Stage Win

What an amazing ride by Italy's Riccardo Rico in today's mountain finish! That's what makes the Tour de France so exciting to watch, someone sprinting out of the pack, flying by everyone on a steep uphill run. But the sad side-note? Wondering if doping made his victory possible. I'm crossing my fingers that he's clean and the Tour can put the doping scandals behind them. I guess we'll see in a few days.

I finished the reworked sweater back tonight and sewed up the side and shoulder seams. I anxiously tried it on and it seems to fit well; I'd have been really ticked to have had to rip and redo at this point. The sweater is being modeled by Lily, the adjustable dressform that Marie bought me for Mother's Day. This is the first opportunity I've had to put Lily through her paces. I love being able to see how things look without breaking my neck trying to see my back in the mirror. I see a long, happy partnership between me and Lily, especially after I figure out how to adjust all her dials and levers.
I didn't get my sampler finished during the weaving workshop but I made good progress and learned a lot, which was more important. We warped (the long-ways threads) one inch sections of 12 colors plus 3 neutrals (white, gray and black), then wove six 1"-patterns in each color, in the same color order as the warp. The object was to see how colors interact and how the different patterns affect color. I started weaving with red so I'm a little over half done. Depending on how this looks off the loom, I may hang it on the wall in my weaving area - or I may throw it in a drawer, never to be seen again (kidding!) As usual, I'm anxious to get it finished, but I'm trying to be good and finish my Fair projects before I weave any more. Being good is hard.

Time Trials

Goal #2 for my Tour de France KAL is Navajo-plying a pound of Gotland singles and making a shawl before next Saturday. I love Navajo-plying, but my technique is a little rusty so I decided to do a practice run before starting on the big project.

This is about half of the 4 oz Ravelry roving, 70% merino/30% kid mohair, that I bought from Twisted Fiber Arts. It was a joy to spin and I didn't want to muddy the colors with traditional plying. I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out. The only problem with Navajo-plying is that I end up with less yarn than a 2-ply would give me; this is a little less than 100 yards.
With the practice run out of the way, I did a quick time trial with the Gotland. I thought I'd over-spun it when I got this bit off the swift, but after a quick rinse, it hangs perfectly straight and balanced. I love the texture and the thickness. Tomorrow night I'll start plying the rest of this so it can dry by Monday night and I can start crocheting on Tuesday. No pressure.

And why am I not plying until tomorrow night? Because I'm taking a weaving workshop that started tonight and runs through Sunday evening. Hooray for multi-projecting!

KAL Pile Up

The Tour de France - and the Knit-along - started last Saturday but Rachel's TV package doesn't include the Tour channel, so I was three days behind when we got home. Thanks to the miracle of DVR, Dick and I watched stage one last night and stages two, three and four today (I love being retired!) We'll watch stage five in the morning before catching stage six live with Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen (my favorite commentators).

The watch-athon gave me plenty of time to finish the sleeves - all the sweater pieces are complete now - but not without my own personal crash and burn. I'd finished one sleeve and was almost done with the second when I noticed something wasn't quite right. Turns out I'd skipped a row in the cable pattern, 10-12 rows back. Would anybody besides me ever notice? Probably not. Would I always know it was there and would it bug me forever? You betcha. I feel better having riiiiiiipped it out and started anew. Tomorrow I'll sew the back and fronts together, then start the collar, button band and bottom ribbing. That leaves only the cuff ribbing, sewing in the sleeves and finding the right buttons. I'm excited now that I can see the finish line.

Although not technically part of my Tour de France challenge, I did finish this blanket Monday while watching news highlights of the Tour. The blanket, fleece with satin ribbon edges, wound up being 38" wide by 58" long. I'd hoped to use Rachel's sewing machine to attach the edging, but the power cord is among the missing so I ended up blanket-stitching the entire one-hundred and ninety-two inches by hand. For over eight hours. And I have the blisters to prove it. Could I have waited and sewed it by machine at home? Technically, yes. But with my compulsive personality? Not a chance. I love how it turned out - and so does Addy - but the next one? I'm using a sewing machine.

What the Heck??

We're slowly getting back to normal after our (wonderful) trip to Colorado. It's always nice to get home and sleep in our own bed again. Gary and Marie did a good job of watering the front lawn (one of Dick's major worries when we travel) and apparently they also spread some magik fairy plant dust. See that white plant in the center of this pic? We have no idea where it came from; we didn't plant it and it's never been there before. It sure is pretty though - I hope it likes its new home and comes back next year.

A few more flowers (that we did plant) in our front yard -

Brought To You By Jiff

*Tour de France KAL update below!

