Summer Normal

Well, Stampede has come and gone and things are returning to their more normal pace around here.  I always find it's a little hard to concentrate on knitting in the summer.  There are just so many distractions!

I find knitting at night seems to disappear and nap time knitting only seems to occur when I finish doing 85 other things first.  That isn't to say there hasn't been some progress- it's just at a slower pace.

In a fit of productivity, I blocked the stripey blanket a day after I cast it off.  (I'm convinced my body has been invaded by something that actually completes things on time!)  Stupidly, I did not take a pic of the blanket blocking, (I've been blogging how long and I drop the ball on this!?!), but I did get my MiL to snap a pic of the yarn I purchased (and sent home with her to wind), to do the border.

I know it seems a little counter-productive to buy a new skein for a stash down blanket, but it was necessary.  There just isn't enough yarn to finish a crochet border on the stripey blanket.  And this blanket, it NEEDS a crochet border because it's going to curl, most likely even after blocking!  And so, I tried to get the closest yellow to my original that I could.  Given that I bought the original yellow something like SEVEN years ago... the fact that I even got the same color family of yellow, is nothing short of a miracle.  (Original yellow was Koigu, this yellow is Spud & Chloe- but same  weight.)  I hope that it won't be too obvious that the two are different.  It they are- I'm just going to have to live with it!  Um.... any suggestions on a MASCULINE style crochet border?  The blanket is definately more masculine than feminine and I'm struggling a bit to come up with the right "guy border".

I've also been cruising along on my plain Jane socks that I started way back in Maui!  As predicted, I finished the first sock on my car trip to Saskatchewan.  I've decided I need to learn how to graft toes properly, (I got dinged on it this year in the judging...) and so I've left the toes to graft some afternoon when I can devote my undivided attention.  Instead I cast on sock #2 and have already moved at a decent clip on that one.

In the hopper, and hopefully on the needles soon, (after the socks), I'm going to cast on some mittens that I promised my MiL back in Feb.  I've been throwing the grandkid at her as much as I can in order to hopefully deflect from the fact that these mittens are super, SUPER... S U P E R late.  ;-)  I also need to knit a couple of hats for August and September.  We are (fingers crossed) hopefully moving back into our place in mid Aug.  Getting unpacked and settled will be the priority... which means even less time for knitting!  It would be nice to get a jump on both of these projects!

My summer is certainly moving at a slower pace, but it's not to say that it's come to a full stop.  Small projects seem to be the right key to enjoying the weather and staying happy with my stitches.  Hope your summers are as pleasant as ours has been so far!