My day got away from me. I had every intention of dyeing some of the amazing baby camel down top that I have, but right now, I’m soaking part of a tan alpaca batt to test hot pour dyeing and my colors on.

I’ve spun a little of the camel. Just a tiny bit to see what it was like. I didn’t put enough twist in it and it’s a miracle I was able to ply it. But I did, and knit a tiny, incredibly soft little swatch which I’ve been rubbing between my fingers for a couple of days.

It hasn’t felted or balled at all. A good sign.

If I am able to dye it well, I think it’d be fun to add dyed camel top and handspun to my Tweedy Batts offerings. It’s such nice fiber. I think it’d make a delightful little neck scarf. A small one to tuck into a sweater or coat to keep the chill off. But, this is all assuming that I will EVER figure out how to dye properly. My confidence is nil. Hope remains high, however.

So, I’m going for greens. We’ll see how it works out.

It rained on Saturday, which means that my housepainter couldn’t finish painting and now he’s on vacation for a week in Alabama.

Waiting and waiting. Sometimes, it seems like that’s all I do. Wait for the siding to be replaced. Wait for my stupid elbows to get better before I do more in the yard. Wait for the painter. Wait for slow bids on our front deck.

Wait for everything relating to Tweedy Batts. It’s always a wait.

SO, our house is sort of painted. On Saturday night, Nate took a picture of the house and put it in photoshop to try out doors. All of the doors we liked weren’t working. They were too busy. So we tried other doors and found the PERFECT one! I’m going to see if the local shop I linked last week can make it for us.

After we found the door, Nate played around in photoshop and changed the yard a little bit. It’s a rough mockup and not complete, but you get a pretty good idea of what we’re going for. So I’ll show you the before and pseudo after photos.

I didn’t even know our house could be cute ’til that tree came down, and once the little roof came off, you could actually see the house. Now, as long as we keep it clean and simple, the door and the yard and anything else we do out front, our house has a very nice, modest look to it. I’m very excited. When we bought this house, I figured it’d always be ugly from the street. It was so ugly. But we loved the inside, and that was enough. I’m happy to have “discovered” the outside.

I think that today, I’m going to start on the garage. I want to organize it like I did in the last house, make it clean and nice, and put an elliptical and weight bench out there.

On Friday, some of my sisters-in-law and I went blueberry picking with the kids. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. With lots of little helpers, we took home 18 pounds of blueberries.

Clark took berry picking extremely seriously. He wouldn’t leave his bush.

The girls were having more fun running around with their cousins.

I can’t believe summer’s almost over. I have big projects planned for the September, when I’ll have free time again, and that’ll be here before I know it.

Pretty good week for me. A lot of exercise, ate tolerably well. I’m able to lift light weights again. My physical therapist said that I can do it as long as the weight is light enough for 20 reps. So I’m doing my biceps, triceps, and some squats for my quads.

I need to be eating more protein, but I don’t want to eat more meat. I’m having a hard time figuring out how to do it. I was surprised that beans aren’t as much of a source of protein as I thought. They’re more of a carb, so eating beans doesn’t help much with my nutrient percentages. And I only like Tofu sliced thin and fried. So, that isn’t going to help. And I’d feel weird using more protein powder than I already am. It doesn’t seem like a great food “source”, but a respectable supplement, you know? I don’t know what to do.

But since I’m trying to build muscle, I need more protein.

How was your week?

My stuff came.

I ordered a bunch of different things to experiment with. Three were backordered and the only reason I mind is that 2 of those are the other wools, BFL and shetland, that I was going to try. I want to make a batt with something other than Romney just to see what the difference feels like, and I can’t.

Annoying.

BUT, I’m anxious to make some batts with what I got.

Liv is knitting again.

She started a Gryffidnor scarf yesterday and once again started knitting backwards instead of flipping it over to purl the backside. That’s so amazing to me. I’m guessing it’s because she’s a left handed girl with a mom that kind of, um, forced her to be right handed*… so she does unexpected things sometimes. **

I cut Liv’s hair recently, then she talked Nate into dyeing it for her, and she got new glasses. So she’s a totally new girl, and so cute with short hair. It’s wedged high in the back.

* I didn’t mean to. She went back and forth between the two so much as a little kid, I figured that life was easier as a right handed person, so I encouraged her to go right. Strongly. If it had looked like she was strictly left handed, I would have left her alone. I think. I hope.

** Her first and second grade teachers couldn’t figure out why she was so behind in handwriting. She’s caught up now, thankfully, but I feel bad. We didn’t really figure out why ’til two summers ago. We were killing time at a wedding, and one of my brothers-in-law started throwing a ball. Liv was in softball at the time, her first year, and wasn’t a particularly strong thrower. So Nate was surprised when he saw her gunning the ball back to his brother with strength and accuracy. As he watched her, he realized she was throwing left handed, which she doesn’t do in softball because she has a right handed mitt. We then bought her a left mitt and she immediately improved. Then this last year, at the second to last game of the season, Nate had her bat left handed. (She had started to struggle at bat and wasn’t getting on base much). The coach looked dubious, but as I remember it, she hit the first pitch… hard. The coach was elated. She bat left for the last game and did great. I feel like a total heel. I can’t teach left handed knitting though. I wouldn’t know where to start, so she’ll have to make do.

