We've had a busy but amazingly fun weekend. My cousin P, his wife Desiree and their son N visited for the weekend.

V and N spent a lot of time together. This was documentation of the use of a purple back rubbing thing-y and a wrestling match with Mr. Tough Guy.

Dee and I have turned out to be great friends AND she is my uber favorite knitting buddy. While the boys golfed, BigC took N to the zoo, D and I dyed 10 skeins of yarn.

Three crock pot dyed with Kool Aid.

  Re-skeining for self striping socks.

Three crock pot method, 1 salsa bowl method, three ice cube method (2 were over-dyed).

 Self striping: black, teal, violet, yellow & white.

Self Striping: violet, yellow, teal, rose.

We had cake to celebrate D's Birthday.

And had some serious snuggle time with the NoNo Bear.

They are leaving tomorrow morning and my heart aches already.

Happy Knitting!

Melissa

Wow. Back from a week away and we dive head first back into the Mach 2 speed of our lives. Sheesh!

We are relaxing at home today, recovering from a huge family wedding yesterday. Congrats and much love to K & D!

A couple of moments documented over the course of the week:

This snappy dude walked right down the sidewalk late Saturday afternoon. He stopped long enough for some pix, looked right at me as i lipped off to him, then made a quick exit into the lake.

We had our first of two fish fries on Sunday night. Mmmm...

 The first of two completed projects on Tuesday. A Summer Flies shawl out of my own crock pot dyed colorway which I call Painters Pants. I will post blocked photos soon. I need to order some blocking wires.

 Always a comfort to knit by the lake in your own hand knit socks! These are South Fork Socks I made with a Madelinetosh 1-ply.

A little light reading was also on my to-do list.

 Also on LittleC's....

 We monitored daily a pile of millings we think was being accumulated by carpenter ants in the walls of the cabin.

Sometimes fishing is a lot of work and naps happen in the most unusual of positions. Even while wearing rain gear with a Turtle Race hat on your belly.

I finished a second project that I cannot post as it is a gift for a special someone.

New on my the needles are a Little Shells shawl in another hand dyed colorway called Cotton Candy, and an Azzu's Shawl in Grape Popcicle. More pics to come!

Our third day on vacation. I now come to realize I forgot the card reader I need in order to post photos from our vacation. So those of you waiting with baited breath will have to wait until Saturday/Sunday for them to appear.

Our days are filled with fishing, chatting by the fire, swimming, etc. My little extras are reading, knitting, and blogging. (Well, blogging without photos.)  I have completed my version of Holly & Ella's Summer Flies, and finished a book, Sheepish, by Catherine Friende.

I found both to be quite satisfying. The book was hilarious, and the shawl a happy, quick knit. I recommend the both!


I will leave you with some pics from last year's trip.

Later! M.

 No matter how tired he is, V must fish the instant we are settled into the cabin. The day I too this pic, the heat index was hovering around 105, and the deer flies were ravenous.

 A few days later this unhappy creature thought it was a good idea to hang out by the resort's swim dock. Mr. Snappy was promptly "relocated".

 Sometimes a growing young man just needs a nap. The bottle on the forehead trick was just a bonus.

T just about peed his pants when this dragon fly landed in his hands. He made replica fly fishing lures with my pictures and has fished with them several days already this week.

We are packing up for a week with friends in Northern MN. I am feeling melancholy this morning because once again BigC will not be going with us. She loves to fish, hang out, sit by the fire, and just BE. That's our favorite part of vacation. She will, for the fourth year in a row be with her volleyball team mates at camp. We will miss her, but hoping she will show her colors at camp. She is turning out to be quite a leader of this gaggle of teenage girls, and we are so very proud of her. Yo te amo mucho chica!

Looking forward to along week at PRR away from reality, sharing family time with great friends. I'm bringing plenty of my own hand dyed yarn, books, and liquor to keep me busy all week! Pictures to come!