I’ve hit upon the perfect strategy for having the house cleaned, requiring little or no effort on your part. In fact, it’s so brilliant, and so painless, this is one of those stunts I wholeheartedly recommend you try at home. The method is simple: let the house become really, really REALLY disgustingly messy. I don’t mean the kind of messy that your mother might have scolded you about when you were younger. I mean the kind of messy that might bring the health department down on your head.  When dirty dishes are piled high in the kitchen sink (and all over the kitchen counters); when the laundry basket overfloweth; when you could practically plant a vegetable garden in your living room carpet since it hasn’t been vaccuumed for so long; when the garbage can starts to bulge in an ominous way reminiscent of Mount Saint Helens…just lay back and allow the miracle to happen…

The man of the house will become so repulsed by the state of his domicile (believe me, it will happen…I didn’t think it was possible either, but if my husband has limits to how much filth he can tolerate, other men do as well…), he will actually power up the vacuum cleaner and wash the laundry; the dish washer will be loaded and the trash emptied…it’s amazing!

How did I escape involvement in this monumental effort? Between the back pain and a nasty cold, I was reduced to a quivering mass of helplessness, and spent much of the weekend on the couch bundled up under a couple of afghans. This is not a fatal flaw in my plan. Anyone with an ounce of skill at acting can feign illness, and guilt trip the husband into a cleaning frenzy. Unfortunately, my acting skills weren’t required this time…but there will be a next, muahahahahaha!

I did manage to rouse myself for one engagement we had this weekend. Claire was invited to a birthday party for a three-year old girl who attends the same daycare.** We rarely put Claire in a dress since walking is not yet her preferred method of navigation, and it seems like a particularly cruel form of torture to watch her try to crawl with skirts on, but this seemed like a good time to get her all dolled up, since (a) the party was short; (b) we would have to carry her most of the time so she wouldn’t end up trampled by the bigger kids; and (c) the couple who had given her the pretty dress would also be attending the party and wanted to see her in it.

With Claire in a dress, life started to look like something envisioned by Norman Rockwell. Naturally, we couldn’t let such a moment go by undocumented, so Robert whipped out the digital camera and started taking snapshots:

Click on thumbnails for larger images

Ain’t life just peachy? LOL!

With so much happening, I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that I didn’t knit very much this weekend. I did finish up the sleeves for the Rebecca wrap cardi and am pleased to say that blocking makes a BIG difference with this sweater. I am hopeful that it’s going to fit like it should! There’s quite a bit of finishing work to be done, and I’m moving at a rather slow pace right now, so I probably won’t finish this project until this coming weekend or perhaps the following one. (I’m trying my hardest not to be apologetic about how slow I am…)

There’s always time for rummaging through my stash, however. While I was engaged in this pleasant pastime, I discovered some pretty boucle lace yarn from Cherry Tree Hill.

Click on thumbnails for larger images – Images have not been retouched!

This yarn has lingered for far too long in my stash and I don’t envision using it anytime soon. I think it needs to find a better home than I can provide, and I’m sure there’s a good one out there since the lace bug has bitten quite a few of you lately.  Here are the details:

• wool boucle with nylon binding
• Hand dyed
• lace weight
• 2100 yds./190 grams

If you are interested in this, email me.  Let me know what you have to offer.  I will take other yarn, knitting books/magazines, or cash.  Best offer wins!

** Don’t worry. I was past the contagious stage and didn’t breathe on or touch any of the children

I made a big mistake at work today. I took a muscle relaxant to help ease the spasms in my back. Now, before you get the wrong idea, you should know this is not typical behavior for me.  Unfortunately, the pain was growing intense, and a person gets kind of desperate, you know?  I was having trouble typing and doing all the other meaningless important tasks for which I’m responsible. I thought if the pill would help ease the pain I might be a little more productive.

Now I can barely hold my head upright. I just hope I don’t start drooling on myself. (I’m also choosing to blame the pill on my lousy writing today…it may not REALLY be the source of my less-than-brilliant exposition, but I’ll take any excuse I can get.) This would be immensely funny if it didn’t hurt so bad!

At lunchtime, I decided to go out to get some fresh air and a little excercise, so I walked down to So Much Yarn.  I hoped I might find something special to tuck into the package I’m preparing for my secret pal. That mission didn’t go quite as planned either. The walk was nice, but the store is always a disappointment to me. SMY carries too many glitzy yarns and their prices are inflated. I saw a couple of interesting bags, which I considered for two seconds, but they were outrageously expensive. *sigh* I’m going to have to do a little bit of brainstorming to come up with the perfect package for my secret pal.

Not everything is doom and gloom around here. Yesterday, I posted about how I was having a difficult time finding a discontinued color of the Rowan Handknit DK Cotton. I was surprised and delighted to receive an email from Meg, the owner of Yarn Expressions, letting me know they still had some skeins in the color I was looking for. This is a benefit to blogging I never experienced before!  I promptly placed an order.

Meanwhile, I’m counting the minutes until 4:30 tomorrow afternoon when I go in for another physical therapy session. I’m really looking forward to another encounter with the ultrasound machine (not the imaging device…rather, it’s a machine that heats up your muscle tissue and helps it relax…it feels remarkably good!)

I’m completely overwhelmed by all the kind and supportive comments I received to my last entry. Thank you so much! I hesitated before posting it because I hate to sound as if I’m wallowing in self-pity, but did so anyway since there was something cathartic about it. I actually felt a lot better after writing it.

There’s nothing quite as therapeutic as rummaging through my yarn stash and planning new projects, so I did just that last night. Look at the pretty yarns I purchased recently for my summer knitting projects:

The red, yellow and blue Rowan Handknit DK is earmarked for this cute striped tank top, which I plan on making for my son. I have the orange and green yarn somewhere, but they were AWOL this morning when I took the photo. I’m still trying to find one skein of Rowan Handknit DK in 202 (oasis). I think the color has been discontinued. If I can’t find it, I’ve been thinking about substituting either a grey or a dark purple. I won’t know which will work best until I can lay all the skeins out side by side and take a good hard look at them

The pink Rowan Handknit DK is for this lacey sweater, which will look really pretty on Claire. I think this will be a fun knit!

I bought the magenta Rowan Cork to round out the yarn I received as part of my membership in the Rowan club. I didn’t like the silly looking poncho thing for which it was supposed to be used, so I decided to use it for this cabled hoodie. I don’t think the difference in dye lots is going to matter too much…we’ll see. I probably won’t start on this one until the fall.

(All of the projects listed above are from Adorable Knits for Tots. It’s hands-down my favorite book of patterns for kids!)

Finally, the blue 4-ply cotton is for Firt from Rowan 27. I can’t decide whether I’ll make the straight stockinette version or the version with eyelets, although I’m leaning towards the latter since it will be more interesting knitting. I purchased the yarn online, and based on the photo, thought the color was going to be more of a washed out blue than this vibrant color. It’s not something I normally would buy, but the woman at Nordstrom who helps me pick out my work wardrobe has been trying to get me to wear this hue for ages, so I’m going follow her advice. Hopefully, it will prove to be a flattering color on me.

Rummaging through my stash wasn’t quite enough therapy, however. I just had to start a new project:

This is the start of a feather and fan sock from Socks Socks Socks. I’m using Lorna’s Laces yarn, which instantly became one of my favorite sock yarns. It’s sooooooo soft and smooth and the colors are so lovely! Must. have. more.