Beauty and the Beanstalk

The beanstalk is actually a sunflower which I didn't plant. It just shot up from the seed head that spent the winter as bird food next to our house. My garden is so magical right now in this cool (for a St. Louis summer!) weather that I can hardly bear it. The insects really love this oasis of unsprayed weeds, and I love everything about them: their sounds and looks and values, one of which is to feed the bats that swoop around in the lightning bug lit dusk.

A Junk Hurrah

The other day I answered the phone and got the call I thought I wanted: I've been hired at the hospital where I first worked as an RN, lo those many years ago. I applied way the hell back in March, but given the sucky economy and the resultant influx of "retired" nurses back into the workplace, they couldn't hire me right away, despite the favorable interview. But now for some reason they can. On the plus side, I'll be working in my favorite area, Cardiology. On the negative side, I'll be working. I've been doing absolutely nothing for the past two years but knitting, blogging, junking, and cuddling my darling blue chihuahua: a real Lady of Leisure, complete with lap dog. I'm scared! I know I can do it, because deep down I'm as tough as an old boot, but it's going to be a shock to my middle-aged lazy-ass system, to say the least. Full time! Yikes! By next spring I hope to be able to go to part time, but the hospitals have the upper hand right now — for the first time in years and years they're not begging for warm bodies to fill the nursing vacancies. And they want full-timers. I am excited, but the excitement spirals into pure fear if I think about the coming life upheaval too much. SO to allay my anxieties, I went on a junking spree, and got these cool items at a flea market: an aluminum hand, a groovy round linen tablecloth from the 70s, Royledge® shelf paper, plastic pins, a square of pillow fabric, and Bridget. No I didn't get her at the flea market, but isn't she cute?

Moonlightning Shawl

Here's Part V of the Summer Moon Shawl Challenge: The Moonlightning Shawl. I aim to finish six shawls by the Harvest Moon on October 4th. I've finished one, three are 1/3 done, this one's just 20% there, and I have one yet to cast on. I already have a name and yarn in mind for this last one: The Moondust Shawl in some Elvincraft Wensleydale laceweight that's flying to me from the Isle of Skye right now. Not sure of the stitch pattern yet, but it will be done in 4 60 degree triangular panels. The stitch pattern for this Moonlightning Shawl is Flaming Chevron, adjusted for top-down triangle purposes.

Dolls of Many Lands

Every year I cover the junk and yarn beat for the local weekly's Best Of. The deadline is soon though this very special issue won't be published till September. There's enough pea-sized pay in the blurb writing to buy some Happy Meals, but this pittance is more than offset by how much I spend in the junk, antique, thrift, flea, and yarn emporiums I write up! Found these adorable note cards in a junk shop. The girls shown represent the countries on ravelry where my favorite knitters live, from the top: Scotland, England, Sweden, Germany, and France. Too cute!

Prairie Moonshine Shawl

This Prairie Moonshine Shawl, part IV of the Summer Moon Shawl Challenge, is made with Elvincraft Wensleydale 4-ply yarn, which is super lightweight and curly, and looks great knit on bigger needles (in this case 5.5mms). I made up the graduated ziggle zag lace by altering Flaming Chevron. Can you see my cat Brother in the outdoor art shot?

How To Wreck A Camera

Just take pictures of your garden in the pouring rain. Now my Kodak won't shoot when I pull the trigger. I have to turn it off first, and then when I turn it back on it snaps whatever it feels like snapping! Maybe if it dries out for a day or two it will start obeying again? Next you have my friend Mary on our back porch wearing this year's birthday Sea Drift Shawl, and after that come images of my tray collection. These are probably from the 30s or 20s, and I buy them whenever I see them, which, since I only go into yarn shops anymore, isn't very often. So this may be as big as the collection gets.

She Loved The Golden Rays...

The first image, captioned She Loved The Golden Rays Of The Sun As They Shone Upon Her Garden is from one of my Thrfit Store Scores, an old kiddie book published by the fabulous Platt & Munk Co. in 1932. It's called The Road In Storyland and was illustrated by Lucille and H.C. Holling. Super-saturated colors, like the wonderful Elvincraft yarn I'm making a Moonrockets Shawl out of using that old standby pattern, Garden of Alla. This will be part of the Summer Moon Shawl Challenge. Doesn't that have a lovely pompous ring to it? It just means I'm going to knit shawls all summer. Why not give a important title to what you plan on doing anyway? I have a new cell phone full of images of my MIL's garden, just for contrast to my wild one, but I don't have the right cord to get them out. And my new scanner works, but I don't like it nearly as much as the old dinosaur I worked with for years: too many bells and whistles. Back to knitting!

