• Ford is declaring one of its worst quarters ever.
• America is already so laden with cars that vehicles now outnumber licensed drivers. (And I read somewhere that if they were all to hit the road at the same time, they wouldn't all fit on the roads). (Seriously.)

And at the same time,

• We have some of the cheapest postage in the world.
(Which means we can get bombarded with 41 POUNDS of junk mail each year, none of which we want, but which gets sent out at the expense of trees and fossil fuels and ... don't get me started. Do something about it here.)
• The Postal Service just upped postage by A PENNY. A flippin' PENNY. We're all scrambling to the Post Office to get those ONE PENNY stamps, or another roll of 42-cent-ers … cumulatively, the worker time it's taken is not inconsiderable. Really.
• Postal Service delivery vehicles drive the same route, day after day, around town – how much mileage do you think they run in a day? Can't be more than 100 miles, don'tcha think? And mostly on town roads, with speed limits of 25-35 mph.

Can you see where I'm going here?

Can you imagine the PR coup Ford would reap if it got on the stick and could announce in a few months that it's working with the Postal Service to phase in PLUG-IN ELECTRIC MAIL DELIVERY VEHICLES to replace their fleet of gas-using trucks? (Just found the statistic: the Postal Service operates a fleet of 212,000 vans and trucks, including big semis, to be sure but...)

Henry would be proud, I think.
Pardon me while I send them a memo.

Pattern:  Elizabeth Zimmermann's "Fair Isle Yoke Sweater," Woolgathering leaflet #1 (reprinted in The Opinionated Knitter and a few other places)
Yarn: Jamieson Shetland Double Knitting "Dark Navy" (16? skeins) as MC,
with "Ginger," "Cherry," "Nighthawk," and "Rosemary" CCs (1 skein each)
Needles: 3mm/US 2-1/2, Suzanne's rosewoods in 32" circular

Sleeves? Who needs sleeves with this much pretty?*
I must say I was dubious about the back neck short-rowing she has you do, which means that the ribbing in the back neck is deeper than the front. Thought it would look hokey, but it does make this sweater (which will remain a pullover) sit quite nicely on the body.

* No, of course there will be sleeves! I pulled a total bonehead maneuver when I started – and simply assumed that there would be more Dark Navy Jamieson DK ON THIS CONTINENT that I could get my hands on with some speed. But no, I need to wait til it comes off the boat in few weeks or months. Sigh.

And now that the body's done, and I had such a lovely weekend working on the yoke (yes, it knit up in a weekend! during a weekend-long birthday tiki bash! with wine and gin!)...

Here comes Number 2!

• we have a wild, loud, girls' lunch at a local eatery celebrating our friend MB, she of the Best Rack Soon to Be East of the Rockies, and also my launch into summer (away from weekly Circles at Churchmouse, alas)...

and

• I have a great cell phone conversation with BG, she of the Best Rebirth in Her Forties Ever...

and I realize:
I have both of these (all of these, if you count all the gals around the wild lunch table today) girlfriends because of?
Knitting.

Chalk that up to the power of knitting - to create bonds of friendship that really do transcend time and place.
BG has been here, then gone to other parts – further south and more Red than here – only to relocate to a great place. And thanks to BG, there's threadingwater, and and and...

MB is off to another adventure, but I didn't bust out into tears today because I know that she'll be back, in part to check on her 'baby' in college, but also to check in at Churchmouse and pick up more projects... and to have a girls' night with me and KarenJo and Mickey and all those other great knitting buddies.

So as I celebrate the coming of summer, and my version of summer vacation (which somehow, weirdly, includes mileage and roadwork and fartleks?), I'm grateful for the power of knitting to hold us all together, even as we swirl apart to enjoy our own separate stuff.

Thanks, crew.
See you soon.
 

Have no fear - the knitting content and the goofy running commentary will resume asap.

And just this very moment? It's 9:30 am, and beautifully sunny, which means it's getting warmer out there by the second and I really really don't like running when it's hot.
And I knew that when I sit down at the computer to check e-mail and read blogs, that's one step in a direction away from running this morning... and this afternoon it'll just be hotter.

So here I go.
See you out there.
(p.s. We're up to 60 minutes and about 5 miles now!)

Found out on Friday that our home phone line had been D-E-D dead for a few days...
and discovered it just in time to NOT be able to call the phone company during office hours.

In the meantime, our wi-fi had been acting up: I'd be able to surf one, maybe two pages, and then WHAM -- "page will not load." I wouldn't be able to send e-mails at all; I'd save drafts in my outbox, and then suddenly, okay... one would go through.... and then nothing.

So today Boyhood got his jiggy on and did a hard boot of the Airport hub and caused it to reconfigure itself (or something), and •poof• we're surfing with gas again...

Except now, my cordless mouse isn't working.

Oh, and the phone line is still down.

The peace and quiet is welcome... lets a girl get some knitting done!
Snaps tomorrow, I promise.

Go forth and knit amongst the uninitiated.
Knit in visible places: the bus, the bar, the game, the park, the opera, the restaurant…
Show those non-knitters that we can knit and pay attention at the same time!

We've got an easy in this year: we're knitting amongst a 'public' of other knitters here at the Acorn Street Retreat.
Roommate Kath and I have called it "Knitting Camp" for years–
it really is like a grown-up version of camp.

