Aren't weekends for relaxing?

Somehow yesteday the BBE and I got into cleaning mode at my house - you know the kind where you start pulling furniture away from the walls.... Scrubbing things that you have no idea when and how they ended up getting so grungy - but they are, so you might as well go on the attack. First you notice that the wall behind the garbage can has muck on it, so you clean that, and notice that the cabinets have fingerprints too, and since you're at it, you might as well go through and pull the butcher block out, because it's really yucky behind there. Yep - that's where we were yesterday.

And then the kids come by and decide that we all need to go to the beach. Yep. The Beach. We ended up driving out to Bolinas - which is definitely a funky little place to go. We found this guy hanging out on the beach. He was probably about 40-50 feet tall, just chillin - playing some music for us all. If I'd been thinking I would have gotten someone to stand next to him for scale.

Here in Northern California the beach is very rarely a sunny nice warm place to go. The Gulf of Alaska hits the California coastline right here. It's why Mark Twain was once known to say that the coldest winter he ever spent was a summer in San Francisco. We have strange little MicroClimates, so if it's nice at my house - I can drive 10 miles and be in the cold and fog - you just never really know.

So when we pulled into Bolinas it was not warm - not too cold either, but there was a brisk wind blowing. Luckily Gwen knew where the local "Free Box" is - we got in there, and looked around for a few minutes. She said, "you know what I should do? I should find the most outrageous outfit ever!" So she set about doing just that. She's got on a jersey dress tucked into wool pants with the bulk of the dress filling out her backside.


We decided the vest was too nice and so she found a horrid ACKrylic sweater to tie around her waist. Here she is off in search of her boyfriend who had no idea what she was doing or where she was. We'd gone to the bathroom before we thought of the free box to keep us in warm clothes so they had no idea where we were. 3 out of 4 of our cell phones got no reception at all. Luckily Bolinas is not a big place.

So Gwen finally spots her boyfriend walking down the beach, she's got shells that she's collected on the way in her hand - she's walking like a cross between a confused penguin and a deranged lunatic. Poor boyfriend saw her coming towards him, and didn't even want to make eye contact with the "crazy lady" walking down the beach. He seriously did NOT recognise her in the slightest, and thought that if he made eye contact he might just encourage some sort of conversation with this person. He made her take off all the extra clothes after he figured out what was going on.

Here's what she really looks like. What a cutie!

Then today - we decided to tackle my BBE's house. Only fair, since he helped so much with my place. So I washed all the windows and dusted just about everything. He took care of the bathroom and weeding his yard. We even cleaned his vertical blinds. I'm tired!

But I was able to finish off my Jaywalker socks at long last!! I'm happy to finally have these off my needles! I'm going to start a pair of feather and fan with some regia stripey yarn next.

As has been widely reported - they do have a bit of a non-stretchy issue going on. They're a tiny bit tight getting on and off, but they feel good on and they fit. I know my stripes don't quite match up, I wasn't feeling too fussed about that this time around - sometimes I am. And I completely skipped the extra slip stitch on each side of the instep on the 2nd sock. You can see that those slip stitches went a bit wonky on me with the first sock - so I'm really not going to worry about it. I needed more socks, and now I have another pair. And the first pair in absolute ages that have fancy patternwork going on. Usually the fanciest patternwork on socks that I manage to muster up is a 3x1 rib going all the way down the foot. So it was a good experience. Also, I carried the slip stitches on the leg down the heel flap, and just did my standard heel - gusset with 4 stitches on each side in garter.

And what is that you spy that the Jaywalkers are resting on? Well, maybe some more log cabin. I really haven't had much chance to knit this week, but I was able to finish the 4th square, and start the 5th. I'm liking how holding the live stitches is working for me. There's a slight wonkiness with some of the stair steps... But the effect of the stockinette ridge where the colors join is really nice, and I do think it's a bit faster. The new square is top left. Sizewise there are no differences between this one and the earlier bound-off ones.

Here's a closer up shot of the latest square. You can see a bit of the wonkiness, but remember, this has not been blocked yet, and I'm getting better at recognising exactly where I need to pick up the stitches that do still need to be picked up.

Oh, and here's a pic for Monika / Two Hot Needles She asked if she could see what the back side of this looked like, and as I'm one to oblige... here ya go... I know - ends to weave in, but I don't mind too much - and the other thing about this is that I'm planning on using it as a bedspread, and don't anticipate that it will be turned around too much to the non-public side. If it was an afghan, or a baby blanket, I'd be trying to think of something to use as a backing for this probably...

Anyway. I know, lots of pics - lots to say... Hope everyone else had a nice relaxing weekend! I feel like I've been hit by a truck, and only got to knit for maybe a half an hour. Sheesh!

Have fun!