Of Berries and Summer Things.

Yesterday was an utterly lovely day.  It was the perfect temperature outside though sometimes the wind was a bit strong.  It was a good knitting day too.

Ta da!  It's a hem.  Time will tell if I knit it long enough.

Not only that but I made it to sleeves.

I could have striped through this tees secret sauce for short sleeves but I felt comfortable knitting them plain till that section was complete.  I can't wait to wear this!  Honestly, each time I slip on my blue and white Lusk I realize what a great fit this is for me and this top is just the same.  The fit is just right.  Part of it is this more softly fitted style but it also is how Rebecca Clow grades her patterns.  

Yesterday when Keith was putting groceries away, we were chatting about the fruits of summer. There was rhubarb at the store and he brought some home for me.  I love a fresh rhubarb crisp.  I started talking about fruit treats when I was a kid.  We were allowed to pick a stalk of rhubarb after mom had all she wanted.  Mom would give us a small bowl of sugar and we would dip the skinier end in and bite it off.  Yum.  

At Grandma Stuck's we got an even better treat though mom did make it at home too. My first memory of it was at Grandma's.  In peak berry season, we would all help pick June berries (Saskatoons or service berries for those of you who did not come from my part of the Saskatchewan) and when we were done, she would make pancakes for lunch.  She would mash some berries with a bit of sugar and pour some rich, cold, straight from the cow cream.  She would beat it with a spoon for a few minutes and we would piles berries and cream on top of our pancakes.  It was wonderful.  We did this with raspberries too.  Delightful delicious.

Later in life mom had a strawberry patch of every gardeners dreams.  Oh how much I loved helping pick strawberries, popping a few in my mouth before mom noticed.  Her patch was large enough that she put strawberries away for the whole season for on ice-cream as a Sunday desert.  I don't think she made jam though.  Not quite certain why.  

And then even later, there were tiny plums and sand cherries. I remember how good they were at full ripeness, warm from the sun.

It's a shame kids don't get these treats anymore.  They rarely get to pick fresh raspberries from the bush.  A garden now is something to look at or sit in, though we rarely do.  It's about display rather than food.  Sad in so many ways really.  

Ah well.  On to knit.

On Geddy and Lusk

On the weekend, I did spend time knitting a little something else.  

I pulled out my Geddy Tee and set to getting the body started.

I was pretty pleased with how it was looking...however

When I picked it up this week, the fabric felt wrong.  Not bad but not right.  And then I took a look at how the stitches were sitting.

See the ripple?  I had been telling myself that the ripple would block out, one of the biggest lies of all time.  It wouldn't.  It never really does.  

Yesterday afternoon, I bit the bullet and sorted it out.  I pulled back what I had knit and I started again.

Much much better.  

I changed needle sizes, going up a bit from what the pattern asked for.  The fabric feels softer and will have a really lovely drape.  I narrowed the back neck a wee bit.  Tanis does a good job sizing it but I hate a too large neck.  All my favourite, most worn tops have a narrower back neck.  They just sit better on me.  Yes all these things mean that once again, I am winging the body of this tee.  I must love math.  Noooooooo.

Oh well.  

I made good progress on the Lusk cream and white top.  

I should finish with the bottom today, then just two short sleeves and done.  This is such a good time in the making of a sweater.  It's the state of almost.  Almost ready.  Almost yours.

So here I am, ready to start my knitting for the day.  Tea is on and my goodness I still miss my second cup of coffee.  Oh well.  Tea it is.  Some nice Irish Breakfast Tea this morning, steeped for only a short time, plain and black and good.  

The weather is perfectly spring and the doors and windows will be open and I will be knitting some pretty spring tops.  It can't get much better than that.

And next up

As much as I could have written for hours on Monday, today, I have nothing.  It's been that sort of week, full of ups and downs.  

It has been that way in my knitting too.  I can't seem to get started in the morning and when I do get going, it's been pretty lackluster.  Still, there has been progress.

I am on to the body ribbing.  I am going with the white rather than the cream.  It just felt more right.  And if I use the white, it will be all used up when the garment is done.  That matters these days.  

Sometimes when I choose a project, the real purpose is to get the yarn out of my stash.  That was the case with this tee

And it is happening again with this yarn. 

It's a good yarn.  It is very easy care and I do like it.  However, I just really want it out of my stash.  It will make a great short sleeve tee.  I have only 7 skeins so it's a bit less than I usually like.  It will probably be a good idea to knit the sleeves and then go on to complete the body.  It won't be a complicated garment.  Just a nice basic top.  

Besides the white top, and all the dreaming I've been doing, I have done some more interesting stuff on ongoing projects.  More on that tomorrow.  For now it's time to get down to work and finish the white and cream to.

Updated:  I forgot one small find to add to repairs done.  It had slid down into a yarn box and I had completely forgot about it.  

My sweet little Kauni cowl had a problem at the cast off.  There was a pull out that had caused the end of the yarn to come loose. I needed to add a bit of yarn and reset it more firmly in place.  I spied the correct yarn for the repair in the yarn leftover bag and that reminded me to go searching for the cowl and get the job done.  Guess what?  Job done!  Now all the repairs are truly complete.