How Many Socks Is Too Many?

I've been so caught up in my garden lately that I haven't shown my knitting. I am really holding on to my resolve to keep knitting through my stash and finishing the projects I've started. I have only two big projects that I am working on right now and they will probably take me through the entire month of July. This blob is the first. The Diamonds and Pearls shawl from the Spring 2010 Knitters magazine. This was a lace class I took at Have Ewe Any Wool? my LYS. It started June 12th and ended on the 10th of July. I am now on the last repeat before the last 6 rows and the bindoff. Of course it is over 500 stitches per row now, so it moves along mighty slowly.
Customers who came into the shop as we were knitting all asked the question "How long is that going to take you?" as if the speed at which a project is completed is all that matters. All of us remarked that it took as long as it took. We were knitting something beautiful and there was no hurrying the process. I love to knit, I don't like deadlines when I knit, I am taking my time with this because it is a complex piece that challenges me, and I hope it will be an heirloom piece when I'm done. That all takes time. Does this make me a process knitter? I'm never sure.

Because I have to concentrate when I'm working on this shawl, I have another large but easy item to work on when I am watching TV or just too tired to knit on anything else. This is the garter stitch Diagonal Comfort Blanket that is meant to be a baby blanket. I am using the 9 skeins of Cotton Ease I purchased when I had the crazy idea I was actually going to knit market bags. What was I thinking. I divided the yarn in half, am knitting until I reach the halfway point of my yarn and then decreasing. I have about half the blue skein to go, then half a cream skein before the decreasing begins. I have no idea how big this will be, as it is scrunched on the needles and hard to measure. Hopefully it will be a good afghan size. I think I will measure it when I get to the halfway spot.

As I was straightening up today, I had a free moment and decided to count the number of skeins of sock yarn I have. It totals (gulp) 40 pairs of socks!!! The reason I did this was because I was going to order 3 of the new Felici colors from Knit Picks and wanted to check that I didn't have any that were similar. I have never had 40 pairs of socks at one time in my whole life. Maybe not in my whole lifetime. It does seem a bit excessive. But they are all so beautiful and I love the colors and the thought of all the beautiful patterns I can make.

So how many socks is too many?

The Colors of Summer

The garden is looking its best right now. Summer flowers in full bloom, variegated greens, bright yellows and subtle whites and blues. There is color in every part of the yard. Beautiful bright sunny hot days. We have been steaming in the 80's and 90's and haven't had any rain in my back yard for a week. That means a bit of watering will have to happen this weekend.

The sunflowers have started to open and are scattered all over the back yard and will open in stages so I should have bright color until the fall.

A garden surprise this year are five lilies that I swear I don't remember planting. I know it wasn't last year, so it must have been two years ago. Probably small plants that took a couple of seasons to establish themselves and flower. There are three in this deep red and two in bright yellow.

The garden is always giving us new delights to feed our souls.

On Vacation!

I didn't realize it has been so long since my last blog post! We were on vacation the week of June 25th and it's been so hot and sunny since our return that vacation just continued.

My summer days as a kid involved nothing more than beach and lake every day and I like to recreate that with the grandkids. Now that they are bigger, they are more independent and can go in the pool whenever they want. Ice cream, badminton, croquet are ongoing diversions and we've been having a wonderful time. On the hottest days we have just been staying in our bathing suits all day!

Needless to say knitting, housework and gardening have been taking a back seat to our mini-staycation. But the beautiful days of summer are so fleeting and the long cold winter so never ending, it is the right thing to do.

What was that?

The last day of school was yesterday. Nathan and Papa went golfing to celebrate. First a dip in the pool to wash off all the school cooties (is that a '50's thing?) lunch and off they went. Jordyn and I had some lunch and I was finishing up when she went to play in the living room. As I was sitting on the stool at the counter, I felt the stool shaking! No large trucks going by, but the air conditioner had come on. (This was the first day this summer we have put it on). I peeked down the basement, heard it making its lovely wishing sound and made a mental note to tell the DH.

Now, I will admit that for a millisecond I thought "Earthquake", but my mind whipped right past that to a more logical idea "Air Conditioner is shaking the house!" Right.

Surprise, surprise. There was an earthquake in the Northeast of 5.0, epicenter near Quebec around 1:45 EDT.

Why I Love June

There are roses blooming........

and peonies, too.......

we have 3 birthdays in June, one of which is mine. That means I've made it through another year!

These are the best days. The kids are still in school but the anticipation of summer vacation is almost visible. We opened the pool last week and had a wonderful few days of swimming. The water is 80 degrees already but the last few days and the week end should see more rain than sun.

I am taking a lace shawl with bead knitting class starting next weekend so yesterday I purchased the yarn and bling, oops I mean beads! Lovely Misty Alpaca in a variegated peachy pink with some greys or blues. The beads are a sparkly peachy pink.

Lazy Days of Summer???

We have had a fantastic May! A week of wet cold weather in the middle but now it's hot, hot , hot. Being a fan of temps that don't go much above 72, I must say 90 degrees is way too much for me. Record breaking hot temps means that our little corner of the world really doesn't get this warm and it is unexpected. I am not a person who complains about the weather (what good does it do?) so I'll take this in stride and hope we get more normal temps soon.

The above average weather means the flowers are ahead of their normal schedule. My lilacs came and went way too soon. The roses are about to bloom. The irises are on their way out. The lilies are right in the midst of blooming. So instead of blogging, I have been enjoying my garden. The clematis on the swing are spectacular and one of my favorite garden space, the shade garden by the back porch is looking its best right now. The different shades of green and blue are lovely.

Had a Nice Trip

This past weekend we went to Connecticut to celebrate a brother and sister-in-law's 50th wedding anniversary. We left early Saturday morning and drove to Elmira, got there by 10:30 and met up with another brother and sister-in -law, drove to Connecticut in their car, which gave me a few hours of back seat knitting and talking. We checked into our hotel and joined the family for a lovely dinner and talking, went to B&S in laws house to continue talking.

On Sunday we left for Long Island for a celebration brunch, about an hour and 45 minutes of driving and talking. Had a lovely brunch which lasted about 3 hours and consisted of talking and eating. Drove back with a different driver and co-pilot so we could talk some more. Had a little nap and washup and went over the house again to sit around and have pizza and talk.

Monday morning we met up for breakfast and ate and talked some more before we reversed the trip and drove back to Elmira and then on to Buffalo and home.

We took Tuesday to recover from the trip, but honestly it has taken me all week to get my energy back.

Don't knit lace when you are tired because this is what you get: a pile of ripped out stitches!