The Tour, the Tour...

Wow! Stage 15 was great! Vino sure "reached into his suitcase of courage" and "danced on his pedals" to get the stage win. What a great comeback from yesterday's disappointing ride.

Bob Roll has to have some of the best quotes on the Tour- he just used a great one-
"I don't remember the bible saying that Lazarus had schizophrenia!"
Where does Bob come up with such nuggets? He also said last week, upon seeing a neat display that was along the roadside-
"Wow- that is a lot of bikes on a giant crane. That..... is cool."

I will be missing the guys next week! How can it be so close to ending? Can we make them go around again? Or do it backwards? Please?

I do love that my man, the Chicken, Michael Rasmussen, still retains the maillot jaune! Woohoo!

Wisp continues. I'm not sure I'll be done by the time they roll into Paris, but I'm not after the Green Jersey, after all. Tomorrow is the last day in the mountains, and I plan on knitting as much as I can on that special day.

Till then-G

Just a quick note...

So I've done three and a half repeats of my TdF KAL project. I mostly have it memorized, but was blindsided by a dropped stitch last night- ugh! Still, progress was made, beers were consumed, the Tour has been obsessively viewed... all is well.

I hope to finish the project by the end of the Tour. No abandoning here! I felt awful for Michael Rodgers the other day- the bruises covering his chest were horrible. I can't believe he rode on with a dislocated shoulder! And poor Stuart O'Grady! Broken ribs and a punctured lung? Owwww!

I am happy that my favorite climber, Mikael Rasmussen, is the leader! Way to go for the Chicken!

I'm still thinking about my wine cozy idea- I just can't decide on a color for it, and if I want it felted or not. Decisions, decisions!

Till then- G

Ouch!

Well, the Tour was exciting today! My brother will be saddened to hear his favorite, Vinokourov, went down hard. The road rash on his backside? Owie! His teammate, Kloden, went down as well. A rough first climbing day on the Tour. Hopefully they will both be back tomorrow.

Progress to report on my TdF KAL project, Wisp! With a new needle purchase, and staying up way too late (I felt it this morning!), I completed one full repeat of the pattern. Only 15 more to go! At least at this rate, if I do one repeat a day, I WILL earn my King of the Mountains jersey! YeeHaw! I'm even considering yarn for my wine cozy. Do I stay good, and use something from stash, or do I celebrate the Tour and feeling of joie de vivre, and splurge on new yarn? Hmmm. My LYS has the perfect new yarn, that's red, white and blue (named "Old Glory"), but suitable for a French flag reference.... or I could find some yellow to honor the maillot jaune.... choices, choices!

We've had a break in our sweltery weather, and nothing beats having a cool breeze sweep through the house in July. The kids had a great picnic and park outing yesterday, and will get some outdoor time today as well.

Till then- G

Is this thing still here?

Yeah, so, the blogging thing? Not so easy to do. Doesn't help that it took me until now to figure out how to access the blog after the Google switchover. Yeah, lame. Anyway....

So I'm launching into it again. Kids are good, albeit trapped inside due to the heat. Sweet Man is great. Life is pretty good.

On the knitting front-
I've joined the Tour de France KAL. I'm attempting to capture the King of the Mountains Polka-Dot Jersey. Considering the Tour started on Saturday, and I have yet to knit a stitch... we'll see how it goes. My project for the KAL is Wisp from Knitty. Instead of Kidsilk Haze (I get itchy from mohair!), I'm using Alpaca With a Twist, Fino, in "Twilight". It's my first attempt at lace, so here's hoping I have some success. As for the Tour- the addiction has reared it's ugly head already. I watched the live coverage this morning, saw the replay already, and will most likely catch the expanded coverage tonight. Yeah, it's a sickness.

Other recent knitting-
I made four hats for the Dulaan Project. I used leftover yarn from the kids' winter hats (yep, finished those during the winter!), and yarn from a gift project from the holidays (felted tote bag for my soon to be SIL). They turned out pretty cute! Pictures should be forthcoming soon- my laptop died, and I haven't had a chance to load anything on the replacement yet. But at least I figured out how to post pics on the blog!

Well, now that I've started back on the blog, and have it mostly figured out... I have no excuse to not keep at it. I have so many projects in the works (little felted bags, a tank-top for Soph, more hats, my Wisp) that I need to track them so they don't languish in the UFO bags any longer. I have so many other crafty projects in the works as well- sewing doll blankets, totes, dresses for the girls... and I'm going to learn how to crochet (Sophie wants to learn)- so I have got to have some accountability!

Till then-G