It's Friday... a title for this post eludes me

Where do I start? Hmmm.... ok, let's start with the weather. Cliché, you think? Perhaps, but this is not one of those "nice day we're having" things. The last three days have seen a change in the weather here. We've gone from 30C heat to about 20C and have had thunder storms each of those last three days. It's been considerably cooler. And, I must admit, it's been a great relief to be able to sleep at night. I was getting more than a little cranky and irritable.

We had the camera out on Wednesday evening, the day of the biggest thunder and lightning show. It was pretty spectacular. I managed (somehow) to catch a shot of the lightning. The picture's a little grainy (400 ISO will do that), but at least you can see the lightning. It was pretty amazing watching the storm roll in from the south, completely obscure the other side of the lake, move north and then see another wave of cloud, rain and lightning move in, again from the south. The rain (and hail) came down in sheets. John decided he just had to go out in it; he was completely soaked within minutes and laughing like a crazy man.

On to knitting...

Because it has been so hot, I didn't really get much knitting done, but that doesn't mean I haven't done any. I've made a second little beret, in pink this time, as a sample for the store and to test the pattern. I'd post a picture of it, but I need a little bit of pink ribbon first. With this one, I made a round of yo, k2tog after the ribbing; I'll thread the ribbon through the holes and tie it into a pretty bow. It can, of course, be tied to fit (as opposed to fit to be tied?... sorry, couldn't resist).

I sort of referred to knitting with 100% wool the other day. Here's what I'm doing with that wool, the project that I simply had to put down for a while because my hands were just too sticky from the heat. (Oh, if you read Lisa's comments from that post, you'll see a couple of great suggestions for summer knitting... check out her comments. Lisa? Thank you for those!)

Sally brought in the line of Noni Bag patterns; they're gorgeous! I couldn't resist this one. The finished size is approximately 6". It's a pretty simple knit, really, and the instructions are clear and well written. Of course, I'll post pictures when I have it completely finished. Before and after??

You can see the complete line of Noni Bags on Nora Bellows' website. Just click.

Then, I'll be teaching a crochet class come September. I've been talked into trying it again. Some of you may remember I was asking for suggestions for a class project simple enough for a beginner, but something that's interesting at the same time. I found that project. Sally lent me Debbie Stoller's new book "Stitch and Bitch Crochet, The Happy Hooker". Excellent book, by the way. I'd recommend it to anyone (knitters included) who is interested in learning to crochet. I've been crocheting almost as long as I've been knitting and I learned a thing or two from Debbie's book.

Anyway, I digress. She has some really cute projects in this book and I've chosen this one as the crochet class project.

In the book, the pattern calls for one ball of Paton's Classic Wool. The second picture is the one I did first, to test the pattern. It's long enough to wrap once around my neck and still hang to the top of my hips. I've done three of them already, each of them in about two hours. Once crocheted, my students will be comfortable in working into the foundation chain and will be experts at working a double crochet.

I'm also working on another pattern from this book. This one is for the store.

I've had a cowboy hat before; I doubt I'd wear one again. I must admit, though, this one's cute. It's worked with a double strand of worsted weight cotton and a 6.0 mm crochet hook. I'm using Sugar 'n Cream in a dark green. The one thing I'm finding is that it's pretty hard on the wrist. A double strand of the cotton doesn't have much give. I can only work a maximum of two rounds at a time; then I have to work on something light or give myself a break of a few hours and massage my wrist.

Wow.. this is becoming a long post. I have more to tell you, plans for the fall, but I think I'll leave it for another day. For now, I have a pile of knitting related detritus to clean up (I've just been letting it all pile up in a corner of the dining room, books, yarn, needles.... time to tidy up).