Roses and Yarn and Birthdays

Sunday morning we left the house to go for a very early ride and as we came out, I looked back at the house and saw the first rays of sunlight shining on our little front porch. See the Adirondack chair at the far left? That's where I usually take knitting/yarn pics and also where I sit outside to watch the sky at 0-dark thirty nearly every morning. The Big Black Dog (Kiwi) comes out with me so she can play fetch in the dark. (She's awfully good at finding her ball when it bounces weird and gets away from her.)

The Curmudgeon has taken such good care of the roses this summer. They are all blooming like mad right now.

I forgot to mention yesterday when I was talking about my internet 'friends' that a very exciting event occurred last week. I had been reading here, and the blog writer had a little contest. She invited readers to guess where she and her family were going on vacation, and her hints were: 1) they intended to go canoeing and 2) there weren't many yarn shops there. My first guesses were already taken, so I guessed my home state, Idaho. We have gorgeous lakes and rivers for canoeing (but we're famous for our white water river stretches) and there aren't many yarn shops in Idaho. Nobody guessed the correct state, but the blog writer had her children pick names out of a hat and mine was one of two names picked. She had promised a 'knitterly' prizes and I don't know what I expected (maybe a tape measure?...knitters seem to be unable to find tape measures when needed), but the prize that came in the mail just blew me away! Two lovely skeins of "Sock it to Me!" yarn and home-made stitch markers made by my blogger friend herself! The yarn is gorgeous...Variegated with watermelon pink, fuschia, purple, orange-pink and a little sky blue for good measure.

I couldn't help myself...I immediately cast on for Wendy's toe-up feather and fan socks. Which meant that I had to do a provisional cast on. I've done that kind of a cast on a few times in the past, but still feel anxiety about it. After a couple of false starts it went smoothly and the toe is done plus a wee bit of the foot. I'm using U.S. size 1 needles. I usually use size 2 needles for socks, and I've noticed that the #1's are harder on my hands. Oh well. Live and learn, right?

Today is The Bean's ninth birthday. How can she be nine already? She is a fledgling knitter... We use this little rhyme for knit stitches:

"In through the front door, run around the back. Peek through the window & out jumps Jack."

Does anyone know a rhyme for purl stitches?