What I did with my weekend

The BBE and I went up to Lake Tahoe to celebrate our anniversary for the weekend. We left Friday night after work, and stayed till Sunday evening. We had use of a private beach near King's Beach both days, and we did a lot of jet skiing both days. He dumped me the first time we went out (into the water - not the relationship) But the water was (surprisingly) not tremendously cold, and of course we had our life vests on. Just glad I didn't take my camera with me out on the jet ski!
I was just amazed at how blue the water was - just amazingly beautiful.

We went to Carson City Nevada to go check out a property - probably not staying on "the list", but it was interesting - a 33 unit motel - needed a lot of work.

We hit the casino, and lost $20 in the nickel slots - well, I lost 8 and he lost 12. Not too bad. The weather was beautiful and it was so friggin nice to get away! I haven't been on any kind of vacation in years! So it was good.

I took a ridiculous amount of yarn with me to knit with. Enough for 3 cardigans and a summery top - and a pair of socks. I packed more yarn than I did clothes. Somehow that bothers me - but I'm glad I did!

I started the Top Down Swing Coat from Log Cabin knitting during the drive up, but the yarn I was using was too scratchy for a jacket with a collar. Glad I did the neck test before I got any further than the collar.

I also took some of my handspun yarn with me, and started a cardigan in the Caramel Swirl yarn that I made way back in April. No pictures yet - it's basically just about 3" of a 3x1 rib at this point. It's shedding quite a lot, which I'm not too pleased with, and I have not been able to sit down and figure out where the side seams need to be. I'm hoping that I can manouver it into a saddle shouldered cardigan, ala EZ's Knitting Workshop, with some waist shaping and an I-cord edging. We'll see if I make any progress at all on it.

But I do have some nice pictures of the Azalea shawl! I'm done with the knitting - so these are all pre-blocking pictures. The picture to the right is in the shade - the one below is in full sunlight.

I did two repeats of the lace pattern, and just worked back and forth. The pattern calls for a plain row every other round, which I purled.

I'm so pleased with it! It's done in my Rainbow Silk - 616 yards of 2 ply silk has resulted in 14 repeats - 64" across the top, and 30" down the center. Again, preblocking. I'll block it when I get home later tonight. I'm thinking it would look great on the wall over my bed. I've never been too fond of the painting that is currently there, and this is about the right size - unless of course I'm wearing it - but it's not something that I can just wear with any old thing - I do have a lovely heavy silk pink skirt that I think this is going to look fabulous with.

I also took my Emily spindle, with the Optim fiber that I dyed last week. I was really worried there for a while that I'd lost that particular spindle - you know, it just wasn't anywhere for a long time. I kept thinking it would turn up - it took months, but I found it behind the TV in my room when I was cleaning last weekend. It's so pretty, and I don't think that I'd ever really used it for more than a test spin after I got it, so even better!

This particular Emily has a lacewood whorl, and a purpleheart shaft. The Optim, was of course dyed in blues and greens. I am loving spinning the Optim! It's so wonderfully soft and it wants to draft out to a very fine single. There are some weird little slubby bits that come up from time to time. I'm not sure what that's about - something strange with the fiber prep, but I'm not a perfectionist spinner - and little slubs are OK from my point of view.

Of course I came home to a messy house, and a belligerent teenager. He's never ever been that rude to me before. I guess I should know better - this is the third time that I've gone through the teenage years - but man it is so hard when the child that you love and care for looks at you with hatred in their eyes.

This too shall pass - and in the mean time if someone knows where I can get a clue-by-four for a teenager who has no friggin clue how hard it is to be a single mom, who is having a tough time making ends meet, totally doing it on my own. The place we live in is not the greatest place, but I've managed to keep us in it for the last 4 years. It's so darn expensive to live in this area. I get no help or child support from his father - we get a call from his dad every couple of months or so, but I have no way to get ahold of him. It's frustrating and hard, and I'm hurt, disappointed, and don't have a lot of options. And this all started over the fact that it was his turn to do the dishes!

Anyway - enough of that unpleasantness for the moment - here's another pretty picture.