The languid days of summer have quickly turned in to the action packed days approaching fall. Halcyon days spent at the beach, playing Boggle, and knitting while Seasons 1 and 2 of Mad Men have ended. The end of August heralds school, homework and for Erik, many appointments with doctors. Erik, who I had hoped would be a Navy enlistee, returned from his physical with a mysterious heart ailment. After a few tests and visits with a cardiologist it was determined that the tachy heart was not the problem at all. Instead he has an overactive thyroid which supplies him with lavish quantities of tyrosine and triiodothronine. Treatment for this may involve killing the thyroid with radioactive iodine. Erik can take his secret identity, Glow Boy, into the night. Hopefully the cats will be able to keep their fur and the appliances won't begin to spark. Should the Navy take him, his added value could be in the reactor room of a sub.
My days at the beach were spent knitting and swimming or swimming in knitting. Lisa and I would leave early, coolers packed with cold drinks and fresh fruit, we would swing by the bagel shop, and have our butts in the deck chairs by 9 AM. Lisa caught up on her reading. I would listen to podcasts and knit. In between, we would catch a few waves or walk along the shore.
These were the fruits of my labor. Socks whose colors compliment the railroad vine that crawl along the dunes. The pattern, Wollmeise Poppies was knit using Blue Moon Fiber Arts Lightweight in Lemon Grass and Rhododendrite. Fair Isle is not my forte. I was happy to practice on a pair of socks in preparation for knitting a Damask Kauni. My initial attempt resulted in a three repeat cuff which just didn't fit. Fair Isle has very little give, no matter how springy the yarn. Luckily for me, my trusty friends in the Thursday morning knitting circle frogged back the foot, heel, and a pattern repeat before I could change my mind. It was the right thing to do. A handy tip from another knit groupie is to knit the project while its turned inside out and keep the threads in the back loose. This results in less pull on the front side. I entered these socks in Ravelry's SKA contest. Hopefully, my lucky number comes up as the prizes are terrific.
My original Fair Isle project was an expensive mistake. I fell in love with the cute Spud and Cloe marketing blitz and purchased four skeins of Fine in various colors. The sock pattern was a Mystery Sock and upon knitting a few clues, the love affair quickly ended. Not only were the colors all wrong, the yarn is too thin, splitty, and limp for colorwork. Frogged again!
Next months SKA theme is to knit using yellow yarn. I only had one skein of yellow in my arsenal, knit into a scarf that would not remain flat. I couldn't let this yarn languish in a drawer so it was frogged and reskeined ready to be knit into a pair of socks. The pattern currently settled on is the Kansas Harvest sock from the Townsend Knitalong group.
Hopefully my frog days of summer are quickly coming to an end. I am looking to fall, new socks and a couple of great sweater in my future.
