May's end

I didn't finish any green knitting this month, but I took pictures of the green around me. This is my front yard.

I found green in my archives, too. September 2004: a green pear on a stone wall in the garden at Coltibuono in Tuscany.

October 2003: Green chairs at sunset on Bald Head Island, North Carolina.

July 2005: A vintage green tractor in the Fourth of July Parade.

I nearly forgot about my everyday green! My little green Honda CRV, the best car I've ever had.

June's Project Spectrum color is blue -- the color of the ocean, the sky, and one of my favorite colors on the color wheel. I haven't decided how I am going to celebrate blue yet, but it might involve this yarn and some lace (the Flower Basket Shawl I'm almost ready to knit). There will most certainly be a few more dishcloths (some of them blue), and a sock or two (at least partially blue).
~:~

With the arrival of June I always stop and take deep breaths, for life is about to change. Memorial Day was just a preview of what's to come in the next three months. The daily pace is steadily accelerating and I'm spending more time at work, working harder than before. Thank goodness it stays light for so long! I'll still get to enjoy the sunshine and summer weather. When it gets too hot I'll have my air-conditioned home to retreat to, and knitting will keep me sane. And I have this to look forward to: Labor Day is just fourteen weeks away.

~:~

There's been knitting going on, just not photogenic knitting. More next time.

From the other side of the weekend

This was the view from the sidewalk outside the bookstore on Friday afternoon -- the day the people rolled in along with the fog. The ocean is about a mile thataway, where the fog is coming from. I love it when I look up from the counter and see it rolling down Main Street. The rest of the holiday weekend has been sunny and warm and beautiful, but I haven't had the chance to be out in it. I worked too hard all day Saturday, and rested and napped and knitted away most of today. That was my plan all along, and I've followed it very carefully!
Yes, that's right, I am still knitting dishcloths, warshrags, or whatever you want to call them. They make me happy. And I can make one in the time it takes to watch a movie or wait through a laundry cycle (or both at once!). My knitting muse is appeased by choosing among the colors I have to work with, and my hands are kept busy while my mind is free to roam. When my brain hurts from thinking too much ("Do you have that new book called X? I'm sure it's just called X, you know, the letter X." In reality, it's Academy X*, but who am I to disagree?), Mason-Dixon Dishrags are just my speed.

You know how skiiers and bobsledders and people like that (I think they are called athletes) take a mental run down the slopes or the course or whatever, before they leave the starting gate? They're always shown on television, eyes closed, head down. I'm doing that with the Flower Basket shawl that I'm planning to knit with my Blue Moon Bambu yarn. I think they'll work well together, and I might be nearly ready to cast on. Until I get these dishcloths out of my system, though, I don't know...


*Note: If you are the author (or the mother of the author) of this book, and you have resorted to Googling yourself to find all references to it, do not leave me a comment or email asking me how it's selling. I will not respond, no matter how cheerfully you ask. And please, get a grip.

My latest obsession

I might, just might, have a little problem. I can't stop making Mason-Dixon dishcloths! It doesn't help that our local variety store (yes, there is a real-deal variety store in these parts, and they have Everything) just restocked their bin of Sugar and Cream. I got a few balls (yeah, right) this morning. I may have crossed a line with the pink and yellow action, but it's a dishcloth, and it's supposed to be fun. That's my story, anyway.

~:~

I love a sock sprout, don't you? It's so sturdy, and you can already tell what it will be when it's full-grown.

This is Trekking XXL, color 67. I started it this morning, in that grumpy fog that I'm in when I wake up before 5:00 on my day off. I couldn't stop thinking about work, and all that must be accomplished before the Big Weekend.
~:~

Yes, in two days it will be the Summer Season, and the Summer People will begin to arrive. While everyone else is thinking about those lovely, lazy summer days ahead, I'm gearing up for three months of Extreme Bookselling. I can't complain, because it's one of the reasons I have a good job that pays me enough to feed my yarn habit, but it's hard to shift gears. We adjust our expectations of our daily lives, from how long it will take us to drive anywhere (twice as long as usual, if you're lucky), to when it makes sense to go to the grocery store (definitely not Thursday afternoon through Sunday morning). At the bookstore I need to be ready for anything, try to predict what people will be asking for, and steel myself and my staff for the inevitable rude behavior of people who should know better.

