Thursday, September 20, 2007

Rain and other gifts


It's been raining all day today, and I am just happy to my core. This summer's been hot as the hammered hinges (August set some kind of record, I think), and wiltingly humid. And no rain. All of North Carolina is drought-stricken, and for a girl who loves cool weather, rain and clouds, it's been a loooong season. Today's rain won't make a dent in the rain deficit, but it sure helps my personal outlook.

I'm working on the little 4-block sampler from Prairie Schooler's Thanksgiving Comes Again. Teresa at Shakespeare's Peddler converted it to Crescent Colours overdyes, and she did just a marvellous job. That's it at the top of this post. She's done conversions of several other Prairie Schooler pieces, and I have 'em lined up to start, just as soon as I get my hands on them.

I'm less happy with the current sock project. I'm doing my first toe-up socks, Elann's chevron-stitch pattern (can't find the link at the moment) in a 40-shades-of-green Koigu. I really really like the toe-up beginning and the chevron stitch instep and leg, but the heel is flat-out irritating and I've ripped it out twice. You'd think third time would be the charm, but it's got big ol' gaps where I picked up the wraps, and somehow I managed not to pick those wraps up evenly so I had three left on one end when I'd finished the other. The thought of ripping it one more time had me whimpering, so I put it quietly back into its bag until I can face it calmly.

May I whine a moment here? I miss a knitting shop that has actual TEACHERS and CLASSES, not a once-a-week groupknit where the shop owner is available to help you with your project. That works fine for some people, but I need a structured class. When we finally move to Michigan, I will find such a knitting shop if it takes me forever!

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