My xanga is miraculously healed! Or Chris decided I had been punished enough for making snide comments about him (or perhaps her) and fixed it. Either way, I am appreciative. The time that it was down had, however, the nice side benefit of my having learned what html is.

I have remarked in the past that old novels (and movies, too) often include a good bit of knitting, just because there are women in them. This new novel is not like that. It is a "jump on the bandwagon" sort of knitting book, without much knitting in it. The protagonist is learning to knit, and working on a 2 stitches to the inch garter stitch scarf. She is also making another garter stitch scarf on #8 needles, and thinking about making a trendy washcloth. Every time she walks into the knitting shop, she starts a new project. So here she is, hasn't even learned to purl yet, and she's got three WIPs. The other knitters in the group (there is a group, to whom the protagonist is busy revealing all the dead woman's secrets) just have sweaters in their laps. There is more actual knitting detail in the average Miss Silver or Miss Marple mystery than in this one.

There is, however, a lot of yarn-fondling.

Here is the beginning of a BAWK. You can click on the picture if you want to check out the first couple of inches of the snazzy and unusual cable. This means that I now have four WIPs, something that is not at all like me. But I could not resist. #2 daughter and I went to the LYS (she bought Brown Sheep and Reynold's Frisky) and they had  a copy of the new Rebecca home magazine.

I don't normally buy knitting magazines. Nowadays, they cost as much as an actual knitting book, without the benefit of a good binding. I am especially not inclined to buy a magazine which has mostly cushion covers and other rectangular things, because I am perfectly capable of figuring out for myself how to make a rectangle. However, I had admired the BAWK pattern in this magazine online already. And there were three things in it I intended to make. And I had fondled an awful lot of yarn I had no intentions of buying.

So what with one thing and another, I bought the magazine. Then I came home and made barbecued chicken and possum pie and whatnot, and after a bit I sat down with my novel and the prayer shawl. But you know, I kept thinking about the excellent new cable design in the BAWK pattern in my new knitting magazine.

So I picked it up and read through it while I worked on the cotton/linen bath ensemble for a while... And then I thought I would just swatch for it. You knitters all know what happened next.

So here I am now with four WIPs. I think I probably ought to try to finish one of them today. But there is church, and then lunch with my parents. We'll see. I have to brag on #1 son, by the way. He drove us to the LYS, and hung out with us for 45 minutes while we fondled yarn and discussed felting habits and so forth, with no eye-rolling, whining, or nagging. He didn't fondle any yarn himself, but he was a great shopping companion.

Following the advice of both online and real-world friends, I decided to let #2 son go on the fireworks adventure. I told him that I wanted him to do some research on firework safety and tell me what he found out. So, while I was out supervising #1 son's driving practice, he went to fireworksafety.com and found not only the information, but also a test. When I got back, he sat me down and went through the test and his answers with me. I am feeling pretty confident about him. I think that the way he responded to my request showed a fair level of responsibility.
We have a three-day weekend to enjoy. A bit of housework, a trip to the farmers' market and the health food store, some work in the garden (where the first red tomato is ripening itself up just in time for the fourth), a family cookout and a restaurant meet-up with my parents, and lots of reading and needlework -- this is my plan.
Following an enjoyable week of searching through my knitting books, I have come to a decision. People on my knitted gift list will be getting Hotties and BAWKs this year. Many of you will not know what this means -- the intended recipients in particular. This is good. Knitting these items will give me opportunities to try out cables and pattern stitches, and the pleasure of finding the perfect designs for each of the recipients, without excessive wooliness.
Last year I made hats and scarves, and I may do some of that again. I also made cotton bath ensembles from Simple Knits for Sophisticated Living, adding the Japanese scrubbies which were all over the web at the time. I made fragrant soaps to go with them. But there were two people who did not get these bath ensembles: #2 daughter and myself. So I will rectify that oversight, and then get going on the Hotties and BAWKs.
I am finishing up The Improper Wife by Diane Perkins this morning while getting in a bit on the prayer shawl before the heat of the day. It is a well-written historical romance novel. It was one of the used books we picked up at the paperback exchange. Well-written, as I say, though I like a little more history in with the romance, myself.
But all romantic stories, from Romeo and Juliet on down, have one central premise. The protagonists are kept apart by a misunderstanding which could be solved easily if they would just explain it clearly to one another. The author's challenge is to come up with ways for the two to interact frequently and romantically without ever explaining the simple misunderstanding. We watched the movie Hitch the other day, and it had the same premise -- as, indeed, all romantic comedies do. The challenge for the reader or watcher is to stop thinking, "Well, why didn't (s)he just explain?". How well the consumer of the story can manage that suspension of disbelief is a good measure of how well the purveyor did.
Here is a close-up of the prayer shawl. It looks the same as before, doesn't it? That's the thing about shawls. They do not make for interesting progress shots. Still, the prayer shawl deserves the occasional close-up. It is being made in Lion Brand Homespun, on ginormous needles, in the official prayer shawl stitch. That is, cast on 57. Then each row is k3, p3. If you wanted a different number of stitches, it might not work out that way. Then you would k3,p3 the first row and then thereafter you would k all p stitches and p all k stitches.
 

