Playing

It really has been a wonderful summer, especially since I haven't had to teach. For those of you who don't already know, I teach piano, voice, and violin to about 20+ students a week (at least when I'm not on baby-hiatus). Don't get me wrong, I love teaching, and consider it a wonderful blessing to be able to use my degree/talents AND be a stay at home mom, but it's very nice to have "nothing" (ha ha, please note the irony and sarcasm there) to do this summer.

A few weeks ago Handyman was working in a small town nearby, so the kids and I packed up and spent the afternoon with him. No, he wasn't working at the playground (wouldn't that be a fun job, ha ha!) but on a house about 30 feet away. We had a nice picnic lunch and the kids played for a few hours. Well, Peter and Banna-boo did. Baby Gabe just slept.

I know, don't die of shock. He slept. What a surprise.

Peter's lips kept "vroom-vrooming" the entire time. What is it with males an their need for sound effects? It's like they live their entire lives as though it's one long action movie. This particular scene from Peter's life movie would be entitled, "Dinosaurs interact with construction trucks and get buried in sand." Yes, I don't see the correlation there either, but apparently it makes perfect sense to my son.

Banna-boo just tried to run over anyone who got near her sandwich. The child is very serious about her food. Back Away From the Food!

So what did I play with while the kids were playing? Why, yarn, of course!

This is a scarf that I knitted with some beautiful black cashmere yarn I bought for sale from Destash. Surprisingly enough, it didn't languish in the stash for years before I used it. Could it be because it's cashmere?

Let's all say it together: Caaaaaaaashmere. (Cashmere must be pronounced with smugness and an overwhelming sense of yarn-superiority).

It's my own pattern, which I can write out if anyone's interested. I was thinking of adding some silver ribbon (like this) through the loops to jazz it up some more. What do you think? Too much? I have a tendency to over-do it. I like complications, it seems. Simplicity is not me, alas. Please vote, even those this blog is a dictatorship.



When it was time to block the scarf, I really wanted blocking wires, since pinning an edge as long as a lace scarf creates a rather bumpy rectangle. However, rather than spend the usual $27 for blocking wires, I stole 27 cents worth of wire from Handyman's latest ground hog booby trap and made my own. I just cut 2 yards of length for each side, threaded it through the scarf edges, and then pinned every foot or so with my T pins.

The wire was easy to straighten out, and the best thing was I just rolled it up for storage when I was done!

I was thinking of naming this scarf pattern "Femme Fatale", since the combination of black lace and cables makes me feel sexy and dangerous. (I said feel, not look, because although I look dangerous due to bad hair, I'm not at all sexy. I'm rather more homey and dumpy.)

Don't you dare feel sorry for me, though. I don't need your pity.

I would accept an offer for house cleaning, though.