Dear Daughter (I know that you have been knitting lately),

And then you sent this photo of your little dog sleeping in a cowl that I made (for you). "For your blog", you messaged. Thanks, my blog could always use a good pet photo!

I know that you have been knitting lately.

You gave me that Honey Cowl project of yours (no project photos) when I saw you about a month ago, and you had me do a little repair work. (It really was not all that bad.)

Did you know that the yarn I gave you for the cowl was the Berroco Ultra Alpaca yarn leftover from the Feldspar pullover that I knit for your dad?

He wore it on Saturday when we went out to dinner while you were home for the weekend.

I cleaned up this pile of abandoned knitting from your bedroom floor where we left it after our abandoned knitting discussion. I ripped out the skinny scarf that you were teaching someone how to knit (and you don't remember who)... and the hat that you started that was coming out way too big.

I know how tough it is for newer knitters to rip out old knitting, but sometimes it puts you where you need to be to move forward.

I have a new hat pattern (I custom wrote) and yarn ready for you when you finish your Honey Cowl. I am looking forward to seeing the finished project. I love it when you knit, but I love you whether you knit or do not knit. Love, Mom.

(PS: Its been almost a year since I have had a new pattern in a magazine, but it looks like I am getting a sock pattern published next year! Yeah!)

And Some Days, Not So Much...

  ... not so much matchy matchy of my knitting color and my color wearing.


Last week I bought this

Hibiscus and Zinnia

and a lot of this.

Cactus Flower

I was wearing blue from head to toe.

It Works Both Ways

Just a quick post to let you know that I am still here.

(Recently,) I resumed work on my Rosebud Hat project right after I finished some knit samples that will one day appear in a book.

This day began as most days do... knitting with my first cup of coffee for as long as I was able.  I knitted the hem in the hat this morning.

After showering, I put on my workday jeans and a long-sleeved steely blue colored tee shirt.  I then carried my selected sweater for the day, my comfy gray (not hand knitted) cashmere cardigan, out to the living room and placed it down next to my knitting while I put on my shoes.

With these items nearby, I had a most pleasant thought... one that is all about my memory and my history and is probably a Colorwork Meditation in itself...

I have long remembered... and I have been know to speak of this memory...  from one day during my very first art course at college...

The professor asked us to select one pastel of any color from our box of pastels.  He then asked everyone to raise their hand who selected a pastel matching the color that they were wearing.  We were all surprised that at least two thirds of the class had raised their hands.  (Including me in green.)

Today I decided it works both ways, when after knitting for an hour in blue and gray, I selected those colors to wear.  (And even though it is a fact that I wear a lot of blue and gray, I had considered a brown sweater before I carried the gray one out to my living room.)

And anyway, you do know that it made me happy to think about it working both ways, right?  Color can make me happy.

White Skies Ahead

A friend of mine once told me that I am an optimist for calling a sunless winter sky "a white sky".  She said that most people would call it gray.  (I have that going for me.)

On New Year's Day 2015 my family and I unexpectedly lost a good friend and neighbor.  (Too soon after the death of my aunt and godmother.)  Sometimes planes full of people accidentally fall from the sky, and sometimes school buildings full of innocent people are shockingly and senselessly destroyed in violent attacks by others who have lost their own humanity.  These are difficult things to wrap our minds around.  We must try to remember that life, even in its darkest moments, must be appreciated each and every day because of the fact that all who live will die one day.

Today we have white skies, and even though I do not want to begin putting away Christmas things, that is largely what this day will be about.

An angel sat on our treetop this Christmas season.  I took this photo Christmas evening.  (I used a photo editor to add more light.  Not one of my better photos, but I did have a houseful of people that night.)

I am thankful that my own home was so full of love and laughter on Christmas day and then all through the evening with both close and extended family members.  I was surprised that most of them came back again the very next night!

Our angel was a gift from my mother.  I do not remember what year she gave it to me/us, but I believe it was before my children were born.  This year, after a week where our little angel shone as brightly as ever in her lofty perch, her lights went out.  Most of the bulbs (many are inside the skirt) were burnt out and blackened.  It was the day before Christmas eve (my late aunt's birthday).  I fetched my step stool and brought our angel down to begin replacing all of the (10) bulbs.  I plugged her into a nearby outlet.  She lit up for about a second and then she burnt out again.  Next, I enlisted Mr K who tested the bulbs (and other things?) with his (voltage?) meter (maybe someday I will tell you more about my total non-desire for knowing more about all that is electrical).  Mr K did his testing for a while until he actually found a partial break in the cord, near the plug end.

