August's End

 

Hello Gentle Readers. Here, late August days are slightly cooler. While the crab grass and other weeds grow, the zinnias bloom brightly. Yesterday I saw a yellow swallowtail butterfly from my kitchen window. Monarchs flit around the zinnias. Some evenings, a bumblebee snoozes underneath a flower. Today while walking, I noticed ash leaves on the ground and a few maples have an early hint of red. The season begins to turn. 

Today I link with Kat and the Unravelers. As promised, I'll write about the vest I recently knit. I like the fit that gives me a little less than four inches of positive ease. The yarn, Juniper Moon Rambouillet, has a lovely hand. I'd knit with it again in a heartbeat though I don't know for sure how it will wear. By the time I was finished, I had blocked the upper part of the vest at least three times and the fabric wasn't any worse for it. 

The pattern is for either a classic V-neck or round-neck vest with nice attention to detail. The increases along the armhole and neck become a design feature that made picking up stitches for the ribbing go smoothly. The suggested ratio for picking up stitches also worked well. If you recall, I had a slight flaring in the ribbing around the armholes but that blocked out nicely. I chose to do the round neck because I knit the vest with DK instead of worsted weight called for in the pattern. If my row gauge differed from the pattern, I thought a round neck would be easier to adjust. As it happened, that wasn't necessary. I did add an inch length to the yoke/armhole because I often need that modification. The fabric grew a little with blocking so the armholes are slightly deeper than necessary. If I knit it again, I'd knit it per pattern instructions. However it fits well enough. All in all, the pattern and the yarn made for a successful project.  

I read We The Women, The Hidden Heroes who Shaped America by Norah O'Donnell with Kate Anderson Brower. This nonfiction is a collection of short pieces about women trailblazers, including women from a variety of cultural and racial backgrounds. While I learned of several women I had not known of, for example Anna Dickinson, Belva Lockwood, Emily Roebling, and Mary Tape, I found the journalistic writing flat. O'Donnell inserted personal reactions in italics often followed by exclamation points (like this!) that I found unnecessary. One of her often used phrases was "Can you imagine?" Less emphasis on the suffragettes would have left room for writers like Nella Larsen and political trailblazers Shirley Chisholm, Margaret Chase Smith, Bella Abzug, and Ann and Cecile Richards. Although most of the women from previous eras stirred up plenty of controversy, the authors avoided women of our current time whose politics might be seen as controversial. While the premise of the book is admirable, it wasn't well executed. 

Some of the Bruno mysteries are now available via Hoopla audio from my library system, so I listened to The Dark Vineyard by Martin Walker. Although about half-way through I identified the culprit, I enjoyed Bruno's romp through the French countryside. Listening to a story of a kind compassionate police officer is a nice diversion from the news. 

Have you noticed the change in the light?  Below is the sky that greeted me as I rounded a corner on Monday morning.