the difficulty with scarves

It appears that this summer, my knitting is all about the scarves. This is all fine and well, as they're easy to take along to the bazillion fantastic events and work on while my attention is elsewhere, but they make very poor blog fodder. They're like the Energizer bunny; they just keep going and going. I'm probably 3/4 of the way through the scarf I was working on in Vermont, but a picture now wouldn't look much different that it did then, so instead of sharing a picture of the knitting, I'll share some pictures of places where the scarf was knat upon last weekend.

First, summer Shakespeare. Again! The weather allowed us to see two of three shows we planned for the weekend (chosen from at least five offered at different venues around the state!), Merchant of Venice and Much Ado About Nothing. We've seen the latter group of performers in the past and absolutely adore their riotous shows.

Met up with friends for a visit to a colonial encampment and farmers' market with friends on Sunday morning. Learned some interesting trivia while touring the Nathan Hale Homestead and couldn't help but notice the huge walking wheel and hand cards in a sparsely furnished room.

Leah and I participated in a customers' favorites trunk show at Creative Fibers on Sunday afternoon. A group of us brought our favorite projects for a show and tell about the pattern, the yarn, the challenges, the results. Visitors to the store during the afternoon each voted on their favorite. I entered my Garden Patch cardigan and handpainted gloves. Leah entered her Seven Sisters cabled mitts, wrap cardigan, and Imagine hat. We enjoyed the afternoon of hanging with knitters and one guy who visited the store with his family even commissioned Leah to knit him an Imagine hat, so she was thrilled!

Didn't make it to the third Shakespeare show of the weekend because of rain (upon snagging that link, I just noticed they had an indoor alternative in case of bad weather -- oh well), but the timely offer of a cookout was a yummy substitute. Between the two performances and the ukulele group's singalong(!), I probably added 7" to the Rivolo scarf. It's not possible to knit during the ballroom dance classes Leah and I have been taking, but otherwise, thank heavens for a hobby (obsession!) that's flexible enough to fit into so many settings while we're otherwise engaged.

what heat?

I hear it's been hot 'round these parts, but we spent the weekend camping in VT, cool and comfortable snuggled into our sleeping bags at night, and in the chilly water of the river or shade of the trees during the day. Since the kids were busy romping with friends or doing an occasional campground-sponsored activity, and Scott was generally standing in or near the water with a big stick in his hand, I had plenty of time to enjoy the quiet with a certain big, happy dog who may not be a Great Pyrenees and collie mix, as we had thought, but instead a Maremmano. Did you click that link? Here's another pic of Kodi for comparison and another showing her with full coat.

I made lots of progress on the Rivolo scarf in the vintage yarn overdyed with Kool-Aid.

I haven't quite memorized the pattern, so I printed out the chart on card stock and pinned it directly to my knitting, easy to see when I need to glance at it but not something I need to hold onto, all very conveniently tucked into the drawstring bag Leah (with her Grammy) made for me. Couldn't have been more content.

best medicine

Thought this would be the best way to quickly reach the many of you who have asked about Leah's persistent headache. Her bloodwork and MRI are normal. The migraine med helped a lot, but not completely. The headache continues, but it's just a minor nuisance now.

She thinks the best treatment might be a weekend swimming in the cold water of a gently flowing river with friends in VT. Off we go!

a little slow on the uptake

I have known forever that most lace knitting requires a solid or semi-solid yarn so the lacy patterns don't get lost among variegated yarn's color changes. So why did it take this...

and this...


and this...


before I clued in and dug out a semi-solid yarn (dyed by us w/ Kool-Aid) to pair with Knitspot's beautiful Rivolo pattern?

look! it's a wall!!

A journey of a thousand miles
begins with a single step.
~ Lao Tzu

Who knew that, after 15 years of working on interior renovations, a few freshly primed clapboards on the exterior would cause such elation?!

Can you imagine when we actually paint it?! Squee!!

rounding it out

This weekend was filled with decluttering, working on the porch renovations, weeding the garden, and concern for a daughter who has not been feeling well. When a baker and a medical transcriptionist try to pull together all the details of designing/clapboarding/tiling/waterproofing/milling a 100-year-old house's exterior, it kind of makes the brain hurt. Which is exactly the problem Leah has been having for 10 days. Sometimes her headache is better (low grade, so she can have some fun, but it's still there) and sometimes it's worse, to the point of puking. She's been to the doctor once so far, had bloodwork, on meds, still no clear diagnosis and no improvement. Will call doc's office again today.

Anyway, despite the Goob not feeling well and the dirty, sweaty, sometimes scary/baffling projects at home, there's been plenty of good stuff mixed in, including dinner on the patio of a local restaurant w/ my mom on Friday and an outdoor concert yesterday evening to round out the weekend. While Scott did some fishing with a buddy, the kids and I hung out with a little dancing friend...

and her awesome pooch, knitter mom (with another little dancer in the works), and cool grandparents.

I've been working on the body of Jesse's Durrow-inspired sweater, which looks just like the 2nd pic of this post, except longer. Only five or so more inches of mindless ribbing until I get to figure out the shoulder strap shaping. I'm surprised I've been able to work on this very wooly project into mid-July, but happy it's still moving along. I have come to believe that there's some sort of magic in coned yarns, which seem to last f-o-r-e-v-e-r, an admirable quality in yarn and even better when obtained at tag sale prices. :-)

priceless

Hanging w/ the fiber animals and their yarn at the farmers' market? Wonderful.

Running into friends I haven't seen in 20+ years? Priceless!



Buffet dinner w/ kids and a cluster of friends? Cheap.
Kids each off to see a chosen movie w/ pals (Kit Kittredge for the gals, Indiana Jones for the guys)? Free-to-us w/ xmas gift cards.

Knitting in the theater lobby's lounge for two blissful, uninterrupted, solitary hours? Priceless.


Evening visits with friends two other times this week, so far? Free.

The smiles, conversations, and connections that went along with those visits? Priceless!

red, white, and blue, knittah style

Whew, so a little bit of expected extra work this week turned into three days of covering somebody's full-time job, in addition to the evening plans every day. This means that the first day of this long holiday weekend morphed into a(nother) catch-up day for me. Luckily, we hadn't made any big plans for the day, since Leah woke up feeling cruddy and the weather is pretty dismal, so we're all just having a mellow day at home. Nice!

Still, it's the 4th of July, so when I thought of doing a blog post, I smiled upon the realization that the current works-in-progress are red, white, and blue!

First, there's Leah's February Lady Sweater, being knit out of three strands of coned yarn from our stash -- two strands of blue (one cobalt, one navy) and one strand of purple. Together, they read as a semi-solid, subtly mottled, purpley-blue.

The red and white (and gray) project is the beginning of a pair of Edelweiss Mittens. Rosie's Yarn Cellar blogged about them on Monday; I read the post on Tuesday and cast on that same day, having recently realized that all my current WIPs were mindless knitting and I don't like to do mindless knitting when I am able to concentrate on a project. I'm using some of the vintage wool my Gram gave me a few years ago, some of which was overdyed with Kool-Aid a year ago. I grumble a bit on the awkward few rows that use all three colors, but otherwise this has been a fun project that's zipping right along.

Happy 4th of July and happy long weekend!