I forgot to mention that somewhere in between my replacing all of the bulbs and Mr K finding the damage to the cord, we went out to dinner with our dear daughter.  While out, we stopped for replacement watch batteries at a Rite Aid store.  I never in my life thought that they would have a small string of white lights on a white cord, but I asked my daughter to look.  She found just that, and it was half price, and I bought it.  And so it was that late on the night before Christmas eve, I found myself pulling the old light strand out of our angel and replacing it with a new and brighter (20 bulb) one.

I am getting a little long here, but I took some photos of other Christmas things that my mother gave to us before I packed them up ready to go back in the attic.   

      
My mom always enjoyed going to "ceramics" where she would purchase unfired clay pieces that had been formed in molds.  She cleaned and painted them for glazing in a kiln.  The taller tree was a gift to me when I was in my 20's.  The smaller two were made for my daughter and son when they were little.

I had fun with this centerpiece set by filling the bowl with two of my most recent yarn purchases.  I always love a good red (Malabrigo Rasta).  The variegated forest green sock yarn was the November 2014 colorway of the Rockin' Sock Club (the photo does not show its true beauty).

I wish you a happy and healthy 2015!  Remember to look for as much white lightfulness as you can find when skies turn gray (and cherish fond memories)!    

Cross Promotion (& Life in General)

It's about time! 
cross pro·mo·tion (noun) the cooperative marketing by two or more companies of one another's products.

I just checked, and it was way back in late August that I received a lovely personal message from Claudine at Classic Elite Yarns. She congratulated me on the publication of my Rosebud Hat and she went on to add:

 "I am writing a post about the hat for our blog, most likely [it] will be published the first week of Sept. I mention in my post how knitting fair Isle in the round with 2 hands is the most efficient method. I googled 2 handed Fair Isle to see if there were any great posts about how to do it…only to find your blog was one of the top hits. I would love to link to that post on our blog. Please let me know if this is ok.

I will let you know once the post is live, so you can cross promote it if you would like."

Of course, I said "Yes (please!)".  And I told her how much I loved working with the Fresco yarn by Classic Elite. Good stuff, that Fresco!

Claudine forgot to let me know when the post went live (entirely understandable) and I forgot to look for it until near the end of September.  At the time, I was right in the middle of my own (self-promotional) series of posts on my Playground Shawls and I could not work in a cross promotion.

High time for it now!  Please visit the post by Claudine at CEY.  She describes my hat far better than I could myself and she features another very cool colowork project, Grapevine Hat by Amy Loberg.  (It is a free CEY web letter pattern.)  And, (Thanks, Claudine!) at the end of her post she does have a link to my extremely popular Colorwork Tutorial.

But Claudine is not the only one writing about me!  In my last post I mentioned how the organizers of the Ravelry 2014 Gift-A-Long have been doing a phenomenal job.  There are volunteer designers assigned to all these different jobs and some worked on things like advertising, and social media promotion.  All of the designers who blog (including me) were assigned other designers to interview.

I was SO VERY lucky to have Arlette designated to interview me!  Please go here to read the interview!  She works by day as a web developer, and is a great photographer as well.  It shows at her blog!

(The designer I was assigned to interview has not replied to my request to send interview questions to her by email.  It's entirely OK.  It's a busy time of year and she may have faced some obstacles similar to my own.)

Lucky for you and for me, Arlette also agreed to be interviewed by me (it was my own idea, because I like her blog and her designs) and I have her answers, and that will be my very next post!
 
(In case you have noticed that I have been absent for a while... I had an important magazine design due this Friday, and I can report that I have just completed the work on time.  As the deadline approached, I was delayed due to a death in my family.  God bless my Aunt F.) 
       

