Sunday, May 4, 2008

Cool Weekend

This was one of the best weekends a suburban mommy could hope for: not much going on. Kids had a soccer match---they're undefeated five games into the season. There was a community-wide garage sale yesterday so the cute little neighborhood boys took advantage of a ready made audience and let us all enjoy their "garage band"-ness. They're so cute! One of these days they might also be good musicians. For now, its a lot of squealing and Nirvana-angst.

Knitting
Well, I'm only allowing myself to work on Mary's Mother's Day sock when I'm out and about because I know the pattern from memory now and its much easier to carry than Niece's shawl. But these last couple of days I've made major progress on the shawl: I've completed about 50% of the rows--which is not to say 50% of the shawl as each row is longer than the one preceding it. I've used about 25% of the yarn I estimated I'll need. The knitting is getting easier as I go, gaining more confidence in the pattern and placement of markers so hopefully I'll hit my goal to have it in the mail on May 12 for Kelley's May 17 Prom. Cross your toes, man; I think I'll get it done but there's this nagging feeling....

Knitted lace looks like ass before its blocked but I have to put up a progress photo or I'll get kicked out of the knitting blogosphere and I'm already on shaky ground given how little knitting gets covered here:


I'm loving knitting this right now but I feel so torn: I've got bags I want to sew, books I want to read, all kinds of stuff calling to me.

Quick Scoop on Good Things:
Music: Loving some New York Dolls and Feist these last couple of days.
Books: I'm reading like four books right now (I'm such a book slut; I can't say no): The Passion of Gandhi, Moral Disorder (Margaret Atwood), The Nasty Bits (Anthony Bourdain) and Henderson the Rain King (Saul Bellow). All great but very different---assess your mood, pick your book.
TV: Great 10-hour documentary on PBS called "Carrier"---life on a nuclear powered US Navy aircraft carrier. Really interesting.

My lillies-of-the-valley have bloomed and are sturdy, health, fragrant and numerous. Yay me!

Busy busy week coming up beginning with chaperoning a field trip for Anna's class: its off to a butterfly garden tomorrow---hopefully I'll get some good photos!

2 comments:

Special K said...

Oooh - let me knwo what you think of Moral Disorder. I've also always been interested in Henderson the Rain King (Mostly because of Counting Crows song???)

We have several butterfly attracting plants (aka: weeds) Milkweed and Bee Balm. Naturally, my mother can also speak at length about the subject. Have fun!

KHM said...

Yeah, I read HRK in HS and really had fun with it. In recent years, there's a particular element that has kept popping into my head so I decided to re-read it to clarify my memory of the story. I think I'll post a bit about it here when I'm finished. Its a really good book.

I'm so thankful for the exceptional English program at my otherwise middle-of-the-road public high school. Great literature and heavy emphasis on writing. I wish I could thank those teachers.