Bar Harbor, Maine. July 4th parade. Bee's Yarn shop is the background

A few years ago, we were in Bar Harbor, Maine on Independence Day. Bar Harbor is a lovely small town on the Maine coast, and they really know how to celebrate July 4th. There was a parade through the streets, a lobster fest at a local park, and fireworks over the harbor at night. Loads of fun.

Bar Harbor is a great place for a summer holiday. But don’t plan to go there in the fall or winter, as it mostly closes up. The B&B we stayed in was only open from May to October. Because of the short season, the retailers have some unique ways to make it through the winter. For example, our B&B was only steps from a yarn shop, Bees. But Bees was part yarn shop, part candy store. So, the selection was a bit light on most things. That didn’t keep me from buying some sock yarn, but it wasn’t a shop you linger in. I did inspect those skeins for chocolate.

Because that was my experience with seaside yarn shops, my expectations for Coastal Yarns in Cannon Beach, Oregon weren’t very high. Cannon Beach is the closest Pacific Ocean beach to Portland, and it is a lovely village. Pretty typical for places that depend on tourists. T-shirt shops, candle emporiums, and crab shacks. And Coastal Yarns. This shop surprised me. The store is a L-shaped, so there is a lot of light. And even though it’s small, there was a table, chairs and small couch in a sunny nook. And the yarn selection was mostly fabulous. A good selection of basic to luxury yarns. But the draw for me was a huge selection Blue Moon yarn. I was just agog, wondering how much I could sneak into my luggage without The Husband noticing. When I made my selections, and was paying, I mentioned the selection of Blue Moon yarn. The clerk answered, “Oh, but we’re expecting more next week — we’re nearly sold out.” It took me a few minutes to realize that I couldn’t wait for the UPS guy with her.

Cannon Beach, Oregon. Coastal Yarn is there, somewhere.

On another note. I am now writing a column for examiner.com. I’m the Austin Craft Shop Examiner. If you want to read more of my blather, check it out.

Last weekend, I went to a memorial service for a friend that passed away. She had leukemia. The standard homily is that she lost her battle with cancer. I get the metaphor. But to me she was Sisyphus, who after pushing that boulder for ten years, just stopped the struggle. The memorial service was that mix of sadness and joy that is a characteristic of these events. The sadness of the loss, and the joy of seeing people that you haven’t seen in a long time. When I got dressed to go, in my somber black and grey, I added a shawl I recently finished. Not for the warmth, but the color. A few months back I made a sweater for her. She picked out the yarn, a clear blue. She told me that her mother always dressed her in neutral colors and earth tones, but she longed for blue. At the reception when friends commented on the shawl, I kept that memory to myself.

Like Carol’s family and friends, I will miss her. I will horde my memories of her. I will think of her in blue.

Damson is finished. This was such a fun project. The yarn is alpaca, hand dyed by a friend. She’s taking her hand-spun and dyed yarn to Taos next month for the Wool Festival. The yarn is so lovely, light yet wonderfully warm. I used some variegated for the loopy edging.

I’m not quite done with these triangular shawls, but I did branch out just a bit.

That is Kay Gardner’s latest free warshcloth pattern. Linoleum Dishcloth.

And it is time to start knitting scarves for the Red Scarf Project. One is done.

Another one is started.

And a potential third.

And here’s my next potential triangle.

I recently read on Ravelry that the next big thing is small triangular shawls. There are dozens of these patterns out there, designed for sock-weight yarn. I have loads of sock yarn and a fully loaded sock drawer. It’s a match made in heaven.  I’ve completed these so far:

A second Silk Kerchief.

The Landscape Shawl

Ishbel

Springtime Bandit

And I’m working on another one, Damson. I’m ahead of the curve. It’s a bit scary.

Just too tired to think?

There’s a nap for that.

The other problem was that conversations with that many college freshmen causes mush-brain. Every instructor had coping mechanisms to stave off the effects of mush-brain. For instance, I got really good at reading their hand-writing upside down, as I read the oddities in their essays aloud, “This sentence,” I would say pointing to the sentence, ” ‘My mother’s cooking supports many aspects,’ is not exactly what you mean.”

An office mate had an even better method. He used a typewriter to fill a sheet of paper with punctuation marks, one of commas, one of semi-colons, etc. Then he cut them into confetti, and put the little bits of paper into jars on his desk. During conferences he would say things like, “Your essays have too many run-on sentences. You need help with periods,” and then he would sprinkle them with periods. The student would sit there, with little bits of paper in his hair, and stuck to his sweatshirt, just staring at him. He stared back. Eventually, the student would leave.

I went to the Sock Yarn Tasting at Hill Country Weavers a couple of weeks ago. I got to pet a lot of sock yarn. I learned about their fibers, twist, and color. I ate sandwiches that looked like feet! But best of all, I came home with samples (tastes) of about eleven different sock yarns, each one tagged with the yarn’s name and characteristics.

I felt like my colleague’s student, just sitting there, absorbing sock yarn.

