Cape Cod. 2 more weeks. Ahhh.

Have a great weekend!

The question on That’s My Answer yesterday was “What is your popular blog post?” I assume they mean “what is your most popular blog post” and it got me kind of curious – so I looked it up.

And it was this Noro Silk Garden post. I have no idea why that post was visited more than any other, but there it is.

That statistic made me curious about other statistics so I kept looking and here’s what I found:

• My most popular referrer is still the old caroleknits.knitblog.com site. I don’t know why people haven’t updated their books marks with this site and still go to that one to be sent here. Weird.
• My most popular search time is “carole knits” and that makes sense. But then there are other very strange search terms like “dining room hutch” and “dunkin donuts uniform” and “vine tattoos”. Very interesting, the ways that people find my blog.
• I have an average of 484 visitors per day and have had 314, 220 visits to the blog since Oct 2008 when I switched to this host. My busiest day ever was Tuesday, March 2, 2010, with 1413 views that day.
• Finally, I have received 41, 296 comments. And I’m pretty sure I have answered every single one. That, my friends, is a LOT of emails.

This examination of my blog stats was definitely informative although I’m not sure what any of it really means. Take a look at your blog stats and see if you find out something new about your blog!

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go put on a dunkin donuts uniform and stare at my dining room hutch for a while.

I finished my second pair of socks for the Summer of Socks ’10.

The pattern is no surprise.

The yarn is Farmhouse Yarns Fannie’s Fingering in the color “Berries and Caramel.”

I think they are awesome! The colors are beautiful and different from anything else in my sock drawer.

And that’s where these will be – hopefully for a good long time – because I am loving summer right now.

Sometimes I watch too much TV. Now granted, it’s very rare that I’m just watching TV as I’m usually also knitting or spinning or flipping through a magazine. But still. It’s a lot of TV at times. And I bet those of you with kids at home for the summer are getting tired of the TV being on all day.  I’m hoping we will all be inspired by this week’s topic: 10 Things to Do Instead of Watching TV.

1. Knit something complicated. Sock knitting is perfect for watching TV but shawl knitting or a complex cabled sweater pattern or some color work would be entertaining enough without the TV on as background noise.
2. Read a book. Duh.
3. Go outside and water the plants. Or pull some weeds. Or sit on the deck. Just go outside!
4. Go for a bike ride. Dale just got a snazzy new bike (pictures coming soon) and he’s chomping at the bit for me to ride with him.
5. Bake. Sure, it’s hot this time of year but some home baked goodies would be a welcome treat. And it takes less than an hour to whip up a batch of chocolate chip cookies.
6. Play a game. We always do this on vacation but we should really do it more at home, too. Cards, Apples to Apples, Catch Phrase are just some of our favorites.
7. Grab your camera and take some photos. You never know what will inspire you once you have the camera in your hand.
8. Go to the library. This goes hand in hand with #2 but there may be things going on at your library like lectures and book clubs and special events. Take advantage of this stuff because it’s free!
9. Write. It can be a diary entry or a blog post or a letter or a list but whatever it is, writing is good for your brain.
10. Participate in an adult activity with your partner. Yeah, that one. Doing it yourself is way better than watching other people do it on TV.

So let’s turn off those TVs and have some fun!

I alluded to it on Tuesday and we did indeed go camping this weekend. And you know what? It was fun but it wasn’t great fun. Part of the problem was the weather – it rained every day. Part of the problem was equipment – our tent leaked. And part of the problem was our age – I think we’re too old to sleep on the ground.

I did manage to do some knitting and spent some time on the beach. And I took lots of photos of the sunflowers I picked up again this week as part of our CSA share.

Next time we have a weekend with no plans, though, I think I’ll suggest a seaside hotel instead of a pondside campground.

Our summer has been so dry that I was worried that my tall phlox wouldn’t bloom. I’m so glad I was wrong! I love that the buds look like satellites.

Have a great weekend!

I know that typically we do Random Wednesdays but I’m being totally random and posting it on a Thursday instead. I am embracing the randomness, people.

