Weekend

On Sat'y we installed a hitch on my car so I may tow the boat - it was supposed to take 30 minutes, but instead took 10 hours and 30 minutes, because they sent the wrong bolts with it.

But now I can install a hitch on a car!

We (rather, the Physicist) played with the trailer winch that had rusted - I hadn't realized the importance of this. Apparently, as it was, if I went up a hill, the boat could have slid off the trailer and the winch would not have stopped it.

Whoops.

But we're that much closer to launching the boat - the goal is Labor Day weekend...

On Sun'y, I had the unique experience of teaching my parents to use their new computer.
Neither have used one before.
It's amazing how vast and subtle the skills required to use a computer are - from manipulating the mouse to intuitively understanding how to navigate a web page to the vocabulary: email, Gmail, scroll down, click, cursor, etc...
Today's xkcd was terribly topical to this issue.
We went through the process of powering it on and off no less than 6 times - and I am proud to boast that I got an email this morning, which meant they remembered how to do it.

My little birds have learned to fly!!! *sniff*

Issuing a challenge

If you create a roadblock, be prepared to provide a detour.

That means you Cleveland Department of Public Services, Street Engineering Division.

Each day I see a new sign decreasing the already meager street parking options in Tremont.

Should I be totally naive and assume you're about to unveil a new residents-only, parking by permit, well-lit lot in the neighborhood?

If I lived in a cartoon world

I think they both have their charms...

Cotton and paper and (of course) yarn, too.

I've been having a gloriously fun summer: rowboats and gardens and swimming and meteor showers and lying idle in the grass.

I saw a good friend last weekend and she had a project: origami. I've not done much of that before (and neither had she) so we figured it out together and made a mobile of dotty cranes in lovely colors.

I discovered that it was a gateway to a new feverish obsession with polyhedra and other vaguely mathematical objects that are truly pleasing to behold.

I recalled this pattern in Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Projects and got to work. True to it's place in the book, it took about 4 hours.

I used fabric scraps appropriate for a charming lad about to turn 1: a men's shirt, some butterfly fabric and the wee monkeys I wish I had more of.



I shan't bore you with the details of making it other than Hulu now has episodes of "My So-Called Life" and they make a very good background for pinning and stuffing...


Pin and stuff and stuff and pin...



Ta-Da!!!







BONUS~

I finished a hat I made for my father. I scored a 1/2 price ball of alpaca/merino/silk in blues and greys. Perfect for a maritime watchcap and easy-peasy.

And now, for some yummy yarn...

A washable wool natty nautical sweater for the wee man.



A delicious (but slightly bank-breaking) silk merino blend from Cherry Tree Hill - it was a purely speculative and emotional purchase. Those colors are divine... I have no idea what this will become...



Some Noro Silk Garden bought on Etsy as DESTASH... highway robbery, I tell you. Queued to become the ubiquitous Clapotis.



Have you met my swift? (I forget).
I love my swift beyond measure.



Lastly, some Malibrigo sock yarn destined to become...??? (Suggestions appreciated)