Bake Cake While the Sun Hides

Hindi matutumbasan ang kasipagan mo.
Alam ko na gagawin mo ang lahat para sa ikakaunlad ng ating buhay.
Salamat sa lahat ng pagsasakripisyo mo.
Maligayang Araw ng mga Ama! 

(Your hard work was not for nothing.
I know everything you did was to make our lives better
Thank you for all your sacrifices.
Happy Father's Day, Dad!)

I think I inherited my inability to sit still from my father. They are both hard workers (and I think I inherited that, too), but my father and I are the kind of people who refuse to sit calmly, even when we're obviously tired or too ill to do anything. He'll go out for walks, even when the rain is threatening to come down. I'll keep hobbling around, even when I'm nursing an injury.

My poor mom. You'd think we would have outgrown this by now.

The weather has gone all rainy and chilly here on Vancouver Island. It's quite the switch from the wilting temperatures we had a couple of weeks ago. I'm actually grateful for it: the droughts we experienced over the last two summers mean that rain in June is a welcome sight for me. The trees look happier, and I sleep so much better when it's cool outside. Most people take the opportunity to nap on a cool, rainy afternoon, but no... not me. This weather is so much more conducive to my favourite hobbies.

Behold, the baking:

I hadn't planned to bake anything today, but I changed my mind after the hubby and I braved the cool morning to go kayaking in the bay this morning (the rain stayed off, thank goodness). As soon as we got home, instead of wrapping up and resting, I whipped up some lunch, and then decided I was going to finally bake the Madeira cake that the hubby has been hinting at for a few months now. The thought of turning on the oven was madness a couple of weeks ago. Today, I felt that I should grab the chance while I could.

It's a buttery cake, so light and fluffy, and so NOT a health food, but heck, we paddled for two hours in the ocean, after all. And when you have the chance to bake a cake, well, you should bake a cake.

And, of course, when the weather is cool, you knit scarves:

This pattern is Ojos de Bruja by Sybil R. I didn't expect to like it as much as I do. I merely chose the pattern in a desperate attempt to find a pattern that would work with this skein of Alegria, a sock yarn by Manos Del Uruguay. I'm very happy with it. It was so simple, it just flew off the needles. I think the short rows are so clever: if you look carefully at each row, you can see the "switchbacks" from turning to knit back to the start of the row. Each turn was calculated carefully by the pattern-writer, and I am so impressed with the result (even if I messed it up near the end - you can't really tell, though):

I wasn't planning on taking any selfies with it, but freshly washed hair and all, I figured I might as well before I lost my nerve:

Incidentally, that cardi I have on was super wrinkly before I started, but I've been using this DIY Wrinkle Release Spray on a lot of things recently, and it totally works. A couple of spritz, then a couple of shakes, and voila: instant adult. I recommend it heartily:

I think I might be hitting the end of my finished-objects streak. I hit a snag with my current project this week. I thought I had a pattern all picked out for this skein of Handmaiden Lace Silk, but after casting on (and then ripping out) two different patterns, I was starting to think it was going to have to go into the naughty corner. I think I had a breakthrough with another one of Rosemary Hill's patterns, but I've already ripped it out once to try a different needle size:

I came down from a size 8 needle all the way to a size 4, and I've added a bunch more stitches to make up for the gauge change (I can't remember how many - I just kept on knitting). I think it's working, but it's hard to tell from these photos.

Of course, I'm all anxious now about it because I set a date for myself to be finished with all my knitting projects so I could concentrate on Tour de Fleece this year. It starts on July 2nd, which means, according to the count I just did on my fingers, I've got just under two weeks to get this thing finished. I better stop messing around with cakes and get knitting, then...

Or maybe I better sit down and take a nap first. One of these days I'll learn to sit still... I promise, Mom. Just as soon as Dad learns to chill out a bit, too...

Happy Father's Day!