~:~

So I'm counting onTrekking socks and Mason-Dixon dishcloths and every other bit of knitting I have on needles or in my head to save my sanity. I just might have to join Norma and Margene's Trek Along, and the Mason-Dixon KAL too, if all I'm wanting to be doing is making those socks and dishcloths! Oh, we'll see.

Hey, Sandy! This one's for you! Today was a fabulous day!

Sunday ramble (apologies in advance)

Presenting...the Little Shoalwater Shawl! It's been blocked and everything. How did that happen?

• Pattern: Fiber Trends Shoalwater Shawl, by Evelyn Clark
• Yarn: Frog Tree Alpaca Handpaints DK, "Cactus Rose"
• Needles: 6.5mm, US 10.5
• Knitting time: started on May 7, restarted on May 15, and completed on May 20
  
• Modifications: Because I didn't have enough yarn to make the full shawl, I worked one and a half chart repeats. My little shawl is just right for a scarf, measuring 50" across and 32" deep.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I think I'll admire it for a while before it's time to tuck it away for the summer.

~:~

I just have to share this beautiful yarn -- the latest skein from the Blue Moon Rockin' Sock Club. I can't wait to knit it up (the pattern is a very interesting departure for us stick-in-the-mud traditional sock knitters; it has a buttoned linen-stitch cuff!). There was a contest to choose a name for our mystery sock color, and the winner was "Fairgrounds." I think it's the perfect name! The folks at Blue Moon are making sure we have a lot of fun. The colors are a surprise until the packages arrive, there's always a clue or two (or ten) to ponder on the ballband, the patterns are well-written, and the extra goodies have been fantastic. We're having fun on the KAL blog, too!

~:~

What's better than knitting a Mason-Dixon Dishrag on a lazy Sunday afternoon? Knitting two of them, of course! They're a blast to make, simple as all get-out, and the almost instant gratification is this knitter's dream. The one I'm working on now is the perfect way to add a shot of Project Spectrum Green to my day, too. I'm addicted, I'm afraid.
There's one more Go-Along to mention -- Erica of leetle knits had a great idea, which she pondered out loud over at the KR Forums. There was so much interest in her "Day in My Life" project that she started a blog and even made a cool button (see my sidebar). It's all set to happen on Wednesday, June 7th.

Now that the shawl is finished, I can start the process of choosing my next new project. The Rockin' Sock Club socks are a definite. I have just a few unfinished things hanging around the workbaskets, mostly socks, and there are a couple of "antique" projects that could be finished if I'd just give them a little of my time, but their whining isn't loud enough to grab my attention yet. I'd like to do more lace, and I have some nice yarns in my stash. And I have quite a few skeins of gorgeous sock yarn that have been preening and posing in the basket. Their squeals are a bit much to take, so I think I'll choose one soon!

J is for...

.
A perfectly good name. Short and sweet. Not Jayne, or Jaine, and certainly not Jean or Joan or June*. Jane. No nicknames, except for Janie, and even then you're taking a chance. Real risk-takers can attempt the occasional Janie-Wanie (but you'd better be one of the Amazing R's if you dare to try it).

Nope, it's Jane, after the Jane who married into the family in the early part of the 19th century, and who is buried in the family plot in Virginia. My parents seemed to have walked up the hill to choose several of my siblings' names. Or maybe they just liked the sound of Jane!

Jane. A strong, solid name, which I have most always liked. My middle name makes up for anything that anyone might find lacking in a name as simple as Jane. That would be Cecelia.

~:~

J is also, and always in my heart, for Jillaroo, my dearest companion from 1978 to 1992. Her bark could shatter glass, but who cared, really?

The cat? That's Pippin, and another story.

*June is reserved for those really Twilight Zone-ish moments when Judy and I are called June. It's happened many times, whether we're together or not, but usually in some context that connects us. Strange.

All about the I's

I'd forgotten all about Ina and Anne's "I Is For" contest, until -- what do you know -- I found out that I'm a finalist! I'm tickled and proud to have posted one of their favorite I's. Go on over to Anne's and read all about it, then vote for your favorite of the four. Here we go:

• Karlie of A Long Yarn All Wound Up
• Minnie of A Dragon Mad Knitter
• Vicki of Knitorious
• And Me! (tee-hee!)

