I mentioned yesterday that I’d like to knit a new shawl as my Tour de France Knitalong project (and afterwards, because I’m terrible at finishing projects in a set period of time). With Rudi’s assistance, I’ve narrowed it down to four three options (as I was typing this, I realized one pattern called for two skeins of yarn and I only had one). However, Rudi has given some subtle hints that he doesn’t care to extend this process past hour four, so I thought I’d come to you.

The three shawl patterns (with links to their Ravelry pages) are:

1. Reyna — I’d knit this in one of the myriad skeins of variegated fingering yarns I have. I even have a couple options if I want to make it two skeins large. Rudi has been underwhelmed by Reyna every time I show it to him, but I still keep coming back to it, probably because I have so many skeins of yarn that would look beautiful in it.
2. Campfire Cozy — I’d likely knit this from a bag of Cascade 220 Heathers in a burgundy color. However, I’m hung up on the fact that I bought it forever ago (pre-Ravelry) for a cardigan that I’ve never made, but if I use 6 skeins of it to make this shawl, I also never will. I could make a slightly less gigantic version out of DK-weight yarn instead and use the two skeins of Miss Babs Yowza I have:
   

   Since the worsted version measures 112″ x 41″, a smaller version might not be terrible. Rudi points out that I would wear this shawl all the time, and he’s not wrong.

3. Love Grows Here — This is probably both Rudi’s and my favorite of the three patterns and it comes from the designer who made the pattern I knit for last year’s Tour de France (Forever in Blue Jeans). I have two skeins of lilac-lavender yarn I could use as the background color, but I’d have to track down all my leftovers, which feels like a hassle right now, but that would probably be fine once I started knitting. (The versions Cally made used eight colors for her stripes, just as a reference.)

Got any thoughts?

I had a laid-back weekend. Friday night we spent time up at the park, reading and enjoying the bats zooming inches over the grass and then soaring high into the air after their prey. We came home to eat supper and I found the Washington Mystics playing on tv. As a Connecticut girl, I’m a big fan of women’s basketball, and D.C.’s and Dallas’ teams put on a good show that went into overtime. We concluded the evening with homemade chocolate chip ice cream.

Yesterday, I did indeed get to sleep in. I also stopped by the local yarn shop just to browse for the first time since February (okay, I may have bought a new set of dpns made out of driftwood and some Soak, because one can always use more). I then headed down to the garden, where I put in a couple hours of weeding, yanking out the vines that had made the jump from the adjacent woods and pulling out some not-yet-budding milkweed (yes, monarchs… but weed is in the name and it grows like it; trust me, there’s still plenty left!) that was overshadowing plants I wanted to produce food for me. I then picked some figs from the tree by the garden and then did some grocery shopping, the combination thereof (grocery shopping itself is small potatoes compared to hauling three full bags all home by myself) I’m pretty sure justified eating as much pizza and ice cream as I wanted, which I did while watching the Chuck Brown Day anniversary concert, which was being livestreamed on YouTube.

Today, I went to the farmers market (no boxes of tomatoes this week, but plenty of other goodies), then had a pleasant brunch with Corey in the bedroom in front of the fan while listening to the Nationals game on the radio. I did a few chores around the house and then head over to Arlington to return the overdue book I had from their library. I celebrated finding my way to the library (Roads in Arlington move like staircases at Hogwarts. It’s best if you just don’t fight the concept.) by getting a cup of tea at a local coffeehouse and then taking a less circuitous route back to D.C. After a stop to water the garden and pick basil for our supper, I hightailed it for the park, where Rudi and I stayed until the sun turned in for the night.

It was a good weekend. How was yours?

I had the afternoon off today and swore to myself that I would not work for any of it. I packed a bag of supplies (bug spray, long sleeve layer, headphones, several books, and, it turns out, not my knitting), swung by the farmers market for snacks, and took myself up to the park. I did not grab my chair because I had a plan — I was going to use our hammock.

Last summer, I’d tried to use our hammock at the park, but couldn’t find trees that were close enough for the length of straps we have. However, I hadn’t given any thought a handful of smaller trees by the fence, and this summer I have seen several people with hammocks using them. Today was my day.

First, I pulled out Eoin Colfer’s Highfire. It started with a chapter about an anti-social dragon, which boded particularly well, but then switched focus to a teen boy and then a crooked cop. I’m sure it’ll be great when they all get on the same page, but until then I just wanted more dragon.

So I switched to The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart. I think this middle-grade novel might be the next right read.

On the knitting front, my sock hasn’t had a lot of work done on it this week, but I will wrap it up in the next few days. (See forgetting to pack it above.) The Tour de France kicks off next weekend, so I’d like to go in with a recent FO under my belt. I haven’t decided what I’d like to knit, but I do think it will be a fresh cast-on, rather than the resumption of a project. I’m looking forward to it.

Head over to As Kat Knits to see what others have been reading and crafting lately!

I’m half a repeat from being done with the pattern on the foot. I’d hoped to finish it tonight (and yesterday and this past weekend), but such is the way things goes these days.

Oona is still jumping from year to year. Her most recent jump is to the year before the one she just lived. I don’t know if I jumped to 2019 how I’d handle it knowing that no matter what I did the events of the following year had already been written. If I knew I’d spend so much of this year stuck in my apartment (and, yes, I’m wholly lucky to have shelter and to be allowed to work from it, when I know so many people don’t have either option), would I try to combat that with outdoor picnics and time with friends and visits to my family?

Head over to As Kat Knits to see what others are working their way through

My package from Simply Socks Yarn Company’s Christmas in July sale arrived today. Given that I had eight skeins in my shopping cart at one point, these two feel pretty restrained. Plus, they’re both going to give me stripey socks, which we know are my fastest knits.

The yarn on the left is West Yorkshire Spinners’ Signature 4 Ply. It’s 35% Bluefaced Leicester, 40% other wool, and 30% nylon, but, boy, does that BFL content make the yarn so soft and squishy! The yarn on the right is Urth Yarns’ Uneek Sock, which comes pre-wound in two adorable little matchy balls.

And then there’s my Smock Madness sock. I finally allowed myself to count the outer bars to compare it to sock #1. I just passed 20 of 24, which means I’m into my final repeat of the pattern! It’s totally possible I could finish tomorrow!

The dusk really shows the pooling on my second sock! I was going to say I didn’t think it was that obvious in normal light, but I just went back and looked at previous week’s photos, and it is. That’s fine. I’m getting closer to being done. If tomorrow and Friday’s multi-hour Zoom calls allow for knitting, I could be done by the weekend! (I will definitely be done by the weekend after the next few days of calls. It is possible my sock may not be.)

Oona Out of Order is overdue to the neighboring library system, so I decided to focus on it more heavily. I’m also nearing the end of The Library Book — something ridiculous like 15 months have passed since I started it. On my phone, I’m not crazy about the reader (accents) for my current audiobook, The Gilded Wolves, so I’m thinking I’ll ditch it for a print copy. I already have another one checked out and ready to go — Sonya Lalli’s The Matchmaker.

Head over to As Kat Knits to see what else is going on with the Unraveled crew.