Really, it wasn't an exorbitant amount, it's just you know, how husbands are sometimes.) So Meg sent a note promising to "throw a jumbuck in the tuckerbag" to please DH. Little did I know she was serious--not mutton serious (whew!), but here is a little stitch marker--a jumbuck for all you Yanks who don't know your Aussie slang (I didn't either--I'm eternally thankful for internet slang sites to help me out!). Right, it's a sheep! 
She also sent the cutest little possum stitch marker, but no way would it photograph clearly. Thanks, Meg, you're a good sport. And I've half a mind to knit MYSELF a scarf with this yummy yarn. (8/4/08 BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! Today I found an email from Meg [Gingerknits] telling me that I'm a winner! She regularly draws a name from the previous month's patrons of her internet shop, gives them a $10 store credit, and makes their day. That would be ME for the month of July! [big toothy grin] Well, she had sold me on those charms and stitch markers with her adorable sheep and possum, so I went back to look at her offerings and found some really elegant ones [for lace shawl knitting perhaps??] that I'll feature here when they get across the pond from Oz.)Later this week, World-Saving daughter is coming home for a few weeks before school starts up again. Next week, DS Kate is coming down to spend five days with us (bliss!), and I will have to compete with the 3 DD's for her attention. It is lovely to see that they all are so attached to their auntie. I always hope for them that their sisterhood will serve them as ours has/does.
Time to take a long walk and then get busy knitting! I could get used to this summer pace! LOL.
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