Here I am, popping up like a little groundhog to give an update and reassure everyone that the house hasn't killed me yet. I've been doing a crapload of cleaning and cleaning and yardwork and taking down seriously icky A/C window units (those things are freakin' heavy!), and yardwork and lots more yardwork. My bedroom looks so much better.

OK, well, you can't really tell from the picture, but believe me, it does.
And um, here should be a picture of the enormous pile of brush and lawn debris that my parents and I made, but I guess I was too busy trying not to pass out and die to actually get a picture. Crap. Just visualize.
My parents have come out the past two Saturdays and helped me bushwhack the yard. They are amazing. Aparently I have a pretty sizeable side yard, but you could never tell because it was horribly overgrown and covered in English ivy.
My next big task is picking out paint colors.

I have actually been accomplishing quite a bit on the knitting front.

Mom's socks have two toes and two heels, and lack only cuffs to make them complete.

The Branching Ferns shrug is almost three-quarters finished. I have one more lace repeat before I join for the sleeve.

The Best Roommate Ever's socks are coming along. I finished one toe, which I did not take a picture of, because I am full of picture-taking fail today.

And finally, I have a few gifts for guy-type people that I promised to make, so I snapped up some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky at Knitch. Soft, machine-washable, and on sale! If only guys weren't so boring about colors.

the theme for this week: creation!

I woke up Wednesday morning (the first day of my "weekend") with a wicked pancake craving, so, armed only with my wits, a vegan cookbook and a spatula, I made these little beauties.

Mmmmm, vegan pancakes. Topped with vanilla soy yogurt and berries (frozen, hence the vivid purple color) and accompanied by fake bacon, since I wanted some salt to go with my sugar. Intense amounts of numminess, and a rather odd and alarming continuation of a recent trend. All recent evidence to the contrary, I am severely cooking-skills-deprived. It was only recently that I figured out if I don't make food, no food will appear. Don't ask me how I survived until now. I think it was sheer dumb luck.


Crusoe socks, finished! I didn't even need to be sat on.

The larval beginnings of a pair of socks for the Best Roommate Ever.

My mom's socks have two toes and a heel! Yay for progress and speedy mindless stockinette!

I finished one sleeve of the Branching Fern shrug. (I made the pattern up out of my head, with a little help from Barbara Walker, and for the time being, it's going well.) Modeled with a recent purchase, one of my very favorite shirts, which I then tried to take a picture of in the bathroom mirror . . .

forgetting that if you take a picture of words in a mirror, they will be backwards. D'oh! Attempt #2:

Much better. And so very true. Need one of your own? Here. (I especially like the bumper sticker.)

Yay for knitting pics!

Now that I have a camera again, I can finally post some progress pictures. The knitting has been continuing apace. Both heels are done on the Crusoe socks

and I just have to finish the cuffs. Note the hairy legs in this picture. Tres chic, ne c'est pas?

This little beauty is something I'm sort of making up out of my head (with a little help from Barbara Walker). It's going to be a shrug in the Branching Fern lace pattern (from The Second Treasury, I think), and it's made from Brookside Yarns Pico Alto, which is so very sadly discontinued. I started with a provisional cast-on at the center back and I'm going to knit the sleeve until I run out of yarn, then pick up the stitches and knit the other direction for the other side. I must use every last bit of this nummy nummy yarn.

And THIS is something special I'm making for that lovely patient woman who gave me life . . .

MOM, IF YOU'RE READING THIS, YOU BETTER NOT LOOK

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A sock, of course. What else. It's make with Claudia Handpainted Fingering weight, and the colorway is Teal Party.

This picture is a little more accurate representation of the color.

The Best Roommate Ever and I watched the Opening Ceremonies last night and I knit a ton on this sock. I'm almost ready for the heel. I just have to blindfold my mother and check the length.