Such a Peaceful Morning

Rock River Illinois, 6/10

It is such a peaceful morning. End of summer bugs singing, not much birdsong, a slight breeze randomly tinkling the windchimes outside my bedroom window. Perfect temperature. How could anything be wrong on a day like this?!

Latest WIP: my attempt at sealettuce, which I believe is a Lucy Neatby design (that I am trying to duplicate.)

I'm using Silk Bamboo yarn from Knitpicks, very very drapey, no body to it at all, but that makes the ruffles lovely and pendulous!

I also started Shiri Mor's lace cardi from the summer VK issue 2010. Yarn is Melody from yarntreehouse on Ebay, something I'd stashed several years ago. I'm hoping the FO looks wonderful b/c i'm not sure of the overall color of this yarn! I hope that the color shadings show up a bit for some interest w/o distracting from the lace pattern.

Hmmm, looks like a thong...painful even to contemplate! But rest assured, it is one of the triangles for the back of the sweater (after I blocked the crud out of it, I realized I had missed out on two repeats of the pattern, which several more rows. Duh, no wonder I didn't get gauge!!!) Sigh. Good thing I had the epiphany...I simply went ahead with the same needles and made the next triangle (which is identical), and it was to gauge. Woohoo!


I went through an intensive "principles to get out of debt" seminar at our church yesterday. I am a big fan of Dave Ramsey; have seen him speak in person, have read his book and started his "Seven Baby Steps" to get out of debt last year, but lost impetus. It's so easy to get distracted. This seminar reinforced good planning and budgeting principles. I am ready to get into this fully now, let's jump in the deep end!

There is a Ravelry Group called Gonna Be Debt Free, which is wonderful to use for a pep-talk when you need to be reminded of your goal. That's where I first heard of Dave's principles.

Did you know that the Bible has >2,400 scriptures related to money management?! And, I never knew that prior to the 1980s credit cards were not common! Now the average american household has 10 credit cards. Holy moly.

I'm tightening my belt, but I still have my magazine and book fix to conquer. I did good this time, I passed on the fall issue of Vogue Knitting--instead of just adding it to my collection, I decided that all my other queued projects will long forestall any possibility to knit the Vladimir Teriokhin sweater which was the only interesting piece in that issue. So, I treated myself to only 2 yarn magazines this time--good girl.

I need to whittle the grocery bill down too. Things cost so much, and I hate waste. I have been buying fruit all summer, and not eating it. (Don't know what the deal is with that. I just haven't wanted it once I get it home.) I need to adjust to one less mouth to feed around here and stop buying so much quantity. I shop once every 2 weeks....because I really can't stand going to the grocery, and can't see the benefit of going more often than that.

I like the idea of tee-shirt yarn, and loved the photo of this yarn from aqualight's Etsy shop:



There is a group on ravelry about t-shirt yarn. Polka Dot Pineapple has a cute tutorial about making it yourself. That's a cool idea for bathroom rugs, rag-rugs, etc...but I really love that black and white striped version!

Look at this clever way to make your own shawl-pin! What a great idea!

'Nuff recycling for one day. Happy Sunday everyone!