No Moon At All Shawl

This summer I'm only going to knit super lightweight shawls with yarn where blue is the predominant color, and the titles of these design masterpieces are all going to feature the word "Moon." So here you see the two currently on my needles — the No Moon At All Shawl featuring Dyeabolical's Laceweight Edition in Midnight Blue, and the multicolored Moonbow Shawl done in Elvincraft's Green Moonbow. This weekend my darling husband and I stayed at the new Moonrise Hotel in the Loop on Saturday. Bridget the chihuhuha came with us, and had a great time hiding her complimentary doggie croissants around the room. One of the best things about the place, from my tunnel-visioned point-of-view, was that it's right across the street from a yarn shop: Knitty Couture. (Guess what I blew my walking around money on? There was the prettiest peacock blue Kidsilk Haze inside. It's going to become a Moon Pie shawl... ) I think I do have a knack for lace shawl designs. The No Moon At All Shawl in particular is one I'm proud of, because it uses the world famous Bunny Ears Decrease to make the rounded moon shape. I'd try to get my designs published somewhere other than ravelry, but that would mean I'd have to offer more than charts with my patterns, and I just don't know if I'm capable of Technical Written Instructions. "Technical Written Instructions" is synonymous with "Mountains of Laundry and Dirty Dishes" to my pain threshold...

A Trip To The Yard

This picture book is one of the best items I've ever scored in a thrift store. Published in 1952, its images are just as super-saturated as they appear here in this blog. (My ancient scanner finally went kaput, so pardon the wobbly pix.) Looking through it again inspired me to go try to find some bugs in my own yard. But aside from gnats, I didn't see many. The orange bud about to pop is Butterfly Weed, and this time two years ago it was covered by Monarch caterpillars, munching their happy heads off. But I didn't see any caterpillars on any of my Milkweeds this year. Maybe the hard winter killed the eggs? If you squint at the penstemon, you can see some ants.

Greenweeds

I am a bad blogger in this weather. I just don't feel like sifting through the mountains in The Junk Dungeon when the magic green lights are dancing outside. This is The Anti-Winter, and I'm basking....

Greenleaves

I knit this Greenleaves Shawl for my friend Annie, who has made both sides of the Mississippi a much better place for flora and fauna, through the Great RIvers Land Trust she founded back when. You'll never hear her bragging about how her car runs on French Fry grease, because it doesn't, but she's quietly done more real good than most people who (loudly) tout themselves as "Green." So she gets this. I love the yarn so much, once again from Kate of Elvincraft. I can't seem to knit with anything else these days, though I have some Dyeabolical I love as much waiting patiently in my stash for great things to happen.

Romantic Range

I found these in an Illinois junk store a while back, and couldn't resist the cheesy novelettes inside — which all have the tone of the line illustration shown — or the two thrilling columns featured every month: "The Lariat of Love" (romantic astrological advice for the 4-H set), and especially "Let's Play Checkers," a strategy piece written by Millard Hopper, who was at the time World Checker Champion. I really don't see how the game of checkers could ever be interesting enough to deserve its own column, but then I also think the same thing about more convoluted mind games like Chess and Bridge. (I'm sure Millard Hopper would never be able to understand why I buy entire magazines devoted to knitting.) I have quite a few issues of Romantic Range (they only cost 25¢ each), and the back cover is always a full color whiskey advertisement. For the hard-riding, hard-loving, hard-drinking Ranch Girl!

Radio 1948

Here's another classy image from my 1948 Wish Catalogue, Wards Midsummer Book. This is a good era for design, clean and bold with cool color combos. Radio was still king. I've just discovered books on tape, and listening to them is like listening to an old radio program, only without the annoying soap commercials. It's fun to knit and hear my favorite Agatha Christie stories. Though I've read each of her books three times at least, hearing them is much different than reading them, so they've become new again. Fun.