One of six children, I was raised by a busy mom, who instilled in me a love of fabric. Though I learned to sew and knit at a young age, it was the arrival of my first grandchild that pushed me into action. A long-time knitter, I am now ready to explore all things fiber.
Despite my moodiness, I managed to complete a little knitting project this week. The pattern for this knitted and beaded collar, above, is found in 60 QuickLuxury Knits, published in 2014 by the editors of Sixth and Spring Books. I suspect that it is now out of print. I bought mine through an on-line used book store.
There are likely to be similar pattern on Ravelry.com.
As I was knitting, I thought about the late Justice Ginsberg and her iconic fashion (and political) statement collars.
One of many obituaries published last year.This one is known as the Dissent Collar
Mine was made with some fingering weight yarn found in my stash. The charcoal yarn is a blend of silk and wool. The pink is a blend of rayon and wool. The beads are 6/0 glass seed beads in a color called Red Rainbow, from the local hobby store.
I hope I get to wear mine soon. One couldn’t choose a better role model than RBG.
While sitting on the porch this morning and staring at the remains of my coffee, it occurred to me that now is the dregs of summer. With nearly four weeks remaining, it feels like summer is in its worst stage. A late August heat wave has knocked the wind out of summer’s creatures.
Hydrangea’s brown flowerheads
By 9 am the thermometer has already reached 80 on its way to a dance with 100 degrees later today. The trees and shrubs are shedding some of the extra leaves they had optimistically grown earlier this year when rainfall was plentiful. In an effort not to add insult to injury, I have stopped mowing the lawn. It hardly matters, since the grass stopped growing once the heat and dry took hold. Well, except for the crabgrass. That manages to hog all the available moisture to itself.
Slightly fried hosta
I am keeping the birdbath full, although birds are in short supply this morning. Hardly anything is moving. Even the cicadas are silent. As I round the corner of the house on my way to the front yard, I encounter an exception.
These two little goldfinches had been feeding on echinacea seed heads. They scold me for disturbing their breakfast and fly up to the neighbor’s roof.
Continuing on my way through the gate, I spot one plant that is happy for the heat.
This lantana, which had been nothing but leaves all summer, suddenly burst into bloom. Like it was waiting for a hot dry spell. You won’t be surprised to learn that lantana is a plant of the southwest.
Lethargy is setting in. My husband gave me the third degree about my mood. Must I have to have a reason for feeling morose, dear? And if I do, must I tell it?
My mood doesn’t improve when I again ponder the dregs of my sock yarn skeins.
The cowl project I had started last Monday was not inspiring me anymore. I don’t know what it is about a cowl. It sounds like a good thing to knit, and yet, when it is done, I never seem to like the result.
That’s enough for now. To avoid pulling you, my dear readers, into my state of lethargy, I will close this sad post. Perhaps during the week-end I will have something creative to share. The heat is supposed to moderate a little.
This painting started life as a practice sky. I stroked ultramarine blue over the top 2/3rd of the paper, let it sit, and then lifted off the cloud shapes with a wet paper towel. Today I added the sea and sand with inspiration from a photo by Cristian Cabral on Unsplash.
I chose this image because of the foamy waves and dark-colored sand with footprints In addition to the Ultramarine blue I used raw sienna, burnt sienna, paynes gray and a tiny bit of new gambose to make the trees a bit green. Paper is Fabriano Studio cold press cut to 6×9 inches.
You can view more images by this photographer here:
Not sure why it took so long. I guess that I was having too much fun on my recent vacation to focus on knitting. I also had no internet access for almost two weeks.
The pattern is Hermione’s Everyday Socks (for some reason, I am unable to pronounce that name!) I made no adjustments to pattern – just knit exactly as written.
I enjoyed this pattern and would consider using it in a future project. They feel a little loose – guess I should have used a smaller needle size.
The yarn is Wisco Sock from Ewetopia in colorway Superior.
Here’s the link to the pattern. There are 34,000 projects attached to this pattern in Ravelry. Even for a free pattern, that’s a lot of endorsements. If you feel compelled to give it a try, click here:
Daily Fiber 