Well, it's a good thing not many people read my blog, because this is not a picture to be too excited about, but my Mom always emphasizes how important it is for me to be present in the photos...so here I am! On July 16th, which just happens to be my spiritual birthday, we decided to get out of Dodge! It had been so hot with triple digit heat for 7 days that we decided to go to San Francisco for the day...100 miles and 40 degrees cooler! We had a blast. Hubby took this picture of me KIP (knitting in public). I am just turning the heel on my Aunt Grace's sock at Crissy Field in The Presidio, while everyone else was still eating lunch. 

Cool Secret Pal!

My Secret Pal from the Ample Knitting List, the one I am supposed to be sending to, mailed me a belated birthday gift today. It was so neat. She sent me a knitting humor/trivia book with cool vintage pictures, Debbie Macomber's The Shop On Blossom Street, which takes place in my home state, a beautiful book mark and a souvenir bag she got at Niagara Falls last month on vacation. She is making up for all the bad secret pal experiences I have had in the past!

I still need to post pics of what my Secret Pal who is the one sending to me, gave me. It's so beautiful and I keep looking at it! Haven't had time or energy. We have had 7 days of triple digit heat. We finally got a break today and it cooled down to an official temp of 98* but we are usually a couple degrees higher. Judging by my thermostat and where it is at, I'd say we got to 100* here. Funny that after awhile you can really tell the difference between 98* and 100*. Saturday we went to San Francisco to get out of the heat. Ironically though we ended up getting sunburned/windburned in the 69* weather! We used sunscreen too, but I think we didn't apply often enough. A painful lesson learned. But I sure felt good getting my nose out in the salt air and the kids loved being on the beach. We went to East Beach at Crissy Field in The Presidio. If the fog hadn't been out you could see the Golden Gate Bridge from there. It was strange coming home too...over the 100 mile ride, the temp increased 40*!

Today I will finish up the first of my Aunt's socks. I also heard from a gal on the Ample Knitter's list and I am going to test knit one of her patterns for a smoke ring. I saw it on her blog and it looked pretty. It's a moebius smoke ring. Should be interesting.

Made some raspberry jam tonight. Other than that I haven't been accomplishing too much lately! Back to knitting!

Stash Additions

Well, I'm supposed to be using my stash but some things I just don't have the right yarn for. I was going to use that Alpaca Cloud laceweight yarn for the Lace Smoke Ring that I am making as a gift, however it was the wrong weight and instead of messing around with it and starting over a 4th time with it, I decided to get some fingering weight yarn. So I got the oatmeal/natural colored Alpaca yarn you see in the photo below. It is so yummy and soft and is a delight to knit with. I have about 4" done on it so far. I will have to take a picture later to share.

The ice blue cotton on the right is to make a knitted lace face cloth and soap sack from a Fiber Trends pattern (www.fibertrends.com). I also bought a Fiber Trends pattern for a hat with Aran cables/patterns on it that I want to make for gifts. I love Aran knitting. On the left in the photo below (which doesn't show up very good) is a beautiful variegated blue yarn that I splurged and got for myself! :o) It's for socks. It has to be on the back burner for awhile though...lots of gift knitting to get done for the holidays! I'm planning ahead!

And in the mail yesterday a big box from my Aunt in Seattle. She is unable to knit anymore due to a hand injury/arthritis. So I told her I would knit socks for her. She sent me the wool and pattern and she sent some fabric for me to sew for myself and the girls as well as a cone of bright magenta, fingering weight wool that I may use to make a shawl with (again in the future).

And in the mail on the weekend was a lovely shawl pattern and laceweight wool/silk...will have to take pictures and post more details.

It's triple digit heat today and over 80 in the house...not too comfortable for knitting! I hate living in this heat and smog! Where is the rain?! LOL

Left to Right: Trekking XXL sock yarn in a blue variegated (sorry it doesn't show up on background, it's beautiful!), Frog Tree fingering weight Alpaca in a soft, natural oatmeal color, and icy blue cotton.