I'm having the best time ABC-ing my way through the year. I have plans for most of the letters, but a few of them have been -- or will be -- quite a challenge. The ABC-Along and Project Spectrum sure are making me look at my world in new and inspiring ways. I've begun to take my camera with me wherever I go, my knitting has become a riot of color, and I'm just, well, paying more attention. That makes me happy.

So enjoy the I's, and cast your vote before Sunday night, and when you wake up tomorrow morning look around you for something you might not have noticed the day before. Maybe the sun slants through the window at a different angle these days, or the lilacs exploded while you were asleep, or the yarn you thought was blue turns out to have a lot of green in it. It's the little things that make the day.

Is that blue sky? Really?

Finally! Nice weather, the kind we're supposed to have in the middle of May. It's been the perfect sort of day for puttering and doing errands and hanging out on the steps. I was beginning to doubt that we'd ever see the sun again.

I had a wonderful time visiting my sister and her family. There was a lot of chatter and laughter and knitting going on all weekend. The weather was pretty horrible there, too, but we managed to take a little road trip on Saturday. I can't believe where we went...

Ready?...

Set?...

THE FOLD! In Marengo! Just an hour west of my sister's house! I got to meet and visit with Toni Neil! We had a blast. Toni is the best, just the best. I'm pretty sure our gaggle of giggling girls was her afternoon's amusement, because we managed to put on quite a show. Milton Berle would have booked us to open for him. We were that silly. Did I take pictures? Of course not. That would have been smart.

This is what it looked like out the car window on Saturday afternoon. On the way to THE FOLD. Dark and rainy, everywhere you looked. It's beautiful there, though. I love the big sky and the small towns and the lakes and THE FOLD.

There was not much purchasing of the Socks That Rock, since she had about twelve skeins left after the frenzy at MDS&W the week before. That's okay, I think I have enough to hold me for a while. There was some purchasing of Blue Moon yarn, though.

On the left are two skeins of Bambu, which is 100% bamboo, obviously. The colorway is called "Rock Creek." I'm thinking summer shawl (I have 800 yards). The same yarn was chosen by one Niece R for a ruffled scarf. On the right is a ball of Trekking XXL, color 67, and a set of new-to-me ChiaoGoo bamboo dpn's to try. Just for fun, you know.

Other Niece R chose some beautiful Blue Moon nubby cotton in turquoise and brown for a simple scarf (I wish I could remember what the yarn and the color are called). Sister E had fun choosing Mountain Colors yarn --deep and rich -- for a couple of projects, and we all spent a long time trying to see everything that Toni stocks in all the nooks and crannies. Books, needles, more laughter, and embarrassing nuttiness were had by all, and then it was time to head home. It will take another trip and a longer visit to the shop for me to be able to take it all in. I barely had time to look at the fibers, and I'm sure I missed a lot of yarn. It was heaven, though. I went to THE FOLD!

~:~
My sister S loved her Clapotis. It looks just beautiful on her.
~:~
I worked on my Shoalwater shawl on the plane and at my sister's and on the plane home. When I looked at the yarn that was left after I'd finished two and a half chart repeats, I knew what I had to do. Good thing the yarn is named Frog Tree Alpaca, if you get my drift. It's such a pleasure to knit this pattern with this yarn that I'm not unhappy that I chose to start over. Bigger needles (6.5mm, up from 5.5) are making a lovely fabric, and I'll make sure I have enough yarn to bind off and do the i-cord edging this time.
~:~
Have you heard about Sundara Yarn's Petals Collection? Go on, have a look!

Rain, rain, and more rain

If I wait for the sun to come out so I can take a nice picture of the finished Clapotis scarf, it might be a long wait -- it's been wet all week, and we're supposed to have rain every day for another five days at least. So here it is on this dark afternoon -- no contrast, not much color, but it is what it is.

Stats:

Pattern: Clapotis from Knitty

Yarn: Schaeffer Laurel, Pima cotton, in "Elizabeth Blackwell"

Needles: 4.5mm (US 7) Addi Turbos

Modifications: I made it narrower than the pattern calls for because I had just 400 yards of the yarn. See below.

What it is is quite nice, even after all the trouble it gave me. I knit the last section three times before I had enough yarn to finish. So much for my "perfect" 20/60/20% formula, which apparently works only if you actually bother to measure the yarn. Go figure! I think my sister will enjoy it, and I love how it turned out. I'm Clapped out though. Time to move on.

