awake!

mthgeek gets up at 5:something and leaves around 6:20 every morning. lately, I've been wide awake at 5:something, and forced myself to go back to sleep, only to wake up groggy and irritable when my alarm goes off at 7. So, this morning, I decided to try the new strategy of just getting up. So here I am, a full two hours before I really need to be conscious, running out of things to do with my morning. Perhaps I'll vacuum (I only vacuum at odd hours. It's like a rule). Maybe I'll work on the second sock of my pair and watch last night's Grey's. I could work on organizing the 10000 songs on the upstairs computer, which is less painful now that I've fed the thing more RAM (even if it does still sound like a freight train). In any case, two extra hours in the morning feels pretty darn luxurious, but I bet I'll be pretty cranky around 930 tonight.

so starts summer break

I am home, eating grilled cheese and an apple, while the dogs are locked downstairs so they can't stare and beg. I tried to convince them to hang out outside - it's so nice out here, not too hot, with a breeze - but they're apparently wanting to be housebound. I'm especially pleased that summer is only 60 degrees right now. It can stay like this all summer and I'll be happy (unless it means my veggies won't grow, in which case I'll put up with the minimum temp it takes to produce tomatoes). We took the kids swimming and then bathed them yesterday. We also took their beds to the laundromat and washed them for the first time since we moved. They were due for a wash. Yuck. But, writing at home is what summer's supposed to be about. Now to get to it.

dye o rama!

Happily, it has been a successful swap experience in the world of yarn. Yay! Thanks, Karen! Aside from a lovely yarn, I also received a translucent Chibi (I have been coveting one), very cute stitch markers in colors I love, and a set of notecards (I even got to send one of these cards to the person I'm dyeing for)! 

The Dye-O-Rama, while possibly decreasing my audience for purchasing handpainted yarn, was tons of fun, and folks seemed to learn a lot and enjoy themselves. I got a lovely yarn that has a much nicer color than I ever got Kool-Aid dyeing. Plus, it's self-striping, and I don't have the patience to make my own self-striping yarn, so it'll be fun to play with. Sadly, the yarn store was closed yesterday so I don't yet have two circular size 1 needles, but as soon as I do, socks will begin. I think I'll do Jaywalkers - I think the pattern will keep me entertained. It's about killing me to work the second 2x2 rib sock that I'm currently doing, and I'm working on 48 stitches rather than the 80ish it'll take me to work on size 1 needles.

These are the yarns I sent my dye pal, plus a little skein of handpainted, handspun merino, of which I have no picture. Hopefully it'll make it to her - I accidentally sent it to the wrong city, but the right zip code, so it may take an extra couple of days:
 

a couple months of this, and we'll have an espresso machine

our heating bill dropped by 260 bucks from last month. We don't have air conditioning, so electricity won't go up much (although our coffee budget may have to stretch, since Starbucks doesn't kick you out and is air conditioned). Woo savings!

Amazing how salaries can go up so much, and yet cost of living kicks you in the butt so you're even poorer than you were. Hmph.

shawlin'

flower basket shawl I can't get blogspot to work, so can y'all tell me what you think of the beginning of this shawl? My instincts are telling me to go up a needle size. The pattern calls for doubled lace-weight alpaca on 7s. I'm using single stranded sock weight on 6s. I semi-blocked this to try to figure out if it looked okay. Does it?  Don't mind the bad photo skills - I've been up since 530 and I'm bleary like my picture is.