Saturday Report, with knitting and raspberries

When I got home last night, there was a U-Haul trailer parked by my building, so I surmised that someone was moving out (just call me Sherlock). A couple of the other owners are subletting*, so someone's tenants are going, though I don't know if that means the owners are moving back in, going to try to sell now, or will get more tenants. (And of course, it wasn't the tenants with the baby, or the ones with the dog, was it? Of course not.) I heard a little bit of moving-things-noises during the evening ("Wait, now we'll have no light tonight, bring that lamp back!"), but not much.
*Rather than try to sell with the market as it's been.

In any case, it's a good thing that I went to bed early last night, as it turned out that they were getting an early start this morning, which I learned when I awoke to the sounds of them going in and out and in and out and in and out of their door, which is right under my bedroom window. With a screen door. That squeaks.

Creeeeeak, squaaaaak, thud. Over and over. They weren't being all that loud, objectively, but when I looked at the clock after a few minutes, and saw 6:56, I groaned. Had to get that early start, didn't you? Ugh. It's hard for me to be objective when someone wakes me before 7 AM on a day off.

So I've been up for a long time. That was, what, eleven-plus hours ago, and it feels like it should be almost bedtime now. I had a leisurely waking-up period, then went out to Petsmart (where I spent $80 but saved $25, not bad) and Trader Joe's. Home again, I decided to wash and lay out one of the shawls I had waiting, the Colonnade Shawl that was my Olympic project. While it was soaking, I decided to get a current picture of the Starry Wingspan that I've been putting aside for other things all summer, but that I've finally been able to get back to this week.

And it's a good thing that I did, since it turns out that I should have been calling this the Mathematically Challenged Shawl instead.

I was trying to adjust the size I was making, but due to a miscalculation back in the mists of time (well, two months ago, anyway), I adjusted my numbers in one spot but not in another. Which meant that instead of all my triangles being the same size, they were getting smaller, which I hadn't noticed until it stared me in the face.

Shit. Ribbit, ribbit.

I still love the yarns, which are Starry Starry Night from Toil & Trouble, and Knitpicks Brava, but I don't think I have enough even together to make the size shawl I want, and I'm tired of guessing and "calculating" only to be wrong. So I stash-dove to find something compatible, which isn't difficult given that these are right in my wheel-house, color-wise. I think this Berocco Ultra Alpaca Tonal will go quite nicely, don't you?

Then I started frogging. Such forgiving yarn, it doesn't look at all tired by my mistakes. In fact, it was rather pretty as it undid.

And I have since restarted.

So far, so good. And the Colonnade is, in fact, laid out and drying.

Tomorrow, I hope to be able to do the Tardis. We'll see if this is dry in the morning.

After I pinned it, I went off to the raspberry-picking. It was a beautiful day, about 75 degrees and mostly sunny, perfect for spending some time outside. The farm gives you a bucket to pick into, and a smaller bucket for bad berries you pick, which get fed to the hens (if you get a buggy berry, they'd rather you brought it back than dropped it on the ground where the bug could get back on the bushes, and who can blame them?). Checking each berry for bugs made the picking slow and meditative, and I had dreams of filling the bucket.

It was lovely, but after a while I started to think of this:

At first, I was just a little jumpy because I was wearing sandals and capris, so a branch or leaf would brush bare skin and make me look for a bug. There were also a lot of bees around, though they had no interest in attacking me, thank heavens. It reminded me of a cartoon I saw on Facebook recently:

(Slightly edited for language, believe it or not.)
However. After killing the second mosquito that was delighted to see me (note: use bug spray next time), I decided that a full bucket was not meant to be, and made my way back to the stand. I didn't do too badly: about eight-tenths of a pound, or $6.35, for this:

That's a quart, not a pint, and they're small berries, so there are a lot of them. Yum, yum. There aren't so many now as there were when I got home.

I also bought their eggs, interested in taste-testing fresh, happy eggs, particularly the green one.

It's a pale green, but very much not brown or white. I wonder if it will taste different? And by the way, it isn't me calling them happy eggs.

And you know, if I was a chicken and got to eat fresh-picked raspberries with fresh bugs in them? I'd be happy, too.

For that matter, I'm pretty happy without eating bugs. I hope you're having a happy Saturday, too.