Yarn Along in July...

 So the hat for S is finally finished.  I can't believe it took me so long to make this hat...maybe because it took me almost a week just to untangle the yarn after I dyed it...and I actually only ended up using half of what I dyed, so now of course I am wondering if there is enough left to make a pair of self striping socks.  Hmmm.  Excuse the picture by the way.  It is a surprise for the cold weather, so I had to take the picture of myself.  The problem, though, is if it fits (and loosely at that) on my big giant head, then it will for sure be too big.  It is cotton though, and the last one I made him shrunk in the wash, so I am actually hoping this one will shrink in the wash.  As it is their job to fold most of the laundry over the summer though, I am going to wait until September to try to sneak it through.

Oh, yeah...it is just 100 stitches (worsted weight cotton) cast on, about and inch and a quarter of ribbing and then just straight up knitting until it got nice and long enough to be slouchy, and then k2tog for a round, knit for a round, repeat those 2 rows until there are just a few stitches left and run the yarn through them to tie it off.  Easy peasy but it took me a while to do in secret as the boys are staying up later lately.

Which leaves only the scarf on the needles.  Well, at least that is the only project on the needles that I am not completely ignoring.  The rest are packed away in bags here and there because I am pretty sure they are all going to be frogged.

On the reading front...I went to the library Monday night and found a series of 3 books by Paul Almond.  The Deserter, The Survivor, and The Pioneer.  I read the first one Monday and Tuesday.  It was excellent.  Set in Canada for a change in the late 1700's.  I stayed up way too late last night to read the second one.  I was kind of disappointed.  Although the actual story is great...a new husband and wife trying to set up their homestead against all obstacles...exactly the thing I like to read about...there are so many mistakes in the timeline it kind of drove me crazy.  When he is giving the background of the first book, he actually adds a year to the time the main character was there, then he has the guy spending the summer at a sawmill, yet somehow, later in the book, it says he spent that summer clearing his land and laying the foundation for his home (and magically the land is about a day away by canoe).  Then at one point he says it is late October, but then he talks about the long fall coming their way.  I plan on reading the third one anyways over the next couple of days.  Hopefully it won't drive me quite as nuts.  Having said that...if you are willing to ignore the time line issue, it really is a great (true) story as it deals with real life and death situations (at the back their is even documentation about the real events) and struggles that the very early settlers had to deal with.  Puts things into perspective, no?

Joining Ginny again for Yarn Along.  Haven't played along there in a while either as the knitting is such slow going in the heart of gardening season.