Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I bought a number of inexpensive plants while up in Connecticut a couple weeks back. On one of the hottest days of the year to date, Rudi helped me clear some extra space in the plot, so I could jam them all in. I finished planting on Sunday. I may add some beans and squash seeds, but otherwise I’m done with putting in plants until Labor Day.

2. Last July 4th, we got locked out of the Mall while waiting in line for the fireworks, so this year I got us moving earlier and we entered without issue. We sit on the river side of the Lincoln Memorial, which tends not to attract crowds, but offers great views.

3. The first corn on the cob of the season was actually pretty decent.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Front Side

Back Side

As I mentioned yesterday, I had messed up my Feel Good Shawl, by putting the center increase off-center in the last repeat that I did. I decided to do surgery and see if I could fix it by just dropping down the three stitches and fixing them back up. And then I tried to fix that by dropping down one stitch and fixing that. And then I decided I should just frog back to an area before I had tried to fix the problem and pick up and knit from there, with much better results.

Apologies for the blurry shot of the back. Clearly the project moved at the last second.

The good news is that tonight was the first time I felt confident reading my knitting and understanding what I should be doing, which bodes well for fewer mistakes (fingers crossed) and faster knitting.

I am making progress, albeit slowly, on my Feel Good shawl, but when I went to take a photo to show you, I found a mistake four rows back. So I’ll fix that tomorrow and show you then. In the meantime, check out the yarns I’m using above. The three gradients are Freia shawl balls, the dark blue is Smooshy, and I think the pink is PennyRose.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic asks us to share the most anticipated books coming out in the second half of 2022. Here are some of mine:

1. Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead
2. Booked by Kwame Alexander
3. Deanna Raybourn’s Killers of a Certain Age
4. A Restless Truth by Freya Marske
5. Sonali Dev’s The Vibrant Years
6. Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder by Valerie Burns
7. Marple: Twelve New Mysteries (A bonus mystery is who edited this compilation of Miss Marple stories penned by modern authors, since even the publisher’s site doesn’t list that info.)
8. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
9. A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone
10. Dhonielle Clayton’s Whiteout

How about you? Are there books coming out before the end of the year that you’re particularly looking forward to?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. As my friend Katie and I were cycling between our game and the bar, we passed through the grove next to the D.C. War Memorial, which was sprinkled with fireflies. When we emerged onto the Mall sidewalk, we were greeted with the most amazing sunset.

2. My favorite Nationals player, pitcher Sean Doolittle, is also a big reader, and he was invited by the Library of Congress to take part in a public chat with Dr. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress. Rudi, my friend Sarah, and her friend all got tickets, but Rudi and I went early to tour the building, since Rudi had never been. As a special treat, the Reading Room was open to the public. You could hear the angels singing.

3. The gnats drove Rudi and me away from the Capitol Reflecting Pool and off the Mall. On Pennsylvania Avenue, the Mellon Fountain was running so briskly as to keep the bugs at bay. We rested next to it for a good 15 minutes, soaking in the cool air, before continuing our walk home.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

The Tour de France and its corresponding knitalong begin on Friday, and, as usual, I’m down to the wire on making a decision. I thought I’d see what folks thought of some of these shawl patterns, all of which could be made from yarn in my stash:

From Summer to Fall uses 3 colors, with lots of garter stitch and sections of lace.

I have knit two Cally Monster shawls for Tour de France projects — 4-Ever in Blue Jeans, which I wear all the time, and my latest finish, Fully Charged. I considered Love Grows Here several years back, but decided against it that year. For the main color, I could either use the lilac I’d suggested at the time or the two mirrored shawl balls in gradients of green my parents gave me for my birthday this year.

I keep talking about learning how to knit brioche, and now could be as good a time as any, with something like Sylvan Tales Shawl, Sukha (which uses mohair as one of the yarns) or, more simply, the Feel Good Shawl.

Stripe Study is a two-color shawl, which would work well with some of the gradients I have.

Thoughts?