END OF SUMMER

For me, the summer is over.  Tomorrow I return to my desk job after 10 glorious weeks away.  Trust me, this is not an easy task.  It will take every ounce of strength and determination that I possess to crawl out of bed, dress myself, walk the dog and face the bridge traffic after being a Lady of Knitting, I mean Leisure, for these blessed weeks.  I dread it.  Today I will race around like a whirling dervish, attempting to complete projects and ready myself - laundry, ironing, why do I always wait until the last moment?  It must be my supreme expression of denial- if I don't acknowledge it, maybe it will disappear.  Ok, Scarlett.  

I've packed my knitting bag, I mean, after all, lunch hour knitting is what gives the work day meaning.  Doesn't everyone feel this way?  Go ahead and say it - WHERE DID YOU GET THAT BAG?  I love that bag.  I loved it so much that I was willing to go without, well, all KINDS of things in order to own it.  I still get a little thrill every time I look at it.  It's made by a company called Bodhi and it is truly scrumptious.  Why yes, that IS an Anne Hanson pattern spilling out of the top - 'STONEWALL' and I am knitting it in Blue Sky Alpaca's limited edition 'Royal'.  Words fail me when I attempt to describe this yarn.  Anne's patterns are legendary for good reason - it only takes one knit to discover why she and knitting are linked iconically.  I suspect that she talks to the fiber and I know for sure that it talks back!  I cannot put this stole down.

What's that, you say?  Ummm, yessss - there IS more Blue Sky Alpaca in that bag.  I currently have a wicked bad case of alpaca-love.  My friend Patty knew that I was suffering from the back-to-work blues, so she brought me some sport weight baby alpaca in the dreamiest shade - kind of a toasty Carhardt-caramel!  Patty is such a good friend - she's even agreed to do a little knit along with this fiber and we have our eye on the 'Whirligig Shrug' in Interweave's 'Weekend' publication.  It's the bees knees.  


So, my neighbor and wonderful friend Susie came over to gather some late bloomers for her three-year old son Jack's birthday party.  It was both fun and nostalgia-producing to wander through my fall garden - it reminds me of a stout floozy, with her dress thrown over her head!  Petticoats and ribbons and all manner of movement - everywhere you look!!!!  Wild carefree abandon.  Goodbye summer.