And I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me. I didn’t ball up the Artyarns, I picked up the Hexagon shawl.

How many pictures of this thing can I string along on the blog? It looks exactly the same as it has all the other times I’ve shown it. But, it’s what I’m working on. Soon, I’ll be done with this center section, and then I’ll be switching colors. I think the little band of flowers will be the purple left over from Liv’s shawl, and then I’m not sure what to knit the lacy border with. The same as the center? Black? Cream? A peachy champagne color (like the one that barely crops up now and then in the center)?

I really have no idea. It’s been so long now, I don’t even remember how many skeins of this yarn that I have, how many I’ve used, or where the remaining skeins even are.

I’m feeling a bit mental.

The doctor doesn’t think Liv’s knuckles are broken, but said that they’re in good enough alignment that there wouldn’t be much we could do anyway. He was more concerned about her fingers getting infected. (It was a nasty, bloody mess. Peeled skin everywhere. I actually couldn’t clean it. Nate had to. Although I’m a major blood-wuss, I have up ’til now been able to care for and bandage my injured children. This was really gross).

I have some pictures of one of our evening strolls. Nate calls it an “evening constitutional”. It’s really nice to get out on warm evenings and walk for a couple miles. The girls have recently started riding their bikes on these evenings. In the past, we’d all walk and play guessing games.

Despite the fact that I find Nate sinfully handsome, he dislikes having his picture taken and makes it very difficult. I can frequently only get the back of his head.

You haven’t seen Clark in awhile. Can you believe how old he looks?

My wholesale order is due to arrive today.

Yippee yippee yippee yippee yippee yippee yippee!

So, there’s this guy, maybe a decade older than I am, that lives somewhere in our neighborhood. He rides by on his bike a lot, and if we’re out front doing anything social, he stops and kind of participates. That’s probably overstating a little bit, but he definitely lingers more than I would think is customary, as “neighborly” friendliness goes. He’s not creepy or anything, he’s very nice, but very interested in whatever we happen to be doing out front.

Anyway, he stopped again recently when I was hacking down the last remaining rhode in preparation for the painter, and started asking questions about our walkway, which eventually led to the front door.

Remember a few posts back, when I linked those groovy doors out of Austin, Texas? Well, he suggested this place significantly closer to us than Texas that I didn’t know about, and raved about their prices and service. I looked them up on the internet yesterday. Check out these groovy doors! We like #’s 2 & 6 the best. I have no idea how much they are, but we’re going to check it out. (Our front door is totally falling apart, and it is getting more difficult to actually get into the house at times). So that’s cool.

I’m thinking about balling up the pink and white Artyarns laceweight and starting something simple for me. It’s been awhile since I’ve had a take-along knitting project on needles. I can’t knit socks right now, or Liv’s cabled sweater with my elbows the way they are. Lace seems to be the easiest on my arms, but the shawl I have going now (the huge hexagon from Victorian Lace Today) just isn’t grabbing me. It’s SO easy, that it’s a little difficult. That sounds dumb, I know, but the fact that there are very few yarnovers ends up making me count to find my place more than I actually end up knitting. Allover lace is easier to read and remember.

So, I’m wondering if I should make a really big Angel Lace shawl, like Abby’s blue one, or should I do something with that daisy lace stitch again, like a big triangle shawl, and pick out a pretty border to go with it? Or something else entirely?

In the class I took with Judith, she showed us how to blend mohair locks with silk on hand cards, and then spin off of the cards into the easiest and smoothest laceweight I’ve ever managed. I think it’d be fun to use up all my pink and white yarn on the body of the shawl, and then spin up some white mohair/silk to border it with.

It’s such an edible looking pink color. Like ice cream.

Liv hurt her hand last night. I’m concerned that she may have broken at least one knuckle, possibly more. Today, I need to clear off our front porch for the pressure washer, take Abby to her ukulele lesson, and then head straight off to the doctor for Liv. It’d be nice if I could cast something on before I go, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to.

Ack! What’s the deal? I keep missing Saturdays for Health Group. Sorry.

This Saturday, I spent the whole day reading Breaking Dawn. Interesting book. Probably my least favorite of the 4, but I didn’t NOT like it. It was just weird, and pretty gross in parts. But then, I am beyond pansy about medical stuff. I have to concentrate on not passing out with needles, IVs, or even smashing my finger/toe really hard.

So, yeah. It was too much for me. I had to put it down twice and focus on breathing for awhile. And the second time I set it down, I couldn’t feel my arms or see quite right.

That being said, I think that normal people would be fine with it. I’m a pansy. For reference, I was totally squirming during the fight scene with James in Twilight. I’m happy to discuss the book in email with those of you who have read it. No spoilers here. Hayden doesn’t have it yet.

ANYWAY…. Health Group.

Not a great week, but I did exercise a few times. Met my Calorie Target twice. This week will be better. There’s not a party every night, for one, and I have exercise already scheduled with my friend, Ros. We worked out this morning for 50 minutes.

My house is getting painted this week. I’m really excited.