What I did this summer...

...so far.

A rainy summer can be oh so productive.
The Kitchen Sink Bag


Hanging out by the kitchen.

The Sockapaloozas. I confess it was a bit of a wrench to send them off – I did it very quickly on my way to an appointment, and didn't even document what I put in the box with them. I really hope my sock pal likes them. She is traveling til mid-month, so they will be waiting for her when she gets back.

The ubiquitous Monkey Socks (in what I have dubbed the Margarita colorway) - now nearly done.

Thanks to an international plane flight, and then an opera CD I had to listen to, these have been zooming along. (I listen to a lot of music. The initial reason I took up knitting, little realizing it would become a mania of its own, was that I wanted something to do with my hands while I listen to music. One side effect, sometimes positive and sometimes not, is that I always feel I am imprinting something of the music into whatever I’m knitting at the time. My very first sweater is associated for me forever with the amazing Steve Reich, whose subtle repetitive patterns enhanced the apparent monotony of an all-over K5, P5 rib. But the opera I had to listen to yesterday wasn’t very good, so I hope my Monkeys are not tainted by it.)

My first, huge Sidewinder.

It does fit, but it's loose on the foot, and oh my is it enormous.

My So-Called Scarf, in progress.

The yarn is gorgeous, and I’m so pleased with the way this scarf shows it off. But my decision to knit it double-stranded, combined with the fact that I only had size 9 needles on my voyages, have resulted in a dense, tweed-like object that resembles, at the moment, a lengthy and rather unyielding oven mitt. I’m debating whether to live with it like this and see what soaking it in Eucal can do for it, or to try it again on, say, a size 13. (I suppose I could always USE it as an oven mitt.)

Now, looking back on my earlier list of goals for the summer, I am amused at my fickleness. I met pretty much all the sock goals. The other goals? What other goals?
And I now have a whole new list for August - things I would like to do in an ideal world where the unpleasant task of earning a living did not intrude into the daily creativity, and I had enough time to write AND to knit. Let's see how far I get.

EZ’s Baby Surprise Jacket. I have leftover yarn a-plenty, and two new babies to knit for. I am hoping to knock at least one off at next week’s Stitch and Pitch.

Another Ida doily. My aunt and her husband have birthdays two weeks apart this month, and these will fit their house perfectly. They live in a late 18th-century edifice which they have been laboriously and lovingly restoring for about 10 years now, so the combination of old-fashioned and homemade that these doilies represent should work well for them. (Though I have to shake a lingering feeling that giving my aunt something I made myself smacks of the fifth grade. Maybe I should add some popsicle sticks or something to get the proper effect.)

My tweed jacket (tentatively dubbed "Crossing the Chanel" for its various inspirations)

is just waiting for a burst of energy. I love the way it looks – this is one where I caress the fabric a lot as it emerges – but it’s a slow knit.

And then: Emerald Seas? This competition? (I don’t read this woman’s books, and they don't appear to be my kind of thing, but I’m a sucker for a competition.) Something with the linen in my stash? Or my long-coveted bamboo top (SWTC Bamboo is on sale here)? Or shall I just plunge into my first cable sweater from this book?

Here's what else we did this summer:


saved the lives of three adorable baby hedgehogs.