**Very picture heavy post** 

To bring you up to speed, here’s a little backstory. So, without further ado - the KB5 is finished! Well, all but the flatbed (I’ll save that for another post).

1949 International KB5 - The horn and electric windshield wipers even work.

My Dad spent three weeks buffing this grill - by hand. Began as a very dull nickle - now it’s so shiny I could use it to apply eyeliner.

Overheard:
Dad: It makes sort of a gurgle sound (insert more mechanic speak here).
Red Hat: Throw a couple marbles in there, that’ll fix her.
No Hat: Nah, burn some kerosene.
Dad: I was just thinking that.
Me: What?!?!?!

How do I make this go? (Of course I had to have some nephew shots…. they were all over this place like white on rice).

Love Granpa’s truck

Yep, I drove it. I had to - he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Dad’s John Deere B (with spoke wheels, apparently that is a big thing) - this was also a hit, but not as much as the truck.

More nephew shots…. Totally can’t resist (He spent most his time up a tree).

Earlier in the day: Garden omelete - sans cheese. Wheat Challah toast with strawberry compote with…….

Ashley and her breakfast. Sorry Ashley - I’m can’t remember for sure what the name of this was, but it certainly looked tasty. Almost as good as the knitty conversation. Then, there was just a smidge of yarn buying:

Jade Sapphire 6ply - 40% off!!! 5 skeins totaling 750 yards.

Had to throw in an action shot.

After the down pour - Of course there was rain (and another power outage!).

What’s your favorite way to spend a summer weekend?

So many of you have asked how Sam and Moon Unit were responding to each other. Swimmingly. Just swimmingly. As you may or may not be aware, Boston’s are extremely obsessed, like over the top obsessed with licking. Anything. Now, Sam has a very willing recipient to his advances. Moon Unit has become his baby. They play. Oh boy do they play. You should see the acrobatics this kitten is capable of. Then, when they are completely whipped, off to the couch for a little spit bath, snuggle and a nap.  

Ahhhh - life’s good for those two.  

Now for some Plucky housekeeping this week…..

• Plucky Classics (and TWO, count ‘em TWO, goodies) will be handed off to the mailman. This will be the last of the Jane Austen inspired colorways. Next up - Hitchcock Heroines. That will be shipped at the end of July…. along with a surprise.
• All Canadian shipments will be going out with tracking - for some reason they were slow as could be this past month. Just doing my part to keep people from cursing out their local post office…..
• Shop update tomorrow (below you will find just a taste of what will be offered in tomorrows sale), Monday, June 30 at 12:00 noon EST. (Lot’s of merino lace, MCN fingering, Merino Bulky, Merino Fingering Superwash and, yes, Summer of Love in MCN fingering and Merino Fingering Superwash).
• Last, but certainly not least. A great big thank you to everyone for the wonderful feedback, good wishes, and well, love for Plucky stuff. I can’t thank you enough!!! As always, if there is anything at all I can do for you, just ask.

Find A Penny - Merino Lace 

Mystique - MCN Fingering

Gaslight - Merino Lace

Wuthering Heights - Merino Lace

Roaring Twenties - Merino Fingering Superwash

Crippen - MCN Fingering

Local berries - there really is nothing better.  These became strawberry shortcake, freezer jam and bags and bags of frozen berries. I can taste the smoothies now. What are your favorite foods of summer?

Remember this post? The eternal question of what to make for dinner? You guys came up with some fantastic ideas…. I just happened upon Supercook. Have you seen their site? It’s almost like a game, seeing what the site comes up with. Some pretty random recipe ideas, along with some basic ones.

3 x 1 Ribbed Sock

We’ve been up to our eyeballs with family events, which means lots of sitting, waiting and riding in car time. These have been my constant companion. Perfect social knitting, no thinking required.

Ellen tagged me.

The rules: Are posted at the beginning. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

• Ten years ago my only sister had just been married, Plucky girl was 6 (and was the toothless flower girl), I’d been married 7 years and was working as an executive assistant to the owners of a fire protection company and had NO idea how to knit or that I even wanted to learn.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today- not in any particular order?

• Get on treadmill, do laundry, clean the house, go to the bank and make arrangements to get our A/C fixed.

3. Snacks I enjoy.

• Dark chocolate. Spicy cilantro hummus. Fresh fruit. Fresh veggis. Ice Cream.

4. Places I’ve lived.

• Michigan. Michigan and Michigan. How about places I’d love to live…. Now that’s quite a list.

5. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

• Buy a dumpy little cottage (with tons of character, of course) by the sea and fix it up. Make sure my family was taken care of. Travel. Travel. Travel. Give a bunch away.  

6. What are some jobs you’ve had.

• Babysitter, Rug Doctor character at a trade show (hey, I was 16 and it got us a trip to Chicago and San Francisco, right Niki?), assistant at a substance abuse clinic (among other things, I had to, um, watch the female participants deposit their samples to be sure they were theirs… and fresh), Executive Assistant, Office Manager.

7. People I want to know more about: Consider yourself tagged!

A little handspun eye candy~

Gherkins Bucket - Love!

MudCreek Handspun. WOW!

I don’t know what to say except that I am overwhelmed with gratitude with the sweet, kind and understanding responses that I’ve received regarding the yarn base issue. Is it any wonder why I think you guys are so lovely? Again, I can’t thank you enough. Now I think I need to come up with some sort of fun cowl pattern for the sportweight version - what do you think?

On another note - Spring has totally and completely sprung around these parts (I know, it’s a little late, but this is the MidWest) and Mr. Plucky is hard at work on the patio garden. Don’t you just love a guy who works in the garden?

And, I realize this may come as a total shock, but I still knit! Really, I do.  It’s not all yarn dyeing, yarn base angst, teen drivers and their Volvos and gardening. I am this closeto finishing…. well, can you guess? Hmmm. I’ll keep you waiting. Maybe I can finish it up tonight and share tomorrow. Then, back to the No Purl Monkey. Wouldn’t do to have that start talking to me again.

Still with me? Ok. One last thing - as requested, I dyed up a bunch of Summer of Love (in the MCN Sport Weight that I thought was fingering weight, but I digress) and it is now the shop. Which means that as soon as the fingering MCN arrives I will dye that up and let everyone that was interested know. In the meantime…. these lovelies are up for grabs.

These and lots of other lovelies have been added to the shop.

Hippie Chic - 100% Merino Superwash

Roman Holiday (Thank you Julie!) - 80/10/10 MCN Sport Weight

Mr. Plucky planted some succulents this past summer and we managed to keep them alive all winter!

Call me crazy (actually, no need. I’m fully aware that I am one peculiar, issue laden gal), but you know your UFO’s are getting antsy when the start talking to you. Yesterday, I logged into Ravelry and I got a message from my No-Purl Monkey saying “Finish me. I’m pretty.” When the knits start talking back, that’s pretty serious. So, now that the first shipment of Plucky Classics are well on their way, I am going to put the feet up and knit. That should shut the knits up - I hope.

It’s that time again. Time to give away some tangled yarn to you intrepid detanglers out there. You know who you are. Leave me a comment as to why you find detangling yarn so intriguing and I will pick a number out of a hat and send two winners each a skein of yarn to untangle and do with what you will.

Happy Tuesday!

P.S. Guess what I am dyeing up this week?

Summer of Love. I get a lot of inquiries on this colorway and am finally at a spot where I can get a quantity of it dyed up. If you have a special interest, please contact me and I can be sure to put enough aside. The bases that will be dyed in this colorway will be the 80/10/10 MCN, 100% superwash merino and the 100% merino single ply.