Well, that’s it. I can’t keep up with two (actually, more than two now) blogs at the same time. So, one of them has to go.

I’ll leave this up indefinitely, at least for the patterns. After next week, all comments will be closed; mostly to cut down on Teh Spam, but so I don’t have to keep checking back so often. If you’ve got any comments on patterns, knitting, spinning or life in general, please come over to Evil Mommy for a visit. Update your links if you’d like – I’m adding another category on my blogroll as well.

As I’ve written about before, August is our Official Birthday Month here at Chez Goth. There are, um, 13 or so at last count. So far, we’ve gotten through three of them. Four if you count today. M, my daughter’s other mom, turns 25 today. She had mentioned last December that she and her friends were dreading turning 25. I had to work really, really hard not to laugh out loud. “Yeah, I remember 25. I think…”

But anyway, we’re here to talk about fiber things. Right? Yes. Of course we are. So, then, here’s M’s Winter Solstice/Yule/Xmas present – all 2″ of it:

It’s the top 2″ of a pair of arrgyles (chart is in the left hand sidebar). M loves skulls, so I figured she’s like these. I must be insane, but I think I can have them finished and blocked before Winter Solstice. Did I mention I’m doing these in the round?

I also printed out a couple of patterns from the Lughnasadh edition of The Anticraft; Tepes and the Bat Shawl. And it may work out that I can take my mom’s sweater with me this weekend to present it in person – before her birthday. In that case, I’ll get her to model it for the blog.

About two weeks ago or so, there was a horrible fire not far from our house. In fact, the flames were so close we were about to get our daughter, pets and the Important Papers box and run to the nearest motel. You know, before the flames got to our house.

The whole thing was incredibly tragic, on a lot of levels. Three people died. The rest I really can’t share, as we didn’t know the residents very well at all. I’ve managed to avoid driving past the house until this afternoon.

It’s a little surreal, a bit like a bomb dropped on the place. There was a ton of gasoline, motor oil, racing fuel and various odd and assorted solvents there to keep the blaze going; I think it took about 45 minutes to put it out. It’s now surrounded by a big chain-link fence. There are some flowers and notes stuck inside (one of the people who died was the 20-year-old son of the house’s owner), and a growing stack of bins filled with clothing and household items for the owner.

Our daughter hasn’t really talked about it much. When it was happening, she slept through the whole thing. We didn’t really know the people there, so she hasn’t asked about them.

The only thing she’s been asking about, so far, is the family’s dog.

There have been posters up all over our area. Apparently he managed to get out during the fire, and hasn’t been seen since. We do know the dog; in the summer he pretty much runs about the neighborhood at will, at least until the fire. He had a red collar with a pink heart on it, and School Girl latched onto that.

School Girl dreamed last night that their dog had been found, without his collar. “Mommy, do you think that means he’ll come back?”
“I don’t know, baby. He might. It’s been a long time though, so I’m not sure.”
“I hope they find him.”
“Me too.”

Yep, my mom’s sweater is almost finished. Here’s a shot of it after its latest bath, before it’s completely blocked/smoothed out:

Not quite done, but almost

I really liked spinning the yarn for this. In retrospect, I probably could have planned the color changes better, but the yarn wound up being kind of pretty. Just hope she likes it…
Speaking of color, for some bizarre reason it looks blue (at least on my browser). It’s not. It’s a variegated gray.

In other things, school started last Friday. School Girl has had a good first two days, I think. She’s got some familiar faces from last year in there, including her best friend, so that’s helped quite a bit. Her teacher seems pretty good; I’m anxious to go over there for Parent Night on Thursday, when we’ll find out a little more.

I’ve also started…two more pairs of socks and, um, something else. Plus I’m sort of working on a new yarn, based on what’s left of the CVM cross fleece I’ve got left over from Mom’s sweater. It’ll involve dyeing, but it’s still nice enough to do a lot of that outside, so it shouldn’t be too painful.

Oh, and the Colorado “primaries” are today. Just because we aren’t voting for President right now doesn’t mean there aren’t people to vote for today. So get out there.

I should do a series of these…

• My Mom’s Sweater is finally finished, save for the weaving-in of ends and blocking. The good news? This year she’ll have a birthday present…
• I’m still slogging away on a crocheted D20 and my Serafina’s Shawl.
• I’ve just barely started (as in: now I have the yarn) a couple of new projects: a pair of Arr-gyles (is it stupid of me to attempt them in the round, and just keep the floats short?) and a chess set.

This is the official last day of our summer. School Girl goes back for 1/2 hour tomorrow morning and then a full day on Friday. I’ll have more by then. Maybe.