Addy is more of a grazer than a meal-eater. She'll nibble on things but seldom eats all of what she's offered. The exception is peanut butter toast. She licks it, pokes it, wipes her hands and face with it (not her hair this time!) and then she eats it alllll up. Super yummy!

Tour de France KAL Update:

No Tour TV coverage for me until Tuesday - daughter's cable package doesn't include Versus - but I'm working hard toward my first goal, finishing the crocheted cable sweater. I had the back and both front pieces done before the Tour began. Now the first sleeve is 2/3's finished; that's where the first ball of yarn ended. I decided to start the second sleeve with the next ball of yarn, rather than finish the first one, and then bring both of them to the finish line together. This one is about 1/3 done.

I only brought 2 balls of sweater yarn with me to Colorado (poor planning, but I didn't think I'd get this far, this fast) so I've been working on making fleece blankets for Addy. I gave her a choice between a light green and hot pink, and - no surprise - she chose pink, pink, pink! I added a Tinkerbell applique and a no-sew fringe border, and voila - Addy has a new favorite blankie.

The pink and green are both remnant pieces I picked up at Joann's on a previous trip for 75% off (about $4 each). This trip I got 2 more pieces, one 35" x 36" with neon-colored hearts for $1.30; I'm adding a 4" satin border around the entire blanket. Pictures tomorrow when I (hopefully) get the border sewn on. The second remnant is a muted orange that I'll use as a car blanket for Dick and I. That one is much bigger and cost a grand total of $1.20. I love fleece remnants!

Happy 4th!

We're actually having weather in Colorado; very unusual for us Californians (our seasons are wind, fire, flood and mudslide). We've had thunderstorms every afternoon except on the 4th when it would have interfered with the fireworks. The skies got dark yesterday and we felt a couple of rain drops, but then this spectacular rainbow appeared and all was well. We spent the evening at John's dad's house on the lake. Addy was surprised to see Dick and I in that setting - she spends lots of time with Grandpa Jim during the week - and tried out her shy look before figuring out the more grandparents, the better. We got a tour around the lake on Jim's pontoon boat (heaven!), with a safety lecture from Captain Addison, before she settled in to her main job as pilot. A quick dinner of hamburgers, potato salad and marionberry pie, with a side of fruit for Addy, and we were ready to head back out to view the fireworks being fired off a few miles away on Lake Loveland. It was peaceful and Addy had plenty of room to safely roam while we watched the 20-minute, 1500 rocket spectacular. No crowding, no idiots setting of bottle rockets next to us; just the gentle slapping of waves and the wonder of a baby watching the big boom-booms. Happy Fourth of July, everybody! (my fireworks photos didn't turn out; this is the best of the lot. I'm hoping Rachel's camera got some better shots.)

Walkabout

John and Rachel's next door neighbor has an incredible yard. Addy and I love to walk over there to admire the gorgeous flowers. Addy is getting more steady on her feet all the time and insists on doing things herself - like climbing down off the front porch. She's also a little whirlwind; most of the photos I took during our walk are out of focus or you just see a corner of Addy as she goes flying by in the new shirt Auntie Marie bought her in Las Vegas. (Big hit, Marie! Addy loves her fishy shirt.)

Anybody know what flower this is? It's a climbing vine and I. Want. One. I'm betting it won't grow in So. Calif. but I sure would like to know that for sure. It is beautiful.

The power went out to most of Loveland last night during a thunderstorm. Rachel lit a bunch of candles and the four of us - make that 4 and a half; the 'silence' woke Addy and she decided to keep us company rather than go back to bed - played Uno for a couple of hours. I haven't laughed that hard in a long, long time. (Don't ever sit next to Dick when you play; he's vicious.)
More yard flowers . . .

Addy Time

We made it to Colorado with no problems. No sleep either. I don't know what possessed me to book a 6:00 a.m. flight.- oh wait, yes I do. The awful lines at LAX. I went to bed at midnight, couldn't sleep, got up at 2:15 A.M. so we could get to the airport by 4:30, and figured I'd sleep on the plane. Didn't happen. I finally got a 2 hour nap when Addy went down about noon and that kept me going until midnight. Sleep is for wimps, yes?

Addy is 19 months now and quite the young lady. She has an extensive vocabulary and definite opinions, which include what makes the perfect snack food - dill pickles, of course! (Wenona is nodding her head in agreement.) Addy loves pickles, lemons, kung pow chicken, spaghetti - anything spicy or with a strong taste. She definitely inherited her daddy's taste buds.

She is also still a camera hound. We had her in the back yard while Rachel slept before work. Addy sat down in her little pink chair and started making faces for the camera. What a ham.