• Thank you all so much for the compliments on the Lady Bertram Shawl. I took those pictures in about 5 minutes and I’m so glad they came out so well. I got lucky with the setting, that’s for sure.
• Ten on Tuesday is really taking off! I love that more and more people are subscribing. I’m definitely open for suggestions for topics, too.
• My secondary place of employment, the Council on Aging, is under construction. It’s something different every day, which makes my morning very interesting. Yesterday, for instance, the interesting thing was that they demolished both bathrooms. Am I expected to use the portable toilet that the construction workers use? That seems like cruel and unusual punishment to me.
• I am planning on knitting these socks for Hannah. Call me cah-ray-zeee.
• I am reading/listening to 2 books right now. The Girl Who Played with Fire is on the iphone and I love it. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is on the Kindle and I’m not that excited about it.
• Have you seen the cast for the upcoming One for the Money movie? I’m not thrilled about Katherine Heigl as Stephanie but I think Sherri Shepherd at Lula is brilliant.
• I’ve been quite the social butterfly this week. Monday night I had dinner with my daughter Hannah and Doreen, one of my best friends from college, who also happens to be Hannah’s godmother, Tuesday night I had dinner with my stepdaughter to celebrate her birthday, and tonight I am having dinner with my two best friends from high school. It’s a great week full of great women.
• That’s my random and I’m sticking to it.

I had an opportunity on Monday evening to make a quick trip to Cape Cod with Dale. He had a band job and I made plans to meet a college friend for dinner. At the last minute I grabbed my finished and blocked Lady Bertram shawl and my camera and threw both in the car. I’m awfully glad I did. The beach was absolutely picturesque – the light was lovely, and a softly worn fence provided the perfect spot to showcase the shawl. I took a bunch of glamor shots!

The one that shows the whole shawl.

The one that gets a little closer.

The one that looks like it was casually tossed over the fence.

And that one that’s very similar but just different enough that I wanted to use it, too.

Finally, there’s the one that shows a nice close up of the lace. What I really love, though, is the blurry beach in the background.

The pattern, from Wendy Knits, is fantastic and a great first time lace project. The yarn, a blend of merino, cashmere and nylon from Ball and Skein, is wonderful. It’s soft and a fabulous shade of tomato red. I blocked the edges straight across rather than pull out the points and I really like it this way.

It’s the perfect shawl to throw over your shoulders while strolling along a Cape Cod beach.

We spent some time hanging around a campground last weekend and hope to do it again this weekend. Hence, the inspiration for this week’s topic: 10 Things To Bring On A Camping Trip.

1. A tent. Or shelter of some sort. We used to have a camper but those days are over, at least for now.
2. Bedding. We have a self-inflating mattress that’s pretty comfortable once you throw some padding (i.e. sleeping bags) on top of it.
3. Your bathing suit. I have no interest in camping somewhere if there isn’t a body of water.
4. A fishing rod. See #3.
5. Beer. Duh.
6. Food. This should include things you made ahead of time at home, like potato salad or macaroni salad. It is also imperative that there be hot dogs and the ingredients for s’mores.
7. Games. We’re big on cards but other games like Catch Phrase and Apples to Apples are fun,too.
8. Books. My Kindle is perfect for camping – I never have to worry about not having something to read.
9. Knitting, spinning or other craft projects. I think this is pretty self-explanatory.
10. Your sense of adventure! Camping is fun and relaxing – so long as you go with the flow.

I can’t wait to go camping again!

Things I did this weekend:

Visited Dale’s sister at her campsite. I mostly sat around at the pond. It was good. (picture inspired by Claudia)

Picked up our CSA share. It included peppers, tomatoes, onions, eggplant, celery, leeks, potatoes, blueberries, green beans and these beautiful sunflowers.

Baked blueberry muffins.

Knit on the Cascata shawl. There’s a story behind this one but I’ll tell you later.

You know what I didn’t do at all? Spin. I think I have completely fallen off the Tour De Fleece wagon. Whoops.