Rumor has it that there will be no zucchini this year.
The garlic, onions, and green beans look really good. The salad and lettuce are always welcome, and I've been developing a taste for kohlrabi. Caleb likes the bok choi in dumplings.
I'm back now. I'm planning to stay in Providence for all of August (with the exception of possible trips to Ikea or the like). I was at a professional development camp all this past week, and only got knitting done when I went to see the Star Trek movie. (The climactic finale ended up throwing off my ribbing. It was a good movie.)
Here's the sock:
I'm calling it the Ceilidh sock because I did a lot of it in Nova Scotia at various ceilidhs. (Q at one: What's a ceilidh? A: The Cape Breton version of a kitchen party.) (These that we went to were like concerts.) Something about the happy, frolicsome colors also makes me think of the music.
I haven't posted recently because I was on vacation in Nova Scotia. I was at CSI the first week of July, was home for a week, left for Canada, and am currently home for 24 hours before leaving for another professional thing.
I did get a lot of knitting done as Caleb drove the Cabot trail; I finished the knitting of the Providence Socks, did the foot and heel of the first of another pair of socks (to be known as the Ceilidh Socks), and got a bit of Juno done:
I have one more chart to do and I’ll be finished the first lace end.
As I was walking by the decorative basket where the Orange Aran is currently living, I noticed something on the ends of the needles. A tiny spider had set up shop and was spinning.
Of course, I did the only thing I could do: I made a bag to hide it.
(It's a neat corduroy with a floral pattern that I made a skirt out of. The basic idea is copied from my official Paw Sox Stitch and Pitch bag.)
I did, though, also work on the sweater a little:
(The spider didn't change the color of the sweater; I just changed the color in hopes of getting the pattern to show up better.)
CSI was marvelous. The classes I took were the two best I've had there.
I've gotten the second sock rather far along:
Now, there's just the laundry and the adjustment to the lack of classes, lectures, and mozzarella sticks for dinner.
At the New Bedford Summerfest, I got finished the first Providence sock and started the second. I also got to try shape note singing, which was truly awesome.
I'm now at CSI, and am knitting away on the second sock. I'd forgotten how quickly the little beasties go when one concentrates on them for a chunk of time.
I'm learning about Proto-Indo-European (the tastiest of languages!) and ancient food, as well as going to reading group (Ovid) and the lectures. There are at least two other knitters in the food class alone.
I really love CSI. It's so refreshing to come somewhere where I can talk about my favorite authors and sit on a couch with people and discuss consonant shifts.
This picture contains something that hasn't been seen in Providence for a while: sunlight. It rained 25 out of the first 29 days of June. There was flooding this week in many places.
If I wanted to live in Seattle, I'd live in Seattle. They have more options when it comes to coffee.
(Actually, it turns out Seattle has been much drier recently than the East Coast.)
I'll just watch out for it the squirrels and robins start lining up two by two. (Or are they the clean animals who'd be in sevens?)
Clapotis is finished!
Pattern: Clapotis
Yarn: Lisa Souza's Sock! in Mars Quake
Needles: 6 straights
Size: Clapotis-sized
Amount of yarn used: 810 yards/1.8 skeins
Source of yarn: Birthday present
Modifications: I changed the size
Thoughts: A fun knit.
Isn't it pretty?
I think I may have worn the smell off of the basil from sniffing it so hard. It's two plants; Pesto III and Pesto IV. (Pesto and Pesto Junior, our previous basil plants, have gone on to the big Italian restaurant in the sky.)
In knitting news, I wove in the ends on Clapotis yesterday. Now I just need to unravel and block it.
I started on the Juno Regina shawl yesterday:
The colors aren't quite that lurid in real life; it's gray and drizzly here (when is it not?), so I ended up enhancing them pretty strongly.
I've been reading a book on the history of standardized testing that is so good I'm rationing it out to make it last as long as possible.
I've started on the word at the top of the sampler. The names are charted out as well.
Woe! Angst!
So, yesterday I did my pensum of knitting: a full repeat of Clapotis. (Let us not speak of my pensa of prep for the coming year, of sewing, or of cleaning.)
As I was preparing to drop the stitches, I realized I'd forgotten to do the second drop on the repeat before. I tried dropping back along the edge, but it didn't work at all. So, I had to undo that day's work and part of the day before's.
Here's hoping it goes more smoothly as I keep proceeding along. I got the pattern for Juno Regina printed out and am looking forward to it.
Here's the current look of Clapotis's new corner:
I'm really excited that the whole working end fits neatly onto the needle with the stitch counter on it:
This summer, Caleb and I joined the Ledge End Farm CSA. I got to pick up the first share today.
In the picture above, spinach, salad greens, green garlic, strawberries, and eggs (not included, but we bought them; fancy eggs taste so good in quiche or egg salad.)
Broccoli rabe, bok choi, swiss chard.
Kohlrabi, radishes, garlic scapes.
I love the CSA; it gets us trying a really wide variety of things. It's almost like Iron Chef in figuring out what to do with it all.
My clapotis, it has three corners. Three corners has my clapotis. And had it not three corners, it would not be my clapotis!
Here Caleb is helpfully showing off the newest corner.
OK, it actually has five corners. Two of them, however, are temporary.
Each row is supposed to be getting shorter at this point, but it doesn't seem like it. I'm working on it, though, since I want to start on Juno Regina for when I got to my Classical stuff this summer.
I actually made some progress on the wedding embroidery:
My finger has mostly healed; luckily, it was such a glancing blow that the needle was never in danger. (I also have a card of extra needles, happily.)
I very much like my mother's idea that the Clapotis progress is a way of distracting from the sampler. Sadly, this is not so; I just haven't made any progress on the sampler since the last picture. I've had a bunch of stuff going on at work, and, among other things, I glancingly sewed through the tip of my left index finger with a sewing machine while putting piping on my 1859 dress. That's cut back on my guitar and embroidery.
Clapotis is coming along well, though. My in-laws and I went to a Paw Sox game last night, and I got almost three repeats done. I'm on repeat #20 now, and, once it's done, I'm starting the decreases. I think that my goal of having it finished by the end of June is in sight.
School is winding up, so I'm hoping that things will go smoothly and I'll get back in the saddle on my projects.
In the time since I last put up a picture, Clapotis has grown:
It's really coming along well. As per usual, I'm finishing it in exactly the wrong season. I may end up wearing it as soon as it's done anyway, though; the colors are lovely.
I hate "these current economic times." Not only are they causing all sorts of employment complications, but Morrison Office Supply (my source of fountain pens and fancy notebooks) and 729 Cafe (breakfasts, tutoring, and a nice place to go sit while doing work) have closed because of the economy.
In other news, I formatted over one hundred pages of a workbook today for my editing not-a-job. My eyes feel a little funny and I didn't get in the sewing or knitting or guitar I'd planned, but I can now tell the difference between a 12 pt and a 14 pt space while scrolling. (I also listened to a lot of my college music.)
Tomorrow, Clapotis. Really.
