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So I said I'd be back after that last meme...two weeks ago. Oops.

I did finally finish something! The kids need a new bath mat in their bathroom. I should start out by saying that their bathroom is green. Really green. It was green when we moved in, and it's still green.

GREEN!

We already had some other higher-priority repainting to do when we moved, so that got done first, and I decided to work with the green. It's a kids' bathroom after all, and the green went nicely with a fish theme that I was able to make with, of all things, items from the Target dollar spot some years ago. Some drawer pulls

And some of those plastic stick-on things for the mirrors and the shower

Along with some colorful towels

And the green didn't look half bad. The fish bath mat, however, which with its blue and yellow looked great when I got it, but now...not so much.

I thought about just buying a new one, looked around at what to replace it with, and then I saw this pattern for a blanket, and an idea struck. I played around with kitchen cotton, and after a few iterations came up with these:

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Many fish later (okay, so it's only 20), a new bath mat is born!

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Each fish is made with a double strand of Sugar & Cream, one multi and one solid. I added in the orange fish to represent the Garibaldi swimming in California's waters, especially around Catalina Island, one of our favorite getaways. And I love the pop of color--you can still tell that the blue and green ones are fish, but the orange ones really stand out.

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And it goes great in the green bathroom! Much better than the dingy old fish.

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Pattern: A Recipe for Fish by April Broken
Yarn: Lily Sugar & Cream, in Summer Splash, Playtime, Hot Blue, Hot Green, and Hot Orange (double stranded one multi + one solid)
Needles: US9
Dates: 5/16/08-6/20/08
Notes: These fish, at least as I knit them, don't lay flat. The head part domes out a bit. I didn't feel like figuring out how to fix it once I had made several, but if I were to make a whole blanket out of them, I would play around to see if doing the decreases to the tail differently would help.

In other news, we went to Disneyland/CA Adventure last Sunday, hoping for a last chance to get a good day in before summer craziness ensues. Whether people aren't traveling yet or because it was Father's Day, it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. We had a great time. They've been having this "Year of a Million Dreams" thing for their 50th anniversary (which seems like it's been going on much longer than a year, but whatever), where supposedly the workers can grant people "dreams" as they wish. A worker at Space Mountain, for example, could pick a family at random and send them to the front of the line. In all the times we've been going (we have passes), we've never gotten a single lousy dream. Well, Sunday was it! We went on the Boudin sourdough bakery tour at California Adventure (because the kids like the free bread sample), and we were told that we were a chosen tour to get a special prize at the end. On our way out, we each got a Mickey head shaped sourdough bread! Perhaps not the most exciting "dream" they give out, but it was cute, the bread was fresh-made and really good, and the kids loved it.

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And while I'm on the subject of Disneyland (and Disney World), for anyone who goes more than once or twice a year or is willing to spend a little to make the most of a Disney trip, I can't recommend Ride Max more. It's a web site where, for a subscription of $25 a year (or only $15 for 90 days for those using it for a single trip), you put in when you're arriving and when you're leaving, the list of rides you want to go on, and it plans out your whole day for maximum ride-age and minimal line-age. They have historical wait times for every ride at every time of day, and they can calculate what's the best time to go on Indiana Jones (which for us has always been smack-dab in the middle of the Fantasmic/fireworks show), when to go and get fastpasses for a ride later, and it knows all sorts of tricks and tips to help you get the most out of your day. It builds in breaks for meals, and even takes into account how long it takes to walk from one ride to the next one on the list. We've used it a few times now, and it's AWESOME. One time we had Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion on our list (they're right next to each other), and we walked by at one point and both lines were insanely long, more than 30 minutes a piece. When we got there at our scheduled time only about a half-hour later, we walked right on both rides. It was incredible. There are some rides (Space Mountain, Indiana Jones) where no matter what you do you're going to wait, but the schedule tells you when to go and get your fastpass so that when you come back you can get in the short line. We LOVE it. They have it for both Disneyland and CA Adventure here (although obviously the historical data is more extensive for Disneyland since CA Adv. is pretty new), and they also have it for Disney World. It is well well worth $25 a year for us, and would even be well worth $15 if you were only going for a single weekend. Or a single day. It's that good. And I should say that I have no association with Ride Max at all other than being an extremely impressed customer!

Advertisement over, and on to a bit more knitting. Did I ever post these socks? I don't think I did.

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These were another dual entry for the Ravelry Sock Knitters Anonymous Sockdown for April and the Townsend Socks KAL Yahoo group. And yes, my last pair of socks were also Jeanie Townsend and also Knit Picks Essential...I liked the combination! I'm not too often a lace sock person, but I do love these.

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Of course, it's 90F today and I want no part of wool socks, but I'll get a ton of wear out of them in the fall, the Dusk color goes great with jeans.

Pattern: Cascading Leaves, by Jeanie Townsend
Yarn: Knit Picks Essential, in Dusk
Needles: US1 using magic loop
Dates: 4/27/08-5/27/08

I also finally finished a dishcloth that I started AGES ago, while trying to figure out entrelac for my entrelac scarf last year.

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It's Dave's great Garterlac Dishcloth pattern, and I made much use of knittedkitty's photo tutorial that can be found in her Flickr here. If I hadn't set it down for more than a year, it would have been a quick and fun dishcloth. As it is, it wasn't so fast, but it was still fun, and it's a great use of variegated kitchen cotton!

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Pattern: Garterlac Dishcloth, by Dave of Criminy Jickets
Yarn: Lily Sugar & Cream in Countryside Ombre
Needles: US8

Whew, I think that's it. Have a great weekend, everyone!