Randomly I Write (About Saturday)

1. Mr K and I went to a beautiful and extremely enjoyable wedding on Saturday evening.
2. The bride and groom, our friends, are just a bit younger than us but older than most wedding couples.
3. We had to get up very early on Saturday to make it to the wedding.
4. The wedding was not far from our home, but we were vacationing last week in North Wildwood, New Jersey.
5. Most east coast weekly rentals are from Saturday to Saturday.
6. If you leave an Atlantic shore point at any time from mid to late morning on a Saturday, you can expect a very -s-l-o-w- ride.
7. We left much earlier.  
8. Part way home (actually at a mid to late morning time) we stopped to "check in" on our children.
9. One of our children was moving into a new place on Saturday.  (We could not help, because "We had a wedding to go to".  But all was well... help was on the way.  BTW:  The new place is pretty cool.)  We had a late morning outdoor brunch with our other child (who lives not very far away in another pretty cool place.)
10. How did these (once very tiny and totally dependent baby) children get to be such accomplished and fun to visit young adults?  
11. We rested at home for a bit before I began to put my outfit together.
12. My latest FO is "The Color of Flowers".
13. I finished (seaming) it the day before we left NJ (Friday).
14. I wore it to the wedding.

Project Name: The Color of Flowers

Pattern: Vine Street Tee by Amy Herzog

Yarn: The Fibre Company Canopy Fingering
Color Name: "Guava" 

On the Blog

Today is the third anniversary of this blog.  Here is the very first photo from my very first post three years ago.

I took the photo while on a special vacation trip to Bermuda in 2007.  It shows a flowerbed at the pink "Princess Hotel" (the Fairmont Southampton).

On the first anniversary of this blog, I was vacationing at St Thomas, USVI, and I was proud to have posted about my first Blogiversary while being so far from home.  (I was anxious to keep up with the blog while one of my first knit designs was just out out in a magazine.)

Here is a photo from that trip in 2012.

The photo is of a tree branch at Lindquist Beach.  I was happy that I caught just enough of the sun through the branch in my photo.  I was laying on a chair on the beach under the tree.  Loved that. 

Last year I forgot about it being my Blogiversary (or, I think that I remembered it, but I also thought that self-congratulations would be a boring topic).  I did post a Colorwork Meditation (#7, no less, my favorite number) on the day.  That post contained this photo (not by me) of Josef Albers, Homage to Square, collection.  Love it.

Photo credit: http://igetitart.com/tag/josef-albers/

Today, then, begins the fourth year of the blog.

I was thinking that I might briefly share some of my blogging experience.

There are spammers, and worse, "referer" spammers, who have caused me grief... but that has mostly died down.

I (once, not long ago) had a vacation post with a good number of links that I believe was being used by someone for advertising purposes.  It was getting a crazily growing number of page views each hour over several days.  It made me nervous.  I deleted it, but then I re-posted it without the links.  I was not able to preserve the comments or page view numbers, but at least what I wrote and all of the photos are there.  (Last I checked, it still had zero views.)

I do enjoy going to my blogger stats page.  I like to see all the page views that my tutorials (especially my colorwork one) get everyday and from all around the world.

Is it funny that I have no worries about readers (who I imagine to be knitters) from India or Argentina or Korea viewing my blog in good number, but I do worry about unknowns (who seemed to be "storming" the old there)?

Lastly, thanks to my new blogging friends!  You know who you are.  You blog.  I blog.  You comment.  I comment.  I love that you are there! 

On the Needles

Linen.  Linen.  Linen.  I do love to knit with linen this time of the year.

An earlier detail photo of my current linen project... a project that I have become quite obsessed with finishing...

 This is where I was about a week ago...

   Project page (Ravelry):  ckknit's Die Cut Vest
            Pattern:  Die Cut Vest
        Designer:  Sara Morris
    Yarn:  Shibui Linen, four 50g skeins in "ash"

A week ago, I was in a perfect place:  The second half of my vest was started and the first half not quite done.  I had lace knitting to work on whenever I wanted (knitting lace is fun), and plain stockinette for the times when mindless knitting was better for whatever reason.

But now, with the first half completed, all that is left is about 5" of straight stockinette.  At about 10 rows to the inch (well, if I actually can take the boredom of it all) I could finish the knitting in about a week.  And I think that I might.  I would love to see this piece completed.  Blocked and finished and ready to wear.  (Do you realize that this being a knitted piece, and with an odd kind of non-shaped front neckline, I may actually find that I do not like wearing the thing at all?  I always say, you have to have a certain amount of faith when you knit.  This project requires all the faith that I can muster.  I am determined.)

So, this is me now, "On the Needles".

"On the Bright Side"

The winter solstice occurred on December 21 in the Northern Hemisphere.  With the Earth’s North Pole at its maximum tilt away from the sun, locations north of the equator saw the sun follow its lowest and shortest arc across the southern sky.  The good news is that for the next six months, our days will grow longer as the sun spends more and more time above the horizon.  Even though it has been ridiculously cold here, I am very glad to be on the brighter side of winter.

