The unofficial start of summer

This weekend is our Canadian May Long Weekend. Officially known as Victoria Day, the third Monday in May was chosen to celebrate the birthday of Queen Victoria. Unofficially known and the May Two-Four Weekend, mostly because of the copious amounts of beer that will be downed during the weekend. (I'll be doing my part...)
For us of course, it marks the start of the cottaging season. (Not that we really adhere to a season - we go whenever we can), but for the rest of the family, and much of the lake, this will be the first time they've been there since Thanksgiving. That's going to be hard - sharing the place again with family, after having free run of it for the winter...
But, regardless of who will be there, it's where WE will be, and I can't be happier. We'll head out tonight, once the husband gets home from work, and the neighbours are already planning get togethers and cocktails. It really is heaven on earth for us. And the fact that the weather forecast is supposed to be stellar, well, that doesn't hurt!
Of course, I've been planning out the knitting to bring - socks of course, for the drive (My FIL is getting REALLY impatient for a new pair...), another jeweled cowl (I know, you haven't seen the first one yet! That's coming...), and the start of a laceweight sweater, using the contiguous sleeve method (top down, set in sleeves, rather than raglan), using some luscious Tanis Fibrearts Laceweight in the Midnight colour way - a dark tonal blue. I was going to bring the Cricket and do some weaving (one of the reasons I bought the smaller loom was it's portability), but there's so much stuff we have to bring up for the cottage, I'm worried it would get crushed or broken, so on Susan's advice, the Cricket is staying put. This time. I swear, it will see the lake soon enough.
And because a wordy post without pictures can be tedious, I've been working on a patchwork playmat for my son's teacher. (His second son is due next month.)

It's further along than this (It's actually finished), but I didn't have the camera with me, so I'll show finished pictures later. It's got a blue flannel backing, and a natural cotton batting, and a light blue satin blanket binding.