If Friday is for finishing...

What the heck is Monday for?

It was a weekend for knowing that yes, the Maine morning mittens were going to be needed soon, and the planned for neck warmer would be put to use in very short order. I wore this for quite a while while on Sunday. But that was all the WIP pile knitting I did.

I picked up a stitch treasury and some yarn and just played. I tried a few patterns and nothing struck my fancy till I came to the little cloverleaf rib pattern. Wee lozenges between columns of ribs. Just right for a nice scarf.

The yarn is Patons Bamboo Silk in a really deep teal. All the smooth softness but none of the frailty of pure bamboo. This is boosted by 30%silk and it knits like it too. I like this yarn. A lot. So much so that I'll be looking for more and if there is a nice strong red out there, or a deep green or any number of jewel tones, they have my name on it. But not cheap. Its going remain a yarn for smaller projects, and sweet little things.

You'd think one new project was enough when I'm trying to finish things up. Not at all. The store has Cascade 220 superwash in, and I needed to try it. Its easier to recommend a yarn if you know how it performs. For a dollar more than the regular very good price of Cascade 220, you get the benefit of superwash. The yarn is the same solid performing good basic yarn that Cascade 220 is. End result, a new hat, suited to the time of year and where I was knitting.

I knit the hat while we sat outside on Saturday evening, hoping to catch the last good weather of the year. We listened to the squirrels tossing pine cones out of the trees. Sometimes you're sure that they fling them diva like, so great is the noise as they fall. Listening to the squirrels is almost as interesting as watching cranes fly over in spring, but it is a harbinger of something very different.

We are firmly in the waning of August now, and no matter how much we don't want to talk about it, its happening anyway. The shade was damp and cool. The deck heater was on. It's the time of year where after 4:00 the sun is settling low in orbit, and it sits, old ladylike, comfortably low, below the trees to the west.

The urge to finish things isn't gone, evidence to the contrary. It was more a matter of just needing something mindless and deep indecision. I dug through the basket several times and nothing struck my fancy. Its probably going to be the baby sweater, but there is a nice scarf ongoing in there too. And socks. Always socks.