Busy beaver...

I have been a busy little beaver. On Canada Day we skipped town - family and friends can't understand it. We live in the Market and are right in the middle of all the Canada Day festivities happening in the Nation's Capital - that is why we get out of Dodge!

When we came home, Steph and Ally headed up to the Hill to see what was going on. Naevyne and I met up with them for the fireworks.

I have to admit that it is nice to be able to walk 8 minutes down the street to catch the fireworks at the National Gallery!

We headed out to Meech Lake for the day. The weather was perfect, the water was warm and the girls spent 5-1/2 hours, out of the 6 we were there, in the water. That meant minimal interruptions for my knitting.

The day at the beach allowed me great progress on Ally's Austrian sock (from Interweave Knits Favourite Socks). I have to admit that I cursed her birth when I started the chart, but half way through the first sock I got the hang of it. The socks flew off the needles. These socks have been modified to be anklets, as Ally doesn't like "regular" socks. This is all fine with me because I needed only one ball of yarn, and it is less work for me.

At the beginning of June, I knitted the bmp socks for my brother (http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring07/PATTbmp.html). His birthday isn't until the end of July, but I wasn't sure how complicated or annoying this pattern would be. I started early - which is so out of character for me - to give myself the time to put them down for a bit, if needed. I needn't have worried. These were so much fun to knit up! I hope that he likes them as much as my household does.

Immediately upon finishing the bmp's, I got started on Naevyne's long awaited socks. She chose the yarn and the pattern (I did narrowed down the choice of patterns to a few that I was willing and interested in knitting - many years of childrearing has taught me to never give a 5 year old, particularly a very bright 5 year old, too much license!). The pattern is called Overlapping Leaves, but in the blue yarn it looks like waves.

The pattern is a free PDF download on Ravelry.
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/overlapping-leaves-toe-up-sock-pattern

Towards the end of June, Ally had a birthday party to attend. I try to encourage my children to give handmade/handcrafted gifts as birthday presents - and I encourage the same from other children attending our birthday parties. Ally handpainted some white silk in her friend's favourite colours for me to knit up into the Spirogyra fingerless gloves and matching hat.
http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring08/KSPATTspirogyra.html