I Finished the DAMN Socks!

Yes-as one can see-the DAMN socks are finished!!! This started as a knit-a-long with the sock group. I don't like toe-up, so I started at the other end of the chart and did top-down. I rushed to finish a goodly part of it so others in the group could see what it looked like. As I looked down at the instructions, I noticed that I was supposed to use one unifying color as the background color. Oh, no, I was being so "smart" and using up scraps of leftover yarns and ended up with this totally weird pair of sampler socks. It kinda reminds me of the "scrappy" quilts that just uses up scraps and bits of fabric. Oh, well-they are done and finished! Oh-and yes, they do not match. Some of the patterns I just had a time keeping up with the charts. And the second sock had to use a different shade of the color that was on the other one.

Yes-it is still really, really hot and dry. I am trying to keep up with some of the plants, but mostly they will have to survive on their own.

There is one major sign that Fall is coming soon. Tomorrow is the Full Moon for August. In one month will be the Autumnal Equinox. Whew! It cannot come soon enough. We had a lovely display of planetary alignments this month. I never saw the meteor shower or any aurora borealis during the huge solar flare-up. There is just too much light pollution here. I know the real reason for the constellations in the sky, but I like the solace of the Big Dipper holding all the water in and therefore we are getting no rain. Soon the earth will rotate again and the Dipper will allow some of the water to spill out.

It is weird how sometimes these things come to my mind. There were so many taught me by grandmothers and grandfather. I remember a particular dry spell like this one, and my grandfather went out and killed a snake. He hung it over the garden fence with its belly up. It rained after that.

Another story that came to mind this week was the one about my older brother. Since I was a baby, I don't have a memory of it. But I remember being told this by my grandmother. My older brother-like most boys-played with frogs. We lived on a fish farm, so there were lots of frogs. He particularly liked tree frogs. One day a snooty woman from our church came out to visit my mother. My mother worked on the farm, so she didn't encourage visitors during the work week. As they were sitting around talking and drinking iced tea, my brother came running in the house. He had a tree frog attached to his forehead, and he was so proud of his frog. Mother dismissed him and told him to go back outside and play. After he left, the snooty lady said, "Orel Lee, I know it is none of my business. There are doctors who can take that birthmark off of Bill's head. He would look a lot better without that mark, and you need to do that before he starts going to school. Other kids would make fun of him, you know."

I finished the orange, red, yellow yarn. It is quite vibrant. Since I worked on my handspun sweater again this week, I thought I would spin a coupla ounces of that wool so I would have another ball of that. Instead of digging through the sacks, I reached into the bin and pulled out some roving of the Jacob I had premeasured and put in zip-lock bags. Somewhere along the way, I realized that I had gotten the wrong fleece. One has more charcoal gray in it, and it was the wrong one. But I finished up that little dab today and it is blocking out on the yarn blocker.
Now I just need to find the right fleece and spin up a coupla ounces and put it with the sweater. Then on to better things. But I will be diligent and finish this little project. Luckily it is easy to spin and works up quickly.

I am about half-way through with the linen stitch scarf. My friend GK gave me a ball of Noro sock yarn, and I started a feather and fan scarf with that. Otherwise, my knitting has been going rather slowly. For some reason my arthritis decided to hurt a little bit in my hands, and I have been careful with that. Just now I washed my dishes and washed my skein of yarn. The hot water for the dishes helped more than anything. And the yarn wash was warm. I always told my patients to save their dishes to wash for the mornings. And to wash them in the hottest water they could stand. And now I am doing just that.

Patty's hairdo is looking a little bit rough. I have been keeping it short for the summer, but I do not know how to do a traditional schnauzer cut. I think she must have a problem with her skin, because if I let her go over ten days without a bath, she licks the top part of her feet a lot, and I find her licking her stomach a lot. Enough that her stomach turns pink. A friend suggested she could have a grass allergy. We don't have much grass left, but there is some. Once she is bathed, she is fine. No licking for several days. Around day 7-8, lick, lick, lick.

Noodles is laying under the ceiling fan right now. He knows where the best air movement can be. He tried to play a little bit with Patty the other night. He crouched down behind a cosmos plant, wiggled his butt, swished his tail, and jumped out towards Patty as she trotted past. He made a chirpling noise and danced sideways with his tail crooked. Patty skittered sideways like a scared pup, which she was. Since Noodles attacked her week one of her stay and ripped open her tongue, she has avoided any close contact with him. I patted him and tried to explain that Patty doesn't know how to play kitty-play, and that he would just have to forgive her this once. He just looked at her with scorn and tried to ignore her snub.

Well, I am going to vacuum the area around the spinning wheel. Then I will dig around in the stash and find the right fleece. And on we go, around and around.

Have a good week! Faith is knowing that Fall will be here soon. Hope is waiting for rain to come. Keep on knitting. Keep on spinning. It all keeps us sane until the heat breaks.