Late Summer Musings

I don't know what it is about summer that makes me so nostalgiac, almost homesick, for my childhood. Is it the hum of bees in the flowers, the heat and humidity, the more languid pace, the summer diet with its abundance of fruit? Whatever it is, I find myself thinking back more and more to my childhood home on the northwest corner of Baltimore, in a then-undeveloped neighborhood that was bordered on 3 sides by woods. I can almost smell the soft scent of the azaleas that heralded the coming summer; every house had its pathway lined with these bright bushes. And I can see the 4 o-clocks and phlox that grew along our patio wall. I was fascinated to watch the 4 o'clocks open every afternoon- and remain asleep on cloudy days. I remember our neighbors' rhodedendrons (orange) and mophead hydrangeas (blue and pink and lilac). I can taste the punch my mother used to make from fresh Maryland strawberries (we never had soda in the house in those years), and I can still enjoy fresh local peaches with sugar and cream; that was often a hot weather supper in our house.

Well, whatever it is, I've been missing it intensely and trying to recreate it however I can. I've been enjoying our local Jersey peaches and tomatoes (this has been an exceptionally good year for fruit). I pulled Betsey-Wetsey out of storage to model my baby knitting. She like me is a Baltimore girl, coming from I & L Toys, now defunct, on East Lombard Street. I grow a lot of hydrangeas, some of them mopheads that shade from blue to pink to lilac. I've planted black-eyed Susans, in honor of my home state. Even my knitting is meant to soothe my nostalgia. Especially the cotton knitting I've done with Peaches & Crème; I'm sure it's the imagery on the label of a ripe peach and a jug of cream that reminds me of home.

My new project in Peaches & Crème is a kitchen towel; the pattern is by Janet Carlow. This will be the first replacement of our old kitchen towels (if DH and I like hand-knit towels, that is).


I finished the Diagonal Baby Blanket

and made a berry-nice hat as an added bonus:


Summer is fast-over; nights are already cool, even if the days are hot. Now I can knit again with wool. Yesterday, I began DD#1's belated birthday present (her birthday is late May; she didn't need a wool sweater for the summer, right?):

The pattern is Bonne Marie Burns' Twist hoodie, and it's available at her site, ChicKnits (link on the sidebar at left). Yarn is Rowan Magpie, saved in my stash for a special present. I think a birthday present for a dear daughter counts. Which reminds me again about Betsey-Wetsey: she was a birthday present too; I got her for my 3rd birthday. I lost her original clothes but have long dressed her instead in cast-off baby clothes from my brothers and now from the daughters. She was a big part of my summers in Baltimore; she was a playmate when no one else was around. DH thinks she needs a hat of her own. And I think she needs a sweater to match it.

While Waiting for the Cavalry

While waiting for the US Cavalry to arrive (being the VA's payroll service has merged with the DoD's it's apt), I finished a bunch of stuff with yarn on hand.
First, I modified Elaine Fitzpatrick's slipped-stitch bib (find the stitch pattern on her website at Down Cloverlaine, it's called Rhonda's Delight) to make it into an over-the-head bib. I sent it along with the blanket, and have heard that it fits the recipient.

Next, the matching fingertip towel to the facecloth:


The rainbow blanket for DD#2 is ready to go down to Baltimore with her next week (so soon?):

And finally, I figured out another way to make an over-the-head bib; I think I like this one better (pattern is just garter stitch but it looks fancy in the ombré yarn; I'll be writing this up and posting it as a free download to Ravelry):

Betsy-Wetsy agreed to model this one, though she is up in years:

Sure hope the cavalry arrives soon, before I run out of stashed yarn!

Baby O Baby!

So a buncha people I know are having babies- must be in the water or something. One, a former post-doc, is about to become a papa for the second time. He's from Peshawar, Pakistan, and whenever his mother comes to visit from home she always brings me exquisite jewelry. So I'm making a nice cuddly blankie for the child-to-be, in Caron Simply Soft Brites. Based on comments over at Ravelry, Simply Soft has a nice hand coupled with easy care. I ordered a skein in nearly every color, to knit into a rainbow of feather and fan stitch (hey, it's easy and fast and needs little blocking). It arrived the other day and I set to work. Casted on 180 stitches, worked 4 rows of garter stitch in Blue Mint, then switched to Berry Blue and the FnF pattern stitch. Two repeats of FnF, then switch color to Grape, then to Watermelon, and so on. When I've done a rainbow of colors, I may switch to 4 repeats for a couple of rainbows, then end with 2 repeats of FnF in the rainbow sequence and the garter band. Oh, and I have 6 stitches of garter on each side. See how it's looking?

Now I remembered that DD#1's oldest friend and his wife are expecting their first child too. I have known the young man since he was 2 1/2 years old, playing Haman at the synagogue's Purim pageant. Cannot miss marking this event. So what should I make the baby blankie out of for this one? In the end, I decided to make it out of Pisgah Peaches and Creme in Rainbow. Love the colors, and think the mother will like that it's cotton. At least, I hope so.

Bluebell is finished; pattern will be uploaded to Ravelry soon.

When it is, the link will be on the sidebar at left. The Lily of the Valley scarf is slow-going. Two reasons I can think of for this. One, the yarn is darker than I normally work with, so I require fairly bright light. Two, the nupps really make me nuts; even though I do them easily enough, they just slow down the knitting a lot. The Estonian Lace Group on Ravelry discussed this pattern and quite a few members found it boring. I don't finding it boring, but I can see their point. And to think at the end I get to save live stitches, reknit the edging, and graft together. Oh joy, I can't wait. /sarcasm.