The Crafty Lizzard

It seems like the Blog-o-sphere and I have not been getting along lately. Maybe it's summer telling me that there are better things than putting your thoughts down for the world to see. (Or perhaps my thoughts just want to turn off when I get home.) Maybe it's the lack of really exciting thoughts...wait...that's not it. (What it would be like to look into the crazy randomness that is my brain!) At any rate, it seems like I'm always doing a catch-up post! Argh! This summer I have averaged 1 post per month! 1! Wow! So far it seems like the summer has been taken up with work (ugh), working outside [ ;) ], and enjoying lots of family and friends (yay!).

Some of the wonderfulness of the summer has been the al fresco knit knites! Sitting outside, watching 3 very energetic kids play, knit, and converse with a bunch of great ladies has made this summer so fun! The teasing, book gossiping, yarn fondling and just all round good times is more than any girl can ask from friends.

On that creative front, I finally am getting to my Diminishing Rib sweater! I'm so ready for this sweater to be done. Not because my tired of knitting it but because I want to wear it and am hoping that it fits and is comfy. I'm making this out of organic cotton and as I work with it, it keeps getting softer and softer. The goal is to have it done in time for the family Clambake. (That's 12 more days -- good thing I only have 1 more sleeve to go!)

And of course, I am never without a sock going so here's the most recent one of those --
These are being called my Lizzard socks. Between the color and the pattern I chose it reminds of lizard skin.

Ok, I will try to get to posting more than once a week. For now, I'm off to go practice (I'm the bonfire entertainment at the Clambake) and start the second sleeve.

Ok, so it's been a while since I've posted. I've actually thought about it recently -- just haven't actually sat down to do it. So here I go:

#1 happy event -- Not your typical high school reunion

Instead of having one class get together for a reunion, we had a band reunion. We even managed to have all three band directors there. For anyone that was involved in high school band you know the friendships that are built during the mega amounts of time spent together. This was an entire day of reminiscing, smiles, sights, smells and laughter. It was also an afternoon that was too short.

#2 happy event -- The garden coming alive.

I come by my green thumb honestly and have loved talking with my dad about the garden. It's been so amazing this year to watch the stuff I planted last year grow exponentially! The flowers are exploding into bloom, the vegetables are slowly appearing, the mint is aggressively taking over, the sage has a lovely fragrance, and the comfrey is slowly turning the waste pile into compost. Every afternoon there is a feast as all the bees come to collect. The other afternoon had an added surprise when I looked out saw this butterfly (or moth....not too up on my insects)!

#3 happy event -- 4th of July

This has turned into the traditional photo taken on a very traditional picnic day. Ever since my parents moved to a house on the parade route the Troyer and Willis clans have worked, watched and feasted at the Troyer house for the 4th of July. (This year marked [we think] the 20th year!!) We have added other clans and friends throughout the years but the party remains the same. After getting our ears blasted by the quarter mile line-up of fire trucks we head to the back yard for some wonderful grillin' and food with some fun thrown in after -- messy sandboxes, lots of kickball, some monkey-in-the-middle, some swinging and lots of laughter!


And because through all this I have not been neglecting my knitting:
This is almost finished and this is the first picture I've taken of it. So sorry. But here it is in all it's soft glory. Soon it will be headed to the intended target. Hope she enjoys it!

So far this has been an awesome birthday weekend! (Well, technically my birthday's not til Sunday but...)
It all started with the awesome ladies that I knit with on Thursday nights. Some were missing because of the all-important Knitter's Connection (stay tuned...) but it was a lovely night. We had a few extra party members (S, L and E) and boy, did they party hard. I know it was very hard for her but kudos to E for keeping this...
a secret! All enjoyed and now I have WAY TOO MUCH cake at home. If I could virtually send some to everyone I would. Really. But thank you thank you anyway.

Much delight and laughter was had over the CPH FO (thanks to K and her FB status) even though it's 100% wool and it was about 85 degrees outside! K had the camera out and was documenting the entire shindig so here ya go...this might be the only time you see me in a wool sweater in the summer.


Today was the wonderful, wonderful class at Knitter's Connection with Cat Bordhi! It was such a fun day with lots of knowledge, lots of laughter, seeing new socks, and praising Jeni's Ice Cream! How can that ever equal anything but a very cool day? Oh, I forgot, a wonderful goodie bag full of yummy goodness and shopping!!Even Bailey had to check it out!

I also have something to admit to the knit knite ladies...after all the talk last night about not doing another lace project...I bought more lace yarn today. (She hangs her head sheepishly.) You have to admit it's pretty. It's hand-dyed merino and was worth the money. I promise to bring for closer inspection. Now just to figure out what to make with it...

I know it's a weird combination but with the lack of knitted FO's to share I thought I would least share a little cuteness.

I had an attack of the must-get-this-sweater-finished energy this past weekend. After the small setback with my Central Park Hoodie (Not blogged about here because I was still mad at myself and hated admitting my own stupidity!) I desperately wanted to get the thing finished. So this weekend I managed to finish the second sleeve (again!), block the second sleeve (again!), finish the edging, and sew in the fist sleeve and side. The plan is to sew in the seond sleeve and side tonight -- pics will follow shortly.
Anyway, while I was working on that I had a gaurdian making sure that my yarn made it from the ball to the sweater correctly. I thought I'd share the fluffy cuteness that watched over me...


