What to do, what to do

One would think that with all the yarn I have in this house I would have *something* suitable for making baby clothes.

Actually I have some suitable for a girl, but BezaLeo is going to be a boy. (long pause) I don't suppose this provides me with an excuse to purchase some new yarn? I haven't bought anything from Lotusblossom on e-bay in ages. "Cute" doesn't seem the right style for him, given his parents--I want to do something very hip and funky. Okay, baby clothes are mostly little squares and rectangles, but an easy way of to funkify them is to use a really cool yarn, a great handpaint. Stranded work has possibilities--fair isle in bright colors and black and white checkerboards. Maybe mitered work using several color-coordinated handpaints. I was looking at Sasha Kagans Big and Little Knits last night, and it would be fun to make a blanket using some of her motifs--except I suppose you'd have to line it to keep little fingers from getting caught in the stranding.

Oh, I just found a Lotusblossom yarn that might work for a cardigan for a year-old baby, maybe. As usual with Lotusblossom (what is her name? Maryann, I think), the colors are absolutely stunning.

Isn't it gorgeous? The colors show pretty true on my monitor, not quite as intense and bright. It does have pink in it, but it's a hot pink, and there's not much of it--it shades out into orange and hot gold, and there's a good deal of purple and blue shades in it. I don't *think* it looks too girly. I'll have to ask my sister.

This is a lopi-spun yarn--i.e., not from Icelandic sheep; it's very very soft. It is wool, so they'd have to cold-water wash it and dry it flat, but I imagine they could deal with that. I'm thinking a plain boxy cardigan with seed stitch edging and the rest stocking stitch, with great big colorful buttons. You can really let the yarn do all the work here; you don't have to get fancy with the pattern. And it would be easy to work in one piece to the shoulders, divide for the arms, then pick up and knit the sleeves from the shoulder to the wrist. I wonder how much I have? It would be nice to make it as big as possible so they could get the most wear out of it.

I'm wondering if my bike tires will hold any pressure. I haven't ridden it in a couple of years. I'd like to go to Walgreens and the bank, and I could walk it--it's about 4 or 5 blocks past the optometrists--but it wouldn't be any fun without taking at least one of the Ts along, and they couldn't go into the store. I wonder if they'd let me pick up salmon oil caps from the drive-through window?

Remind me to get some crepe paper streamers. I put the tunnels up for the Ts last night, and am holding them in place with (believe it or not) bamboo stakes--they're so darn handy! These are 6-footers; I drove them about 2 feet into the ground with a hammer, next to the tunnel. With the free-standing tunnel I wired the stakes together into a v-shape at the top, and with the one along the fence, I leaned the stake over and wired it to the fence. Anyway, I think it would look cool to have bright-colored streamers sticking out the tops of the stakes, fluttering in the breeze. Do they still have those bike handles with the vinyl streamers? The neighbors all think I'm nuts anyway. The puppy pen looks like a playbround, with the tunnels and dog walk and teeter and tire jump and wading pool. Well, it is a playground--a T playground!

Well, I want to take them out for a little while. I can put out the tire jump and put some fresh duct tape over the holes in the wading pool--maybe get one more season's use out of it. I've got some hostas I want to move, but I feel so off-balance with just one eye in focus that I'm afraid I'd chop off my toe or something. I suppose I could get out the rasp and sharpen up the spade for when I do have both eyes back. I'm going to have to much work to do next w eek; I'm not looking forward to it. I wanted to take some vacation, but this wasn't how I wanted to do it.