The Drought

We've been suffering from a serious drought this summer. It's rained twice in as many months. Our lawn is ecru. The leaves on our trees are curling with the heat. I've been watering, and watering, and pleading with the weather reports. It looks like we're going to keep on watering, because there's no rain in sight. Even the forest is going brown. I might just take the mower out for a spin to see if I can do a large scale scrimshaw illustration on our front lawn.
The knitting photos I have, are a little uninspiring, so I'll mix it up with some pictures of my dahlias. They're the only things keeping me sane while I water the day away.


Don't be fooled by the green in the photos. That's the only part of the garden that's getting enough water. If you look carefully, you can see the white lawn in the background.


To help with the dry mood, I'm knitting something green. This is "Ali", by Kim Hargreaves. I'm really enjoying the knitting, but my enthusiasm is tempered by the the fact that I'm going to have to call a yarn store in Florence. I did not buy enough yarn, and I did not check the yardage before I cast on. Now I will pay for my lazy/cheap nature by having to make an arse of myself in Italian. That seems fair.
Next up, "Ishbel".


I don't believe that time is linear. I don't believe in fate. I don't believe that 2 + 2 always equals 4. These three things are helping me to cope with the knitting equivalent of a parallel universe.


I made a few mistakes in the body of the shawl, which didn't show up until I counted all of the stitches, in preparation for the lace portion of the shawl. I ripped back, almost to the beginning, and re-knit the body. I counted twice, just to be sure, and then started the lace charts. I am five rows in, and something is horribly wrong. The lace pattern looks right. It matches the chart. There is no errata. Rows 1-4 went smoothly. There were no extra stitches, and everything was lining up. I am missing two stitches on either side of the center line. I have looked, and counted and stared at the chart with an opened mouthed fish expression. Nothing is making sense. Logic does not apply. Logic tells me that I must have omitted two increases on the previous row. I did not. Logic tells me I must have two extra decreases somewhere. I do not. I am in a Mexican standoff with a shawlette. Neither of us has budged. I'm going to bring out the big guns on knit night. This shawlette is not going to best me.