As far as the fruit...summertime is one of my favorite times of the year because of the berries. I love fruit and berries most of all. Strawberries, raspberries, cherries, but especially blackberries. Last spring I planted a blackberry bush in my backyard and over the course of the summer reaped a total of 7 (that's right - 7) blackberries. Bummer. This year the bush has been growing exponentially and I've been checking it all the time. Waiting for the day when I can have fresh berries. After a very long day yesterday I came home to a surprise of blackberries ready to eat! So I had a nice small cup of blackberries for dessert!
(with more to come....yum!)

during Choir class of my 8th grade year, I was summoned to the Principal's office. I guess I must precede this story by saying I wasn't the type of kid to get called down to the office. My brain shorted out until my dear friend turned to me with great excitement and said "It's the baby!" This being my best friend (who's part of the family), she knew that my brother's wife was pregnant. I got to the office and there was my dad with my 2 year old niece. To make a very complicated story short -- My niece, Amy decided very quickly to make her appearance in the world. No one was left to watch her sister so I was called into Aunt duties from school.

Tonight, that niece looked like this....
Amy has made it through high school. Loving band, hating math, laughing with friends. All the trials and tribulations that make up the drama of high school. And yes, she will learn to deal with some of us saying, "Oooh, the day you were born..." (and to us it will feel like it was just maybe 5 years ago.)

Sitting up in the balcony, paparazzi-like were her sister (Cora-now 21) and I. With cameras poised we were set to catch the action in the beautiful venue.
This is the beautiful Civic theater in downtown Akron. An old remade movie house. Awesome. As I walked in tonight, memories kept flowing. I realized that I had not been to this theater since my prom was held here 14 years ago. They've made some changes and it's nice to see it's still wonderous.


May the good frenzy that surrounds you in this picture stay with you. Congrats!

So today on my little mini-vacation, my mom and I took a trip to the local yarn shop her are of northeast Ohio. Yes, we visited Miss Chickpea's Funky Fiber. Personally, I was on a mission to pick up some Malabrigo Sock -- and to see the store because a new yarn shop is always heaven! While I was searching the sock yarn rack, mom found a vest pattern that she wants to make for my niece. She asked me how they got the color like it was on there and as I looked up...I whooped in excitement. Mom was standing in front of the many, many colors of Noro. It has been a long time since my mom has knit with any really good yarn and I was bound and determined she needed to experience the love of Noro. After showing her how the colors go and that the particular Noro she was looking at was a worsted weight (so therefore, easy for her to knit with) and she really didn't need that much for the project she jumped in. Pretty soon my mom will not only have a vest for my niece but one for herself as well! Yay!

As for me, I did find the Malabrigo and couldn't resist 2 of the colors there....Grape and Turner.
I will have to come up with the perfect patterns for these.


I also picked up a hank of Happy Feet in a bright, bright pink.

So now, after today's field trip and Kristie's generous de-stashing Thursday, I am not allowed...repeat, not allowed....to buy yarn for a while. (read: major yarn diet for the next few months. I was supposed to be on one anyway.)

Well, I'm off to bed for tomorrow is my niece's high school graduation...I know that it's cliche but wow... time has flown. She is 18 and no longer the little girl that said "double-me" instead of "double-u (w)". Now she's a very beautiful young woman with so much road to wander.

So, in the past few days I have actually gotten a lot (a lot, alot) done. Or at least it feels that way. Many projects are coming along very nicely....others are just hanging out (like the dusting and vacuuming. Maybe I can say that I'm contributing to the population of dustus bunnius.). But here we go:

First of all, there was a minor tragedy in the garden this weekend. Saturday I came home from work and one of my tomato plants (that were ordered special to get certain varieties) looked like it had been trampled flat by what I could only assume was the mailman. Ooh...the mailman was not in my good graces at that point. On closer inspection, I noticed that there was another tomato plant down and they had definitely been chewed on!! It could only have been Bunnies! (I don't think the mailman would've done that.) They were fine when I left for work that morning....Argh. While checking out the tomato plants I noticed that the ground was disturbed around where I had planted bean seeds. Oh no, someone got to those too-- but no, after my initial freak I noticed that underneath the ground were green things coming. The pic is from the next morning and now the beans are up about 3 inches! And now that the tomato plants have also been replaced, steps have been taken to prevent the bunnies from feasting again!

I was able to get a little experimenting done with the alpaca this weekend. The very first stuff I did was not pretty. Not at all. It varied in width from a huge thick bundle to little teeny cord. After working for a few hours though I'm seeming to work out a routine to get it a little smooth. At least it's starting to closely resemble yarn, sorta.


Also, amongst the yard work and the bbqing I managed to finish my Bellatrix socks.
The "runs" look a little like bobbles but it's a very cool effect. The yarn worked really well with the pattern and I love the way it kinda pools in the "runs". Now on to the next pair....