(Well, with more liquor, but hey.)

And what does a girl pack to knit at camp? Well... 

One of my goals this summer is to finish my Olympic Knitting project - the one I cast on during the Winter Olympics back in... oh ... 2006? – before the torch is extinguished in the Summer Olympics of 2008.

Pattern: "St. Brigid," by Alice Starmore, from her book Aran Knitting.
Yarn: Jamieson's Shetland Heather, color #998 ("Hairst")
Needles: US 4 (3.5mm) Suzanne's Ebony 24" circulars.

I've had the back and the front and the braided collar finished for quite a while now. There was a speed bump that held up the knitting a year back when I realized that I'd be much happier with the thing longer rather than shorter (it's an oversized beast, so having it cropped was not going to flatter). So I manfully ripped out the front neckline shaping (a bear to do in the first place, what with all the cabled patterns going on), add another repeat to both front and back, and re-knit the front neckline. Phew.

That was so exhausting, I had to go have a little lie-down for about 7 months or so.

Then last fall, when I came up here to Sleeping Lady with the Sisterhood of the Traveling Needles, I started the first sleeve – thanks to the encouragement of M., who will also be my partner in crime on the Vogue Knitting Tour in Canada this fall. Knit a few rows (like, 5), and put it down again.

So I set myself the assignment of working on it every morning while I'm here, just to see if I can get my mojo back with it. And see? 2 repeats out of the 5 I need for the sleeve: finished before lunch on the first day!

But St. Brigid (patron saint of milkmaids, btw) is a stern taskmistress: one wrong move and you've zigged a cable where you should have zagged. Come the afternoon, when you might want to relax and take a load off with the girls, she's a little tougher to work on. So...

Enter the A.F.P.: Afternoon-Friendly Project.*
What makes for a good AFP? Anything you consider mindless: stockinette, of course; anything that only involves a periodic engagement of the brain cells. And this project BEGGED to come along to Camp (even though I had no excuse to start it; I have other deadlines, and this is for me, and from someone else's pattern and my sakes, isn't it pretty and just in time for summer and I'm driving so I have room to bring it...):

Pattern: "No Purling Allowed," from LanaKnits/Hemp for Knitting.
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold "Hempathy," in 2 colors: 09 and 10 (a Dijon-mustardy-yellow, and a bluey-lavender)
Needles: US 2.5 (3.0mm) Suzanne's Rosewood 32" circulars (DPNs for the sleeve); and US 2 (2.75mm) for the edging.

Even I can change colors every 4 rounds, thankyouverymuch. (Sometimes I do forget to slip the first stitch of the 2nd round of a color stripe to avoid the color jog in stripes, but hey - no one's perfect, right?)

It was a sleevy sort of day yesterday. Brigid's sleeve marches on, but this afternoon will bring lots of circular knitting on 288 stitches for the body of the AFP.

Happy KIP day, everyone! Enjoy the smiles and nods of recognition you get from lurking knitters, and understanding non-knitters, everywhere.

* It should suprise no one that A.F.P. can also mean Alcohol-Friendly Project. There's nothing worse than getting in over your head with a complicated project at the pub. Hell, I've found myself frogging sock heels over that second beer.
 

A big thank you to those of you who braved the all-weekend all-top-down extravaganza at Suzanne's house from Madrona Fiber Arts. All I know is, I had a fabulous time and thoroughly enjoyed myself, and the venue, and the great food – I hope you all did, too.

I managed to develop a pretty severe case of camnesia during the weekend, but I caught the quiet before the storm on Saturday morning:

And then there was a work week, and some busy, happy knitting circles at Churchmouse, and then
HEY
PRESTO
EUREKA
and LO,

it's time for the Acorn Street Annual Knitting Retreat at Sleeping Lady Mountain Retreat outside Leavenworth, WA.
Nestled in the eastern slopes of the fantastic Cascade mountains, a whole climate away from our Wet Coast...
Kath and I left Bainbridge under glowering skies and 50 degrees, and emerged, blinking, a few hours later, into mid-eighties and sun sun sun.

Aaaaah.

And now, off to knit.
Who's going to guess how many projects I brought along for this 4-day orgy of sitting and knitting?
Extra credit to those who can guess what I bought at Acorn Street itself on the way over.
(Hey- I was on a legitimate mission! Delivering patterns! Under the auspice of actual, like, business n' sh*t! Honest! I don't know how those 2 skeins of Kauni jumped into my Swift bag, officer! Really? Oh - that hat pattern? That's nothing. Nope, not related at all. I'm just holding it for a friend.)

Too bad I'm not up for calling that good, and stopping at that point.
(Hell, I will have run a marathon...! Just not all at once.)
(That being the point, I guess.)

At this rate, the goal is simply to survive the marathon.
But in the back of my mind, I am also thinking: "I wonder if I can finish in 5 hours?"

...

This is the same mind, remember, that thought I could knit St. Brigid by Alice Starmore...
during the Knitting Olympics.

Pardon me while I go knit some stockinette now. 

Thanks for letting me be a part of your life.

I look so forward to seeing what you're going to make of the next few years.

And when you and Mr. Van-Van get to buy that house you're dreaming of?
There's a big bottle of champagne in it for you.

We love you-
K and Dad