Fall Already?

The calendar still says August, but fall classes start tomorrow, so I guess it's fall! The weather has turned slightly cooler. I notice the shift mostly in the sunset times. I used to be able to walk home at 9 p.m. and still have a glimmer of light, but the other night we took the puppy out at 8, and it was dark when we got home at 8:45. I have a busy fall ahead of me, but I am very much looking forward to it. I have three classes on tap, all of which I'm excited about. I'm trying really hard to savor the do-nothingness that I felt this weekend, because I know that I will next be able to catch my breath in December.

So, I've been spending an inordinate amount of time knitting. Some on a secret little project, but mostly on this:

The Treeline Striped Cardigan: What a delight to knit. After wrestling with tiny cables and raging charts on my last project, a simple project in stockinette has been just the ticket to jump-start my knitting mojo. I'm more than halfway done with the first part of the body.

The yarns have been a nice surprise. The navy base is Nashua Creative Focus Worsted, paired with some Kid Silk Haze in a lovely teal shade. (And I am counting on fellow ravelers to come through with the one extra skein I need. Fingers crossed!). The lighter color is Plain & Fancy Sheep and Wool Company Sport, which I got in a swap with Stacey. It's a nice subtle variegated of sage/ivory/celadon, and I've been waiting for just the right project for it.

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Our little puppy (now 8.5 months old!) continues to surprise us.

We've been wondering if his crate is too small for him as he continues to grow... he sleeps fine during the night, but never goes in there during the day like he used to. So, we tried a little experiment: When JT and I went to the store last night, we put a board over the kitchen doorway to keep him in there. JT snuck out the basement door (to try to fool Sam into thinking he was still down there), and I turned up ESPN in the living room so he'd hear voices.

We were gone about an hour, and I had visions of coming home to massive destruction. I pictured trash spilled over, gnawed chair legs, etc. We hurried home, and when I opened the door, I saw.....

Sam, in the living room, lying on the couch, watching Sportscenter.

That's right: Left to his own devices, our puppy just wanted to hang out on the couch and watch TV. (He's not allowed up there when we're not also on the couch, usually.) I think I can handle that form of rebellion. At least until we get a taller baby gate.

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The garden continues to gift us tomatoes, a little at a time. Sunday's bounty:

I LOVE the yellow pear tomatoes. They are my favorite. We've been eating them plain, or with some basil from the neighbors across the street (traded for some tomatoes, of course!).

And the tomato plants continue to produce little tomatoes. They take so long to ripen that at this rate, we'll have tomatoes well into September. Yay!

(Since our big tomatoes didn't fare too well, our backyard neighbors have been bringing us a bucket (literally) of big beefsteaks about every third day. I am totally in tomato heaven.)

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Random musing: There's a shuttle driver at the hotel across from where I work who drives people to and from the metro. This driver has a peculiar way of starting to drive: with the door open.

His routine is like this: open door, get in, start car, drive 5-10 feet, close door.

Why does he leave the door open for the first part of the drive? I am so perplexed. Is he waiting to see if the car explodes, so he can eject quickly? Is he expecting that he might have to run along side it while it builds up momentum? I welcome your theories.

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Finally: Apologies to my Ravelry friends for playing in my queue. I finally realized that my queue was out of control and decided to add tags... so it looks like I've queued 200+ items in the last day or so. Not so! But it will make it so much easier for me to find things in the future.

Bzzzzz!

So, here is what happens when I don't get to think about school. I sleep soundly. I eat well. I get exercise. I spend time with my sweetie. I snuggle the puppy. And, the mountains of laundry get scaled.

Also, a long-suffering sock gets finished. FINALLY.

Drunken Bees Socks
Pattern: Drunken Bees by Domesticat
Yarn: Jennifer's Flock Sock by VanCalcar Acres, Copper Pennies colorway. Purchased at Rhinebeck 2007.
Needles: US1 Addi Turbos
Modifications: I used a Dutch Heel, which I'd never done before. I dig it. I embrace the Dutchiness.

Also, I kept with the slipped-stitching on the center sole stitch all the way down the foot. (Slipping the stitch every other row.) It doesn't really do anything except look decorative, and I like that only I really will know about it.

