Too Darn Hot

DH:        "Why do you keep groaning like that?"

MSH:    "Because the temperature outside is about 95 degrees Fahrenheit, which makes the temperature in our living room about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, which makes the temperature under the wool sweater in my lap roughly equivalent to that of a blast furnace."

DH:        "You should really time your next book so the deadline is in the spring."

MSH:    "You should really time your next opinion for a moment when I'm not holding pointy sticks."

I pressed on all weekend, promising myself that if I kept on schedule that I could go on the motorcycle trip I have planned with my sisters.  That was only somewhat motivating, though, because I know I would not miss that ride for anything, schedule or no.  In the end I had to remind myself how much more fun it will be to take the time off from knitting, knowing that doing so will not put me further behind.

Weaving in the ends, weaving in the ends, we shall come rejoicing, weaving in the ends...

Inserting the sleeves...This part always reminds me of lacing up corsets when I worked as a dresser at the opera.

Putting on the perfect buttons (hardware can sometimes be an odyssey for me)...

And the final step.  A gardening book I once read emphasized the importance of putting signs on things.  The theory was that while a little patch of herbs in the back yard is all well and good, a series of little markers reading "Parsley" lends a sense of intent and permanence that elevates the whole enterprose to a new level.  Sweater labels are like that.  I think of the little tag at the back of the neck as the punctuation mark at the end of the sentence.  A label validates the project by making it  official.

Next:  Written Instructions!

What I Did on Summer Vacay

Well, technically that is not accurate because I (unlike my schoolteacher husband and small children) do not have the summer off.  However, when they  are on vacation  it disrupts the rhythm of my life enough to lend a special quality to the warm months.  So here is what I'm working on:

Kinda subtle, no?  This will be a sleeve when it grows up.  As an experiment, I am using the world's shortest circular needles:

Here is a size 3, only 8" long, and made by KA. (get them at www.paradisefibers.net)  These are either the cleverest or the most diabolical thing ever invented for people who don't like DPNs, or magic loops, or any of the other gajillion ways there are to knit narrow tubes.  They have a groovy swiveling quality at the cable join, which allows them to work well, once you get used to knitting using only your fingertips.  This is a truly weird sensation though, and has me asking myself pretty frequently whether DPNs are all that bad for this project...Still, it's really nice not to worry about any ladder-ing, and there are only 2 points to snag on the floats.