Stitching into July

After the barrage of fireworks, the days have been blessedly quiet. Saturday, a hard rain and a cold front cooled and cleared the air. Beautiful summer days of sunshine and light breezes followed. Walking these mornings is lovely. In my garden, I watched a gorgeous rust and dark brown moth/butterfly with striking markings. I have no idea of his proper name but decided seeing him was enough. The bees are buzzing around the cucumber blossoms and I picked the first handful of cherry tomatoes and had a little snack right in the garden. 

Today I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers to post about making and reading. My knitting mojo needed a boost so I cast on this summer top, twice. After completing the short rows on the first attempt, I decided eyelet sleeves were not for me. I ripped out the rows and started over. In all my years of knitting, I've never knit a summer top so I thought I'd give it a go and see what happens. 

I finished the traveling socks. I enjoyed the yarn in the socks. There is a bit of an ankle stripe because at 30,000 feet I decided to knit the heel with the main color instead of messing around and possibly dropping a small ball of yarn. I noticed the pooling but kept on knitting. By the time the plane landed, I decided to live with the stripe. Next time I use this dyer's yarn (and I will because I like the base) I'll use the contrasting color in the heel to avoid pooling in the ankle. 

I knit a third little pumpkin hat from leftovers of two skeins. That little piece of yarn was all that remains. I won this round of yarn chicken. This hat is for a babe that will be a cousin to the twins. All three babies are due to arrive around the same time so all three can wear pumpkin hats this fall. 

I stitched two more cloth pouches, one for my daughter (not pictured) and another for a niece. I've enjoyed picking out pieces from all of my quilting leftovers. While making these two, I figured out a way to line and stitch the edges so all raw edges face the wrong side and are enclosed by stitching. I also reinforced the top of the body with a piece of binding.  

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While working on the pouches, I decided I wanted to know more about embroidery. As a girl, I learned a few basic stitches and then later did counted cross stitch. I bought a nice used copy of Elegant Stitches, a dictionary of embroidery stitches with some other bits of information. I can find instructions on-line but I wanted a little reference book of stitches in one place. 

In the same vein, I'm listening, via Hoopla,  to Threads of Life: A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle  by Clair Hunter. I listened to the first chapter last night. It promises to be an interesting view of history. I finished the first buddy read with my grandson. He chose the Newberry Award winning YA novel, Hoot by Carl Hiaasen. A young boy takes on a bully and ends up in quite an adventure and making a difference in his community. Micah loved this book so I'm anxious to talk with him. I'm also reading a new-to-me poetry anthology by Jane Hirshfield, The Asking: New and Selected Poems. These days, as Kym wrote in a post, poetry is a balm for the soul. Hirshfield makes me think and I admire her metaphors that often refer to everyday objects and events. 

Wishing you a quiet peaceful week. Breathe.