The plan for June seems to be for me to knit cute little summer tops. Like most of my knitting plans, this one formed without much participation on my part.

I've already got the raglan portion of Picovoli done and, since a friend pointed out that it was an endless stretch of mostly plain stockinette, I decided to save the next few inches for late night and park knitting.

So now I'm working on the Icy Blue Shell from the July 2007 issue of Creative Knitting. If I didn't know better, I'd say someone else was working on it while my back is turned, because this thing is going to be done and ready to wear before I know it.

The only thing I've got doubts about at this point is the neckline, but since it's knit in the round from the bottom up, I'm telling myself I can always change it to something more scooped if it bugs me. I like the dragon skin panels -- there are narrower strips down the sides which don't show up in the magazine photo.

Quinn seems to like the dragon scales as much as I do.



There's been a lot of happy squealing at my house this week.

First, it was the sock patterns. I've mentioned how sock patterns make my heart go pitty pat and how I'm trying to resist the temption to order all of Cookie A's sock patterns right this second?

I found more sock patterns to love. It started with the cables here. I've never seen cables like these. You might not want to read down too far, because something bad -- worse than anything in those horror movies I've been staying up too late to watch -- happened to those cables.

The pattern is from the Socken-Kreativ-Liste. I was so head over heels in lust with those cables that not even the thought of trying to knit them from a German pattern was enough to scare me off. But no matter how much I Googled, I couldn't find the list.

Took me two days find the link on Grumperina's site, right in the post that led me to the gorgeous cables. I managed to get myself signed up and figure out which links to click on to get to the patterns -- and they've got English translations!

Alex and I spent most of the afternoon dancing through the house squealing about pretty lace socks.

Then I got the email about the quilt magazines. I'd responded to a Freecycle post last week, but someone else had beaten me to the fifty quilting magazines that the lady was offering. That someone didn't show up to get them, so she emailed me and asked me to call her that night.

I didn't get the message until the next day, and at that point both babies had just gotten over fevers -- they're fine now, but it probably wouldn't have been right to drag them out in the car, even if there were free quilting magazines involved. So I called Mom and Dad and begged. Then crossed my fingers and called the lady to see if she still had them or if she'd gone to the next name on her list.

Called Mom back with the address and had to hang up abruptly because Bill got bit by the snake he'd just found under the wading pool, which isn't a happy thing at all, but it did illustrate to the children why we keep telling them not to pick up snakes in the yard of the new house. Supposedly, there are rattlesnakes down here.

It was a few hours before I finally heard from her. There weren't fifty quilting magazines. There were TWO HUNDRED quilting magazines, all of them in pristine condition.

Eeek! I should get to pick them up tomorrow, if no one gets sick or snake bit.