OK, don’t faint or anything, but I finally made the Alabama Knit-Blogger List. It’s not pretty, but at least y’all can make the buttons go somewhere when you click ’em. If you aren’t on the list and want to be, holler. If you are on the list and shouldn’t be (or don’t want to be), holler. I’ll fix things right up.

UPDATE: So I left off this whole other batch of folks that should have been on the list. And myself. *cries*

I have been feeling a little guilty about the Hurricane Socks. The packages don’t have to be mailed until Labor Day, but so many folks already finished that I am starting to feel like an Underachiever. To combat the feeling of inadequacy, I am making up the pattern for my Hurricane Pal’s sock.

I began the development process by renaming my yarn of choice (Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Pioneer) to “Squall.” The mixture of brown, grey and blue suggests the color of the sky when the first squall lines come in from the Gulf. I found it apt.

As most of you know, I like my sock yarn knit at a smaller gauge than the wrapper usually suggests – I think it makes for a sturdier and longer lasting sock. I’ve settled on a gauge of 9sts to 1 inch for Shepherd Sock, so I picked up my needles, cast on 80 stitches and was off. The ribbing went very well, but when I started my pattern: a disturbing pooling thing happened.

All the blue is on ONE SIDE. Dum Dum Dumm.

I considered switching to another stitch pattern (I came up with three before beginning the sock), but one of them was entirely too complex. I’m not sure if my Hurricane Pal is into making socks that take that much concentration (in this swap, we make one half of the sock pair and then send the yarn and the pattern to our pal to make the other sock), so I decided to play it safe.* The third stitch pattern wanted different ribbing (K3, P2 instead of K2, P2) so I yanked it all out and started over with a new 80 stitches and the new stitch pattern. Two pattern reps into the leg, the pooling thing was still happening. I yanked it out, dropped four stitches from the total (it will still fit my pal’s foot just fine – the 80 stitches easily stretched to 10″), and went back to my original leg pattern. With great success.

Pretty! And swirly, just like a storm. Yay!

If you’re interested, I’ll have the pattern on the patterns page when the sock is finished.

Angus is better: he eats a fair amount of turkey, chicken and brown rice and has more energy. You can tell that life is returning to its default state by the length of my posts.

*Seriously, I am already making her knit these at an impossibly small gauge. I need to cut her a break.

When I said that I would post a winner tomorrow, what I MEANT was “I will post a winner on Thursday.” I can see how you would have been confused. Here is a picture of WH to make you feel better about the whole thing:

I had to go and get him out of the garage for this picture. The cats are all in there playing. Frankly, I just don’t see the appeal.

I’ve actually got a pretty good excuse for the delay: the dog is sick. He changed foods right before we left for camp to one that would be better for his kidneys. And HATES it. He has been on a hunger strike which (in a vicious cycle) has messed up his kidneys. Now he gets fluids four times a week, some white medicine that he hates with surprising vigor for a dog who should be weak with hunger, and his arthritis is worse. How the arthritis got dramatically worse in a week and if that has anything to do with kidneys, I don’t know. We discovered last night that he will eat chicken. He is going to have some ground turkey and brown rice for lunch and we will see how that goes. Our vet is not going to be excited about this (he feels that dog food is for dogs), but dog food is mostly poultry and rice/corn anyway.

Also, the cats have fleas (which the probably got from playing in the garage). That is easy enough to fix.

Now onto the fun part! Ruby (a progamming language that M loves almost as much as he loves WH) will give you random numbers when you ask for them! Go here to try it! Type in rand(66) and hit return. OK, it doesn’t seem to be working at the moment so you will just have to trust me. I put all of the voter comments into a folder in my email, Michael got me a random number (24), and I counted down the list until I got to the 24th email! Which, it turns out, belongs to Jenn of KnitWit Momma. Yay, Jenn! Oh wait, I just read your latest entry. Suck. Well, maybe this will help a tiny bit:

Dish rag cotton in warm and cool colors! And a handy pattern book.

It’s the perfect thing for August knitting: won’t touch your legs, isn’t itchy, and is something you don’t have to think about too much! Jenn, if you aren’t into it, I am sure your hubby will be all about knitting more for his Personal Clean Dish Cloth Supply (How cute is it that?). All this and more will be on the way to you very soon!

Thanks to everyone who helped me make up my mind! I am going to try to give the dog his medicine now. Then I will take a shower. After he has his medicine, I usually need one.

We were supposed to be home around 7pm last night, but the Universe had other plans. Here is a brief summary of yesterday’s events:

Already exhausted from the Longest Week Ever, Emily and Michael hike (with luggage) to catch a bus to the airport. Uneventful security screen and check-in. Flight overbooked. We are on a new flight leaving three hours later. Flight overbooked. We are on another new flight an hour after that. Hunker down and wait in the bar (chairs and tables and food and wireless internet are there). Michael naps on the floor (using a carry-on full of yarn -see below- as a pillow) to the amusument of other airport bar patrons. Go through security again. This time our tickets are flagged as a “security risk” due to the excessive changing of airlines and flights. *angry language happens here* Extended security check, complete with pat-down. Change planes in Charlotte – no time for supper (argument about not having time for supper – I have cheese nips, I will survive). Sit IN PLANE on tarmac for TWO HOURS due to extraordinary thunderstorm. They KNEW about the storm and loaded us into the plane anyway instead of letting us stay in the airport and have supper. *more angry language* Doze uncomfortably on plane. Emily keeps kicking the chair in front of her (really sorry about that, buddy). Wake up enough to retrieve luggage, find truck, eat cheeseburger and start home. Sing camp songs in the truck to stay awake. Fall into bed at 1am.

