The Obvious Question

What else would you do once you've finished one shawl?

Has an obvious answer.

I Gotta Feelin' Called the Blues

Observant knitters that you are, I imagine you noticed that the only real knitting that has happened here at Chez WoolGathering since May is the Melody Shawl. That real knitting, however, has produced that astounding, amazing thing, that Holy Grail of the Knitting World, a finished object in time for Stitches Midwest.  At least, it will be once I cut it open, knot the fringe and block it.

I have to admit, this was fun.  It shouldn't have been.  It was 800 yards of light fingering weight yarn in stockinette stitch in the round with two fiddly twisted stitches to over-look darn near every  round. It should have been onerous.  It should have been mind-numbingly boring. It should have been, at least by the second skein, a tedious exercise in discipline and determination.

I blame the yarn.  

July in a Nutshell

So that was June. I'd like to be able to say that it all slowed down in July, except it didn't. There was the parade (not a single picture this year, even though we combined the Pirate's graduation party with the picnic). There was getting the Pirate set up with his sheltered workshop, some of which involved him making his displeasure over my Phoenix trip known. Then it got just too hot (not 115 degrees F hot, but then, here in the Midwest it's not a dry heat). Too hot knit on big woolly projects.

Of course, that didn't keep me from trying.

I tried to knit on the Original Afghan in the Round and made the interesting discovery that seed stitch is hotter to knit that stockinette stitch.

I tried to knit on the Last Gasp of Winter.  That one needs to marinate while I reflect on what to use for the next solid yarn.  Decisions, decisions.

I tried to knit on The Sweater.  Did you know that contemplating 1x1 rib is just as hot as knitting seed stitch? Came as a shocker to me, too.

Which is how I came to ascertain that the Melody Shawl is the perfect July-in-Chicago-when-you're-hideously-over-scheduled knitting. 

Soft. Lightweight. And it spreads nicely when you're trapped in over-air-conditioned spaces

but scrunches up small once you've been released.

It Was a Dark and Stormy . . .*

. . . Spring.  And early summer.  So I left it all behind to go to Arizona, where dark and stormy are so far removed from reality that the words may as well not be in the  dictionary.

Arizona is interesting.  Did you know that in late June in Arizona, if you want to let your host's dog out into the (astro-turf) yard for a morning run, you need to wear shoes because the pavement and fake grass are too hot to walk on without risking injury?

Did you know that in Arizona, Saguaro cacti substitute for trees for bird's nests?

Did you know there is a cactus called Grandfather's Hair?

Did you know there is an awesome yarn shop called Knit Happens?

I got souvenirs.

The yarn is not local (it's Malabrigo sock in Arbol to feed my shawl obsession) (I thought it looked desert-y) but the stitch markers are.  Somewhere there's a little white organdy drawstring bag with the rest of them.

I tried to blog about all this while I was out there.  I just couldn't figure out how to get any pictures off my camera and onto the dinky notebook thing I'd brought along on the trip - no cord and I couldn't find a port for the camera's memory card.

Finally, let me just say in words of (mostly) one syllable,  I don't care how dry the heat is, once the temperature is over 115 degrees F, it's too damn hot.

*Second in what I hope will be a series of getting you all caught up on the last 2 months.

Celebrate!

It was a big day.

And he did a really good job holding on to his dignity.

Until the end.

Eh. dignity is over-rated.