It has been so very long since I have written anything at all. I think it is because there was at once nothing and too much to say. Still, here we are at the end of the summer with the remains of Hurricane Ida whirling around our place and I am still dreaming of the summer flowers Erik planted. Since Fall is on its way, I thought maybe Spring and Summer deserved a bit of a nod.

This Spring, we undertook a large garden renovation. Inspired by the removal of some trees that threatened our house, we moved massive amounts of dirt and wood chips. Invasives like blackberries and bindweed were beaten back. Overgrown bushes and tired bulbs were dug up and repositioned where possible. A few of the resulting areas were then planted with lots of

Color Inspirations

flowering bulbs. Is it possible to look at this and not feel joy?

Then a friend suggested a yarn crawl through some not-quite-local yarn shops. Of course, right? She had a list of projects. I had a vague desire to be inspired by something pretty.  At the end of the day, in addition to spending the day with a friend, this was my prize:

The yarn itself imposed constraints on my search for a good pattern. My yarn supply was limited and I wanted to use all four but just these four. It wasn’t enough for a sweater but a shawl fit the bill nicely. I settled on Hisho by Olga Buraya-Kefelian. The pattern allowed each of the four yarns to sing its own song but together in 4-part harmony. If I had chosen stranded or fair isle patterning, I think the colors would have been too muddled. Hisho holds the blocks of color together but they also bleed from one to the next. That provides a bit of visual jumble that makes a garden seem wild and random even when it is carefully planned.

A note here about shawls: they always seem like a quick alternative to a sweater. “Oh,” say I, “this is just a quick knit. I will have it done in no time.” However, 1600 yards of yarn is still 1600 yards of yarn and it just takes time to knit almost a mile of yarn. But every time I switched colors, I smiled. That shortened the psychological time at least.

In the end, the shawl turned out to be exactly right for these yarns. I don’t need another shawl, unfortunately, and these really aren’t my colors. Perhaps the right person will happen along and it will be obvious. But this project was a joy to complete and we are now allowed into Canada so trip knitting is next. I’ve packed enough for 6 months – I probably won’t get to 1/10 of it. Better safe than sorry!