**Does** Stacie Adventure?

Admittedly, my knitting posts have slowed down as I've been focused on the Writing Wizards blog more this summer.

But of course I've been knitting. Let me show you.

This is a twin rib scarf from two balls of La Perle Alpaca (washable!) that I got at Green Planet Yarns in their sale bin. Those of you who've seen my knitting in past years will notice that I love this color combo.

This is a men's scarf in Jo Sharp Ultra (colorway is called Nero). I need to weave in ends, but it's essentially done. It's chunky. Also a twin rib pattern.And I took the Lorna's Laces worsted I'd gotten on Bainbridge Island in June and started this 2x2 ribbing scarf. The colors are so wonderfully autumnal--the shade is called "Tuscany." My MIL had purchased this same yarn in January to knit some socks for herself, and that was when I fell in love with the colorway.

Got started with the Katrina shell again:
I'm also more than halfway done with the knitted backing for the blanket I'm making of Swedish-themed printed cotton. It's done in garter ridge stitch. Hard to get the color right in the photograph--a little more red and a little less purple in real life.Don't know what to do with the Moderne Log Cabin baby blanket--I've cut out polar fleece to back it, but I'm not a seamstress, and using blanket edging is not really feasible with such a thick garter stitch. Any advice?
You might have noticed that some of my knitting is adorned with cat hair. Here is one reason:
My mother, a knitter and crocheter herself, always says the cat hairs come at no extra charge. 8^) Kermit is my other sweet boy (Percy being the one most evident on my blog). Doesn't he match the upholstery nicely? Kerm is a big love. He doesn't have a mean bone in his body. Can't say that about Perce. ;^)

In Non-Knitting News . . .

The DDs were all just together in Mexico for ten days, visiting DD#1's future in-laws who live in Zinacantan, Chiapas state. Rural Mexico, in the southern regions, is much more lush and green than my visions of what one would find in Mexico. They visited many wild and jungle-ish places, including the remains of a Mayan settlement called Tenam Puente.This is the central part of Tenam Puente. In Mexico, the term "ruins" is not used for old abandoned and crumbling structures, as it sounds derogatory.

These are the three DDs all looking related. 8^)

This is a view of the town of Comitan, which is below Tenam Puente.

Here is DD#1 singing with her prometido (fiance) Paco.

DD#2 won big points by finding her mama a skein of handspun, hand-dyed wool in a market in Chiapas.Don't know the yardage or colorfastness, but it is lovely single-ply. I'll probably make something I can felt. DH and I are jealous that the girls got to go and we missed all this, but he's training heavily for the first of two marathons, one of which is Labor Day weekend. Not a time to go on vacation . . .

Speaking of DH, he and I are celebrating our 30th anniversary tonight with a dinner out at our favorite special event place, Amber, in Santana Row.
The day we were married--what you can't see is that we both still had braces on our teeth at the time. Do you think we were too young? ;^)

A FO


Here it is: the improved striped beanie. I like it much better, and I'm thrilled that the Cashsoft Aran is washable! Adding it to the pile of FOs that I'm hoping to sell at the holidays to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Working on the blanket backing for the surprise Christmas present blanket, and I've also been working on a twin rib scarf with one half light blue and the other deep wine--can you detect a theme? I love this combo!

Today is the 22nd anniversary of the hardest work I've done in my entire life. Rachel is celebrating her birthday in Chiapas, Mexico, with her fiance and his family.

I'm Not Biased

But I do love this Bias Blanket that I made for a friend's new baby, born Friday. The pattern seems to have an error at the end of the purl rows that I gradually figured out, but I just kept going since it was hardly noticeable. It's Lion Organic Cotton, nice and stretchy for wrapping a newborn in, as well as cool for summer and September (we usually have our hottest weather then). And of course cotton because it's washable, which has finally sunk in for me after several years of knitting things that require hand-washing, which is ridonculous for a baby.


I started a child's hat with leftovers from skeins of CashSoft Aran, but I may rip it back and do alternating stripes all the way up because I am out of the blue, and it will just look weird if I finish up in the purple.

I have several projects underway right now, and regularly start new ones, but this is what I'm working on these past few days.

Other things keep me distracted, such as this lovely visitor--

and my writing blog (for my tutoring students). The hummer photos are much easier to take now that DH has built me a little "automatic" camera which requires me only to use a bulb to activate the button and take pictures from a distance. The camera is mounted on the tripod, I sit away from the window but close enough to see when a hummer arrives for a drink, and I generate gazillions of new hummer photos. Here's a slide show of such an arrival.

Off to the mattress store--DH has suddenly realized that I really don't like our 25 year old mattress (I've been saying this for some time . . .) and that perhaps we could replace it. Woo-hoo!