Monday, June 04, 2007

no more pencils, no more books

Knit? Blog? School's out, dontcha know. There are sprinklers to dance in, trees to climb, bugs to collect. Also, planning the lemonade stand has been using most of my free time. I'm overcome with gratitude for the support from the good people who have visited our little virtual lemonade stand. Your kindness and generosity are a blessing. I thank you. PeeWee thanks you. Little bald kids with cancer who are just like every other kid and simply want to play--they thank you. If any of you gentle readers are new here and are following links from other's blogs, please see my last post for more information about the lemonade stand. Thanks for coming by! I so wish I were really pouring lemonade for you.

There has been a bit o' knitting, though. We have ball games every night, so I get a few stitches done in between yelling "That's okay, buddy. Nice swing!" and trying to sweet-talk PeeWee into thowing away the used sunflower seed shells she finds under the stands. I've been working on a 24-month size of the Presto Chango pattern. I thought I'd try out a few mods--shaped shoulders and sleeves. The shoulder shaping is done by coming out a few stitches from the neck (about 6 rows before the neck is bound off) and increasing on each side. Matching decreases will be done after reaching the summit of the shoulders and coming down on the other side. I've been shaping the sleeves by doing short-rows. I like the shoulder shaping, but the short-row shaping is causing me stress, because I didn't write down what I did as I did it and mirroring the shaping on the down-hill side of the sweater will likely be tedious and nit-picky. (How many stitches was that?!?!?)

I'm going to confuse you with some random pictures of yarn while I talk about something else: RAVELRY!!! Wahoooo! I got an invitation to join in last week--It is SOOOOO COOL. If any of you have put your names on the request list to join and have not heard from them, be patient, it is worth it.

The site designers, Casey and Jess, just put out a message tonight asking for understanding and patience. Apparently some people are getting frustrated with the wait. At the beginning of May when they put up the form for requests to join, they got 3,500 requests within 2 weeks (!!!) and another 1000 in the following weeks. They said that they're up to #1,166 now and working as hard and fast as they can to catch up with demand. There are beta issues they have to take care of before they can open up the site completely, but for now, it's metered merging.

We need one more picture...


Ah...Socks that Rock in Rooster Rock. See the brown and purple? Me loves it!

12 comments:

woolydoodles said...

hiya Valerie
I really hope you are all ok? I'v been showing your pattern around and my preggie friend loves it so I'm going to knit it for her as a pressie!
I promise I will have some virtual lemonade later in the month....
See you then
Take lots of care
Love n hugs all round
Mel x

Tola said...

okay next time ill call you, i promise!

Marti said...

I wasnt able to find the hat by the name you mentioned on Knitty....I am really curious as to the one you meant. Can you email me the link?

YarnThing said...

I LOVE THE STR! Can you believe that I own NON of it? Nope, not even a scrap. I am hoping to get a membership to the STR Club for Christmas but not sure if we can afford that :-( I will just have to live vicariously through yours k?

Marly
knitthing.blogspot.com
knitthing.mypodcast.com

Traci said...

your Presto Chango is looking great!
and thanks for the yarn pics. ahhh so nice...
:)

Anonymous said...

Congrats on getting into Ravelry - I'm still waiting to get in!

Kim said...

Me loves it too!!!

Any details on the real lemonade stand?? What time and where? We will SO be there!!!

Alison said...

Yay for trees to climb and bugs to collect!
I love the colors of that peaches and creme, I may need a dishcloth or two in that... Brown and pink is my current favorite color combo, I think...
Hope your in-real-life lemonade stand does super fantastic!
Happy knitting,
ali

YarnThing said...

Hey, I made my first Presto Chango...and it will not be my last!

Marly
knitthing.blogspot.com
knitthing.mypodcast.com
summerkalcal.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Ahhh, such yummy yarn. I love me the STR. Keep going on the pattern mods -- it's such a cute pattern!

Joyce said...

Hi Wowie!
I found your blog. What fun. I think you should try some of my procion dyes. Much more permanent than Easter egg dye, as I look with dismay on my blue streaked legs (not veins!)

Joyce

Alison said...

Just wondering how you're doing, and how that real life lemonade stand did...
Happy knitting-
ali