Summer Stripes

Dear Mom,

I took these pictures this week and noticed a theme. Above is some basil from the garden plot, and the first of the "Jolly Jester" marigolds to bloom.

I found this little guy crawling along the very edge of a page of a book that was open on my kitchen table. I don't know what he is, do you? I believe he came in on a bouquet of flowers from the farmers' market last week - I even think I saw him at the beginning of the week, when he was just a little inchworm sized thing. A diet of flowers seems to have agreed with him. I put him outside, and watched his feet cling and uncling as he moved onto the very edge of a leaf.

I finished the shawl for afghans for Afghans I'd been working on at your house last month. I used mostly leftover Brown Sheep Naturespun sport wool, leftover from the Heartland Shawl I just completed (the orange was the rejected border color), and the socks that I made you for Christmas several years ago. I knew the shawl would drape well, since the Heartland Shawl does so well, which made it ideal for a shawl that will be used as a head-covering.

I improvised a really simple pattern (garter stitch borders on the long edges in a contrasting color, and tiny garter stitch borders on the short edges). I thought about adding a purple band to the short edges, too, but decided against it since I like the way the stripes trail off the edge of the shawl. I ended up blocking it twice to make sure it met the minimum width requirements - it shrunk in a little bit widthwise the first time, when I just laid it out without any pinning, and was a little under 20". Pinning it out the second time around opened up the garter stitch border and easily got it back up to size.

This made for ideal vacation knitting - no pattern to keep track of, simple enough to knit in any situation, didn't suffer when it got a little splashed on a boat ride. I'll be happy to get this mailed off first thing tomorrow!

Love, Gwen