The yarn: What can I say about the yarn beyond I LOVE IT? It was wonderful to knit with. I love the dye job so much that, with thoughts of a Lady Sweater in my head, I went looking to see if VanCalcar Acres made a worsted. They don't. Sad.

The yarn is the perfect color of honey from far away, but up close has these great flecks of gold, rose, tan, even peach. It's scrumptious. I had been looking for yarn this color for months (and have several other not-quite-right shades of honey to prove it).

The pattern: It's safe to say that this pattern confounded me. It took until the midpoint of the second sock to wrap my mind around the cable pattern. I kept losing my place, or misremembering the chart.

In high school, I had a math teacher who explained that there are algebra people and geometry people, and a select group who do both well. I was, and remain, an algebra person. These socks are geometry: my brain seemed to have to work harder to get them right. I worked harder on these than on most socks, and they seemed to be harder to me than for most other knitters of these socks.

That said, I sure do love them. And I'm delighted to have this bee out of my bonnet and onto my feet.

So, what's next? Well, after careful consideration of the options, I think I've settled on something, at least until the swatch tells me otherwise:

The very early formations of a Treeline Striped Cardigan. I wasn't sure about adding in the Kidsilk Haze, so I started the swatch without it and then added it in toward the top. I think it really changes the look, no? The swatch is relaxing at home, and tonight we'll see what the maths say about this choice.

***

Finally, some pics from a different side of the garden: the butterfly bush! There was just an article in the paper bemoaning the lack of butterflies this summer. We planted the bush in June, but I hadn't seen a single butterfly. Until last night, when a monarch spent quite a while with us. Yay butterflies!

Sweet Relief

You could say that the past few weeks sort of got away from me. Summer classes came to an end, and I had four papers due within a week. Ergo, I have been quite the hermit, hiding away with the computer in the office well into the night. But I turned in my last paper this morning, and now I have two whole weeks before the fall term starts. Freedom!

As usual, I have about a zillion things that I'd like to accomplish. One priority though, is curling up with some knitting and some bad tv. That may preclude progress on many other fronts.... I think I'll live.

In the meantime, the puppy and the garden continued to grow despite my neglect. (Luckily the puppy had JT around.) Neighbor-pup Sophie comes over nearly every morning, and sometimes comes by in the evening too. They have some pretty killer playtimes -- racing from one end of the yard to the other. It's so adorable.

Here are some gratuitous Sam pictures:

Sam isn't very good about letting us know when he's worn down, so usually we have to separate them after 45 minutes or so. All that exercise makes for a tired dog. He's sleeping a LOT -- he may be going through a growth spurt as well. (But I don't want him to get much bigger! He was 42 pounds at the vet 2 weeks ago!)

Luckily, sleeping Sam is hilarious. This dog is not one for modesty.

The garden continues to produce delicious cherry tomatoes every few days. You can see that the tomato plants are totally taking over:

I've pretty much given up hope for anything besides tomatoes to come out of the garden. I planted all wrong; the tomatoes are stealing all the light from the smaller plants. I'll fix that next year. There are some small cucumbers, but I'm not too hopeful.

We have serious rabbit activity in the yard (and all over the neighborhood) this year. We find rabbit droppings almost every morning in the yard and often see them late at night. Next year's garden will also feature some critter-proof fencing.

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One of my goals for this break is to figure out what I'm going to knit for Rhinebeck -- only two months away, EEK! Since this time last year, my Ravelry queue has grown exponentially. And I have some special yarns I'd like to try and use up before they languish into obscurity. Here's the current list of contenders.

1. Demi, 2. Side Impact Sweater, 3. Tree Jacket, 4. Henley Perfected, 5. Apres-Surf-Hoodie, 6. Bristow, 7. Treeline Striped Cardigan 8. Gathered Pullover, 9. Phildar leafy pull, 10. Chic Knits Basic Chic Pulli, 11. Lily, 12. Phildar 397 Turtleneck

Suggestions? Preferences? Warnings? I am pretty sure I have yarn in stash for any of these. Now begins the winnowing....

Theodore

Presenting Theodore, a simple scarf in lush alpaca. (Ravelry link.)

I'm so honored to be a part of the inaugural issue of Knotions! Jody has done an amazing job of pulling everything together. There are some terrific patterns there -- go see!