summer knitting

Ah, Wisconsin weather. Last weekend, we hit temps up in the 90s and thus much enjoyed the opening weekend at the pool and nearby splash pad, the spinach in my front yard garden bolted before I could enjoy more than one salad from it, and we resisted - barely - turning on the air conditioner. Then it got chilly and wet and I found myself wrapped in wool and drinking hot tea for a couple of days because I couldn't get warm.

Ironically, I finished the knitting on my neighbor's blanket while it was so hot. I still need to hide the ends and block it to take pictures. That's going to be tricky, since she lives next door and all, and she spends quite a lot of time out in her back yard tending to her garden (which is quite an amazing garden, I might add).

Today, though, the weather was perfect. We spent nearly all of today outside, biking to the salon so Stuart could get a hair cut (gone is his beautiful deep-auburn ponytail in favor of a close cut for summer), then to the farmers' market, where we missed the strawberries but got a handful of the last asparagus for the season, then all afternoon at a picnic. It's been, well, exhausting, to be honest, but in a good way.

Somehow, I got just a bit of knitting done:

This is the start of a hat for Daniel. The pattern is Girdwood, by Mandy Powers. I started the mittens for him over the winter but set them aside because my gauge was all wrong (mostly because I misread the sizing chart! *dope slap*). I love the design so much, I'm determined to get it right eventually. This time I started with the hat. Hats are so nice because you only have to knit one and there are no thumbs (for some reason, knitting thumbs on mittens annoys me to no end). In case anyone is curious, I'm using Knitpicks Wool of the Andes worsted (Solstice Heather and Lake Ice Heather) on size 7 needles, and I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the gauge works out.

My knitting plans change from day to day, depending on my whims, but for now I think I'd like to spend the summer knitting things that are small, portable and badly needed in the colder months, things like hats, mittens and socks for my children, (and maybe a few for children in Afghanistan as well). Of course, I could change my mind about this by next week...but the nice thing about knitting is that it doesn't really matter what I'm knitting, as long as I am knitting!