6.27.2011

June

Things may have been quiet here on my wee knitblog but such has definitely not been the case here in my wee life!

June is a perennial scramble, both literally, in terms of my "perennial" and vegetable gardens and generally in terms of demands both domestic and social as summer approaches, the cottage opens up and the school year winds down.
Such great colours...so motivational to cook when everything looks so great!


Martha Stewart "Summer Pudding Terrine"

Martha Stewart's "Mustard Rubbed Port with Blackberry Mustard Sauce"


I've been baking and cooking a lot, and hosted a birthday dinner in the garden in mid June for My Beloved.


I love how my Mother In Law's china looks in the garden with its sweet floral motif!

We took delivery of new beds.
Uncertainty is so disconcerting for a dog! "Where'd all the furniture go?"

This prompted a cascade of shifting furniture and lighting affecting numerous rooms in the house. One aspect of this was the dissolution of Number One Son's "childhood" room into something more befitting and literally "fitting" the lanky, sprawling six footer than the little blond Lego loving boy for which the room had been set up.

I dedicated a week of mornings to the school's used uniform sale and wrote upwards of 60 thank you notes on behalf of the parent community to the teaching staff good enough to voluntarily dedicate hours and hours of their time to providing extracurricular opportunities for the lucky students at Number One Son's school.

I also worked a weekend at my Obedience Club's annual Obedience Trials as a newbie Ring Steward. About 100 dogs were judged in our ring (one of 4 at the show) over the course of my assigned shifts. It was great experience for me as I sort out how to proceed with Hudson's training over the summer and towards Trials next autumn and the following spring.

On top of it all this year my mom has not been well and is requiring quite a bit of support (This has actually been going on since January)

And my new "Trainer" (pictured below) has been madly driving my ever older body miraculously towards ever greater fitness (For example I've lost no weight but I'm down 2 1/3 inches around the hips since this time last year!)

The "Hey its time for a walk!" look. What a task master...all he needs is a whistle around his neck!
To return the "favour" I spent a marathon 9 1/2 hours over two days washing, drying and sheering off his voluminous coat to produce something more fitting the warming weather.

Most evenings though I have managed to find time for a few rows of knitting to work away on the most miraculously enjoyable project I think Ive ever cast on!

Its the Ginko Shoulder Shawlette by Maggie at Fragrant Heart Creations and I'm working it in the gorgeous Viola yarn I bought at the DKC Frolic in May.

I grabbed this project at 5:00 a.m. the day we left for Bermuda, wound the ball and cast on during our flight then mindlessly enjoyed the stockinette portion of the knit over our lovely long weekend on the Pink Island.

Once home I started on the charted lace border...one repeat of an easy 34 row chart.

While watching baseball and the hockey playoffs and "The Killing" on AMC I worked away, had the odd missed yarn over, tinked back, fixed things up and started off again.

Through it all I have never stopped really enjoying the project. I've frequently imagined I should rip right back to add more stitches for a bigger shawl using more of the yarn.

The yarn is so wonderful. The subtle colour variation between brown, grey and blue is so sophisticated, easy to look at and wonderful at enhancing the stitching. It also feels great on the hands and is wonderful yarn to work!

This morning I was a bit sad as I worked the last row of the chart. "I will miss this chart", I thought. Then I took it off the needle just to open it up and really check everything before casting off and realized in my happy, yarn blinded knitting I have utterly misread the chart, adding huge chunks of stitches where none are intended to be. I've counted the spaces indicating "no stitch" as "Sure! put a stitch in here!"
All the stitches between the column in the centre and the start of the lacework aren't supposed to be there!
The stitches between my fingers aren't supposed to be there either!
Rip, rip, rip...'looks like I won't be missing that chart any time soon! but while I'm at it, I think I'll add a few a  more repeats across the width because I now I'm sure I have enough yarn for it!

Thanks for dropping by!

9 comments:

Mary Keenan said...

ohhh, you're inspiring me to get moving on my current projects so I can cast on with the Viola I also bought at the show ;^)

Sandra said...

It actually didn't look THAT bad... But being able to make it bigger, and extend the enjoyment - priceless!

Lisa R-R said...

You are very honest to show us the "mistake", which as Sandra says doesn't look that bad ...
The yarn looks delicious indeed.
Now you get a chance to knit it again!
Have a great summer.

Stephanie said...

Ha! What a good reason to not have to stop knitting. :)

Rue said...

I can see why you want to rip back but I'd be tempted to call it a "design feature" and gift it to someone who wouldn't notice. Or grab a glass of wine and get it right. I'm glad you get to have more fun with the chart!

LaurieM said...

Ah shoot.

Oh well, more knitting time with a yarn and a project you love? There are worse things.

Acorn to Oak said...

What a fun post! You have been a very busy lady! Sounds like you've been having lots of fun through it all though. Hudson is soooo adorable! Sorry to read that your shawl has too many booboos that you'll have to rip it out. It's going to be gorgeous though. That yarn is beautiful!

Lorraine said...

Lace can be tricky- but that is beautiful yarn, and you'll love the finished project.

Hudson looks great in his new do.

Brendaknits said...

I thought the shawl pattern was meant to be like that and my immediate thought was - "How lovely."

Your china looks lovely and it is so nice to know someone who values the skills of cooking, hosting, setting a lovely table etc.