Emerging Rainbows...

In what can only be described as a cruel twist of fate from Mother Nature, following an exquisitely sunny and hot May, June temperatures have gone back down and we've had enough rain that I'm beginning to wonder if I didn't relocate to Seattle without noticing.

Gypsy, aside from one escape trip off the balcony, has been working on her sunbeams and snoozing.  I finished up her scrap blanket, from which she monitors my computer usage.  It's done in the Log Cabin Style, starting with ten stitches in the middle, twenty rows per panel, turning counter clockwise I think?  It's very haphazard as it is the leftovers from the full bedspread size log cabin I made last year.  I didn't put any rhyme/pattern to the colors, just grabbed whatever came next out of the bag. It's double thickness--total of 8 squares that I crocheted together.  It's all wool--some super wash, some not.  I'll have to hand wash it--should I ever try to brave washing it...

Beware the things you say you'll do...they come back to haunt you.  My library is having a fundraiser for new lights or windows at one of the branches in the fall. It's a silent auction and in some particular fit of brilliance I said I'd donate something handmade. One of the local knitting groups is working on an afghan that will be part of this.

Fortunately (as I'd totally forgotten) the branch manager sent me a note to remind me what I'd committed to and giving me a due date of late August. Glad she did that in June!! I went rummaging through the stash.  I pulled out a stash of Zen Garden yarn that I got from the Sonny and Shear closeout sale and a dig through the pattern folders at Chez Hedgehog turned up the Falling Water (pdf link) pattern. I got out the swift (the ball winder has a permanent home on my kitchen table) and cast on. 


The pattern is pretty straight forward and I think it'll turn out nicely. It is deadline knitting but not secret knitting, which is a good thing.  I only got one repeat in before setting it down for another project but once I get the pattern memorized it should go pretty quickly.  I've got the first season of Numbers to help with that.



As I had the swift out, it seemed a shame to only be winding one skein of yarn.  So wasteful, right? And then I recalled the yarn I got in my first shipment from the Unique Sheep Sip and Stitch club.  It's the Green Sheep base and the colorway is called Persephone.  I was pleased with myself because I managed to put the skeins in the correct 1-4 order before I realized that they come numbered.  *Oops*


Notice the small gray cat sneaking into the frame. She was intrigued by the tea that was included.  It's from Goddess Teas by Dani. There's something in it that doesn't quite agree with me--so the rest of the loose tea will go to another tea aficionado who will enjoy it.

One of the other patterns I was considering for the September silent auction was the Traveling Woman Shawl. I've seen a number of others and Sheri at the Loopy Ewe has raved about the pattern. I have enough yarn to do one slightly bigger than the pattern is written (though to be safe, I'm not pushing it too much, I only have 440 yards). 

I cast on and whipped through the increases and two repeats of the first chart.  I'm down to the last 20 rows.

It's lovely and the yarn is perfect for summer knitting--light on the hands, and I don't have to worry about it felting.

Of course, those aren't the only knitting projects going on around here...but that's another post.