I have some belated "Bright Side" stories from that solstice day.  It was a Saturday afternoon, and I went to my LYS, Gosh Yarn It!, for a holiday "Stitch-N-Spin".  There was a woman, who I will call C, sitting to my left, who I had just met for the first time.  I learned that C was a friend of the shop owner, Jill, and that she was an on-again / off-again kind of knitter.  When I sat down to join the group, C was happily knitting away on a garter stitch afghan for her son.

Next comes a sad part of the story... C found a hole in her approximately 3-4 feet of afghan.  Then she found another.  And everyone was concerned and trying to decide if it could be repaired.  In short time, it was concluded that a mouse might have done it.  There was a small hole on a bottom edge of her laminated burlap bag.  I was consulted (I do teach there) and I suggested that the one hole seemed like a slit and might be repaired by placing each side (4-5 stitches) on a dpn and working a Kitchener stitch to graft it closed.  I said that I thought it best to rip back to the other, more irregular hole, because it would only be a few inches of lost knitting.

Jill began to work on this for her friend.  I returned to sitting and knitting and talking to the others...  C was somewhat disturbed that there was a mouse in her house and then everyone seemed to have a mouse story to share...  (I was wondering why a mouse would bother C's knitting under her bed, if the house had a kitchen with food in it.)

A little more bad news... as Jill began working on the afghan, the yarn that she ripped back kept breaking...  again, and again... so, it was then (I think correctly) concluded that the damage was probably caused by moths...

The get-together ended all too quickly (4:00 PM).  Many of us (including me) were happy to have had a lovely break from our own holiday preparations.  I never knew I loved mulled cider until I tasted Ann's.  A student of mine, who I had not seen in ages, told me that she enjoys reading this blog.  I left the shop with a happy heart.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE:  The very last thing that C and I talked about was that she was glad (very glad) that it was moths and not mice.  I said that I agreed that this was a good thing.  No one wants mice in their house.  (Later, I wondered how much other wool yarn she might need to put in her freezer; and I have not heard what became of the afghan.  I will have to remember to ask Jill.)

ALSO ON THE BRIGHT SIDE:  A day or two before the solstice, I found something that I had lost.  I mentioned in a post in October that "I found my mother's (handwritten) directions (for an old little neck scarf) on a small piece of paper when I went through some of her knitting things."  What I did not mention was that I had the idea to include that small piece of paper in the photo of the scarf, but I could not find it.  I happily re-found my Mom's pattern during the search for a hat pattern that I mentioned in this more recent December post.

A "multiple exposure" collage created in Picasa3.

I'm pretty sure I remember the sun being very bright on that solstice day.  One day this week was the first day of the year 2014 that the sun set after 5:00 PM local time.  That makes me very happy.  Enjoy the sunshine whenever you can!      

Lessons from My Old Scarf Box: #3 Some Keepers

"I have a lot of old scarves that were stored in a plastic box on a shelf in my closet.  These are really very old scarves that I have not worn for years and years."

In my previous "Old Scarf Box" posts, I talked mostly about what I am giving away.  This time, I will share some keepers.

This scarf was a gift from one of my oldest friends.  We both share a love of art and craft, and she has always been generous in her appreciation of my own fiber crafting.  This was an early example of handicraft brought to our country from an organization similar to the Manos del Uruguay cooperative.  (The name of the organization is lost to me.  But I do remember that it was woven in a South American country, by a weaver who earned income, and hopefully gained financial security and self-esteem.)  Though I have not worn it for a while, I know that I will keep it always.

My mother made this little neck scarf.  She made a lot of them.  I found her hand-written directions for this on a small piece of paper when I went through some of her knitting things.  I think that she had them dictated to her by her older sister.  I know that I have seen similar patterns around, but this is not a new design.  If you look closely enough, you can see that an edge needs a little repair.  Of course, I will always keep this one.

And now for something completely different:

I found this old tartan plaid scarf in my old scarf box.  You could say that it is not of high quality:  It is kind of scratchy and has a zig-zag stitched edge.  I bought it somewhere, some time ago.  I am sure that I bought it because I have always liked to wear a bit of red from time to time.  It is photographed with my Tartan Mitt swatch and the leftover yarn that I am using to make myself a pair of Tartan Mitts.  I just cast on the other day, and I Ravelry-named my project "Pop of Red".

