A mystery, some monkeys, and seeing red

It's hot. Ugly hot. Right now the car said 114 degrees, which means it's probably 110. Really.

The good news is I finally cast on for the mystery stole. I'm a week late, since the second clue came out today. But it is looking pretty already! I'm hoping the mystery "theme" isn't anything too strange, but so far the charts look nice. Here is the progress of day 1 -

I am keeping my little beads in my new cute monkey tin I got at Borders. I LOVE the pencil tins from Paperchase. This one has monkeys, which are popular around here at the moment. My stripey one holds my dpns. I would buy others, I can't resist them.

Yesterday I was waiting to pick up Emily from summer school and decided that instead of sitting in the parking lot and turning into a broiled knitter, I would seek shelter and air conditioning at Ancient Pathways. I consulted Meg, the owner, about my bead choices (which led me to Bead Artistry, which led me to choose three new colors of beads, which led me to choose pearl-like beads, but that is another story) and found out that she is trying to raise $$ to fund her trip to London in October to a yarn show. She was selling some of her handspun, and I figured I could sacrifice and get some just to show my support ;-). Isn't is nice? I think it is destined to become something felted.

Now folks take note -- it is red! I have officially found something red to knit for Project Spectrum! Isn't it nice that if you are patient, things have a way of falling into place?