I am trudging along here – still looking forward (rather desperately) to the day (28 days) from now when the Bike Rally is finished and things shift around here.  I am not even sure what I will do that day, though I’ve reached a phase of hopefulness where I start piling knitting projects up around the house so I can look at them as I walk by. I can only imagine that August 17th is a day that the Wild Knitting Rumpus will begin, assuming I am conscious.  Between now and then I’m trying to get all this done without completely compromising my sanity, family or what’s left of my relationships. (I have given up on the house, but have adopted AlisonH’s tip for floor cleaning from the comments on the last post, so things are better there.)  Last week some friends invited us up to their cottage, and my love for the Canadian wilds being what it is, I managed to find a way to get myself up there on short notice for three glorious days.  (Joe,  Megan and Elliot managed to stay up there longer, but I jumped on the train bright and early on Thursday for a series of Bike Rally Meetings that couldn’t be missed. You can only imagine the bitterness I felt leaving that kid behind in one of my favourite places.)

We spent the few days I was able to be there swimming,  trying to convince Elliot to  go in the lake (he was fine by the end, but resistance was initially high) and l tried to write to you, but I had to use nap time for Rally Business, and usually if he’s awake and we’re together, Elliot says “Gammy?” every 12 seconds, and I am helpless not to answer him.  I wanted to write and say that despite the state of my life (and improved status of the kitchen floor) I did finish my June Socks, and I had a good enough time knitting them that I’d happily start the pair over.

Pattern is Paragon Socks, Yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply in Cardamom.

They look fussier than they are to knit, which is something I like a lot in a pair of socks, and the pattern itself was memorizable – though not until the last repeat of the second sock, in my case, but if your head isn’t full of Bike Rally you might have more room for storing that.)

I’d tell you I loved the yarn too- but that should be obvious by now, since I think it’s turned up on the blog about three times in the last year or so.  Great stuff.

I’ve got the next pair of socks on the needles, but they’re just plain self-striping, because I see how things are this month and wanted to make it a little easier on myself.  (I can see now that this would have been a good month to investigate the perplexing world of hand knit ankle socks, but it’s too late now.) I finished the mini-pom-pom neck thing too, so I’ll get some pictures of that, and look! While I was walking around another pair of socks fell off the needles.

Yarn is Cozy Knitter’s “Celebrate the Night” (I think. I’ve misplaced the ball band again, which isn’t surprising since I can’t even remember when I started these, never mind anything else about them.)

Absolutely no pattern whatsoever, I just banged them out. Top down,  round and round, 2.25mm needles, 68 stitches, German short row heels over half the stitches, and my standard toe. (My standard toe probably isn’t yours because I’m opposed to the pointiness, we can talk about it another time.)

Into the long range planning box for them- it’s actually not looking too shabby in there, I remember the last time I did the Self-imposed-sock-of-the-month-club it was an easy Christmas, I was so far ahead. It’s a lovely thing to think about, since I’m so far behind on everything else right now.

Speaking of behind -let’s get some Karmic Balancing gifts done, because you all are amazing.  Team Knit is still inching towards their goals, and it’s you all we have to thank for it.  I  hope we’re going to make it. If you’re wondering what’s going on here read this:  and Team Knit this year is Me, Ken, Cameron and Pato. Please help us spread the word.

First, a wonderful gift from Tanja Luescher, she’s a designer who’s always one of the first in my inbox with an offer to help. We’ve never met, but I think she’s pretty great.)

Tanja is offering 10 ebooks (20 really, but we’ll do another 10 anther time) Kathryn, Sonja, Rita, Karen, Janis, Sarah, Susanna, Cara, Jessica, and Kelly can all choose between Stories of Inspiration, Selfstriping, Hubby needs Socks, The Cat Collection OR you these lucky knitters can create their own ebook of any 7 patterns.  Thanks all. (And I am going to buy the socks one. I think I found the perfect pair.)

Mary E Rose is another designer, and Mary’s written to say that she’d like to give away a free pattern to TEN knitters.  I spent some time with her portfolio, and Smocked Leaves and The White Queen’s Shawl are two I’m putting in my queue.

Good luck choosing to  Lesley E, Brooke S, Wendy N, Dari T, Amanda G, Christine E, Nancy S, Kathy F, Sam M, and Cathy W. There’s a lot of amazing patterns there.

Christina has these three beautiful skeins of Titus (in Coal) to give away.  (What a neat yarn, 50% Wensleydale, 20% BFL, and 30% alpaca – most of that from the UK.)

Those three beauties will be making their way to Lisa H. Lisa and Christina, thank you!

Terry’s got two skeins of Knitpicks Hawthorne Fingering in Burnside that she’d rather inexplicably like to give up. (Must be just that she’s nice.)

That’s more than 600m of amazing that will be making it’s way to Julie A.

But wait there’s more! Brooke’s got two skeins of Three Irish Girls Yarn ‘Adore’ sock yarn, in the ‘Everlasting Gobstopper’ colourway, making it’s way from her house to Josephine P’s. I hope it makes her happy.

Still on the sock yarn train, Linda H has two ever so pretty ones – Sweet Skein o-Mine, in the colourway St. Andrew’s Summer – headed to Cathy A. Thanks both!

That’s it for today, a whole whack of gifts done, and I’ve emailed the 27 lucky winners, and the generosity in my inbox overfloweth.  There’s much more to come.  For now, I’m off to look over about 7 spreadsheets that contain more details about a small moving city of cyclists than anyone could ever hope to memorize, and hope to drill enough parts of it into my head to get this thing off the ground. Oh. I also have to figure out the cutlery.  Who knew?