I've fallen in love ....

with a new pattern. It's a Sivia Harding pattern, and that doesn't surprise me. I love a lot of her patterns. This one is a glove pattern and that does surprise me.  It's summer. It's hot out. The last thing I need right now is a pair of wool gloves, but there you go. Illogical knitting urges. I plan to get the pattern, check the stash for appropriate yarn, then go buy some beads and have it ready to go for a vacation knit. We'll see whether I stick to that timetable or not. ; )

I took a few photos of my resurrected lace project - the Curved shawl with Diamond edging. This first photo is just relaxed on the deck to show the amount of shawl I have knitted (which is much larger than it was about 3 weeks ago).

 This is a stretched out lace photo attempt to show the lace pattern, which is really quite pretty. I was not feeling well enough to get out pins and a board to take proper photos with.

 I also took a few photos of my Pogona shawl. I pick up this shawl when I want something light and easy to knit on.  I've knitted 9 inches (length) in the center (pictured below), and have to go to 14 inches for the next step.

There are increase stockinette sections alternating with reverse stockinette sections, and you add the increase sections at different time points. The shawl is supposed to sit nicely on the neck and shoulders. I'll let you know. Meanwhile, it's an enjoyable knit.




I am trying to finish off the last few inches of the Calendula sock for Sharon but not having a lot of luck. I keep going back to the cardigan I am knitting for myself. I have about 3 more inches to knit even, then I start arm scye shaping on the back of the sweater. The sleeves are already knit. : ))

Spinning efforts center around spinning this wonderful Icelandic fiber.

I had been aiming for lace weight but it will really be more of a fingering or sock weight yarn than lace, but that's OK. I love it. (There is my little sample skein in the bottom of the picture, just below the spindle)
I have the lighter grey, pictured in this photograph, and a dark, charcoal grey in a lesser amount that I will spin to use as a contrasting edging. I think. I don't know final yardage, and I haven't chosen a pattern yet, so it's possible it will be striped, but I think edging. ; )


Sunday was Father's Day. Bob and I thought of our dads often through the day. They are both gone now but still very much with us in our hearts. On Saturday we went with younger son and his partner Chris and Chris's dad out on his dad's boat. We had a nice time socializing and swimming to cool off. On Sunday Bob and I went out on our boat. I was sick, (actually, I felt like crap) so this was truly a sign of love on my part. Bob wanted to go so much, I didn't have the heart to tell him that I just wanted to go to bed. So we went, and had as nice a time as possible. He caught a few little perch and we found a new fishing spot to try next time.

Eldest son got a new-to-him used car yesterday. The guy was a real a**hole - misleading us (and not correcting the mis-information at several time points when it would have been very appropriate) about the inspection status, which is a big deal in Maryland. You cannot register a car until it has passed a very thorough inspection, which usually means some expensive repairs. I wanted to ditch the while thing but I was out-voted. The car is a Nissan Altima, 2000, and in outwardly pretty good condition. We'll see what the mechanics say at time of inspection.

The Seasons of Lace Summer 2011 voting should be completed today. I'll be heading over there a little later to see which shawl was voted in for the KAL this summer. I have already resurrected one of my WIPs (see above) but will knit the KAL shawl, too. Seeing the nominations also brought to my attention some shawl patterns that I had not noticed before, and I will be knitting Jared Flood's Juneberry for sure, with or without a KAL, in some yummy brown alpaca I've been hoarding for several years. I bought it the first year that Stitches was in Baltimore, so that's been hanging out in my stash for a while. I have two 500 yards skeins of it, so there's the potential for more alpaca goodies ......  in the fall. No alpaca knitting in the summer for me.

I plan to take part in this year's Tour de Fleece. I have not yet settled on all of my goals. For the Spinners Study group, I will take on challenge # 1 " To spin and present your findings on the fiber of a breed of sheep (or species) you have never before worked with. Any breed, whether it has been studied in the group previously or not. It just needs to be new to you! (This could include processing and spinning a type of fleece you have never before processed as well.) "
I have some Romney from Melanie that I washed last week. I can prep and spin that since I have never knowingly spun Romney before. For the Spindlers group, we set our own goals, other than to spin on a spindle. I may just keep up with spindle spinning the Icelandic for that group challenge, maybe a minimum amount per day. That will help with my divided spinning attention and allow me to make progress on a WIP. ; )
I was considering spinning some cotton that I  have at home on the two new akha spindles I just bought as my difficult challenge on the special challenge day. Maybe .... We'll see how my energy and frustration level is at that time.
If I get my wheel back (on loan) in time, I may try to finish up spinning the Corriedale pencil roving I had started a few months ago. I need to spin part of one more bobbin, probably another whole one, then ply it. I have N plied one bobbin already. That will be a secondary goal, though, and I may well not get there. That's OK. The spinning doesn't end with the TdF.

Happy First day of Summer 2011.