oh . . . yawn

flower of the day: eggplant

i am SO tired these last few days.
i’m trying not to be a pill about it but man, something has whupped my a$$ good this week.

of course, it could be the hours i’m keeping . . .

but then, how can one waste time sleeping when there is so much to look at these days?

i don’t have these little cuties on just one plant—suddenly, all the tomato plants are sporting fruit.

not to be outdone, the lilies are piping right up with their chorus from the back fence

it’s a real distraction from the decrepit state of that fence . . .
here’s the one i sent to claudia this morning

to wish her great good luck on her ride for MS this weekend and on securing the number 1 for next year’s ride. and you know claudia—competitive is her middle name. just to make sure NO one beats her to that number, she offering a special raffle prize for donors who give between now and monday morning.

i’m SO proud and grateful of the knitting community this weekend—pulling together to raise lots of money for a good cause is a wonderful way for us all to say “we are here”. our knitspot community has represented over $8500 of the total she has raised—THAT is a lotta dough. can’t wait til sunday to do the drawing—it will be a fun way to close this celebration of generosity.

ok, and now back to my knitting . . . i have a fella here that is making noises about being ignored. tree scum has been very understanding but is a little sick and tired of getting a couple of rounds knit here and there. so i made a bargain with it and said i would post this handsome shot for you all to coo over

(just give it a lil’ sumpin, ok?)
by the way, i know a LOT of you have been loving this yarn, which is a handspun from a one-off dye lot, and so not readily available.
HOWEVER, teyani and klaus have the perfect substitution in the dicentra alpaca/merino sock yarn they carry. if that moss colorway is not the spit-and-image of tree scum, i’ll eat my hat. and it’s a luxurious yarn, to boot; i’m going to be knitting with it soon, in fact. in another colorway, though.
the only thing wrong with it is that name—it really should be tree scum . . .
i think that would sell.

oh YAWN. what else have i got for you.

OH yeah.

this morning i got up early and blocked the bee shawl . . .

and i know you happen to like blocking shots.

and i am an enabler of the highest order, whenever i can be of service

i have to confess that i almost ripped out the edging again—i had a half-hour or so of flagging faith in my second choice.

(c’mon—tell me you wouldn’t have considered it too, if THIS is what you were looking at)
but seriously, i just couldn’t. and you know what? i’m really happy with it after all.
calling debbieKnitter and talking about something else for a while righted my perspective (ha! you had no idea, did you debbie, that i was having the edge crisis of my life??).

and in the end, all is well with it—it IS the light, flipping, airy edge i had first envisioned to top off the wavy grass panels. sort-of flowerlike, but also looks like a swarm of no-seeums (remember, we’re in a summer field here, not my living room).

here’s a super-closeup of the join at the back neck (it’s just a few kichener stitches—not even as much as a sock toe)

and now we pull back for the long shot

i just never have a real sense beforehand of how affected i will be by this shot—i mean, EVERY time i see a just-blocked shawl, i just gasp. i was SO worried that the piece was way too busy, and not sure i had a grip on keeping it an organized chaos rather than just a mess, you know? i can hope, but it’s not the kind of thing i can really plan on every time. so when it looks right, i feel a bit faint from relief.

and wow, i am really happy with that part. to me, this piece is totally chaotic and busy, but all in a good way—looking at it really makes me feel like i’m standing in a rye field in new york state, in the hot sun, with all of micro-nature swirling about me.

and if i wasn’t worrying about the mess, i was fussing over the final size. i know from your feedback that you like a big shawl (he-he. you’ll be sorry you said that when the rows reach 500+ stitches . . .) (just kidding—i honestly don’t think the rows get much above 450 . . .)
pre-blocking it was a bit shrimpy

(this was the shawl at 4am—seriously, it was all i could do not to sit up and watch it soak). i succumbed to the urge to try it on and do a quick-and-dirty (not that kind of dirty) modeling shot, pushed it into a pan of lukewarm water, and then went to bed for a couple of hours.

it has grown quite a bit after soaking and stretching.

as someone once said, “it’s good to have done it”