Independence Day is a fun holiday. There is nothing absolutely required of you. You don't have to do presents, or decorate if you don't want to. Some people go to the fireworks, but plenty don't, so you won't feel like you're letting down the side if you skip them. There isn't really a set menu, though of course you have to make some effort to use red, white, and blue. But, you know, there are lots of red and blue berries, and then you can just set out some cream and you've done it. You can have people over for a cookout one year without feeling that you have established a tradition, and families are not required to get together (although we are meeting my parents for lunch on the 3rd -- because we want to). Some years we have done elaborate stuff, and some years we have not. Independence.

But this year there is a difficult decision that needs making. #2 son wants to go stay over with a friend. This part is no big deal. It is the usual traveling sleepover, with the usual Three Musketeers. You can see the Three Musketeers in the unrecognisable picture above, from some years ago. You can't recognise the boys, but I think you can recognise their spirit and camaraderie. (No, Pokey, that is not a cigarette. It is a lollipop.)
However, the other two Musketeers have had divorces in their families since the boys were all little together, and this particular sleepover is at the home of the Falcon's dad.
Firecrackers are allowed in the area where this man lives. So the plot thickens. My son wants to go have a fireworks adventure on the Fourth of July.
You are thinking that there will be adult supervision, so there is nothing to worry about. But you do not know the Falcon.
His mother allows the boys to jump off their roof onto the trampoline. She has a rule at her house that the kids are not allowed to use real weapons without adult supervision.
I do not have any real weapons at my house (you can't count the trebuchet, since it is a physics experiment). I don't have a trampoline, either.
The last time #2 son stayed over at the Falcon's dad's house, he accidentally got handcuffed to something. There was a hack saw and a trip to the police department on the way home.
I don't have any handcuffs at my house, either.
We live in the city limits, so fireworks are forbidden to us. But when we lived in the country, we had fireworks. The children and I sat on the porch, while Daddy safely set off fireworks in a cleared area. Somehow I do not feel sure that this will be the approach taken at the Falcon's dad's place.
In order to persuade me, #2 son assured me that Pinky would be there, too. This allowed me to remember all the escapades the Three Musketeers have been on in their years together. Pinky's presence has never prevented #2 son and the Falcon from doing any insane thing that came into their heads. For all I know, Pinky may be the leading spirit in the insanity.
#2 son responds to questions about random wounds with "Huh? Oh, hey, I don't know how I got that." But what about a missing eye from a bottle rocket, or singed skin from over-exuberance with a Happy Chicken? It would be hard for him to pretend that he hadn't noticed it.
On the other hand, I also think of Terry Pratchett's Rincewind, who has almost died so many times that he clearly has a skill for -- not dying. This makes him seem quite safe to some characters in the books.
A difficult decision.