The lesson for today:  love the things you love because of why you love them.   And:  it is probably a good idea to go through your old things from time to time.
   

Lessons from My Old Scarf Box: #2 Novelty Yarns and Manufactured Knits?

"I have a lot of old scarves that were stored in a plastic box on a shelf in my closet.  These are really very old scarves that I have not worn for years and years."

In my first "Old Scarf Box" post, I told you about "the set" (now in a bag and ready to be donated).

More memories... I will try to be brief...

On the left side of the photo above is a smallish basket weave patterned (looks good on both sides) scarf in a silky and tweedy brown yarn (mostly acrylic).  I knit a bulky, cropped sweater that I wore hundreds of times with one strand of that brown yarn and one strand (or was it two strands?) of natural wool worsted weight yarn.  I remember wearing the sweater and scarf with a very long dark brown, and twirly, tweed coat.  Back then, I made a lot of the clothes that I wore everyday.

My bulky 2 or 3 strand knit sweater is only a memory.  Why have I kept this little brown scarf for so long? 

The blue scarf is garter stitch, knit with a slubby and tweedy novelty yarn that was bought for almost nothing at a nearby fabric and yarn store going out of business (many years ago).  Not sure if I ever wore it.  I do not remember wearing it.

I do remember wearing the manufactured knits in this photo.  They were gifts.  Once again I can actually see some wear in the gloves.  But I have not worn them for years, and with all of my more recent handknits in abundance, I am certain that I will never wear them again.

There are no good reasons to keep any of the items shown here.  They have been added to my Salvation Army bag.

My lesson for today is that now that there is some space in my old scarf box, I can better store some of my newer scarves.
 

Lessons from My Old Scarf Box: #1 What Happens to Old Knitting?

I have a lot of old scarves that were stored in a plastic box on a shelf in my closet.  These are really very old scarves that I have not worn for years and years.

Some were hand knitted.  I made them many years ago.  I pulled the box down because I remembered this set.

I was planning a design that I thought had something in common with these pieces.  I did not get anywhere with that plan, but I also did not miss out on the learning opportunity that was in my box.

1)  The mittens were actually used the most.  The edges are grayed and fuzzy.  Simple and practical items do get used.
2)  I never wore the hat.  I do not wear hats unless I really need to, and this particular hat was (from day one) very loose.  It could use a band of ribbing.  There is actually a seam (near bottom of photo) in this hat.  I would never make a seamed hat now.  Ill-fitting items with questionable construction will not be worn.   
3)  I do not remember wearing the scarf either. It looks OK, but has an edging that won't stop curling, or, I should say flipping.  I don't really like the scarf.  Right around the same time that I made this set, I also made another natural colored scarf -- all in seed stitch and with a light fringe.  I wore it often, and I still like it best when I go skiing.  I have a strong preference for scarves that look good on both sides and have neat edges.  Sometimes good design is in the details.  (And, in the case of the seed stitch scarf, I repeat: Simple and practical items do get used.)

Why have I kept this set for so long?  Many times in recent years I have remembered this or that sweater that I knitted and loved, but that is now only a memory.  It saddens me that, try as I might, I cannot remember when or why I gave up many items of my beloved knitting.

Of course the answer is that they no longer fit or flattered in terms of what was current.  Or they showed signs of wear... graying fuzziness, spots or even holes.  But I did let them go when it was time.

At opposite extremes are those that were loved and worn to death and those that were never quite right and eventually discarded.

I will donate the set to the Salvation Army Store.  It is the right thing to do.
   

Angel Blue

A new color in the paintbox of my life is "Angel Blue".

I bought a new pair of sneakers (running shoes) last month.  I usually wear sneakers as my everyday shoes.  You might do so, as well, if you "worked out of your home", as I do.  Several years ago, I got into the habit of buying white walking-shoe type sneakers because they were comfortable and I liked how bright and clean they looked when they were new.  But my daughter (in her early 20's) called me out on this about three years ago.  She took me sneaker shopping, and I bought a silver, white and blue pair with a lot of mesh fabric and other layers of lattice-like cutout things.

A year later, I shopped on my own, and bought a somewhat similar pair.  She said that I did OK.

