Bees Have Nothing on Me

I've been as busy as the proverbial honeymaker this week, and it shows no sign of letting up. For one thing, there are these socks:


Really quite delightful and the only thing that persuaded me to give them up to my husband is that I have yarn for two more pairs in colors I like even better.

Our weekend hike was another steamy experience, wherein we collected more data to support our theory that trails with names containing the words Bog, Marsh, Swamp, Creek or Stream will be inhabited by swarms of vicious bloodsucking insects. Despite the forecast for thundershowers, we didn't see any rain, but having umbrellas with us was useful anyway, as we could use them to beat off the clouds of mosquitos. (We were wearing repellent...it may be the only reason we got out alive.)

This week, I thought I'd get a start on using up some of the two giant skeins of gray yarn in the hat and mitten bag, so I cast on a hat. I had planned to do some colorwork to liven it up some. But I couldn't find the book with the Norwegian stitch patterns I was looking for, so I cracked open Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting, which I treated myself to at Christmas and have barely begun to read. I thought I was going to just adapt some of the patterns to two colors, but 5 colors later, I haven't used that much of the gray, but I sure am having a good time!

In house news, I'm halfway through the patch job on the wall that used to have oil pipes coming out of it. That would be the outside half. First I nailed flashing over the holes. (Which were exactly at deck level, and the access is quite small making it fiendishly difficult to get a good solid whack at the nails. I may have set a new record for hitting my thumb.) And then I cut a new piece of siding to go over the space. Of course the siding comes in 16 foot lengths, so what I'm going to do with the 14 feet 10 inches of remaining siding is kind of a conundrum.

What remains is the inside bit- re-insulating the ceiling and putting new drywall over the hole. Which is to say, standing on a ladder holding drywall up to the ceiling while screwing it in place. Such fun! I think I may have to go and learn some new curse words before I start. I have a premonition I may need them.