This pair is Riding on the Metro from Wendy D. Johnson’s book, Socks from the Toe Up.

This pair is the Lacy Rib also from Wendy’s book.

I’ve also started knitting squares for a Barn Raising Blanket from Knitalong.

And finally there are these socks from Cookie’s book Sock Innovation. I lurve them.

Recognize the shapely legs? They belong to The Husband.

This changed the first summer I spent in Manhattan, Kansas. The house I rented didn’t have air conditioning, which wasn’t a problem in the fall and winter. But summer was different. It was hot and humid, as only mid-Western summers can be. I was a poor student and couldn’t afford a window unit or the electric bill. So I had fans going all the time. The windows were always open. Sometimes I slept on the floor downstairs instead of my upstairs bedroom. When it got too much, I went to a movie.

I adapted to the heat. I took cool showers, and drank cool water, not icy sodas. I cut my hair short. I learned the value of shade and a breeze. I ate salads and other things that didn’t need cooking. I spent four years in Kansas with no AC, and each summer was easier.

Then I moved back to Texas. Back to central air everywhere.  I was cold. In the summer when the offices and stores and malls were cooled to 68-degrees, I was cold everywhere I went. This was Dallas in the ’80s, and I wore pantyhose and pumps to work. Most days my hands were too cold to type, which was a problem as I was a technical writer. On my lunch hour, I’d stand in the hottest place I could find — the plexiglass tube that linked the building to the parking garage, until my fingers were pink again.

I still get very cold in air conditioned buildings. In the summer I dress for the indoors, so I’m often the only one wearing jeans at the HEB in August. But sometimes I forget, and go to a movie in a dress or shorts. I need a wrap that I can keep in my car. Not a lacy thing that needs looking after, but something sturdy, indestructible, big, but pretty too. And not too heavy.

After searching on Ravelry, I found Silk Kerchief. It seemed to meet all my criteria, except it called for Silk Garden Sock Yarn, and I’m not a big fan of Noro yarn. But then Hill Country Weavers had Noro on sale for June’s First Thursday Sale. My friend Susan was working, and she helped me pick out the colorways. It turned out perfect. It’s garter stitch so it’s not fussy. The colors are gorgeous together. After washing it’s soft with a good drape. And it’s lighter than it looks.

When I showed it to my friend Karen, who is a new, but intrepid knitter, she had to make one. It was a good thing that we were in Hill Country, standing by the Silk Garden Sock, or she would had to drop everything to go there.

Sometimes, knitting is like that.

We have a fenced in back yard. It’s pretty big compared to some back yards, but not for this subdivision. We don’t have much lawn — it’s generally a bit wild for suburbia.

We’ve had our share of stray cats in the back yard and we feed them. The cat food attracts other animals like squirrels, birds, possums and raccoons. They all seem to live in harmony.

Very early one morning last week, The Husband called to me from the kitchen, “Are you awake? Come here and see something in the back yard.” I stumbled down the stairs and looked out into the still gloomy darkness of 5AM. “What?” I said, “What do you see?” Then I saw some movement in the dark, something darting around. The cats were at our feet, looking out the glass door too. They saw something and started making that noise that we call, I want to Eat You. Then they got quiet and hunkered down, making themselves small, so whatever was out there couldn’t see them.

As it got lighter, we saw a family of grey foxes cavorting in the back yard. Two small ones, about the size of cats, and two adults, a male and female. They seemed so at ease with the surroundings that it was probably not their first visit. The Husband and I watched as little ones chased each other, and tumbled around on the grass. The adults watched them from the deck. At almost full light, the female and the small ones disappeared under the deck, but the male stood guard for a while longer, and then also disappeared.

He’s a handsome beastie.

We’ve seen them most mornings since then. And they disappear in the same order with the male going last. We wonder what they eat and where they go during the day. But mostly we’re amazed that these wild animals have adopted us.

More backyard fox photos here.

An old friend of mine used to say that whenever she bought a new album (and yes, this is before CDs), it made her entire music collection sound a bit different. I feel that way about knitting books. When I get a new knitting book, the yarn in my stash looks a bit different.

I don’t have a big stash, although The Husband might not agree. But I can’t decide on a sweater pattern, and go into a closet and retrieve the yarn needed. With the exception of lace weight and sock yarn. The reason is pretty easy. You only need one or two skeins of both to complete a project.

The day I came home with Wendy’s book, “Socks from the Toe Up: Essential Techniques and Patterns from Wendy Knits” (Wendy D. Johnson), I looked briefly through my sock yarn stash, and chose the yarn randomly, probably because it was the brightest one. When that I finished that pair, I chose another skein, this time in a solid blue that has been there a while. It’s becoming this one:

That’s two pairs knitted from stash. To replenish the stash, I added two color ways of Lorna’s Laces.

Wendy Knits Sunrise

Amy’s Vintage Office

Then First Thursday rolled around, and Noro was on sale at Hill Country Weavers. Some came home with me.