Treading water

I seem to be in the appropriate season for treading water.  I'm barely keeping up with anything:  knitting, spinning, organizing, gardening, work, life.  Sometimes it's too hot.  Other times, it's too much.  There's too tired, too busy, too overwhelmed, and too happy.  Odd mixes make for mixed posts.

I started, FINALLY, my Amazing Lace project.  The Leaf Lace shawl has begun.  After slogging through the provisional cast-on, picking up the two stitches, knitting those ridiculous two stitch rows, and picking up two live unzipped stitches, I knew I could show you the beginning.  Here it is.  That is what it felt like, and it's the best shot I could manage in its infancy.

The yarn is Judy's silk/merino in the Blueberry colorway.  It will be exquisite.  My poem, for Challenge #3:

Knit-along, curse-along
Leaf-lacing, knit-it-wrong
blueberry color
Pretty shawl,  easy pick!

Now blueberries are healthy
Vitamins, minerals
When I start in the lacing
I taste arsenic.

I'm putting in a life line NOW.

The clematis survived everything that the New England weather dished out.  Their petals are durable, without looking waxy or hard. 

Clematis 'The President', and 'Dawn'

Gardening is all about flora AND fauna.  Bees, deer, voles, woodchucks and rabbits cluster to what's good, along with the hapless gardener.  I saw a small blur of motion in my peripheral vision earlier this month in the garage.  He waited for me to get the camera, and brazenly posed.  Then he hopped out the door, and, under cover of darkness, laid waste to my iris foliage.  Of course.

One year ago today, Cassie convinced me not to toss my newly-rented Louet through the family room window.  She talked me down via AOL IM, and it all followed from that.  Should I thank her for today's Polwarth link? 

Comments

[Kathy]

Thanks for the diagram. *Now* I get how to start the shawl :-) (And Happy Cassiversary!)

[claudia]

On another topic, check the weekend forecast and then tell me what the signs of hypothermia are.

;-)

[Jess]

CUTE bunny! :o)

[Marcia]

Beautiful clematis (clematises? clematii?) but what have you gotten yourself into now? Polwarth??! Spill!

[Melissa G]

Ummm, yeah. Catch me on a better day and I have a better grasp of English. On a better note the hyacinth beans and nasturtiums are up.

[julia fc]

A bunny, but hardly the right species for we fiber people. Cute though.
Speaking of clematis, Betty Corning is setting buds wight about now, and my Reine des Violettes Rose is ready to blow. Man, I love late June.

[Barbp]

The purple clematis is one of my favorites, yet I've never had one of my own. Friends have told me that they always have petunias at the base to provide shade for the roots and it needs an acidic soil. I'm afraid I may have a brown thumb. Future for me I'm afraid. Nice progress on the shawl "wink".

[colleen]

Bunny!

A blueberry-colored lace shawl sounds amazing. Can't wait until it's photographable.

[Manise]

You crack me up with your schematics of the lace- thanks for the humor. I think I woke up my family with my uproarious laughter.

I too have a bunny of the same size and appetite. My cosmos, parsley and a few lettuces have been similarly victimized. Now that we put up an invisible dog fence, my beloved Rosie, a black lab, will keep the little sweet thing at bay...at least during the day.

My clematis have already gone by- "Guerney Cream" and "Alabaster". Making a note to get a later blooming one too.

[Manise]

Oh, do enjoy the sun today....Claudia's comment made me check the forecast.....NH S&W revisited!

[margene]

You give me hope that a year after I get a wheel I'll be able to spin beautifully.
Leaf lace will get into your head shortly and just fly. It's only 6 rows (if I remember correctly) and will become much easier!

[maryse]

ha! all of my attempts at lace look like that.

and that bunny vermin is very cute. my bunny tenants are eating my basil and i don't have the energy to do anything about it.

maybe my bunnies are italian.

[Jinxsa]

I have barely started my amazing lace project too. It's not turning out to be a good summer for me it seems.

Ok I am afraid of bunnies (yes really) but I have to admit that one is beyond cute! (No really bunnies are scary, I don't want to pick up something that has bigger teeth than brains, it's why I stopped going to the bars)

[Rachel H]

Love the poem, and your um, diagram of the lace beginning. Sadly, it's a look I know well.

p.s. my wheel's on her way. On line parcel tracking is so much fun!

[Martha]

There is really nothing cuter than a baby bunny. Once again, cuteness as a protective mechanism...

[naomi]

What lovely clematis...

[Kellee]

Um....link? What link? There's a polwarth link? I like polwarth. ;)

Are either of your clematii (tee hee, I just like that) fragrant, by chance?

[Cindy D]

You are a poet as well as a photographer!!! Good luck with your leaf lace shawl.

[Carole]

Leaf Lace was my first lace knitting and it took a while to get the hang of it but then it was fine. You'll do great, I know it.

[Cheryl]

You should thank her, absolutely! I've found I'm always thanking Cassie for links, sooner or later.

[Cathy]

Yes, thank Cassie. Then get your revenge by turning her on to some gorgeous fleece. (I learned this revenge thing from Anne)

[lisa Co. Springs]

I laughed out loud at your lace "picture." I'm sure any attempt of mine would look the same.

Love the sweet bunny, sorry about the irises. Life's full of compromise, isn't it?

Glad you stuck with the spinning...you give me hope :)

[Cordelia]

Omigosh, he is *so* cute! And extremely brazen.
But I love, absolutely love, your shawl. I'm still giggling here in my cubicle.

[SpiderWomanKnits]

LOL! I love your shawl ;-)

[Lorette]

I love your lace-diagram! So are you doing that "scribble lace" I keep hearing about?
Cute bunny, great poem.

[Chris]

Thank her or curse her. Toss up? :)

Love your poem. And the start of your shawl. Heh. You're way further than me!

Bunny! Sweet bunny!

[Ruth]

My Amazing Lace project looked remarkably like yours at the beginning of our relationship. Perserverance has won out at my house ... for now. All hail the lifeline.

The bunny is pretty cute for a pest.

[Dorothy B]

Love the lace. Inspires me to try something lacey! ;-D

Such cute little destruction, No?!!

Love your clematis. It's beautiful.

[Lucia]

Such a cute bunny! I won't tell you what happened to the one the cat brought into our kitchen.

[Rose]

What a cutie!!! I'm very happy you didn't throw out your wheel.

[Lynn]

Awwww, what a cute bunny-wunny.

Good thing it's in your garden, not mine, although apparently there was a bear in my yard while we were away this weekend.

Keep plugging on that shawl, they get better as they go along (says one who just frogged ten rows or so of a summer shell....).

[B]

Lovely photos of the bun and the clematis - too bad they are so destructive to the garden; here it's racoons eating the flowers (before they opened) off my Asiatic lily. The shawl will be wonderful!

[minnie]

i love clematis, but have never been able to get one to grow from little. the last house i had had gorgeous clematis. one was a medium purple, and the other was white with pinkish veinings. i love the deepest purple ones as well. if i ever get enough time to work on my yard around here, i'll try again. maybe next year (when i'm not planning a wedding, and a family reunion, and dealing with foot surgery for my fiance, and my son in the hospital. . . .sigh)