I had this fantasy about being able to blog while we were up there. I figured that since we weren’t In Charge of the kids this year I would have more down time. HAH. As you can see that didn’t work out as well as I had planned. But the week went very well, the kids had a great time in arts and crafts. I did manage to finish the potholder rug and the kids LOVED putting the loops together. The 9-10s went through five bags in about half an hour.

It is absolutely hideous – I love it! There are enough left over loops to make one for myself.

The other very cool thing was that there was YARN in the artisans bazaar! My friend, Bethany, has been dyeing this year and had some very very pretty colorways. I bought up the superwash.

Not pictured is a merino/mohair blend called “Watermelon Sunshine”. It is lovely.

I think I am going to get her to dye some just for my Yarn Aboard Pal.

Speaking of Pals: Thank you all so much for voting! The Lagoon edged out Fred Flintstone at 58 votes to 52. Cool colors for toasty toes it is! There are 65 of you entered in the drawing based on the comments on my blog. There are four other comments on the poll site, but they are listed as “anonymous cowards.” (Oh, Quimble. You and your sense of humor.) If you are one of those four and you didn’t leave an additional comment on the blog, let me know so I can include you in the drawing!

I am getting all the names together today and will draw a winner tomorrow! Please forgive me for not responding personally to every one of the comments – I am a wee bit tired (see above) and have a lot of blogs to catch up on!

PS William Henry Update: he grew while we were gone! He has been to the vet a few times to spend the day so that he can get used to living there and has done very well. Unfortunately, M loves him. A lot. And WH feels the same way about M. M now feels that another cat wouldn’t be all that bad and questons if WH is “suited” for life as a clinic cat. We are clearly on our way to being Crazy Cat People.

The bag that I bought from Studio Cate (ooh, the mint swirls tote wasn’t there when I was shopping…) got here in time to go on our trip! This is good for many reasons but mostly because I picked out my travel project to match!

I think I am making garter rib socks (it is hard to say, I am only on the first cuff) in LL Bittersweet (thank you again, Becky).

The Socks That Rock sport that I ordered for Toasty Toes is here too (yesterday was a very good day for mail). And I need help.

On the left is Lagoon (cool). On the right is Fred Flintstone (warm).

I am fairly confident that my Toasty Toe Match will like either one. But I just can’t pick! Do I go with the warm because it invokes the feeling of Toasty Toes? Or the cool because it is soothing and relaxing and a nice color for winter? Let’s put it to a vote:

***Poll Closed*** See July 23 entry for results!

Just to add a little fun, mention in my comments that you voted, and I will put you in a drawing for something. I don’t know what yet (ahhh, the mystery). But the packaging will be superb!

I hope this will keep you busy since Yarn Miracle content is gonna be kinda skimpy over the next week. The arts and crafts stuff takes up two suitcases and we have one carry-on packed full of potholder loops. If the plane is delayed, we will have a nice soft place to rest.

OK. So there was very little knitting up until yesterday when I spent the day with Great Gran, finished the socks (no pic, M is still sleeping), and worked 6 rows on the FBS. Just six. It is a LONG way across that thing.

**Knitting content ends here.**

I did solve my dough problem and managed to use the kool-aid.

They still smell good after they dry!

It’s an air-dry recipe modified to suit my needs. Interested? Here ya go:

Emily’s Kool-Aid Dough
4c. flour
1c. iodized salt
16 pkgs unsweetened kool-aid (divide up the recipe and make a bunch of different colors – double the kool-aid for a really good yellow)
1 3/4 c. warm water (approximately)
*mix dry ingredients in a bowl
*add water gradually!, stirring until everything is soft and crumbly
*knead it all around until it all comes together and the color is distributed *make it softer than you think you will require if you are storing it over night
*Wrap up tight until use
*Make stuff and let it dry for a couple of days – it gets nice and hard

We are also making (get ready for the pictures)

Sun-catcher people for the 7-8s.

The 11-12s are making wire sculptures that show some sort of action. Here is my other example.

The 9-10s are making boxes covered in laundry starch and tissue paper. Have y’all tried that? It is one of my favorite things to do. They will also make snap bracelets (which they can put in the boxes).

That’s it so far! The projects not shown here are: monoprints, table prints (pulled from a delightful mess the 3-6s will make on the table), 3-4s Mix Your Own Play Clay (also with kool-aid), and of course, macaroni necklaces. Today I have to make examples for the monoprints and the macaroni necklaces. And go to Winn-Dixie to buy out the kool-aid!