Then after another year (last month), I was on my own again, and I was surprised to see that most of the new sneakers are very colorful, as in neon.  Go look.  You will see what I am talking about.  At a Dick's Sporting Goods store near me all of the women's running and cross-sport shoes had way too much color for me.  In the last row there were a few pairs of those white walking-shoes.  I knew that they would be comfortable, but after my daughter's training, I thought that they looked too old for me.  I am not ready to be any older than I have to be.  I went back to the center display.  I tried on a shoe which had non-neon, softer colors, but there was  a whole lot of purple.

Someday I will talk about purple.  I am a firm believer that you cannot really have a favorite color because all colors depend on their surrounding colors... but, I do have to admit that for most of my life, if I had a least favorite color, it would be purple.

Those shoes by Brooks had some very vivid turquoise with the purple.  They were comfortable, but I did not buy them.

The next day I thought to look for the shoes, Brooks Ghost 5, online to see if they came in any other colors, and they did.  I liked the combination "Dark Denim, Angle Blue and Silver" quite I lot. I ordered them.  Here I am wearing them...

I am happy with my purchase.  I think that they look youthful enough.  I had not thought about "Angel Blue" before.  It generally means a pastel blue, but I also think it has a special brightness to it... closer to blue-green than blue-violet, but more like with a touch of turquoise or aqua...

When I was home from my final vacation of the summer, (We spent one week in August at the New Jersey shore.)  I saw more shades of angel blue around me.  On my little table near where I knit, there was this little book that I bought at a shop in Cape May.

GIFT FROM THE SEA by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

I have not read the book beyond the introduction, but I believe with all of my heart, that somewhere in there, I will find the words:  

"One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few." 

Which I quoted in a past blog post. In a neat connection... I began that last September post with, "As summer is slowly leaving us..."

Anyway, to get back on topic before I close this post, even one of the yarns I have been working with has some of that Angel Blue.

 

And once again summer is slowly leaving us...

         

And Not More (of the same)

This past weekend I was in a city that was not Philadelphia.

We went to New York to meet friends and we stayed two nights.  We had two great dinners and saw two great shows.  New York and Philadelphia are about the same distance from my home.  New York is a difficult city to drive into, and parking there can be costly... so, as for most of my previous trips to that amazing place, we took a bus.

By far, my best photos of the weekend were of One World Trade Center and a view from above the 16-acre World Trade Center site.

The tower and its spire are looking pretty near done, but if you look closely, you can see that a crane is still at the base of the spire.

Here was our incredible view of all that was below -- the 9/11 Memorial site.

The twin reflecting pools are set in the footprints of the twin towers.  Each one is nearly an acre in size and they feature the largest manmade waterfalls in North America.  The building behind the closest one is the 9/11 Memorial Museum.  (It did look like a giant motor home with a plastic slipcover.  I did not ask about that.)  In the foreground there is a concrete pad that will be a new subway station.  That fact interested me and I took this photo.

I have not talked about my own day job here, but it is an engineering kind of a job.  With so much work in progress on the pad, I knew that it would look very different there before too long.

We were on a 38th floor balcony of a hotel restaurant, and I kept thinking that I was hearing the waterfalls of the pools below.  My husband, who is a more technical hands-on engineering person, told me that what I heard was actually some kind of air hammer on a floor above.  I did not get to hear the waterfalls, or see the pools up close.  I will have to do that on another day.

It was my husband's friend who brought us to this place.  He is a construction engineering consultant who has been involved in the project for several years now.  He explained how the completion of the pools and museum by the tenth anniversary of 9/11 were so important to so many people, and yet, their presence now is somewhat of a daily hindrance to all the work that is still going on.

When we walked some of the streets below, I could not help thinking about all that had happened there.  There is a kind of spiritual presence, that can be felt all around that place.  It was quite a contrast with all of the activity at the site and the energy that is everywhere in the city.
          

More of the Same

We were back in Philadelphia.

We had drinks at a bar on the deck of this boat.
It was my birthday.

They had a lot of plants.

 

It was extremely hot.  (When the heat gets a bit oppressive, all I do is remember the dark frigidness of winter, and I feel fine.  I think to myself that if I could feel this heat for just 10 minutes in January, I would absolutely love it.)

 

I have not posted in a while because I have nothing new to post.  I am working hard on some designs that I cannot share.  I have done an amazing amount of swatching.  Bit by bit, swatch by swatch, I have been figuring  out what I will do...

Sometimes it feels all a jumble.  But I keep on with it.

I never stop knitting.
The answers come slowly...