Hello Gentle Readers and Hello June. The weather here dabbles in summer. For the past week, we've experienced scattered thunderstorms nearly every twenty four hours. The rain is very welcome but comes with warmer temperatures and higher humidity. Monday was downright steamy. Flowers bloom, bees buzz, and a swallowtail floated by the other day. Volunteer larkspur bloom against the new fence. One cluster of sweet peas blooms early and the yellow lilies are full of buds. The weeds thrive but the soil will need to dry before I can weed.
Today I link with Kat and the Unravelers. The top photo shows my knitting for the week. If you think I like the color blue in any shade you would be correct. That is any blue that doesn't come with the term, black and blue. The toenail doesn't hurt anymore and I can easily wear my gardening and walking shoes. Hooray for small wins.
I continue to work on and enjoy the Gemma Shawl. I've reached halfway in the stitch count although probably not the halfway point in the project. Math never was my strongest subject. I cast on a hat with sock yarn scraps in a variation on the LOSY (Leftover Sock Yarn) Hat on Ravelry. I'll link my project with information at the end of the post. In theory, knitting with sock yarn held double is a great idea but I find it hard on my right hand. Sarah's "Same As It Ever Was Hat" would be a better way to knit a warm hat with fingering weight yarns and I am sure I could use coordinated scraps.
After knitting two different gauges in the same swatch, I searched the Modern Daily Knitting "How To" articles for information. I vaguely remembered skimming several from the website. Skimming would be the apt description because gauge is not that much fun. Patty Lyon writes understandable explanations on technical knitting questions. This one is no exception. Being a Type A, I have always knit tidy garter edges on the bottom and sides of my swatch. It turns out that can distort the gauge. Ahh, I've been knitting since I was ten or eleven years old but still have things to learn. I'll knit another swatch without a border and compare the gauge. Good thing I bought an extra skein.
This week I'm rereading Rock Tree Bird by Twyla M. Hansen, a former State Poet of Nebraska. Hansen lives in Lincoln and grew up on a farm in Nebraska. Her poems are of the Great Plains. In this little volume, she wrote about rural Nebraska as well as her parents including caring for her elderly mother, a dying friend, and other living creatures. Although published in 2017, revisiting them now is seeing them with new eyes.
I'll leave you with some photos I took of my pollinator garden. I just sowed zinnia seeds in that bare patch. The butterfly bush didn't make it though last summer and this year the bunnies mowed off bachelor buttons. Generally they leave zinnias alone. Perhaps not visible in the close-up photo of the flowers, a bee visits the pink salvia. What is growing in your neck of the woods?
Ravelry Links
