We interrupt this blog absence to bring you a post

Summer has arrived with a wee bit of a vengeance, and my garden needs work.  Today has enough a breeze that I think I can get some weeding done without being eaten by mosquitoes.  They were out in droves, swarms and several other groups yesterday!

Much knitting has been happening.  And I even have photos!  I worked on some projects to demonstrate yarn dominance.  Does it exist?  Is it a figment of some knitters' overactive imaginations? 

A Pair and a Spare and a Sock

 Assuming that the analysts will grant that the samples were knit by a competent knitter and do not suffer from tension problems, I think the projects show that yarn dominance is indeed A Thing, but is more of A Thing with some patterns than others.  I began my little experiment with the leg of the sock, and quickly discovered that carrying my yarns willy-nilly didn't produce the atrocious results I was looking for.  If you look closely at the sock, you'll see that the band of diamonds DOES have some black diamonds (the rightmost two) are a bit smaller than the others visible in the band.  And there's a bit of kettle-dyed effect going on, where the red darkens in patches. 

Except the yarn isn't kettle-dyed.  It's as solid as Brown Sheep can make their lovely Wildfoote sock yarn solids.  I switched to another pattern, hoping for worse results, and got them -- but only upon careful inspection.  So, another project was called for.  Norwegian Mittens! 

After my somewhat failed sock sample, I decided that yarn dominance fails probably stick out best when there's a yarn dominance success story to compare it to -- so I worked up a pair of mittens with white dominant, and then launched into a third that begins with green dominant, and switches to 'whatever' after the thumb gusset is set aside. 

The Pair and a Spare in a Tea Shoppe

Sitting in a local tea shop on a hot day with a workbasket and some mittens to finish ... what could have been more delightful?  Can you tell which mitten is the spare? 

The May mail brought me a cardigan.  I had to put it on right away, to make sure the sleeves were as long as I had thought they were when I mailed it off to the designer.  They were!  I thought I'd have to set it aside until October, but we had a few cool days that allowed for its wearing. 

Grace: The Cardigan

In other news, our dog - like all canines, and indeed, like all people - is getting old.  He has a limp - unless it's possible to have more than one limp, in which case I'd give him 2 or 3 of them.  Arthritis in spine, hips, and shoulders, plus some neuropathy in the hind end, and we're not sure how much longer he will be getting around.  He still loves going on walks, and prances like a puppy for the first 30 yards or so, before settling in to whatever gait works that particular day.  When we were up at my mom's, he made several slow treks around the yard, catching up on the smells, before heading off through ditch and cornfield to see what he could find over in the woods.  He found a minivan with someone who stopped to see if the poor doggie was lost!  His new best friend!!

Quality of life?  He's got it. 

A friend asked for a photo of the counterpane progress, so I took a break from knitting it to get the 28 completed squares sewn together.  Voila!

I'd be roaring along on that, but another project cropped up with a deadline, so I cast on for a vest.  I knit up some swatches, made some gauge calculations, plotted out how many stitches to cast on, considered the increase after the ribbing, didn't like my figures, changed them, cast on, still didn't like the figures ....

 

and after a decent interval, pinned it out and took a photo.  Because photos lie MUCH less than the actual swatch does.  It's knitting, you know, and knitting stretches.  This photo is NOT of a 40" vest.  So I left it pinned out (because otherwise, I would convince myself that it was 40"), recalculated, re-cast on, and am merrily sailing away up the back of a vest.  

If I weren't, I'd probably be knitting a Nattroje in HolstGarn's Coast.  Or Frangipani's Falmouth Navy. Or .... so many ideas, so little time!  I've got some lovely skeins of yarn marinating in the stash, too, that should be lovely finished projects.  But one thing at a time.

Today's thing:  Vest + Weeding.