Bed Bugs Bite

It seems like there's a list of things I don't have time to do here at camp (read books, finish a knitting project, write blogs) but I'm going to try to fit that last one in now before breakfast.

I have freaking bed bugs. For the last three nights, I've been sleepless, trying to drift off in between smacking, slapping, scratching and cussing (silently, since there are kids next to me). I have dreams that I'm washing my sheets in boiling water, only to wake up and find that nope, it's 1:20 am and I still have a long, itchy night to go. This morning I got up early and carried all my bedding over to the washing machine. I'm so tired. What else should I do? Are they in my clothes, too? My towels? How do I stop them? How did they get here? Is this something to be ashamed of, like having lice? Are they lice?

The worst part is that when I wake up in the morning, I have no bite marks, no red bumps. Only reddish areas where I've been scratching. But I know they're not imagined bed bugs, since last night I stayed awake with the light on until I caught one crawling across my arm. Tiny tiny little whitish thing, so incredibly small and so pinprick sharp when it bites. What the heck is it?

In other news, I'm just working like crazy around the clock. Jules is coming to pick me up on my night off tomorrow and I'm so excited. My world is full of dye and hot wax, batiks and candles, and lots and lots of tie-dye t-shirts. The most exciting things to have happened in the last week were
1) My favorite camper from several years ago, visiting now as a lovely teenager
2) Discovering all the nice things one can make with Sculpey clay beads and some silver findings

And I still haven't "found" my lost voice. I'm froggy, croakey, unable to squeak out anything above my stupid little four-note range way down in tenor land. Last night Ryan and Lilla and I "called" the mountain dance for Brookside, which actually went pretty smoothly.

Ok, time is up. More laterish.

I can finally tell you!

My secret is out!

I made a sweater this Spring. My first hand knit sweater. The whole shebang: body, sleeves, little crew neck, everything, all in a wool blend in chocolate brown. I worked on it for a really long time and it was so exciting, but I couldn't blog about it because it was supposed to be a suprise, and it the recipient happened to read my blog, the cat would have been out of the proverbial bag.

So here it is! First at three measily (sp?) inches:


Now with the body done:


And the finished product:


Check out my Flickr page for more pictures. I'm so glad I can show it off. I used Lion's Pride Wool-Ease (pretty darn cheap at $5 a skein) in a bulky weight, just in case I hated making it I wouldn't be out lots and lots of money. First sweaters can be made out of cheap wool, I think. But you know, I'm glad it came out well, because I love the color and the squishy softness, and that it's machine washable and dryable. It was really satisfying to make and show off to the knitting ladies at The Knitting Studio in Montpelier, who talked me through the rough spots.

Yay for sweaters! I've officially started my second one, for myself and in a more pricey, classy wool. I think I blogged about it already, but camp is eating my brain and I can't remember.

Rocking the Texture Crafts

A short one:

Am back at camp, working my way through a massive to-do list, mostly involving shaking bottles of tye-dye mixture and breaking wax into meltable chunks. Also covering tables with plastic wrap. Very exciting. Will be even better once we get to start creating some hyper colorful works of rainbow art. Tye-dye bandana, anyone?

Write post cards!
1080 Island Ford Road
Brevard, NC 28712

Love,
me

And we're off

Well, whatever I forgot to do or take with me will just have to stay undone or untaken. I spent this afternoon on a series of short plane trips and now I'm back in the home of my youth for one short night, and tomorrow morning it's off to camp!

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go.

I actually feel really good about my packing job. The introduction of a decently medium sized backpack to my collection of Stuff has helped me to retire (at least for this summer) the ginormous plastic steamer trunk I used to lug with me every year, crammed full of every possible variation on a summer camp outfit that I could squeeze out of my closet. Well, no more! I've pared it way down, and am only taking what I really need (which is a fair amount of stuff, just considering the shoes alone: one pair of old sneakers for creek hiking, one pair of good sneakers for actual jogging and hiking, one pair of "day off" shoes, one pair of chacos, to be worn every single day, and one pair of flip flops for showering). So now that I've got my costume for tajar ball, my dozen or so t-shirts, my very few pairs of shorts, some pj's, and lots of socks & underwear, I can pack the very important things. Like yarn. And treats. And books. But not many!

So... I'm outta here for awhile. Be good, everyone.