And move on I have. I'm on the second chart repeat of my Cactus Rose Shoalwater shawl. I love it -- I know that handpainted yarns and lace don't always go together, but it's different when the lace is a simple wave stitch like this one is. The colors get to move across the surface without much interruption, which is good, because this Frog Tree yarn has very frequent color changes (3-4" intervals).

Last night while watching "Alias" and "Lost" (and being on the edge of my seat for the whole two hours) I turned my first-ever garter stitch short row heel, on my Sixth Sense sock. I'm congratulating myself because I managed to make a heel without gaping holes. I could have put the sock down instead of trying to knit and pay attention to all the cliff-hanging action on the tube, but you know how it is when you get to the heel-turning part of a sock -- it's practically impossible to stop! It's a cliff-hanger all on it's own, isn't it?

It's time to switch the laundry and do some ironing and packing and Annabelle-coddling, because I'm catching an early flight to Chicago tomorrow. I'll be back after a "wild" weekend of yakety-yacking and fun with my sisters.

Hey, maybe it will be sunny there!

Wisterics

Yes, Teyani, the wisteria is blooming!

I finished the cotton clapotis last night, so I'll try to post a picture tomorrow. Rain is predicted, though, and work is promising to remain hectic this week (what kind of day off I will have tomorrow is the question). So we'll see...

And now that the scarf is finished, I can move on to the Cactus Rose shawl without interruption! Well, at least until I have to clean up and pack to go away for the weekend.

Honest, it was an accident

I didn't mean to cast on...I was just trying to see if...I had a few minutes to spare while I was waiting for the dryer to finish...the needles were empty...the clapotis scarf has become the bane of my existence...oh, there's just no excuse. The good thing is: there doesn't have to be! This is Frog Tree Alpaca Handpaint, DK weight. The color is "Cactus Rose" and I am making a small Shoalwater shawl. At least that's what it looks like so far. Who knows though, it being an accident and all...

Project Spectrum's May color means that I wander around looking for green, which is fine because everything is getting greener and greener -- even the mossy lawn at the bottom of my stairs! I love these noontime shadows.

I found some interesting textures on my beach walk. There's a spot I like to visit between the ocean and a small bay that is usually closed by sand. Sometimes it's open, and the water flows between the two. There was a little sandy river this morning, about three inches deep. I wonder if I can knit that? There's a pattern for a pillow in Fiona Ellis' Inspired Cable Knits that looks just like it. Hmmm...

I is for...

...Indigo.
I have this little collection of indigo yarn, bits left from my weaving days. All the blue in these yarns was dyed by my friend V, who is an extraordinary natural dyer and weaver (oh, her shawls...). The plaid cloth is a piece of cotton from Baltimore, made sometime just before 1900 -- still sturdy, and still quite blue. One of these days I am going to ask V to dye some yarn for me so I can make a sweater or a shawl, and so I can wrap myself in the magic of indigo.

Wisterious

Dreary. There's no better word for the weather today.All this rain is good for something, at least: wisteria buds! It's cold, though.

It was a good day to curl up with a new sock. This is Susan Lawrence's Sixth Sense pattern from the Six Sox Knitalong. I joined up a while back, promptly forgot about it, and then this interesting pattern started to show up in knitblogland. I'm looking forward to working the short-row garter stitch heel.

The yarn is Fleece Artist Merino in a colorway called "Paris Dream." It's a good Project Spectrum color, too! I was going to work the hemmed cuff that was called for, but I messed up, so I just did the alternate cuff instead. I was in a hurry, I guess. I'm happy with it, and it will probably fit me better than the other cuff anyway.

Well, that's about it for the knitting. I've been so busy at work that I haven't had the energy to knit much in the evening. Tonight I'm going to work on the cotton clapotis scarf, and I hope to have it done by the end of the weekend. I'd better finish it, since I'm taking it to Chicago on the 12th!
~:~
So am I going to miss out on the Yarn of My Dreams because I can't go to the Sheep and Wool Festival? Will I mope through the weekend because I'll be missing all the fun? I had a booth there for many years, by myself and with Moonflower Studios. I've seen it all, even though I haven't been in a long time. The weather, the crowds, the intensity -- they lure and repel in the same motion. I'm having pangs of nostalgia, nothing more. No, I think I am content to wait until Rhinebeck, when our gang of girls will have a slumber party, and we'll stroll the aisles, and we'll laugh and have adventures. Oh, and we'll shop for yarn and fiber, too!