Barbie Gets a Dress

I attended my first Covington Knitter's gathering last Saturday and brought my daughter along.  The group's members include a lovely Southern lady who crochets the most delicate, lacy Barbie doll dresses out of J.P. Coat's Knit Crochine thread.  Well, this lovely lady brought along a few of the dresses she has made to show me and my daughter; and she was kind enough to give one to my daughter, telling my daughter that the dresses are easy to make and that mom (me) can make them for her now that there's a dress to look at.  My daughter is 6 years old.  By the time we drove the 10 miles or so home, my daughter had an entire summer collection all planned out for me to make for Barbie.  I don't crochet, friends.  I knit.  I haven't crocheted since about 5th grade when I learned to make doilies.

But, my brain was working on it.  I started with the bodice because I can knit anything and this is going to be a breeze! It was so NOT!  Bodice done, I realized that I really should have started from the bottom up on circular needles.  Tore it all out and started over.  My daughter nearly cried. "Now I'm never going to get a dress if you have to start over!"  Three days later, with many hours invested, there's a Barbie's Lace Sundress.  The pattern, which was a labor of love, for sure, is available in my Ravelry store.


So, unfortunately no other knitting projects received attention. It's been 98 degrees in the shade at my house for the last 4 days, so not much motivation to work on Dillon's wool sweater.  He came home from camp and doesn't seem too thrilled about it--maybe because he thought I'd just whip that baby up while he was at camp for a week--but it's looking pretty swell so far.  And I will be working on the lace scarf for my friend Meredith this week.  Those are my two knitting goals for the week.

On the "not knitting" front, I'm back on that frickin' tread mill.  The Peachtree Road Race is but 2 short weeks away!  My husband and I will be getting up before dawn to make our way via car, train, and a long walk, to the starting line in downtown Atlanta with 49, 998 other people to run in 1000% humidity on the 4th of July.  The race begins in waves of 10, 000 people.  If you're lucky, you're in one of the first three groups--running before 8 am when it's usually in the upper 70s or low 80s.  By the time the race is over, it's usually into the 90s and then it's even hot in the shade.  I was hoping to shave 10 minutes off of my time from last year (1 hr, 25 min); but I've been so pointedly avoiding the treadmill because I HATE to run, that right now it's looking like I'm going to be 15 minutes over my time from last year.  I'm hoping that I run faster on the pavement with my long stride than on the treadmill.  And then I get my T-shirt; which is the whole point of running 6.2 miles in the heat and humidity with 49, 999 other people.  The shirt.  People will do anything for a free t-shirt.  But, hey, I am 38 year-old mother of three, and I can RUN a 10K, shirt or no shirt. 

And the other "not knitting" thing I am doing this week:  painting the stairwell to the upstairs.  I have been threatening to do it for about 3 years.  Today, it gets done!  Bet me.