Gosh! It's Summer Already!

Well, as predicted, summer is here. We have been cooler than normal, rain every day, and little fronts moving through from the north. Then WHAM! it's 90 degrees, muggy, and maybe a 20% chance of rain somewhere within 100 miles or so. We are settling into our summer heat pattern with all the humidity and no rain. Usually it is so dry by August I don't have to mow very much.

Noodles is much better, and it is a struggle to get his twice-a-day meds down. But I have noticed that he has a neurological component to this virus that has not improved 100%. I am still keeping an eye on him, and he still wants to sit in my lap. He doesn't normally sit in my lap. Baby is still being a butt-hole and hisses at him if they are within spitting distance of each other. She normally just keeps herself in a different territory from him, and she sleeps with me at night. I-being the primary primate in this household-have the unpleasant duty to check for ticks daily. Lately it has been twice daily. They are super, super bad this year!

Nothing else to report. I did a small batch of wool yesterday in the crockpot. I used grape and strawberry, and it is maroon color. I purposefully mixed the colors together beforehand, and drizzled the dye over the wool as I put it in the pot. So there are distinctly lighter colored places. I will see how it cards up.

Am I the only person in the world who has to count out loud when knitting a lace row? I have read many blogs, but I don't recall anyone admitting this. Yesterday I had to put the lace down. I did okay on the lace row, but somehow when doing the knit row back, there were three stitches short. I carefully unknit that row, recounted a gazillion times, and still short. I found where some of the yarnovers stuck to the other stitches, but I was still short one. So I cheated and made a stitch. I hate to even admit that, but I was SUPER frustrated at this point. So I did the next lace row, and it came out perfectly. So I put it down for a while. I find I have to talk out loud to make sure I stay on pattern. And I get distracted somewhere in the middle and have to force myself to count and watch the pattern. That's my confession for the day.

I have a teeny plan in the back of my head for that shrug that I was knitting with Manos that wouldn't fit a fifth grader. I found something in a magazine that I think will salvage the piece without frogging all the mess it has become. I haven't knit a single square on the modular piece for about two weeks. With the coming of heat, I get disenchanted with knitting. That's another reason to get this alpaca shawl thing done quickly.

So that's the news from the home front. It is so pretty now with all the greens out there. I love the colors of early summer before the drought. I have these little wild flowers growing called Heal All. I love them. The iris are just about done. The spiderwort is about done. The day lillies are shooting up giant flower stalks. The blackberries are making lots of berries. It's summer!