Random Blathering

I've been up to all sorts of stuff the past few days.  This post will be long, and there will be randomness here, and there will not be segways between topics.  I'm warning you.  Go with it.  It's how I spend my summer days, sort of wandering from thing to thing to thing.

I finished the Aquaphobia socks.  My Wool Person and hair stylist Anyssa set a deadline of last Friday, and I achieved it.

Fait accompli.  Unblocked, because I have been a bit lazy in that department.

I also got my hair cut and colored on Friday morning.  Finally.  I was a month overdue.  Anyssa didn't cut off too much, so that I can still pull it back this summer.

I need to have Anyssa set deadlines for me more often.  And I need to get my hair cut more often, too.

Ravelympics begins in a little over a month.  I am the captain for Team Michigan once again.  I've been sending out lots of updates on that front and trying to get the team fired up.  It's been crickets chirping over there.

I think I might knit a Paravel for my project.  I keep changing my mind all the time, though, so don't hold me to that.  I love two things about this pattern: 1) it's simple but not boring and 2) it's named after a setting from The Chronicles of Narnia.  Lord knows I love a good literary reference. 

This is the yarn I am using.

It is dyed by another one of my Wool People, Julie, right here in Michigan.  So it's perfect for a Team Michigan Ravelympics project.

Speaking of indie dyers (oops, an inadvertent segway), the theme of this year's Summer of Socks is indie dyers and indie designers.  I like it.  To get started, I am resurrecting the Mint Chocolate Chip socks that I started last summer.  Remember these?

The brown yarn is Cascade Heritage.  So not indie.  But the minty green yarn is Three Irish Girls (aka Really Awesome Indie Dyer) Adorn Sock.  It's a club colorway called "Katharine Hepburn."

Today is the summer solstice.  According to the Summer of Socks group, the official start date is tomorrow.  That annoys me a bit.  Tomorrow is not the solstice.  Here in Lansing, today there will be 15 hours, 19 minutes, and 42 seconds of daylight.  Tomorrow, there will be 15 hours, 19 minutes, and 41 seconds of daylight.  That one second makes today the solstice.  So today is the beginning of summer.

I sure as hell am not messing with Mother Nature and waiting to resurrect that sock until tomorrow.  I am digging it out of the WIP box right now.

Here's why I'm not messing with Mother Nature: it is hot.  Too damn hot for this time of year.  Maelie is cooped up inside more than usual, and she is bored.  We need to add a splash pad to the Soldan Dog Park over at Hawk Hollow.  I would pay money to take her there.

So I'm not messing with Mother Nature because she is already cranky.  I was supposed to go to The Lake on Monday, and she sent a storm through that knocked the power out at the cottage, and I didn't get to go.

And now back to the Ravelympics.  The United States Olympic Committee has sent a nastygram to the powers-that-be at Ravelry to say that "Ravelympics" is a trademark infringement and to warn Ravelry to cease and desist calling our event "Ravelympics."  See, the USOC has trademarked the word "Olympics."  I think some long-dead Greeks are probably rolling over in their graves right now.  Anyway, no matter what ends up happening regarding this legal kerfuffle, I am going to still watch the Olympics because I have Wieber fever!  But if we can't call it the Ravelympics anymore, I promise you I will be calling it, "The Games formerly known as the Ravelympics."

End random blathering.  Have a good solstice everyone, and stay cool!