Yakity Yak

Friday we took off for the coast, got back Wednesday afternoon. It was a great holiday weekend away. I did no work on the cottage, not a lick of work unless you count some house cleaning - but no painting - whoo hoo! I went to the spinning group one day, did some knitting, visited with friends, mostly lots of walking and going to community events (wine walk, parade, concert in the park, fireworks, etc) all within walking distance of the cottage. Mostly we just enjoyed the 60 degree weather compared to the 90+ in the valley just 80 miles to the east. I could get used to slowing down and not worrying about selling.........

Here's the shawl I started while over there. One year at Black Sheep Gathering I saw this shawl on a mannequin at the Greenwood Fiberworks booth - the Saratoga Shawl. I had to have it........it was free with purchase of 2 skeins of yakkity yak yarn (60% sw merino/20% yak/20% silk)......which was spendy but I wanted the pattern so I bought the yarn (of course now you can buy the pattern alone on Ravelry). I had a little problem figuring out the loops only because the photo with the pattern isn't big enough to show that they're loops and not holes created in the knitting. And it's been so long since I saw the sample in person that I'd never remember how it was knit. I went to Ravelry and saw others shawls from this pattern, some close-up pix, that showed the loops. Then the instructions made total sense. Now this is pretty mindless knitting - I'll be working on it in the evenings when not spinning. Nice to finally pull this yarn and pattern out of the closet......no need to buy more yarn here, have plenty of stash to work from. If I like this shawl on me once finished I'll be making another using my handspun.

It's only the beginning of July and I'm tired of fire season......we still have around 3 months left before the first rains, if we're lucky. A fire started around 5 miles away an hour after we returned home yesterday, they jumped on it quickly and got it out, thank goodness. A copter went over the house just a bit ago heading west.........my ears are trained to hear those copters coming from miles away even with the windows closed and air conditioner on........have I said it yet this week? I hate fire season!!!  My heart goes out to those in the midst of big fires elsewhere in the west.