Finding Beauty

Hello Gentle Readers. June is such a sweet month. A friend, now gone, once said to me, "never pass up the opportunity to see beauty." I think of her during the summer, the season she loved.

Lately I take two or three short walks a day.  These days, I am able to walk with more ease but proceed at a leisurely pace. Today I noticed the shadow of a fluttering butterfly on the sidewalk and looked up to find a yellow and black swallowtail disappear among tree leaves. I don't know that I would have noticed that flitting shadow had I been walking at my usual fitness speed.  

Wednesday is the day to link with Kat and the Unravelers. It's always fun to see what others are making and creating. I have an almost finished sweater. After knitting each sleeve, I tucked the ball of yarn into the sleeve so it was out of the way. Flipping those back and forth was comical. Later today I will bind off the neck ribbing. Both sleeves are on waste yarn. After blocking the sweater, I will check the sleeve length, make adjustments, and then knit the cuffs. I faithfully counted and marked rows between decreases on each sleeve. When I got to the bottom of the second sleeve, it had 46 stitches. Just for fun I counted the remaining stitches on the other sleeves and found it had 43 stitches. I was shooting for 44 stitches. Egad. I'm chalking the discrepancy up to recovery knitting on pain medication. If every knitted item tells a story, this one could be a book. 

I knit to the halfway mark on this shawl.  After knitting as far as possible with the rose colored skein, I attached the second one. Now every other row decreases. Although I increased during two more repeats than the pattern suggested, the shawl looks a little skimpy to me. Since the yarns are superwash wools, I hope the piece blocks out a bit larger. Time will tell. The colorway name of the variegated skein is Prairie Flower and it is pretty. 

I'm reading  All The Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley.  What I know about art and art history wouldn't fill a thimble so I am enjoying this peek into the art world. Growing up I was always more interested in music. This memoir is an account of the author's time at The Met as a guard. In that position, he had access to the behind the scenes spaces as well as the magnificent artwork and artifacts. The back of the print version has a list of artworks mentioned and ways to access most images online. There are also some illustrations included in the text. I've visited the museum once and would love to return one day. 

Have a good week. May you encounter June's beauty during the days.